Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"It's worth it that I drove a 5-speed transmission to make you say that."

"My goodness! Are you so dilated?" Shangluo touched her forehead, "You're almost getting red and warm! My hands are starting to get hot."

"It's okay, it's okay. I was just too excited. Great, there's actually a chance to have a meeting. I love meetings the most."

"Then why don't you go take a rest?"

"Wait until I finish my Coke."

She stood up, put her hands on her hips, tilted her head back and drank the entire can of Coke, forcing herself to cool down:

"Ah, it feels so good. I'm going back, open your pockets."

"Boss, please come in." Shangluo opened his bag, let Victoria somersault in, and went back to rest.

【She fell asleep. So fast.】

"She's working too hard, isn't she?" Phaethon fanned himself with a fan. "She really loves you deeply."

[Not really. She was just very excited to show her face in front of us. It wasn't a big burden for her, she was just too excited and got herself red.]

"Sure enough, she is still like this."

"Oh my." Shang Luo shook his head. "I remember she wasn't like this when I first met her."

"That was when we first met, and she was still a little reserved. Victoria was like this when she was little, she liked being around crowds and grandiose scenes. She was really suffocated because she had to take a break due to her illness. And she was always in her comfort zone, reciting the same old routines. You've opened up a whole new way for her to play, and with good friends like us watching, she's really excited."

[Her professionalism is comparable to that of Miss Yanqiu. When she is good, she is really good.]

"By the way, if she is not here, can Yanqiu do this job?" Shangluo asked.

[You are addicted to laziness, right? ]

"The problem is that it's too painful! The flash is burning on your face for an hour, and the fish will be roasted into salted fish."

"I don't think that's going to work." Phaethon answered. "Yanqiu can indeed play many roles, but dramatic performances often don't need to be realistic. Even if she plays a king, she can only play a stereotypical king. But here it's not just about acting, it's also about acting with other people of similar identities, which requires experience. In other words, there is often no script, and it relies on improvisation. From the perspective of Greek drama, this kind of improvisation requires a lot of accumulated material - our Miss Yanqiu may not have been a real emperor, she has no accumulation."

"Oh my, that's a shame."

"You don't want her to go back, do you?"

"It would be nice if she could always help me, but it's a pity that she is just playing herself and making a cameo appearance. It looks like I have to do this job myself occasionally."

"Don't act like you're stressed. This is a display of power. Many people are addicted to meetings. Our Miss Victoria is a serious meeting addict. Some people will inexplicably hold numerous meetings to satisfy their addiction and desire for control. Victoria doesn't need that. She has endless meetings to experience at any time. But coming to the Tributary System for a meeting is her first time. No wonder she's so excited."

"But I can find a sense of identity in many other places. I don't need to go to meetings to gain a sense of identity."

"Ah, that's true." Phaethon shook his head. "When you think about it this way, Victoria is even more pathetic. This child can't do anything, so she can only fill the void in her life by attending meetings. Tsk tsk tsk tsk."

"Let me check the schedule later."

"You're not planning to wake her up, are you? You're going to let her charge for two hours and let her work for a whole day?"

"Not really. The following is a serious matter. I am wondering when to put her on mute mode. Because the following meeting involves confidential information, she cannot know about it."

"Then how can I know?" Phaethon asked.

"Of course you can. You are one of us. You are the disciple of the emperor, the grand-disciple of the Taoist master, and a legitimate alchemist of the Jinyiwei. Your confidentiality level is more than enough. Victoria is not. She is a guest."

"Tsk, so you also know that she is a guest. Is it normal to order a guest around like this?"

[This guy is really like that sometimes. He even said Zhu Ling is scary. Zhu Ling is scary only because he can command animals, but this guy is really good at commanding people. He is really good at using his advantages to persuade others. To persuade old men, he uses the image of a "relative's child", to persuade girls, he uses the image of a "natural man", and to persuade Xiao Han and the others, he becomes a "good brother". You don't do anything, and others will do things for you.]

