Forty Scenes of the Old Summer Palace. This is the first year of Qianlong, that is, the year when Emperor Qianlong just ascended the throne. Leng Mei, the painter of Ruyi Pavilion in the Forbidden City, was specially ordered to paint the panoramic view of the Old Summer Palace according to the specifications of the thirty-six views of the Summer Resort during the Kangxi Dynasty. portrait.
Even though it is only 40 scenes, it took eleven years from creation to completion, which shows that it was not easy to come by!
The preciousness of Forty Scenes is not only its artistic value, but also because this set of albums is the only one in the world, and Qianlong did not allow copying or imitation at all!
In other words, this album was not well-known at the time. It was a typical royal collection and not many people knew about it.
The Old Summer Palace is a royal garden, and ordinary people will never be able to set foot in it! If you can neither see the album nor see the real scene of the Old Summer Palace, then there is no need to fake it!
Even many private painters and collectors don’t know that such a set of painting albums exists!
At the end of the 19th century, the popularity of this album was not high. The real popularity did not increase until the end of the 20th century. As photography technology became more and more mature, high-definition photography technology began to become popular.
This set was collected by Napoleon III and later transferred to the collection of the Old Summer Palace in the National Library in Paris, France. It was discovered by a Chinese traveling in France in 1928, and the black-and-white photographic plates were brought back to China.
In other words, it was not until 1928 that the general public in China, except for the elders in the Forty-nine Cities of the Capital, those hundreds of millions of people really knew what the legendary Old Summer Palace was like!
In 2004, China spent millions of dollars to buy color photographic plates of the forty scenes of the Old Summer Palace. Only then did people realize how beautiful the colorful Old Summer Palace is!
The person on the left side of Ghost Eye had no chance to see such a set of treasures collected in the imperial palace, but he knew that such an isolated set of picture albums existed in the world.
Although he has never seen it, his apprentice Manshun has, and he even drew a few sketches for his master from memory!
Manshun had just entered the palace ten years ago, when his memory was at its strongest. The few short scenes he sketched are very classic, and the left side of Ghost Eye can be said to have a photographic memory!
Today, this ghost-eyed chaofeng with a vision of 2.0 accidentally saw someone drying this album in the Suez Canal. Judging from his rich experience, this is the real thing and there is no fake!
Zuo Zuo is very sure, because he knows very well that this set of picture albums is not fake, because almost all the counterfeiters in the Qing Dynasty have never heard of such a set of picture albums, even the masters of copying and forgery in the capital have never heard of it. Pass!
Who can fake a famous painting that 'doesn't exist'? Therefore, what is dried on this ship is definitely the real thing!
However, this ship was flying the British flag, so there is only one conclusion. In order to ensure safety, the Calais merchant ship secretly forged the ship's identity certificate midway and changed it to a British flag in an attempt to get through!
Even though Guiyan Zuozuo was kidnapped at the beginning, he was unhappy in his heart, but after the CIA conveyed the true intention of the head of state to him, his heart was shaken.
Xiao Letian had a close relationship with Gui Yanzuo, and the head of state also purchased some antiques from him!
Because of this fate, the head of state asked Ghost Eye Zuo to come to Europe to identify the treasure this time. However, the CIA has very strict confidentiality rules, and they did not tell Zuo Dachao directly, so the previous conflict broke out!
The Chinese army is showing off its power over Europe, and the head of state wants to take back the treasures handed down from generation to generation that belong to the Chinese!
Don't be too angry about this matter. The six appraisers were no longer angry after the ship passed Ryukyu, but they were just trying to calm down the head of state, and they didn't have a good look at the CIA officials who kidnapped them!
Along the way, all CIA officials have become angry little wives, and they have to be scolded if their food is not tasty. These six bad-tempered people have been playing tricks all the way!
After the ship passed the Lion City, which would later become Singapore, the person in charge of the local CIA contacted the Hangzhou and asked them to rush to the Suez Canal, where there was a ship of treasures given to the Qing Dynasty by the Emperor of France!
The head of state's order is very firm. No matter what the cost, this ship of treasure must be eaten, and it must be done silently!
As for these six literary and play masters, their mission is to identify the authenticity of the treasures!
After receiving the order, the Hangzhou immediately changed its original schedule, not even caring about supplies along the way. Everyone lived entirely on canned dry food. The water on the ship was only for drinking but not for washing, and it had to be rationed!
They were supposed to resupply in Sri Lanka or India, but in order to chase time, they did not stop at all and crossed the entire Indian Ocean with meager supplies!
This journey was very difficult for the people on the left. They had nothing to eat or drink, and they had no way to wash their faces or bathe. They also encountered a typhoon on the way, which made him vomit out bitter bile!
Fortunately, we crossed the Indian Ocean alive, and the Hangzhou finally arrived in Egypt safely!
When the Suez Canal was first excavated and opened to navigation, it was a narrow one-way canal. The width of the canal allowed only one ship to pass through, and no two ships could pass simultaneously.
If such a canal wants to pass efficiently, it must rely on the coordination of telegraph lines along the way. Fifty ships from the north will be sent south first, and then the ships from the south and north will have to wait.
After all the fifty ships on the other side were out, they sailed into the canal from south to north as planned!
The Hangzhou was being repaired in the Port of Suez. On the one hand, it was to recuperate the health of the crew, and the other reason was to wait for the ships heading south from the north to enter the Red Sea one by one.
It was during this repair process that Zuo Dachaofeng learned that the Calais merchant ship had not appeared at all, and it still hadn't appeared four days later than scheduled!
Many people even wondered whether the ship had temporarily changed its route and gone around the Cape of Good Hope?
This is really not impossible. Think about the value of that ship of treasures. For the sake of safety, it is possible to go around South America, not to mention around the Cape of Good Hope!
Everyone became anxious, especially after the meeting with several other appraisers on the left, and when everyone began to speculate on how precious the treasures in that ship were, people could no longer control their emotions.
This mission is too important. If even the death order given by the head of state cannot be carried out, maybe several CIA leaders will have to commit suicide!
But I never expected that there would be no place to look for even after wearing iron shoes, and it would take no effort at all to get there!
At the moment when the Hangzhou was about to enter the canal, the last cargo ship entering the Red Sea from north to south in the canal was revealed!
The Forty Views of the Old Summer Palace are actually hanging on the deck to dry. If you can't guess this, you will really have to blind your eyes!
