Seven Seas Beacon Fire

“Our Great Tang Dynasty still uses the substitute national anthem and military song. I plan to have one of my sockpuppet accounts take down both the national anthem and military song, and use that as a gimmick to become an instant sensation.” Zhu Miaoyun proudly raised her little head.

"One of the pseudonyms?"

"Let me tell you, I only understood the joy of using a secondary account after experiencing it firsthand." Zhu Miaoyun said, snatching the paper back from Li Che's hand. "I only remembered to copy this song after seeing those two princesses today, so how could I not hurry?"

Li Che vaguely remembered that this song from another world was released this year, but it would be many years before it was officially named "Hong Army is the Strongest (Красная Армия всех сильней)". But now the world is different, who knows if anyone will write this song again? Li Che felt that Zhu Miaoyun was being a bit of a worrywart.

Then Li Che noticed that there were quite a few papers like this on Zhu Miaoyun's desk, and the more he flipped through them, the more sweaty he became.

The Sacred War

"cuckoo"

............

"Are you just going to keep picking on the Russians?"

Li Che genuinely felt sorry for their northern neighbors. This was nothing compared to what they were going through! A holy war had already been waged. He was truly worried that the composers of the Ursus Federation might feel like they were always living in the shadow of a certain woman.

"Well, there's nothing I can do about it. These are the few songs that I have a strong impression of that might be suitable for use as military songs," Zhu Miaoyun said. "You, on the other hand, can help me decide. Which song do you think should be used for the army? Which song should be used for the navy?"

Li Che looked at the song "The Tang Army is the Strongest" in his hand. It was indeed a very good song. You can doubt many things about the Slavs, but you can never doubt their artistic talent.

In another world, after a famous 57 air battle, it happened to be the day when both the Russians and the Yunyun's motherland jointly released commemorative icons for the War of Resistance Against Japan. After seeing the icons made by both sides, everyone in the group joked, "We showed the Russians advanced weapons and equipment technology, while the Russians showed us advanced culture and art."

"Let me take a look... Goodness, I think you've practically emptied out the Russian music scene. Hey, wait a minute, there's a notebook with the melody written down but no lyrics... Is this 'The Mighty East Wind March'?"

Li Che's eye twitched. This was also one of his favorite songs, and he never expected to hear it here again.

"I initially wanted to submit this song to compete for the Army's theme song, but it seems there aren't many armored soldiers these days, right?"

"Pretty much. Although this song was originally written for the Rocket Force, with a few changes to the lyrics, it could be used by either of them, right?" Li Che pondered for a while, stroking his chin. "Could we give this song to the Navy? I really like it."

"Give it to the Navy?" Zhu Miaoyun tilted her head. "Goodness, are you now even giving this kind of thing to your 'home base' in the Navy?"

"What kind of analogy is that? I think the 'Dongfeng March' would be very suitable for the navy. 'Dongfeng' is not even a prototype yet, and even when it is completed, won't it eventually be launched into the sea and become a 'giant wave'? So it's more appropriate for the navy."

Chapter 347 Making movies is part of a propaganda war.

Zhu Miaoyun is probably really going to take the route of "cultural victory". Her Highness now has at least three aliases: one is a musician, one is a writer, and another is also a writer and editorial.

The musician's pseudonym is currently planning to take a high-end approach, aiming to win the selection of the army and navy anthems, and preparing to bid for the new national anthem of the Tang Dynasty before the upcoming National Day anniversary.

Music awards that involve national levels and are tied to the image of the country and the military are, in any era, a battle of titans in every literal sense, because sometimes the opponents you face are not even living people.

For example, what is the current national anthem of the Tang Dynasty? Although the composition is somewhat average, the lyrics are truly outstanding, as the song is called "Man Jiang Hong".

Although Li Che and Zhu Miaoyun both suffered from mild PTSD upon hearing the words "Man Jiang Hong" in another world due to a certain movie, putting that aside, in this world, facing foreign invasion at that time, it's hard not to think of the Jingkang Incident and the transition between the Northern and Southern Ming dynasties.

