The director starts by learning from the abilities of renowned directors.

Chapter 162: Ten thousand cannons roared from the Great Wall, and the theater was completely silent.

"1.5 million US dollars to make a movie, my goodness, that's a lot of money."

"Do you think Shen Qing might have taken too big a step this time and ended up making a mess of things?"

"Combining Chinese history with monsters, I have no idea how to film it in a way that doesn't feel out of place."

At the Oriental Cinema in Hangzhou, a group of about twenty college students, clearly from the same university and class, were excitedly chatting. They had no classes for the last two periods on their schedules, and someone had suggested they come together to watch "The Great Wall" when it was released. So, on the first day Maoyan (a Chinese movie ticketing platform) launched advance screening tickets for "The Great Wall," class monitor Zhang Tao tallied the numbers and found that over twenty people wanted to attend. Some asked Zhang Tao to buy tickets for them, while others downloaded Maoyan and selected their seats online. All twenty-odd of them bought tickets for the same theater.

"A Chinese director making a monster movie? Well, I don't have any hope for that."

"Li Hongwei, I seem to remember you saying something similar when 'Gravity' was released last time? Back then, you said that you had no hope for Chinese directors making space movies, but what happened in the end? Later, it was as if you were practically kneeling down and worshipping Director Shen Qing, showing him such utmost respect."

"Hehehe—back then, it wasn't just me who couldn't imagine it; how many people in the whole country could have imagined that our Chinese directors would suddenly be able to make space movies? It's really strange, actually, that it went straight to third place in the history of global film."

"I feel that combining monsters and history is really too difficult. It would be better to learn from Resident Evil and just say that monsters have emerged from modern virus mutations."

"It would be terrible if we listened to you. If we make a modern monster movie, the unique characteristics of China won't be shown. Modern cities all over the world are pretty much the same."

"Let's go, it's time to check tickets."

The group of about twenty people hurried toward the ticket gate. After having their tickets checked, they entered screening hall number 2 and found their seats.

People kept pouring into the hall, and soon the screening room was almost full.

Sui Sisi is a fan of Shen Qing and pays close attention to the movie's attendance. She glanced at the screen and saw that out of the 150 seats in the theater, there seemed to be at least 130 people. It's amazing that a 20% preview screening could have such an attendance rate.

A moment later, the theater lights went out, and the movie officially began.

First came the dragon logo, then the animation from Magic Film & Media: In the deep space of the universe, an interstellar spaceship is slowly sailing, with the three large characters "Magic" written on it. The two characters "Magic" jump down from the spaceship and transform into the logo of Magic Film & Media.

The film opens with an aerial shot of the vast grasslands, where a large ancient army is slowly moving.

This is the returning army of the Northern Expedition led by Dou Xian and Geng Kui. This army had just defeated the Northern Xiongnu Chanyu at Jinwei Mountain, forcing the main force of the Northern Xiongnu to migrate westward.

Suddenly, a commotion broke out at the front of the army. A soldier rode up at full speed to report that a huge monster had appeared in front of the army.

"What is it like?"

"Its shape is like a tiger, its size is like an ox, it has wings, and it eats people starting from the head."

Dou Xian quickly led his personal guards to investigate.

When the camera focused on the enormous monster in front of the army, the entire theater suddenly erupted in gasps of admiration.

"handsome!"

Of the four ancient ferocious beasts, Qiongqi is the coolest!

"The special effects are absolutely amazing!"

A monster bigger than an ox and resembling a tiger was surrounded by a human army of armored soldiers. It was a tiger, but it had feathers on its body and wings on its back.

If a tiger grows wings, it's like adding wings to a tiger! It would be strange if this monster were easy to defeat!

After a fierce battle, the Northern Expeditionary Army finally killed the monster after suffering heavy casualties. Fortunately, the monster's wings were just for show; otherwise, if it had been allowed to fly, even tens of thousands of troops would not have been able to subdue it!

Dou Xian and Geng Kui looked at the horrifying monster corpse, their faces showing deep worry.

They would rather face tens of thousands of Huns than this monster. Luckily, there was only one; if there had been more—the consequences would have been unimaginable.

There is obviously more than one monster.

