My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 286 The filming officially begins

As Fang Xiaoru continued to implement the plan, he selected a number of articles on how to solve the problem of worker shortage from a pile of submissions, many of which mentioned the need to add technical science and other content to the current teaching system.

This once again caused a storm, because this time, the education reform was proposed by the intellectuals themselves.

Zhu Yuanzhang found that everything was just as Li Han had predicted. The division within the literary world was becoming larger and more intense, and more and more literati were standing on the side of academic reform.

Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well that apart from great Confucian scholars such as Lan Zhi who publicly expressed their support for education reform and the establishment of more technical official schools, which led to a group of Confucian students, most of them were actually fence-sitters.

They may not be firm in their stance, but they are definitely not fools. As public opinion reaches a fever pitch, anyone who is not a fool will see that all this is being pushed by His Majesty behind the scenes. This shows that His Majesty is determined to promote education reform and even scientific examination reform at all costs.

However, many people with a long-term vision see that the development of industrialization is a historical trend and that educational reform is unstoppable. They do not want to stand in the way of the wheel of history and be crushed to pieces.

Of course, there are also many students from ordinary or even poor families. Although they still can't let go of the so-called pride of scholars, after being scolded by their parents at home, they obediently begin to support the reform.

Not to mention anything else, just the mother at home is always nagging about how the second boy of so-and-so's family, who went to the same private school with you, is now managing a factory, and his salary is higher than that of the county magistrate in the yamen.

And the third son of someone's family has been appreciated by His Majesty in the factory and is now an official in the Ministry of Industry. He is more powerful than the county magistrate!

Who is like you? Your family has paid for your studies for more than ten years, but you couldn't even pass the imperial examination. Now the current emperor is going to open up new subjects, and you can become an official by learning skills and doing crafts. Why are you still so picky, you silly boy? Have you become stupid from studying too much?

No one can stand such nagging, so a large number of children from ordinary families began to join the camp of supporting education reform.

Originally, Zhu Yuanzhang was a little worried that doing so would provoke a strong backlash in the literary world, but now it seems that the effect is better than he expected.

This also made him deeply realize a truth: in the face of interests, any position and any integrity can be changed.

In the past, only those who studied well could become officials, so the people supported studying and taking imperial examinations. Now, learning a skill not only allows one to become an official but also to make money, so naturally people will support learning technology.

Mencius really said it well: the world is bustling with people because of profit, and the world is bustling with people because of profit.

It won’t be long before we can arrange for great scholars like Wu Daoxing to speak out and make the final decision on launching educational reform and establishing a new school of thought.

But I still have to ask Lao Li how this should be changed specifically. Such a big thing concerns the future of Ming Dynasty, so I need his advice. Besides, we can't let this kid be too leisurely and free. We have to do more for Ming Dynasty!

While the public was arguing heatedly, there was also unrest in the palace during the past two days.

It wasn't that something big had happened, but rather that Her Royal Highness Princess Huaiqing of the Ming Dynasty had officially announced that she was going to make a movie, and she had arranged the first scene to take place in the Fengtian Hall.

After studying late into the night for a while and trying to use the methods she learned to shoot a few short films, Zhu Funing felt that she had mastered the skills and could start shooting. However, she then discovered that filming was not an easy task. Just to form a crew consumed a lot of her energy.

However, if one wants to make a movie, one cannot do it alone, one needs help to cooperate with others. So, the palace maids and eunuchs of Chongning Palace formed the first film production crew of the Ming Dynasty.

These palace maids and eunuchs often cooperated with Zhu Funing to shoot short films on weekdays. They were very familiar with filming and could quickly get started with props, makeup, and script management. However, Zhu Funing had to be the director and photographer himself.

This is still the easiest to solve. The next step is casting, where problems begin to arise.

Zhu Funing's original plan was to find a few famous opera singers to play the roles. However, after the palace guards found some famous actors, she discovered that they had no idea how to act in front of the camera, and their performances were too much like singing, without the natural feeling that she had in "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" and "Drawing Sword".

So she made a bold decision and decided to use people around her to play the roles in the play.

The protagonist Li Ming will be played by the fourth brother Zhu Di. Zhu Di didn't care. There was no war during this period. He had been thinking of going to sea with Xu Huizu, but he was in Laos when the second fleet went out to sea. The third fleet had to wait for the new ships to be built, so he agreed immediately.

However, she originally wanted to find a palace maid to play the role of the vicious wife. However, when the palace maid heard about it, she was almost scared to death. She had to play the vicious wife of the Fourth Prince, a brave general with outstanding military achievements in the Ming Dynasty. How could she have such a brain to humiliate him with extremely vicious words!
Putting aside other things, just because she is the daughter of the Xu family, she cannot let me go.

There was no other way, Zhu Funing could only ask Xu Miaoyun for help. When Xu Miaoyun heard about this good thing, she was very dissatisfied with Zhu Di for being away from home all day and neglecting his family. Now she could finally vent her anger by scolding him openly.

However, when he heard that the final result was divorce and Zhu Di was going to marry someone else, he immediately became dissatisfied. But there are always more solutions than problems.

So Zhu Funing had to let his fourth sister-in-law play the daughter of a senior official in the Ministry of Works, and she also played the role of the vicious wife.

What to do? Can’t we just find a disguise expert to put makeup on her fourth sister-in-law?
When playing the role of a vicious wife, use disguised makeup. When playing the role of a high-ranking official's daughter, just use your real appearance.

After selecting the two most difficult roles, Zhu Funing found Xu Huizu again and asked him to play the childhood sweetheart scholar of his vicious wife. However, Xu Huizu flatly refused without a second thought. The thought of him flirting with his own elder sister made him feel sick.

After spending a lot of effort, the actors were finally gathered together. Xu Da decided to personally take on the vicious father-in-law and his family. He had no psychological burden about beating and scolding Zhu Di. As the saying goes, a son-in-law is half a son, so isn't it easy to control him?
The senior official from the Ministry of Industry found Li Min. Li Min found the idea interesting and readily agreed.

Anyway, all the civil and military officials in the court will be filmed in the movie by Her Royal Highness the Sixth Princess, so I can join in the fun and show my face more often. It's quite interesting just thinking about it.

However, what Zhu Funing did not expect was that when the filming officially started, it was the beginning of a disaster.

"Stop, fourth brother, you are here to pay respects to His Majesty, not to greet Dad. Your expression should be respectful but also neither humble nor overbearing. Do you understand? You need to learn to understand people's psychology!"

"Oh, why is it so troublesome to make a crappy movie? Fourth sister, why don't you make a movie like "Bright Sword"? I just charge forward with a gun in my hand, there's no need for so much trouble!"

(End of this chapter)