In mid-February, the severe cold has passed. Although the weather is still very cold, the temperature is not that low. The empire has won a great victory, and the price of food has stabilized. As the New Year performance approaches, the people who feel at ease are waiting for this important annual event in the empire.
Today, more and more people come to **.
The capital of the Qiankun Empire is an ancient city that is more than two hundred years old. It is twenty miles long and fifteen miles wide. It covers an area of 300 square miles and has a permanent population of nearly one million. Although it has been renovated many times, traces of the passage of time are still there.
You can see it everywhere, and this kind of accumulation brings an unspeakable depth and solemnity to people.
When Jiang Xingchen saw this ancient city for the first time, he couldn't hide the shock in his heart. This kind of weight accumulated over time is far beyond what Hongyuan City can match.
After saying hello to Mo Hongxian and Wanrou, Jiang Xingchen stopped riding in the carriage and asked the old man to be his guide. He led Meier down and squeezed into the crowd entering the city. It was his first time in **, so of course he had to take Meier with him.
Let’s take a walk.
After entering the capital, Jiang Xingchen saw a more prosperous scene than Hongyuan City. There were constant pedestrians on the streets, horse-drawn carriages, and numerous store signs.
With an excited smile on her face, the little girl shook her head from side to side, looking at this and that, feeling like her eyes were almost exhausted.
The old man raised his face and made introductions as he walked, pretending to be a landlord.
A month later, when the old man led them to a street, Jiang Xingchen realized what it meant to have so many people. The sight of people jockeying one after another was almost comparable to the pedestrian streets of big cities on Earth.
"Boy, this is Jinlong Street, the largest market in the whole north of the city... What do you think, you have never seen this scene before!" the old man said arrogantly.
"Tch! What's the point? I've seen markets where people were so crowded that they couldn't even walk!" Jiang Xingchen curled his lips in disdain and glanced sideways at the old man.
The old man twitched the corners of his eyes twice, pointed at Jiang Xingchen, and whispered: "Boy, can you be any thicker-skinned? You can tell such a lie, and we don't see who will believe it!"
"Tch! Believe it or not!" Jiang Xingchen ignored it and led Mei'er inside, thinking to himself: "If you see that scene in the Shanghai subway, I won't scare you to death!"
The old man stared at Jiang Xingchen's back and gritted his teeth angrily: "You little bastard, you'll feel uncomfortable if you don't go against me..."
He led Meier around the market and bought some clothes and small headwear. When he was about to walk back, Meier suddenly pulled him: "Brother, look, there is a flower seller there!"
"Ah?" Jiang Xingchen wondered: "What time of year it is, how come there are flowers?"
He turned his head and looked in the direction of Mei'er's finger. Sure enough, there were two bouquets of budding flowers on a stall.
"This is Fentan. The royal aristocrats like to put this kind of flower at home for decoration. It is performed every New Year. This flower sells the fastest... Generally, Fentan breaks through the ice every February and is the earliest flower to bloom. And
The flowering period is very long, and it doesn't wither until mid-March... Speaking of which, because of the severe cold this year, it bloomed a little late, and it hasn't bloomed yet!" the old man explained on the side.
"Let's go over and take a look!" Jiang Xingchen was about to lead Mei'er over to buy it. A short little girl had already squeezed in ahead of them and bought two bunches of powder.
"Hey!" Mei'er pouted her little mouth and her cheeks puffed up.
Jiang Xingchen kept staring at the little girl, showing a strange expression.
"Brother! What are you looking at?" Meier asked Lao Gao. He thought his brother would comfort him, but he kept staring at the girl's back.
"That girl is an orc!" Jiang Xingchen patted Mei'er on the head and said with a smile, "Just let someone buy it. Let's look for it again and see if there are any for sale!"
"Stop looking for it!" The old man stopped him and explained: "The Fentan has not yet opened, so few people go to the wild to look for it. I guess this one was discovered by chance and picked by chance!"
"Oh!" Jiang Xingchen nodded, and then asked strangely: "Since this flower is valuable, why doesn't anyone plant it?"
"How come no one is planting it!" The old man smiled and shook his head and said, "The problem is that it doesn't survive at all!"
Jiang Xingchen frowned and shook his head secretly: "It's really strange. It's difficult to tame wild beasts because the beasts in this world are too ferocious! But it's so difficult to tame plants..."
Shaking his head, Jiang Xingchen put aside the matter for the time being and left with Meier and the old man.
The place where they settled was a large house that Dingbei Hou had found long ago, just in the north of the city.
After resting for a day, Jiang Xingchen and Wanrou went to the military headquarters under the leadership of Dingbei Hou to meet the marshal.
Although he has never met Jiang Xingchen, the marshal is quite familiar with him. Whether it is the invention of catgut and suture techniques, or the military drum and winter fishing, they have all brought great help to the imperial [***] department.
.
Therefore, the Marshal did not put on any airs. However, even so, the aura created by living in a high position for a long time still made Jiang Xingchen a little cautious. If he didn't have a strong heart, he might not know what to say.
After chatting for a while, Jiang Xingchen coughed lightly and said softly: "Marshal, I would like to borrow a hundred soldiers from you. You see..."
