Qin Zheng has repeatedly emphasized that he is a descendant of China and is commensurate with the Qing Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, which is to remind Li Hongzhang that the Qing court has not yet recognized the identity of overseas Chinese, that is to say, the current overseas Chinese actually have nothing to do with the Qing court, and if you want overseas Chinese to help the Qing court in this negotiation, you must recognize the identity of overseas Chinese as soon as possible. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

However, Li Hongzhang came prepared, carrying the edict of the imperial court in his arms, so he was confident, and said with a smile: "Although the nobles are overseas, they are concerned about China, and can resist foreign obscurity, promote the prestige of China, loyalty and righteousness are commendable, the court knows everything, and he has issued an edict to commend him, and the edict will be accompanied by the old man, just wait for it to settle down and gather the heads of the nobles, and the old man can read it in public." ”

Qin Zheng nodded, Li Hongzhang really lived up to his reputation, and he understood what he meant when he heard it, so he said: "In this way, there is Lao Zhongtang." ”

At this time, the Haiqi and Hairong had also docked, Sa Zhenbing went down from the Haiqi to the dock and came to Li Hongzhang's side, and the observation group also came down from the Tai'an. Li Hongzhang introduced these entourages to Qin Zheng one by one, and Qin Zheng also shook hands with them one by one. Zhang Peilun is already an acquaintance, but Li Jingfang and Sa Zhenbing are meeting for the first time, and these two people are not unknown, because they are Sa Zhenbing, after the First Sino-Japanese War, the most important naval general in the Chunting Dynasty, and has gone through the Qing Court, the Beiyang Government, the Republic of China, and the New China Four Dynasties. He is one of the important figures in the history of the Chinese Navy. In a sense, Sa Zhenbing can also be regarded as Qin Zheng's predecessor.

Therefore, when they met, Qin Zheng also paid special attention to Sa Zhenbing, and in addition to greetings, he also said a few words such as Admiral Sa for a long time. When meeting with McClearey, the head of the observation group, Qin Zheng greeted him in English and talked a few words, which surprised McClearey.

The greetings had already been finished, and Qin Zheng was about to beckon everyone to leave the dock, when Shen Su, the accompanying [declaration] reporter, squeezed to the front and shouted: "Political Commissar Qin, here is the [declaration] reporter, can you say a few words to us?"

Li Hongzhang was slightly stunned, and when he was about to reprimand Shen Su, Qin Zhengji smiled and said, "Okay, then say a few words simply." Li Hongzhang listened, so he didn't speak, and stepped aside, and Shen Su didn't expect Qin Zheng to speak so well, after being stunned, he hurriedly took out a pen and paper, ready to record, and the reporters from the other two newspapers listened to it, and also took out a pen and paper, waiting for Qin Zheng's speech.

Qin Zheng said: "First of all, we welcome Li Zhongtang and his entourage, as well as the observation delegation composed of various countries and journalists to visit Tianjin, and wish you all the best in your activities in Tianjin. As we all know, China is now in an extraordinary period, the northern part of China is still in a war situation, Beijing is still occupied by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and we overseas Chinese are all descendants of China, and since we came to the land of China, we have always tried our best to safeguard China's sovereignty and territory, defend the people, and wage a resolute struggle against hostile forces. However, we are also peace-loving and hope to be able to resolve the war situation in northern China through negotiations with other countries on an equal footing, rather than by means of war, so we hope that your visit to Tianjin will lead to negotiations and restore peace in China as soon as possible. ”

After finishing speaking, Shen Su immediately took the lead in applauding, and several other reporters also applauded when they saw it. And Li Hongzhang also nodded slightly, feeling that what Qin Zheng said was quite decent, even the observation team couldn't find any fault, this person can rank second among overseas Chinese, and he really has some ability.

Qin Zheng said again: "Okay, this is not the place to talk, now please come to Tianjin with us, we have prepared a place for you to rest, if there is anything, let's talk about it tomorrow." ”

Then Qin Zheng came to Li Hongzhang again and said, "Li Zhongtang, we have prepared the vehicle, please move to the car." ”

Li Hongzhang was slightly stunned, but immediately reacted, because he heard Zhang Peilun say that Zhang Peilun visited Tianjin twice, both of which were to take a small boat at Dagukou, arrive at Tianjin through the Yonghai River, and then take a car on the wharf to the hotel where he stayed, and Zhang Peilun praised the overseas Chinese vehicle very much, saying that it is very different from the train, shaped like a bridge compartment, small and flexible, and has no fire, no smoke, no steam boiler, but the action is like flying, and the overseas Chinese call it: car. It seems that this time, the overseas Chinese do not plan to follow Zhang Peilun's routine, but take a car directly from Dagukou to Tianjin.

Although Li Hongzhang didn't understand how to drive the vehicle if he didn't use a steam engine, he was also quite curious about this kind of car, so it was not bad to be able to take a car from Dagukou to Tianjin.

So led by Qin Zheng, everyone left the dock, walked a short distance along the coast, and came to a clearing, only to see three buses parked in the clearing.

