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

The lights in the Duke of Zhao's mansion were brighter than at any other time in previous years.

The rich aroma of wine, accompanied by celebratory shouts, almost lifted the roof off the entire mansion.

But beneath this clamor, a sense of solemnity, imperceptible to ordinary officials, was slowly unfolding.

In a secluded pavilion in the back garden, two of the Tang Dynasty's top minds—Fang Xuanling, the Grand Secretary, and Du Ruhui, the Duke of Cai—sat facing each other.

In front of the two was only a pot of tea and a few plates of delicate tea snacks.

Compared to the lively scene of toasting and urging in the front hall, this place was eerily quiet.

Du Ruhui picked up the teapot and poured a cup for Fang Xuanling, his hands still trembling slightly.

"Old Fang, your heart rate still hasn't stopped?"

Du Ruhui chuckled self-deprecatingly and pointed to his chest.

Fang Xuanling picked up the teacup with a bitter expression and blew away the steam from the rim.

"Lower it? It can't be lowered."

Fang Xuanling sighed, his gaze lingering on the wisps of steam that had not yet dissipated in the distant night sky.

"When that steel monster stopped at the door just now, I even felt that it wasn't a wedding procession."

"That was an era of the Tang Dynasty, which was rampaging through us with a force that was about to crush us all."

Du Ruhui nodded in deep agreement.

"Our eldest nephew... no, our Crown Prince."

He changed his form of address, and his tone became solemn and reverent.

"How many layers of his 'railway dowry' scheme today did you see through?"

Fang Xuanling extended a finger and lightly traced a line on the tea on the stone table.

"The first layer is face."

"Chang Le is his own sister. He sent her off in this unprecedented way to tell the whole world that anyone who touches Chang Le is touching the lifeblood of the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty."

"No matter how powerful the Changsun family becomes in the future, they will still have to bow their heads in front of Chang Le."

Du Ruhui took a sip of tea and replied, "This is only the most superficial layer. That old fox Changsun Wuji is probably already grinning from ear to ear."

"That's natural." Fang Xuanling held up a second finger. "This second layer is benefit."

"The Beijing-Luoyang Railway is the lifeline connecting the two heart cities of the Tang Dynasty, east and west."

"His Highness the Crown Prince's relinquishment of the freight franchise may seem like a surrender of immense wealth, but in reality, it has tied the Changsun family to the railway tracks."

"If anything goes wrong with this railway in the future, the Changsun family will be more anxious than anyone else. They will have to do everything in their power to maintain the safety of this railway."

As Fang Xuanling spoke, a deep fear of Li Chengqian's mental state flashed in his eyes.

"This is tantamount to making the Changsun family, a powerful clan, the most loyal watchdog of the Tang Dynasty's infrastructure."

"And it didn't cost the imperial court a single penny in maintenance fees."

Du Ruhui put down his teacup and tapped his fingers lightly on the table, making a rhythmic tapping sound.

"There's a third floor."

"Old Fang, have you noticed that once this railway was completed, the situation in Kanto completely changed?"

"The reason why the powerful families in the Guandong region were so difficult to deal with in the past was because they controlled the passes along the Grand Canal and the land routes."

"Nowadays, when a train starts running, its advantages in speed and capacity are a joke in the face of steam behemoths."

"Once the Changsun family obtains the operating rights of the railway, they will inevitably go to great lengths to suppress the old canal transport clans for their own benefit."

"Your Highness is using the Changsun family to uproot those ancient aristocratic families!"

The two exchanged a glance, both seeing a chilling coldness and deep admiration in each other's eyes.

This approach has completely deviated from the traditional Confucian principles of "winning people over with virtue" or "using power and checks and balances."

This is a comprehensive, dimensional reduction attack that utilizes industrial generational differences and economic logic.

"It's not over yet."

Fang Xuanling stood up, walked to the edge of the pavilion, and turned his back to Du Ruhui.

"The most terrifying thing is the fourth level, which is... the army."

"Once the Beijing-Luoyang Railway is completed, the speed at which the Tang Dynasty can deploy its troops will increase more than tenfold."

"If anything happens in Luoyang, the red-coated cannons from Chang'an will appear under the walls of Luoyang within half a day."

"The Tang Dynasty, under whose hands, is almost welded shut into a solid iron plate."

"Who wants to rebel? With what can they rebel? With their own flesh and blood to crash into those tens of thousands of kilograms of pig iron train?"

Fang Xuanling's voice was somewhat hoarse, even carrying a faint hint of dejection.

He served Li Shimin for half his life and boasted that he had seen through the schemes of countless emperors.