"Oh! Let's use it for the dance performance, okay, no problem!" The marshal was surprisingly cheerful. He waved his hand and ordered directly. In a short time, a hundred soldiers were brought over.
"Perform well, I'm optimistic about you! You will definitely win with Old Yuan's son!" Finally, the Marshal patted his shoulder again with an encouraging expression on his face.
"Old Yuan's son!" Jiang Xingchen was a little dazed and had no idea what the marshal was talking about. Later, after listening to Dingbei Hou's explanation, he realized that the son of the head of the aristocratic management department was in the Caifeng Song and Dance Troupe.
He also got the instrument called plucked string instrument.
Afterwards, Jiang Xingchen and the others said goodbye and left. The marshal's smile dimmed and he said in a low voice: "Jiang Xingchen's victory in this song and dance performance is really not big. I hope this kid won't bear it because he is too arrogant.
Keep attacking..."
In the afternoon of the same day, the largest performance venue in the north of the city released news: the Bauhinia Song and Dance Troupe, the inventor of the big drum and an unprecedented evaluation of the New Year song and dance pre-selection, will perform the song "Men Should Be Self-Strengthening" three times a day!
As soon as this news came out, many people remembered the song "Men Should Be Strong" during the New Year Song and Dance Preliminaries.
"The Bauhinia Song and Dance Troupe, why did they come to ** to perform? Didn't many people ask them to perform again, but they didn't even perform?"
"Tch! There's no need to ask. They must have seen the Cai Feng Song and Dance Troupe becoming popular now, and they can't sit still!"
"Yes, but what's the use of them just performing it now? Looking at Cai Feng's repertoire, I don't believe how good Zijing's is!"
"Let's see if we can go there tomorrow. What we said at the time was so outrageous, who knows what level it is at!"
"Actually, it's better this way, otherwise the New Year song and dance performance wouldn't be too bland!"
"Let's go and buy tickets..."
Soon, the performance venue in the north of the city was crowded with people queuing up to buy tickets. The director was so happy that he could not open his mouth from ear to ear. They were the ultimate beneficiaries of such competition...
The next day, Jiang Xingchen, Wanrou, Mo Hongxian and others went to the performance venue early in the morning with musical instruments. When they arrived, the one hundred soldiers had already arrived.
These soldiers were a little excited at this time. They only learned last night that during the song and dance preliminaries in Hongyuan City, six ordinary soldiers of the Seventh Legion got a big deal. Just because they had a performance with Jiang Xingchen, they are all living now.
Extremely moisturizing.
Of course they must seize this opportunity and perform well, and they may become like those six people.
Following Jiang Xingchen into the backstage, after changing his clothes, Jiang Xingchen faced the soldiers and asked calmly: "Are you ready to accept the cheers and glory?"
With one sentence, hundreds of soldiers suddenly started breathing heavily, their eyes were shining, and they shouted in unison: "Yes!"
Hundreds of people roared together, and the sound was so loud that it spread from the backstage to the front stage.
The more than 2,000 people in the venue were originally discussing with great interest. After this loud roar came out, they suddenly became silent and all their eyes were fixed on the stage.
"Let's go!" Jiang Xingchen waved his hand, and Wanrou took the lead, leading hundreds of soldiers onto the stage.
"Dong dong dong dong...dong dong dong dong...dong dong dong dong..." A prelude with a strong rhythm sounded, and the curtain slowly opened, revealing Jiang Xingchen and Wanrou in the middle, and soldiers separated on both sides.
None of the audience present had ever heard the song "A Man Should Be Strong", and the rhythm of "Jiang Ling" immediately attracted them.
And Jiang Xingchen's first line was even more amazing. He actually changed the tone of the song by an octave, and it wasn't too shrill. His voice was so high-pitched that it seemed to penetrate the ceiling above, and everyone was enjoying themselves.
dripping.
Next, as the song progressed, Jiang Xingchen's tune became higher and higher, like waves hitting everyone's eardrums.
And those hundreds of soldiers also performed extremely well, with majestic moves and short and powerful movements, all in uniform order, as if they had transformed into one person. The beauty of power performed by hundreds of people in unison gave people a huge visual impact.
Coupled with their coordinated roars during the intervals between Jiang Xingchen's lyrics, the singing together with them formed an auditory feast.
The audience was enjoying the intense audio-visual experience, but they did not notice that the entire track had no accompaniment except the bass drum.
In the encouragement of the interlude, Wanrou, who was dressed like a fire, did not beat two big drums this time, but controlled four big drums alone at once.
After long-term promotion, the audience, which had become somewhat immune to the rhythm of the drums, was once again mobilized by the strong rhythm and clapped their hands together to match the beat...
After the last line was sung, the drums stopped, and the audience burst into thunderous applause and cheers that lasted for a long time.
What the audience felt during the whole performance, apart from the uplifting lyrics, was the word "hearty", as if they were sweating profusely.
When some people who knew a lot about music discovered that Jiang Xingchen was not using accompaniment, they all sighed: "Cai Feng's opponent has finally appeared!" (To be continued.)