"Napoleon, this is the blade of Her Royal Highness Otani Lin, the martyr of our Dongying Province!"

"Oh? Is it this knife without a handle inside the glass cover? ”

"Yes, this is it! This knife is hundreds of years old, and was given to His Royal Highness by Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, and it also symbolizes the right of the Otani family to rule Japan for generations. His Royal Highness Lin used it to seppuku to protest against Emperor Koshomu's deprivation of the Otani family's right to rule Japan. And His Royal Highness Lin didn't even make a mistake when he cut his abdomen, it's really strong......"

"How much it hurts! But why did she do it? Isn't there a better way? ”

"What better?"

"Like a ...... in battle"

"That's not her responsibility. She is the right envoy of light and must obey the Ming Emperor. Moreover, she also advised Emperor Gaozong in her suicide note, asking him not to destroy the "Chen Li" and seize the vassal feudal state. But Emperor Gaozong did not listen, which led to the later collapse of etiquette. This is the root cause of the deterioration of the world today......"

On the morning of the 521st year of the Heavenly Dao, two young men of short stature came to the Eastern Heavenly Dao Sacred Temple in Macao and visited the exhibition of the holy relics of the "Eastern Divine School of the Heavenly Daoist Sect" - all on display here are the sacred relics of the Eastern Divine School of the Heavenly Daoist Sect, that is, the Dongying Sacred Sect that split from the Divine Sect. All of them were shipped from Dongying Province of the Ming Dynasty

One of them was a thin young European, with short blond hair, five delicate, and dozens of freckles on his face, and his name was Napoleon! The other person is a Shenzhou man who is shorter than the European youth, named Otani Mitsushi. Both wore the most popular bachelor's attire of the era, and the school emblem of the Otani Medical College of Macau was pinned to their chests.

By the way. The Eastern Sacred Sect of the Heavenly Dao Sect, which holds this exhibition, was established by the Ming Emperor Chen Zongdao after the Thirty Years of Heavenly Dao War.

According to the conclusion of historians of this time and space, the Eight-Year War that invaded Japan was part of the Thirty-Year War of Tendo. The Ming invasion of Japan and the subsequent long war with the Divine Heavenly Dao Kingdom. All in the name of crusading against the Holy Sect. Therefore, it has been discussed by later historians together.

However, these were actually two wars, of which the invasion of Japan lasted eight years (it took three years for the invasion to reach the full occupation). The war of law and order took five years), but in the end it ended with the victory of the Ming Empire. But because the Ming Empire paid a great price - more than 50,000 casualties and hundreds of millions of military expenses. Therefore, Japan did not become a feudal state of Chen Zongdao's son in the end, but became a colony of the Ming Dynasty. More than 100 years later, it was incorporated into the Ming Empire and became Dongying Province.

And the other war with the Divine Heavenly Dao Kingdom was not so lucky! The Divine Heavenly Dao Kingdom was far away from the Ming Dynasty, and it was supported by the Great Qing Dynasty. This makes the resistance of the Divine Heavenly Dao Kingdom quite tenacious and powerful!

What's even more troublesome is that because of the "Dagu Lin's Death Advice" incident, all the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty have sensed the danger. Although except for the Great Qing Dynasty, no one dared to openly support the Divine Heavenly Dao Kingdom. But no one really supported Daming. Even among the nobles of the Ming Dynasty, there were many people who did not support the attack on the Divine Heavenly Dao Kingdom because in their eyes the invasion was not only "against propriety", but also had no benefit......

In short, the Ming Empire faced all kinds of unfavorable situations in the Heavenly Dao War. In the end, although the Mongol headquarters (the Mongols sided with the Holy faction in the early days of the war) and half of the Kipchak steppe. The soldiers almost forced into the Ural Mountains, but they still did not subdue the Divine Heavenly Dao Kingdom. After more than 20 years of continuous confrontation, both sides were exhausted and had to sign a "Felt Peace Treaty", and the Ming annexed Mongolia. Got a large area of barren land east of the Ob River.

Judging from the map, although the mainland area of the Ming Empire increased greatly after the war, all it got was worthless wasteland. Therefore, in the eyes of everyone, including Chen Zongdao, who started the war. The war with the Divine Heavenly Dao Kingdom can be regarded as defeated.

Moreover, at a time when the thirty-year Heavenly Dao War was at a stalemate. The king of the Qing Dynasty, Zhu Chongba, was still in Vienna, the capital of the Qing Dynasty (Zhu Chongba established a total of three capitals, the western capital of Paris. Vienna in the middle and Constantinople in the east. However, he himself and the imperial court were based in Vienna) and the Grand Palace ascended the throne! Thus officially announcing the collapse of the Ming World Empire system!

