Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 271 The Siren Sings, and the Prosperous World Comes True! [Subscription Request]

"Your Majesty, I have prepared six songs."

After Liu Kuan finished speaking, he came to the imperial throne with the tablet computer.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "What are you standing there for? Come up quickly."

Liu Kuan thought to himself: If you don’t let me come up, how can I dare to go up rashly?

However, he responded with a "yes", walked to the side of the imperial desk, called up the song video collection that had been prepared long ago on the tablet, then put the tablet away, bowed and retreated.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not try to persuade him to stay - he had already mastered the basic operations of the tablet, and he could do things like play, pause, and even rewind by himself, without the need for Liu Kuan to serve him.

"Let's eat."

Zhu Yuanzhang stared at the tablet and said without raising his head.

Queen Ma smiled helplessly at first, then moved closer.

By this time, Lao Zhu had already clicked on the video, and saw a huge bright moon and a stage floating in the starry sky, and a woman's figure appeared in the full moon.

At the same time, the name of the first song appeared next to it - "Left Hand Pointing to the Moon".

Although Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma had watched many videos from later generations, they were still stunned when they saw this scene.

They both wondered: This looks like a singing stage? How gorgeous and dreamy! Is it real, or just some so-called CGI?

Before the two of them could think about it, after the prelude of the song, an ethereal voice sounded.

"With the left hand holding the earth, and the right hand holding the sky, the palm lines cracked with lightning in all directions."

"Time has quickly turned into years..."

As the song progresses, the video becomes clearer.

Only then did Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma confirm that the two singers, one male and one female, must be singing on a real stage.

What puzzled them was that the singer who looked like a man was actually singing in a female voice, so they thought that the singer was probably a woman disguised as a man.

Soon, the song reached its climax, and countless light spots were seen spinning around the two singers like a galaxy.

At the same time, Sa Dingding and Zhou Shen transformed into sirens and began to sing!
"In the moonlight, ahhhh~"

"You and me, ahhhh~~"

Although Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma had heard many songs from later generations, this was the first time they had heard such extreme siren singing. They suddenly felt as if a tingling sensation rushed straight to the top of their heads, and they even got goose bumps!
Below, Zhu Biao, Zhu Chong, Lu Shi and others were also quietly listening to the singing coming from the imperial throne.

Although they were a little far away and did not enjoy the hearing as much as Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma, they all had similar feelings when they heard this.

"How could people in later generations sing a song like this?"

'Almost heavenly music!'

"If I hadn't known that my third brother-in-law wasn't a banished immortal from heaven, but a visitor from the afterlife, I would have mistaken this song for a fairy maiden singing."

"It's so beautiful! I wish I could listen to it beside my father!"

'···'

For a moment, the Zhu family was filled with emotions, all moved by the song "Left Hand Pointing to the Moon".

It was not until the song finished and the next one played automatically that Lao Zhu and others came to their senses.

But then Lao Zhu pulled the video back to the beginning and played "Left Hand Pointing to the Moon" again.

Liu Kuan heard the melody of the song again, and couldn't help but feel a little worried. He thought to himself: "Isn't Lao Zhu manually looping it dozens of times? Then I don't know when this dinner will end."

Fortunately, Lao Zhu had great self-control. He only played the song once and then started playing the second song.

The prelude of the second song is very crisp and cheerful. As a middle-aged woman appears, the song title is also displayed on the screen.

"'Guanghan Palace'?" Empress Ma read out the song title and then smiled. "Two songs, both about the moon. They're very fitting for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Kuan'er must have put a lot of thought into finding these songs."

Old Zhu smiled and nodded, and enjoyed the poem "Guanghan Palace" with Empress Ma.

This song was composed by Teacher Wu Bixia for "Fantasy Westward Journey". It is very nice.

The coloratura in the middle section once again amazed the Zhu family.

In addition, this song is light-hearted and cheerful, making it more suitable for appreciation during the Mid-Autumn Festival. After it was over, Lao Zhu went back and listened to it again.

Then the third song came, it was Faye Wong's "As Wish".

This song was not as showy as the previous two songs, and it sounded rather bland at first, but Zhu Biao and others below noticed that Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma were staring at the tablet with extremely serious and focused expressions.

"It's just a song, it's impossible for Father and Mother to have such expressions. It seems that the video accompanying this song is very special." Zhu Biao thought so.

Liu Kuan also noticed the expressions of Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma, and understood what was going on.

Because this video was edited from movies such as "The Founding of a Party" and "The Founding of an Army", and it also comes with some explanatory subtitles - Zhu Yuanzhang certainly could not get the full picture of the establishment of the new dynasty in later generations through these subtitles, but even a glimpse of it would be shocking.

Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed shocked by the video footage.

The video begins with the soldiers of the Xin Dynasty in later generations rushing towards the enemy's artillery fire in the war.

Then the scene changed, and it was the soldiers of the Xin Dynasty in later generations standing in the river, carrying pieces of wood and combining them into a bridge to allow other soldiers to cross the river and charge.

At the same time, two lines of small white characters appeared in the lower left corner——

“Please don’t forget that there were people who fought to the death in the stormy seas.”

“Please don’t forget that some people have been saved by fire.”

“Please don’t forget that some people used their flesh and blood to build the Great Wall of our nation!”