However, Li Chengqian's series of actions gave him an extremely strong sense of frustration.

That's an outdated way of thinking, powerless in the face of timeless truths.

"Old Du, do you think our Crown Prince is really only eight years old?"

Fang Xuanling turned around, his eyes filled with resentment and confusion.

Du Ruhui shook his head with a wry smile.

"Age is meaningless to Your Highness."

"Look at him, sleeping soundly and teasing that iron-eating beast. It seems absurd, but in fact, he walks in the cracks of the Way of Heaven with every step he takes."

"Even if I studied this technique for another hundred years, I'm afraid I still wouldn't be able to touch the hem of His Highness's robe."

Just as the two prime ministers were reminiscing about life in the pavilion.

The banquet in the front hall had reached its climax.

Li Shimin had clearly drunk quite a bit today, and since he didn't have to worry about his health, he accepted almost everything offered to him.

At this moment, he was putting his arm around Cheng Yaojin's shoulder and boasting in a thick tongue about his heroic deeds at Hulao Pass.

But as he was playing, he suddenly stopped.

Li Shimin's slightly drunken dragon eyes, fueled by the alcohol, slowly swept across the hall.

He saw it.

Those civil and military officials who usually obeyed him but harbored their own agendas.

At this moment, as soon as they saw Li Chengqian walk by, they all lowered their heads in unison, their eyes revealing an extremely complex sense of awe.

That reverence was even purer and more profound than when facing the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.

Even Wei Zheng, who was usually stubborn, was now holding a wine cup and obediently following behind Li Chengqian, nodding repeatedly as if he were listening to some profound truth.

The smile on Li Shimin's face gradually faded.

He poured himself a drink with a self-deprecating laugh, the spicy liquor sliding down his throat, but it couldn't take away the bitterness.

"Zhijie, ah."

Li Shimin patted Cheng Yaojin's broad shoulder, his tone suddenly becoming somewhat elusive.

Cheng Yaojin, who was enjoying his drink, was taken aback by the question. "Your Majesty, what's wrong? Has some young lady upset you again?"

"Get lost!" Li Shimin cursed irritably.

He looked at his son in the distance, who was lazily yawning and seemed completely indifferent to all the hustle and bustle.

He then looked around at the old ministers who were devoted to his son.

"Don't you think that the Tang Dynasty's rule... is a little too stable?"

Li Shimin squinted, his gaze unfocused as he looked at the brightly lit city of Chang'an.

"So... it seems like all I, the emperor, can do is play with cannons?"

Cheng Yaojin laughed heartily and patted his belly.

"Your Majesty, isn't this a good thing? His Highness the Crown Prince is very capable, so you can just stay in your position as the Retired Emperor... oh, I mean, as the Heavenly Khan, won't that be enough?"

Li Shimin didn't speak, but simply raised his cup again, a flame of "unwillingness to be alone" flashing in his eyes.

"I am not old yet."

He muttered to himself, but his gaze involuntarily drifted toward the imperial desk.

There lay a bloodstained battle report from Goguryeo, delivered just today.

"Now that Chengqian has sorted out the domestic affairs and the western region, shouldn't it be time for me, as his father, to personally meet those 'old buddies' in the north and east?"

Just then, Li Chengqian staggered over, carrying a pot of wine.

He looked at his own father's excited expression, as if he were about to climb onto the roof and tear off the tiles, and sighed helplessly.

"Father, there's something wrong with your eyes again."

Li Chengqian walked up to Li Shimin and very easily snatched the precious glass cup from Li Shimin's hand.

"Don't tell me that Chang Le has only just gotten married, and you already want to go to Liaodong to suffer from the wind and sand?"

Li Shimin glared at his son and gave a somewhat guilty snort.

"I was concerned about the border defenses! Goguryeo built a mound of corpses to humiliate our Great Tang. As the ruler of the Great Tang, how could I sit idly by?"

Li Chengqian drank the wine in the glass cup in one gulp, then casually tossed it onto the table with a crisp sound.

"It's impossible to sit idly by."

A chilling smile curved Li Chengqian's lips, and his eyes turned colder than a winter railway track in that instant.

"But Father, why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut?"

He whispered in Li Shimin's ear, in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"The soil in Liaodong is too hard; it's not suitable for you to go there."

"Your subject has made up his mind. This time, your subject intends to ensure that there will be no survivors in that place."

Upon hearing his son's calm yet frantic words, Li Shimin was instantly sobered up by the shock.

"Chengqian, who...who do you plan to use?"

Li Chengqian did not answer, but simply raised his head and looked in the direction of the underground palace of the Eastern Palace.

"Bai Qi should also come out and bask in the sun."