After the Han Dynasty finally drove away the Northern Xiongnu, monsters kept coming south from the northern part of the grasslands. The Great Wall naturally transitioned from defending against the Xiongnu to defending against monsters.

Then the male protagonist, Shen Sui, appears. He is a "Thunderbolt Hand" in the Great Wall garrison, responsible for putting firecrackers into a large iron barrel to scare away the monster.

After more than a decade of battling monsters, humanity has discovered their greatest weakness—the fear of sound!

At first, someone noticed that when the army beat drums, the monsters would move more slowly. Later, it was discovered that the sound of explosions was even more threatening to the monsters. Thus, the gunpowder that the alchemist had unintentionally invented quickly came in very handy.

Finally, the "iron bucket firecrackers" strategy was successfully implemented.

The protagonist, Shen Sui, lost his family to monsters, so he wanted to join the Great Wall Guard to avenge them. However, he was weak and sickly since childhood and could not wear heavy armor or pick up a spear to fight monsters in close combat, even ordinary monsters that had become slowed down by the loud noise.

Seeing his unwavering resolve, the garrison commander finally allowed him to stay, but his only responsibility was to put firecrackers into the large iron barrel to scare away the monster.

Ordinary Qiongqi has wings but cannot fly, but there is a certain chance that ordinary Qiongqi will evolve into an evolved version of the true ancient ferocious beast Qiongqi that can fly, namely Feimei.

Moreover, as time goes by, the evolution speed of the true Qiongqi is becoming faster and faster. The birth of each true Qiongqi is a huge threat to the entire Great Wall garrison, and every time a true Qiongqi flies over the Great Wall, hundreds or even thousands of people will lose their lives.

Previously, one Flying Spirit could evolve per month, but now it can evolve one almost every day, and in the future, it may evolve a dozen or even dozens of them every day.

The real Qiongqi can fly, and it is even less afraid of sound. The Great Wall defenders are on the verge of complete collapse, and the whole world will face utter annihilation.

Finally, Hu Jun, playing the General of Chariots and Cavalry, sent someone to invite the Mo family to come out of seclusion and modify the giant crossbow that was becoming increasingly unable to kill the real Qiongqi. Then, Mo Ying, played by Liu Yifei, and Mo Jue, played by Jing Tian, ​​made their official appearance.

The entire army's resources were focused on Mo Ying, played by Liu Yifei. Through her tireless work day and night, the army grew bigger and stronger.

Super crossbows with even longer ranges are gradually taking shape.

On the other hand, the male protagonist Shen Sui also got inspiration from the iron bucket firecracker: since the monster is afraid of the sound of the explosion, could the way to truly eliminate the monster and eliminate the threat forever not be the giant crossbow, but the iron bucket firecracker?

Mo Ying was busy building a giant crossbow and didn't have time to deal with her junior sister Mo Kuai, who had followed her without permission. Mo Jue discovered the mysterious Shen Sui, who was just a lowly Thunder Hand with no resources. He had ideas but no way to put them into practice until Shen and Mo Kuai met.

Shen Sui first saw paper from the ink block. He suddenly had an extremely bold idea. The ink block, with whom he had a misunderstanding, found him a lot of paper and cloth. Shen Sui used layer after layer of paper and cloth to tightly wrap the gunpowder and then tied it with rope.

The worst-case scenario still occurred. On this day, more than a dozen flying demons (flying Qiongqi) appeared at the same time. Mo Ying's super giant crossbow is still only a half-finished product. Moreover, Liu Yifei predicted that even if the super giant crossbow was completed, it would be impossible to deal with the flying demons, which are now obviously larger and stronger.

The Great Wall Army is in imminent danger.

Everyone in the theater held their breath; the huge auditorium suddenly became extremely quiet.

Shen Sui and Mo Kuai parted the haystack, revealing a reinforced large iron barrel inside, and piles of explosives next to it.

The entire theater erupted in cheers at that moment.

"Holy crap, is this some kind of heartless cannon?! Did the Eastern Han Dynasty use the same heartless cannons used in the Huaihai Campaign?"

"Where the hell can I even complain to about this?!"

"Damn! I never expected him to be such a heartless bastard!"

