When Zhan Tianyou visited the shipyard, two transport ships were being built on two 3,000-ton slipways. The displacement of these two ships is about 2000 tons, using wood-hulled iron hull, steam power, the maximum speed is expected to be about 15-16 knots, the normal speed is 10-12 knots, after completion, the maximum load capacity is between 600-800 tons, and can carry about 100 passengers, and there are about 20 guest rooms, it is a passenger and cargo dual-purpose transport ship specially built for the Yangtze River shipping.

In fact, after more than 30 years of Westernization movement, China is not without development, in the shipbuilding of this item, has been able to independently build about 3000 tons of wood-hull ships, 2000 tons of all-steel warships, in the Sino-Japanese War, the Pingyuan, Guang B, Guang C, Weiyuan are all produced in China, of course, the main spare parts still need to be purchased from abroad, but the assembly capacity is completely available, so although the East China government can not build 5, 6,000-ton medium and large warships, but it is enough to build a few transport ships of about 2,000 tons.

On the one hand, because of the needs of shipping on the Yangtze River, the East China Government's transport ships are all sea-going vessels, and they are basically more than 3,000 tons, which are not very suitable for navigating in the rivers, and it is necessary to build ships for both sea and river purposes; on the other hand, it is also a reserve for technical personnel, and through the construction of these two transport ships, it will accumulate shipbuilding experience and train a number of shipbuilding technical workers, and when the bidding for warships is over, there will be a group of workers with certain shipbuilding experience when the construction of the warships in Qingdao begins.

In order to improve the quality of these shipbuilders, a shipyard night school was specially opened for them, teaching them to read and write, and, of course, to educate them in political ideology. Because of the wage system of the traverser, workers who pass the literacy test can be rewarded with increased wages, so it also stimulates the interest of some shipbuilders, who are young workers. In addition, ideological and political education has indeed enabled some workers to enhance their ideological understanding.

Hope School was just moved from Tianjin in February, the original Tianjin Hope School students about sixty percent of the students moved to Qingdao, mainly orphans and children of local people who came to Qingdao with the traveler, a total of about 700 people, the rest of the students are staying in Tianjin, and the next step is to prepare for enrollment in Qingdao, in addition to June this year, there is a group of about 80 students will graduate from the Hope School, which is not because they have completed their studies, but will be 16 years old, beyond the age of studying in school。 However, these students have studied in the Hope School for more than a year, mastered basic literacy and numeracy skills, and some students have also learned certain professional knowledge, so they can also add a group of emerging forces to the East China government

Zhan Tianyou gave a speech entitled "The Development Prospects of China's Railways" at the Hope School, and also answered some questions raised by students. And I was quite emotional. During his study in the United States, he often participated in such lectures, of course, as a student, and the speakers were scientists, engineers, artists, politicians, etc., who were recognized as accomplished in various fields. But after returning to China, I have never had such an experience, and I have never heard of similar activities in schools in China. But I didn't expect to participate in such an event again as a speaker today, as if I had returned to my student days.

Unconsciously, Zhan Tianyou stayed in Qingdao for 5 days, and all the people who should have visited were almost visited, and Xia Bohai, Wang Yunpeng, Xu Jichao and other major leaders met with Zhan Tianyou respectively and had a meeting with him, so Zhan Tianyou also thought that when it was time to leave Qingdao and return to Shanghai, Yu Qi said goodbye to the traverser.

And the day before Zhan Tianyou left Qingdao, Qin Zheng met Zhan Tianyou again, and first said: "Mr. Zhan has been visiting Qingdao for a few days, and I don't know what he thinks about our construction?"

Zhan Tianyou said: "Mr. Qin, the experience of the past few days is really hard for me to hope for life, the industrial development plan formulated by your people, as well as the results that have been achieved, are extraordinary, given time, it will never be under the European and American countries, and I have benefited a lot." ”

Qin Zheng said with a smile: "Mr. Zhan is too awarded, industrialization is not just the construction of a few factories, or the construction of a few railways, but a complete system, taking the construction of railways as an example, in the industrialization system, the construction of railways is by no means a construction project, but includes the mining, iron smelting, and steelmaking industries required for steel rails; wood processing, cement, and steel industries required for sleeper rails; and the construction industry, telegraph and signal industry required for the construction of railway stations; and steam engines for manufacturing locomotives. Machinery and so on, this can form a complete railway industry system, if only the construction of railway construction, and most of the other accessories need to be purchased externally, then no matter how many railways are built, can not be regarded as a complete industrial system. ”

When Zhan Tianyou heard this, he also nodded again and again, expressing his agreement with Qin Zheng's opinion.

