1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 269 "Maotai is mad at me"

Northern Guizhou, a hub at the junction of Sichuan, Guizhou and Chongqing.

It is connected to Tongzi County of Guizhou and QJ District of Chongqing in the east, Chishui City of Guizhou in the west, and Renhuai City of Guizhou and Gulin County of Sichuan in the south.

This area is a world-famous wine region. Moutai, Luzhou Laojiao, Langjiu, Dongjiu, etc. are all produced in this area. The history of wine can be traced back to the Han Dynasty.

On the banks of the Chishui River in Guizhou, all the leaders of the Maotai Distillery, which has always regarded itself as the "national liquor", were in a heavy mood that night.

Their well-known Maotai Distillery was criticized by their superiors.

The source of the incident was actually due to a passage in the novel "The Garland under the Mountain".

".What lies ahead for our Ninth Company will be a fierce battle that is hard to imagine!

According to the infantry's practice before going into battle: all the soldiers in the company had their heads shaved, one reason was to prevent the enemy from grabbing their hair during hand-to-hand combat, and the other was to facilitate treatment in case of head injuries.

The kitchen team did their best to improve the lives of the entire company and announced that the last meal they would have in the country would be dumplings stuffed with dried shrimps, pork and leeks.

I found that even among the soldiers who received a monthly allowance of six yuan, those who smoked mostly smoked high-end cigarettes with filters.

Even Liang Sanxi, who always smoked inferior dry tobacco, made an exception and bought two boxes of 'Hongtashan'."

In addition, Jin Kailai accidentally said something before the war, something that "pissed off" the Moutai Distillery:
"Come on, everyone, take a sip. This is 'Maotai that makes people angry' - 'Xishui Daqu'."

Xishui Daqu is also a winery in northern Guizhou. It was merged with Moutai in the 90s and was later hailed as the second Moutai in my country.

However, in this era, Xishui Daqu and Moutai are still two distilleries.

Xishui Daqu is a strong-flavor liquor, which produces the sauce-flavored "Xijiu".

In 71, the trademark was re-registered as "Hongwei Brand" Xishui Daqu. In 72, Hongwei Distillery was renamed Xishui Distillery. In 80, which was last year, it had begun to take shape, with an annual output of 502 tons.

More importantly, Xishui Daqu is known as the "special wine for self-defense wars."

"Holding the luminous cup in hand, thousands of soldiers drink the battle wine together.

The wine for going to war has a mellow taste, and the heroic spirit and ambition flow like the wine.

The soldiers also raised their wine, the general also raised his wine, they drank a sip of the wine for the battle, the general and the soldiers bleed together.

Raise your glass to drink whether you live or die. Drink a sip of the wine before going to war. Never look back, whether you live or die.

In the early 80s, a large amount of "Xishui Daqu" was transferred to the front line as military supplies, and became a drink for officers and soldiers, also known as "farewell wine."

At that time, in the eyes of military officers and soldiers, the fame of "Xishui Daqu" once surpassed that of "Moutai", and its sales volume also increased greatly.

In comparison, "Moutai" is a bit embarrassing.

"Moutai" said that, alas, we have the function and role of "national liquor", and our production cannot take into account the needs of grassroots officers and soldiers.

Therefore, "Xishui Daqu", which is close to the quality of "Moutai" and has a higher cost-effectiveness, was given the task of taking on this important task.

No one cared about this matter at first. What Moutai did not expect was that because of the novel "The Garland under the Mountain" and because of Jin Kailai's unintentional words, their "Moutai Distillery" was actually criticized by their superiors for this matter.

The leadership team immediately held a meeting, and everyone in the room was in a heavy mood.

Just because of a piece of music called "The Wreath under the Mountain" and a word from Jin Kailai, their rival "Xishui Daqu", or "Xishui Distillery", sold 12 tons more.

Maotai Distillery has also put in a lot of effort to keep the statistics very clear.

A solid 12 tons.

What does 12 tons of wine mean?
This is definitely a large number. At that time, the annual output of Moutai was about 1000 tons, and that of Xishui Daqu was 500 tons.

If these 12 tons are allocated to their Moutai Distillery, and 12 tons more are sold, the output value and foreign exchange income will increase.
OK.

The leadership team doesn’t even dare to think about it!

However, the biggest problem is not money, but "truth".

I heard that this time it was decided by some committee above, which specially praised Xishui Daqu and criticized Moutai.

Now it is just as Jin Kailai said, "Xishui Daqu" has really become "Maotai is pissed off".

"We can't go on like this. We have to think of a solution," a factory leader suggested.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the novel "The Garland under the Mountain" is published in newspapers every day, and its influence is gradually expanding.

If this continues, Moutai’s losses will be more than 12 tons.

More importantly, if the people have opinions about their "Moutai Distillery" and report them to their superiors, this matter will not be just a criticism.