"Don't even mention it, with an iron barrel and gunpowder, wouldn't it be easy to invent a heartless cannon?"

"It's just a bit too few. If we set up hundreds or thousands of those 'heartless cannons' on the Great Wall and blasted those monsters, it would be really exciting to watch."

O

I think so too.

The movie continues.

The male protagonist, Shen Sui, stuffs a huge explosive charge into an iron barrel. Mo Kuai hands him a torch, and he steels his heart and lights it!

boom!

The explosive charge was thrown in an arc into the surging horde of ordinary Qiongqi outside the Great Wall.

boom!

A huge explosion rang out, shaking the earth and mountains. Three or four ordinary Qiongqi near the impact point were blown away and fell to the ground in pieces.

The enormous shockwave was practically visible to the naked eye.

The monsters were terrified of the sound, especially the sound accompanied by a huge shockwave. In an instant, countless monsters lay prostrate on the ground in fear, no longer able to attack.

The flying spirits in the sky fell one after another amidst the huge explosion. After landing, they struggled several times and tried to fly away, but they were all too weak to do so.

The Great Wall defenders were also stunned by the huge explosion, but they quickly came to their senses at the officers' shouts and began firing old-fashioned giant crossbows at the ordinary monsters and the evolved Qiongqi.

The giant crossbow can still kill ordinary monsters, but it can no longer break through the Flying Demon's defenses.

The monsters slowly regained some strength and began to roll away. Fei Mei finally took off again, but she seemed to be terrified and didn't linger in the fight, fleeing directly.

The subsequent plot naturally led to the creation of a large number of heartless cannons.

Mo Ying, played by Liu Yifei, helped improve the reinforcement plan for the large iron barrel and redesigned the gunpowder wrapping method, further enhancing the power of the Heartless Cannon.

Next up is the awe-inspiring scene of ancient armies setting up hundreds or even thousands of unscrupulous cannons on the Great Wall.

When Ma Fang (played by Hu Jun), the highest-ranking officer of the Great Wall garrison, wearing a black iron-colored armor with rounded sleeves, shouted "Fire!"

A group of soldiers in iron armor held torches and lit the fuses.

boom!

boom!

boom!

The sheer power of the simultaneous roar of thousands of cannons brought tears to the eyes of many viewers in the theater.

The Eastern Han Dynasty actually used a heartless cannon, and the plot doesn't feel out of place at all, even making people feel extremely proud. What should we do?

Gunpowder was indeed invented in China, wasn't it?

No one can say for sure when it was invented, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to say it existed in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Papermaking was invented in China, right? So what if you used paper to compress and tightly wrap gunpowder?

Ancient China's iron and steel smelting technology was ahead of foreign countries, even for thousands of years. So what if we could make large iron barrels?

Then the Heartless Cannon is very effective at killing ordinary monsters, but it is a projectile and can't hit flying monsters at all. What should we do?

Even if the unscrupulous cannon knocks the flying demon down from the sky, so what? Once it lands, your giant crossbow still can't break its defenses!

Moreover, the flying creatures were also evolving. Later, when the flying creatures saw humans lighting fires behind the large iron barrels, they immediately turned around and flew backwards. After the cannons finished firing, they would come back.

The Heartless Cannon fired too close, losing its element of surprise, and could no longer knock down several flying demons like it did the first time.

Cannons need to fire farther and more accurately, and they need to fire directly rather than in a ricochet pattern.

Shen Sui ingeniously designed a brand-new cannon. On the blueprints, the cannon's form gradually evolved from the "heartless cannon" to the red-coated cannon of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Mo Ying used her knowledge of the Mohist school to help Shen Qing fill in the gaps and solve the problems. For example, the cannon barrel could not be the same thickness from top to bottom, the cannonball and the cannon barrel had to be seamless, how to strengthen the cannon barrel to prevent it from exploding, and how to improve the gunpowder formula, etc.

Then Matt Damon's character, a Western warrior, appears. It turns out that the Huns migrated west to Rome, bringing the monster with them. The Roman Empire was also in dire straits. Matt Damon's character, a Western warrior, heard from the Northern Huns that there was a way to subdue the monster by setting off firecrackers on a large iron barrel in the East. So the Western warrior went to the East to learn from this, and happened to witness the birth of cannons and firearms.

