By this, after the conquest of Tbilisi and being in effective control of eastern Georgia,[24][25] Agha Mohammad was formally crowned Shah in 1796 in the Mughan plain.[24] As the Cambridge History of Iran notes; "Russia's client, Georgia, had been punished, and Russia's prestige, damaged." Heraclius II returned to Tbilisi to rebuild the city, but the destruction of his capital was a death blow to his hopes and projects. Upon learning of the fall of Tbilisi General Gudovich put the blame on the Georgians themselves.[26] To restore Russian prestige, Catherine II declared war on Persia, upon the proposal of Gudovich,[26] and sent an army under Valerian Zubov to the Qajar possessions on April of that year, but the new Tsar Paul I, who succeeded Catherine in November, shortly recalled it.