The only thing that made Yu Sheng and Qing Xiaoyi a little puzzled was that among the nine treasures, there was actually a glass ball, and it didn't look good quality and was not so transparent, which made the two quite puzzled.

After driving all the way for the rest of his life, Qing Xiaoyi identified the cultural relics along the way. In order to avoid the damage of these valuable cultural relics, but also to avoid the rest of your life to wander yourself and hit other cars. So, the speed is not fast. By the time I got back to my accommodation in Los Angeles, it was already early afternoon. After a little eating, the two of them rested.

By the time I woke up, it was already night. Two bottles and nine pieces of jewelry were placed on the table by Qing Xiaoyi. When the rest of his life woke up, it was already dark. But I saw that the house was full of clear light. And all these clear lights actually came from the seemingly inconspicuous glass ball that was not very transparent! At this time, Qing Xiaoyi also woke up, and when she saw this vision, she whispered: "This is the Pearl of the Night!" ”

This one, which is neither like fluorite nor pearl, is only a little more than two centimeters in diameter, but its value is much higher than that of the other eight pieces combined. Even compared with the blue and white of Zhiyuan and Yongzheng pastel porcelain, it is not inferior at all, and even surpasses. Even if it is rumored that the two night pearls buried with the Empress Dowager Cixi, the texture and brilliance are estimated to be nothing more than that. At this time, Qing Xiaoyi and Yu Sheng understood a little that the jewelry suitcase they bought from this red sandalwood material was definitely not something that ordinary palace concubines or Gege could have. Although there are no markings on the suitcases and jewelry.

Qing Xiaoyi said softly: "Although these jewelry are not marked, they are all extraordinary. If the father is alive, he may be able to find out the identity of the original owner of this jewelry suitcase from his work and registration records. But now, I'm afraid it's harder. At that time, the Anglo-French alliance and the Eight-Nation alliance entered Beijing successively, almost sweeping away the treasures that Beijing had treasured for hundreds of years since the Yongle Emperor. ”

Qing Xiaoyi said this because the Mongolian nobles of the Yuan Dynasty withdrew to the Mongolian steppe when they saw that the situation was irreversible. A fire was set in most of his capital. The Central Plains classics and cultural relics collected in the past 100 years were burned to the ground. Since then, there have been no major natural or man-made disasters in Beijing. Since Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, Beijing has begun to recover. Even when the Manchu Dynasty came to control the city of Beijing, it did not destroy the original buildings and cultural relics. It was not until the Anglo-French coalition army and the Eight-Nation Coalition army entered Beijing successively that the city of Beijing was devastated again.

When the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded China, it actually had something to do with the Japanese. In 1894, after the defeat of the Chinese in the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese used decades of accumulated intelligence. As a result, all the news exchanges between Li Hongzhang and the Qing court were discovered by the Japanese, and the negotiations naturally failed. The silver compensation not only gave the Japanese the funds to support domestic development, but also the Qing court lost the face and dignity of a country.

When Western countries discovered that even Japan, a small country with weak national strength and a few years after the Restoration, could bully the Qing court, the weakness and powerlessness of the Qing court were exposed. At this time, Westerners, although they knew that the Qing Dynasty was no longer a powerful dynasty that had been the leader of the world for thousands of years.

But. Since the beginning of the Westernization Movement, China has initially introduced various achievements of modern Western civilization. Including steam engines, advanced ironclad ships, etc., the war of 1840 allowed Westerners to open the door to China. But at this time, most of the world's silver is concentrated in China. Thousands of years of accumulated wealth were thrown down, and the Qing court soon had some modern armies and a fleet that was famous in the world at the time. i.e. the Beiyang Fleet!

With this Beiyang fleet, it will not be so easy for the Western powers to enter China again. Therefore, under the dual efforts of the Qing court, both diplomatic and military. The situation of the Chinese is actually really improving. If Li Hongzhang had commanded properly, or if the six gentlemen of Wuxu had clearly understood the situation, carried out the reform and reform in silence, focused on improving production, and supported Cixi, who held power, China would not have embarked on the road of constitutional monarchy.

And if China embarks on this road in the development of modern times, it will rely on its relatively strong accumulation at this time. It may not be like the 80s in the later generations, with rapid development. The pattern of the modern world will also be completely different.

