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

The night sky over the vast desert of the Western Regions was torn open.

More than a dozen dark golden beams shot straight into the sky, making the yellow sand look like a rolling sea of ​​blood.

The howling of high-frequency electromagnetic waves was mixed in with the gale.

The border of the Anxi Protectorate.

A blinding blue electric arc suddenly burst from the transformer at substation number seven.

Sparks flew everywhere.

The acrid smell of burnt insulating rubber instantly filled the air.

Several Tang Dynasty soldiers on night watch were thrown into the sand dunes by the shockwave.

Before they could even get up, the holographic warning towers in the camp started short-circuiting one after another.

The screen flickered wildly, displaying long stretches of Persian code that did not belong to the Tang Dynasty.

Enemy hackers swarmed into the border power grid like locusts, following the breached data firewall.

Chang'an, Taiji Palace.

The grand court assembly, which had just ended half an hour earlier, was urgently summoned again.

There was no charcoal fire burning in the Taiji Hall, and a cold wind was blowing in through the hall door.

The old ministers were shivering from the cold.

Li Shimin sat on the dragon throne, with a pile of broken porcelain shards at his feet.

He did break a teacup just now.

On the holographic sand table in the center of the main hall, a ransom note that had just been intercepted and translated by the Tian Shu system floated.

The sender was the Persian Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the Roman Senate.

The content is just one line of text.

"Hand over the underlying protocol key of the Tian Shu system, or Datang will forever lose the physical supply of superconducting ore."

Changsun Wuji had his sleeves tucked in, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

He stepped forward, his voice weak, as he walked on the broken porcelain shards.

"Your Majesty... all the superconducting mineral veins in the Western Regions are in the hands of the Persians."

"If all twelve secondary computing towers overheat and shut down, Datang's digital economy will collapse completely."

Fang Xuanling chimed in from the side, his throat dry.

"How about... we send someone from the Court of State Ceremonial to negotiate first?"

"Even if we have to give up 20% of the virtual tariffs on the Silk Road, we must protect the minerals first."

"If we go head-to-head, we're at a disadvantage in terms of physical resources."

The civil officials nodded in agreement, and a buzzing sound filled the hall.

"Talk my ass."

A hoarse, irritable voice slammed down from the speakers overhead.

The buzzing sound in the main hall was instantly cut off.

The holographic projection did not show Li Chengqian's full-body image.

Only a semi-transparent floating screen lit up.

On the other side of the screen, Li Chengqian was frantically typing on the keyboard with his head down.

He had half a cheap, unlit cigar in his mouth to keep himself awake.

He pounded the keyboard, each keystroke laced with murderous rage.

"They've got a knife to your throat, and you're talking to them about tariffs?"

Li Chengqian didn't even raise his head.

"Have you old fogies been in Chang'an for too long? Your brains are full of mush!"

Changsun Wuji's face turned red from the scolding.

"Your Highness, this is a physical disruption of supplies!"

"Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice; without ore to cool it down, even your powerful Tian Shu system will burn up!"

Li Chengqian finally stopped what he was doing.

He looked up and spat the cigar from his mouth onto the table.

The cold white light from the Hawaiian basement shone on his face.

My dark circles are even deeper than before.

He scratched his neck in frustration, his fingernails leaving several red marks on his skin.

"Who told you that if you can't buy ore, the supply will definitely be cut off?"

Li Shimin was taken aback for a moment, "If I don't buy it, are they going to give it to me for free?"

Li Chengqian sneered.

The laughter tugged at his chapped lips, drawing a trickle of blood.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb.

"The rule of the Tang Dynasty is: if they won't sell, they'll steal."

"Keep dreaming. Do they even deserve my underlying protocol?"

He turned around and slammed his hands on the control panel.

"Tian Shu, get me into the underlying port of the Datang Industrial Internet."

"By bypassing the civilian network, it connects directly to the Anxi Protectorate."

A red warning box popped up on the screen.

[WARNING: This operation will consume a huge amount of computing power and is not in compliance with the Peaceful Trade Act]

Li Chengqian slapped the confirmation button.

"I am the law now!"

boom--

Underground in the Anxi Protectorate, thousands of miles away.

The three heavy industrial military factories belonging to the Great Snow Dragon Riders suddenly trembled.

The underground nuclear fusion reactor, which had been silent for several months, emitted a deep roar.

On the ground ravaged by a sandstorm.

The heavy alloy armor plates slowly slid open to both sides.

The piercing sound of metal scraping together drowned out the howling of the wind and sand.

Red searchlights shone from underground.

The garrison commander of the Anxi Protectorate was still in a daze.

He rushed out of the barracks, pulling up his trousers, his mouth covered in sand.

"What's going on! Is it an enemy attack?"

Before the adjutant could answer.

The first all-black heavy mech emerged from the underground elevator.

The tracks crushed the rocks on the ground.

This is not the light single-soldier mech used by the Great Snow Dragon Riders.