And the Ming Dynasty, who fought the 30-year Heavenly War, was also exhausted, not only more than 400,000 people died in the war, but also the issuance of national bonds also hit a new high, and finally reached as much as 4.2 billion! Even the international credibility of the Heavenly Dao ticket is in jeopardy.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty was unable to wage war with the Qing Empire again, so it could only announce the blockade of the Qing Dynasty. On the one hand, the prestige of the Ming Empire has greatly declined after the Thirty Years of Heavenly War, and the countries around the Mediterranean are not very obedient; On the one hand, in order to restrict exchanges between white people and the outside world, the Qing Empire originally closed the country, only opening Rouen and the eastern capital Constantinople to trade (of course, the borders with the Divine Heavenly Dao Kingdom were all open), and the Qing Empire was not a mercantile country at all.

In short, Chen Zongdao, who fought a full thirty-year war after ascending the throne, did not get any good evaluation in history, which is recognized as a sign that the Ming Empire has changed from "prosperity" to "decline". And the "Otani Lin Seppuku Incident" was the beginning of the collapse of etiquette in the Chinese world.

The short Shenzhou young man walked to another glass cover, looked at the holy decree that sanctified Otani Lin inside, and said with some emotion: "Emperor Gao Zongwu finally knew the loyalty of His Royal Highness Lin in his later years, and not only canonized her, but also restored the religious status of the Otani clan, and let the new saint of the Otani clan enter the palace to accompany him. It seems that he also regretted his violation of the "Chen Li" to deprive his vassals of the vassal state. Therefore, the Divine Sect of Heavenly Taoism is still popular in Dongying Province today, and the Otani family still maintains the status of religious leaders......"

"What? That's it? The young man named Napoleon was stunned, and his delicate facial features were distorted, "Mr. Otani, is it just that you Otani family and Dongying people are just going to forget it?" ”

"Uh...... Isn't that all? Napoleon's classmates, the Ming Empire had nothing to do in Europa, but there was no country in Shenzhou that could oppose the Ming Dynasty. ”

Hikaru Ohtani paused. He added with certainty: "Even today, more than four hundred years later, the status of the Ming Dynasty in Shenzhou is still unshakable!" Even such a powerful country as the Chinese Empire and the United Kingdom of China. We can only confront our Ming on the east coast of the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic! Their fleet will never be able to cross the Sandalwood Islands (Hawaii). And they will definitely not be able to defeat the New Shenzhou Mansion, and they will not be able to control the New Shenzhou Canal! ”

The Chinese Empire and the United Kingdom of China...... Probably the "United States of America"! What Chen Dexing feared most finally happened! And the person who gave birth to the "Mingli United States" was actually an unworthy descendant of Chen Dexing. Chen Yonghua, the iron-blooded prime minister who once wore the seals of the four kingdoms of "Qin", "Chu", "Jin" and "Wu", and finally created a powerful empire on the continent of Northern Mingzhou.

Of course, the fundamental reason why the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Northern Ming Dynasty eventually evolved into two powerful states was the poor consideration of Chen Dexing and the later rulers of the Ming Empire.

First of all, it is because the four kingdoms of "Qin", "Chu", "Jin" and "Wu" are all on the Pacific coast, that is, Canada, the west coast of the United States and Mexico. Although the four countries were closed, because the transportation between the four countries can be taken by sea, it is very convenient and the cost is low. Therefore, from the beginning of the "Sixteen Cities Era", the economy of the four cities is completely integrated. A number of "cross-city commercial houses" were created. Moreover, because of their proximity to the Pacific Ocean, these four countries have naturally become the most convenient areas to attract Ming immigrants, and they are also the most economically developed areas on the continent of Mingzhou. By the time Chen Yonghua became the left prime minister of the Qin Kingdom, the total population of the four kingdoms had exceeded 50 million, far higher than the sum of the other twelve Northern Mingzhou feudal states.

The area around Xinxianyang, the capital of the Qin Kingdom, was quite rich in resources, not only gold mines, timber and furs, which could attract immigrants to make quick money. Moreover, there are abundant coal and iron resources, and after the metallurgical technology gradually matures, coal and iron resources have become a powerful booster for the industrial development of the Qin Kingdom. Especially in the second year of Chen Yonghua's election as the left prime minister of the Qin Kingdom, Song Yingxing, a metallurgist and chemist of the Ming Dynasty, invented the converter steelmaking method. The curtain of the second industrial revolution was opened. The Qin Kingdom quickly stepped onto the fast lane of industrialization, although it could not be compared with the Ming Empire, an old industrialized country with a huge size. However, it also came from behind, and with the help of the east wind of the construction of railways (this time a real railway pulled by steam locomotives) in the countries of North Mingzhou, it quickly rose to become the world's second largest steel producer!

Subsequently. Chen Yonghua also took advantage of the lack of male heirs in the Jin Kingdom, the richest kingdom in Northern Mingzhou, to promote a marriage of the same clan, and let the prince Zheng (Chen Yongzheng) of the Qin Kingdom marry the princess Min (Chen Yonglan) of the Jin Kingdom. Chen Yongzheng and Chen Yonglan are both descendants of Chen Dexing, but the two are not close relatives. When they got married, Chen Dexing had been dead for more than 300 years.

