From a freeloader to a world leader

Chapter 351 Singing Contest Ends

This singing competition in Hengzhou has a far-reaching impact.

It not only launched Hengzhou's cultural journey and competition journey in advance, but also launched Hengzhou's future tourism consumption journey.

After this event, countless outsiders came to Hengzhou for sightseeing and to pursue their own dreams.

Especially when an underground mine rich in copper and iron was discovered in Changning Township, Hengshan County, under Hengzhou Prefecture, between July and August in the second half of the year.

Not only did it instantly surpass Chuzhou, its superior, in all aspects.

Moreover, in terms of population, taxation and products, it surpassed several other large cities in the empire and was approaching Suzhou, which was ranked in the top five or six.

This led to more talent and capital rushing into Hengzhou, Sun Shan's so-called dream city.

Of course, this happened several months later.

The Datong Cup Singing Finals started around nine in the morning and ended around nine in the evening after three elimination rounds.

Of course, it is impossible to participate in singing competitions all the time for such a long period of time.

Rest and meals are necessary.

This allowed Honglou to break the revenue record again on the sixth day of May.

According to the settlement on the second day, on the final day of May 58, the gross income of Honglou on that day was as high as taels of silver!

Damn, just based on the 8% comprehensive tax collected by the Hengzhou government, the tax revenue from Honglou in one day alone far exceeds the annual revenue of an average state.

This made Lu Jinxi, one of the judges and the Minister of Revenue, stare with surprise.

If he had not spent 50 taels of silver yesterday and had bought half of the shares of the Super Jockey Club with Li Shimin at a high price, he would have levied taxes directly on the Red Mansion in the name of the Ministry of Revenue.

Besides, in the subsequent negotiations last night, Sun Shan also softened his stance and said that all the bigwigs of the imperial court would be welcome to participate in Hengzhou's subsequent business activities.

This allowed Lu Jinxi and others to barely suppress the greed in their hearts.

The final of this singing competition adopted two modes.

One is the scores given by six judges including Sun Shan, which accounts for half of the total score.

In addition, at the final, 100 judges will be randomly selected from the audience who have purchased tickets and will give scores without giving any explanations, according to different proportions of different age groups.

Then, the average score of these 100 male and female judges, young and old, accounts for half of the total score.

Then, the average scores of the chief judges and the audience judges are added together, and the person with the highest score will be the champion of the final.

The scoring is based on the so-called Datong numbers created by Sun Shan, which are also the Arabic numerals used a thousand years later, and is based on a ten-point system.

This simplest, most straightforward and trendy scoring method was immediately recognized by everyone.

And from then on, along with the Datong numbers, they instantly became popular throughout the empire.

In just a few months, it spread to several neighboring countries of all sizes around the entire Sui Empire.

Even when the Datong expedition team returned to Hengzhou two years later, Yue Fei and others in the distant land of Nanyue saw that local people had begun to use Datong numerals.

In addition, in order to generate revenue and expand influence, Sun Shan specially added an award for the most popular male and female singers.

This is to allow the audience who enter the finals to vote for their favorite contestant through a method similar to the gold and silver flower baskets of Deyun Club.

However, no one expected that even though he repeatedly went on stage to express his gratitude and explain that as a judge, he would not accept the gold and silver flower baskets from the audience.

However, in the end, he still won the Datong Most Popular Singer Award with a number of flower baskets that was several times higher than the second place winner, Faye Wong.

This time, the gold and silver flower baskets he alone received amounted to nearly 200,000 taels.

Once again, Lu Jinxi and other high-ranking court officials were deeply shocked.

On the one hand, it shocked the new Hengzhou people's wealth, and on the other hand, it shocked the Hengzhou people's love for Sun Shan.

Sun Shan repeatedly stated that he would not accept flower baskets, and after the game, he donated all the gold and silver flower baskets he received to the Datong Charity Fund to benefit the people of Hengzhou.

This made the people of Hengzhou love him even more, and also made Emperor Yuanfeng and others once again improve their views on Sun Shan.

A person who can face the huge sum of two hundred thousand taels of money without being tempted and donate it easily is worthy of admiration in any way!

Of course, during the few days they have been in Hengzhou, they have focused on conducting a detailed investigation of the Datong Charity Foundation, and even traced the entire source of funds.

It was discovered that nearly 800,000 taels of charitable funds were basically invested in the school and adoption home that were about to be completed.

Basically, there is not much problem of use and misappropriation.

Compared with the court's use of various funds, this is simply from heaven to earth.

If it was 800,000 taels of silver from the imperial court, which was smuggled here and there and embezzled here and there, it would be great if only one tenth of it could be put to good use.

That night, Faye Wong successfully won the championship in the third competition with the song "Red Bean" and received the championship prize of 10000 taels.

Moreover, the total amount of her personal gold and silver flower baskets was as much as 50000 taels.

However, according to the contract she signed with the Red Mansion, she could personally receive 20% of the profits from these gold and silver flower baskets after deducting taxes.

This moment made her famous throughout the empire overnight, and she also became a wealthy person with 20000 taels of silver overnight.

The runner-up was an unexpected middle-aged man.

He is one of the shareholders of Datong Chamber of Commerce, Comrade Jacky Cheung.

In the final that night, he won the runner-up with a narrow margin of just 0.02 points with "Goodbye Kiss" which was tailor-made for him by Sun Shan.

This made him, who was nearly 50 years old, so happy that he burst into tears after winning the runner-up. He repeatedly thanked his cheap son-in-law, saying that it was Sun Shan who inspired his fighting spirit and allowed him to fulfill his dream.

The third place was taken by an 18-year-old singer from the western region of the empire named Dao Lang, who traveled nearly a thousand miles from the western part of the empire. He won the third place with the song "I Want to Fly Higher" which was created by Sun Shan just yesterday, with a slight difference of 0.5 points.

Sun Shan gave comments on his singing throughout the performance and gave him high praise.

It is believed that he lost due to his poor pronunciation and understanding of the lyrics, and his lack of deep comprehension of life and success. Otherwise, with his timbre and his ability to express music, he is fully capable of winning the championship today.

Moreover, during his commentary, he issued a special invitation on the spot on behalf of Red Mansion, inviting Dao Lang to join Red Mansion with an annual salary of 5000 taels.

This made Daolang, who came from the Western Regions for his dream and almost lived on steamed buns along the way, shed tears of happiness and satisfaction.

When he heard this high salary that was far higher than his dreams, he accepted it without hesitation.

And, a request was made.

I just wanted to learn from Sun Shan and learn all about his musical talent.

Sun Shan thought about it and happily agreed.

As a result, in front of tens of thousands of people and witnessed by the emperor of the empire, Daolang, one year older than Sun Shan, became one of Sun Shan's disciples after Cao Yunjin and others, more than half a year later.

This also allows young people who love music and art at the scene and in the Empire to see what they are pursuing.