Qin Zheng said: "To tell the truth, we still have a large amount of equipment to import, so even after the completion of the five-year plan, it is far from being a real industrialization system, but we have been working in this direction, and I believe that one day we will be able to achieve this goal, which is not only our need, but also the need of the Chinese nation to achieve national rejuvenation and national self-reliance." ”

Zhan Tianyou couldn't help but say sincerely: "Yes, yes, I also believe that you will be able to do it." ”

Qin Zheng said: "However, in order to build a complete industrial system, it is not enough to rely on us, but also to concentrate all Chinese people of insight to work together, each has learned, each knows everything, so that the country is rich and strong, not insulted by foreign insults, in order to stand on the earth, because it is a talent like Mr. Zhan, so we also sincerely hope that Mr. Zhan can come to Shandong to work, and we can also guarantee that working here, will be able to better play Mr. Zhan's talents, I don't know what Mr. Zhan's mind is?"

Zhan Tianyou was silent for a long time before he said: "Thank you for your love to me, and through the visit in the past few days, I am indeed willing to work under your rule, but there are a few things that I can't help myself." First, the Pingli Railway is still under construction, and it can't be abandoned halfway, but this is not a difficult thing, because at most half a year, the Pingli Railway can be completed; ”

In fact, Zhan Tianyou has been considering Qin Zheng's proposal in the past few days, from Zhan Tianyou's heart, of course, he hopes to work in Shandong, not only because the attitude of overseas Chinese towards industry is much more important than that of the Qing court, but also because the importance and respect for engineering personnel is far greater than that of the Qing court. This is not only the courtesy attitude of overseas Chinese towards themselves in the past few days, but in factories, construction sites and other places, it can be seen that overseas Chinese respect engineers like themselves from the heart, and it can also be seen that engineers like themselves have a high political status here among overseas Chinese.

Although the Qing court carried out the Westernization movement for more than 30 years, and also opened some factories and achieved certain achievements, as far as the whole society is concerned, the mainstream is still scholars who read the books of sages, rather than engineers, businessmen, or Western scholars who set up Western-style affairs.

But the experience of these few days also made Zhan Tianyou understand more deeply the meaning of Sheng Xuanhuai's conversation with himself before coming to Qingdao, in fact, the traveler did not hide his disregard for the Qing court in front of Zhan Tianyou, and all the titles he used were the titles of the East China government, and he did not use the name of the Qing court at all. And Zhan Tianyou knew that no matter in that era, this was a capital crime for setting up a private court, of course, Zhan Tianyou also understood that now the Qing court did not dare to provoke overseas Chinese at all, so he could only let it go.

Of course, Zhan Tianyou did not have any loyalty to the Qing court, but in the past, to build a railway in China, it had to be based on the platform of the Qing court. He summoned the heads of various departments of the Yuelu Company and announced that he was determined to stick to his post, and anyone who wanted to leave could leave, but he had to explain the work clearly. Under the influence of Zhan Tianyou, no one left the Yuelu Company, and during the entire revolutionary period, the train ran as usual and orderly, which was actually a tacit support for the Xinhai Revolution. After the founding of the Republic of China, Zhan Tianyou first served as the office of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, and then concurrently served as the technical supervisor of the Ministry of Communications, presiding over the national transportation technology work, and had no nostalgia for Chunting.

But this does not mean that Zhan Tianyou will take the initiative to participate in the revolutionary activities to overthrow the Qing court, or take the initiative to deviate from the Qing court, after all, Zhan Tianyou is only an engineer, not a revolutionary, and he is not very interested in politics. If the traverser overthrew the Qing court at this time and established a new dynasty, Zhan Tianyou would not hesitate to join the traverser's hands, but at this time, it was impossible for Zhan Tianyou to take the initiative to give up the Qing court and switch to the traverser's court. But he didn't want to give up such a good working environment, so Zhan Tianyou thought about it and finally came up with such a solution, which was to let overseas Chinese go to action activities, and let the Qing court issue an order to let him work in Shandong, so that he could solve his own entanglement.

Qin Zheng listened, but also able to understand Zhan Tianyou's thoughts, of course, this is also a solution, and persuade the Qing court to let Zhan Tianyou come to Shandong to work, Qin Zheng is still quite confident, first, with the current status of the traverser, any request to the Qing court, as long as it is not too much, the Qing court really wants to give a little face, and there is Li Hongzhang from it; second, in the system of the Qing court, although Zhan Tianyou can not be said to be insignificant, but by no means an important person, although some Westernists such as Sheng Xuanhuai may be able to recognize the importance of Zhan Tianyou, but now Sheng Xuanhuai is not a major minister in the Qing court, so as long as the traverser puts it forward, the Qing court will most likely agree, after all, it is not guilty of offending the traverser for this.

So Qin Zheng said: "Okay, let's leave this matter to us to deal with, Mr. Zhan will go to the Pingli Railway first and wait for the news." ”

Zhan Tianyou was also relieved when he heard this, because since Qin Zheng agreed to come down, it should be eight or nine and ten, so he got up and said goodbye to Qin Zheng.