The easiest way to understand a world is to enter the library.

Zhu Guoqiang, who was in the library of the University of Babylon and was constantly flipping through history books, even though he forgot the time, his mind was in chaos.

How did my Ming Dynasty become like this?

My Ming Dynasty is the Ming Dynasty for five hundred years!

From the founding of Zhu Hongwu to the revival of my country, how did the dynasty that had been famous for five hundred years, the country that was famous for its land far beyond all dynasties, become like this?

This is a great empire that has been more than 500 years!

But what happened in the past few decades?

In the fifty-year of Gan Sheng... Well, after he was attacked in Babylon Province, Emperor Gan Sheng died in Laoshan Palace (this must be a concealment), and the Crown Prince Zhu Heyu inherited the throne, and then what happened?

There are not many records in history books about those twenty years.

In the following century, the empire seemed to stop expanding, and except for the war against Mongolia's destruction, the war seemed to be far away from the Ming Dynasty.

But on the other hand, conflicts between vassal states often occur, especially in the past hundred years. The border conflicts between vassal states have evolved into a total war, and even led to annexation wars between vassal states. The Ming Dynasty, as the sect leader, tried its best to maintain peace, but it aroused the dissatisfaction of the princes. The strong country believed that the Ming Dynasty blocked their strength, while the weak country believed that the Ming Dynasty was sitting on the sidelines of the annexation of the states. In this case, except for a few princes, these princes, who had no more than four generations of blood, attacked each other for the sake of their interests, and even some kind of localism was born between the vassal states.

During this process, a great revolution occurred in France. The rebels overthrew the rule of the Louis dynasty. While Louis was sent to the guillotine, the Ming Dynasty focused on mediating the conflicts between the princes. When Napoleon ascended the throne and annexed the nations in Western Europe, the Ming Dynasty still did not notice them.

Then there is the Polish conflict. Poland and Lithuania are nominally a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. While Mongolia was destroyed, the two countries successively surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and became vassal states of the Ming Dynasty. However, the storm of revolution also swept the two countries. The Poles and Lithuanians both claimed to leave the Ming Dynasty, and Napoleon's Frank Empire was their supporters. This directly led to the outbreak of the Polish-Lithuanian war, which was actually the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Frank Empire.

The war lasted for fourteen years, and the cruel trenches cost both sides an extremely heavy price. In order to break the deadlock, Napoleon II planned and supported the rebellions in Wallachia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, Greece and other places. The rebellion of the Orthodox people may not affect the overall situation. However, the opening of the second battlefield restrained the Ming Dynasty's energy, and millions of troops were trapped in the trenches.

From the Baltic Sea, to the forests of Wallachia, to the mountains of Venice and Genoa, both sides dug deep trenches. The war evolved from mobile warfare to positional warfare, just like the unique trench warfare in the First World War of Another World, where the army of the Ming and French sides dug a front line of trenches along thousands of miles.

In most of the time, in addition to the decisive battle of the fleet on Shanghai and the competition for colonies, millions of soldiers on both sides confronted the front line of the European continent were curled up in the mud of the trenches. Rats, fleas, and lice seemed to be everywhere, and the projectiles were flying densely, and their lives flew everywhere in an instant. The infantry on both sides were like poor lambs driven to the slaughterhouse, and they wanted to charge in the rain of bullets and bullets. Even if they could pass through hundreds of meters of open areas, they would be shot and fell down in front of the other's barbed wire. This time they stayed not for three years, but for thirteen years!

It was at this time that Emperor Jiade, who had just ascended the throne for three years, issued an order to serve the king of the vassal states. According to the official statement, "Our bloodline will always unite us, and this war with foreign enemies will once again unite us!"

When the war broke out, the vassal states were of course active, and the people were the same. "We... the loyal subjects of the Ming Dynasty will always follow His Majesty the Emperor's Sun and Moon Flag". It seemed that all the contradictions no longer existed overnight.

But what is waiting for them?

