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

"Village...Village chief?!"

Emperor Jomei, who had just been awakened by a basin of cold water, widened his beady eyes like copper bells upon hearing those two words, his eyeballs almost popping out.

Although he was terrified by the Tang Dynasty's extremely powerful cannons.

But this does not mean that he is willing to give up that ingrained, blindly arrogant pride in his own bloodline.

"Baka! A scholar can be killed but not humiliated!"

Emperor Jomei jumped up like a wildcat whose tail had been stepped on.

He pointed at Li Chengqian, and a morbid fanaticism appeared on his face, which was contorted with fear and anger.

"The Emperor of my Yamato Province is a direct descendant of Amaterasu, the Radiant Mistress of Takamagahara!"

"Our blood flows with supremely noble divine power! How dare you mortals use such a despicable term to blaspheme the gods?!"

"Amaterasu will unleash divine punishment and burn all of you Tang invaders to ashes!"

Looking at this short old man who was still dreaming of a divine kingdom.

Li Chengqian didn't have a second's patience.

He casually raised his right hand, drawing an extremely sharp arc in mid-air.

"Snapped!"

A sharp, resounding slap, with an echo that carried a hint of cruelty, suddenly rang out in the hall.

That slap was extremely powerful.

It directly sent Emperor Jomei's ridiculously tall hat flying.

He spun twice in mid-air like a tattered sack before crashing heavily onto the tatami floor in a very disheveled manner.

"puff--!"

Emperor Shumei spat out a mouthful of blood, which included two extremely yellowed molars.

"Divine punishment?"

Li Chengqian shook his slightly reddened palms, which were a little red from exerting too much force, and pulled out a white silk handkerchief to wipe them with extreme disgust.

He slowly walked up to the "Emperor," who was utterly dazed from the beating and lying on the ground groaning in pain.

Li Chengqian leaned down slightly, his deep eyes flashing with an extremely cold and utterly disdainful light that betrayed the truth of physics.

"I'll teach you a lesson today."

"In this world, no god can withstand the Tang Dynasty's exploding bullets."

"If so, then it means that the gods you speak of don't have thick enough armor."

Li Chengqian's voice echoed in the empty hall, carrying an undeniable imperial dominance.

"If Amaterasu Omikami truly exists, why don't you have her jump out right now with incredible efficacy and take a volley from my Divine Machine Battalion?"

Emperor Jomei covered his extremely swollen cheek, completely devastated by Li Chengqian's extremely rebellious yet extremely realistic declaration of physics.

In his terrified eyes, the last glimmer of resistance finally vanished.

"Serve me with pen and ink."

Li Chengqian snapped his fingers and laughed with an extremely wicked sense of humor.

The official from the Court of State Ceremonial quickly spread out a sheet of fine Tang Dynasty Xuan paper.

Li Chengqian was even too lazy to use the imperial seal.

He casually picked up a brush and wrote a few large characters on the Xuan paper in a very flamboyant and hasty manner.

[Letter of Appointment for Village Chief of Asuka Village, Japan Province, Tang Dynasty]

"Old Xu, hold his hand down and make him sign his name for me."

Xu Xiao, like an extremely cold-blooded machine, stepped forward and grabbed Emperor Shuming's fingers in an extremely rough manner.

With an extremely piercing scream.

Xu Xiao cruelly slashed Shu Ming's finger with the tip of a knife, forcibly pressing his trembling fingerprint onto the extremely humiliating letter of appointment.

"Congratulations, Village Chief."

Li Chengqian picked up the bloodstained letter of appointment with great satisfaction and waved it in front of Emperor Shumei's utterly desperate gaze.

"From today onward, your sole and most sacred duty is to deliver the silver mined from this island to the Tang army camp stationed at Shijian Mountain every month, on time, with guaranteed quality and quantity, with utmost respect."

"What if, by sheer misfortune, one or two ounces are missing..."

Li Chengqian gave a cold glance to the powerful ministers beside him, including Soga Iruka, who were already so frightened they wet their pants.

"I will, in an extremely fair manner, cut off an equal amount of flesh from you village officials to pay off the debt."

With this extremely cold-blooded appointment.

The fate of Fusang, an island nation that was extremely backward in this era but would be extremely sinful in the future, was brutally and thoroughly disrupted by Li Chengqian.

Three thousand highly equipped musketeers from the Great Tang Divine Machine Battalion forcefully took control of the Iwami Silver Mine and the extremely important port.

A highly rigorous and inhumane system of high-pressure mine guarding was established extremely quickly.

The entire island of Fusang instantly became the exclusive ATM for the Tang Dynasty's extremely large and extremely greedy war economy machine.

A month later.

A port on the west coast of Kyushu Island.

The sea breeze was still biting, but at this moment, the sea presented an extremely spectacular and breathtaking scene.

Thirty Ming Dynasty treasure ships, as massive as steel mountains, were struggling, or rather, moving extremely slowly, up and down in the waves.

Because their waterline at this moment has reached an extremely dangerous and terrifying limit!

Inside the cabin.

There were no extremely precious spices, nor extremely luxurious silks.

What they had was a box of extremely heavy and dazzling refined silver bricks, and a mountain of high-quality raw silver ore!

"Your Highness! All the hold compartments are completely full! Even the deck is dangerously piled high with silver ingots!"

Standing atop the flagship's foreground, Zheng He reported to Li Chengqian with extreme excitement, his voice trembling with a hint of fanaticism.

"Such astounding wealth would have been an unimaginable myth in the past!"

Li Chengqian stood at the bow of the ship, looking at the extremely magnificent and dazzling silver sea.

Even his usually languid face couldn't help but reveal an extremely bright and cunning capitalist smile.

"Hundreds or even thousands of tons of silver..."

Li Chengqian took a deep breath with great satisfaction, as if he could already smell the extremely alluring scent of money.

He turned his head and looked towards the distant west, to the heart of the extremely prosperous and powerful Tang Dynasty.

"Let's set sail."

"I am extremely looking forward to it."

"When that old man Dai Zhou saw so much silver suddenly appear in front of him..."

"Won't his extremely fragile little heart be utterly and decisively driven mad by this overwhelming wealth?"