It's worth remembering that Emperor Longwu and Prince Li Dingguo led their soldiers in singing "Man Jiang Hong" as they drove the Manchus out of the Great Wall. On the battlefield, Emperor Longwu's imperial banner pressed forward, and soldiers, accompanied by the classical melody of "Man Jiang Hong," armed themselves with heavy matchlock muskets and advanced to within 30 paces of the Eight Banners troops before unleashing a volley of fire...

Although the composition of this song sounds outdated now, the reason it was chosen as the current national anthem is naturally because it contains so much meaning.

Not to mention that there may be other composers in this world who can produce excellent works, just to defeat this song's historical significance here is extremely difficult. However, Zhu Miaoyun is confident enough, because the song that Her Highness is preparing to use to compete is now called "The March of the National Protection Army," which also has a strong appeal and is absolutely in line with the fundamental principles of the Tang Dynasty.

In comparison, the army and navy's military songs can only be considered as a way to boost the achievements of this brand. Zhu Miaoyun has a comprehensive and well-thought-out plan in terms of marketing. In this world, it is never true that if you have a good enough product, you will definitely have the last laugh.

Zhu Miaoyun's marketing is mainly based on two directions: one is her pseudonym "Siming", and the other is "The March of the National Protection Army" itself.

First, there's the issue of pseudonyms. This is actually quite easy to understand. In today's music scene, "Si Ming" is just a newcomer. In the eyes of the public, songs created by such a newcomer are naturally perceived as more artistic and meaningful than those created by established, well-known musicians. If the difference between the two is not particularly large, then this preconceived perception will play a decisive role.

Another one is "The March of the National Protection Army". The song itself is of excellent quality and it resonates quite a bit with the experiences of the Chinese people during the World War. Moreover, in terms of musical style, compared with many similar songs of the same era, listening to this song really gives people a feeling of listening to celestial music.

However, these are far from enough to make this song a contender for the new national anthem. In another world, the original version of this song was able to become the national anthem because, since its creation as the theme song of the movie "Heroes and Daughters," it resonated with the entire nation during the more than ten years of resistance against foreign invasion.

Although "The March of the National Protection Army" did not coincide with the previous world wars, a good song that can inspire national spirit should not be buried because of this. Some appropriate marketing methods can help more people learn about the song and understand its connotations.

Nothing is more suitable than a movie to promote this song to people across the country and even the world, serving as the medium through which it was created.

However, this film needs to be exceptionally outstanding and successful enough so that the National Protection Army March, which serves as the film's theme song, can be deeply remembered by the general public, and then, based on this, a new "resonance" can be formed through some artificial guidance.

"You can make a film like this?"

Li Che's eyes were filled with suspicion towards Zhu Miaoyun. The main reason was that being a director was different from being a plagiarist. A plagiarist could do the job as long as he had a good memory, but the director's profession really required strong overall planning and command abilities.

Putting everything else aside, just look at how much coordination that Cyber ​​Daji had to handle when filming The Wandering Earth. Before the movie's release, it was visibly exhausting; you could practically feel how completely drained he was.

Before her time travel, Zhu Miaoyun had done a lot of multimedia planning and carried out many official and unofficial promotional activities. She also directed a few short films. However, Zhu Miaoyun did not have a professional background in film art. Could this great-aunt really make a movie that could attract everyone's attention in this era?

It seems... it really isn't impossible?

After all, the film industry these days is indeed a bit too barbaric. Even if Zhu Miaoyun had used some common narrative techniques and editing skills from later generations, they would have been as precious as diamonds to the film industry, which was still in its primitive stage.

Even if Zhu Miaoyun's directing skills are mediocre, simply piling up these diamonds recklessly is enough to create a groundbreaking work.

"What kind of look is that? Don't you believe me? I think you still know too little about the films of this era. I'm not even competing with them on the same level." Zhu Miaoyun, on the other hand, had a confident expression: "My film is destined to create a new era, just like Avatar. Think about what the most important thing that current films lack is?"

"Color? No, that's not right...it's sound?"

"Bingo!" Zhu Miaoyun snapped her fingers: "It's the sound. When the audience walks into the movie theater, when they are preparing to watch the plot and dialogue through the subtitles as usual, imagine what a huge shock it would be for the audience watching this movie if they suddenly heard the dialogue of the characters in the movie and the background music we prepared for the movie."

