Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 214 I have never fought such a rich battle

As June was approaching, Lin Chaoyang was taken to the outskirts of Changping by Li Hanxiang.

In order to shoot the movie, he wanted to replicate the Old Summer Palace.

The garden has just started to be built, and more than half a month has passed, but it still doesn't even have a prototype.

What Li Hanxiang wanted to replicate was not the complete Old Summer Palace. If he did, even with the most crude method, the cost would be an astronomical figure. What he wanted to replicate was only a few partial scenes.

But even so, the cost of this scene is huge.

For the film "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace", Yanjing City provided Li Hanxiang with a site of more than 30000 square meters on the outskirts of Changping.

In the crew's set design, the set of the large water structure alone covered an area of ​​13000 square meters, used more than 300 cubic meters of wood, required nearly 30 structural parts, and cost more than yuan.

Today, Li Hanxiang’s ideal “Old Summer Palace” is still just a barren land, but in front of him it seems as if there are thousands of troops. He stands in the middle of the open field with Lin Chaoyang, with one hand on his waist, looking high-spirited.

In the past, when he was filming in Hong Kong and Taiwan, especially costume dramas, he could only use fake sets. Now that he has come to the mainland of China, he has tens of thousands of square meters of filming locations at his disposal, which makes Li Hanxiang feel that all his previous films were filmed in vain.

I, Old Li, have never fought such a prosperous battle in my life!

Lin Chaoyang listened quietly to Li Hanxiang's explanation of his photography concepts. He could understand Comrade Li's feelings very well.

Make a movie, build a city, few directors can resist such temptation. Just look at his cheap nephew, he is a city-building maniac.

When Li Hanxiang wanted to make a film in China, the government provided him with all-round support. The Yanjing Municipal Government provided the venue, and the co-production company, Yanjing Film Studio, and Qingjing Film Studio were responsible for providing human and technical support.

According to Li Hanxiang's idea, there should be large areas of lawn around the Dafofa, so the props staff of Yanying Studio proposed using spring wheat instead of lawn.

The props staff tried planting it last month. In just over half a month, the wheat seedlings have grown more than two inches tall and are so dense that they look no different from a lawn.

If such an area were covered with lawn, it would cost at least 30,000 yuan. But now using spring wheat instead can save most of the cost, which is very cost-effective.

"In the future, we will transplant precious trees here, here, and here, including spruce, Milan, bamboo, cypress... Only when these are completed will it have a royal atmosphere."

When Li Hanxiang said this, he could hardly hide the pride on his face, as if the general was showing off his achievements to others.

After taking a walk around the empty "Old Summer Palace" and looking at the venue, Li Hanxiang pulled Lin Chaoyang into the car and talked to him about casting.

"The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "The Empress Dowager Cixi's Reign" were two films shot in succession, which are actually one movie. Li Hanxiang had thought about making a movie with the background of Empress Dowager Cixi's reign behind the scenes several years ago.

However, at that time, the box office performance of the two films he shot, "The Fall of Kingdom" and "The Legend of Yingtai", were disappointing, so Shaw Brothers was not optimistic about his filming plan.

Shaw Brothers put forward a condition at the time. If Li Hanxiang wanted to shoot "The Last Emperor", he had to shoot another tragicomedy with eunuchs as the theme. Because both were about the Qing palace, they could be filmed together with "The Last Emperor", saving some funds.

Li Hanxiang was forced to agree to this request at the time, but he had a disagreement with Shaw Brothers on the selection of actors.

He wanted to use Brigitte Lin to play Empress Dowager Cixi, but Fang Yihua, who was in charge of Shaw Brothers at that time, thought that Brigitte Lin's image was not suitable for the role.

At that time, Brigitte Lin was a popular movie star in Taiwan, but her screen image was that of a pure and innocent girl, and she was also young, so Fang Yihua's idea was actually very reasonable.

