Howard and Offenstraten both thought Tojo Kojiro was talking nonsense.
Such a religious sect that could cripple a country was a priceless heirloom for any family, capable of bringing prosperity for a century or even centuries. If Tojo Kojiro's family had any background that allowed them to obtain such teaching materials, Howard and Offenstraten wouldn't be so surprised.
But to say that such teaching materials were commonplace, that anyone could buy them with money...
Howard chuckled and shook his head, saying, "Tojo, according to you, even newborn babies in the Ming Dynasty would know these methods?"
Tojo Kojiro sneered contemptuously, "Would the nobles of the Great Ming stoop to such low-level tactics?"
Despite knowing that Tojo Kojiro was a sycophant of the Great Ming, no one expected him to be so utterly devoted, to the point of demeaning such powerful methods. After some thought, Howard couldn't help but ask, "So, what are the names of these books?"
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms." Just this one book would likely be enough for you to learn from. If you have friends in the Great Ming, you can try to get them to help. Here, Tojo Kojiro couldn't help but add, "Of course, it would be best if you recognize Chinese characters. If you don't, you probably won't learn much."
Howard and Offenstraten were somewhat dismissive of Tojo Kojiro's statement.
Not knowing Chinese characters would prevent them from reading "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"? That was absurd. After all, many people in the Ming Dynasty made a living as translators. If they had "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" translated, wouldn't they still be able to understand it?
Tojo Kojiro let out a dry laugh and said, "What, you don't believe me?"
Seeing the doubt on Howard and Offenstraten's faces, Tojo Kojiro continued on his own, "You don't understand the Great Ming. Even a single word or phrase in the Ming Dynasty can have multiple meanings. If you haven't learned Chinese characters and the official language from childhood, understanding 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' is actually quite difficult."
"Of course, it doesn't matter whether you believe me or not. I've told you everything I can."
Howard didn't want to argue with Tojo Kojiro on such a "trivial" matter. He nodded and changed the subject, "To be honest, we are also very curious about the Great Ming, especially its history. Can you tell us more?"
Upon hearing Howard's question, Tojo Kojiro's spirits immediately lifted.
When it came to understanding the Great Ming, Tojo Kojiro wasn't even ranked in Japan. Even with some understanding, it couldn't compare to those esteemed members of the Hua clans.
It was known that many of those Hua clan members were descendants of people from the Song Dynasty who had migrated to Japan. Their learning of the culture and knowledge of the Central Plains was much faster than that of ordinary Japanese.
Furthermore, Tojo Kojiro's background wasn't particularly high, so what he knew, apart from a few books, was mostly learned from others.
For instance, Tokugawa Ienari suffered a great loss in the Great Ming and naturally chose to excessively praise the Great Ming upon returning to Japan. Otherwise, wouldn't Tokugawa Ienari appear incompetent? Tojo Kojiro had also been misled by such haphazard information.
Now, Tojo Kojiro was preparing to mislead Howard and Offenstraten with this gossip he had heard.
Tojo Kojiro said, "The history of the Great Ming can be traced back to the time when the great god Pangu created the heavens and earth. Afterward, the goddess Nuwa molded humans from soil. Later, it was passed down to the Heavenly Emperor Fuxi, the Earthly Emperor Shennong, and the Human Emperor Xuanyuan. Countless years have passed."
"After the Three Sovereigns came the Five Emperors. From Yu onwards, there was the Great Xia. Xia perished and was replaced by Shang. Shang perished and was replaced by Zhou. Zhou was unified by Qin. Qin lasted for only two generations and was unified by Han. Han was divided into three kingdoms and unified by Wei..."
"Until the current Emperor re-established the Great Ming."
"In the history of the Great Ming, there was Emperor Huang's expedition against Chiyou, Cheng Tang's destruction of Xia, King Wu's conquest of Shang, Qin's unification of the Six States, Han's expulsion of the Xiongnu, the Yuan Dynasty being overthrown by Emperor Gaozu of the Great Ming, and the current Emperor's defeat of the Qing."
After Tojo Kojiro roughly recounted the history of the Central Plains he knew, Howard and Offenstraten were utterly stunned.
While Europe had produced a few exceptionally great emperors, compared to the emperors of the Central Plains that Tojo Kojiro spoke of, Europe's so-called "great emperors" were simply incomparable!
Offenstraten even took out his portable paper and pen, constantly writing and drawing, while repeatedly asking Tojo Kojiro various questions.
After Tojo Kojiro finished answering the questions, Offenstraten stopped writing and drawing, and then said, bewildered, "This is impossible! Tojo, are you sure about the founding dates of those dynasties you mentioned?"
Tojo Kojiro nodded and said, "Of course, I am very sure that what I said is correct. In fact, if you want to know, you can also have someone help you purchase historical books from the Great Ming. The historical books of the Great Ming record the exact times and places."
Howard's words only made Offenstraten more bewildered. Apart from constantly muttering "impossible," his entire face was filled with confusion and disbelief.
Howard asked curiously, "What's wrong?"
Offenstraten, his face filled with confusion while still writing and drawing, said, "I've compiled statistics on the rise and fall of all the dynasties in Ming history. If Tojo Kojiro..."
"These highest points represent the founding of a country, and these lowest points represent their demise."
Howard nodded, "What's wrong with that?"
Offenstraten's face was full of despair, "Wrong? Of course, it's wrong."
