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

The fire outside Pyongyang burned for three days and three nights.

The pungent, acrid smell in the air, mixed with the mud left by the melting snow, became the last mark that the Goguryeo kingdom left to the world.

Inside the central command tent of the Tang Dynasty, the atmosphere was completely different from the grim atmosphere outside.

Several clerks from the Ministry of Revenue accompanying the army were busily counting the spoils looted from the Goguryeo royal palace. Baskets of century-old ginseng, mountains of deer antlers and sable furs, and gold and silver utensils that, though crudely made, were still of some value.

"These barbarians have hoarded quite a lot of good stuff."

Xue Rengui sat imposingly by the fire, a juicy roasted lamb leg in his hand, his mouth dripping with oil as he ate. He had changed out of his blood-stained white robe, but the lingering murderous aura emanating from him still made the clerks around him tremble with fear.

In the center of the tent, a man in tattered clothes was kneeling, trembling all over.

That was Gojang, the nominal king of Goguryeo.

After Yeon Gaesomun's death, this king, who had always been treated as a puppet, in despair, led the remaining officials and tremblingly opened the inner gate of Pyongyang, presenting a letter of surrender.

"Your humble servant Gao Zang... pays his respects to His Highness the Crown Prince of the Great Tang Dynasty."

Gao Zang's head was pressed tightly against the cold ground; he didn't even have the courage to look at Li Chengqian.

All he wants now is to survive, even if it means going to Chang'an to be a horse-riding servant.

Li Chengqian was looking through a newly generated "Liaodong Resource Distribution Map" when he heard Gao Zang's voice, and simply waved his finger casually.

"Take this surrender document and burn it."

"Your Highness?" The official from the Court of State Ceremonial was stunned. Accepting the surrender document was a necessary procedure for asserting sovereignty.

"I have said it before, the name Goguryeo ceases to exist from this day forward."

Li Chengqian tossed the blueprints onto the table, his tone as indifferent as if he were wiping away a speck of dust.

"Since it no longer exists, what's the point of downgrading its status?"

He looked at Gao Zang kneeling on the ground, without a trace of pity in his eyes.

"Gao Zang, considering you didn't participate in Yeon Gaesomun's perverse actions, I'll spare your life. Strip you of your royal title and demote you to a commoner. Old Xu, arrange for him and all those Goguryeo nobles to be escorted to Chang'an."

"Once they arrive in Chang'an, let them sweep the streets of the West Market. It will be a way for them to contribute to the construction of the Tang Dynasty."

Upon hearing that he could live, Gao Zang was overjoyed and kowtowed repeatedly in gratitude. Then, he was dragged away by the Great Snow Dragon Riders like a sack of potatoes.

"Pass on the order to the isolated army."

Li Chengqian stood up and glanced at the Tang generals inside the tent.

"Effective immediately, the name of the Goguryeo Kingdom is abolished. The Great Tang Protectorate of Andong is established here!"

"The Liaodong Peninsula, Pyongyang, and all territories to the north shall all be incorporated into the territory of the Great Tang!"

"Xue Rengui was appointed as the first Grand Commander of the Andong Protectorate, leading 50,000 troops to garrison Pyongyang."

Xue Rengui abruptly stood up, forgetting even his lamb leg, clasped his hands in a fist and knelt on one knee, his voice booming like a bell: "This humble general obeys the order! I swear to defend the Tang Dynasty's territory to the death!"

Li Chengqian nodded, and then unleashed his extremely skillful combination of "cultural genocide" tactics.

"Starting tomorrow, only Chinese language and characters will be permitted on this land! All official documents and private transactions shall use the Tang Tongbao coin and the Tang Code!"

"Burn all those messy history books of Goguryeo. Compile a new set of textbooks for them, saying that their ancestors were originally refugees from the Central Plains, and now they are returning to their ancestral home."

"Anyone who dares to hoard old items or refuses to learn Chinese will be sent straight to work on the railway!"

