This director is vindictive.

Chapter 515 Ancient Capital 101, Our Enchanting Ancestors!

Chen Mo sat on the sofa, tapping his fingers lightly on the coffee table, his brows furrowed as he pondered how to put the "blooming everywhere" plan into practice.

Gao Yuanyuan brought him a cup of hot tea and placed it in front of him, asking softly, "How exactly should it be done? We can't possibly hold an 'Empress's Wedding' in every city, can we?"

Chen Mo smiled, took the teacup, and shook his head, saying, "Of course not. Every city has a different historical background, and forcibly copying it will only backfire. What we need to do is help them discover their own cultural IP and then use technological means to amplify its charm."

Gao Yuanyuan pondered: "Like the 'golden age of Tang Dynasty' in Chang'an, and the 'divine capital of Wu Zhou' in Luoyang?"

"That's right!"

Chen Mo nodded, his eyes gradually brightening: "We can turn the 814 Welfare Festival into an 'Ancient Capital Culture Week,' focusing on a different city each week with different themes and activities, allowing audiences across the country and even the world to have an immersive experience."

Gao Yuanyuan smiled, then raised another question: "But if every city holds ancient costume parades and AR restorations, won't netizens eventually get tired of it? Just like now the whole internet is full of 'Tang Dynasty style' videos, after seeing them too much, they lose their novelty."

Chen Mo nodded and said, "Yes, so we must adapt to local conditions and use different methods."

"The main goal is to make it accessible to everyone without any barriers. After all, what we need to do is not only promote cultural tourism, but more importantly, to make history popular," Chen Mo said with a smile.

"Make history popular?" Gao Yuanyuan's eyes lit up.

This gimmick is full of positive energy!

Things are different now than in the past. As long as we can get everyone's enthusiasm going, relevant historical knowledge, historical materials, and even unofficial histories and biographies will be easy to obtain.

The threshold naturally decreases.

"I've got it all figured out. Let's use 'Our Enchanting Ancestors' as the theme for this event, and create a cultural feast spanning the Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties in the form of 'one ancient capital per week'," Chen Mo finalized the theme of the event.

Chen Mo didn't need to worry about the rest. After several years of successful operation, the 814 Welfare Festival now had a very mature operating model.

Chen Mo's role became more about proposing the general direction of the plan, while the rest would be handled by the team.

"The Empress's Wedding" can truly be described as a flower blooming inside the wall but fragrant outside.

This was something Chen Mo hadn't anticipated.

However, just as Gao Yuanyuan worried, any model, over time, will lead to aesthetic fatigue among the public.

After the initial fervor subsided, Chang'an gradually began to hit a bottleneck, and the data started to decline.

A week passed quickly.

"The Empress's Wedding" achieved a bumper box office in its first week of release, thanks to the trend of "the splendor of the Tang Dynasty" and the influence of Fan Binbin's retirement from acting.

Domestically, it grossed over 10 billion yuan, which is something that countless industry peers envy and resent.

Of course, Fan Binbin's fans also made a huge contribution to this box office performance.

As Fan Binbin's final work before his retirement, many fans have watched it countless times.

The overseas box office performance was quite unexpected; after a week of release, there were frequent reports of success.

It achieved considerable box office success in Western and Southeast Asian countries, and its global box office, excluding domestic sales, actually exceeded 100 million.

Of course, the unit is US dollars.

Don't underestimate this number. In fact, very few Chinese films can break 100 million yuan at the overseas box office in a week.

This is not only because of the splendor of the Tang Dynasty in "The Empress's Wedding", but also because this film really hits the sensitive points of overseas female audiences.

According to statistics, female viewers accounted for more than 60% of the audience for "The Empress's Wedding".

At the same time, Chen Mo's series of themed events for "My Charming Ancestor" has officially begun its pre-launch phase.

