Chapter 602: Knocked Out in the First Clash
Chapter 592 of "The Great Ming in the Box" kicks off with action-packed scenes: Captain Chen was a bit dazed and didnât quite understand.Old Nan Feng laughed and said:... Discover more!
Captain Chen was a bit dazed and didnât quite understand.Old Nan Feng laughed and said: âThe Deity said that a person being sold around like a commodity is a sorrow for this world. Itâs also a sorrow of the backward social system, something everyone should feel sad about. Only by trying to prevent others from being bought or sold can we and our families avoid becoming commodities traded by others in the future.â
Captain Chen said: âAh⌠I donât understand it much.â
Old Nan Feng: âItâs fine that you donât get it. The Deity teaches the principles of the celestial realmâit would be odd if you did understand. Only those kids at school who study the heavenly books can grasp it.â
Captain Chen: ââŚâ
Old Nan Feng poked Captain Chenâs forehead and thought to himself: âDonât overthink itâjust be happy. Enjoy this dazzling world for a few years, marry a wife, have a child, then send the kid to study the heavenly books so he can keep up with celestial principles. Then we can die peacefully in our graves, all right?â
Captain Chen rushed with pride and said: âGot it!â
Just then, the girls rehearsing on stage changed again. This time, it was actually a five-person group. As soon as they stepped on stage, they sang and danced energetically all over the placeâa very intense and joyful song.
The atmosphere instantly ignited.
Old Nan Feng stood up and chuckled to his troops behind him: âThe ladies on stage are rehearsing hard. We, the audience down here, need to rehearse too. Practice making the waveâitâll be useful when you back me up in future eventsâŚâ
The group felt bewildered: âWhat is the wave?â
Old Nan Feng: âThe person at the far end stands up first, raises a hand, then sits down. The one next to him stands up then, raises a hand, and sits downâŚâ
These men were soldiers after all, with long drilling in formations, so they caught on right away.
Soon, they picked up the knack of making the wave. They performed it even better and more accurately than future ordinary crowds making spontaneous waves. Each personâs rise and fall came at perfectly identical intervalsâit was flawless.
Old Nan Feng: âHoly hell, never thought an army could be used for this. Why even fight wars anymore? Letâs become professional at this instead.â
Everyone laughed together: âThat wonât doâwe focus mainly on war still.â
That eveningâŚ
The concert kicked off officiallyâno more rehearsals.
Around 600 fewer tickets were sold than usual because âprivileged guestsâ had filled over 600 seats. Luckily, the concert venue had grown much larger, accommodating far more spectators than at the startâup to 5,000 when fullâso skipping 600 tickets wasnât a big concern.
At the concertâs peak, those 600-plus âprivileged guestsâ suddenly started making a wave.
Other audience members were seeing the wave for the first time, instantly finding it new and exciting. Many spontaneously joined in the wave-making. The whole grand theater rocked with joy from all 5,000 people, having a blast.
Even the Governor of Puzhou, Qiu Qianfan, stood up among the crowd, waved his arms, then sat down⌠They cycled through it several times, thrilling him so much he nearly blew his beard off.
Wang Zheng set out toward Chengcheng County in a carriage, guarded by a transport team of servants.
He genuinely wanted to see what science and technology that deity called Dao Xuan Deity had brought to the worldâwhether more than what Catholicism had provided.
When he was young, he believed in Buddhism, but later saw it seemed useless. Then he switched to Taoism and noticed it had few achievements beyond chemistry. Eventually, he encountered Catholicism and found it brought tons of Western scientific toolsâpractical skillsâso he got baptized.
His rule was: âWhichever religion works best, I follow that one.â
Currently, Catholicism topped his list!
âMaster, up ahead is Dali County. After passing through here, weâll get to Chengcheng County.â
Wang Zheng nodded. Heâd visited Dali County beforeâan ordinary spot. With no plan to stop and rest, he aimed to hurry through.
Just as he mused, he heard a servant cry out: âHuh? What in the world is that?â
âThat thing can actually run!â
The workers outside murmured in confusion.
Wang Zheng was a curious soul. Hearing noise, he didnât skip a peekâso he lifted the cartâs curtain to look. He froze on seeing it: the main road between Dali County and Chengcheng County wasnât dirt but a weird, pale-gray hard path.
At that moment, on this odd road, a giant strange vehicle crept forward slowly, heading straight toward Wang Zhengâs group.
It drove sluggishly, as if straining under a heavy load.
In truth, it genuinely struggledâsaddled with several massive weaving machines.
Wang Zheng recognized it instantly: âThis! Itâs the sun chariot from âDao Xuan Deityâs Demon Elimination Tale.'â
He stared in shockâreading about it in the book, heâd been half-skeptical, doubtful it could be real. Seeing it now, its sheer size was staggering.
How could a contraption this huge run solely on sunlight? It seemed beyond belief.
Wang Zheng ordered: âHalt! Pull over! I must examine that big chariot closely.â
Wang Zhengâs transport team stopped in its tracks.
His servants dashed ahead and blocked the path, so the enormous strange vehicle slowly halted too.
A head poked outâit was Song Yingxing, yelling at the obstructive servants: âWhy block my road?â
The servant didnât know Song Yingxing was someone special and readied a rude retort. Wang Zheng hurried over, shoved the servant aside, and bowed respectfully to Song Yingxing: âIâm Wang Zheng. Spotted this sun chariot and got curiousâI paused my group to sightsee. My underling misread my intent, rudely blocking your chariot. Forgive such discourtesy.â
Seeing the politeness, Song Yingxing cooled down, returning the salute with clasped fists: âIâm Song Yingxing. Itâs natural to wonder about this chariotâIâm equally fascinated, trailing it daily to probe its inner workings.â
Hearing that, Wang Zheng gleamedâthis brother seemed a kindred science buff.
Wang Zheng took a big leap forward: âBrother, learned anything yet?â
Song Yingxing: âLikely, it harnesses solar energy. It soaks up sunlightâs heat, converts it to electric power, then uses that electricity to spin a motor and turn the wheels⌠Thatâs the gist Iâve pieced together. Trouble is, I grasp âwhatâ but not âhowââthis heat-to-electricity gear baffles me utterly.â
Wang Zheng thought: â!!!â
Shoot, just one word from him and Iâm totally lost.
Wang Zheng flopped face-first to the dirt. Defeated. That knocked-out-in-the-first-clash feelingâtruly awful.