"Starting from the earliest point, you can easily see that all their points are in an upward trend. Even the points of demise are still relatively stable."
"If we have to find two low points, they would be the Yuan Dynasty and the Qing. According to Tojo Kojiro, the Central Plains during these periods were under invasion, the lowest of the low.
"But..."
"The Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty period each lasted only about a hundred years. According to Tojo Kojiro, this means that a country without a hundred years of destiny is a futile endeavor.
"Look at this other curve below," Offenstraten pointed to it. "This is the curve for all of Europe. From the very beginning, this curve has been very stable, very stable."
Howard frowned, "Isn't stability good? Isn't the curve for the Great Ming also very stable?"
Offenstraten shook his head, "It's different."
"The curve for the Great Ming, or rather, the curve for the history of the Central Plains, proves that their national strength has actually been in a continuous upward trend. Even when a dynasty fell, their national strength was still rising. This is why I asked Tojo Kojiro those questions.
"There was only one decline, which was when the Great Ming was overthrown by the Qing. But soon, their national strength was once again in an upward trend. This decline only lasted for about 150 years, which is nothing compared to thousands of years of history. However, Europe's curve has been consistently circling in place, with no upward trend at all. On the contrary, there have been several instances of sharp declines. The only time there was an upward trend was..."
"Of course, this issue isn't that important. What's important is, haven't you noticed that these two curves will only diverge further? The Great Ming's curve is constantly rising, while our recently rising curve has once again fallen into a plateau, with no possibility of catching up to the Great Ming's curve.
"For these two curves to coincide, either the Great Ming's national strength will suddenly decline, or Europe's national strength will suddenly rise. Otherwise, there are almost no other possibilities."
Howard grunted, picked up the paper Offenstraten had drawn, and after examining it for a long time, said, "So, do you think Europe still has a chance to rise?"
Offenstraten shook his head in despair and retorted, "What do you think? Do you think the Great Ming will allow Europe to rise again?"
Seeing Howard and Offenstraten muttering a lot of things he didn't understand, Tojo Kojiro couldn't help but let out a哼 and ask, "What are you discussing? Is there no possibility that he is correct? We are discussing the national strength of the Central Plains."
Tojo Kojiro was stumped by this question.
After racking his brain for a long time, Tojo Kojiro shook his head and said, "No."
"The Central Plains have indeed experienced two periods of decline in history, but as I've already told Offen, the Yuan was overthrown by the Great Ming's Emperor Gaozu, and the Qing was overthrown by the Holy Emperor. Both the Yuan and the Qing only occupied the Central Plains for about a hundred years."
"As for the future... I cannot see the future, but I really cannot think of any reason why the Great Ming would decline."
"Is it the current emperor who is incompetent? The Great Ming in history also had many emperors who neglected state affairs. Some liked cockfighting, some liked cultivating immortality, some liked carpentry, and there was even an emperor who was captured alive by enemies.
"There were the Wanli Tripartite Campaigns, and our Japan was also one of the defeated parties. That emperor who liked cockfighting personally led an expedition to the grasslands. Even the empire ruled by that emperor who liked carpentry was very stable.
"Let me put it this way: if it weren't for traitors within the Great Ming, coupled with continuous natural disasters at the time, the Great Ming would not have been defeated by the Qing. Do you understand?"
Howard and Offenstraten didn't understand all of this, but they were very interested in the fact that there were traitors within the Great Ming, especially that an emperor had once been captured alive.
Howard said, "In the history of the Great Ming, was an emperor ever captured alive? Then he must have paid a large ransom to be released, right?"
Tojo Kojiro glanced at Howard, shook his head, and said, "Not a penny of ransom. On the contrary, the tribal chief who captured the emperor married his sister to the captured emperor and also treated the captured emperor well."
Howard said,
"Why? Since he was captured, shouldn't he have been released after paying a ransom? What was that tribal chief thinking?"
Tojo Kojiro said, "Because the tribal chief who captured that emperor was also a subject of that emperor. He himself acknowledged this. Even though that emperor was preparing to attack them, they still acknowledged this."
"More importantly, this is a historical mystery. No one can clarify what happened here. As long as the current emperor doesn't pursue it, the truth of this matter can only remain hidden in history."
Howard and Offenstraten were even more bewildered. Neither of them had expected such a melodramatic plot to unfold in the history of the Great Ming. After thinking for a moment, Howard said, "Regardless, the Great Ming has also experienced the history of being destroyed by the Qing."
Tojo Kojiro shook his head and said, "The Great Ming was never destroyed by the Qing. Before the Qing army entered the pass, the capital of the Great Ming was breached by the people of the Great Ming. At that time, due to a plague in the capital, there were very few soldiers.
"Later, those smaller Ming states also fell prey to the Qing because of their endless infighting. The Qing army that attacked them also suffered many defeats. Later, they had to replace their main army with Han Chinese troops to finally defeat those smaller Ming states."
"As for why those Han Chinese armies helped the Qing army fight... it was because the Qing army at the time was still a vassal of the Great Ming. They were allowed to enter the Central Plains under the pretext of avenging the deceased Han emperor, so it was not surprising that they had the help of Han Chinese armies."
Howard and Offenstraten were even more bewildered, their worldview severely impacted. After a long silence, Howard finally said, "I will find a way to have someone buy me a copy of 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms.' Also, we need to speed up the recruitment of laborers."