This series of moves sent chills down the spines of not only the Goguryeo people, but even the Tang generals nearby.

This is an attempt to completely assimilate and crush this nation, both physically and spiritually, under the wheels of history.

at the same time.

The treasure ship flagship is moored at the mouth of the Taedong River.

Li Shimin lay on his bed, extremely weak. Several days of rough seas and seasickness had made this great general look as if he had been seriously ill.

"Report—!"

The old eunuch, clutching the message delivered by carrier pigeon from the land, jogged into the cabin.

"Your Majesty! A great victory! Pyongyang has fallen! The King of Goguryeo has surrendered the city, and Yeon Gaesomun has been beheaded by General Xue!"

"What?!"

Li Shimin suddenly sat up in bed, and his vision went black for a moment because he got up so suddenly.

But he couldn't care less about any of that now, and snatched the report of victory from the old eunuch's hand.

Looking at the clear rows of battle results above.

From the capture of Beisha City, to Xue Rengui's three arrows that pacified the army, to Bai Qi's Iron Eagle Warriors sweeping across the Liaodong defense line, and finally the cannons bombarding the palace, the establishment of the Andong Protectorate was completed.

Li Shimin's hands began to tremble violently and uncontrollably.

His dragon eyes, dulled by seasickness, suddenly burst forth with an unprecedentedly fervent light.

"Okay! Okay! Okay!"

Li Shimin said "good" three times in a row, then suddenly threw off the covers and jumped out of bed.

He didn't even put on shoes, walking barefoot to the window of the cabin, looking at the land in the distance where the Tang Dynasty dragon flag had already been planted.

Thirty years!

The lingering regret of a million soldiers of the Sui Dynasty and the deep-seated resentment of several generations of people in the Tang Dynasty were finally brought to a complete end during the reign of Li Shimin!

"My son Chengqian is truly a divine being!"

Li Shimin was so excited that he laughed heartily, the sound echoing in the spacious cabin. In that laughter was a sense of relief and immense pride as a father.

"With such methods and spirit, my son has the makings of an emperor!"

He's truly convinced now.

Compared to Li Chengqian's almost ruthless methods of dimensional reduction and assimilation, his previous approach of trying to reason with foreign barbarians was like children playing house.

"Send the order! Prepare to dock!"

With a wave of his hand, Li Shimin swept away his previous weakness.

"I will personally ascend the walls of Pyongyang to pay tribute to the heroic souls who died in Liaodong!"

Two days later.

All matters concerning the Andong Protectorate have been preliminarily arranged.

The engineers of the Tang Dynasty had even begun planning the site selection for a railway station outside Pyongyang.

Outside the central command tent, the sun shone brightly, and the snow began to melt.

The court officials and generals were all overjoyed. Goguryeo had been destroyed—a tremendous victory that would surely bring them promotions and titles upon their return.

"Finally, we can go back to Chang'an. The weather in Liaodong is so cold it'll freeze your bones."

Changsun Wuji rubbed his hands together and muttered to Fang Xuanling beside him with a smile.

Wei Zheng also showed a rare smile. He took a memorial filled with post-war resettlement budgets and walked up to Li Chengqian, who was playing with an iron-eating beast.

"Your Highness, Liaodong has now been pacified, and the Goguryeo royal family has been escorted away."

Wei Zheng bowed and asked for instructions, his tone tinged with urgency.

"This old minister has already drafted the memorial for the army's return to the capital. Please instruct Your Highness: when should the army break camp and depart?"

Li Chengqian touched the furry ears of the Iron-Eating Beast without even raising his head.

"Return trip?"

He yawned, his tone somewhat languid, but it made Wei Zheng's heart suddenly skip a beat.

Li Chengqian raised his head, his clear eyes looking past Wei Zheng towards the more distant eastern sea outside the tent.

"Lord Wei, this play has only just begun, why are you in such a hurry?"

"When did I ever say that the army was returning to Chang'an?"