Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

Within the Longmen Valley, mournful songs echoed, and blood flowed like a river.

Outside the valley, just a few miles away, inside the Turkic central army's main tent, a completely different scene unfolded.

The bonfire roared, turning half the sky a dark red.

The air was filled with the aroma of roasted whole lamb, and the pungent sour smell of cheap mare's milk wine.

"Drink! Give it all to me!"

Khagan Jieli had his robes open, revealing his hairy chest, and was holding a huge golden cup in his hand, the wine inside spilling everywhere with his wild movements.

He had one foot on the tiger-skin chair, his face was flushed, and his eyes were glazed and fanatical.

That was the thrill of finally getting revenge.

"Fellow leaders! Listen to this!"

Jieli tilted his ear, made a rapturous expression, and pointed in the direction of Longmen Valley.

"Is there any music in this world more beautiful than this?"

The dozens of tribal chiefs inside the tent, all drunk and staggering, burst into laughter upon hearing this.

"The Khan is right! That was the dying howl of a Tang dog!"

"Judging from this commotion, Li Shimin's several thousand men are probably almost all dead, right?"

"Hahaha! That's great! That's really great!"

Jieli gulped down the wine in his cup and then smashed the golden cup on the ground.

"Clang—!"

The golden cup rolled down, making a crisp sound.

Jieli's face instantly turned ferocious. He drew the jewel-encrusted scimitar from his waist and slammed it hard onto the table in front of him.

Wood chips flew everywhere.

"Li Shimin! General of Heavenly Strategy? Bah!"

"A few months ago, on the Wei River Bridge, relying on that little beast's sorcery, he forced me, the Khan, to swear an oath by sacrificing my horse, and I suffered endless humiliation!"

"On that day, I, the Khan, swore an oath!"

"One day, I'll get my money back, with interest!"

Thinking of the young general in white robes and his silver spear that day, and the contemptuous look in the eyes of that eight-year-old child, Jieli's heart ached as if it were being gnawed by a venomous snake.

That was a stain on his life.

It is a disgrace that the wolves of the grasslands can never wash away.

But today, all of that is coming to an end.

"Damn it!"

Zhi Shisi (the one who had been released earlier) limped forward. Although his knee had been set, he still had difficulty walking.

His eyes flashed with a hatred even more insane than that of Jieli.

"The scouts report that the Tang army has been without food for a day, and they were just slaughtering horses!"

"Kill the horse?"

Jieli was stunned for a moment, then burst into a deafening burst of wild laughter.

"Hahaha! Li Shimin, Li Shimin, you've finally met your match!"

"Didn't you cherish horses like your own life? Didn't you claim to love your soldiers like your own children?"

"And now? To survive, you'll have to eat your brothers' flesh and drink your warhorse's blood!"

Jieli laughed until tears streamed down his face, and his whole body was trembling violently.

He could almost see the once-lofty Tang emperor now lying in the mud like a stray dog, begging for mercy.

"Relay my orders!"

Jieli abruptly stopped laughing, his eyes flashing with a fierce light.

"Tomorrow morning, a full-scale attack!"

"No prisoners, no survivors!"

"Kill everyone except Li Shimin!"

"Pile their corpses into a mound of skulls, right here at the mouth of the Longmen Valley, build a mound of skulls taller than a mountain!"

"I want all Han Chinese to see this: this is the consequence of offending the Turks!"

The leaders all howled like wolves, their eyes gleaming with excitement.

Jieli clearly felt that this was not enough to vent his anger.

He poured himself another bowl of wine, swirling it in his hand, his eyes turning sinister and lewd.

As for Li Shimin…

"I, the Khan, will not let him die too easily."

"I want to take him back to the grasslands, back to the yamen."

"I heard that his skull is well-shaped, round and full."

Jieli stretched out his rough, large hand and gestured in the air, as if he had already grasped a human head in his hand.

"I, the Khan, will invite the best craftsmen to remove his skull, gild it, and inlay it with gemstones."

"From now on, that will be my personal wine cup!"