The constantly emerging small white characters, combined with the video images, seemed to allow Zhu Yuanzhang to see the process of establishing a new dynasty in the future - this process seemed to be even more arduous and difficult than he had expected.

But he immediately became suspicious: Liu Kuan once said that these videos were mostly edited from movies and TV shows, and most movies and TV shows are fabricated. Even if they are adapted from facts, there will be some exaggeration.

The establishment of a new dynasty in the future should not involve so many hardships and sacrifices, right?
This was his rational speculation, but his intuition told him that establishing a new dynasty in the future might be as difficult as shown in this video, and might even require more and heavier sacrifices.

The second half of the video shows scenes of various large-scale constructions and brilliant achievements of the Xin Dynasty in later generations, which correspond exactly to the first half.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang feel that perhaps his intuition was right.

"This new dynasty is far more powerful than just technology and weaponry—their military is likely even more powerful and terrifying than we previously anticipated."

After listening to the song "As Wish" and watching the video, Zhu Yuanzhang had almost no interest in listening to the following songs.

In this state of mind, Zhu Yuanzhang would not play this song again, so the fourth song appeared, called "Mountain and River Map".

It was sung by two singers, one male and one female, in a brand-new style. It was more like reciting than singing. It was bold and rhythmic. Combined with the magnificent natural scenery in the video, it made Zhu Yuanzhang feel much more cheerful.

Zhu Biao and the others below looked strange when they heard this. They had never expected that there would be such a strange style of song in the future. Many people even muttered in their hearts:

"The styles of music in later generations are truly diverse."

"People in later generations will surely be blessed to have so many different styles of music to listen to."

"How strange! Is this song even listened to by anyone?"

'···'

After the performance of "Mountain and River Map", the later naval version of "Treading on Mountains and Rivers" was released.

This song has to be listened to with the video. Zhu Biao and others cannot see the video for the time being, and they are not Chinese of later generations. Naturally, they don’t have any special feelings when they only listen to the song. They even think that this song is a bit ordinary compared to the previous ones.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma were still watching it seriously.

Especially when warships from later generations appeared in the video, Lao Zhu even paused the video, put his face close to the tablet, and looked at it carefully.

Then he sighed: "This later warship can fire such powerful shells and can also run airplanes. It's too powerful."

In fact, he had heard Liu Kuan mention it before and knew that this kind of warship was called an aircraft carrier.

But now the Ming Dynasty doesn’t even have airplanes, so there’s no need to think about having an aircraft carrier.

After listening to the Navy version of "Treading on Mountains and Rivers" intermittently, the last song appeared, called "Wishing We Could Live Together Forever", and it was sung by the singer named Faye Wong.

Empress Ma asked, "This seems to be a line from Su Dongpo's 'Water Melody'?"

Although Zhu Yuanzhang had a good memory, he did not remember many poems, especially those that expressed sadness about the passing of spring and autumn and reflected on life.

When Empress Ma asked, he said, "How can we know? We can find out by watching the video."

Soon, ethereal singing began.

"When will the bright moon appear? I raise my cup to ask the blue sky..."

Many of the princes, grandchildren, princesses and others below knew Su Shi's "Water Melody Song". Listening to it being sung in the style of later generations was a unique experience.

After the song was finished, Zhu Yuanzhang looked down and found that many people were just like him and Queen Ma, who were only focused on listening to the song and didn't eat much.

So he said, "What are you all standing there for? Eat quickly. Then we can watch a movie."

Upon hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's order, Zhu Tan, Zhu Xiongying and others immediately started eating as quickly as possible. Even the concubines and princesses ate quite fast.

In less than half an hour, the Zhu family had finished their meal.

Empress Ma ordered the palace maids to clear away the dishes and bowls, and Old Zhu handed the tablet to Zhu Huilan and asked her to play the songs for Zhu Biao and others. However, he came to chat with Liu Kuan as before.

"Look at the video accompanying the song 'As Wish'. It says that the establishment of a new dynasty in later generations was extremely difficult and involved many sacrifices. Is that an exaggeration?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, although the scenes in the video are acted out, or even made up, the hardships and sacrifices in establishing a new dynasty in later generations are definitely even greater than those in the past!"

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang no longer had any hope and naturally overestimated the strength of the Xin Dynasty in the future.

He did not continue to ask about things in the future. He waited patiently for the palace servants to set up the "home theater". Then he took his family to sit in rows according to their status, seniority, and gender, ready to watch the video.

After Liu Kuan came over and took back the tablet, he said, "Your Majesty, this time I have prepared three videos and a movie again."

"Are they all long videos?" asked Lao Zhu.

"Yes."

"Then play it."

Liu Kuan nodded, called up the first video, and put the tablet away.

Zhu Yuanzhang and others also saw the main and subtitles of the first video.

The main title of the video cover is: Why is China so dependent on Malacca?

The subtitle below the video is: Why is the Strait of Malacca difficult to replace for our country?

The master is the [Earth Knowledge Bureau].

When Zhu Yuanzhang saw the place name "Malacca", he was not confused.

Since he copied a lot of maps from later generations from Liu Kuan, he naturally knew that Malacca was the strait southwest of Temasek (Singapore) today. It was translated into Chinese as "Malacca" in the early Yuan Dynasty and was still under the rule of the Srivijaya Kingdom.

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)