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

"The vast universe!"

These four characters were like a spark that ignited a fuse, triggering a tremendous explosion across the entire territory of the Tang Dynasty.

As soon as Li Shimin issued the imperial edict to "make a full-scale advance into the ocean," golden recruitment notices were instantly posted in every ward, market, and county government office in Chang'an.

In the past, there were those scholars who only knew how to shake their heads and obsessively study the Four Books and Five Classics, and those wandering knights who fought cocks and chased dogs in the streets.

After seeing the blatant declaration on the notice, "The Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty will take you across the vast ocean to collect more gold than stones," everyone went crazy.

"Why bother with the Mingjing exam! Wouldn't it be better to go fishing for gold in the sea?"

A poor, pedantic scholar ripped off his scholar's cap and rushed toward the naval recruitment point with red eyes.

"With all this muscle, am I supposed to just be carrying heavy loads in Chang'an? Let's go! Let's build big ships in Dengzhou and go chop down those island natives!"

A bare-chested man carrying a large knife excitedly looked up to the sky and roared.

The general public sentiment in the Tang Dynasty was completely ignited by Li Chengqian's extremely crude but effective "theory of wealth plunder".

For a time, "going to the other side of the ocean to make achievements" became a fervent trend.

Even those aristocratic families who usually prided themselves on their integrity began frantically selling off their assets to buy "Great Voyage Franchise Bonds" issued by the imperial court, trying to get a share of this unprecedented wealth redistribution.

The most direct consequence of this nationwide fervor was the explosive growth of heavy industry in the Tang Dynasty.

To satisfy Zheng He's almost black hole-like demand for treasure ships, cannons, and various maritime supplies.

Minister of Works Duan Lun didn't even have time to drink water.

"Quick! The blast furnace temperature isn't high enough! Add more coal!"

In the newly established heavy industrial zone outside Chang'an City.

Dozens of towering blast furnaces burned day and night, turning half the sky a fiery red. Hundreds of thousands of foreign laborers, escorted from the Western Regions, Goguryeo, and Japan, moved like ants between the mines and furnaces.

Iron and coal production has skyrocketed.

What truly terrified the entire era was the widespread adoption of the steam engine.

It was no longer just a monster used by the Tang army to haul stones, nor merely a weapon used to bombard city walls.

Under Li Chengqian's instruction, the Mohist craftsmen miniaturized and modified the steam engine for civilian use.

"Boom!"

In the large coal mines of Guanzhong, several crude yet extremely powerful steam pumps worked day and night to drain the water that had seeped hundreds of feet underground. The mines, which had been abandoned due to groundwater, were revitalized, and coal production increased tenfold.

Inside a textile factory in Jiangnan.

The water-powered looms have been phased out. In their place is the terrifying scene of a central steam engine driving hundreds of looms simultaneously via belt drive.

The production of cloth in the Tang Dynasty instantly reached an astronomical figure that even Dai Zhou found unbelievable.

The secret chamber of the Eastern Palace at this time.

Li Chengqian was leaning back comfortably on the leather sofa.

Wu Meiniang stood to the side, holding a bowl of chilled plum juice, and fed it to him with an extremely obedient little spoon.

Li Chengqian didn't even open his mouth; he just stared at the golden system panel in the void that only he could see.

On the panel, the rows of progress bars representing the technology tree were rapidly increasing at a visible speed.

[Ding! Detected that the annual output of pig iron in the Tang Dynasty has exceeded one million tons. Congratulations, host, for unlocking the technology tree branch: Basic Internal Combustion Engine Theory.]

[Ding! Detected that the civilian adoption rate of the Tang Dynasty's steam engine has reached 10%. Congratulations, host, for unlocking the technology tree branch: Basic Electrical Engineering Applications.]

[Ding! Congratulations, host...]

A series of extremely pleasant mechanical prompts echoed in Li Chengqian's mind.

"This feeling is much better than the empty title of Heavenly Khan."

Li Chengqian swallowed the plum juice, a satisfied smile curving his lips.

He knew that the Tang Dynasty was a carriage that was still slowly crawling in the quagmire of feudalism.

He has now forcibly replaced it with an extremely terrifying nuclear-powered engine.

It is breaking through all the shackles and constraints of this era at the speed of light, rushing toward a dimension that will leave future generations in despair.

"Your Highness, our treasury is almost overflowing."

Wu Meiniang put down her bowl, picked up the thick, brick-like account book, and spoke with a tone of extreme Versailles-like distress.

"Apart from the money used for shipbuilding and railway construction, if all the remaining silver were released, the prices in the Tang Dynasty would probably not be able to stabilize again."

"What's there to be afraid of?"

Li Chengqian gently rubbed the little girl's head, his eyes extremely deep.

"If you have so much money you can't spend it all, then use it to smash those country bumpkins who've never seen the world before."

"Once the Tang Dynasty's ocean-going fleet is complete, I will make sure that all countries in the world can only conduct business using Tang Dynasty silver notes!"

Time flies like an arrow.

Six months later.

The technological and military storm that the Tang Dynasty unleashed in East Asia not only completely crushed Goguryeo and Japan.

That terrifying divine power capable of destroying a nation spread like a plague to the distant West along the wide and unobstructed Silk Road, carried by the terrified merchants and envoys.

Anxi Protectorate.

This outpost, which was originally just used to suppress the thirty-six kingdoms of the Western Regions, has now become the most important hub connecting the Tang Dynasty with the Western world.

Protector-General Wang Xuance was sitting in the extremely spacious main hall of the government office, holding a cup of hot tea in a glass cup, the latest product of the Tang Dynasty.

He looked at the group of people standing below the hall and raised his eyebrows slightly.

They were a group of foreigners with extremely strange appearances, high noses and deep-set eyes.

They wore heavy, somewhat comical full plate armor and carried crude spears and cross-shaped swords.

Although they tried their best to maintain an air of arrogance befitting a Western superpower in front of the Tang Dynasty officials, their blue eyes could not conceal their extreme astonishment at the magnificent concrete buildings and the passing steam trains.

"Which tribe are you from?"

Wang Xuance blew on the tea leaves, his tone extremely calm.

To the Tang Dynasty Protector-General, who was used to seeing cannons blasting city walls to smithereens, these Westerners, still wearing tin cans from the era of cold weapons, were no different from monkeys that had just climbed down from the trees.

A blond, bearded man stepped forward and gave a very stiff, even somewhat awkward, gesture of respect.

"Your Excellency, Governor-General of the Great Tang Dynasty."

The bearded man spoke Mandarin with a heavy foreign accent, his voice even trembling slightly with nervousness.

"We are here on the orders of the great Roman Emperor (Byzantium) to pay homage to the legendary Tang Emperor, who is as powerful as a god."

"At the same time, we also brought with us an extremely urgent plea for help from the Persian prince."

The bearded man swallowed hard and pointed to several ragged, extremely miserable-looking Persians behind him.

"The army of the Abbasid Caliphate is devouring our territory like demons."

"We have traversed countless mountains and rivers, all for the sake of obtaining the Tang Dynasty's... 'Heavenly Thunder' artifact!"