The official Weibo account for the 814 Welfare Festival suddenly released a nine-grid silhouette poster:

The cold glint of the Mo Dao (a type of long-handled sword) beneath the eaves of Hanyuan Hall in Chang'an
The beaded curtain of the Empress's crown above Yingtian Gate in Luoyang

Swallows in Wuyi Lane amidst willow catkins at Jinlingtai City

Tea banners from the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" scroll near the Rainbow Bridge in Kaifeng
The caption reads: "The 814 Welfare Week pre-event is about to begin! Our ancestors' aesthetic sense was a thousand years ahead of the world! Starting next week, unlock a dynasty surprise every day—#Who is the center of attention for your ancient capital?#"

This Weibo post instantly went viral across the internet.

There's no way around it; the 814 Welfare Festival has become deeply ingrained in people's minds after this year's operation, so its popularity remains consistently high.

This Weibo post immediately sparked a huge discussion among netizens.

"Holy crap! Chen Mo is going to create 'Ancient Capital 101'! I bet the Chang'an Tang Dynasty group has to debut!" "Netizens in Luoyang are ecstatic! The Empress's home turf is finally about to turn the tables!"

"Fans of the Six Dynasties of Jinling, please join the battle! Does the Wei-Jin spirit of 'A New Account of Tales of the World' not deserve a mention?"

"I'd like to intrude into Jinling's Wuyi Lane! The elegance of the Wang and Xie families combined with the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove—isn't the 'lying-down aesthetics' of the Wei and Jin scholars appealing? @ChenMo, consider a 'winding stream party' murder mystery game to show foreigners what a true literary gathering looks like! (Attached is a high-resolution image of a celadon cup from the Six Dynasties Museum)"

"Finally, finally it's here! Kaifeng is truly the most miserable place! Despite having the world's most famous painting, 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival,' it's being jointly suppressed by netizens from both Kaifeng and Kaifeng as a 'Song Dynasty younger brother.' I suggest Chen Mo organize a 'Produce 101' performance livestream and let netizens vote for it! I'll spend money to send the Rainbow Bridge Tea Banner to the center position! (Angrily showing off a handwritten copy of 'Dongjing Menghualu')"

The hype surrounding this project is already incredibly high. Although no specific details about the project have been announced yet, the glimpse itself reveals the whole picture, and netizens' enthusiasm has been instantly aroused.

Meanwhile, the cultural and tourism sectors of several ancient cities have also taken action.

To Chen Mo's surprise, with the promotion of "Our Charming Ancestors", actors who had previously played famous historical emperors and historical figures suddenly became popular overnight.

As mentioned earlier, many historical figures, especially emperors, have been portrayed by numerous actors who have almost perfectly captured the real-life image of these emperors in the minds of the audience.

For example, veteran actor Chen Baoguo's portrayal of Emperor Wu of Han, with his line "The enemy can go, and so can I. From now on, the roles of offense and defense have been reversed!" went viral.

For example, there's Chen Daoming's domineering line about Qin Shi Huang: "What are the six states? I will lead the iron cavalry of Qin and conquer a vast territory!"

Interestingly, even before the event officially started, fans of our ancestors were already arguing online.

The first argument that broke out was about who deserved to be called the greatest emperor of all time!
Netizens from Luoyang took the lead in launching a discussion: "To be fair, Wu Zetian was truly the greatest emperor of all time! The only female emperor in history, she ascended the throne at Yingtian Gate in Luoyang and also established her capital in Luoyang—which of your male emperors can compare to her?"

Imperial examination reform: A special "Southern Selection" channel was opened for children from poor families, breaking the monopoly of the wealthy and powerful!
Suppressing powerful clans: She brought down all the aristocratic families in the Guanlong Group with her "ruthless politics"!

He pioneered the military examination system: He was the first to hold a "National Martial Arts Competition" to select generals, which was far better than male emperors who only knew how to pass down their positions through hereditary succession!

