I am a historical film director in the entertainment industry.

Chapter 434 Daily life
Zheng He's initial motivation for his first voyage to the Western Ocean was actually related to the hidden dangers left over from the Jingnan Campaign.

After Zhu Di defeated Emperor Jianwen, Emperor Jianwen disappeared without a trace. Some people said that he had fled overseas.

Upon hearing this news, Zhu Di remained uneasy, and thus the plan to send Zheng He on voyages to the Western Ocean was put on the agenda.

This motive is recorded in the biography of Zheng He in the History of Ming. However, it should be emphasized that finding the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen was only one of the purposes of Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean. The main purpose was to show off the power of the Ming Dynasty and to make the countries in the distant seas pay tribute.

However, if Zhu Di had not known that Emperor Jianwen had been exiled overseas, perhaps Zheng He would not have set sail so early.

In 1405, the third year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He, under the command of Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di), led more than 240 ships to set sail. This day was firmly recorded in history and became another inspiring highlight in Chinese history.

The fleet departed from the inland and sailed into the East China Sea via the following route: passing through Liujiahe in Suzhou, entering Fujian Province, and then setting sail from Wuhumen in Fujian to embark on its long voyage.

This voyage involved a total of over 28,000 crew members, with the largest ship being approximately 400 feet long.

The number of crew members was 28,000 more than that of Columbus's fleet, which was ninety years later, and the largest ship was more than four times larger than Columbus's largest vessel.

The balanced rudder and waterproof bulwark used by Zheng He's ocean-going fleet were not introduced to the West until 350 years later, in the mid-18th century. Not to mention that the West had been continuously closing the gap with China in ship technology for hundreds of years.

During Zhu Di's reign, Zheng He made six voyages to the Western Ocean.

He traveled as far as the east coast of Africa, visited more than 30 countries and regions, and some scholars even say that Zheng He was the first person to discover Oceania and the Americas...

An hour passed.

Cheng Sheng finally finished reading the script, his face flushed slightly with excitement.

The simulation panel is truly amazing. After reading the script, he felt as if he had experienced a person's life and witnessed the magnificent scenes of history.

The script provided by the simulation panel is not a movie script, but a script about Zheng He's seven voyages to the Western Ocean. In other words, this script can be made into seven movies.

This way, I won't have to write the scripts for this series anymore.

The script also explains the reason for the disappearance of the Fujian ships at the end, in more detail than historical records.

The burning of the Fujian ships is truly a historical tragedy and a tragedy for the Chinese nation.

When the Yongle Emperor died, a series of power struggles took place in the Ming Dynasty. The court was divided into two distinct factions: the eunuch faction and the scholar-official faction (the prototype of the Donglin Party). Even the succeeding emperor, the Renzong Emperor, died under unclear circumstances.

After Emperor Xuanzong, the fifth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, ascended the throne, he issued an edict to suspend all matters related to long-distance sea voyages.

In other words, the scholar-official faction won this power struggle, laying a tragic foundation for China's eventual loss of the sea and its subsequent endless decline.

As for why Zheng He was able to make his seventh voyage to the Western Ocean, it was actually because Emperor Xuanzong of Ming had no other choice but to do so.

The failure to recover Vietnam severely damaged the prestige of the Ming Dynasty. In order to appease and rebuild the dignity of the superior nation, Zheng He was dispatched on another overseas mission.

However, this time Zheng He did not return safely as before, but died suddenly on his way back to China.

After Zheng He's death, "Zheng He's Voyages by Water" remained in the Ministry of War. It included Zheng He's navigation records and technical books, representing decades of his experience and hard work.

After Emperor Xianzong ascended the throne, he intended to retrieve and review the documents to restart the overseas voyages planned years ago, but the Minister of War searched for a long time without finding them.

Finally, it was revealed that these documents had been hidden by Liu Daxia, a physician specializing in carriages and horses, along with all of Zhang Fu's archives from Annam, the main base for his voyages to the Western Ocean.

Liu Daxia was a rare and outstanding minister in the Ming Dynasty. He knew that restarting the ocean voyage plan was too extravagant and would not bring any benefits in the short term. Spending huge sums of money to send large-scale missions to sea would eventually be offset by taxes, and would only lead to a situation of wasting manpower and resources.

As a scholar-official, he hated both the court's extravagant spending and the eunuch faction's disruption of politics, so he burned all of Zheng He's materials.

He knew that this burning would both extinguish the emperor's desire to restart the overseas expansion plan and extinguish the eunuchs' rise to power, a win-win situation. But he didn't know that it would also burn away China's status as a world leader, plunging the nation into an abyss of no return.

The charred scraps of paper are so insignificant, easily scattered by a gust of wind, yet they also scatter the bright future of China.

At the time, Liu Daxia's actions might have been praised.

But from a modern perspective, Liu Daxia is a traitor to the nation.

……

After changing his clothes, Cheng Sheng arrived at the company with the script.

First, I met with Xing Aina, then gave her the script and asked her to submit it for review.

Xing Aina was pleasantly surprised when she saw the script.

Xing Aina was very curious about Cheng Sheng's new historical script.

After flipping through it for a while, I was immediately immersed in the script.

Seeing this, Cheng Sheng did not linger in Xing Aina's office, since it would take her at least an hour to finish reading the script.

Back in his office, Cheng Sheng leaned back in his chair, lost in thought.

Jiangsu Ying has been honing his acting skills and practicing horseback riding and martial arts because he is filming "Nirvana in Fire," so he rarely comes to the company now.

This left him without an assistant.

Moreover, once Jiangsu Film Studio finishes filming "Nirvana in Fire," they will likely officially enter the entertainment industry, which will leave them with even less time to be their own assistant, so they will have to find a new one.

After all, the company will continue to grow, and it won't be able to function without assistants.

He doesn't have time to keep an eye on the company all the time; he also needs to make movies.

"Boss, the script you wrote is absolutely fantastic."

Just as Cheng Sheng was thinking about recruiting another assistant, Xing Aina burst in excitedly and shouted.

"Do you feel there are any parts of the script that need to be revised?" Cheng Sheng asked with a smile.

“Not a single word needs to be changed. I’ll have someone send the script to the State Administration for Review immediately,” Xing Aina affirmed.

"Sister Aina, don't rush the review process. Have someone from the company calculate the investment amount in detail first."

Cheng Sheng had a rough idea of ​​the investment amount for this film, but it would be best to provide a more concrete figure, as he would need to show it to Master Han and the others later.

"Yes, boss, judging from the content described in the script, this investment is quite substantial," Xing Aina nodded.

“That’s right. This time I plan to film on location and build a 1:1 replica of the Fujian ship. This is the most expensive part,” Cheng Sheng said seriously.

"Boss, shipbuilding is a huge project. Can you handle it?"

Xing Aina was shocked to hear this and also a little worried.

(End of this chapter)