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

This can no longer be called a siege.

This was a one-sided massacre dominated by firearms, purely for the purpose of venting anger.

When Xue Rengui led 30,000 blood-dripping Snow Dragon Riders, like a white awl, he shattered the last line of defense of Pyongyang.

The red-coated cannons on the Tang Dynasty treasure ship also completed their final round of precise fire coverage, blasting the entire Pyongyang royal palace wall into a pile of broken bricks and tiles.

The sky was just beginning to lighten.

This once invincible capital city in Northeast Asia has been completely reduced to a living hell.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder and the nauseating stench of blood.

"Don't kill me! Grandfather of the Tang Dynasty, spare my life! I'm willing to offer up all my treasures..."

A Goguryeo nobleman, dressed in luxurious silk and covered in fat, was kneeling and kowtowing frantically in the snow, his buttocks sticking out.

An old soldier from the Great Snow Dragon Riders didn't even glance at him.

The saber in his hand slid smoothly through the air, tracing a cold arc.

"Pfft!"

The head, covered in flesh, rolled to the ground, but the old soldier didn't even stop, stepping over the headless corpse as he continued to advance deeper into the palace.

"His Highness has ordered! Everyone involved in building the Jingguan (a mound of corpses) must be executed!"

The killings unfolded in every corner of Pyongyang.

The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty did not loot the spoils of war as they had done before, nor did they plunder women. They simply brandished their weapons mechanically, their eyes red, like a group of emotionless grim reapers.

Outside the main hall of the Pyongyang Royal Palace, which was already half collapsed.

"Bang!"

An extremely heavy body, like a mountain of flesh, was violently thrown from mid-air and slammed heavily onto the snow-covered stone steps.

Yeon Gaesomun, the de facto ruler of Goguryeo, was once the invincible Moliji.

At this moment, it was howling in agony on the ground like a stray dog.

His legs were twisted at an extremely bizarre angle, clearly broken off. His five prized short swords were nowhere to be seen.

Xue Rengui, carrying his halberd in one hand, strode up the stone steps.

His once snow-white battle robe was now stained a shocking dark red with the blood of the enemy.

"Run? Keep running, you old dog!"

Xue Rengui stepped on Yeon Gaesomun's broken leg and ground it hard, causing Yeon Gaesomun to let out a scream that was not human.

"Trying to hide among women and slip through a tunnel? If it weren't for my keen nose, you rat would have gotten away!"

Xue Rengui curled his lip in disgust, turned around, and retreated to the side with utmost respect.

"Your Highness, we've caught that old dog."

As Xue Rengui finished speaking.

A pair of impeccably clean, spotless black cloud-patterned boots slowly stepped onto the blood-stained stone steps.

Li Chengqian had changed out of the plain clothes stained with mud and blood and put on the white fox fur coat that symbolized royal majesty.

He even had an exquisitely crafted hand warmer in his hand, looking as languid as if he were strolling in his own backyard.

But with each step he took...

The Tang soldiers around him who were clearing out the remaining enemy forces would involuntarily stop what they were doing and stare at him with extreme fervor and awe.

Lee Seung-gyeon walked up to Yeon Gaesomun.

He did not enumerate the other party's crimes as in the plays, nor did he deliver any lengthy discourse on the triumph of justice over evil.

He simply lowered his head slightly, looking at this thug who had once trampled the bones of Tang soldiers underfoot with an extremely calm yet soul-chilling gaze.

"The Great Tang Dynasty... the Crown Prince of the Great Tang Dynasty..."

Yeon Gaesomun endured the excruciating pain and struggled to lift his head.

When he met Li Chengqian's eyes, which were devoid of any warmth, he finally understood what true despair meant.

That wasn't the fear of the defeated, but the utter desolation of being targeted by predators from a higher dimension.

"I...I'm willing to surrender..."

Yeon Gaesomun roared with all his might, in an extremely humble manner.

"I will give everything Goguryeo has to the Tang Dynasty! I will serve like a beast of burden..."