This is an engineering mining mech weighing 120 tons.

The left arm is a high-frequency particle oscillation drill bit, and the right arm is a hydraulic mechanical clamp capable of crushing tanks.

One, ten, fifty...

The densely packed black mechs resembled a swarm of iron ants emerging from their nest, continuously crawling out from the ground.

There was no driver.

The cockpit area was flashing with the deep blue takeover signal of the Tian Shu system.

They were miners directly controlled by Li Chengqian from Hawaii across the ocean.

Inside the Taiji Hall.

The civil and military officials watched the border scenes transmitted back on the holographic screen.

Their mouths gaped open.

Cheng Yaojin rubbed his eyes vigorously.

"Your Highness... what are these iron turtles going to do?"

Li Chengqian picked up the glass of ice-cold water and took a sip.

The water slid down my throat, suppressing some of the acid in my stomach.

"What are you doing?"

"Didn't they say they weren't selling?"

"I'll go dig it myself."

The border of the Western Regions.

Hundreds of heavy engineering mechs did not stop at all, and directly crushed the boundary marker of the Tang Dynasty.

Several sections of windproof wire mesh next to the boundary marker were easily torn apart by the tracks.

The sparks flashed and disappeared in the sandstorm.

Ahead lies the Aksu superconducting mine, controlled by the Persian tycoon.

The Persian border guards discovered this torrent of steel.

The alarm blared mournfully over the mining area.

Several Persian commanders wearing exoskeleton armor rushed up the high ground and shouted through megaphones.

"stop!"

"Persian territory lies ahead!"

"You've crossed the line! This is war!"

The Persian language emanating from the loudspeaker, mixed with electronic music, echoed through the sand dunes.

The mech at the very front didn't even slow down.

It ignored those warnings.

The towering metal body smashed through a watchtower.

The watchtower collapsed with a roar, raising clouds of dust.

The Persians were stunned.

They had never seen such a force that involved no communication whatsoever, just a direct physical assault.

The swarm of mechs poured into the mining area.

This is a huge open-pit mine, with black superconducting ore exposed on the surface.

The camera zooms in.

The first mech to arrive raised the high-frequency particle vibration drill on its left arm.

There was no probing, no surveying.

It crashed directly down onto the hardest part of the main peak of the mineral vein.

hum-

The shockwave tore through the air, producing a dull, teeth-grinding sound.

In slow motion.

The hard rock was shredded by the drill bit like tofu.

Large chunks of black superconducting ore broke apart and flew into the air.

The hydraulic mechanical clamp on the right arm of the mecha suddenly extended.

It precisely clamped a half-ton piece of ore in mid-air and threw it directly into the transport compartment behind it.

Savage, brutal, and unreasonable.

The Persian workers in the mine were so frightened that they dropped their shovels and fled in all directions.

"Stop them!"

The Persian commander finally realized what was happening and angrily drew his laser gun from his waist.

"They're stealing our mines!"

"Fire!"

Behind the sand dunes at the edge of the ore vein.

A group of Persian heavy cavalry, who had been lying in ambush, charged out.

These horses have had their limbs modified into mechanical prosthetics, allowing them to run swiftly across the sand.

The cavalrymen, wielding high-energy electromagnetic spears, attempted to force the excavating mech swarm to a halt.

The ministers in the Taiji Hall gasped.

Changsun Wuji subconsciously gripped the hem of his court robe.

Li Chengqian looked at the screen and snorted coldly.

His right hand flew across the virtual keyboard.

An engineering mech that was frantically smashing rocks suddenly stopped moving.

Its heavy metal head slowly turned around.

The dark blue Tian Shu indicator light on the mask flashed twice.

Click click.

The armor plates on the mech's shoulders automatically flipped open.

A particle rapid-fire cannon with a diameter of half a meter protruded out.

The cannons were aimed at the Persian cavalry at the forefront.

Nourishes—

The blinding white light illuminated the entire mining area.

High-energy particle beams slammed into the sand dunes behind the cavalrymen, grazing their heads.

There was no explosion.

Only high temperatures can instantly melt hundreds of tons of yellow sand.

After cooling, the sand dune turned into a smooth, translucent piece of glass.

It emitted a terrifying red light.

The Persian cavalry's mechanical horses were startled, and their forelegs lifted off the ground as they neighed wildly.

Several cavalrymen were thrown violently to the ground, rolling around in the sand.

No one dared to take another step forward.

The mech put away its particle cannon, turned around, and continued to swing its drill bit at the mine.

The far west.

Rome, deep beneath the Senate.

In a huge, windowless, circular conference room, only a few dim electronic candles were lit.

The wine glasses clinked together, making a crisp sound.

The scarlet wine sloshed at the bottom of the glass.

From the darkness came a hoarse, aged laugh.

"The barbaric Tang people."

"They really did go and steal the physical ore."

The old man tapped his fingers on the table in front of him.

"Tell the Persians to dig."

"The more you dig, the faster you die."