Things like the mythological system are actually very chaotic and scattered in the Ming Dynasty today.

Whether it is Pangu creating the world, Nuwa creating humans, the Three Pure Ones, or Houyi shooting down the sun, Buddhism, Taoism, Taoism, etc., they all exist independently and are not stories that are connected together.

It is just like Pangu creating the world: Pangu was a king with a dragon head and a snake body. He could breathe out wind and rain, blow out thunder and lightning, open his eyes for day, close his eyes for night. After his death, his bones and joints became mountains and forests, his body became rivers and seas, his blood became rivers and lakes, and his hair became plants and trees.

The earliest record comes from the "Five-Dynamic Calendar" in the ninth line of Volume 9 of "Guang Bowuzhi".

It has nothing to do with Buddhism or Taoism.

The myth of Pangu was first widely circulated among the ethnic minorities in the south of the Central Plains Dynasty.

The Miao and Yao ethnic groups have always worshipped Pangu and regarded him as their ancestor.

Pangu is also widely believed by the Zhuang, Dong, Mulao and other ethnic groups, who regard him as the ancestor of mankind who created the world.

But this has nothing to do with the Han nationality. Pangu at that time did not exist in the Han nationality's mythology, such as Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.

The story of Hou Yi shooting down the sun comes from the "Chu Ci·Heavenly Questions" in the pre-Qin literature. There is a related record in the ancient version of Shan Hai Jing. The first volume of the Song Dynasty encyclopedia "Jinxiu Wanhua Valley" quotes "Shan Hai Jing" and says: "In the time of Yao, ten suns appeared at the same time. Yao ordered Yi to shoot down the ten suns, and they landed in Wojiao."

The Journey to the West known to later generations, with Tang Monk, Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie, did not come out until the middle of the Ming Dynasty. The current Journey to the West does not have any eighty-one difficulties.

There are still more than a hundred years before the publication of The Investiture of the Gods. At present, the only Pinghua version of the Ming Dynasty is "The King Wu Conquers King Zhou", which was published during the Song Dynasty.

The subsequent "Investiture of the Gods" was created based on "The King Wu Conquers King Zhou".

Witch is considered a profession nowadays. Most wizards perform tasks such as summoning gods, predicting events, praying for rain, healing diseases, etc. There is no concept of a witch clan.

For a moment, Zhu Ying suddenly thought of the ancient mythology system that only appeared in later novels.

The Honghuang mythology system connects a large number of mythological stories together to form a huge worldview system.

Buddhism, Taoism, and even Confucianism are all integrated into it.

Taking Pangu creating the world as an example, the timelines of all mythological stories are integrated to form a strict mythological system.

The more hierarchical and rigorous the mythological system is, the easier it is to form belief.

The Bible has such a great influence on the West, which actually goes from mythology to philosophy and then to the establishment of the world view.

It can be said that the prehistoric mythology system is beyond the cognition and imagination of this era. The strict and tight mythological characters and lifelike mythological stories are beyond the mythological power that we know today.

It may sound a bit ridiculous, but it will actually have a huge impact on the entire society.

The key reason is that because these are all government products and have the endorsement of the court, people will subconsciously choose to believe them.

The most important thing is that Zhu Ying holds the power to speak for the entire era: the Ming Dynasty Capital Gazette.

The Ming Dynasty Capital Gazette is a must-read for overseas nobles today.

With the prosperity of maritime trade, the Ming Dynasty Capital Gazette became increasingly popular under the control of Zhu Ying.

Don't underestimate the profits this official report brought to the Ming Dynasty. It only cost a few cents, but its selling price overseas started at several taels of silver. The farther the distance, the higher the price.

The imperial treasury receives millions of taels of silver every year, and the actual turnover is more than ten times that, not counting the transportation costs, which already amount to hundreds of millions.

Taking the Imperial Gazette as an example, the world's silver and gold were flowing into the Ming Dynasty on a large scale.

Correspondingly, the huge circulation has enabled Chinese characters to spread rapidly throughout the world.

Without Zhu Ying knowing it, the earliest publication of the current Beijing Gazette has already spread to Western Europe, Egypt and other places.

Let the kings of distant countries understand how powerful the Ming Dynasty is in this land in the East.

It also made a large number of nobles and businessmen begin to long for and yearn for the Ming Dynasty.