And Li Hongzhang was also a little surprised, because these three cars were not shaped like bridge carriages as Zhang Peilun said, small and flexible, their size was about the same as the carriage of the train, but the wheels were larger, so he glanced back at Zhang Peilun. Zhang Peilun hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Zhongtang, Peilun didn't take a seat in this kind of vehicle last time. Li Hongzhang listened, nodded slightly, and his expression returned to normal. The observation team and the reporters were all surprised when they saw the three buses, and they didn't understand what they were. Although automobiles had already been invented in this era, they were still in their most primitive stage, and even the members of the Mission had seen such a vehicle for the first time.

At this time, Qin Zheng came to the side of the first bus, only to see the door open, and a young woman came down from the car, wearing a cardigan robe, standing at the door of the car, bowing slightly, and said, "Political commissar, have you picked it up?" ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "Take it." He turned to Li Hongzhang and said, "Li Zhongtang, please get in the car." ”

Li Hongzhang hesitated slightly, lifted his feet and stepped on the bus from the door. After entering the carriage, Li Hongzhang found that there was a girl in the car, dressed the same as the girl under the car, and when he saw Li Hongzhang getting on the car, the girl bowed slightly to Li Hongzhang and said, "Welcome to ride, please come with me." ”

It turns out that the interior of this bus is specially renovated, specially used to receive important guests, first of all, all the seats in the car are removed, and the carriage is divided into a large and a small two, the large room is transformed according to the style of the living room, in the middle is a circle of sofas, scattered around the arrangement of more than ten card seats with small tables, and a small bar is worn in the corner. A cubicle is a lounge room, or a room for other staff. The two waitresses were specially brought in from the Ro-Ro passenger ship.

The waitress led Li Hongzhang to the sofa and asked him to sit down, while Qin Zheng also got in the car and sat opposite Li Hongzhang, Zhang Peilun, Li Jingfang, and Sa Zhenbing also sat in the booth under the guidance of the waitress. And Qin Zheng also brought four guards, so this bus was loaded with a few of them.

The other two buses were not modified and were still in their original form, with one vehicle for the mission and another for the reporter and Li Hongzhang's entourage, each with a waitress and 10 soldiers.

Ten minutes later, everyone got on the bus and sat down, and Qin Zheng gave the order to drive. So the three buses started in turn, left the Dagukou wharf, and the two fierce cars waiting at the exit of the wharf converged, and drove on the Jingu Highway together, heading towards Tianjin.

Although the Jingu Highway can only be regarded as a second-class highway at most in the old time and space, and the road surface can only be regarded as a third-class road, after all, it has just been built, the road surface is still very flat, and the speed is not fast, so Li Hongzhang and others sit in the car, very stable. And the waiter brought tea and snacks, and several people ate and drank, which was very comfortable. Zhang Peilun also sighed in his heart, in the end, it is still the face of Lord Zhongtang, he has been to Tianjin twice, and he has never taken such a car, this time it is regarded as the light of Zhongtang.

Li Hongzhang ate two pieces of snacks, took another sip of tea, and looked at the scenery outside the window, but his heart was very shocked, he served as the governor of Zhili for many years, and the yamen of the governor of Zhili was in Tianjin, and he also ran the Beiyang fleet, so he went back and forth to Tianjin and Dagukou no less than hundreds of times, of course, he knew that there was no such way from Tianjin to Dagukou. Although Li Hongzhang left Tianjin after the First Sino-Japanese War, he knew very well that it was impossible for the successor governor of Zhili to build this road, so this road must have been built by overseas Chinese after they arrived in Tianjin. However, it only took four or five months for overseas Chinese to land in Tianjin, but could they build such a wide and flat road?

In fact, the traverser can complete the construction of the Jingu Highway in a short period of time, on the one hand, the technical level of the highway is not high, and the traverser also has modern construction machinery and equipment, not to mention, it is a few smooth rollers, which can greatly improve the work efficiency of road construction; on the other hand, the traverser still has a large number of free labor in his hands, that is, the captured prisoners.

At this time, Zhang Peilun couldn't help but say: "Political Commissar Qin, you built this road?"

Qin Zheng nodded and said: "Of course we built it, although there is a railway from Tianjin to Dagukou, but logistics and transportation, personnel exchanges can not all rely on the railway, and there are many villages along the way from Tianjin to Dagukou, so as soon as we arrived in Tianjin, we built this Jingu Highway to facilitate the flow of people along the way." However, this road has just been completed, so in the first two visits to Tianjin, we did not arrange for Mr. Youqiao to take this road. ”

Zhang Peilun said: "And the cars are different, these cars are much bigger." ”

Qin Zheng said with a smile: "This is not the first two times we deliberately did not give Mr. Youqiao this car, but the roads in the urban area of Tianjin are narrow, and only that kind of car is used, and such a big car is inconvenient to pass." Therefore, our next plan is to re-plan the Tianjin urban area and build roads in the urban area of Tianjin, so that such large vehicles can also drive in the urban area of Tianjin. ”