"Shhh."

Li Chengqian casually extended a finger and placed it to his lips.

He didn't even have the interest to waste words on this dying man.

"Noisy."

Lee Seung-gyeon turned around, his back to Yeon Gaesomun, and uttered three words in a low voice.

"Cut them all down."

These three extremely simple and straightforward words are like a death warrant.

"Pfft!"

There was absolutely no need for Xue Rengui to lift a finger.

Two Tang Dynasty veterans, their eyes already bloodshot, immediately raised their knives and brought them down.

Yeon Gaesomun's head separated from his neck with remarkable speed.

In those unclosed eyes, a last, desperate yearning for survival remained.

And behind him.

Dozens of Goguryeo pro-war generals, bound hand and foot, who had participated in or ordered the construction of the Jingguan (a mound of corpses), were found.

At that very moment, his head was cleanly severed by the Tang Dynasty's horizontal sword.

Blood instantly stained the entire square of the Pyongyang Royal Palace.

"Your Highness, what should we do with these corpses?"

Xu Xiao stepped forward and asked for instructions in a low voice.

According to the usual practice of the Tang Dynasty, people would dig a large pit and bury the body on the spot to prevent the spread of plague.

Li Chengqian stopped in his tracks.

He looked at the heads rolling in the pool of blood, a cold smile curving his lips.

"Bury them? Wouldn't that be too easy on them?"

Li Chengqian raised his head and looked at the vast snowfield outside Pyongyang.

"Don't they like building mounds of corpses? Don't they think piling up the enemy's bones is an extremely honorable thing?"

"Use their own methods against them."

Li Chengqian turned around, his voice sounding extremely majestic in the wind and snow, exuding an unquestionable domineering aura.

"Relay my order."

"In this city of Pyongyang, all the garrison soldiers taller than a cartwheel, and all the generals who participated in the slaughter of the people of the Tang Dynasty."

"Cut off all their heads."

"Build a new mound of skulls for the king outside Pyongyang, ten times larger than theirs!"

Li Chengqian's gaze swept over the Tang soldiers.

"These are offerings for the heroic souls of the Sui Dynasty and the envoys of the Tang Dynasty who are buried in Liaodong."

"It is also I who have erected a new boundary marker for this land of Liaodong."

The next morning.

As the first rays of sunlight struggled to pierce through the smoke and fire above Pyongyang.

In the open fields outside Pyongyang.

A colossal mound of skulls, made up of tens of thousands of Goguryeo soldiers, stands awe-inspiringly and terrifyingly amidst the wind and snow.

The mound of skulls was ten zhang tall, and blood flowed down from the gaps between the skulls, freezing into extremely dazzling dark red ice pillars at the base.

Next to this new Jingguan (a type of ancient Chinese mound).

These are the heroic souls of our ancestors, whose remains were carefully collected and placed in urns by the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty.

The stark visual contrast creates an extremely bloody and tragic scene worthy of being recorded in history.

Li Chengqian stood in front of the new Jingguan (a mound of stones).

He didn't pour any more wine.

Instead, he casually poured the embers from the hand warmer into the pile of dry firewood below the Jingguan (a mound of trees).

"boom--"

The raging fire instantly engulfed the Jingguan (a mound of corpses).

Flames shot into the sky, turning half of the Liaodong Peninsula red.

And in a more distant place.

Those spies from neighboring small countries who managed to escape, and those remnants of foreign tribes hiding deep in the mountains and forests.

Looking at the towering flames, looking at the terrifying Jingguan (a mound of ashes) being burned by the raging fire.

In everyone's heart, only a deep sense of fear and despair remained.

They know.

From this day forward, there will be no more voices of resistance against the Tang Dynasty on this land of Liaodong.

Because of that empire called Tang Dynasty.

It has already declared its absolute bottom line to the world in the most domineering and cruel way.

"Those who offend our Great Tang Dynasty."

Looking at the towering flames, Li Chengqian's lips curled into an extremely cold smile.

"They don't even deserve to be called dogs."