"It is usually impossible to bury corpses. Usually, the bodies of soldiers who died in battle are transported back with gun mounts, but more and more corpses are not transported at all. We are facing hundreds of corpses, not only ours, but also the corpses of the Franks. The sun shines on the corpses of soldiers who have been poisoned by poisonous gas, and often turns swollen corpses into blue, almost the same as sea blue. As the poisonous gas is discharged, the corpses are as shriveled as mummies, maintaining their pre-death posture. Some are sitting and kneeling, and most are lying on or lying on the ground."

"A large number of corpses were abandoned in the trenches. Crows pecked at the eyes of the corpses, and rats crawled onto the corpses. These rats were very big and brave. They were not unfamiliar with corpses and wanted to insult and trample on them. In the positions where we often fight, corpses became part of the trenches."

It is conceivable that such a scene was published in the newspaper and the large number of soldiers' casualties, which brought unprecedented impact to people. Some princes, who were not rich in human resources, were shocked by the fierce war.

"The Ming army is invincible" became a distant memory in front of the trench, and death became a reality, and loyalty to the emperor was exchanged for a large number of casualties. The long-term war, a large number of casualties, led to the war-weariness of the people, especially the people of the vassal state. The first thing that fell was the armed riot of civilians and liberal scholars in its capital Sishui. Although the rebellion was quickly quelled, the wave of riots in the following years was turbulent.

When they arrived at almost half of the vassal states, this directly led to the turmoil of the vassal states of the Celestial Empire. Especially in the European vassal states Wallachia, Bulgaria, Alba, Serbia, Greece and other places, liberalism and nationalism continued to rise in those areas. Combined with the people's war-weariness, riots were almost inevitable. Among the local nobles were both Ming people, vassals and local nobles. Faced with the turmoil of the aristocratic system, they stood up to oppose the war.

Faced with the turmoil of the country, in order to maintain its own rule, Zhu Jianshuan, the king of the Kingdom of Sicilian, declared independence and withdrew from the war, Zhu Heyu, the Kingdom of Sicilian, granted his fifteenth son Zhu Yikeng's title to his fifteenth son Zhu Yikeng, taking advantage of the Spanish throne's succession war to seize the inheritance rights from Spain.

The independence of the Kingdom of Sicily caused an uproar. When the Ming Dynasty's cabinet was still discussing whether the vassal states withdrew from the Ming Dynasty in compliance with the vassal regulations, Venice, one of the main battlefields, also experienced turmoil. The Great Parliament voted to withdraw from the war. If it were not for the nearly one million troops stationed in northern Venice, they would probably be independent directly.

Then what?

The state of Gui, King of Shu and other vassal states successively withdrew from the war. Although they did not express their independence, they all tactfully stated in the letters submitted that if the court did not agree, they would have to take further measures to appease the people.

Just as the protracted war in another world destroyed the German and Austro-Hungarian Empire, in this world, fourteen years of war destroyed the Ming Dynasty's vassal system. Faced with the reincarnation of the princes, the independent vassal system, and of course, there were long-lasting and unprogressive wars, the Ming Dynasty's cabinet fell one after another, especially in the independence of the vassal, the cabinet was even at a loss, and even the emperor was the same.

Should we sit down or send troops to attack?

The court's hesitation allowed those powerful vassal states to see the opportunity to get rid of the Ming Dynasty's control. Only by getting rid of control can we further expand and annex the neighboring vassal states.

Under such circumstances, Li Hongzhang came forward to form a cabinet.

As soon as he came to power, he held peace talks with the Frank Empire on the grounds of "maintaining unity", and the Ming Dynasty divided Poland and Lithuania according to the ceasefire line.

The war is over!

Even though the war is over, things are not over yet.

Wallachia, Bulgaria, Venice and Genoa declared independence one after another, but Li Hongzhang not only did nothing, but even expressed respect for their choices.

Faced with such betrayal or indulgence, the political situation of the vassal states in Alba, Serbia, Greece and other places became even more turbulent, forcing those kings to consider an issue of independence.

Eventually, they chose another way, and they signed a covenant in Constantinople and formed the Roman Republic.

