Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 569 Fooling Heraclius
The banquet lasted from the afternoon until after dark. Under the urging of Yi Nan, Sun Xiangfu led everyone to turn around and headed directly to the opera house.

Sun Xiangfu and Heraclius took a five-wheeled cart together, and with his introduction, Heraclius got a general idea of ​​the highlights of several night scenes in Dingxiang City.

"Aren't you afraid of spending money to hold so many lamps in the city?"

"Hehe, such a small amount of money spent on holding the lamp is not worth a fraction of the benefits brought to us by holding the lamp. Your Highness, please carefully look at the streets of this city. What is the difference between you and Constantinople?" ?”

"It's more lively, prosperous and beautiful here."

Even if Heraclius' words reached Sun Xiangfu's ears through the translator's translation, Sun Xiangfu could understand his feelings when he said these words, the deep envy and jealousy!

"That's why we hold street lamps on the streets at night. With street lamps, more people will come out to play, consume, and our business tax revenue will also increase significantly."

Hearing this, Heraclius suddenly realized, "Is this the secret of your Tang Dynasty's prosperity?"

"Well, it counts! However, this is only a small part of it. Even though your Byzantine Empire was established much longer than ours, your level of craftsmanship is quite different from ours in the Central Plains. Whether it is from folk supplies, This is true of everything from military equipment to military equipment, so compared with us, you are still very weak."

"Weak? It's not appropriate to use this term to describe our powerful Byzantine Empire. We have the largest territory, the largest population, and the largest number of troops in the world..."

"Hehehe, if you said this a few years ago, I might agree with you, but your Byzantine Empire, even if you include all the subject countries, is no more than 600 million square kilometers, and the land area of ​​my Tang Dynasty, Now it has more than 3000 million square kilometers, which is more than five times that of yours. Although your population and army are slightly larger than ours, but more does not mean stronger. You have seen the equipment of our soldiers in the Tang Dynasty in the city Now, as for their combat strength, you will have a specific understanding on the sports field, as for what I just said, wealth, and craftsmanship, you know."

"3000 million square kilometers? How is it possible? As far as I know, your Tang country is not that big at all. Moreover, your population is less than 2000 million, while we have more than 4000 million."

"Hehehe, that's why I said you said that a few years ago. I might agree with you. Our Datang has been growing rapidly in recent years, and the four sides have expanded a lot. The newly increased territory and population The number is very large, across the entire Central Plains, and overseas, there are many islands and entire continents under my Tang rule. One of the Australian continents alone is wider than all the territory of your Byzantine Empire , where, it’s just our exclusive ranch now.”

When the Byzantine Empire was founded in 395, it had a population of about 400 million, because they inherited the main body of the Roman Empire, and their economy has always been relatively stable, and their population reproduction rate is relatively fast.

Now, more than 200 years later, due to the defeat of the agreement of the Sasanian Dynasty, most of the land and population in Central Asia were ceded to the Byzantine Empire, and their population and territory have experienced a new round of growth. According to their official According to statistics, the population directly under the rule of the Byzantine Empire is more than 200 million. Counting the population of the vassal states, the population exceeds 5000 million, which is comparable to the population of the Tang Dynasty in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

But Sun Xiangfu did not lie. The land connected to the mainland of the Tang Dynasty, even if the Tubo Plateau is subtracted, is about twice as large as the territory of our country in later generations, because, going east, in addition to adding the entire Korean Peninsula , plus the entire Outer Khingan Mountains, reaching the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

To the west, it includes the entire Congling Mountains, the Pamirs, and even later Afghanistan and nearly half of Pakistan.

To the north, it includes Outer Mongolia and most of the later Kazakhstan. Of course, it can also declare sovereignty over the uninhabited Gobi Desert from Siberia to Eastern Europe.

To the south, it covers the entire coastal area of ​​Southeast Asia.

Then there are overseas Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and even the entire Australian continent. In later generations, the territories of dozens of countries, all added up, are more than 3000 million square kilometers.

The information he said refreshed Heraclius's understanding of Datang at once, and he realized that the name of Tang he mentioned earlier was not so appropriate. It should be called "Great Tang", and the focus should be on " Big' word above.

Sun Xiangfu took the same car with Heraclius, and there was a reason for talking about these things, and it was to persuade him to recognize the status of the Great Tang Dynasty as the Shang Kingdom and the number one empire in the world.

Seeing that Heraclius was silent and digesting the information from the translator, Sun Xiangfu said again, "It is beyond doubt that our Tang Dynasty is the most powerful country in the world. A small border town of ours is already bigger than that of your empire." The capital is even more prosperous, and as for our capital, Chang'an City, which is several times larger than this city, I hope you will have the opportunity to visit it, it is the largest male city in the world."

Naturally, Dingxiang City is not as prosperous as it is now, because of the holding of the sports meeting, which gave it a bonus effect of more than five times, but Heraclius did not expect this. It took less than a day, but everything I saw was unbelievably strong, completely crushing the strength of their own country.

Now, in his heart, he has actually begun to agree with what Sun Xiangfu said. However, he is also aware of the problem behind this incident. You must know that in the West, any country whose civilization has not reached a certain level believes in the strong. Yes, once Datang established its status as the most powerful country in the world, there would be many kingdoms that wanted to attach themselves to them. Unfortunately, this was the fact before his eyes.

