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

"The Heavenly Palace?"

Li Chengqian couldn't help but laugh when he saw Duan Lun, the Minister of Works, kneeling on the ground and beginning to question his existence.

"Lord Duan, isn't that a narrow-minded approach?"

He walked over, put one foot on the table, and pointed at the enormous blueprint filled with various postmodern architectural styles, like a madman pointing out the flaws of the world.

"What's so special about the Heavenly Palace? It's just a dilapidated house where the Jade Emperor lives. Does it even have a flush toilet? Does it have underfloor heating? Can you even play mahjong with the lights on at night?"

"What we're building is a divine kingdom on earth! A megacity so beautiful that even the gods in heaven would want to descend and enter a lottery to buy a house there!"

Duan Lun was completely bewildered, but felt a sense of awe despite his confusion. He could only keep kowtowing, saying, "Your Highness... Your Highness may do as you wish, I will do it! I will gladly sacrifice myself!"

"That's right."

Li Chengqian nodded in satisfaction, pulled out another relatively simple yet equally astonishing design from the pile of blueprints, and threw it in front of Li Shimin.

"Father, Rome wasn't built in a day. Let's set a small goal first."

"The first step is to light up Chang'an."

Li Shimin picked up the blueprints, which were filled with pipes and valves that he couldn't understand, as well as a huge underground pool labeled "septic tank".

"What is this?" Li Shimin frowned. "Are you going to dig a huge latrine under Chang'an?"

"Father, aren't you being uncultured?"

Li Chengqian explained with a look of disdain, "This is called a 'biogas ecological cycle system.' Simply put, it's a system that utilizes the entire..."

He paused, then changed to a more elegant way of saying it.

"...The products of the five grains are collected and fermented in a pool to produce a combustible gas, which we call 'marsh gas'."

"Then, the biogas is delivered to every household and to every street and alley through these pipes."

"At that time, all we need to do is install a special light bulb at the end of the pipe, and with a gentle twist..."

Li Chengqian snapped his fingers.

"Smack."

"The nights in Chang'an will be as bright as day!"

"And what's more, this fire is free! As long as people in Chang'an are still defecating, this fire will never go out!"

……

Quiet.

A deathly silence.

Inside the Ganlu Hall, Li Shimin, Duan Lun, and Fang Xuanling and others who rushed over upon hearing the news all gaped wide-eyed, their expressions as if they had heard that pigs could climb trees.

Turn... turn shit into fire?

What... what kind of amazing move is this?

"Chengqian... are you sure you don't have a fever?"

Li Shimin carefully reached out and touched his son's forehead.

"Father, this is science, do you understand science?"

Li Chengqian slapped his father's hand away. "Just tell me, are you going to do it or not? This is a huge project. Without your imperial decree, I can't mobilize so many people."

Li Shimin looked at the bizarre yet somehow plausible "septic tank" on the blueprint, and then at his son's confident expression that seemed to say, "Those who believe in me will have eternal life."

He gritted his teeth.

"Dry!"

"I'd like to see what other tricks you, you rebellious son, can pull!"

……

A month later.

Chang'an City experienced an unprecedented "underground revolution".

Under the Crown Prince's call to "improve people's livelihood and clean up Chang'an," and under the watchful eyes of the Embroidered Spring Blades of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, hundreds of thousands of people and craftsmen worked enthusiastically to dig into the underground of Chang'an.

A complex, spiderweb-like sewage pipe system made of ceramic pipes was laid out at an incredible speed.

All the sewage and filth were no longer dumped on the streets as before, but instead collected through pipes to the newly built, enormous "Royal Fertilizer Plant" (biogas digester) outside the city.

At first, the people complained bitterly, thinking that the crown prince was just wasting his time and causing trouble.

But they soon discovered the benefits.

The streets are cleaner, the stench is gone, and even the flies have decreased significantly in the summer.

Just when everyone thought it was the end.

It was a pitch-black night, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

On both sides of Zhuque Avenue, the tops of the hundreds of newly erected, oddly shaped iron poles suddenly burst into flames with a "poof".

The flame burned quietly inside the specially made glass lampshade, undeterred by wind and rain, illuminating the entire wide street as bright as day.

"It's lit up! It's lit up!"

"My God! Is this divine fire? How did it catch fire by itself?"

"Look! That light is brighter than the moon!"

The once quiet city of Chang'an was now in complete uproar.

Countless people rushed out of the market and onto the streets. They looked up at the endless dragon of light, their expressions shifting from shock to ecstasy, and finally to deep awe.

They knelt on the ground and kowtowed devoutly in the direction of the Eastern Palace.

"A miracle! This is heavenly fire summoned by His Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Long live the Crown Prince! Long live the Tang Dynasty!"

On the city tower.

Li Shimin, wearing a dragon robe, looked at the dazzling sea of ​​light at his feet and at the excited and fervent faces illuminated by the light. He felt a surge of heroic spirit rising to the heavens.

city ​​that never sleeps.

This is the real city that never sleeps!

This is the glorious Tang Dynasty he has always dreamed of!

"Issue my decree!"

Li Shimin turned around, his voice trembling slightly with excitement, yet it carried throughout the entire imperial city.

"From this day forward!"

"Chang'an City, never subject to a curfew!"

"I will let this light illuminate every corner of the Tang Dynasty!"

……

The news spread like wildfire, traveling along the ancient Silk Road at an unprecedented speed to the distant Western Regions and even further west.

"Have you heard? The city of Chang'an in the east glows at night!"

"The people there don't sleep; they party all night long!"

"It is said that their crown prince is a deity who can turn stones into gold and summon celestial fire to earth!"

The legends became increasingly fantastical, and in the mouths of the foreign merchants, Chang'an was described as a paradise on earth, overflowing with gold and radiant with splendor.

Countless merchants, envoys, and adventurers, carrying gold coins and filled with curiosity, flocked to the legendary "City of Light" from afar, traversing mountains and rivers, like sharks smelling blood.

On the Star-Picking Tower.

Li Chengqian held a glass of chilled wine in his hand, looking down at the blond, blue-eyed "foreigners" in the West Market below, dressed in various clothes, staring dumbfounded at the biogas lamps, and a sly smile appeared on his lips.

"Good, the more the better."

He swirled the liquid in his glass, a calculating glint in his eyes.

"When it comes to chives, it's more satisfying to harvest imported ones."

"Old Xu, go and hang up the sign for our newly opened 'Royal Glass Factory'."

"Tell those ignorant foreign merchants."

"The really good stuff is yet to come!"