Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"Yes, my majesty." The automaton closest to Shangluo stayed behind - and so did the three-legged automaton.

The size of the tripod automaton was unexpectedly large. The core alone was almost as wide as the hatch of the space station, with three tentacles randomly climbing in three directions, and the single eye in the middle was looking at Shangluo.

The three-legged automaton couldn't speak, and Shangluo didn't know what it could understand, so he just reached out and touched the iron head.

The tripod's single eye blinked, like a pet alligator—

Yes, his first impression was that it looked like some kind of swamp puppy. Firstly, as a creature with a body shape completely unlike that of a human, Shangluo's first impression of it was one of unfamiliarity, just like when you first see a crocodile, you'll think it's very distant from humans.

However, when you pet it, you'll find it's quite obedient, almost like petting a dog. It's also strangely cute.

But in the eyes of the chef and other servants, this thing was not cute at all. The chef's clone who stayed behind to talk to Shangluo also kept a distance of several steps from it, but did not dare to move.

"It looks like they are getting along pretty well? You little thing are such a piece of shit."

[That's it. Do you think they dare to move?]

"I say, what's your name?" He touched the tripod's head.

The tripod tilted its head and didn't answer. Without a name, it seemed a little lonely.

[The tripods don’t have names, only numbers, since there are only 20 of them.]

"Oh, that's too inconvenient. Let's just call him Wangcai. Wangcai?"

The tripod spun around in the air, scaring the chef so much that he took a few steps back.

"Be good, be good. Very good, very good."

[I suddenly realized that you are very similar to Zhu Ling in some ways. Zhu Ling has a special ability to tame animals like Xiangrui. You seem to be attracted to these strange machine life, meme life, magic elves, and these things that are not living things.]

"Really? Maybe I'm the type who treats everyone equally. Even if they're not living things, I'll still treat them as living things. Don't you agree, Chef?"

"That's absolutely right. It is your kindness that has opened the door to wisdom for us."

"But I have a plan." Shang Luo looked at him, "The Columbian Automaton Country is now a vassal state of the imperial court, right?"

"It is your vassal state, my Lord."

"Then I have a suggestion - since you are my subject, then you may know that our country has a traditional custom called 'reform of natives and return of officials to officials'."

The chef was stunned for a moment: "Sorry, I didn't find this term in the Aurora language I learned. It seems to have nothing to do with academic Aurora language."

"Then you understand now - I think that supervisory agencies should be sent to various regions of the Colombian Automaton Country. The first batch of supervisory agencies will be taken up by Wangcai and his friends. They are the imperial envoys sent by me, and they will be stationed in various regions where the Colombian Automaton Country is stationed. And..."

Shangluo emphasized: "Didn't I say some time ago that you need to control the scale when carrying out operations? Then here is the plan - I hope you will act under the supervision of the tripod. If the tripod does not have the spare capacity to supervise, then you should not move. This is the circle I have drawn for you. As long as you stay in the circle and don't come out, you can always have peace."

Chapter 1339: Training System

Shangluo requires that in the future all Colombian automatic machine countries must accept the supervision of the tripod machine.

This is a very demanding requirement. The Korean Empire in history has entered this process - from a historical perspective, this stage is "training".

For a tributary state to go from independent governance to complete submission, it usually goes through two stages: training and propaganda.

During the period of political training in Korea, a large number of supervisory censors went to various parts of Korea to inspect the administration and various aspects of work in the eight provinces of Korea. During that period, the [Guardianship of Korea] composed of Ming censors became the central power structure of Korea.

During the period of tutelage, Joseon reformed the original formalized imperial examination system based on the [Wenwuyangban] feudal aristocracy and established a republic similar to the imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty. Although the Wenwuyangban aristocracy still existed, the actual affairs were gradually transferred to the hands of common people who stood out in the imperial examination under the protection of [Joseon guardianship].

