Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 1250 Postscript 106·Twelve-tone equal temperament will lead to the destruction of the country

(This chapter is the last time to write about the situation in the West. It must be completed before the end of the year.)

In the third month of the lunar calendar, the half-yearly international news reported the latest news of Dayuan.

About last autumn, Dayuan officially occupied Sistan, the junction of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, with an area of ​​about 180,000 square kilometers.

The literal meaning of Sistan is "the land of the Saka people".

Around the second century BC, the Yuezhi people living in the Hexi Corridor were driven to the Ili River Basin by the Xiongnu.

The Saka people living in the Ili River Valley were driven westward and southward by the Yuezhi people.

One of the Saka people fled to the Sistan area and massacred and assimilated the indigenous people there.

Although the land in Sistan is barren, it is relatively fertile and rich compared to the surrounding mountains and deserts. After all, it belongs to the river valley basin.

At the same time, it is also located at the land node connecting Persia and India!

The Ming Xunbao only reported a brief situation.

The Dayuan Kingdom would naturally not admit that they massacred more than 20,000 people there, including 3,000 clergy.

Many so-called Hu Ji were sold to the Anxi Province of the Ming Dynasty. The first batch of them had been resold from Gaochang to Lanzhou at this time.

The court has been cracking down on human trafficking, but it has been repeatedly banned.

Domestic and foreign caravans divided the Hu Ji into small pieces, claiming that they were their maids, and transported them eastward along with normal goods.

…

The Ming Xunbao did not report on the Ayyubid Dynasty.

The Sultan of this country was less than 20 years old. After occupying the Syrian region, he appointed a Mamluk general as the governor of Syria.

At the same time, the governors of Jerusalem and Aleppo were all Mamluks.

The three Mamluk governors all exposed their wolfish ambitions.

In name, they still obeyed the Sultan's orders, but in fact they became warlords, and they levied heavy taxes and expanded abroad.

The surrounding nobles who symbolically surrendered to the Ayyubid dynasty could not stand the brutality of the Mamluks, and actually supported the puppet caliph of Baghdad and suddenly announced the reconstruction of the Abbasid dynasty.

In fact, it was not called reconstruction, the legal unity of the Abbasid dynasty had never been broken.

So, those desert believers fought among themselves!

The young Sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty hurriedly sent envoys to try to appease and reprimand those disobedient governors.

The three Mamluk governors joined forces to march eastward to Baghdad, defeated the caliph's temporary army, and massacred and looted in Baghdad.

The Sultan, who was far away in Egypt, felt that the front-line governors were out of control, and ordered them to return to their respective jurisdictions immediately, and also to hand over the looted property.

The three governors were furious and led their troops to Egypt to "clear the court".

The Sultan hurriedly summoned a large army to quell the rebellion, and the main force of his guards were all Mamluks!

The head of the guards directly killed the king and rebelled, and established himself as the Sultan, announcing the establishment of the Mamluk dynasty.

And pardoned the crimes of the three governors, and awarded the Baghdad region to the Governor of Syria. The Governor of Aleppo was transferred to the Governor of Syria. The Governor of Jerusalem was also allowed to govern Aleppo.

Then, these Mamluk rulers frantically slaughtered the Persian nobles in their jurisdiction.

They had to kill them, because they were all slaves from the grassland. Only by killing the original nobles could they consolidate their rule.

…

The fall of the Ayyubid Dynasty and the establishment of the Mamluk Dynasty immediately gave Dayuan an opportunity.

Dayuan, regardless of its own continuous two major battles, suddenly launched an attack this spring. From Khorasan, Sistan, and Gorgan, it launched a full-scale attack on the Persian region.

At this moment, Dayuan had occupied Ray (Tehran), Isfahan, and Shiraz.

Then it was a bit difficult to fight, and most of the logistics supplies relied on local looting, which caused continuous resistance movements in the newly occupied areas. In the rear of Dayuan, there were also some sporadic domestic uprisings due to the forced conscription of civilians and food.

The emerging Mamluk dynasty and the Dayuan Kingdom that invaded Persia confronted each other with the Zagros Mountains as the boundary.

Neither side dared to take the initiative to attack, because they were all invaders and could not get the support of local nobles and people at all. If they started a war without permission, they had to fight and suppress the uprising at the same time.

Now they are negotiating, and both sides are inclined to cease fire with the Zagros Mountains as the boundary. Then, each side will rectify its internal problems.

…

It was at this time that the Byzantine Empire took the opportunity to attack the Sultanate of Rum.

Trying to combine the Eastern Roman Empire and the Green Roman Empire into one!

The Eastern Roman Empire's firearms were more powerful, and the Green Roman Empire obviously couldn't stand it, so it quickly asked the Venetians for help.

At this time, the Republic of Venice was nominally under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire, but actually obeyed the Kingdom of Sicily. But they were not of the same mind as Sicily, and they always had 100% autonomy.

Moreover, Venice occupied a large number of Byzantine islands and tried to seize more Greek coastal lands.

By the way, revenge.

Because in the past hundred years, Byzantium tore up the trade treaty twice and expelled and massacred tens of thousands of Venetians.

The Venetian navy had just set out, and the Han navy also came.

The Han Empire occupied the West African gold mines, but the domestic products were not rich, and it had been engaged in maritime trade with Europeans.

In the process of trade, Venetian merchants and navy were the biggest enemies of the Han Empire's trade fleet.

So it soon evolved into a four-nation war.

The Eastern Roman Empire and the Green Roman Empire fought a land war.

The Han Empire and Venice fought a naval war.

The Han Empire's large ships and cannons were no match for the Venetian Navy, which retreated all the way back to the Venetian Lagoon.