"Am I doing nothing? What I do is something that others can't do, so I have to stay energetic, okay? You see, if they want to catch Xu Fu later, I have to go -"

Before he finished speaking, the phone rang.

"Shangluo." Lu Huaiyang called, "There's an emergency."

"Doctor Li wants to see me now?"

"No, but Governor Li thinks that this matter needs to be asked to you. According to intelligence, the Edo side has known our movements in advance, and they have sent a fleet to approach here. After all, the movement of an army of more than 100,000 is not that easy to stop. We are advancing while beating drums and gongs. So, Governor Li asks you what to do."

"They chose to send a fleet instead of a dialogue, right?"

"We cannot rule out the possibility that they are sending a fleet to engage in maritime dialogue with us."

"Does this conform to Zhou rituals?" Shangluo asked.

"It doesn't conform to the Zhou rituals. When the king's army goes out to war, the princes should welcome him outside the city instead of bringing troops with them. He brought troops with him, so no matter what, it doesn't conform to the Zhou rituals."

"Then do it."

"So straightforward?" Lu Huaiyang asked, "Are you sure? If you are sure, then go ahead. You decide on this matter - I will confirm it for the first time, and after that, I will not confirm your orders and will execute them directly."

"I'm sure, just blow them up into the sky."

"Okay." Lu Huaiyang replied, "Then I'll ask Governor Li to prepare."

"No need." Shang Luo shook his head and said, "There's no need to mobilize the fleet yet. I'll let General Fu Yuanshan go alone. He can send the entire fleet into the sky by himself. The war between extraordinary people requires a different way of fighting."

Chapter 1115: The Shogunate

In the open waters south of Kagoshima, the fleets from Satsuma and Nagasaki, directly under the shogunate, are sailing south. The flagship Kaiyo Maru is a cutting-edge dreadnought, equivalent to the main battleship of the Korean Navy. The navies of Korea and Ryukyu are the imaginary enemies planned by the Edo side. The shogunate only needs to maintain a limited force that is enough to defeat the Ryukyu Navy.

At this time, the shogun Tokugawa Narinobu was in power. After the first shogun defeated Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the "leader of the Japanese pirates" who invaded Korea, the Tokugawa family, as heroes in the fight against the pirates, received official titles from the imperial court for generations, and the title was "Shogun". The political entity under its rule was also called the "Shogun Shogunate". Under the shogunate, there were also several nobles awarded by the imperial court, including the Date family in Sendai, the Uesugi family in Kanazawa, and many feudal lords also received imperial edicts awarded by the court and became "Taishō".

As for the many, many "things" beyond these, of course they do exist.

For example, the imperial court has always known that there is a city called "京" in Japan, which is the real Wojing. Although in the documents exchanged with the Ming Dynasty, whenever "京" is mentioned, it will only be written as "御野古 (miyako)" - this is the Chinese character writing of the Japanese word "都城 (miyako)" in Japanese. The three characters of 御野古 correspond to the three sounds of mi, ya, and ko in Japanese.

As for the words "京" and "都", they are not found in these documents. If you want to know where the capital is, there are only Yingtian and Shuntian. If you want to mention the capital of Japan, there is only Edo.

As for the fact that there is a king called "Mikado" in the dilapidated palace in the city of "Minokuro", that is "definitely" non-existent. It is even more impossible for anyone to mention the word "emperor" or something so treasonous. Whenever the person "Mikado" is mentioned, it is only written as "御门". Referring to the example of Minokuro, mi means "御" and kado means "门", so the combined "御门 (miakdo)" is the name of this person when it is necessary to mention him.

Whether it is emperor or emperor, these two words are the same as Beijing and capital, and neither word can be touched.

In this narrative, there is only one sun in the sky, and that is the Holy Emperor. As for the "Gomon" who lives in the "Gonoko" castle, he is actually a priest, and the idea of ​​establishing another monarch is also absolutely non-existent.

Edo himself knew about this matter, and the imperial court also knew about it. Edo knew that the imperial court knew about it, and the imperial court also knew that Edo knew that the imperial court knew about it, but everyone can pretend that this matter never happened.