The status of Chinese translation is now rising sharply overseas.

You know, although there is no concept of information blockage, even in the Middle East and even with neighboring countries there are communication barriers.

There is no channel for information dissemination, it's more like everyone is doing their own thing behind closed doors.

The magic of the Imperial Gazette is that the Ming Dynasty is like having a world loudspeaker in its hands, which can introduce its own situation to all countries in the world.

In the overseas version of Zhu Ying's official reports, he would often mention how vast the territory of the Ming Dynasty was and how powerful its military was.

Just one sentence in the official report, that the Ming Dynasty had more than two million soldiers and generals, was enough to scare most countries.

What does two million mean?

The fourteenth century was a century of population decline, and the world's population did not experience an explosion at that time.

The Little Ice Age caused constant disasters across the world, such as the Black Death which just ended in Europe.

The original population of Europe, which originally numbered 70 to 80 million, was reduced by nearly half.

In most countries, let alone having millions of soldiers, the national population is only a few hundred thousand, less than a million.

In comparison, the Ming Dynasty's two million troops were completely at the top of the world.

The population of more than 60 million made every noble confirm the specific number again and again after receiving the accurate translation. After receiving a positive answer, they almost suffocated.

This was beyond their imagination.

Especially when I heard that Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, had a population of nearly three million, my heart almost went numb.

A city with three million people living in it must be a huge and prosperous city.

Countless people who learned about the contents of the imperial gazette would develop a yearning and longing for the Ming Dynasty in the East.

Naturally, many nobles in other countries thought this was a lie and could not be trusted.

But after some merchants who had been to the Ming capital told the real situation, they discovered that the contents of the official newspaper were all true.

The name of Emperor Hongwu is now popular all over the world. Even Zhu Yuanzhang himself doesn't know it. In some small countries with few people, he has become a mythical figure, like a god walking on earth, the master of the world.

It seems that only such an identity can be worthy of the title of Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

The impact of this is extremely far-reaching, such as Sultana.

If there were no imperial gazettes, Sultana would certainly not have learned Chinese characters, let alone come to the capital of the Ming Dynasty to meet Zhu Ying by chance.

Cases like Sultana's are not isolated cases, but the norm around the world today.

Land trade has too many restrictions, and maritime trade is now the mainstream of trade.

It is impossible to travel from the Middle East to Ming Dynasty by land, but it becomes easier by sea.

Merchants from all over the world feel honored to come to the Ming Dynasty to trade, and they themselves purchase goods in the Ming Dynasty.

Especially the three trump cards, porcelain, tea and silk.

These have been the main commodities that have allowed the Central Plains dynasties to earn almost 80% of the world's silver throughout history, and are now being dumped crazily all over the world.

As long as foreign businessmen purchase a batch, they can make dozens of times the profit by resell it.

Ever since the Ming treasure ship entered Champa, the world's merchants have been shocked. The treasure ship, which was as big as a city, was like a manifestation of gods to the Japanese nobles, and it was beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Only the Ming Dynasty, which is as powerful as the gods, could build such a large ship.

Against this background, Zhu Ying's status in Japan naturally became very high.

The moment Zhu Ying arrived in Japan, it meant that everything had stabilized.

The peace treaty, which was originally important to the two countries, now became a matter of Zhu Ying's words.

For this purpose, Japan specially prepared a grand hunting activity for Zhu Ying to enjoy.

…

"Lord Ashikaga, are we really going to just obey the Ming Dynasty? Now Japan has become a slave of the Ming Dynasty, and we have lost all our power."

"Kyushu Island is such a huge territory, but the Ming Dynasty's grandson took it all away without saying a word. He didn't take us seriously at all."

"This hunting trip is a great opportunity. I will lead the most skilled warriors and take the life of the Ming Dynasty's grandson."

In an inner room, Yoshimasa Sasaki said with determination in his voice.

Sasaki Yoshimasa was the head of the Sasaki clan in Japan and the most loyal subordinate of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

In response to the Ming Dynasty's continued oppression of Japan, the already hot-tempered Sasaki Yoshimasa wanted to assassinate the Ming Crown Prince.

In fact, this idea was not only held by Sasaki Yoshimasa, but also by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who had even outlined the specific details in his mind.

Because the threat posed by the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty was too great. At such a young age, how could he bring prosperity to the Ming Dynasty?

