After Li Songchen and Yan Fu met, they invited Yan Fu to repeat, and after Yan Fu was polite, he also happily accepted Li Songchen's invitation and was willing to represent East China** to visit Germany for cultural exchanges.

In fact, after the Far East War, Yan Fu originally had the heart to rely on Long in East China, although Yan Fu was still loyal to the Qing court in his heart, and advocated the implementation of a constitutional monarchy in China, but the performance of the Qing court was too bad, and the achievements of East China were too dazzling, although Yan Fu once hoped that under the leadership of the patriarchs, the reform of the constitutional monarchy in the Qing court was promoted, so that Yan Fu could also defect to the patriarchs without worries.

However, after learning about the overseas history of the patriarchs, Yan Fu also completely gave up this unrealistic fantasy, because first, the overseas history of the patriarchs has made it very clear that they are the descendants of the Ming Dynasty, and the descendants left by the eunuchs of the Three Treasures when they went to the West are not the sons of the Qing court, and to a certain extent, they still have a family and country feud with the Qing constitutional monarchy; second, the patriarchs all practice a republican system overseas, which also shows that it is impossible for the patriarchs to serve the imperial family of the Qing court and implement the constitutional monarchy system. Therefore, Yan Fu could only choose between loyalty to the Qing court and defection to East China, and it was impossible to achieve the best of both worlds.

In terms of Yan Fu's original intention, he is not just willing to be a scholar, firstly, he has a strong sense of fame, and hopes to be able to make meritorious contributions and glorify his ancestors, which is of course not a bad thing, and secondly, he also wants to contribute to the prosperity of China. And to achieve this goal, it is obvious that you can only take refuge in East China. It's just that Yan Fu, out of his current fame, status and face, can't take the initiative to take refuge in East China, because after all, Yan Fu can be regarded as having received the imperial favor of the Qing court, no matter how corrupt and incompetent the Qing court is, but he is still kind to Yan Fu. Although Yan Fu admired Western learning, he would also be influenced by traditional Chinese morality, and defecting to East China would undoubtedly be a betrayal of the Qing court and becoming a second minister, so for Yan Fu, the ideal result would be to take refuge in East China after the fall of the Chun Court, so that he would not have to bear the name of a traitor.

However, Yan Fu also knows that as the old saying goes, it is easy to add icing on the cake, but it is difficult to send charcoal in the snow, and now it is difficult to send charcoal in the snow when he takes refuge in East China, not to mention that after East China really opens the dynasty and builds the foundation, even if East China accepts Yan Fu in order to show the bearing of the new dynasty, it will only give Yan Fu an idle position, and it is difficult to entrust him with a heavy responsibility, so it is better to be a scholar.

And now the invitation of East China ** is to Yan Fu to solve the trick, he doesn't care about the false name of representing China and Germany for cultural exchanges, but whether this is cooperation or not, it is to help East China ** do things, and he said that he and East China ** have already set up a relationship, in addition, this time he is visiting as a scholar, and he did not officially serve in East China**, no matter how history comments on him in the future, but Yan Fu himself has a clear conscience. And Yan Fu is not a person who pays attention to hypocrisy, so he happily agreed to Li Songchen and accepted the invitation of East China.

After getting Yan Fu, Li Songchen's confidence also increased greatly, firstly, he was at least half successful, and secondly, as long as Yan Fu agreed, he would have a way to deal with Gu Hongming. It turned out that when receiving this task, Qin Zheng told Li Songchen an interesting story about Yan Fu and Gu Hongming in the old time and space.

It turned out that at a banquet, Gu Hongming declared that he hated to kill Yan Fu and Lin Shu to thank the world, and Yan and Lin were both at the same table at that time. However, Yan Fuhan was well cultivated and laughed at Gu Hongming's wild words, while Lin Shu was hot-tempered and asked Gu Hongming on the spot why he said this. Gu Hongming Zhenzhen said: "As soon as the Yan retranslation of "The Theory of Heavenly Evolution" came out, the Chinese people only knew about natural selection, but did not know that they had meritorious fame, so they ended up in trouble; since Lin Shu's translation of "The Lady of the Camellias" came out, the students only knew that men were happy and women were happy, but they did not know how to be polite and righteous, so people wanted to run rampant. Who is the one who corrupts the world with doctrine, isn't it Yan and Lin?"

Of course, Gu Hongming said that he wanted to kill Yan and Lin was just a joke, mainly because Gu Hongming admired Chinese culture and despised European civilization, and Yan and Lin were both famous for translating European works, so Gu Hongming had long seen that the two were not pleasing to the eye, so he found an opportunity to ridicule the two. In fact, Yan Fu and Gu Hongming in the old time and space are still related, Yan Fu's granddaughter Yan Zhuoyun married Gu Hongming's cousin Gu Zhenfu (that is, the first chairman of Taiwan's Strait Exchange Foundation).

