Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1454 Arena

"Speaking of which," Shangluo suddenly remembered something, "Can Alexandria also be involved in this project?"

After all, the cooperation with Alexandria had already begun. However, the cooperation there had already begun before Shangluo went there, and it had little to do with Shangluo.

[I remember that the cooperation there was mainly related to Cybernia. Although the Romans did the actual construction themselves, the rewards for the lighthouse system were still inseparable from the assistance of Aurora.]

"By the way, why was the court willing to help at that time?"

"I happen to know that," Victoria replied. "It seemed like they were trying to repay a favor. The Romans did help in the construction of the Mingtang."

The Romans called the East Imperium Sinica. Correspondingly, the Romans called themselves Imperium Romanum. Imperium means Empire, and Sinica means China.

During the demise of Rome, although it is hard to say that "Zhendan contributed", before Shangluo came, everyone had actually been thinking about how to provide hospice care for Rome - of course, at that time, they had not decided to let Rome really die, but just wanted to get promoted and make money. The court actually did not invest too much energy in Rome's affairs, but only sent technical forces to participate in the design of Cybernia.

This can be considered as helping Rome build its grave.

This matter can be traced back to the time when the Mingtang was built. As Victoria said, the Romans also put in a lot of effort.

When the Mingtang of the Grand Palace was built on the top of Purple Mountain, stone was used as the main structure for fire prevention.

After all, Mingtang is the king's hall. Mingtang is where the emperor receives the princes to pay homage. Mingtang has been built extremely tall since ancient times. Mingtang should be in harmony with heaven and earth, so it is required to be round at the bottom and round at the top. However, although the rules are there, Mingtang is not used as the main hall in the palace in most dynasties, but mostly used as a place for offering sacrifices to heaven.

The Ming Dynasty built the Mingtang during the Yongqing Restoration. From today's perspective, it was still pre-modern, and the only example that could be used as a reference was Wu Zetian's Mingtang "Wanxiang Temple". But the Wanxiang Temple ended up being burned down in a fire.

Now think about it, it would be strange if the Vientiane Temple didn't burn down, it would have burned down sooner or later. After all, the Vientiane Temple is almost 100 meters high, even now it is considered a high-rise building, once it burns, there is no way to put out the fire.

The Ming Dynasty's Mingtang was built on top of the Purple Mountain. It was not just high, but also the highest point in the surrounding area, so it would definitely be struck by lightning. If it was still built with wood like the Vientiane Palace, how long this engineering wonder that cost billions of dollars could last would depend on how much favor God would give it.

What's even worse is that this thing can be seen throughout the capital. If it really becomes popular, the court will lose face in front of the world.

Therefore, the imperial court decisively chose to bid for a design plan from Rome at that time - to build it based on the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

The imperial court had long noticed Hagia Sophia. Coincidentally, Hagia Sophia is not only located at the highest point in the city, but also has a round shape with a low point. It is also the place where the Romans received pilgrimages from their vassals and where they worshipped their ancestors: many Roman emperors from past dynasties were buried there.

Therefore, the imperial court regarded Hagia Sophia as the main hall of Rome. Both sides were surprisingly consistent here - as the facade of the country, this wonder must be round at the bottom and high at the top, and must be tall and large.

It’s not that the imperial court couldn’t design it on its own. After all, although modern science was in its infancy at the time, the Ming Dynasty was still able to solve the design problem of stone domes on its own, and the Ming Dynasty did design quite a few on its own.

But the stone dome designed before the Ming Dynasty was used for the imperial mausoleum and the Golden Chamber, which was the royal archive. The original copy of the Yongle Encyclopedia was stored inside. It was a stone building that was built in every dynasty. Not only was the exterior made of fireproof stone, but the container for the documents was also a metal box that could not be burned from the inside out.

Although the Ming Dynasty could build these two types of buildings, especially the imperial mausoleum, the dome of the imperial mausoleum had to bear weight, and the mechanical properties of the dome were quite high. At that time, the Ming Dynasty built a number of imperial mausoleums with very high specifications, some of which were even taller than the tomb of the First Emperor.

