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

"Send Bai Qi and Yue Fei."

Li Chengqian spat out a mouthful of watermelon seeds, his tone as calm as if he were arranging to go to the market to buy two cabbages.

"One will travel by land, the other by water. Tell them I don't like listening to those savages' incessant protests."

"Since they think the Tang Dynasty's silver notes are worthless."

A cold, murderous glint flashed in Li Chengqian's eyes. "Then let them see just how much discipline is behind these few sheets of paper."

Two weeks later, on the edge of the dense and humid tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia.

The indigenous chieftain who once clamored to rob all the Tang Dynasty caravans and capture the Tang people as slaves was now standing on his "royal city" built of huge logs and stones, his legs shaking wildly.

He believed his rainforest was a natural barrier.

But he never dreamed that the Tang army could move about in such a godforsaken place as if it were flat ground.

Below the city, three thousand heavily armored infantrymen of the Beiwei Army formed a well-ordered and flawless steel square formation.

The leading general, dressed in white robes and silver armor, had a somber expression.

Yue Fei rode on his warhorse, holding a trade agreement from the Royal Bank of the Tang Dynasty.

Instead of ordering a direct attack on the city, he first conducted a round of "persuasion to surrender" in accordance with the military discipline of the Tang Dynasty.

"The might of the Tang Dynasty cannot be challenged."

Yue Fei's voice was clearly transmitted throughout the entire royal city through a specially made loudspeaker.

"Refusing to accept Tang Dynasty silver notes and robbing Tang Dynasty merchant ships are punishable by death according to the law."

"Summon the city gates now, hand over the chief culprits, and I can save the lives of all the people in the city."

The indigenous chieftain looked at the dark, imposing steel formation. Although he was afraid, his wild instincts, accustomed to being the overlord of the jungle, made him grit his teeth and roar back.

"You Chinese dogs! Once you've entered my forest, you won't leave alive!"

"Fire poison arrows! Let them taste the power of the king of the jungle!"

A sparse hail of poisoned arrows rained down from the city walls.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

Those arrows, which didn't even have iron tips but were just sharpened wood and coated with poison, struck the heavy infantry armor of the Beiwei Army without leaving a mark, and fell to the ground one after another.

Yue Fei looked at this laughable attack and sighed softly.

"Stubborn to the end."

He put away the trade agreement, drew his longsword from his waist, and casually swung it forward.

"Shenji Battalion, prepare!"

Behind the Beiwei Army.

Five hundred musketeers from the Shenji Battalion, who had been itching to get going, skillfully set up the new breech-loading rifles that had just been issued to the troops.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The deafening volley of gunfire instantly shattered the tranquility of the rainforest.

This is no ordinary musket; it's a deadly weapon for individual soldiers, modified from system blueprints, boasting terrifying range and accuracy.

The native soldiers on the city wall fell in droves, like wheat being harvested. Their prized rattan shields were as brittle as paper in the face of lead bullets.

Before they could even recover from the extreme panic of this overwhelming attack,

"boom--!"

The three small, smoothbore field cannons, disassembled and laboriously pulled into the rainforest by draft horses, roared angrily.

That wooden and stone royal city that the indigenous chief was so proud of.

Under the violent kinetic energy of the exploding shells, the city gate and a section of the city wall collapsed in less than half an hour.

"All troops, launch an assault!"

Yue Fei spurred his horse and calmly led his three thousand Beiwei soldiers, like a cold, unstoppable torrent of steel, smoothly crushing through the breach.

This was a dull, one-sided victory with no suspense whatsoever.

Yue Fei's army was known for its strict discipline, refraining from killing civilians or looting. However, he displayed ruthless efficiency in suppressing any armed resistance that attempted to rebel.

In just half a day.

The arrogant tribal chief was dragged like a dead dog in front of Yue Fei's horse.

Meanwhile.

In a coastal port hundreds of miles away from this royal city.

The other indigenous kings who participated in the "United Boycott Front" are now facing a nightmare a hundred times more terrifying than this.

There was no attempt to persuade them to surrender.

There was no civilized negotiation whatsoever.

When the Tang Dynasty's steamships recklessly crashed through the harbor's breakwater.

The man clad in dark red heavy armor and wielding a massive war scythe, along with three thousand ghost-like Iron Eagle Warriors, quietly set foot on this land.

"The Emperor has decreed that anyone who does not respect the Tang Dynasty's silver notes is a traitor."

Bai Qi's dark pupils, devoid of any whites, coldly swept over the native soldiers who were still staring at them blankly, armed with rudimentary weapons.

"kill."

Bai Qi's voice was hoarse, yet it carried a terrifying killing intent that seemed to freeze the surrounding seawater.

There were no fancy tactics, not even muskets were used.

Three thousand elite Iron Eagle warriors purely demonstrated the ultimate art of killing in the era of cold weapons.

The scythe is swung.

Blood splattered.

Before the native soldiers even had a chance to let out a bloodcurdling scream, their lives were already being harvested with precision and efficiency.

In less than half an hour.

The entire port was completely stained red with blood.

And amidst this blinding crimson.

A towering, enormous mound of human heads stands menacingly in the very center of the harbor.

The monarchs of the surrounding small countries who were still hoping to defy the economic rules of the Tang Dynasty.

After hearing the terrifying news that the land capital had been flattened in half a day and the water port had been directly covered with mounds of corpses.

My psychological defenses collapsed completely in an instant.

In less than a month.

The so-called "anti-Tang united front" then collapsed in a ridiculous manner.

The remaining monarchs, not even bothering to put on their proper royal robes, scrambled to the Tang army camp.

They knelt humbly in the mud, holding aloft the map of their country and the keys to its treasury.

"We are willing to use the silver notes of the Great Tang Dynasty!"

"We are willing to hand over all our spices and gold mines to the Tang Dynasty Merchants Association!"

"Please, Heavenly General of the Great Tang, spare my life!"

The merchant ships of the Tang Dynasty once again sailed smoothly through this sea area.

And those cheap industrial products were dumped into every corner of these countries at an unprecedentedly frenzied pace.

The Jingguan (a mound of stones) in front of the port.

The sea breeze is salty and fishy.

Bai Qi slowly and deliberately used a clean white cloth to wipe away the bloodstains that had dried on his battle scythe.

His dark eyes looked beyond the kneeling foreign monarchs, gazing intently towards the distant south.

"His Highness said that the world is very vast."

Bai Qi casually slung his battle scythe back behind him, his hoarse voice revealing a bloodthirsty fervor.

"Old Xu, tell His Highness."

"This area has been cleaned up."

"Next one."

"Who is it?"