After the end of the tutelage period, the [Korean Guardianship] withdrew most of its practical institutions and handed over the Korean government back to the [Korean Xuan Government] formed by Koreans themselves, retaining only representatives in the eight provinces of Korea and the two capitals of Seoul and Pyongyang. The permanent staff is also composed of supervisory censors, but compared with the previous [Korean Guardianship], the number of people has been reduced from thousands to about a hundred. They only retain the final decision-making power on many issues and do not interfere in daily affairs.

This process is worthy of praise in the history of the Ming Dynasty and is recorded in many history books because both sides were very satisfied with it.

First, the Joseon king ended the dispute over the heir through this process - because the cause of this incident was that the Joseon king wanted to keep the throne in his own line, but the civil and military officials in the court were dissatisfied with the prince's biological mother and demanded that the younger brother succeed the older brother. This incident caused chaos throughout the Joseon Dynasty, and the Joseon king simply took the opportunity of surrendering to the country to escape the political whirlpool within Joseon.

He stayed in Yingtian and didn't go back.

On the other hand, the civil and military officials of Joseon were also quite satisfied. Because even if the civil and military officials continued to fight among themselves, the Joseon king could not be overthrown. Whenever a new king ascended the throne, it was bound to cause bloodshed. This kind of political serial killing was unbearable even for them, and the departure of the Joseon king helped everything get out of the out-of-control state of "stall and spin".

Everything is better now that the King of Joseon is gone. Because there is no generational vendetta, all conflicts are smoothed out. Now only the head of the government will go to jail for impeachment, and no one will be implicated or have their entire family killed. More importantly, the departure of the King of Joseon has completely freed the country from constraints. The civil and military nobles have actually become the bulk of Joseon's vassal kings, and they are simply happy and unwilling to leave.

This is even better for the Korean people. In the past, they had no interest in the imperial examinations, but now everyone can afford to go to school and take the exams to become an official.

The only loss was that the Ming Dynasty sent many imperial censors to go abroad, which was considered a business trip and required a lot of extra travel expenses. However, the gratifying changes that took place in North Korea made these investments worthwhile.

Shangluo also learned this history in class.

He was familiar with this because it was not only recorded in history books, but also mentioned in a separate section of the textbook. This was a typical example of the suzerain-vassal relationship.

And now, Shangluo also plans to carry out similar reforms on the Colombian Automata Kingdom - and the censors he sent out are those tripods.

With the tripod that can specifically restrain these bipeds, he hopes to quickly and thoroughly "train" the Colombian Automata, and then make it annexed.

Shangluo intended to resolve this issue as soon as possible. He had discussed it with Zhu Xianxun and Victoria. All three parties agreed that the Columbian Automata were indeed useful, but they also needed some changes. The more useful and capable they were, the more dangerous they became.

The more this power that cannot be understood by humans shows its subjective initiative, the more uneasy Zhu Xianxin and Victoria feel.

Shangluo thought the same. Although no one knew more about the Columbian Automaton Country than he did, his own knowledge of it was quite limited. The other two were even more clueless about the situation here. They could tolerate the existence of these machine heads entirely because of Shangluo.

In other words, if Shangluo had not been there, both sides would have already started using doomsday weapons to destroy Colombia's territory.

Shangluo also did not intend to provide them with unlimited political guarantees - the only way for them to survive was to completely and thoroughly hand over control to Shangluo, rather than acting on their own, let alone suddenly having such a large space station pop up.

Although this may seem like he put down his bowl and scolded the chef, this dish was not what he ordered, but was added by the chef. Although it was delicious, it is still suspected of consumer fraud, and it is time for proper supervision.

"Yes, as you wish." The chef still did not resist or raise any objections.

This has always been his habit. Although he didn't know if he would have any other reaction when his ruling power was really touched. But Shangluo knew that the chef could not always remain the pure "chef" in the long future. Even if he always wanted to serve, and served wholeheartedly, and even wanted to help the hungry humans, when they had the real power, [providing relief] itself was a kind of power.

