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

The issuance of the first tranche of "Special Treasury Bonds for Railway Construction" by Datang was extremely smooth.

Those wealthy merchants from Jiangnan and the remnants of the Five Clans and Seven Families initially held onto their money bags and waited to see what would happen.

But when Li Chengqian offered the outrageous promise of "ten years of franchise dividends" and "20% annual interest," this group of vampires went completely mad.

One cartload after another of gold ingots and strings of copper coins were roughly hauled into the Ministry of Revenue's treasury.

Every day, Dai Zhou would hug that outrageously thick account book, laughing like a 500-pound fool. He even needed two gold bricks as a pillow to feel secure when he slept.

With this enormous initial funding, the terrifying state apparatus of the Tang Dynasty instantly began operating at full speed.

Along the long ancient road from the Guanzhong Plain to the Hexi Corridor, a spectacular era of large-scale infrastructure construction has begun.

Hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war from the Western Regions and Tibet finally received their extremely tragic "blessing".

The Turks were responsible for digging and filling the ditches, while the Gaochang people were responsible for transporting the extremely heavy ironwood sleepers.

As for the Tibetan plateau men, all muscular and strong, they were all assigned to blast rocks and clear mountains.

"Hurry up! Get everyone moving! If we don't lay at least ten miles of track today, none of you will get to eat!"

Li Ke, the newly appointed "King of the Western Regions," was shirtless and wearing an extremely comical tattered straw hat.

He brandished a leather whip, his skin tanned black like charcoal under the scorching sun, working with great fervor.

This poor Prince of Shu actually thought he was undertaking a great and lasting feat.

He had no idea that he had been tricked by that cunning older brother into becoming the highest-ranking contractor in the history of the Tang Dynasty.

"Ugh—!"

A piercing, extremely harsh whistle suddenly shattered the tranquility outside Chang'an City.

A heavy steam locomotive, three times larger than the "Datang No. 1," spewed out thick black smoke that blotted out the sky, charging forward like an ancient behemoth.

Behind it, a full thirty heavily loaded carriages, filled with boulders and hundred-chain steel rails, were being pulled!

The weight of hundreds of thousands of kilograms pressed down on the rails, producing an extremely violent metallic friction sound that made the ground tremble slightly.

The people of Chang'an standing on both sides of the road were all dumbfounded.

An old farmer selling vegetables dropped his pipe with a thud and knelt down on the ground, kowtowing frantically.

"This must be a divine intervention from a dragon! It ran faster than a galloping horse over such a heavy stone!"

This visually striking industrial aesthetic of violence has completely reshaped the perceptions of Chang'an residents in just a few months.

It completely shattered the extremely simple feudal worldview of the people of the Tang Dynasty.

Times have truly changed.

East Palace, Warm Pavilion.

Li Chengqian lay languidly in a rocking chair, while Wu Meiniang obediently peeled the finest mare's milk grapes for him.

"Father, please stop spinning me. It's making me dizzy."

Li Chengqian looked helplessly at Li Shimin, who was pacing back and forth in the room like an ant on a hot pan.

Li Shimin plopped down in front of the huge map of the world's territory, rubbing his hands together with extreme excitement.

"Chengqian, this railway is being built so fast! At this rate, it will reach Liangzhou by next spring!"

"My Divine Machine Battalion has expanded to 100,000 men, and the newly built 500 red-coated cannons are just sitting in the warehouse collecting dust every day."

Old Li's warlike genes awakened once again, and he pointed to the area on the map to the west that was already marked with red lines.

"The Western Regions have been pacified, and Tibet has submitted. Now there's not even a hint of rebellion left."

"Our firepower is getting increasingly intense; we can't possibly use it to blow up turtles in the Yellow River just for the noise, can we? My hands are itching to use it!"

Li Chengqian ate the crystal-clear grape and slowly stood up.

His gaze casually swept across the vast Northwest, his finger slowly sliding across the map.

In the end, Li Chengqian's fingertips rested on the far east of the Tang Dynasty's territory.

There, there is a vast blue ocean.

And several tiny countries that dangle like fleas on the peninsula and islands.

"Father, we're tired of the sandstorms in the Northwest. It's time to wash these cannons clean off the rust at the beach."

A cold smile curved Li Chengqian's lips as he tapped his fingers heavily twice on the narrow, isolated island.

"I've heard that although the people here are short and ugly, they are also extremely sleazy at heart."

"But beneath that wretched island lies an inexhaustible supply of silver that our Great Tang urgently needs to build railways."

at the same time.

On the vast East China Sea, thousands of miles away from Chang'an.

An extremely violent hurricane is raging across the dark sea.

A dilapidated wooden ship, with its mast broken in half, was tossed about violently in the raging waves like a pitiful leaf.

The cabin was packed with Japanese people, their faces pale and vomiting until they had nothing left, not even jaundice.

"Lord Inu! The ship is leaking! We might not make it to the Tang Dynasty's harbor!"

A short Japanese samurai clung tightly to a pillar, roaring desperately at the middle-aged man at the bow of the ship who was gripping the helm.

Inugami Mitakuchi, the chief envoy sent to Tang China.

Although he was soaked to the bone, his small, beady eyes revealed an extremely morbid greed and madness.

"Shut up! Even if we have to swim, we must swim to the coastline of the Tang Dynasty!"

He wiped the cold seawater from his face and looked with intense longing at the vast landmass hidden behind the storm to the west.

"I heard from passing merchants that the crown prince of the Tang Dynasty is only an eight-year-old child and is extremely easy to deceive."

"Now, in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, gold is everywhere, and even the beggars on the streets are dressed in the finest silk!"

Inugami Odenkuchi stared intently at the giant wave, gritting his teeth and roaring as if he could already see countless riches beckoning to him.

"As long as we make it to Chang'an alive, we'll act like cowards, kneel and kowtow, and we'll trick them into giving us that secret formula for making glass back to Yamato!"

"Those foolish, kind-hearted Tang people only deserve to be exploited by us! Once we've learned all their techniques..."