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

Thirty miles is nothing more than a few sips of water for the Snow Dragon Riders who are running at full speed.

As the first rays of sunlight struggled to pierce through the sandstorms of the Western Regions, the defenders of Gaochang City were devastated to discover that the silvery-white line of death had transformed into a torrent of steel stretching across the city.

The main force of the Tang Dynasty's western expeditionary army has arrived.

Heavy war boots crunched through the sand and gravel of the Gobi Desert as tens of thousands of troops set up camp less than three miles from Gaochang City. There were no thunderous war drums, no boastful challenges; the entire army exuded a suffocating coldness and efficiency.

The central command position, on a slightly raised sand dune.

Li Shimin, clad in golden armor, held the monocular telescope that Li Chengqian had just given him, his brows furrowed in a deep frown.

Through the glass lens, he could clearly see the heavily armed guards on the walls of Gaochang, as well as the strange bluish-gray luster on the surface of the walls.

"This is tricky..."

Li Shimin put down his binoculars, turned to look at the panda carriage behind him, which was as steady as Mount Tai, and spoke with a tone of heaviness typical of an old general.

"Chengqian, look at that city wall. Although that old bastard Ju Wentai is arrogant, this Gaochang city is indeed built to be as solid as a rock."

Li Shimin strode down the sand dune, lifted the curtain of the imperial carriage, and slipped inside, covered in rough sand.

Inside the carriage, Li Chengqian lay sprawled on a Persian carpet, holding a bowl of grape wine with crushed ice in his hand, and several plates of exquisite pastries beside him. This was hardly a war-torn man; he looked more like a young nobleman on vacation in the Western Regions.

"Father, what's the rush? Have a sip of chilled grape wine to soothe your throat." Li Chengqian pushed the glass forward.

"I have no interest in drinking!"

Li Shimin waved his hand impatiently, his brows furrowed as he analyzed the situation.

"I just saw it. The walls of Gaochang are entirely constructed using loess unique to the Western Regions, mixed with glutinous rice juice and coarse sand, layer by layer, rammed together. This kind of wall is as hard as iron; ordinary battering rams can't even leave a white mark when they hit it!"

"If we launch a direct assault, this is a bottomless pit of flesh and blood! No matter how valiant our Tang soldiers are, taking this city will likely cost us thousands of lives!"

Li Shimin took a deep breath, a hint of heartache flashing in his eyes. He had fought battles all his life, and what he feared most was this kind of arduous battle that involved risking lives.

"Thousands of lives?"

Upon hearing this number, Li Chengqian finally put down the glass cup in his hand. He slowly sat up straight, his gaze towards Li Shimin carrying a hint of helplessness as if looking at an old relic.

"Father, you're so wasteful! The lives of Tang soldiers are so precious! Isn't it a waste to use them to fill these earthen walls?"

"What war doesn't end in death? This is a siege!" Li Shimin retorted, his eyes wide.

"That's your style of play."

Li Chengqian pursed his lips, turned around and pulled out a long sheepskin scroll from a hidden compartment next to him, spreading it out on the wide low table with a "whoosh".

"Father, come and take a look at this."

Li Shimin approached suspiciously. This wasn't a traditional geomantic map; it was covered with a dense grid, with the location of Gaochang City marked as a red bullseye, while the Tang camp was on the edge. Around the bullseye were concentric circles drawn at varying distances.

"What is this? The circles and drawings on it look like Taoist talismans." Li Shimin asked, puzzled.

Li Chengqian did not explain, but instead took out an extremely fine brass vernier caliper from his sleeve and gently placed it on the map.

"Father, in your eyes, war is about arranging troops, using ladders and battering rams, and exchanging human lives for city walls."

Li Chengqian's well-defined fingers held the calipers, aligning one end with the Tang army's position and slowly stretching the other end until it precisely stopped on the red line representing the Gaochang city wall.

He raised his head, and his usually languid eyes now gleamed with an absolutely rational and cold light.

"But in my eyes, this is not war at all."

"This is just a simple math problem."

"A math problem?" Li Shimin was completely dumbfounded. He felt that his unfilial son was speaking even more mysteriously than usual today.

"right."

Li Chengqian tapped the markings on the caliper with his fingertip, a cruel smile playing on his lips. "Father, you see, the straight-line distance from our position to the walls of Gaochang is about eight hundred paces."

"Ju Wentai felt that the Tang Dynasty was thousands of miles away from him. He felt it was far away, but that was a geographical distance."

Li Chengqian casually tossed the calipers onto the map, making a crisp metallic clanging sound.

"But in reality, he was only 800 steps away from death."

"The powerful bows and crossbows of the Gaochang garrison, when firing from their high ground, can only reach a maximum range of two hundred paces. In other words, within the range of two hundred to eight hundred paces, we can hit them, but they can't even touch a hair on our heads."

"As long as my cannonballs travel farther than their arrows, this supposedly impregnable city wall is nothing more than a larger sitting duck!"

Li Chengqian's words, which were full of the meaning of "dimensional reduction attack", were like a lightning bolt, instantly splitting Li Shimin's inherent war thinking.

No need for a charge?

No need for hand-to-hand combat?

To stand where the enemy can't reach you and simply bomb them flat? That's utterly shameless!

But... this kind of shameless fighting style is fucking exhilarating!

"Are you...are you sure that iron pipe can shoot that far?" Li Shimin's voice trembled slightly, a sign of extreme excitement.

"You can just watch and see."

Li Chengqian leaned back lazily on the soft couch and reached for a brass communication tube hanging on the carriage wall. This was a simple internal communication device made by the Mo family craftsmen according to his instructions, directly connecting to the Shenji Camp's position outside.

He blew into the megaphone, then shouted in an extremely arrogant and casual tone:

"Old man Mo Ju, stop covering it up."

"Bring out all our treasures and let these uncultured bumpkins from the Western Regions show them off!"

Outside the train carriage.

Mo Ju, who had been waiting for a long time, blushed instantly upon hearing the instruction from the copper pipe.

He whirled around, holding a burning torch in his hand, and let out a heart-wrenching roar at the Shenji Battalion soldiers who were standing guard behind him.

"His Highness has given the order!"

"Pull back the tarpaulin! Raise the cannon barrels!"

"Splash—!"

With several loud tearing sounds, ten huge pieces of oilcloth covering the front line of the position were simultaneously blown away.

Under the sunlight.

The ten black cannons, with their ridiculously thick barrels, resembled ten ancient beasts that had just broken free from their chains in the abyss of hell, slowly raising their ferocious fangs capable of devouring everything.

The cold, metallic luster instantly stung everyone's eyes.

"Gunpowder loading complete!"

"Explosive shell in chamber!"

"All gun positions are ready. Please provide further instructions!"

Looking through the carriage window at the ten enormous creatures radiating an aura of destruction, Li Shimin swallowed hard, feeling as if his heart was about to leap out of his chest.

Li Chengqian held the megaphone to Li Shimin's mouth, his smile like that of a devil tempting people to commit crimes.

"Father, shall we have you give the order for the first roar that shattered the heavens and the earth?"