Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 700 The momentum of great struggle
The emperor was sighing tomorrow.

Mentaiko was in a daze.

The kings of the Ming Dynasty have already started clamoring.

"Dad defeated the Hu Yuan, so can we also march westward and achieve unparalleled merit?"

"Fourth brother wants to march west again... But this voice also said that the tyranny of the Hu Yuan Dynasty is not enough to rule the western lands, and the journey is far away, what will we do if something unexpected happens?"

"Fifth brother, I also want to join Fourth brother in the Western Expedition..."

Zhu Bo, who just turned ten, watched his brothers arguing with great interest. At present, he can still understand what is being said, but it is a bit difficult for him to comprehend the meaning.

Therefore, seeing that his fourth and sixth brothers said that Chen wanted to lead the army to the west, and his fifth brother, who disagreed, argued with his two brothers alone, Zhu Bo simply stood beside Zhu Su:

"Don't bully Fifth Brother!"

Zhu Di immediately reached out and rubbed his brother's face hard:
"Xiao Bai, you forgot that it was your fourth brother who was holding you just now."

After rubbing, he explained:

"Besides, who is bullying whom? There is no right or wrong, and it all depends on how Daddy decides in the end."

Zhu Su nodded in agreement and touched his brother's head.

Empress Ma was immediately relieved when she saw this. As long as the brothers could live in harmony, it would be difficult for the uncle and nephew to become strangers or even force each other's life or death.

However... Empress Ma also felt a little confused. Biao'er was the most kind-hearted person, so how could he teach Xiongying to have such a cruel heart that he forced his uncle to death?
"Hero?"

Since she couldn't figure it out, Queen Ma simply waved to her grandson and called him to her side.

The emperor and the prince were looking at the light screen and talking in low voices. She might as well take care of this good grandson and make sure he learns benevolence and love and lays the foundation for a wise ruler.

Zhu Biao kept in mind the window period evaluation that later generations would talk about, and in response to his father's evaluation that it was not easy for the younger generation to understand him, he almost blurted out:

"I will do my best to help Daddy with this matter!"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled, then frowned and said:

"Hongwu has his own merits, and Yongle has his own achievements."

"How can a father not strive for full success and let his son do it for him?"

"It is Dad's responsibility to take care of the affairs of the north and south. Biao'er just needs to learn more about the maritime disasters."

……

Putting down the completely different picture of heavy iron armor in his hand, Kong Ming was somewhat moved by this statement:

"What a good window of opportunity..."

"Kong Ming, what does this window period mean?"

Liu Bei felt that these few words were a bit brief, so he simply asked his military advisor for details.

When he looked up, Kong Ming saw that not only Lord Xuande, but also Cao Cao, Xun Yu and others were looking at him with puzzled expressions.

So Kong Ming simply stood up and hung up the map that stretched from Japan in the east to the end of the Mediterranean in the west, then pointed with his feather fan and said:
"Papermaking and printing, as well as gunpowder, were both listed as achievements of science and technology in the past and future generations."

"Liang believes that the functions of papermaking and printing are now quite clear to Xuande Gongding."

Liu Bei nodded and even turned to explain to Cao Cao:
"Zuo Bo's paper was also used by Meng Deding. Although its quality is good, its price is higher than gold, so it is useless."

"Then there were several methods of making paper, such as bamboo paper, straw paper, and rice straw paper, which were cheaper and easier to use." "Meng Deshi didn't know that there are now hundreds of small imperial schools in Jingyi, Hanzhong, and Guanzhong, and each school has a book of ten thousand words."

"The paper used only takes a hundred craftsmen three months to make, and the printed text only takes three or five engravers less than ten days. How profitable!"

Cao Cao looked at Liu Bei speechlessly, with one thought in his eyes:
Xuande, you don’t need to say anything more.

Of course he knew about Zuo Bo Paper, and he even hid a lot of it and was reluctant to use it, but he had never thought that it could have so many extensions.

Kong Ming nodded and continued:
"Another powerful weapon is gunpowder. After it is used in wars, there will no longer be unbreakable cities in the world, just like this infantry heavy armor..."

As he spoke, Kong Ming brought up the picture he had just hastily drawn. The details were clear, with close-ups of the knees, elbows and other joints, and Kong Ming's various conjectures scribbled on them. After all, he had no idea what the inside of the armor was like from what he had just seen, but even so it was astonishing enough, and Cao Cao sighed even more.

"Such a good armor is hard to come by without 100,000 coins, and 100,000 coins are used to make gunpowder..."

Kong Ming shook his head. Liu Bei looked at Cao Cao. Before he could speak, Cao Cao said simply:

"I know its power and benefit very well."

Kong Ming smiled and nodded to Cao Cao, which made Cao Cao feel much better. He then continued:
"The West got paper and printing, which helped to develop civil governance, and got gunpowder, which helped to revolutionize military governance."

"The old laws were difficult to follow and the new laws had not yet been established. This led to the transformation of the continent and the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in the world."

“Rather than calling it a window period, it’s better to say that this is the beginning of the world’s great struggle.”

"Nations and tribes frequently fight and make war. Those who are adaptable and knowledgeable will become strong and survive. Those who are closed and complacent will become weak and fall apart."

The eight-foot-tall Kong Ming stood there with a calm expression.

But his words seemed to set off a huge wave in everyone's hearts.

[To this day, the war between the Slavs has broken out again, and some people call it a showdown between autocracy and democracy.

There is no doubt that democracy is the universal value pursuit of modern political civilization.

But when it comes to democracy, there are always people who say that Genghis Khan, who founded the Mongol Empire, was more democratic. Whether this is true or not, we can talk about the demise of the Mongol Empire in this context.

Generally speaking, Genghis Khan is considered democratic because of the kurultai system he founded.

To put it simply, this system means that no one party can have the final say on any major issue; it must be discussed by the leaders of various companies.

It can basically be summarized as the "Mongolian Nobles' Congress". Temujin's original intention was to balance the interests of all parties as much as possible and avoid internal friction caused by armed conflicts within Mongolia.

In the era at that time, it could indeed be called aristocratic democracy, but it was difficult for the illiterate Temujin to consider what was needed to defend such a democracy? Looking at the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire, we can basically get the answer.

Before his death, Temujin passed the throne to his third son Ogedei, and according to the Mongolian custom of "the youngest son guarding the stove", he left most of the army to his youngest son Tolui to supervise the country.

The majority here refers to the 100,000 troops left for Tolui, and the remaining three brothers each had 4,000 troops.

Let’s put ourselves in this situation. If you were Tolui, what would you think?
Faced with a vast empire and the reality of one hundred thousand versus four thousand, I'm afraid anyone would think, Third brother, your position is good, I want to sit there too.

In fact, Tolui, who had the power of regent, did not even need to use force. He only needed to suppress the convening of the khuriltai assembly, and Ogedei's throne would have been difficult to secure.

After all, Temujin stipulated that the new Khan needed to be approved by the kurultai assembly before Ogedei's position as Khan could be legitimate.

As for forcing Tolui to hold the kurultai, that is even more nonsense.

That's an army of 100,000. Who's forcing whom? 】

(End of this chapter)