When the march blared again at halftime, what do you think their impression of the song would be? After experiencing something so groundbreaking, I believe this song will capture the hearts of the vast majority of audiences in this era!

Li Che could only nod in agreement, because what Zhu Miaoyun had just said was so practical. It could be said that the success of this film had little to do with the director himself. Sound films were indeed like a game-changer for this era. As long as the script was decent and there were no offensive parts, and as long as the director performed normally and didn't make any particularly obvious and irreparable mistakes, the audience could tolerate many problems with the plot and narrative in the face of absolute audiovisual enjoyment.

In another world, various Western superhero popcorn movies have repeatedly demonstrated to everyone that the logic of the scripts and stories of Marvel movies, especially the Avengers series, really deserves their high box office returns.

However, these flaws are insignificant in the Avengers quartet. Was the script for Avatar really that good and innovative? It doesn't matter in the face of James Cameron's absolute visual feast.

"Have you decided what kind of movie you want to make? Like the Russians' 'War and Peace' series, or something like the 'Liberation' series? If needed, the military can provide full cooperation and assistance..."

"No, no, no, those are things for the future." Zhu Miaoyun waved her hands repeatedly: "Even if I wanted to make a movie on the scale of an American version of War and Peace, I wouldn't have time now, let alone a Russian version of War and Peace. That's for later. What we want to make is a movie that doesn't require a large investment and has a relatively limited scale, but that can well reflect our essence of defending our homeland, and at the same time, the plot and characters should leave a clear impression on the audience."

"To be able to explain it in such detail... it seems you already have a plan in mind?"

"Yeah, what do you think about us making a global version of 'Heroes and Daughters'?"

"Heroes and heroines?" Li Che recalled many movies he had watched in another world: "The ones where they fired at me?"

"Yes, let's set the background in the Battle of Dongdu. Do you have any suggestions? I haven't seen many movies on this topic. The one that left a deep impression on me was 'Heroes and Daughters,' which was shown at my school when I was in elementary school."

"Heroes and Daughters is already a very good film and script, but the memory point you mentioned is indeed very important. I suggest adding two iconic scenes to enhance the memory and evoke the audience's emotions."

"Oh?"

"The first one is to refer to the 28 warriors of Panfilov and adapt their famous line—'Our motherland is vast, but we have nowhere to retreat, because behind us lies the Eastern Capital!' What do you think of this?"

"Someone just said I was copying Russian songs, but you didn't just copy a single lyric; you practically copied their entire national foundation!" Zhu Miaoyun laughed and punched Li Che on the shoulder. "And what else?"

"I can't remember the name of the movie, but it seems to be a Russian film called Stalingrad. The plot of the movie is actually quite ordinary, but I will never forget the scene in the movie where the Germans set fire to the gasoline on the dikes during the Soviet counterattack, trying to use the fire to stop the advancing troops."

But the attacking troops simply emerged directly from the fire. Each of them was engulfed in flames, yet they charged into the inferno without hesitation. When those soldiers burst forth from the flames, there was a truly poignant sense of 'I have come from hell.'

When Li Che got to this point, he was almost basking in his own excitement: "In short, if we could add these two scenes, I think this movie would definitely be a huge hit."

In just a few words of discussion, the overall tone of the film was already set. To some extent, this film can be considered a "co-production of good films," but unfortunately, the ideas and visuals presented are the absolute essence of other films.

It seemed like just a prank by two young people, but when Li Zongdi learned that Zhu Miaoyun was going to make such a movie, the emperor actually expressed strong support for it.

Although Li Zongdi's political skills are actually quite average, his political acumen is very keen; otherwise, he wouldn't have reached where he is today. Li Zongdi astutely recognized the enormous influence of such films on public opinion.

In particular, many people felt that the villains in the old movies were portrayed as too stereotypical, stupid, and ugly, because of the depiction of the Colombian troops in the film. However, if a movie wants to exist as a popular art form, it should naturally serve the broadest masses of people.

Whether in the Tang Dynasty or in any other country, most moviegoers today have not received a very good education. You are trying to instill this kind of simple stereotype in these ordinary people.