Sure enough, as soon as Li Songchen talked to Gu Hongming, Gu Hongming rejected the invitation of East China, and said that Yan Fu was uneducated and ignorant, and what qualifications did he have to represent China to conduct cultural exchanges with German scholars, and he disdained to be with Yan Fu. This result was also expected by Li Songchen, and he knew that Gu Hongming was not so easy to speak, so he didn't care too much, just said that this time the opportunity was rare, please Gu Hongming don't make a rash decision, don't visit for a few days, and come back to visit in three days.

After Li Songchen left, a friend of Gu Hongming came to visit and persuaded Gu Hongming, first, that now East China is in full swing and will definitely replace the Qing court, so offending East China will do all kinds of harm but not benefit; second, this cultural exchange with Germany is not only the first time in China's history, but also the first time that there are two countries in the world The leading cultural exchange is also a collision of Eastern and Western cultures, and this is a cultural prosperity that is rare in a century, and the people who participate in it will surely become famous in history, and if they miss it, it will not be a pity; Third, Gu Hongming has always admired Chinese culture, and this is a great opportunity to promote Chinese culture to the overseas world; if Gu Hongming does not go, this cultural exchange will inevitably be led by Yan Fu, and Yan Fu and his people advocate Western studies, so how can they promote Chinese culture to the world? And Gu Hongming went to compare with Yan Fu to see who is more popular in Germany.

In fact, this was entrusted by Li Songchen to persuade Gu Hongming from the side, but these words really moved Gu Hongming, in fact, Gu Hongming very much wanted to participate in this visit, because promoting Chinese civilization to European countries has always been the goal of Gu Hongming's lifelong pursuit, and this is indeed a great opportunity; in addition, Germany also has special significance for Gu Hongming, because Gu Hongming has studied in Europe for 14 years, including 6 years in Germany, divided into two stages, the latter stage studied at the famous University of Leipzig in Germany, which is one of the oldest universities in Europe and the second oldest university in German history, and has cultivated countless famous figures。 Therefore, if Gu Hongming can go to Germany this time, it will be tantamount to returning to school. In the end, the fame of history also has a strong attraction to Gu Hongming.

Gu Hongming is a typical scholar, he is not interested in being an official, in addition to promoting Chinese civilization, he also attaches great importance to his reputation and honor. Although Gu Hongming admired the way of Confucius and Mencius, and also advocated imperial power, and published a collection of essays defending the Qing court during the Gengzi State Change, "Respecting the King", in fact, Gu Hongming did not have a good impression of the Qing court, and when Cixi celebrated her birthday, he wrote a satirical congratulatory poem: The Son of Heaven is ten thousand years, and the people spend money. Longevity is boundless, and the people suffer. His respect for imperial power is actually due to the extremely important position of imperial power in traditional Chinese civilization, not because he has special feelings for the Qing court. In fact, it is impossible for scholars of this era to have a good impression of the Qing court, after all, the performance of the Qing court is really bad.

And refusing the invitation of East China **, on the one hand, he was unhappy with Yan Fu, and on the other hand, he was also a literati, so after listening to the persuasion of his friends, he couldn't help but regret a little, he really refused too hastily, fortunately, Li Songchen didn't say anything to death, and he would come to visit three days later, I just hope that he can really do what he says.

Sure enough, three days later, Li Songchen came to visit Gu Hongming again, and this time Gu Hongming did not pretend anymore, and agreed to come down when they met, and was willing to visit Germany, but put forward two conditions, one is that this visit to Germany must be headed by himself in terms of cultural exchanges, and the other is to arrange for himself to visit his alma mater.

Immediately decided to go to Germany, Gu Hongming also put down face, try his best to get the greatest interests for himself, this visit will of course leave a strong mark in history, so if it is the leader of the cultural exchanges in East China, it is natural to stand out among the participants and become the most dazzling one, and the visit to his alma mater not only has a huge symbolic significance, but also has a lot of substantive significance, after all, the University of Leipzig has produced Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche, Robert Schumann, Carl Liebknecht is such an outstanding figure, and this visit to the school can also allow Gu Hongming to achieve a status comparable to these predecessors and alumni. Of course, Gu Hongming also promised that he would fully cooperate with the visit of East China ** to ensure that the visit was a complete success.

In fact, these two conditions are not excessive, only Yan Fu is qualified to compete with Gu Hongming for the leader of cultural exchanges, but Yan Fu does not care about the identity of this leader, of course he will not compete with Gu Hongming, as for the visit, it is not a problem to arrange for Gu Hongming to visit his alma mater, after all, this is a good thing for Germany and the University of Leipzig, and I believe that the German side will also try its best to cooperate with this visit.

Yan Fu and Gu Hongming were invited, and Li Songchen invited several scholars according to the requirements of Qingdao, and a total of 7 people were gathered to form a cultural group in the delegation of East China's first visit to Germany, with Gu Hongming as the leader.

In this way, the last piece of the puzzle of the delegation visiting Germany was completed, and it departed from Qingdao on October 12, and East China ** also specially mobilized a large passenger ship to carry all the personnel visiting Germany, and sent two cruisers Yizhou and Jining to escort it. When he arrived in Shanghai, he stayed overnight at the port of Shanghai, and Li Songchen also held a grand farewell ceremony at the port. The next day, the three ships left China and headed for Germany.