But Li Hanxiang insisted on his own opinion, and the two sides finally parted ways unhappily. The filming plan of "The Last Emperor" was shelved.

Today, Li Hanxiang has traveled to mainland China to make a movie. After many twists and turns, he has picked up this subject again. The first heroine in his mind is still Brigitte Lin.

Listening to Li Hanxiang's choice of the heroine, Lin Chaoyang was a little surprised. He didn't expect him to say the name Lin Qingxia. In his impression, Lin Qingxia's image was far from Cixi.

"When Emperor Xianfeng passed away, Cixi was only 27 years old. Brigitte Lin is a movie star in Taiwan and has acted in many movies. I think she has a strong and dignified aura and is quite suitable to play Cixi."

Perhaps Li Hanxiang was afraid that Lin Chaoyang didn't know what Lin Qingxia looked like, so he specially handed him a photo.

In the photo, Brigitte Lin has charming features, bright and elegant, but her temperament is still a little weak.

Lin Chaoyang couldn't help but think of her temperament when she played in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". In fact, she is quite versatile and can play the role of Empress Dowager Cixi. However, he thinks Liu Xiaoqing's version of Empress Dowager Cixi is also good.

"For matters like this, you, as the director, just have to make the decision." Lin Chaoyang said.

Li Hanxiang was very happy to hear him say this. Ever since he met Lin Chaoyang, his authority as a director has been repeatedly challenged. It seems that today's trip to "Old Summer Palace" was not in vain, as Lin Chaoyang finally realized who is the king.

The co-production of the two films "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "The Last Emperor" was unprecedented in scale. It is not only a rare historical blockbuster in the history of mainland cinema, but also a top-notch specification even if Hong Kong and Taiwan are included.

Of course, the preliminary preparations cannot be completed in one go, and now is just the beginning.

After a few days, Lin Chaoyang finally finished the novel he was working on.

Previously, Yan Film Studio invited him to be a script consultant for "A Game of Chess That Has Not Been Finished", but because he disagreed with the screenwriter and crew's ideas, Lin Chaoyang chose not to cooperate with them and left the crew. The inspiration for this novel came from the ideological dispute with the crew at that time.

The novel has nearly 130,000 words. If calculated by length, it is a novella, but it is also possible to call it a short novel.

That morning, he came to deliver the manuscript to the editorial department of Yenching Literature. Zhang Dening was overjoyed to receive Lin Chaoyang's new work again after more than two years.

"It's really not easy. The last time I published your "Little Shoes" was two years ago."

"Didn't you also publish "The World's Number One Restaurant"? " Lin Chaoyang said.

"Can the influence of a script be compared to that of a novel?" Zhang Dening flipped through the manuscript happily. Looking at the title on the front page, she asked in a gossipy tone, "You wrote this novel because you had a falling out with Yanying Studio, right?"

"Who did you listen to?"

"What do you mean you heard it from someone? This has been spread a long time ago." "Don't listen to their nonsense, these are all rumors."

"Then you dare to say that you didn't write this novel because of that incident?"

Zhang Dening's questioning left Lin Chaoyang speechless. Of course, the reason he wrote the novel was because of that incident, but he did not do it to vent his anger.

Seeing his hesitation, Zhang Dening thought that he had guessed his thoughts and felt very pleased with himself.

"Oh! That saying is really true, it is better to offend a villain than to offend a scholar.

You writers, when you feel bad, you pick up your pen and start fighting.

If we become your enemies, we will be infamous for eternity if we are not careful. That is too terrible."

Lin Chaoyang smiled bitterly and said, "Stop talking nonsense. I think the rumor started from you."

"Look at you, are you angry and embarrassed? Don't worry, I am a tight-lipped person and I never spread gossip. If others ask me, I will definitely not tell them." Zhang Dening promised solemnly.

I believe you!
Lin Chaoyang sat in the office and chatted with Zhang Dening for a while before leaving. After he left, Zhang Dening opened the manuscript he sent her. She was originally reading other works, but who could have made her value Lin Chaoyang's work?