Because according to the teachings of Emperor Taizu Gao, the court's attitude towards these tributary states is "do not refuse those who come, do not chase those who leave". The court will not take the initiative to increase or reduce the number of tributary states in any way. As for how to be loyal to the emperor, it is also the tributary state's own business and has nothing to do with the Celestial Empire.

Therefore, the imperial court did not care whether they were truly loyal to Edo. There was no doubt that they were not loyal. There were no eternal friends in this world, and of course there were no eternal vassals. But as long as everyone did not update their understanding of each other, everything could continue as it was.

Of course, if they wanted to further upgrade their status, such as getting special treatment in the tributary system like Korea or Ryukyu, they would have to take special actions. But the Edo shogunate completely closed its borders and did not cause trouble for the court, and the court was happy to see them set an example, because that was the bottom line of the tributary order.

The Tributary Order does not seek to establish any military or trade alliances. The Tributary Order requires only one thing: do not oppose His Majesty the Holy Emperor, nothing more - but although it sounds simple, it actually requires all tributary states to maintain a certain degree of diplomatic isolation. The Edo Shogunate is a role model in this area, and they completely isolated themselves on an island and disappeared from the history of this world.

This is good. Because the standards of Korea and Ryukyu are still too high. Korea is an industrial country, and Ryukyu is a service-oriented country. Both of them have deeply transformed their social structures and completely integrated their economies into the tribute system. Among them, the example set by the Edo Shogunate is a third route that is different from the other two:

You can certainly do something good for the world, but if you make yourself invisible to the point of being nonexistent, staying at home and photosynthesizing like a tree, that's certainly possible too.

But now, the Edo Shogunate has gone against its past behavior patterns.

The mixed fleet headed by Kaiyang Maru, which was a combination of the naval forces of the Shogun and the governor of Satsuma, was approaching the direction of Ryukyu.

"So, where are we going?"

"do not know."

"What are we going to do?"

"do not know"

Mizuno, the shogunate official from Nagasaki, and Shimazu, the governor of Satsuma, were both on the bridge of the Kaiyō Maru.

Mizuno and Shimazu set out in confusion. They didn't know where they were going, let alone what they were going to do, they just knew they were going south.

"Mister Mizuno, when the Edo side issued the order to you, didn't they say anything more?"

Mizuno shook his head: "No. You know, the orders from Edo are always brief. We just have to follow them."

"But I don't want to follow this mindless order. Who knows if Edo is sending us to die?"

"But if you don't obey orders, you will die immediately. Have you forgotten my predecessor? If he hadn't ignored my advice and insisted on going to Edo to check the situation, he wouldn't have died on the way."

"So what happened in Edo? Ever since Edo was covered by fog?"

"I don't know. If you ask, then I don't know. Don't care, don't inquire about other people's current situation, just follow orders. I am the magistrate in Nagasaki. You know, the position of magistrate is a floating position and will be replaced every three to five years. But I don't ask, I don't care about anything. I don't miss a penny of the tax levied, and I don't ask any unnecessary questions, so no order has been sent from Edo to replace me in 10 years. Lord Shimazu, you are different from me. Your family doesn't need to do anything to live safely. Why do you care so much?"

"."

"Do you know how all the people killed by Edo died?"

Shimazu looked over - he had never seen how these people died. Satsuma was almost the vassal farthest from Edo, and the only place that could compare to them was closer to Ezo.

"Do you know how the people assassinated by Edo died?"

"I do not know."

"When people are killed, they die. But you absolutely, absolutely don't want to be killed in that way."

Chapter 1116: The Fog in Edo

"In what way?"

"The Nagasaki Bugyo who came before me was the one who didn't listen to my advice. He came back on the third day after he left. He rode his own horse back from the road, just as he left. But anyone could see that he was already a corpse - his pupils were dilated, his face was torn and his limbs were missing. He was already a dead man. But that dead man came back just as he left."

"How did he come back???"

"On horseback, as I already said."

"But how can a dead man ride a horse?"

"There is a way to make the dead ride horses. This is their power."