William brought geometry but couldn't calculate ballistics. Shen Sui and Mo Ying both had amazing geometric talents. By calculating the trajectory arc length and impact point of the ballistics at different elevation angles, the two derived empirical formulas and made a range table. Using the principle of similar triangles, they used simple rods and angle plates to measure the distance to the monster and designed a rangefinder. They also made an angle-measuring dial using a disc and pointer, so that even illiterate gunners could follow the pattern.

fire!

Boom boom boom boom————

Hundreds of cannons roared together, creating a violent explosion and a scene of furious flying demons—a truly awe-inspiring spectacle.

Ultimately, they succeeded in turning the artillery hit from a matter of luck into a matter of science, and their relationship continued to grow stronger in the process.

Finally, the decisive battle.

The hills inside and outside the Great Wall concealed hundreds and thousands of positions for the Heartless Cannon. The gunners hid themselves well, and when the Flying Demon appeared nearby, they would ignite the Heartless Cannon.

Suddenly, a huge cannon shot came from nearby, knocking the flying demon down. Then, the Hongyi cannons on the Great Wall bombarded the fallen flying demon. The flying demon's body, which the super crossbow could not penetrate, was easily torn apart by the cannonballs of the Hongyi cannons.

Ordinary bows and arrows couldn't kill ordinary monsters, and giant crossbows were cumbersome and could only be used in fixed positions. So Shen Sui and Mo Ying invented a simple firearm.

The Heartless Cannon ambushed and knocked down the Flying Demon, the Red-Clad Cannon tore the Flying Demon's body apart, and the Great Wall garrison launched a proactive attack, using a queuing-and-shooting tactic to kill the ordinary monsters.

In the end, the Great Wall Army won a great victory.

"Awesome!"

The end credits had already rolled on the screen, but the theater remained unusually quiet. Suddenly, a loud shout of "Awesome!" broke the silence.

With another loud bang, the strangers in the audience started discussing it enthusiastically.

"The choice of Qiongqi as a monster is excellent, it's so cool."

"It's several levels better than foreign monster movies."

"What did we just see? Soldiers in iron armor from the Eastern Han Dynasty firing thousands of cannons at the command of their officer?"

"I never thought I would live to see the tactic of firing squads in my native land. It seems that China missed the period of firing squads in history. Director Shen Qing is awesome. He made up for this lesson for me in the Eastern Han Dynasty."

"The Great Wall was originally built to defend against the Xiongnu, but the Xiongnu migrated westward, and the Great Wall seamlessly took on the mission of defending against monsters. This is a great concept, combining reality and fantasy, and it really makes you feel immersed in it."

"I actually find it perfectly reasonable that the East China Sea region built such a heartless cannon. Is there any hope for me?"

"The scene of ten thousand cannons firing simultaneously was truly breathtaking."

"Has anyone noticed? This time, Jing Tian's character is surprisingly convincing; I've even started to like her a little."

"Not only that, Jing Tian's role this time can be said to be quite outstanding."

"Liu Yifei's character is truly outstanding. A genius of the Mohist school, she modified the giant crossbow and improved the cannon—so cool!"

"I never expected that 'The Great Wall' could be made like this."

"I can't speak for overseas box office performance, but I dare say it will start at 20 billion domestically!"

"The only regret is that the film didn't explain why this part of history wasn't written in the Book of Han. Xiang Shaolong isn't in the historical records because Qin Shi Huang burned books and buried scholars alive to erase any trace of him. Such a magnificent history of human battles against the monster Qiongqi took place in the Eastern Han Dynasty, so why wasn't it recorded in the Book of Han? And why was the cannon lost? If these questions had been answered, the movie would have been perfect."

"The Book of Han did not mention it because Ban Gu died in 92. The monster first appeared in 93 when the Xiongnu migrated westward. The Book of Han is about the Western Han Dynasty, so of course it would not record things from the Eastern Han Dynasty."

"Ha ha ha ha----"

"Even if it's a record, it's the 'Book of the Later Han,' what does the history of the Western Han have to do with the events of the Eastern Han?"

"Looking forward to the sequel."