Buzz buzz buzz. It’s only been a few years, and the leaders are already feeling the lingering fears.

Maotai Distillery immediately set up a committee on the matter. After the committee studied and discussed the matter day and night, the leaders of the distillery made a decisive decision:

They sent the most capable and principled production section chief to the north, and he went straight to Beijing at night to seek justice from October magazine and demanded that October and Jiang Xian "vindicate" their Maotai Distillery.

This task of Maotai Distillery was assigned to Pan Haiqing, the production section chief.

Pan Haiqing is in his fifties and was planning to retire and live a stable life in a few years, but he didn't expect to take on such a difficult and big job.

"Comrade Haiqing, this is all for the Four Modernizations."

Faced with the factory director's statement, Pan Haiqing had no choice but to face the challenge. He drank the factory's farewell wine, made bold statements to the factory leaders, and then took a train north.

It was already September.

It has been more than two months since the novel "The Garland under the Mountain" was released.

Since its publication, this novel has continuously received praise from the literary world and empathy from readers, causing an increasingly greater sensation across the country, and has become a nationally renowned literary masterpiece.

Ever since the last incident at the printing factory, as his novel became more famous, Jiang Xian had more sweet troubles.

The expanding influence of "The Garland under the Mountain" directly led to his popularity. In addition to facing interviews from all sides, he also received requests from various theater troupes to adapt his works.

The most outrageous thing was that one night at three o'clock in the morning, when he and Zhu Lin had already made love and fell asleep, an urgent telegram suddenly arrived.

Jiang Xian thought that an elderly relative in his family might have died, but when he opened the package, he found out that a certain TV station wanted to use "The Garland Under the Mountain" to film something. He was so angry that he couldn't sleep all night.

At this moment, he began to understand why famous artists always like to "refuse flowers and red carpets" and are eager to re-engage in a heavy life.

This is definitely not hype, but a necessity for life creation.

It’s a pity that there are very few people who can empathize with him. Only Wang Weiguo, who became famous for "Life", can share his troubles with him.

The casting for "Shaolin Temple" at the Beijing Film Studio has also been finalized, and Zhang Xinyan has his eyes on Zhu Lin, who had just filmed "Traffic".

Zhu Lin's martial arts skills, her flawless beauty, her graceful and playful temperament, and her graceful image in the costume made her successfully win the role of the heroine in the movie "Shaolin Temple".

As for the script of Shaolin Temple, Jiang Xian handed it to Zhang Xinyan as early as July, the month when The Garland Under the Mountain was first announced. Zhang Xinyan was deeply shocked after reading it.

Although "flying paper boys" are popular in Hong Kong, they are leftists after all, and they pursue more than just the kind of entertainment that Shaw Brothers did. Their filming still inherits the fine tradition of Chinese films, emphasizing constant comparison, analysis, research and discussion in the academic field.

So when he heard Jiang Xian say that the script could be completed within half a month, he was mentally prepared to see a half-finished product.

But he never expected that in less than half a month, Jiang Xian handed him a 70,000-word film script.

What shocked Zhang Xinyan even more was that the script was already quite complete.

The content is probably:
"During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the famous martial artist Shentui Zhang fought against violence and helped justice, but was framed and killed by Wang Renze. Fortunately, his son Xiaohu was rescued by the Shaolin monk Tanzong.

In order to avenge his father, Xiaohu worships Tanzong as his master, takes the name Jueyuan, practices Shaolin martial arts, and becomes a novice monk.

After Xiaohu killed Wang Renze, the murderer of his father, and avenged his blood feud, he decided to convert to Buddhism and protect the temple. He was given the Buddhist name Jueyuan, and became the leader of the martial arts world, staying in Shaolin to uphold justice and promote goodness.

However, Bai Wuxia, whom I had entrusted my life to, left me sadly."

Zhang Xinyan was a little skeptical at first, thinking that the quality of the script written in a short period of time was not enough. After he spent a few days reading it, he found that not only was the plot of the script ups and downs, but the character settings and plots were also brilliant enough, and the design of some plots was quite humorous.

"Shaolin Temple" is a martial arts film after all, and the special effects are not yet well developed at that time.

How underdeveloped is it?

Tsui Hark designed a simple "Foshan Shadowless Kick" for Wong Fei-hung at the time, which was to kick the air seven times in a row.

Such a simple special effect shocked the entire Hong Kong and the Mainland at that time.

According to the current shooting guidelines of leftist films and Zhang Xinyan’s requirements for martial arts films, “Shaolin Temple” will definitely focus on fighting scenes as its first priority.

Jiang Xian's handling of the script can be said to be quite coordinated, with fighting scenes and comedy scenes interspersed with each other, and both the literary and martial arts scenes being equally exciting.

More importantly, for some fighting scenes, Jiang Xian directly designed the actors' movements.

It is quite difficult to design martial arts moves because even in Hong Kong, there is no such thing as action director at that time.