Her eyes fell on the manuscript paper, and the words in front of her turned into pictures, like a slowly unfolding movie.

It has been 47 days since the fall of Shanghai. The Battle of Shanghai that shocked China and the world seems to have become a distant thing.

The streets were filled with the smell of gunpowder, but that was not caused by the war, but by the firecrackers that every household set off to welcome the New Year.

The sound of gongs and drums and firecrackers welcomed the spring. This was the first Spring Festival after the fall of Shanghai.

The temple fair at the City God Temple was still as lively as in previous years, with a bustling market and a bustling crowd of people. The common people did not seem to be affected by the war.

There is a stall in the corner next to the wall of the City God Temple. This stall does not sell New Year's goods, does not perform acrobatics, and does not sing operas. Instead, it displays a black and white chess game.

There have always been stalls selling chess endgames on the streets, but few people have set up stalls selling Go. Go has been an exclusive entertainment for scholars and literati since ancient times, and ordinary people rarely understand it.

The owner of the chess game was a thin and gentle young man, wearing a green gown that had not been washed for who knows how long, and was both dirty and torn. At this moment, he was holding the white chess piece in one hand and the black chess piece in the other, and he was playing chess with himself. It seemed that the noisy city sounds had no effect on him at all.

Next to him was a sign that read: "Play Go. The winner will win twenty silver dollars."

Silver dollars, common people call this thing Yuan Datou or Dayang. Now that Shanghai has fallen, the legal currency is almost as good as waste paper, but the Dayang is still strong.

A third-class patrolman in the Shanghai Police Department only earned six and a half dollars a month. Twenty dollars was equivalent to a patrolman's three-month salary, which could buy more than 600 kilograms of flour, enough for an ordinary family of three for more than half a year.

The stakes are huge!
But the young man had been setting up a stall by the wall since early morning, and it was almost noon, but no one came.

The short man who was selling candied haws next door teased him, "You crazy chess player, forget about your dreams. I think you should find a regular job as soon as possible to avoid starving yourself to death."

The young man raised his head, glanced at the short man, and ignored him.

"This lunatic can't understand what we say!" The short man felt that he was being ignored. He just cursed and was startled to feel the straw target shaking. He turned around and saw a ragged beggar holding a string of candied haws in his hand and running away like the wind.

"You little bastard! How dare you steal my things!"

The short man cursed angrily and was about to chase after him, but he heard a lazy voice saying, "Don't chase him, or you'll lose your target."

The short man was startled and immediately stopped what he was doing. He glanced at the young man, and seeing that he was still concentrating on playing chess, he didn't say anything else.

"Huh? Kondo-kun, look, there are people playing Go here."

A pretty girl stood in front of the chess stall and grabbed her companion who was about to move forward.

Kondo Jiro stopped and looked at the chess stall and the young man with a slightly contemptuous look in his eyes.

"Go is a refined hobby for gentlemen. Setting up a street stall is vulgar. Let's go!"

But the girl stopped him, pointed at the sign next to him and said, "Look, he's still gambling. What a big mouth this guy is!"

Kondo Jiro looked over attentively, "Interesting!"

"If you win, will you get twenty silver dollars?" he asked.

The young man looked at Kondo Jiro, "Japanese?"

"What's wrong with the Japanese?" Kondo Jiro asked with narrowed eyes.

"Nothing. If I win I'll get twenty dollars, and if I lose I'll get two dollars."

Kondo Jiro looked the young man up and down and asked, "Do you have twenty dollars?"

The young man reached into his pocket and a package fell onto the chessboard with a crisp clanging sound.

"If you win, you'll get twenty dollars. If you lose, give me two dollars." The young man's voice was full of confidence.

Kondo Jiro's smile grew wider, "Okay, I'll follow you!"

(End of this chapter)