After the Qin and Jin dynasties, Chen Yonghua promoted the three kingdoms of Qin, Chu and Jin. That is, the parliaments of the three countries will be merged to form a unified cabinet. At the same time, the economies of the three countries are fully integrated, the movement of goods and people is completely liberalized, and the tax cards between the three countries are completely abolished. Later, the silver-rich Kingdom of Wu was also pulled into the alliance by Chen Yonghua, and the Three Kingdoms became the Four Kingdoms. The four kingdoms of "Qin", "Chu", "Jin" and "Wu" were effectively unified. A powerful country that occupies almost all the land on the west coast of Beimingzhou and has a population of 50 million has appeared!

The Ming Empire's response was to support other countries on the North American continent to form an alliance against the "Qin, Chu, Jin, and Wu" four-nation alliance. This seemingly appropriate response has had the opposite effect in the process of implementation: hastening, rather than slowing down, the integration of the Northern Mingzhou states. Both the Four-Nation Alliance and the Twelve-Nation Alliance have set up integrated markets in their respective jurisdictions, built integrated transportation networks, and formed armies with unified command, and finally the royal family of the Twelve-Nation Alliance also began to learn from the Four-Nation Alliance, and began to promote dynastic marriages, trying to make the alliance the starting point for the formation of a unified country!

When the Ming Empire sensed that something was wrong, two huge groups of countries had already appeared on the continent of Beimingzhou. One was the Chinese Empire, which was formed by the merger of "Qin, Chu, Jin, and Wu" (the emperor was appointed by the original King of Qin); The other is the United Kingdom of China, which is cobbled together by the other twelve countries (with the twelve royal families taking turns as heads of state).

And what makes the rulers of the Ming Empire even more troublesome is that the two big countries of Mingzhou with the name of "Huaxia" are really "Chinese", the race is Chinese, the culture is Chinese, the religion is the Tiandao Scientology, and even the ruling monarch is part of the Chen Ming royal family. Moreover, the political systems of the two countries are similar, both are constitutional monarchies, the difference is that the monarch of the Chinese Empire is more powerful, while the twelve kings of the United Kingdom of China are just twelve mascots.

In other words, once the two sides have an armed duel, the consequences are likely to produce a unified Northern Mingzhou Empire! This empire will have no less territory and resources than the Ming Empire itself, with a population of nearly 10,000,000 and still growing rapidly. Moreover, it has also stepped into the threshold of industrialization, and can produce the latest steam ironclad ships and breech-loading cannons.

Therefore, the top priority of the foreign policy of the Ming Empire in the past few decades has been to sow discord between the Chinese Empire and the United Kingdom of China on the one hand, so that they will continue to maintain antagonism; On the one hand, it is necessary to keep the conflict between the two countries as manageable as possible - small and medium-sized wars between the two countries have occurred from time to time in the past few decades, and the armies of the Chinese Empire are fighting the United Kingdom of China. The Ming Empire has repeatedly played the role of the protector of the United Kingdom of China. It also actively invests in heavy industry and railways in the United Kingdom of China.

However, as the population of the Ming Empire approached one billion, the problem of the gap between the rich and the poor and the excessive concentration of wealth was not resolved. The spillover effect of the population was further increased, giving the Mingzhou countries, which had fewer people and more land, a good opportunity to quickly absorb the population and increase their national strength. In the decades between the end of the fifth and early sixth centuries of the Heavenly Dao, the population of the Northern and Southern Ming Continents doubled by more than 100 million! The population of North Ming Chau is close to 200 million, and the population of South Ming Chau is also more than 150 million. The pace of industrialization of the two great powers of Northern Ming Continent has also been further accelerated, and it has reached a situation where the Ming Empire has to deal with it with all its might.

At the same time, the class contradictions in the Ming Empire were also intensifying. Due to the long-term practice of aristocratic national and elite democracy, ignoring the democratic rights of the people at the bottom, the people at the bottom have not been able to share the benefits brought by the world hegemony of the Ming Empire for a long time - in fact, they can not share it completely, they can at least immigrate to "Ming Lijian" or Oceania - so the trend of Datongism has intensified in the past few decades. The workers' movement can already be described as turbulent. Strikes, protests, and petitions were staged almost all the time in the Ming Dynasty. There has even been the emergence of "Mohist Datongism", in which terrorist activities are used as a fighting situation.

Under these circumstances, the Ming Empire's ability to lead the world was further reduced, and it was unable to develop its overwhelming industrial superiority. The country had no choice but to shrink its front and basically abandon its armed intervention in European, African, and Tianzhu affairs. Concentrate on the Pacific Ocean and the North and South Mingzhou. (To be continued.) )