The banquet lasted from the afternoon until after dark, and at the urging of Yi Nan, Sun Xiangfu led everyone to transfer and went directly to the opera house.

Sun Xiangfu and Heraclius rode in the same five-wheeled car, and under his introduction, Heraclius roughly appreciated the highlights of several night scenes in Dingxiang City.

"Aren't you afraid of spending money on so many lamps in the city?"

"Hehe, the little money spent on the palm lamp is not worth a fraction of the benefits brought to us by the palm lamp, Your Royal Highness the Prince, take a closer look at the streets of this city, what is the difference between you and your Constantinople?"

"It's more lively, bustling, and beautiful."

Even if Heraclius's words reached Sun Xiangfu's ears through the translator's translation, Sun Xiangfu could understand his feelings when he said these words, with deep envy and jealousy!

"That's why we put up street lights on the streets at night, and with street lights, more people will come out to play, spend, and our business tax revenue will increase dramatically."

Hearing this, Heracle suddenly realized, "Is this the secret of your Tang Kingdom's wealth?" ”

"Well, sort of! However, this is only a small part of it, even if your Byzantine Empire was founded much longer than ours, but your level of craftsmanship is quite different from our Central Plains, whether it is from civilian supplies to military equipment, so compared to us, you are still very weak. ”

"Weak? This is not a good word to describe our mighty Byzantine Empire. We are the largest, most populous, and most numerous army in the world······"

"Hehehe, if you said this a few years ago, I might agree, but your Byzantine Empire, even if you add the area of all the vassal states, does not exceed six million square kilometers, and the land area of my Datang is now more than 30 million square kilometers, which is more than five times that of yours, although your population and army are slightly more than ours, but, more, does not mean strong, the equipment of our Datang sergeants, you have seen it in the city, as for their combat power, you are on the sports field, There will also be a specific cognition, as for what I just said, wealth, and craftsmanship, you know. ”

"30 million square kilometers? How is it possible, as far as I know, your Tang Kingdom is not so big at all, and besides, your population is less than 20 million, while we have more than 40 million. ”

"Hehehe, that's why I said that you said this a few years ago, I may agree with you, our Datang has been growing and developing rapidly in recent years, and the four sides have expanded a lot, and the number of newly increased territories and populations is very large, across the entire Central Plains, overseas, and there are a lot of islands and entire continents under the rule of my Datang, just one of the Australian continents is broader than all the territories of your Byzantine Empire, where, now it's just our exclusive pasture."

When the Byzantine Empire was founded in 395, it had a population of about 34 million, because they inherited the main body of the Roman Empire, and their economy has been relatively stable and their population has multiplied relatively quickly.

Now, more than 200 years later, due to the defeat of the Sassanid Empire's agreement, most of the land and population of Central Asia were ceded to the Byzantine Empire, and their population and territory have a new round of growth, according to their official statistics, the population directly ruled by the Byzantine Empire is more than 42 million, including the population of the subject states, more than 50 million, which is equivalent to the population of the Tang Dynasty in the Tang Dynasty.

But Sun Xiangfu did not tell a lie, the land connected to the mainland land of the Tang Dynasty, even minus the Tubo Plateau, is about twice as large as the territory of our country in later generations, because, in the eastward direction, in addition to adding the entire Korean Peninsula, it also adds the entire Trans-Khingan Mountains, reaching the Sea of Okhotsk.

To the west, it encompasses the entire Green Mountains, the Pamir Plateau, and even later Afghanistan, nearly half of Pakistan.

To the north, it included Outer Mongolia, most of later Kazakhstan, and of course, the Gobi Desert from all of Siberia to Eastern Europe.

To the south, it encompasses the entire coastal region of Southeast Asia.

Then there are overseas Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and even the entire Australian continent, which in later generations, but the territory of dozens of countries, all combined, more than 30 million square kilometers.

The information he said suddenly refreshed Heraclius's cognition of the Tang Dynasty, and realized that the title of the Tang Kingdom he said before was not so appropriate, it should be called 'Datang', and the focus should be on the word 'Da'.

Sun Xiangfu specially rode in the same car with Heraclius, and naturally there was a reason for talking about these things, that is, to persuade him to recognize the status of the Tang Dynasty and the first empire in the world.

Seeing that Heraclius was silent, digesting the information that the translator said, Sun Xiangfu said again, "There is no doubt that my Tang Dynasty is the number one power in the world, one of our small border cities is already more prosperous than the capital of your empire, and as for our capital Chang'an City, which is several times larger than this city, I hope you have the opportunity to see it, which is the largest male city in the world." ”

Dingxiang City is naturally not as prosperous as it is now, because of the sports conference, it has been given more than five times the bonus, but Heraclius did not expect this, he entered the city less than a day, but any point he saw was incredibly strong, completely crushing the strength of their own country.

Now, he has actually begun to recognize what Sun Xiangfu said in his heart, but he is also aware of the problem behind this matter, you must know that in the West, any country whose civilization has not reached a certain level is respected by the strong, once the Tang Dynasty has established the status of the world's first power, then there are many kingdom forces that want to rely on them, but unfortunately, this is a fact in front of him.

"Mr. Duke, do you have any intention in boasting about your empire so much?" Heraclius has followed his father to manage the country's politics for many years, and naturally he is not a fool, and his eyes are facing Sun Xiangfu, who is pretending to show off, and he said.