In other words, whoever wants to shoot a scene in a movie has to design his or her own actions.

In another time and space, when filming "Shaolin Temple", Zhang Xinyan only told the actors how long the fight would take and where to start and end, and then started preparing. Finally, he recorded it with a video camera and went back to divide the shots. That's why you can see many long fighting shots in the movie "Shaolin Temple".

In short, after reading the entire script, Zhang Xinyan was so excited that he immediately called Jiang Xian over to discuss the script.

"This script is very well written. There is no one in Hong Kong who can write a better script than you!"

After approving Jiang Xian's script, Zhang Xinyan discussed some details in the script with Jiang Xian.

"In the script, are there not enough love scenes between Xiao Hu and Bai Wu Xia?"

"Not a few. This movie is about Shaolin, where monks are very strict about discipline. If you ask a monk to talk about love with a woman, do you believe that the Shaolin master can treat you to a set of Luohan Fist?"

Jiang Xian explained, "Moreover, love between men and women is not the main theme of our film. We are talking about Shaolin upholding justice and promoting kindness. As for love, how can we have both in this world? We should not let down the Tathagata and you."

Zhang Xinyan was speechless after listening to this, especially his last sentence, 'How can one have the best of both worlds, without disappointing the Tathagata and without disappointing you?', which added a bit of Zen flavor to the whole script.

"I feel that Bai Wuxia's role is still a little weak. Is there any way to add some more scenes to attract the audience's attention?" said Zhang Xinyan.

In another time and space, there is a scene in the original plot where Wang Renze caught Bai Wuxia, tied her up in the air, and performed a bondage play that made people's mouths dry.

Then there is another story of a hero saving a beauty.

After drinking, Wang Renze wanted to humiliate Bai Wuxia who was trapped in a tiger's mouth. At this time, Xiaohu rushed out and used the martial arts he learned in Shaolin Temple, such as the Drunken Stick, to fight against Wang Renze who was proficient in the Drunken Sword.

This plot was written very simply in Jiang Xian's script: Bai Wuxia was caught, Wang Renze exchanged insults with her, and after a drink, Wang Renze was just about to do something when Xiaohu suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

As for what is bundled, it is completely unwritten.

Zhang Xinyan’s idea was to learn from Shaw Brothers and add some romantic elements to this plot.

Jiang Xian totally disagreed.

"Director Zhang, I hope you can think clearly about what this film is about.
Although I want to adapt the film in the direction of a light comedy, after all, what we want to show Hong Kong is our Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu. Romantic performances will certainly attract the audience's attention, but the style of our film will undoubtedly be greatly lowered.

Whatever choice you make, I’ll listen to you.”

Jiang Xian spoke politely, but Zhang Xinyan didn't hear any intention of changing the script from him.

He had heard before that the status of screenwriters in mainland China was different from that in Hong Kong, and this time he experienced it firsthand.

"Written this way, wouldn't it add an interesting aspect to the movie?"

"Is there not enough interesting points in my article about Shaolin Temple?" Jiang Xian's tone was flat, but his attitude made it clear that it could not be questioned.

Zhang Xinyan was like an angry young wife. She didn't say anything for a long time before she agreed reluctantly.

Jiang Xian obviously did not allow Zhang Xinyan to change even a single word of his script. Judging from his attitude, if he changed even a single word, the script would be taken back.

Zhang Xinyan was reluctant to give up "Shaolin Temple", after all, what he wrote was really good.

After the script was finalized, Jiang Xian discussed the actor Xiaohu with Zhang Xinyan.

There was no need for Jiang Xian to get involved in choosing this actor, as Zhang Xinyan already had a candidate in mind.

As early as 72, when Zhang Xinyan was filming the documentary "A Thousand Colors", he met Li Lianjie, who had been practicing martial arts since childhood.

This year, 17-year-old Li Lianjie was officially invited by Zhang Xinyan to join the crew of "Shaolin Temple".

As for the other actors, they were selected from seven provinces by Zhang Xinyan with the assistance of the State Sports Association.

Yu Hai, Ji Chunhua, Yu Chenghui
In order to shoot outdoor scenes, Jiang Xian sent Zhu Lin to the station. It was only at this time that Zhang Xinyan learned about their relationship.

Thinking back to what Jiang Xian had said before, that he would never change the script, he was so angry that he couldn't say anything.

What for the movie style?
Pooh!
You just don't want your wife to suffer!

"Jiang Xian." Zhu Lin's eyes couldn't help but turn red at the thought of being separated for several months. She was so charming and beautiful that Jiang Xian felt distressed again.

"When I have time later, I'll go to the set to see you."

"Yeah." Zhu Lin nodded slightly with wet eyes.

Jiang Xian had just returned home after leaving the station when he received a call from October.

"Comrade Jiang Xian."

"A production manager from Moutai has been sitting in his office for several days in order to see you."

(End of this chapter)