This triggered a series of chain reactions. From India to Southeast Asia, those vassal states with strong national strength had long been looking forward to breaking away from the control of the sect leader, and they were all independent.

Is the war over?

The war is over.

But what about the empire?

However, the empire collapsed. In this process, Li Hongzhang indulged all this, and even the emperor was indulging in all this.

"Your Majesty, if we do not give peace to the people, then the wave of revolution will sweep across the Ming Dynasty."

Fear of revolution!

The reason why they indulged in, the protracted war also caused political turmoil within the Ming Dynasty.

"Damn it, don't you know that tanks can break the deadlock in trench warfare?"

Zhu Guoqiang cursed viciously.

He was so angry that he sat up suddenly, which caused everyone around him to roll his eyes at him.

After realizing that he was in the library, Zhu Guoqiang took a deep breath and calmed down and thought to himself.

"I don't know how much I have left in the Ming Dynasty."

I picked up another book, which was the 1872nd edition of the World Map, which naturally contained a map of the Ming Dynasty. When the world map was unfolded in front of him, the first thing that caught my eye was the huge territory of the Ming Empire.

Although this is not the first time I have seen it, Zhu Guoqiang was still a little surprised when he looked at the territory of the Ming Empire.

The Ming Dynasty did not become smaller!

The entire East Asian continent is from the Ming Dynasty, the entire Mongolian Plateau is from the Ming Dynasty, Siberia is from the Ming Dynasty, the Russian Plain, and until Minsk, they are from the Ming Dynasty. The place name of Western Shanghai is clearly marked in the location of St. Petersburg. As for Alaska, it is also from the Ming Dynasty, not a colony, but a "royal territory".

Looking down along the map, the entire Indochina Peninsula is full of the territory of the Ming Empire, Siam, Annan, and Khmer, which were all annexed by the Ming Dynasty and became the provinces of the empire.

"This Daming is so big!"

Staring at the map, Zhu Guoqiang finally breathed a sigh of relief, at least my Ming Dynasty is still there!

However... there were several colors on the South Asian subcontinent and North American continent, and they were all independent vassal states. As expected, they had gained freedom of movement, dozens of feudal states, and only a few or a dozen countries were left.

"You are all relatives. Isn't this killing each other?"

Trying to get rid of this absurdity in his heart, Zhu Guoqiang thought of another possibility. This seemed to be exactly what he wanted to see. No matter how a diversified Chinese civilization evolved, no matter how the disputes between Zhuxia were carried out, one-third of the people in the Roman Republic believed in orthodox religions and were also a member of Zhuxia.

From the day he enfeoffed the royal family and his descendants to various places, he turned Chinese civilization into many eggs and put them in different baskets. After these "eggs" hatched into chicks, they will naturally compete with each other after they grow up. This competition is not just cultural, scientific or economic competition, military competition and even war are inevitable.

Military competition has further promoted technological changes. Why did cars have started mass production eighty years ago, while tanks have not appeared for a long time?

To put it bluntly, there is no demand, no market. Machine guns and light field guns are enough to meet the demand.

The Ming Dynasty has been exercising the power of the sect leader and suppressing the expansion of the princes. Thirty-four years ago, when the war in Poland and Lithuania broke out, cars were already running everywhere and planes were flying all over the sky, but military applications were limited. During the war, both sides were desperately improving their weapons to break the deadlock.

Tanks, fighter jets, bombers emerged in war like mushrooms after a rain, and even electronic computers were used to calculate ballistics in battleships. The computers he saw in the bank were actually some kind of electronic accounting computer processing system, which was different from computers in another world.

But what is certain is that the silicon transistors and integrated circuits used in this processing system are undoubtedly epoch-making inventions, and the world has already sounded the door to technological revolution.

I have to say that the technology tree in this world is a bit crooked. Some aspects of it are equivalent to the level of the 1960s and 1970s, but some aspects remain at the level of the 1930s or 1940s.

The development of science and technology is uneven. At least based on the history that Zhu Guoqiang knows, the technological development of the world is extremely uneven.

how so?
Chapter completed!