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

"Sizzle sizzle sizzle—"

Orange-red sparks traveled rapidly along the fuse, emitting a chilling burning sound.

As soon as Li Shimin put the torch up, he suddenly lunged back two big steps, like a nimble old cat that had just stolen some fish.

He covered his ears tightly with both hands, his mouth wide open, his dragon eyes fixed on the dark cannon muzzle.

Mo Ju, who was in charge of loading ammunition, and a group of artillerymen had long since skillfully crouched down with their heads in their hands to defend themselves.

"Your Majesty, open your mouth! Don't bite your tongue!"

Mo Ju didn't forget to shout something at the top of his lungs.

next second.

The world lost its color, and all things fell silent.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Ten roars, like the furious roars of an ancient thunder god, resounded simultaneously across the cold Gobi Desert!

The deafening sonic boom instantly tore through the air.

Ten colossal iron beasts, each weighing several thousand kilograms, were violently and frantically pushed backward by the terrifying force of the gunpowder.

The heavy iron cannon wheels plowed ten deep furrows, each more than half a foot deep, into the frozen, hard earth.

Even though Li Shimin was prepared, he was still so shocked by the devastating power at close range that his eardrums hurt.

He could even clearly feel the ground beneath his feet as if it had been kicked hard, bouncing violently.

A surge of blood and qi welled up in my chest, and my calves felt numb.

But this did not frighten him; instead, it ignited the extremely warlike fervor in his bones.

"That was awesome! That was fucking awesome!"

Li Shimin lowered his hands, his cheeks flushed, and pointed at the rising smoke in the distance, laughing wildly.

Meanwhile, on the city wall of Yanqi Kingdom, three miles away.

King Turgesh of Yanqi was lounging casually in a grand chair covered with a fine woolen blanket.

He held a gold-inlaid glass cup in his hand, leisurely blowing on the foam on the salty milk tea from the Western Regions.

He hadn't seen the commotion coming from the Tang Dynasty's position clearly, only a row of extremely sudden flames.

"Your Majesty, look! White smoke is rising from those Han people!"

A shifty-eyed minister beside him pointed into the distance, his face full of mocking smiles.

"Are they already preparing to cook before the fight even starts?"

Upon hearing this, the Turgesh snorted disdainfully and brought the glass cup to his lips.

"The Han Chinese army is so delicate; they have to boil water and make tea before they even come all this way."

He patted the thick rammed earth bricks under his feet with great confidence.

"We completely sealed the city gates with molten iron; that's what you call an impregnable fortress!"

"Don't even think about them ramming me with tree stumps; even if a god descended to earth, he wouldn't be able to set foot in my Yanqi City!"

The Turgesh had barely finished speaking when his smug smile hadn't even fully blossomed on his face.

A sharp and mournful whistling sound suddenly tore down from the high sky!

The sound was completely unlike anything from the human world.

It's more like the shriek of death as it slashes through the air with its scythe.

What was that sound?

The Turgesh instinctively raised his head, his pupils suddenly shrinking to the size of pinpoints.

At the edge of the gray sky, ten terrifying orange-red fireballs, trailing long black flames, were hurtling toward his face at a terrifying speed that was almost impossible to detect with the naked eye!

There was no time to react, let alone utter a single scream.

"BOOM—!!!"

A shell filled with high-purity, high-explosive black powder struck the very center of the city gate, which was sealed shut by molten iron, with perfect accuracy.

The Turgesh's proud "molten iron gate" proved to be so fragile as to be a joke in the face of the revolutionary industrial explosive power.

The raging heat and terrifying shockwave exploded instantly inside the city gate.

The heavy iron-clad wooden door, along with the molten iron poured into the gaps, was completely torn apart in a fraction of a second!

Thousands upon thousands of sharp, red-hot pieces of iron transformed into a deadly metal storm.

With the force of piercing armor, they unleashed a frenzied, fan-shaped barrage of fire towards the Yanqi garrison, who were waiting in full battle array behind the city gate.

"ah!!!"

Severed limbs and severed arms rose into the sky amidst a rain of blood.

The hundreds of guards near the city gate were cut in half as if by an invisible giant scythe, falling in pools of blood.

And this was only the first shell.

Nine more exploding shells followed, like meteorites falling to earth, mercilessly crashing into the low rammed earth walls of the Yanqi Kingdom.

The power of the internal explosion directly dismantled the city's defenses from the deepest part of its structure.

Large chunks of rammed earth crumbled and disintegrated during the explosion.

The city walls, which had withstood decades of wind and sand erosion, were instantly reduced to dust and yellow earth under the absolute crushing force of the Tang Dynasty's steel and gunpowder!

"Splash—"

Amidst the earth-shaking tremors, the city wall, stretching for tens of meters, collapsed like a sand sculpture.

The violent tremors spread upwards along the wall.

On the city tower.

The Turgenesh's gold-inlaid glass cup shattered with a "bang".

The scalding hot Xinjiang salty milk tea was splashed all over his face, burning his skin until it turned red.

But he felt no pain at all.

Because the base of the city wall beneath his feet had been completely hollowed out.

In the extreme terror of weightlessness, the Turgesh, along with the expensive armchair, fell headfirst to the ground!

The ministers around him were wildly waving their arms and legs, scratching and clawing in mid-air, letting out screams like pigs being slaughtered.

The wind howled wildly in his ears, and the yellow dust filled his mouth and nose.

In the mid-air as he plummeted at breakneck speed, the Turgesh's mind had turned to mush.

He stared blankly at the approaching ruins below.

He really couldn't understand it.

The Tang army didn't even set up a single siege ladder, nor did they send out a single infantryman.

What exactly was gushing out of those dark iron pipes three miles away?

How could the city wall, which was perfectly fine, just disappear like that?!

The loud crash of the collapsing city wall reached the Tang army's position.

Li Shimin was so excited that he threw down the torch in his hand and laughed loudly.

"That felt great! That felt so good!"

He turned to look at Li Chengqian, who was lying comfortably in the iron-eating beast palanquin, his face full of smugness, seeking praise.

"Chengqian! Did you see that?!"

"The cannon shot I just fired not only blasted open the door, but also sent the King of Yanqi to his death!"

Li Chengqian rubbed his ears, which were ringing from the shock, and yawned helplessly.

He held up one finger and pointed to the ruins of the city wall in the distance.

"Father, sending him to heaven was the right thing to do."

"However, your aim was a little off; you didn't kill him. That old guy is still floundering and panting in the dirt."

Li Chengqian lazily turned his head and looked at Huo Qubing, who was already starving and thirsty.

Huo Qubing.

"Your subordinate is here!" The young champion Hou suddenly shook the plum blossom spear in his hand.

"Take the Great Snow Dragon Riders and go get that old bastard out for me."

Li Chengqian grabbed a grape and stuffed it into his mouth, his tone filled with a cunning and playful tone.

"Go ask him if the iron balls from the Tang Dynasty really hurt when they hit someone."