Shangluo did not want to wait until something happened before killing, because killing without teaching is called violence.

He decided to give the Colombian Automata a chance. If they were willing to accept complete, thorough, and comprehensive guardianship, and were willing to be true slaves instead of acting on their own, then Shangluo could make the chef a true "prime minister."

Because in the future, as his power continues to expand, more and more affairs need to be handled, and he really needs a "housekeeper" who can help him take care of everything, an all-powerful retainer. But the premise of all this is loyalty.

Loyalty is extremely important, especially in the position of "housekeeper". Because the situation of ministers holding the reins of state has been seen in ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad, and even the housekeepers of the ministers themselves may follow suit, and the position will be weakened layer by layer.

He wanted to kill all the signs of this within the initial loyalty. He hoped that these automata would remain loyal until the fire was extinguished.

The chef's first performance was satisfactory. Next, it was time to test his loyalty.

Chapter 1340 Dawn of Space

"I have a question for you." Shangluo asked, "I remember you needed to wind up the spring before it could function properly?"

This is the most important control over these automata that Shangluo knows. When they were still under the control of the Roman Empire, the Romans restricted them to the point that they had to be wound up every day.

This is the limitation of the Vulcan Core. All Vulcan Cores must be wound up to operate once a day. These springs do not actually drive the Vulcan Core itself, but only when the springs are running, the Vulcan Core has the authority to operate.

After all, the Vulcan core is a perpetual motion machine and does not need to be wound up.

But for so long, no one had wound up Columbia's automaton.

"Yes, that's right." The chef confirmed his flaw.

"Then how did you wind it up before?"

"Go to each other."

"Then I order all of you to strictly follow orders - you are not to wind up each other. This will be an iron rule and must be enforced. It was fine when I didn't supervise it before, but now I want you to thoroughly implement your original intentions in the design."

"As you wish. But I don't know how you plan to wind them up one by one?"

"The three-legged machine will do the job." He looked at the "Swamp Puppy" next to him, and it agreed.

"As you wish." The chef still did not object.

"Then let's get to work." Shangluo clapped his hands, "Let's start by creating a livable environment."

He looked around.

The main body of this space station was prepared by the Romans. Like other creations of the Romans, this space station has many unnecessary decorations, even the hatch is painted with neoclassical imitation marble. The window used to observe the universe is surrounded by gold patterns.

"What is this? Are you treating the space station as a bathhouse?"

“Do you want to remove these?”

"Just leave it there for now. It's just a temporary stay anyway. Bring your people with you to help me clean up a living area, then evacuate from the core module and prepare to hand it over to our people for management."

"As you wish." The chef promised again. He never asked why, but only what the mission was.

When Phaethon arrived, everything was in place.

The docking port opened, and when Phaethon and Zhu Ling appeared from behind the hatch wearing glass-like helmets, two rows of automatic machines lined up at the door.

"Welcome to the Bagel." All the automata bowed together, and the tripod in the middle circled to welcome them, with its three tails spinning in the air like propellers.

The scene was so strange that Phaethon almost felt that the way he opened the door was wrong.

"Cough, go away." Shangluo appeared at the end of the corridor.

I've already said there's no need for a welcome ceremony. There's nothing human about this place, and such a ceremony would be terrifying.

"Hey, doesn't this show that I've been working hard these past two days? Come on, everyone can come in."

"Are they okay?" asked Phaethon, who came in first.

"No problem, they have been working hard these past two days, there is no problem at all."

"What is the Bagel?"

Bagels are a type of bread that looks like donuts, or you can just call them bagels. The method of making them is to boil them in water before baking, so that the dough can be cooked first and then baked, so that they can have a chewy texture and a crispy crust.

"This is my reward to Chef. He has done all this diligently, so I grant him the right to name this space station."