If he doesn't ask that, Sun Xiangfu is embarrassed to say it!

After listening to the words from the interpreter, Sun Xiangfu immediately said to the interpreter, "When you say this to Prince Heraclius, you will say that our Emperor His Majesty wants to add the honorific title of 'Tian Khan' to the opening ceremony of the sports conference, and this 'Tian Khan' means, he can be understood as the strongest emperor in the world, an emperor that all kings should respect." Therefore, at this ceremony, as a prince of the Byzantine Empire, he also had to respectfully bow to His Majesty the Emperor. ”

Soon, the translator followed Sun Xiangfu's meaning, organized the language, and told Heraclius, unexpectedly, Heracliu, after thinking for a while, nodded directly in agreement, it seems that Sun Xiangfu's cowhides just now were not blown in vain.

In the hearts of Westerners, there will not be so many curves, if you are strong, you are strong, you are strong, you can get the respect of others, the emperor of an empire whose land area is five times larger than his own country, he should be honored and announced to the world, even if his father is present, he should also show respect, not to mention that he is just a prince, plus, the Byzantine Empire, which is now a headache for the Arabs, is not suitable to set up such a powerful enemy as the Tang Empire, so he made a decisive decision.

After getting Heraclius, then Li Shimin added the title in front of the whole world and established the status of the Tang Dynasty as the kingdom, even if it was successfully completed, and at this time, the car also arrived at the most peculiar place in Dingxiang City, the Opera House.

At the beginning, Sun Xiangfu asked them to ensure the daytime lighting, but also to maintain the spotlight at night, and to let the sound of the stage be condensed in the audience as much as possible.

There are seven venues in the whole opera house, from a small theater with 1,000 people to a large theater with 7,000 people, different sizes, Dongzhu is singing today, it is the No. 5 theater that can accommodate 5,000 spectators, and unless it is a large-scale drama, the No. 7 theater with a scale of 7,000 people will not be used, like the kind of 10,000-person theater being built next to Chang'an Qujiang Pond, basically it is not guaranteed that all the people who enter can hear the timbre of the lead singer, and can only perform some chorus and large-scale group dance performances.

The level of science and technology is not enough, and there is no way to do it, at this scale, it is already the maximum limit of singing with real voices, so that the audience can hear the singer's singing.

As early as more than a month ago, the opera house has become the most lively place in Dingxiang City, whether it is day or night, there are performances, tonight, the first, second, and third venues, in fact, there are performances, and the snack pedestrian street around the venue, the flow of people is like shuttle.

Heraclius just swept these streets with his eyes, and found that most of the people who ate on the snack street and went to the theater to watch performances were just dressed as civilians, and it was precisely because of this that Heraclius felt the strength of Datang even more in his heart.

Ordinary civilians in the Tang Dynasty can have the financial resources to eat delicious food on the snack street at will, and buy tickets to enter the opera house to watch performances, which shows that their people are very rich.

"Excuse me, how much do I need to pay for the show if I come to see the show by myself?"

Sun Xiangfu didn't need to answer this question, the translator answered directly to Heraclius, "The ticket price will vary depending on the number of seats and the popularity of the performers, ordinary artists and actors, and ordinary theatrical performances, the ticket is only 20 yuan, and the front row close to the stage is only about 100 yuan."

When a well-known singer like Princess Dongzhu, who is very popular with the people, performs, the theater will greatly increase the price of tickets, ordinary seats may be sold for more than 50 yuan, and VIP seats near the stage may be as high as one or two, of course, even this ticket price is almost in short supply. ”

Generally, ordinary singers and artists who are qualified to open a special show in the art troupe, even if they hold a concert in the smallest theater for an hour or so, they can receive dozens of tickets, and a top artist like Dongzhu, who is almost loved by the whole people, can receive thousands of tickets for a 5,000-person concert, and just about 1,000 high-priced tickets in the front row can sell one or two thousand, which shows the strong ability of this theater to attract money.

Sun Xiangfu didn't know that Heraclius was still comparing the livelihood of the Tang Dynasty with Byzantium in his heart, and soon, he took him to lead the team into the No. 5 theater with Yi Nan, and these people, naturally VIPs, occupied more than half of all the seats close to the stage.

And Heraclius, who sat down with Sun Xiangfu, suddenly became a curious baby, asking him all kinds of questions about the theater, however, the more he asked, the more confused he became, because what kind of ceiling echo device, what kind of concentrating device, in his opinion who didn't understand the principle, was really profound.

Then, when Dongzhu, who was illuminated by various colored lights on the stage and appeared in a beautiful feather suit, took the stage, Heraclius really felt the charm of this stage.

Hundreds of musicians played collectively, and the impact of the strong volume and strong rhythm on him made him suddenly feel an unprecedented pleasure, and then, Dongzhu began to sing.

"The clouds are burning, the love is jumping and falling in the arms, a ray of sunshine illuminates the heart, and my dream is wearing red makeup for you······"

Heraclius couldn't understand Chinese at all, but he just felt that the music was very emotional, and soon, his expression changed to the same demeanor as Dongzhu's fanatical fans, and the representatives of the Western Regions who were just as drunk as him were all like him.