Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1743 Script
"So, isn't the sense of déjà vu about their world a bit too strong? I always feel like I've seen the script for this world somewhere before."

Everything here makes perfect sense, but what puzzles Shangluo is that it makes perfect sense too much.

This is too close to the political logic on Earth—he could clearly see many similarities.

For example, the Atmospheric Pastoralists were too similar to the Greeks. They even had nominal rulers like the Oracle.

"So, Heavenly Lord, you still remember them, right? Their cloud whales."

Shangluo nodded. The cloud whale is a dragon, a dragon born from this world. Unlike snakes, which may exist in single forms, there are many dragons.

Dragons can be large or small, rise or hide; when large, they spew mist and stir up clouds; when small, they conceal their forms. The four elemental dragons born here are completely different in appearance. The earth element dragon is a ground wolf, resembling a lion dog. The wind element dragon, the cloud whale, is a flying whale. Qiuqiu, which Shangluo adopted and is now fostered by Zhu Ling, is a young cloud whale.

"I remember their culture, which is closely related to cloud whales. They seem to be quite similar to the Greek city-states?"

“Actually, they are closer to it than I just said,” Ao Zang further explained. “The Atmospheric Shepherds are traditionally divided into multiple city-states. The city-state where the Holy Son resides is [Yilan of a Thousand Pillars and a Thousand Gates], and its members are selected from various city-states, with no native citizens. The other city-states each have their own traditions—although they now live on floating islands instead of on the back of cloud whales, the Atmospheric Shepherds started from the back of a cloud whale and named themselves after the cloud whale they inhabited when they were founded.”

The Akkadian Paladin Order, the Free Port of Herian, the Twin Cities of Aeolus, the Silver City of Fortuna, and the Hanging Gardens of Ametis—these city-states are secondary centers of power for the Atmospheric Pastoralists. Each city-state is politically independent, possesses its own cultural community, and has a series of branch city-states.

“Wait a minute.” Shangluo realized that this didn’t seem to be entirely like the Greeks. “I’ve discovered that their political system is actually closer to some kind of mandala state than the Greeks?”

“You are absolutely right, that’s what I’m going to say next—yes, they are closer to the Mandala Kingdom.”

The dragon race is very familiar with this political system and the royal surname, because this mandala political system follows this model.

These mandala kingdoms are centered around a "god-king" who rules only his own territory and often claims to have some kind of universality—he would claim to be the king of the entire world, the incarnation of Buddha or other deities.

Based on this, these god-kings would establish tributary relationships with other city-states within the civilization, and these tributary states would also have their own tributary centers.

The entire social system would resemble a mandala—a Vajra mandala. The halo of the divine king would extend outwards in concentric circles, forming a world within a pot, oblivious to the nature of heaven and earth.

In this system, vassals would have their own armies and taxes, but were required to pay tribute to their own monarch. This tribute was usually a golden flower tree, a ritualistic offering.

This kind of rule is usually not related to land, but rather to the personal relationships of the rulers. If no one lives on a piece of land, then the mandala does not exist there. This has existed for a long time in Southeast Asian history, with many regimes serving as centers of mandalas, such as Srivijaya in Palembang, Majapahit in Java, Siam in Sukhothai, and Khmer's Kampong Speu (Cambodia). Vietnamese rule can also be seen as a kind of mandala, except that Vietnam preferred to overlay a tributary system on top, transforming the religious flavor into a ritualistic flavor. These mandala centers no longer exist today, and the few that remain have pledged allegiance to a more powerful mandala center.
Lanfang Administrative Services Co., Ltd., Pontianak

Without a doubt, Koxinga's Lanfang Company was an even stronger Mandala Center, and the most powerful Mandala Center in history. Because no Mandala had ever used aircraft carrier battle groups and iron-willed troops to collect taxes before.

Lanfang is considered a Mandala because it follows the same economic foundation as other Mandala states in the past—whether it's Jianfusha in the forest or Majapahit in the sea, they all live in extremely harsh natural environments. From the perspective of the Central Plains, the environment of each city-state is basically equivalent to a place of exile, and the people can hardly survive independently except by staying in their settlements.

This also made the rule of Mandala kingdoms often brutal and bloody. Ritualistic warfare on Java Island often killed tens of thousands of people, driving the population to negative growth on volcanic soil. In any case, no matter how they killed, people couldn't escape.

The difficulty of communication is also why the Mandala Kingdom is not interested in uninhabited lands—because if a piece of land is left uninhabited, it will be completely swallowed by the rainforest within 10 years, leaving nothing behind. Just surviving there requires a great deal of effort.

To some extent, this phenomenon isn't unique to Southeast Asia; many early civilizations were similar. The Yellow Emperor migrated frequently, using his army as a defense force; the Holy Roman Empire had several capitals, and so on. This early rule was often based on the personal relationships of the ruler, requiring the monarch to frequently visit various places, accompanied by an entire governing body—though most other places had already moved beyond this stage, as long as productivity developed. The problem in Southeast Asia was its extremely resilient natural environment. Even in modern times, this remained a challenge, let alone in ancient times.

“I see.” Shangluo nodded. “No wonder the Imperial Academy said this small world had great research value. Now it seems that’s true. As long as the economic foundation is the same, they can re-enact our history of civilization. No wonder it’s so similar.”

“But in reality, Heavenly Lord,” Ao Zang said in a low voice, “the reason for such similarities is not just that the economic foundations are the same, nor is it just that the natural environments are similar.”

"What's that for?"

"Someone opened a loophole for them."

"???" Shang Luo was stunned for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not tattling, I'm just being honest with the Heavenly Court. To tell you the truth, I just said—carving words on stone can last for thousands of years, right?"

Shangluo nodded: "That's what I think too. And then?"

"Then, someone threw down the stone tablet. Thrown it down from the Tower of Babel. And the guards you see today, they were actually preventing others from picking up the [message from heaven] among themselves."

(End of this chapter)