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

"Who said we were going back?"

Li Chengqian's voice wasn't loud, but it was like a stone thrown into a calm lake.

Wei Zheng's weathered old face froze instantly; he could hardly believe his ears.

"Your Highness, what do you mean by this?"

Wei Zheng could barely hold the memorial in his hand.

"Goguryeo has submitted to the whole country, and the Protectorate General of Andong has been established. Although the soldiers are in high spirits, they have been fighting in a cold and harsh land for days and are already exhausted."

"As the art of war says, when the army is weary and the troops are exhausted, it is not advisable to engage in prolonged warfare!"

Changsun Wuji also dropped his previous beaming expression and quickly stepped forward to echo him.

"Yes, Your Highness. Although the national treasury is full, the daily consumption of coal, ammunition, and canned food during this expedition is enormous. Now that the strategic objective has been achieved, we should know when to stop and return to Chang'an to gradually digest this new territory."

Even the usually warlike Cheng Yaojin hesitated for a moment, touching his bald head.

"Your Highness, I, Old Cheng, am still capable of fighting. However, we've almost run out of canned meat in Liaodong, and the soldiers are dreaming of returning to Chang'an for a hot bowl of mutton stew."

Inside the central command tent, the ministers and generals, unusually united, all stared expectantly at the eight-year-old Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty, who held absolute power.

After listening to this extremely reasonable "common sense of military strategy", Li Chengqian...

He neither argued back nor got angry.

He simply stood up lazily from the rocking chair and walked to the huge nautical chart painted on fine sheepskin in the center of the tent.

This map was created by Zheng He overnight, based on the system's nautical star charts, before he landed in Pyongyang.

It not only contains extremely detailed topography of Liaodong, but also a vast sea area that these Tang Dynasty officials had never seen before.

"Tired?"

Li Chengqian put his hands behind his back, a half-smile playing on his lips.

He turned his head, his gaze sweeping sharply over everyone present, as if scrutinizing a group of frogs in a well who had never seen the world.

"How big was Goguryeo?"

"My hundred shipborne smoothbore guns haven't even warmed up yet, and you're already complaining of being tired?"

He stretched out his long, slender, fair fingers, across the Goguryeo map, which had been painted red, representing the Tang Dynasty.

My fingers crossed the blue sea area marked "Bohai Sea" and "Yellow Sea".

then.

It struck heavily, with tremendous force, a point on a long, narrow island nation that looked like a disgusting caterpillar curled up on the sea.

"Look here."

Li Chengqian's voice suddenly rose, and his lazy demeanor vanished instantly, replaced by a chilling, domineering aura.

"Here, there is a place called Wa, or rather, Fusang."

"Do you think that because they are separated from our Great Tang by a vast ocean, they only send a few envoys to kowtow and ask for rewards, and then they don't do anything to us?"

Li Chengqian sneered, his laughter revealing a deep-seated hatred that only a transmigrator could understand.

"I'll tell you."

"The most terrifying enemy in this world is not a wolf like Yeon Gaesomun, who openly jumps out and bares its teeth."

"Instead, it's the kind of venomous snake that hides in the shadows, humbly pretending to be a docile dog. Then, while you're dozing off, it frantically steals your skills, only to bite you back in the end!"

Li Chengqian suddenly turned around and slapped the long, narrow island nation on the map.

"The other day in Chang'an, there was that envoy to Tang China named Inugami Mita-no-Kuji."

"They've gone so far as to shamelessly steal our Tang Dynasty's steam engine blueprints, they almost licked the boots of the Imperial Guards on their knees."

"These shorty bastards have an extremely perverse greed flowing through their veins."

"Do you think that if I return to Chang'an today with an invincible fleet, they will have mastered the technology of the Tang Dynasty in a few decades or a hundred years?"

"Could they build even more sturdy treasure ships than we do? Could they use even more powerful cannons to blast open the gates of the Tang Dynasty?!"

This is a powerful and insightful statement.

The sound instantly exploded inside the tent, leaving all the ministers speechless.

Fang Xuanling and Changsun Wuji looked at each other, both seeing an extremely solemn look of horror in each other's eyes.

His Highness the Crown Prince has such foresight and such keen insight!

To prevent problems before they occur, or even to nip potential risks in the bud!

"But Your Highness..."

Wei Zheng swallowed hard, still making a last-ditch effort.

"We have no legitimate reason to attack! Our Great Tang is a land of propriety. If we rashly cross the sea to conquer other countries without a pretext, we risk incurring criticism from the world..."

"An excuse?"

Li Chengqian sneered with extreme disdain, his eyes flashing with an extremely fanatical plundering light.

"I heard from that Inugami Odenkumi himself that beneath their wretched island lies an extremely vast silver mine, large enough to buy half of the Tang Dynasty!"

"Our fleet has already set sail, and we haven't run out of fuel or shells yet."

"Since we're already here..."

"Let's just eliminate that potential threat while we're at it, and then 'borrow' some money from the island to spend."

"Anyone who dares to speak ill of me, I'll smash their mouth with this silver!"

Li Chengqian suddenly drew the Emperor's Sword from his waist.

The sword tip, gleaming with a cold light, pointed domineeringly at the long, narrow island nation on the map.

"Relay my military orders!"

"Leave Xue Rengui with 50,000 troops to garrison the Andong Protectorate."

"The rest of you, follow me onto the ship!"

"Fleet, turn around, target east!"

"Next stop—Japan!"

"I intend to establish another 'Japan Province' in this place called Wa!"

The sea breeze roared again in the harbor outside Pyongyang.

"Ugh—!"

A piercing steam whistle, seemingly capable of tearing the sky apart, once again echoed across the sea.

The blood-red dragon flag, obscuring the sky, fluttered wildly in the wind.

Thirty massive Ming Dynasty treasure ships, as large as steel mountains, spewed out thick, pungent black smoke.

They carried the boundless power of having just conquered Goguryeo.

Like a group of sea dragons that have tasted blood and have been fully awakened.

cleave through the waves.

With unwavering determination and ferocity, it sailed towards the deepest part of the East China Sea.

And on the other side of that mist-shrouded ocean.

That Japan, still dreaming of dominating Asia by stealing technology from the Tang Dynasty.

What is about to happen is something that their nation, even with all its imagination, can absolutely not comprehend.

An absolute nightmare of dimensional reduction attacks.