"Then he, must have an 'end', right? How did he 'end'?"

"The rotten corpse rode on a rotten horse and paraded through the streets of Nagasaki. People who saw it closed their shops and retreated to their homes. They were all terrified. The dead man walked back to the Nagasaki Bugyo's office, dismounted at the gate, knelt on the spot, and cut off his own head with a knife. Only then did he stop making any noise."

"And his horse?"

"His horse took the same path again and disappeared into the forest."

"What kind of day is this?! What should we do to get the old days back?!"

Neither Nagasaki Magistrate Mizuno nor the lord of Satsuma should be here. The Tokugawa shogunate originally implemented a system called "Sankin-kotai", which forced vassals to travel back and forth between their fiefdoms and Edo Castle, forcing them to consume on the road and in Edo Castle - this consumption consumed the strength of other feudal lords, and the Tokugawa family, as the largest feudal lord, could levy indirect taxes in various ways.

This invisible control is more effective than the previous visible supervision. Not only does it solve the cost, but many feudal lords also enjoy it like giving gifts, and are happy to show their luxury to the citizens, spending a lot of money on the "reputation" that does not exist in the void. Edo Castle is their stage, allowing everyone to have fun and play at ease.

But everything has changed. Ever since the thick fog descended on Edo, everything here is very different from before. No one has ever come out of Edo, and no one who has entered the thick fog can ever come back. The only way to communicate between the inside and outside of Edo is the train that can pass through the thick fog.

Trains were still used to exchange materials between Edo and other places. Trains went in and trains came out. Trains also brought orders, which were usually very brief, asking someone to go somewhere or hand in something. Including today's expedition, all came from such orders. And the only consequence of not obeying orders was death under strange secret techniques. No one was immune.

Without orders, no one could leave their territory. The Satsuma Domain had to stay in the Satsuma Domain and could not leave even a single step. The Nagasaki Magistrate also had to stay in his territory.

But what's interesting is that these restrictions seem to be only for these "vassals", and there are no restrictions on ordinary people. As for Edo, although there are rumors, ordinary people will never leave their birthplace in their lifetime, so of course they don't care about Edo.

"But we are also going to die!" Shimazu looked at the sea, "Over the years, we have sent people to contact them. We have used messenger ships and radios. But the messenger ships were all inexplicably blown back by the strong wind, and sending radios would lead to..."

"It will make the sender disappear, right?" Mizuno looked at him.

"you know too?"

"Because we've tried that over there. Everything we tried failed—but the only thing we know is that if we follow orders, we won't die."

"But what if it's a 'mortal' order?"

"If you follow orders, you won't die. Only if we sail according to orders, we won't die. Maybe this is the way for us to get out. Edo must have its own intentions for asking us to do this."

Unconsciously, the two people's name for "Edo" has become something close to a "black box". What Edo is, it doesn't matter. What Edo has, it doesn't matter. Edo is an unclear monster, lurking in an invisible place. If you do what he says, you can live, if you don't, you will die.

But these rules do not apply to the common people. They are the only ones who are suppressed by terror. This is a horror game that only a few people can play. For them, the world has changed. But for the vast majority of people living on this island, everything is the same as before.

"If we go further south, we will reach the Ryukyu border."

"I know." Mizuno nodded. "Let's continue to head south. Maybe we can run into someone. In the past, these things were aimed at 'adults' like us. The occasional communication ship only had a few hundred people. This time, with such a large fleet going out, there will be a lot of people."

"Interesting." Shang Luo heard Fu Yuanshan's message, "So General Fu, you are staying?"

"In a flowerpot. A clever trick of the Royal Guards."

“So this is the situation in Japan now?”

"It looks like someone is using witchcraft to establish a reign of terror." Fu Yuanshan shook his head. "It sounds like Xu Fu?"

"It's probably him. This is just right, as it saves me from looking for him. He is probably in Edo Castle now. But this is really funny. It sounds like he only targets the nobles and doesn't care about the common people. As long as everyone lives their own way, it means nothing has happened?"