This is similar to many female internet celebrities on live streaming platforms. The makeup they wear is vastly different from their real-life makeup. Many of their makeup looks are specifically designed to adapt to the various skin-smoothing, whitening, and beauty effects of current live streaming software. If you saw this kind of makeup in real life, you would definitely find it very strange, or even ugly. However, with the support of powerful beauty systems, these female streamers all look like goddesses.

That's the power of filters. In the face of such filters, the makeup done by a normal makeup artist may not seem so striking. For many people who are not very educated or cultured, it makes no sense to make the villain look more convincing.

The people of this world don't have the same filter that people from other worlds had for Colombian countries and their armies in early films. In the eyes of the general public, Colombian troops are evil and ugly like goblins. The more sleazy and stupid they are portrayed, the more they can stereotypically show Colombia's stupidity, arrogance, and cruelty in this world war.

Let me give you an update on my family situation.

A brief explanation.

My friends, like Chicken Nuggets and Minna, know that my husband has recently run into some minor problems.

The old lady's house was leaking, so the 60-year-old young man jumped onto the roof to repair it, and then accidentally fell down when he came down.

Good news, there's nothing wrong with the bones.

Bad news, I tore my ligament.

However, considering that the 60-year-old man didn't suffer any major problems after falling from the roof, he can be considered a legendary fall-resistant king.

These things happened a while ago, and I've tried my best not to let these issues affect my updates, but yesterday this 60-year-old guy gave me another big surprise.

This guy hasn't been staying still since his injury. He had surgery a few days ago, and the doctor told him to rest, but he's been running around with crutches every day. Yesterday morning, when he got up, he broke his crutches and fell, but he didn't hurt his injured leg.

I was supposed to bring him food after work in the evening, but he was hungry and couldn't wait. At 5:00, he went to the microwave in the hospital corridor to heat up something to eat, but he fell down again.

This time, he fell and injured his leg.

Good news: the reattached ligament was not torn.

Bad news: hematoma and edema have developed around the injured area...

This is really giving me a headache...

I feel like the person in my family doesn't look like they're over 60, but more like they're 6 years old.

I'll make up for yesterday's missed update today, but lately this and other things have really taken a toll on my energy, lol.

Chapter 348 Miniaturized Heavy Cruiser

Li Che naturally gave his full support to his wife's ambitious desire to make a groundbreaking film.

On the one hand, he also felt that the films in the world today were not quite in line with his personal aesthetic, and it was time to let his wife instill some cinematic art from another world.

On the other hand, everyone needs hobbies. It's better for his wife to enjoy these cultural and creative pursuits than for her to try her luck in the financial market. Although their family has been a royal family for generations, the family's wealth is not as great as one might imagine.

There's a saying that goes something like this...

It's not that I'm afraid of rich kids who just laze around and do nothing, it's that I'm afraid of them who work hard and end up squandering their family fortune from several generations.

Zhu Miaoyun has already demonstrated a high level of efficiency. On one hand, she has people start preparing to assemble the film crew, including filming locations and actors. On the other hand, she has started organizing people to work on the scriptwriting. Furthermore, as the producer and director, Zhu Miaoyun has hand-drew storyboards for several key scenes in the film. She learned this from Guo Fan when watching behind-the-scenes videos of The Wandering Earth.

In today's era, it is absolutely ahead of its time in terms of film production processes.

While Zhu Miaoyun focused her main energy on film creation, Li Che received the latest news from the navy: the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy was about to begin preparations to develop its own treaty heavy cruisers.

Although several ships in the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty were qualified to be classified as heavy cruisers before the treaty was signed, these so-called "first-class armored cruisers" built in the later stages of World War II underwent modifications before the treaty was officially signed. The modifications were actually quite simple: replacing the original 180mm or 210mm guns with 150mm guns.

In short, these warships were downgraded to light cruisers. Therefore, after the treaty was signed, the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty was not squeezed out of its heavy cruiser tonnage by cruisers like Hawkins, unlike the Royal Navy of Victoria. All 18 tons of tonnage could be used to build heavy cruisers. If all of them were built according to the upper limit of tonnage, the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty could have a maximum of 18 heavy cruisers in the future.

Although it sounds like enough to form an idol group like the Eighteen Arhats...