However, the Beiyang Fleet was completely wiped out in Li Hongzhang's evasion of the war, and China could no longer build a powerful navy in a short period of time. Moreover, the huge indemnity paid to the Japanese also hurt the vitality of the Qing court. After that, the six gentlemen of Wuxu, although they had the ambition to serve the country, they were in a hurry. I don't know the truth of forbearance.

When supporting Emperor Guangxu, he angered Cixi, who held power. In 1898, the Wuxu Reform began. A hundred days later, it was suppressed by Cixi. Kang Youwei, the leader of the Hundred Days Restoration, and Liang Qichao fled because they had some connections overseas.

However, Cixi, a master of the palace, saw this move as a sign that foreign powers wanted to deprive themselves of their authority. Moreover, after the First Sino-Japanese War, the weakness of the Qing court was exposed, which made the great powers feel that the Qing court was a delicious piece of fat. Reasonable or unreasonable demands have been put forward for the opening of ports, concession land, and so on. provoked the anger of Cixi, who thought that "the whole world is not the king's land, and the shore of the land is not the king's minister"!

Subsequently, Cixi used the power of the Boxers to suppress the foreigners and put forward the slogan of "helping the Qing to destroy the foreigners".

And Cixi, although she is smart and experienced in palace fighting, she can't look at the general trend of the world. In modern history, he frequently made stupid moves and defeated the Qing court's family background. When the Beiyang Navy Division set out on the expedition, it coincided with Cixi's 60th birthday. Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were used. If half of this money is taken out and two more capital warships are added to the Beiyang Naval Division, then the First Sino-Japanese War will never be lost.

And if Cixi could win the support of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao's reformers after the First Sino-Japanese War, and support the reform of the law in her name, then with her authority and power, the speed of China's reform may be immeasurable. Not to mention catching up with Europe and the United States, it will not be a problem to crush Japan in a few decades. In this way, not only will Cixi not lose power, but the historical image is not much different from that of Elizabeth or Queen Victoria of Britain. It is not impossible to learn from Wu Zetian to ascend the throne by himself.

It's a pity that Cixi can't see the general trend clearly. Don't forbear when you should forbear, and forbear blindly when you shouldn't. When the Qing court was inferior, it also took the initiative to provoke the foreign powers and gave the best excuse for Western countries to send troops. And the Japanese, who got a big bargain in the First Sino-Japanese War, were the ones who jumped the most.

In June 1900, the Dagukou Fort fell. On June 21, 1900, the Qing court declared war on other countries and posted a reward for killing foreigners in Beijing. On 14 July, the Eight-Nation Coalition captured Tianjin at the cost of less than 1,000 men. This was followed by the gathering of troops. Prepare for an attack on Beijing.

By mid-August, Tianjin had assembled the Eight-Nation Alliance, with a total of more than 18,000 troops. Among them, there were 4,800 Russian troops, 3,000 British troops composed mainly of Indians and Chinese from Hong Kong and Weihaiwei, 2,100 American troops, 800 French troops composed mainly of Vietnamese, 50 Austrian troops, and 53 Italian troops. The Japanese army numbered as many as 8,000 men, almost equal to the combined forces of Britain, Russia, Austria and Italy!

1900, 14 August. Beijing fell. The catastrophe of Chinese civilization began.

According to the statistics of later generations, 1,148 sacrificial vessels were lost in Sanhai, Huangshi City, Summer Palace, and Temple of Heaven, and 168 sacrificial vessels were lost in Sheji Altar. Songzhu Temple lost more than 3,000 gilded Buddhas, more than 50 bronze Buddhas, 13 magnetic Buddhas, 12 pairs of magnetic bottles, 40 gold-plated utensils, 7 silverware, more than 4,300 bronze utensils, 58 pieces of tin ware, 70 flags, more than 1,400 brocade embroideries, more than 110 bamboo and wood wares, more than 1,600 ink carving treasures, and more than 100 musical instruments......

The six departments and nine yamen of the Qing court were occupied as barracks by the armies of various countries and looted. Tens of thousands of historical classics were lost, including the Yongle Canon, which is one of the few surviving books. The gold and steel sacrificial vessels of Changji Temple and the gold and silver tableware of Guanglu Temple were swept away. Luan Jiaku lost 21 chariot rides, 1,373 pieces of Luan driving, 12 pieces of sedan cars, 2 pieces of jade treasures, 282 pieces of imperial concubine scepters, 84 pieces of imperial concubine color staffs, one new and old cloud disk umbrella, one hundred and thirty-three pieces of brocade flags, nine ivory, two elephant saddles, two war drums, two bells, two static whips, and the rest of the sundries cannot be counted......