He was also ambitious. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was worried that the current Kyushu Island would become the same as the entire territory of Japan in the future.

If the Ming Dynasty's crown prince died, the Ming Dynasty would have no successor and would decline.

"Shiba-kun, but do you know that if the Ming Dynasty's grandson died in Japan, it would bring a terrible disaster to Japan."

"The Ming Emperor was extremely cruel. It is said that he killed many people. According to the statistics of our spies in the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Emperor killed hundreds of thousands of people after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty."

"These hundreds of thousands of people are all officials and nobles."

Speaking of this, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu couldn't help but feel a little emotional. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was really too bloodthirsty. Compared with him, he was nothing but a dwarf.

Then he continued, "If the Ming emperor died in Japan, who knows what the old Ming emperor would do."

Upon hearing this, Sasaki Yoshimasa gritted his teeth and said, "But Ashikaga-sama, everyone can see the ambition of the Ming Taisun. He asked the King of Qin to return Iyo Province only because he was afraid that we would mobilize the entire country's military force."

"The Ming Dynasty just wants to delay time. Once Kyushu Island is completely under the control of the Ming Dynasty, it will definitely continue to invade Shikoku Island, and then Honshu Island, until the entire country is brought under the rule of the Ming Dynasty vassal king."

"Instead of being slowly devoured, it is better for us to take the initiative and kill the Ming Taisun."

"Lord Ashikaga, this is a rare opportunity. As long as the Ming Dynasty's grandson is killed, the Ming Dynasty will become chaotic because of the issue of succession. We in Japan will have a chance. By that time..."

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu raised his hand to interrupt Sasaki Yoshimasa's speech, and then continued: "There is no such time."

"At that time, there will be no Japan. The entire Japan will be massacred by the Ming Dynasty because of the death of the Ming Dynasty's grandson."

"Mr. Shiba, you have no idea how high the status of the Ming Emperor is in the Ming Dynasty. Although he has not yet inherited the throne of the Ming Emperor, his actual power and prestige are no less than that of the Ming Emperor."

"Even the lowest-ranking soldiers in the Ming army have a fanatical worship of the Ming crown prince. If you have paid attention to those vassal kings' soldiers in recent days, you will know that I am right."

"Those soldiers who were supposed to be the personal soldiers of the Ming princes would show extremely excited expressions whenever the Ming prince appeared, and I saw this on every soldier's face."

"There is an old saying in the Central Plains: a glimpse of a leopard can reveal the whole story, and a single fallen leaf can herald the coming of autumn. You are all soldiers who have already left for home, so how could the soldiers living in the Ming Dynasty be any worse?"

"If the Ming Dynasty's grandson died, not only the Ming Dynasty emperor would be enraged, but the entire Ming Dynasty would be enraged as a whole."

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu smiled bitterly and said, "I'll tell you what will happen at that time. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty will immediately issue an edict to kill all the people in the Wa Kingdom."

"Whether it is the royal family, the nobles, or even the common people, they will all be massacred by the Ming Dynasty. The entire Japanese country will become a wasteland, and all the Japanese will become dust in history and disappear completely."

"You are right. Maybe Japan will be annexed by Ming in the future, but at least Japan still exists."

"And the result of assassinating the Ming Dynasty's grandson was that the entire Japanese nation disappeared in the wrath of the Ming Dynasty."

"Even if the Ming Dynasty becomes chaotic due to the succession issue, what does it mean to us?"

"On the contrary, before the Ming Dynasty's grandson returns to the capital, we must do our best to protect his safety and not disturb him in the slightest. Any abnormality will be a burden that our country cannot bear."

Hearing this, Sasaki Yoshimasa asked in disbelief, "Lord Ashikaga, is the Ming Dynasty's grandson really so terrifying?"

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's mouth was full of bitterness: "You should learn more about the Ming Dynasty. Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you win every battle."

"When you understand what kind of person the Ming Taisun is, you will know that what I just said is not wrong."

"Why would I want the Ming Dynasty's grandson to live?"

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was a smart man, and smart people are very clear about the consequences of something.

Regarding the assassination of the Ming Crown Prince, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu thought about the response measures countless times in his mind.

But in the end, it was a sad discovery that no matter what means were used, they were meaningless. The more they understood the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty, the more they knew that he was not someone Japan could afford to provoke.

If you can't resist, then you can only surrender completely.