However, neither the archives nor the imperial mausoleum are places for living people to live in.

"Wait a minute." Shangluo asked, "Victoria Cathedral is not a place for living people to live, right?"

"Well, actually there are quite a few people living in it. Many people live and work in it. But that's not the point. The point is that the Roman emperor didn't live in it. Hagia Sophia is in Rome. It is mainly used as a reception hall for the country. It is also open to the public as a tourist attraction on weekdays."

"Wait. So it's open?"

"It's a church after all," Victoria replied. "The Orthodox Church has a classic and simple style. As long as it's a church, it must be open to anyone to enter, and everyone can go in to worship. So even Hagia Sophia is open on weekdays - of course, the access control is not inside the church, but outside. The inner city of Constantinople is not open to ordinary people, so those who can enter the inner city have been selected, and they are basically Roman citizens. The real tourists are you. When your people go to Rome, they are the only tourists within the walls of Constantinople. To put it bluntly, that is the Temple of Heaven, and your Temple of Heaven is also open, right?"

"That's not a problem if you think about it this way." It's reasonable that the administrative center is not open to the public. After all, there are really many important matters being handled there, and it's difficult to accept a large number of tourists without preparation. "But then again, many of our people have visited Hagia Sophia at that time, right?"

"I guess so, otherwise you wouldn't have chosen this place as a reference for Mingtang."

"Finally, how did you help?"

"It's mainly about decoration and optical design. Like a church, the outer shell of the Mingtang can't be too heavy. Appropriate thickness can make it look solemn, but it must be light. Entering it should give you a feeling of 'ascension' and sacredness. The designers who built stone buildings here used to build tombs, and the things inside are not for the living to see. So, at that time, we found some Romans to make the interior of the Mingtang as bright as possible. When our people came, they dropped a lot of marble as gifts. That's not ordinary marble, it's patterned marble from Egypt."

[Patterned marble is also a kind of flower stone. So the fleet that transports patterned marble can also be called the Flower Stone Gang. 】

"Well, did the ship finally arrive safely? Was it not robbed by pirates?"

"That's not the case. After all, this is marble used as a building material - this marble is not used to make structural parts, but to make tiles. At that time, Rome had an interesting design: marble has natural patterns. We would cut the marble in the middle, cut out a beautiful cross-section, and then arrange the continuous cross-sections symmetrically to create some wonderful symmetrical patterns. If you go to the main hall now, you should be able to see traces of many decoration teams. Many low-lying places use this kind of marble. It has the same configuration as the Roman Palace."

[I remember some of them were old materials? ]

"Uh" Victoria was a little embarrassed to speak.

"What do you mean by old material?" Shangluo asked. [Old material means just like the wood you use to build the temple is getting less and less. The amount of patterned marble that the Romans could collect also became less and less as time went by. After all, too much was used before, and basically all the places that were easy to mine had been mined. So, the final solution was to demolish the temple.]

"Yes," Victoria nodded. "Actually, we didn't demolish it on purpose. At that time, whenever we built a palace, we had to demolish some old temples - Roman, Greek, and ancient Egyptian. As long as there was patterned marble, it was inevitable to demolish it. We demolished a lot of temples before we had enough materials to send over. They were all top-quality marble."

“Good fellow,” Shangluo covered his forehead, “You spent a lot of money back then, didn’t you?”

"Because Rome had not yet fallen, it was the heyday of the Spring and Autumn Period. The two countries often had exchanges with each other, and occasionally there were some minor frictions. So in order to establish friendship with Zhendan and enhance mutual recognition and understanding, that decoration team was formed."