The lagoon has complex terrain and waterways, and is full of hidden stakes.

The Han Empire Navy did not dare to enter rashly, and instead used catapults to launch incendiary bombs.

The entire city of Venice, which was made up of wooden buildings, was burned down in a large area near the lagoon, leaving only the Governor's Palace and several churches (these buildings were made of stone).

Then, the Han Empire Navy looted along the coast, and after looting everything, they set fire to the city - the coastal areas of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania in later generations were all Venice's territory at this time.

The Venetian Doge had no choice but to ask the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of Sicily for help.

The two said they could do nothing to help.

Then, the Venetian Doge asked the Pope for help, and told him that the Han Empire was promoting Nestorianism, which was more heretical than the Orthodox Church.

The Pope of Rome really agreed to help. First, the Papal States declared war on the Han Dynasty, and then launched a crusade against the Han Dynasty.

The Holy Roman Emperor pretended not to know. How could he respond to the crusade? A bunch of princes in the country were ready to move.

The King of Sicily agreed on the surface, but he was slow to gather troops and was reluctant to declare war on the Han Dynasty. The Sicilian navy had been defeated by Venice a long time ago.

Several other commercial republics in Italy were also slow to gather navies because they were all mortal enemies of Venice!

The King of France was very enthusiastic and quickly gathered the Crusaders to fight westward, trying to take the opportunity to expand in the direction of Spain.

The actions of the Pope of Rome soon attracted revenge from the Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty navy headed straight for Rome.

Goal: Capture Rome and capture the Pope alive. Let the soldiers plunder and burn the city!

...

Luoyang, the imperial city.

No mistakes in one poem, one post, one content, one book, one forum, one 6, one 9!

A piano was delivered to the outside of Donghua Gate by a carriage.

The guards carefully searched for contraband and let it go when they found no weapons hidden.

However, there were still a few guards who kept an eye on the carriage. The driver was also replaced by someone from the palace.

The piano was pulled all the way to the side hall of Chuigong Hall.

The little emperor, who had finished his homework and was playing, pulled Empress Dowager Ye to curiously watch.

Empress Dowager Ye asked: "Is this the treasure you want to present?"

Zhu Tangxi said: "Sister-in-law, this thing is called a piano. It was made by the son-in-law and Mr. Yang Linzhi, and I also made some ideas in it."

Empress Dowager Ye teased: "It turns out to be called a piano. I thought it was called a princess piano."

Zhu Tangxi bowed his head and smiled.

Empress Dowager Ye said: "Play a song."

Yang Linzhi was tuning the piano and sat down after a while.

All in all, he only practiced piano for a month and a half, which would only be considered a beginner in later generations.

But the keys, strings, bridge, soundboard and other parts of this piano were all selected and installed by him. He was so familiar with the piano that he couldn't be more familiar with it. More than a month of practice was enough.

"Dong Dong Dong Dong..."

Yang Linzhi pressed a few keys at random and played an octave from beginning to end to let Empress Dowager Ye experience the timbre of the piano.

Finally, "To Alice" was officially played.

Empress Dowager Ye, Tao Jinfeng and others, including the palace maids, attendants, and Zhongshu Sheren present, felt very fresh at first to the piano music.

A completely different style from the current music!

New things often make people feel amazing.

Empress Dowager Ye even closed her eyes and carefully savored the moving melody.

After the song was played, Empress Dowager Ye nodded and praised: "This piano has a unique flavor. What is the name of the song?"

Xie Yan replied: "To Tangxi."

Tao Jinfeng couldn't help but laughed out loud.

Queen Mother Ye was also smiling silently, secretly thinking that this young scholar Xie was really good at coaxing women. The princess might have been coaxed by him.

The attendant picked up the pen and, with the blessing of dog food, wrote another piece of Spring and Autumn style.

Queen Mother Ye walked to the piano and curiously pressed a few keys: "Are you just here to present the instrument?"

Yang Linzhi had already stepped aside and bowed and said: "This piano is made according to the twelve-tone equal temperament, which is different from the temperament since ancient times. I dare not hide anything about the important matters of ritual and music."

At this time, Queen Mother Ye and others finally became serious.

Even the attendant sat upright.

"Can the piano be made according to the traditional temperament?" Queen Mother Ye asked.

Yang Linzhi said: "Of course."

Tao Jinfeng understood the temperament and reminded: "The saint is tolerant. The palace tone of the traditional temperament and the palace tone of the twelve-tone equal temperament contain very subtle differences. Other tones are also different."

Queen Mother Ye remained silent.

The palace is for the king. Shang is for ministers. Jiao is for people. Zheng is for work. Yu is for things.

When the palace is in disorder, the king will be arrogant. When the Shang is in disorder, the king will be corrupt and his ministers will be bad. When the Jiao is in disorder, the king will be worried and his people will be resentful. When the Zheng is in disorder, the king will be sad and his work will be hard. When the Yu is in disorder, the king will be in danger and his money will be scarce. When all five are in disorder and they are in turn against each other, it is called slowness.

In this way, the country will be destroyed soon!

The five notes of Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng and Yu each have their own deep meaning. They cannot be in disorder, otherwise the country will be destroyed, as recorded in the Book of Rites.

The twelve-tone equal temperament, which divides the pitch and pitch through mathematics, messes up all five notes.

To put it more seriously, it is a sign of the country's destruction.

Queen Mother Ye asked: "Which one is more natural and harmonious?"

Yang Linzhi replied: "Traditional pitch and pitch."

Queen Mother Ye asked again: "What are the advantages of the twelve-tone equal temperament?"

Yang Linzhi replied: "It is more convenient to change the key and can play richer and more varied music."

Empress Dowager Ye hesitated for a long time before she said, "You can leave first."