amaotonovel Chapter 656 First Turn Black, Then Whiten
Chapter 656 First Turn Black, Then Whiten
The commercial street is in the south of the city, while the Shence Marquis's residence is in the west of the city. There is a long distance between the commercial street and the Shence Marquis's residence.
In later generations, such a long distance would require taking the subway or bus, or at the very least riding an electric bike or bicycle. But Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhuge Liang walked the entire distance without even riding a horse.
Not only that, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhuge Liang also took the opportunity to observe the people's conditions as they walked around, taking in the current security and living conditions in the city. As a result, they dawdled and by the time they arrived at the Shence Marquis's residence, it was already afternoon.
Finally seeing the gate of the Marquis of Shence's mansion, Liu Bei rubbed his sore thighs and sighed, "I'm getting old, my body isn't what it used to be. I don't even want to move after walking such a short distance. Come in quickly and ask for a cup of water, I'm dying of thirst."
The four men stepped onto the steps and entered the mansion. The gatekeeper immediately came forward to greet them, but Guan Yu pushed him aside and said, "This is none of your business. Go play somewhere else."
He doesn't need to announce his arrival at the Marquis of Shence's residence.
The four were heading straight for the main hall, but when they turned around the screen, they found the front yard crowded with people. Hundreds of people were gathered in a circle, discussing something. The four instinctively moved closer.
The four of them were all burly men over 1.8 meters tall. The people in front of them could not block their view at all. After passing through the crowd, they found two people rehearsing in the middle of the circle. The program they were rehearsing was the love scene from "The Legend of the White Snake".
"The West Lake is beautiful in March, the spring rain is like wine and the willows are like smoke..."
A man and a woman sang with great enthusiasm in the circle. After they finished, the troupe leader, Qian Cong, clapped his hands while holding the script and said, "That's good, that's good. Let's move on to the next script. Everyone, let's work hard and try to let Marquis Shence see results as soon as possible."
Liu Bei didn't talk to Qian Cong, but instead pulled the others away from the crowd and continued towards the front hall. As they walked, he said, "The performances of those actors were quite good. If they can portray a novel like this, I wonder how interesting the operas of later generations will be. I really want to see."
He had heard Guan Xing talk about the development of opera in later generations, but he hadn't asked much about these frivolous and decadent things. Now he realized that he had been too naive; opera was a powerful tool for propaganda.
Zhuge Liang said, "It will definitely be more exciting than we imagine. After all, as Anguo said, times are changing!"
The four of them unknowingly walked into the hall, and from a distance they saw Guan Xing and Kang Seng arguing about something in the hall. They couldn't help but ask in surprise, "What are they doing here?"
Zhuge Liang said, "They must be here to question Anguo because of the 'Legend of the White Snake' which slanders Buddhism. Should we wait outside or go in directly?"
Liu Bei said, "Go straight in. I don't have the habit of waiting for others."
At this moment, Guan Xing was hugging Kang Senghui and Mou Zi's necks and said, "Masters, the current situation of Buddhism is not good. If you want to develop, you have to find another way to build a reputation first. It doesn't matter if it's a good reputation or a bad reputation, as long as you become famous. After you become famous, you can write two novels that praise Buddhism to whitewash it. That way, you'll have a lot of topics to talk about, right?"
"To become famous, you have to create news; news is about creating topics, understand?"
Kang Senghui felt that what he said made sense, but he was still undecided. Just as he was about to ask a few more questions to reassure himself, he turned his head and suddenly caught sight of several familiar figures out of the corner of his eye. He quickly opened the gate and bowed, saying, "Your subject Kang Senghui greets Your Majesty, greets the General, greets..."
Guan Xingmou, Cai Jia, and the others were all startled awake and quickly turned around to pay their respects.
After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Liu Bei asked Kang Senghui and Mou Zi, "What brings you two dear ministers here?"
The two men sighed inwardly and replied at the same time, "Your Majesty, Marquis Shence wants us to help write two novels and has summoned us here to discuss the plot."
They dared not admit they were there to cause trouble for Guan Xing, for they were well aware of Guan Xing's current standing in Liu Bei's eyes.
Fearing exposure, Kang Senghui immediately colluded with Guan Xing after finishing his statement, saying, "Don't worry, Lord Shence, we will definitely submit the manuscripts of 'The Legend of the Mermaid' and 'The Butterfly Lovers' on time, and will not delay your important business."
Since they weren't here to cause trouble for Guan Xing, they must have some reason for coming. They couldn't just say they were here for a visit, since they had no connection with Marquis Shence.
So they had to find something to do temporarily. Anyway, these two novels were meant to denigrate Taoism and Confucianism, so they didn't feel any psychological pressure while writing them.
As for whether it will cause trouble for the Taoist and Confucian schools, that's simple: just sign the document under the pen name Guan Xing.
Liu Bei took the outline from the two men, glanced at it, and after confirming that there were no problems, handed it back, saying, "Then I will trouble you two ministers."
Kang Senghui immediately smiled obsequiously and said, "Of course, Your Majesty. If there's nothing else, we'll take our leave now."
After the two took their leave, Liu Bei looked at Cai Jia and said with a smile, "You must be the Cai who made the restaurant so popular with his storytelling, right? Well done."
Cai Jia quickly bowed and said, "It's all thanks to Marquis Shence's excellent teaching. Once my voice is better, I will definitely continue to work hard."
His voice was still hoarse, and he stopped speaking halfway through.
Liu Bei chatted for a few more minutes and waved him away. Soon, only Guan Xing and the other four remained in the hall.
Liu Bei cut to the chase: "Anguo, I just went to the streets and saw that 'The Legend of the White Snake' is indeed very popular, and it has even sparked people's thinking about the imperial examination system. But the problem is that it's not enough for it to be popular only in Jiangling. We need to find a way to spread it to Cao Wei. Do you have any good ideas on this?"
The purpose of propaganda is to consolidate one's own base and shake the enemy's base, but to shake the enemy's base, one must spread the ideology to the enemy's territory. What kind of thing is it to cause trouble in one's own homeland?
Guan Xing laughed and said, "That's simple. Currently, the land route is blocked, so merchants can't cross. But the sea route isn't blocked. So, initially, I plan to send a batch of 'The Legend of the White Snake' over by sea so that the people of the Central Plains know about the novel. Later, I plan to start a newspaper."
He then took out a piece of white paper the size of a newspaper from the cabinet and said, "This is a newspaper. It originated from the official gazette and evolved into a newspaper. It reached its peak during the Republic of China period and made indelible contributions to the propaganda cause."
He folded the newspaper and unfolded it again, continuing, "The newspaper is divided into several pages, each with different news. It can contain government decrees, advertisements from businesses, news from various places, or even novels. The formula is to write something that readers are interested in, to arouse their interest in buying and reading it, and then write what we want to express. In this way, readers will buy the newspaper out of interest, and after reading the content that interests them, they will naturally read the content that we have hidden in our own agenda. What does Your Majesty think?"
Liu Bei said excitedly, "This is a good idea, but what kind of content will interest them?"
Guan Xing laughed and said, "Novels? Novels are too long to be written in one newspaper, so I plan to serialize them. I'll write the first chapter today and the second chapter tomorrow. Readers who finish the first chapter will definitely want to read the second chapter. If they want to read the second chapter, they will have to buy tomorrow's newspaper. So it will continue page after page, generation after generation, without end."
Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang exchanged a glance and nodded simultaneously, saying, "Good idea."
Then Liu Bei said, "You can handle the newspaper matter. Also, when I came in, I saw actors rehearsing. Are they rehearsing the opera you mentioned?"