The Eight-Nation Coalition is in Beijing, not counting all kinds of rare cultural relics, just silver. snatched as much as 60 million taels from the major treasury. The Japanese even snatched 3 million taels of silver from the treasury of Tobe, countless silk and satin, and 320,000 ishikura rice from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In addition, the silver taels deposited by the Ministry of Internal Affairs were also swept away by the Japanese. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has always been the private treasury of the royal family. Its account books were never released to the public, but considering Cixi's penchant for luxury, the wealth she saved would definitely not be less than that of the household treasury.

So. It is impossible to count exactly how much the Japanese looted from Beijing. And not just the Japanese, but also the other powers. Since 1840. In the more than 100 years since the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, China has lost countless cultural relics and classics overseas, and all kinds of wealth are incalculable.

According to the estimation of UNESCO, more than 1.6 million pieces of precious cultural relics of the national treasure level in China have been lost overseas and collected by more than 200 museums around the world, and the number of Chinese cultural relics collected by the private sector is more than ten times the number of museum collections. It is estimated that the total should be more than sixteen million! Of these 16 million cultural relics, more than 300,000 are extremely precious cultural relics originally treasured by the royal family.

The things that Yu Sheng and Qing Xiaoyi picked up and missed, whether compared with 300,000 or 16 million, are just a drop in the ocean. And the value of just this drop in the ocean is enough for the rest of your life to buy a piece of commercial street in the future generations! And if you multiply it by 300,000, how huge that number is! Not to mention, there's another sixteen million ......

Yu Sheng and Qing Xiaoyi are both people who are familiar with history, and after determining the value and origin of these objects, they are not very happy. It is really sad that China is the best state and has fallen to such a point. Yu Sheng and Qing Xiaoyi played for a while, and then carefully put away these objects. Just as he was about to order takeout, Albert called and invited Yu Sheng and Qing Xiaoyi to a dinner party. Meyer and Howard Hughes will also be coming.

When I heard the list of people who had dinner together, I knew that eighty percent of them were filming movies, and something went wrong. did not shirk, and took Qing Xiaoyi to the appointment happily. When I arrived at Albert's house, I found that there was no tension as I imagined. On the contrary, a few bigwigs looked at Yu Sheng and smiled very strangely.

Although Yu Sheng and Meyer didn't have much contact with Howard and didn't have a deep friendship, they didn't have so many scruples with Albert, so they asked, "Oh, dear Albert, why are you laughing so lewdly tonight?" ”

Albert said, "Yu, you will soon have one of the supreme powers in Hollywood!" ”

"Huh? What does this mean? ”

"Dear Yu, do you know why you were able to raise so many dollars at the charity gala? The reason is very simple, when we send invitations to actors, most of them will tell them directly that you plan to shoot a new film. And, tell them that this charity gala is what you got in exchange for four scripts! Even, we have given some of the more big-name actors who have read a few of your scripts. Of course, it's a lot of praise. ”

"So, all the actors who don't want to offend you, or even want to get a role in a movie, basically go. Of course, some artists, sets, photographers, etc., knew that you were going to make so many movies, and felt that they had a good hope of finding a job, so they all went after receiving the invitation! ”

The rest of my life was sweating when I heard it. I see! The 10 million dollars came easily, and it was really weird.

Meyer and Howard next to him smiled when they saw the sweaty appearance of the rest of their lives. Howard said to Yu Sheng: "Of course, everyone knows that there are so many actors, and they may not be able to be selected." So the mentality is still very good. I won't do anything drastic. But if you want to make three films at a time, oh, the fact that you don't add documentaries to make four movies has spread. These days, a few of us are very annoying! Almost every actor who fits a certain role in a certain movie is trying to convince us to play a certain role. I can't do any other work! ”

Yu Sheng knows that under the star system in Hollywood, directors generally do not have the right to choose actors, and most of the time, actors are decided by the company. And the rest of his life is actually not even a director. It's barely an independent producer. The reason why Meyer and Howard respect themselves is because they have experience directing blockbuster films, and the storyboard is extremely detailed! Even the actors' expressions, costumes, and details of the scene layout, as well as the choice of shots, are clearly marked. (To be continued.) )

PS: I'm sorry, it's even later, I couldn't get into the writer's area just now, I restarted the computer twice, and it worked well, it's amazing......