"Mr. Duke, do you have any intention of boasting about your empire so much?" Heraclius followed his father to manage the country's politics for many years, and he was naturally not a fool, looking straight at Sun Xiangfu who was pretending to show off.

If he didn't ask that question, Sun Xiangfu would be too embarrassed to say it!
Hearing the words from the interpreter, Sun Xiangfu immediately said to the official interpreter, "You tell Prince Heraclius that way, that our emperor wants to add the title of 'Tian Khan' to the opening ceremony of the sports meeting. The meaning of "Tian Khan" can be understood as the strongest emperor in the world, the emperor that all kings must respect. Therefore, in this ceremony, as the prince of the Byzantine Empire, he also respectfully pays respects to His Majesty the Emperor salute."

Soon, the translator complied with Sun Xiangfu's intention, organized the language, and told Heraclius. Unexpectedly, Heraclius, after thinking for a while, actually nodded in agreement. It seems that what Sun Xiangfu said just now The cowhide is not in vain.

In the hearts of Westerners, there will not be so many detours. If you are strong, you are strong. If you are strong, you will be respected by others. The emperor of an empire whose land area is five times larger than his own country should be honored. Announcing his strength to the world, even if his father is present, he should show respect, not to mention that he is just a prince. In addition, the Byzantine Empire, which is now a headache for the Arabs, should not establish a powerful empire like the Tang Empire. The enemy, so he made a decisive decision.

After Heraclius is settled, then Li Shimin's title of honor in front of the whole world and the establishment of the status of the Great Tang Dynasty as a kingdom will be successfully completed. At this time, the car has also arrived at the most peculiar building in Dingxiang City. place, opera house.

The design of the Dingxiang Opera House was the most troublesome problem for the architectural talents under Sun Xiangfu. At the beginning, Sun Xiangfu asked them to ensure the lighting during the day and keep the spotlight at night. The sound of the stage must be concentrated in the auditorium as much as possible. For this reason, after the ground infrastructure of this theater is completed, the buildings on the ground have to be knocked down and rebuilt three times before they are basically satisfied.

There are seven venues in the entire opera house, ranging from a small theater with 1000 people to a large theater with 7000 people. Dongzhu’s performance today is Theater No. 7000, which can accommodate [-] people. In theater, theater No. [-] with a capacity of [-] people is generally not used. Like the [-]-person theater being built next to Chang’an Qujiang Pond, it is basically impossible to guarantee that everyone who enters the venue can hear the voice of the lead singer. , only some chorus and large group dance performances can be performed.

The level of technology is not enough, and there is no way to do it. At this scale, singing with real voice is already the maximum limit for the audience to hear the singer's singing.

The Opera House has become the busiest place in Dingxiang City as early as more than a month ago. Whether it is day or night, there are performances. Tonight, there are actually performances in venues [-], [-], and [-]. The snack pedestrian street is full of people.

Heraclius just scanned these streets roughly with his eyes, and found that most of the people who ate in the snack street and went to the theater to watch performances were dressed as civilians, and it was precisely because of this , Heraclius felt the strength of Datang even more in his heart.

Ordinary civilians in the Tang Dynasty can freely eat delicious food in the snack street and buy tickets to watch performances in the opera house. This shows that their people are very rich.

"Excuse me, if I come to the show by myself, how much do I need to spend to buy tickets?"

Sun Xiangfu didn't need to answer this question, the translator directly answered Heraclius, "The ticket price will be different depending on the seat and the popularity of the performers. The general entertainers and actors, and ordinary theater performances, Tickets are only [-] cents each, and those in the front row near the stage are only about [-] cents each.

Like Princess Dongzhu, if a well-known singer who is very popular with the people comes to the stage, the theater will greatly increase the price of tickets. Ordinary seats may sell for more than [-] yuan, and VIP seats near the stage may be as high as one or two. Of course, even Even at this fare, the supply is almost in short supply. "

Generally, ordinary singers and entertainers who are qualified to hold special performances in art troupes can receive dozens of tickets even for an hour-long concert in the smallest theater. Top artists like Dongzhu who are loved by almost all people, For a concert with 5000 people, you can receive thousands of tickets. The high-priced tickets of about [-] in the front row alone can sell for [-] or [-]. Strong ability to absorb money.

Sun Xiangfu didn't know that Heraclius was still comparing the people's livelihood of the Tang Dynasty with Byzantium in his mind, and soon he took him into the No. [-] theater with Yi Nan leading the large team. Occupies more than half of the seats near the stage.

And Heraclius, who followed Sun Xiangfu into the seat, suddenly became a curious baby, asking him various questions about the theater. However, the more he asked, the more confused he became, because what is the echo device on the ceiling, what is the gathering room? The light device, to him who doesn't understand the principle, is really profound.

Then, when the stage was illuminated by various colored lights and Dongzhu appeared on the stage in a delicate feather dress, Heraclius truly felt the charm of this stage.

Hundreds of musicians played collectively, the impact of the powerful volume and strong rhythm brought him an unprecedented pleasure, and then Dongzhu began to sing.

"Colorful clouds are fluttering, love is burning, love is jumping and falling into the arms, a ray of sunshine illuminates the heart, my dream puts red makeup on you..."

Heraclius couldn't understand Chinese at all, but he just felt that the music was very touching. Soon, his expression became the same as that of Dongzhu's fanatic fans, and those who were like him, who were a little bit drunk The representatives of the countries in the Western Regions are all like this.

(End of this chapter)