The country where Ning Qingxuan lived in her previous life has, after decades of development, undeniably reached the standards of a great power in all aspects, and even leads the world in quite a few areas.
However, in the long-term development, especially in the wars in the past one or two hundred years, too many precious treasures that originally belonged to the Xia people were lost.
Because it was the West that started the industrial revolution and modernization process in that world, the ancient East, while trying to keep up with the fast lane of development, instinctively abandoned many things that originally belonged to it and clumsily imitated those foreign things.
Thus, the so-called modern metropolises, monotonous steel jungles, sprang up.
It is magnificent, tall and convenient - but it is completely unoriginal, without connotation and soul, and without any foundation.
Looking at the world in our current life, the top 100 cities, no matter where they are located on the earth, no matter which civilization they belong to, the most prosperous areas always give people a sense of déjà vu, a sense of repetition that is no different from other places.
Whether it's the buildings or the way people dress.
However, all of this does not exist in this special world of this life.
In this world, the history before the Ming Dynasty is no different from the previous life in Ning Qingxuan's memory, and everything needs to start from the war in the late Ming Dynasty.
After Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself on Coal Hill, the Later Jin army that entered the pass was invincible, but it did not sweep across the entire Chinese land according to the historical trajectory.
The Yan army that rose up in the north, led by the ancestors of the Ning family, overcame all difficulties for more than ten years under extremely difficult conditions, and finally unified all the lands north of the Yangtze River and drove the Later Jin back to their hometown.
Because of the butterfly effect, although the Southern Ming in the south was destroyed, the Chu State that replaced it took over everything, and the world became a confrontation between Yan in the North and Chu in the South.
This confrontation lasted for three hundred years, just enough to consume the era that originally belonged to the Qing Dynasty in history.
For three hundred years, the two countries of Yan and Chu, which were unable to do anything to each other, had to turn their attention to the outside world.
One went north to expand its territory, and the other went south to cross the oceans.
In this way, the Eastern world entered the era of great geographical discoveries one after the other in a magical way, just like the West.
The Chinese civilization entered the modern era intact, awakened its vague national consciousness in the constant struggle with Westerners, and cooperated in order to jointly fight the enemy in the first superwar that swept the world.
In the end, after the war, the prince of Yan married the only princess of the Chu royal family. The two countries merged from then on, the names of Yan and Chu were abolished, and the Shenzhou Empire, the absolute overlord of the Eastern world, was born.
It is different from the setting of Shenzhou's birth in the previous large-scale MOD "Corona" of "Red Alert 3", but other than that there is no difference.
This is an extremely proud empire. It is one of the undisputed overlords in the world. It takes the combined strength of the entire Allied Forces to compete with it.
She fully inherited and carried forward the brilliant civilization accumulated over thousands of years by the various Chinese nations, and dominated the order of the entire Eastern world with the tribute system - just as she had done for thousands of years.
And her imperial capital, Chang'an, is undoubtedly the largest city in the world.
The new technologies brought about by scientific and technological development are combined with the traditional architectural aesthetics of Zhuxia in an amazing way.
If we have to find a place in Ning Qingxuan's previous life to compare with Chang'an in this life, probably only the famous "Tang Dynasty City That Never Sleeps" can barely be compared.
It's a pity that the Tang Dynasty City That Never Sleeps in the past was just a small scenic spot deliberately built to develop tourism.
In this life, Chang'an is a scene at every step and a beautiful sight at every glance.
Among the pedestrians walking in the streets and alleys, there are young men in white clothes holding folding fans, and there are beautiful girls in colorful clothes and skirts, with golden hairpins and step-shaking ornaments.
Although their clothing has also changed to facilitate modern life, this change is natural and spontaneous, and is logical, and it has not been forcibly distorted in a short period of time due to the impact of foreign culture.
Ning Qingxuan was not interested in how others viewed all this.
But he liked it and was happy about it.
Because this world, this era, belongs to the Chinese.
Belongs to the Shenzhou Empire.
…dividing line…
There is an east wind blowing into the courtyard from time to time, and thousands of willow trees all lean towards the west.
In this peach month and east breeze, the willow branches along the embankment of Qujiang Pond, located southeast of Chang'an, are just beginning to sprout.
As the saying goes, "Qingming and Guyu are in the Xiangshan Road, and the sound of crisp pipes and rich strings can be heard in Pingle Tower." Today happens to be another solar term after Qingming - Guyu.
Perhaps it was God's will.
When Ning Qingxuan and the general took Ning Lanyin out of the palace in the morning, the sun was shining brightly.
But just as it was afternoon, the sky suddenly turned cloudy, and soon a drizzle began to fall.
This made the young boys and girls who were traveling together by the Qujiang Lake very panic.
The Yanyu Tower, located on the west side of Qujiang Lake, is the tallest building nearby and an excellent place to overlook the scenery of Qujiang Lake and even Chang'an City.
The general was standing on the rooftop of the Misty Rain Tower, with his bare hands resting lightly on the window lintel, letting the raindrops brought by the wind gently hit his delicate face. His purple eyes overlooked the Qujiang Pond below where the mist was curling.
Not far away, Ning Qingxuan was sitting opposite a man of about the same age across the table.
The man was dressed in a green shirt, with long hair tied up in a crown. His face was as white as jade, and he wore a pair of single-rimmed glasses with an ancient style in front of his right eye.
Anyone who sees him will exclaim, "What a young man from a wealthy family."
But if someone really knows him, they will definitely not regard him as a harmless little white rabbit.
Yang Xingshu's father was a noble and important official in the court, and he himself was very smart when he was young. He was eventually selected by the emperor Ning Junkang to enter the East Palace and be the prince's companion.
——In other words, this Yang Xingshu is one of the people that Ning Junkang has prepared for Ning Qingxuan to ascend the throne and rule the world in the future.
If everything goes well, Yang Xingshu will become the prime minister of the empire in a few decades.
For this reason, Yang Xingshu was given the courtesy name Yihong by his father.
"Yi" means to assist, help and respect; "Hong" means to be knowledgeable.
I don't know if this is the price he had to pay for showing his wisdom when he was young, but Yang Xingshu, who is about the same age as Ning Qingxuan, now has a head full of silver hair.
But this guy who always has squinting eyes and smiles, has repeatedly offered strategies when Ning Qingxuan led the troops to fight in the wars in the past few years. His strategies were so sinister and treacherous that Yuri's army paid an extremely heavy price.
Just like the famous poisonous scholar Jia Xu in history.