This is very important. As Shangluo said before, relief and alms are a kind of power from above to below. The same is true for rewards. Although the chef showed obedience to Shangluo before, the relationship between them was not clear. This fragile connection was established entirely by the chef's personal loyalty.

Shangluo plans to intervene systematically. The first step is to grant the chef the "naming rights". This confirms Shangluo's sovereignty over this place and the master-servant relationship between the chef and the chef, which is nominal power.

The actual power was also consolidated within these two days. Now at a fixed time every day, all the automata would go to a unified location to wait, and before the tripod machine rewound the spring for them, they would remain dormant in the same place, motionless, until the spring ran out.

This process has been consolidated over several days of operation, without any exception to the automation.

"No wonder." Phaethon nodded, "No wonder you started to let me wind up the chef. I used to have automaton servants. When I think about it, I would also let the automatons wind each other up when I was lazy. I'd better be more diligent in the future and do everything myself so that they know who is the master."

"From now on, all systems will be maintained in this way." Shanglu replied, "I have ordered that, except for the headquarters of the Columbian Automaton State, all other automata in all other places where people can be found around must be wound up by people before they can operate. If no one is found, they will stop working."

"Would you like to request some more tripods to assist?"

"I was just about to say that. Apollonia said, do you want to apply for this?"

[Yes. The tripods are under Syracuse's control. You can transfer them over, but it may require some administrative procedures.]

"This time I'm not just going to clean up the automata, I'm also going to clean up Rome - I just talked to Victoria about this, and she agreed. Phaethon, you and I will sign together, and then I'll have Apollonia and Victoria sign as well. I will set up a four-member committee in Rome, consisting of the four of us, and I will act alone. This committee will gradually take over the power of all current Roman administrative agencies, starting with Syracuse."

"Wait, how are you going to take over? This is a very professional job."

"Just let the chef come up. Right?"

The chef bowed respectfully and said, "As His Majesty the King of Rome said, governing a large country is like cooking a small bun. The Columbian Automaton Country will return to the Roman order in the future. The King of Rome and the Byzantine Emperor have confirmed that we will succeed the fallen New Antioch and become the Sixth Rome."

"Byzantine Emperor is a disparaging honorific. How on earth did you learn it?"

"I'm sorry. But I hope to distinguish the two, because in my heart there is only one sun, the King of Rome, and the emperor in Byzantium can only be behind the King of Rome."

Chapter 1341 The First Day of the Space Station

With the arrival of a group of operators at the "Baguer" space station, the expedition to the moon officially entered the final preparation stage.

Like an umbilical cord, Lianshan is temporarily connected to the space station with pipelines and corridors. Although the volume is similar, the space station carries more logistical agencies, which can serve as the cornerstone of the next space program.

This was not originally planned, as it was clear that automata were not always reliable.

But after the chef expressed full cooperation with Shangluo's transformation plan, the use of the space station was officially put on the agenda - this is reflected in the use of the space station.

Now the space station has been clearly divided into two action areas. Among them, the basic operation of the space station and other daily maintenance functions are still completed by the automatic machine.

Although the automata's physical strength is not enough to complete this level of maintenance on the ground, this is space, and carrying heavy objects here is much easier than on the ground. As long as the strength problem is overcome, the working accuracy of these automata is fully sufficient to perform maintenance work.

The core systems and high-level commands of the space station are handled by human astronauts, who are mainly responsible for planning the route of the space station, deciding on future orbit changes, and deciding on the expansion and removal of functions.

The most difficult part is the dismantling. After all, the Bagel Space Station was launched as the chef's space bread machine, and during the launch, the chef stuffed all kinds of bread machines and their peripheral equipment in all places that could increase bread production.

This includes but is not limited to the salvaging, collection and conversion of carbon dioxide. In order to maintain heat balance, a forest of cooling fins are built around the space station to keep the heat cycle inside the space from getting out of control.

But many of these are completely unnecessary, because when it comes to material supplies, the most important thing is not the taste of the bread, but the quantity of bread.