However, it is clear that even in the worst-case scenario envisioned by the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty, namely when it was simultaneously opposing the United States of Colombia and the Victorian Empire, each of those countries also possessed 18 tons of naval power.

Because of this, just like when the Gallic Navy was developing heavy cruisers, there were voices within the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy advocating for the construction of "the smallest heavy cruisers." However, the Tang Dynasty's stance was even more extreme. Supporters of this smallest heavy cruiser believed that the tonnage should be controlled to around 5000 to 5500 tons, meaning that the hull should be almost identical to that of the planned new generation of light cruisers.

This would allow for the maximization of design simplicity and production versatility between light and heavy cruisers. As for how to manage firepower with such a small tonnage?

This forces us to bring up the most important theory of the supporters of the "smallest heavy cruiser"—the Four-Cannon Cult!

That's right, the Four-Cannon Cult has two fewer cannons than the Six-Cannon Cult.

The question of how many large-caliber guns a warship needs to perform fire control with the fire control system of a dreadnought is not difficult to answer, and many people can answer it—as long as there are three or more, then theoretically all of them can be used for fire control.

Further increasing the number of guns increases the firepower density. When the number of guns reaches six, congratulations, your warship has theoretically gained the ability to fire a half-salvo. Half-salvo means that during the firing process, not all main guns are used.

However, although three cannons can theoretically be used for calibration, they are not very convenient to use in practice because there are not enough impact points, making observation difficult. If you want to calibrate more comfortably, it is best to have at least four cannons.

Similarly, since three guns are not convenient for calibration, warships with six main guns, including the Royal Navy's Renown-class battlecruisers, did not often use a half-salvo method for calibration. Therefore, in terms of calibration, the difference between four-gun ships and six-gun ships was not that great.

Therefore, mounting four single-mounted 210mm naval guns on the hull of a 5000-ton cruiser was considered a cost-effective solution by proponents of this type of small heavy cruiser. Since guns of this size are difficult to defend effectively anyway, it's better to be a little less ambitious and use smaller ships to carry large-caliber guns, ensuring mutual destruction with larger cruisers. Supporters of this type of small cruiser believed it was a very cost-effective approach.

Opponents argue that such small cruisers are only theoretically capable of engaging opponents with larger tonnage. Even if both sides can penetrate each other's armor, larger cruisers naturally have higher firepower density, more stable gun platforms, and greater resistance to damage and sinking.

Instead of trying to take shortcuts with smaller tonnage, we should focus on maximizing tonnage to the extreme—building cruisers that are stronger than other countries' 10,000-ton heavy cruisers, especially emphasizing survivability. For this, we don't have to be so honest; it's not unreasonable to make some adjustments to the tonnage restrictions on warships.

In this context, both sides simultaneously began bidding for the Navy's first true treaty heavy cruiser. Since this was a completely new type of ship that had never been built before, the Admiralty did not know which side's performance indicators were more reasonable, so the Admiralty did not impose any restrictions or requirements on this bidding process.

The design work for the small heavy cruiser faction is progressing smoothly, as they are developed based on the already mature 5500-ton light cruiser hull. The single-mounted 210mm naval guns have various layouts, including a flat layout of 1 forward, 2 in the middle, and 1 aft, a negative-back layout of 2 forward and 2 aft, and even a flat layout of 2 forward and 2 aft.

When Li Che saw this heavy cruiser design, he felt a strong sense of déjà vu for the "Red Caucasus" cruiser.

The Red Caucasus was a rather unique cruiser. As the weakest heavy cruiser in the world, it was created because the major powers were all building heavy cruisers, while the Red Navy possessed none of that class. Therefore, the Red Navy focused on cruisers that hadn't been completed during the Tsarist era, modifying and strengthening them to gain the ability to compete with treaty-designated cruisers. This was the most cost-effective solution to achieve combat readiness in the short term.

After a comprehensive evaluation, the Russians selected the light cruiser "Admiral Lazarev" as the hull for conversion. This type of light cruiser belonged to a batch of littoral cruisers designed by the Russians before World War I for operations in the Baltic and Black Seas, including the "Svetlana" class and the "Admiral Nakhimov" class.