"Whenever I hold a grand banquet for my officials, I drink from this 'Emperor's Head'!"

"good!"

"Great Khan, you are mighty!"

The atmosphere inside the tent instantly reached a climax.

Using the skull of a Tang Dynasty emperor to make a wine cup—what an honor! What a sense of conquest!

This is simply the greatest achievement of a grassland warrior!

As Jieli spoke, he became more and more excited. The alcohol clouded his mind, allowing him to completely unleash the demons within him.

"And that Empress Zhangsun..."

He licked his lips, revealing a set of yellow teeth.

"I heard she was a wise and virtuous empress throughout history? So dignified and elegant?"

"Hmph! Once we've taken Chang'an, I'll have her dressed as a Hu woman, pouring wine for me and washing my feet!"

"I want all the Han people in the world to see that their empress, who is considered the mother of the nation, is nothing more than a lowly female slave in front of the wolf lord of the grasslands!"

"As for that little beast..."

When Li Chengqian was mentioned, Jieli's expression instantly twisted, becoming more terrifying than a demon.

The eight-year-old child who humiliated him and slapped him on the banks of the Wei River is the deepest thorn in his heart.

"Li Chengqian..."

Jieli gritted his teeth, each word sounding as if it were being forced out from between his teeth.

"I will not kill him."

"Killing him would be too easy on him."

"I'm going to bring him back, break his limbs, and rip out his tongue."

"Then……"

Jieli pointed to the copper pot used for nighttime urination in the corner of the tent and let out a chilling laugh.

"Shove him into that pot!"

"Let him be the Khan's chamber pot!"

"Let him suffer humiliation beneath my crotch day and night!"

"May he never be reincarnated!"

"boom--!"

The tent erupted in chaos instantly.

All the Turkic generals were provoked by this insane plan of revenge.

Turning the Tang Dynasty crown prince into a chamber pot?

This is simply...so exciting! So perverted!

This is exactly what these bandits want!

"The Great Khan is wise!"

"Flatten Chang'an! Capture Li Chengqian alive!"

"Rob all the Han women! Kill all their men!"

carnival.

This is a celebration for barbarians.

They seemed to see the dawn of victory, and the prosperity of Chang'an trembled beneath their feet.

Nobody thought anything unexpected would happen.

After all, Li Shimin was already trapped and the main force of the Tang Dynasty was still thousands of miles away.

Who in this world can save them?

Jieli raised his wine bowl high, ready to drink it all in one gulp to celebrate the glorious moment that was about to begin.

Just then.

"Report—!!!"

A heart-wrenching scream, as if the parents had died, abruptly shattered the laughter and chatter inside the tent.

Followed by.

With a "bang".

The curtain of the main tent was violently flung open.

A scout responsible for perimeter security scrambled in.

He was running too fast, tripped, and fell flat on his face, rolling like a ball to Jieli's feet.

The scout was covered in mud, but his face was not bloody; he was even paler than if he had seen a ghost.

That's because they were scared.

I was terrified out of my wits by something so terrifying that it was beyond my comprehension and imagination!

"A huge... huge sweat!"

The scout lay on the ground, trembling violently, his teeth chattering, unable to utter a coherent sentence for a long time.

"You bastard!"

Jieli's good mood was interrupted, and he was so angry that he kicked the scout in the shoulder, knocking the man over.

"What's the panic?!"

"Has the sky fallen?!"

"What a spineless coward! Did Li Shimin manage to break through the encirclement? Hmph, just a cornered beast's struggle!"

"No...no..."

The scout struggled to his feet, tears and snot streaming down his face, his finger trembling as he pointed to the east of the main tent.

That direction was the rear of their army.

They considered it the safest place, the place where enemies could never possibly appear.

"East...east..."

The scout took a deep breath, mustered all his strength, and roared out the words that plunged the entire Turkic camp into an ice cave.

"They're coming from the east!"

"An army! An army that appeared out of nowhere!"

"All of them are in red armor!"

"They...they are not human!"

"They've crawled out of hell...gods of death!!!"