[In modern times, Aurora sent a renovation team. The purpose was to do some friendship, but it was mainly to provide end-of-life care. You see, when it comes to repairing graves, this falls within the scope of Confucianism, right? "Confucianism" means organizing funerals. ]

"It can't be said that they are all about funerals, there are also sacrifices." But then again, sending people to heaven is indeed the business scope of Confucianists. Although people in later generations don't talk about it much, Confucianism and funerals were a "joke" during the Hundred Schools of Thought, and when people made fun of Confucianism, it was basically related to funerals.

"Zhuangzi: External Things" records that two Confucian scholars went to rob a tomb under the guise of a funeral. They read poems while finding the location, and the purpose was as familiar as going home. As soon as the coffin was opened, they could immediately identify "the skirt was not untied, and there was a pearl in the mouth", and then recited "Green wheat grows on the slope of the tomb. If you don't give charity when you are alive, why do you hold the pearl in your mouth after death?" and cursed the dead, while prying the pearls out skillfully. The beads were not damaged at all when prying, and the business was superb, which can be said to be excellent business ability.

Although this is just a joke of academic discrimination, Confucianism does have a strong correlation with funerals.

Now helping the Romans hold funerals and repair tombs is a suitable business.

"So." Shang Luo shook his head. "It is indeed tit-for-tat. You are good at repairing the Mingtang, so after you helped to renovate the Mingtang, we helped to repair the tomb. For the time being, it can be considered a tie. So, when did you start repairing it?"

"It's been decades, actually." Victoria thought for a moment. "I've had a lot of thoughts. It started long, long before I was born - but I remember your father was there too?"

"Yes, he is there."

"Then do you want to transfer him to your team?"

"Let's wait until work is over. If he wants to see me, he will come directly to me. There is no need to rush for a while."

"Oh," Victoria did not ask any more questions. After all, Shangluo was not the only one who had an awkward parent-child relationship. She was also in the same situation. Shangluo must have his own reasons for not being in a hurry to meet him, so she did not ask any more questions.

"Then, let's let Syracuse complete the task of expanding the Nemi Lake Sacrifice Site into the Night Watch Bureau headquarters. Is that ok?"

Shangluo nodded: "Let's do it. It's best to start working now. We have to hurry up."

"So fast? You want them to come up with a plan right away? That's too fast."

"It shouldn't be that slow to build a coliseum, right? Isn't there a large coliseum in Rome? Just use that as a reference."

"Yes, there is. But... eh." Victoria pressed her forehead, "Why don't we tear down the temple? Just tear down the Colosseum."

“This is also being demolished?!” Shangluo was completely stunned.

"Tear it down, we can tear it down. Why not? In fact, the Colosseum in Rome has been used as a quarry for many years. Since Rome no longer holds large-scale public events, it's just sitting there, so why not tear it down and build a new one by Lake Nemi? You see, we can even save on design, right?"

Shangluo was a little shocked when Victoria said "demolishing the temple" just now. Now that it was being demolished right in front of him, it was no longer a shock, but a shock.

"I said Victoria, that's a historical site."

"Ah, you think it's a historical site. Anyway, my ancestors built it for future generations to use. They have complete freedom to use it in any way they want. Besides, it's demolished to be used for more important purposes, not to lay floors - this is called relocation and reconstruction, a form of cultural relic protection, how can it be called demolition? When we renovated the Mingtang, that was really demolishing the temple."

"Okay." Shangluo covered his forehead, "That's fine. That's fine."

At least this plan is very convenient and powerful: when holding a ceremony, the older the better.

"How about this." Shangluo thought for a moment, "Why don't you guys take something else over?"

"for example?"

"Like, the Pantheon?"

"Sure." Victoria nodded. "Tear it down, anything can be done. It's all considered rebuilding in a new place. You can even move the entire city of Rome there. Lake Nemi is within the city of Rome anyway, so it won't destroy any magic."

Victoria said as she picked up the phone: "Let's get started then?"

Shangluo gave a thumbs up, and Victoria began to send text instructions to Ms. Agatha.

"Okay, that's all. Ms. Agatha is still on the phone. When she comes back, she will bring back Syracuse's opinions."

(End of this chapter)