In the sixth year of Kaiyuan, the fifteenth day of the first month.

Shangyuan Night.

Luoyang Ziwei Palace, the main gate is the gate of heaven.

The gate of heaven is the south gate of Ziwei Palace, which is brilliant and atmospheric.

It is a huge concave building complex composed of a gatehouse, a multi-building, an east and west tower and the corridor in between.

Then the gate of heaven is three out of the gate in both directions, and there are a total of twelve ques on the east and west sides, which is the highest level of the city gate system, and it is also the highest etiquette system that the Son of Heaven can enjoy.

The city gate is more than 40 zhang long from east to west, and the two sides are 40 feet high (35.3 meters, higher than Tiananmen Square). There are two views on the door, written purple micro on it, the left and right are connected, and the middle is connected by a corridor, like a pavilion in the air.

Also known as Wufeng Tower.

This is an important place for the imperial court to hold foreign ceremonies such as enthronement, reform, amnesty, banquet and reception of envoys from all countries.

Today, on the night of Shangyuan, the emperor will watch the Luoyang lanterns here with hundreds of officials and envoys from various countries.

On Tianmen Square, there will also be performances from various counties, each county has a parade float, which is very beautifully decorated, and there are lamps of various shapes, and Kabuki, dancing girls and music classes perform on the car, and there are ox carts pulling. They lined up to perform in front of Zetianmen, and then went out of Tianjin Bridge to perform in a parade of floats throughout the city.

Upstairs are civil and military officials, nobles and envoys of various states, and in the square under the city, in addition to waiting for the performers, and the forbidden army on duty, there are many lucky people who are selected as representatives of the people, they are mostly soldiers in service or retirement, Guozijian bachelors, people who participate in the imperial examination, as well as some teachers from schools around the country, as well as some officials of the Beijing Division, and the heads of the two hundred and seventy lines of the three cities, etc., in short, they are more or less prominent in a certain aspect, and the people who have a certain reputation for their innocence.

They sat on both sides of the square and watched.

Tianmen Square is very wide, but the forbidden army has also used stone powder to mark out patches of areas early, each with its own markings. There are rules on which entrance and exit the performers take, where they wait, and where they perform. And the representatives of the people watched, they also have their own location numbers, in Tianjin before the inspection, a series of inspections before coming to the square, and finally to get a number plate, and then according to the number plate to find their own location, the number to sit down.

If you cross the line or sit in a disorderly manner, you will be reprimanded, expelled or even beaten with a rod.

In order to ensure safety, the government is going all out, the Luoyang Mansion and the two counties below, as well as the Imperial History Institute of the Patrol City, Jin Wuwei, the prison guard, the Qianniu Guard, etc., all holidays are canceled today, and everyone is on the street.

The convoy lined up for the performance, from Zetianmen to Tianjin Bridge, a total of more than 200 floats, but after rounds of performance competition, the qualification for the performance in front of Zetianmen was finally determined.

From the beginning of the Lunar New Year, every day at dusk, these convoys began to parade around Luoyang City, until finally more than 200 light cars were selected as representatives of each county.

Tonight, they will perform in front of the gate of heaven, and finally the top three will be selected by the saints.

For people in the world who are engaged in singing and dancing music, this is their imperial examination.

On the Ziwei floor of Tianmen, it was originally a Taoist temple when the Sui Dynasty was newly built, but the emperor of this dynasty did not allow the monk temple and Taoist temple to be built in the city, and it was not allowed to be built on the five phoenix towers.

Today, in the Wufeng Tower, there is still a banquet at this time, the emperor and the hundred officials and the envoys of the countries drink the banquet here, after the banquet is over, you can directly watch the float performance on the Wufeng Tower, and you can also overlook the brilliant lights of the whole Luoyang City.

At this time, those who can enter the Wufeng Tower and have a place at the banquet are at least the rank of the third rank or above. Either the royal family, the princes, or the Zai Fu Qingshang, or the local feudal officials.

The emperor did not wear a dragon robe today, but unexpectedly put on a cloth robe. The emperor, the crown prince, the queen mother, the queen, the four concubines and nine concubines are also wearing cloth clothes, which is a little special in the purple robe and jade belt all over the building.

The emperor seems to want to tell everyone that they should have fun with the people today, but the royal family is originally from the people.

Luo Cheng's princes except for King Song, the rest have arrived, King Song did not get the emperor's permission, still in Chang'an Bashang Zhang Tiegun father and son house, after going to Chang'an, Luo Cheng has been staring at him, knowing that he has also suffered a little, but Luo Cheng feels that it should be, King Song has changed a little, but not much, so Luo Cheng thinks that he should continue to stay in Bashang to accept the transformation, and when he is reformed, he will let him return to Luoyang to participate in these banquet ceremonies.

"What a scene!" Yu Shinan, a university scholar, looked at the beautiful scenery of the fire trees and silver flowers in the distance and exclaimed.

Luo Cheng asked the prince.

"Prince, do you know how much money is spent on this year's Luoyang Shangyuan Lantern Festival?"

"It should cost a lot." The crown prince sits on the left side of the emperor.

Luo Cheng smiled, "It's so lively, it's really a lot of money, but in fact, the imperial treasury didn't spend a penny, and the palace treasury didn't use a penny, and even, because of the Shangyuan Lantern Festival, the imperial court also recorded a lot of money." ”

The prince was surprised, "How is this possible? ”

"If you ask Cui Xiang, you will know that it is impossible."

Cui Junsu, the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Pingzhang Minister, introduced to the prince with his crossed hands, "This is all the credit of the saint!" ”

In fact, it seems magical, and it is not complicated to talk about it in detail, Emperor Luo Cheng just turned this Lantern Festival, which was originally operated by the imperial court, into a commercial operation. Just like the newspaper industry, which is now very developed, you can make more money by selling advertisements than you can by selling newspapers.

The emperor also asked the province to do this, for example, before thousands of floats entered Beijing, the emperor left advertising space on these lanterns, and solicited sponsors from businessmen across the country, through competition, whoever paid more money could become a sponsor, and their advertisements could be printed on the floats, and even on the lamps in the neighborhoods of Luoyang City.

According to the guidance given by the emperor, the Ministry of Internal Affairs even divided the sponsors into three levels, the first level is the Shangyuan Lantern Festival partner, the second level is the sponsor, and the third level is the supplier.

There are only eighteen first-level partners, all of which are the most famous and powerful large business groups and chambers of commerce in the world, and they also contribute the most money. The number of second-level sponsors and third-level suppliers is larger, and the sponsors also pay for it, and the suppliers directly supply the things needed for the festival of lights, and each item of goods or materials required for the festival of lights is supplied exclusively by competing for one.

These three-level sponsors can get different advertising positions and different efforts, but there is no doubt that in this much-anticipated Shangyuan Lantern Festival, the advertisements of these sponsors can appear overwhelmingly on every lamp and every float, which is not strong.

For this, it is worth paying sponsorship fees, after all, there is a newspaper advertising effect in the front, and now more and more businesses have realized the value of commercial advertising.