Royal Gold Medal County Magistrate

After the court session, Fang Zheng headed straight for the East Palace.

He hadn't seen the Crown Prince in court for the past two days, wondering what he was up to.

Now that he had helped him with the matter of the Imperial Grandson's schooling, he would meet the Imperial Grandson and inform him of the news.

Upon arriving at the East Palace, he was led to the study by a maid.

Just as he was about to push the door open, he heard a burst of scolding from inside.

"Why can't you memorize such a simple thing?! Your father could recite it at the age of three!"

This was immediately followed by a loud wail.

Fang Zheng revealed a hint of a smile.

Well... personally teaching his son, huh? Putting on an act even better than me!

"Your Highness, are you inside?"

"Old Fang? Come in!"

Fang Zheng pushed the door open and entered, immediately seeing Li Yu sitting at a small table, still wailing.

Beside him was Li Yuanzhao, holding a small stick with a stern face.

Seeing that he was about to hit the child again, Fang Zheng leaped forward and shouted exaggeratedly, "Don't hit the Imperial Grandson! Hit me instead!"

Li Yu, who was still crying loudly, paused for a moment, glanced at Fang Zheng, and then continued to wail.

Li Yuanzhao slammed the small stick down angrily: "Don't stop me, this rebellious son is going to infuriate me to death!"

"He can't even hit the target with a slingshot, and he can't understand anything I teach him! Keep crying!"

"Ah~~~~~~" Li Yu continued to cry.

Fang Zheng frowned and stepped forward, repeatedly tapping the Imperial Grandson's mouth with his hand.

"Ah~~~~~~ Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah."

The crying turned into sobbing....

Seeing that he had stopped crying, Fang Zheng quickly pulled Li Yuanzhao towards the corner of the room and asked, "What's going on, Your Highness? Didn't you say you didn't want the Imperial Grandson to be like you when you were young? Why are you hitting the child?"

Li Yuanzhao sighed: "I don't know either... but seeing the child idle always makes me uncomfortable. I feel better when I hit him. Is that how you are, Old Fang?"

"......, A little, it's better to send him to school, out of sight, out of mind."

"By the way, why did you come here?" Li Yuanzhao asked.

"I came to give Your Highness good news. Today, His Majesty agreed to let the Imperial Grandson go to Yucai."

Li Yuanzhao was overjoyed and pulled Fang Zheng back to Li Yu, saying: "Yu'er, you will follow Master Fang to study from now on, understand? He is your teacher, and you will go to Yucai with Master Fang to study."

Li Yu looked up at Fang Zheng again, his little face showing a hopeful light.

He hadn't seen Fang Zheng too many times, but every time he was smiling, especially when he had just helped him block the stick.

Now his heart was bursting with goodwill, and he nodded excitedly.

"Hello, Master Fang!"

Fang Zheng nodded and smiled: "Your Highness will come with me to Yucai from now on. Chen Yu and the others are there too, and you will all study together in the future."

"Okay!" Li Yu nodded heavily, full of joy.

Anywhere was better than escaping the torment of his own father!

Seeing Li Yu lower his head again to look at the book, Fang Zheng looked at Li Yuanzhao and said: "Your Highness, what did you just say about a slingshot? The Imperial Grandson is so young, what is he doing with a slingshot? Aren't you afraid of hurting him?"

"I made him a special small slingshot, but this child can't seem to hit the target. Just now, I was teaching him about governing the country, and he spouted nonsense. I asked him how to educate the people, and guess what he told me? He said to post the books on the streets for the people to read themselves!" Li Yuanzhao said angrily.

"You teach him! He can't understand when he listens, and he can't learn when he studies. If you can teach him to understand, I'll be impressed!"

Fang Zheng rolled his eyes at him: "Haste makes waste, have some patience, let me do it."

With that, Fang Zheng bent down and said gently: "Your Highness, what do you think is the best way to educate the people?"

Li Yu glanced timidly at Li Yuanzhao, and seeing Fang Zheng's smiling face, plucked up his courage and said: "What I said is right, isn't it? The books say virtue and integrity, wouldn't the people understand if they read them themselves?"

"What if the people are illiterate?"

"Then find someone to preach virtue and integrity on the streets every day."

Fang Zheng encouraged him: "Your Highness is right, but the sage once said that when everyone knows beauty as beauty, ugliness arises; when everyone knows good as good, evil arises. Do you understand what that means?"

"I understand, when everyone knows what is good and beautiful, ugliness and evil are produced."

"The Imperial Grandson is indeed intelligent." Fang Zheng encouraged him, "Since you understand this principle, then you should know that if the court blindly preaches virtue and integrity, the people will soon know what is non-virtue and what is evil, and then develop distrust."

"Why is that?" Li Yu asked, puzzled.

"Because the court will also make mistakes. When the people find that it does not practice what it preaches, they will have doubts in their hearts. Everything in this world seems to be like this, both opposing and interdependent."

"This is what the sage said: existence and non-existence give rise to each other; difficult and easy complement each other; long and short define each other; high and low distinguish each other; sound and voice harmonize with each other; front and back follow each other."

Li Yu became even more confused and shook his head: "I don't understand."

Fang Zheng said patiently: "Then let me change to a way you can understand. If someone wants to show off that they are very powerful outside, but they don't have any real skills, they usually brag all day long that they have an amazing friend, or that their ancestors were high officials. If none of these are true, they can also brag that they have a strong motherland and wise ancestors."

"But none of the things he brags about are obtained through his own efforts, so not only can't it add glory to his face, but it also allows discerning people to see through him at a glance. And those who can't see clearly, after a long time of contact with him, will sooner or later discover his emptiness, which leads to him being even more looked down upon. That's the principle."

Li Yu said: "I understand that, but I still think there is no problem with preaching virtue and integrity. What is the difference between the two?"

Fang Zheng said: "These two things are the same thing. If the court wants to govern the world with virtue, it must first be virtuous itself. As long as we do it ourselves, then others will see it and regard it as an example to imitate. This is inaction, using a silent way to teach all living beings."

Li Yuanzhao stood aside, smiling.

Old Fang's eloquence is as good as ever, it's so worry-free to leave the son to him!

"I seem to understand!" Li Yu pondered.

Fang Zheng said softly: "It doesn't matter if you don't understand now, you will understand in the future. We are not good at other things, but your teacher has the strongest weapon in the world."

"What weapon?" Li Yu asked with curious eyes.

Fang Zheng opened his mouth and pointed inside, then said: "This is the weapon."

"The tongue? Can the tongue also be a weapon?"

"Yes, the tongue." Fang Zheng smiled and said: "Your Highness, there are many tribes in this world, and the leaders of the tribes are called chiefs. It's very simple to become a chief, not because you have the strongest force, but because you become the person who masters the most vocabulary."

"In any country in the world, people who master vocabulary and even the ability to coin words always stand at the highest end. Changing a word or a phrase can allow you to escape responsibility, or even determine someone's life or death. This is the strongest weapon! Do you want to learn it?"

"I want to learn!!!" Li Yu said loudly and excitedly.

Although he still didn't quite understand, it felt very awesome.

Fang Zheng glanced at Li Yuanzhao triumphantly, then laughed heartily: "Okay, you will study hard with your teacher from now on, and I guarantee that you will learn it thoroughly!"

......