(Screenshot of the original text from Zizhi Tongjian: "Although the Empress Dowager abused her power to win the hearts of the people with official titles and ranks, she also dismissed those who were not competent in their duties.")
Male-dominated history books have vilified her for centuries, but what happened? At Yingtian Gate in Luoyang, AR technology was used to recreate the famous scene of "Empress Wu Zetian's Reign"—the dragon throne, crown, and beaded curtains were all reproduced 1:1 according to the murals of Qianling Mausoleum, with a group of virtual ministers kneeling below, trembling in fear! (Attached GIF: With a wave of her hand, AR Wu Zetian sends virtual petitions from the cruel official Lai Junchen flying everywhere.)

What's with all this talk of "the grandeur of the Tang Dynasty" in Chang'an? Without the foundation laid by Empress Wu Zetian, could Li Longji's "Kaiyuan Prosperity" have even existed? I suggest some people retake their history lessons! #TheLegendaryCapital #Empress'sDominance

(A witty comment immediately followed: "Add one more thing—the Empress created 17 new Chinese characters, including the character '曌' which depicts the sun and moon in the sky! She's the true ancestor of cultural export!")
Netizens in Xianyang immediately expressed their dissatisfaction.

Unleash a devastating nine-square grid attack.

"Just kidding. If we're talking about the greatest emperor of all time, then it's naturally our First Emperor, the First Dragon!"

Let's get straight to the point and look at the pictures!

First picture: A real photo of the Terracotta Army at Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum, with the caption "The first emperor in history! He became emperor 800 years earlier than you!"
The second image shows Ying Zheng wielding his sword in the "Ode to the Great Qin," with the bold caption: "It only took ten years to conquer the six states! Who else can do that?!"

The third image: A comparison of the unified script of the Qin Dynasty (the character for "horse" from various states vs. the Qin Small Seal script), with the following red text: "Standardization of writing—without it, your writing would look like drawing talismans!"

Fourth image: Close-up of bronze weights (weights) and bronze measures (containers) from the Qin Dynasty, captioned: "Unified weights and measures, standardized jin and liang throughout the country! Without it, you could be ripped off and go bankrupt when buying groceries!"

Fifth image: Map of the prefecture-county system vs. map of the feudal system, with arrows indicating: "Abolish the feudal system and replace it with prefectures and counties—later dynasties copied this homework for two thousand years!"

Sixth photo: An aerial view of the Great Wall, with the words "A defensive fortification that would make even the Xiongnu kowtow and call us father!"

Seventh image: A photoshopped image by netizens—emperors from various dynasties bowing collectively, with speech bubbles above their heads saying: "Thank you, Emperor Zheng, for setting this rule (kowtow.jpg)".

Eighth image: Screenshot of a trending international search topic #FirstEmperorOfChina, with a foreigner commenting: "While Europe was still fighting among tribes, China had already implemented standardized management?!"

Ninth image: The final meme – Qin Shi Huang wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigar, captioned: “My resume, take a look, don’t blink.”

In conclusion, those who praise him as a "greatest emperor of all time" should first examine whether their ancestors actually did these things:

Let the whole country use the same language (keyboard warriors, save your breath).

Making all the weights on the scales in the country the same (market aunties are overjoyed)

Make county magistrates directly subordinate to the central government (to prevent local authorities from acting like kings).
This deterred the Xiongnu from venturing south to graze their horses (saving a large portion of border defense funds).

#True Emperor's Ceiling##Future Generations Are All Imitators of Me#

Some neutral netizens commented: "Wu Zetian was indeed amazing, the first and only female emperor in history. However, the First Emperor was truly remarkable. One was the first female emperor, and the other was the first emperor. Both deserve to be called the greatest emperors in history!"

In a short time, various film and television materials and video screenshots of Empress Wu Zetian and Qin Shi Huang, as well as their achievements, were dug up by netizens.

Netizens in other places also couldn't sit still.

After all, you, the First Emperor, were awesome, and Empress Wu Zetian was awesome, but I, the Second Empress, am no less impressive. I am the strongest carbon-based life form of the 7th century, the governor of Asia, and the leader of the Eastern Hemisphere!
Soon, no one was willing to admit defeat! They all began to join the debate over who was the "greatest emperor in history".

(End of this chapter)