The customs efficiency of overseas Chinese is very fast, Zhao Weizhong only took more than half an hour, to complete the customs procedures for the goods, in Dagu to there is a hired cargo carriage, but now Zhao Weizhong wants to accompany Zhang Peilun to Tianjin, naturally can not escort the goods away, and he went to Shanghai this time is a person to set off, at this time there is no one to bear, so he had to store these goods in the warehouse at the wharf, and then rushed back to meet Zhang Peilun, and this time, it has taken more than an hour.

Fortunately, Zhang Peilun didn't think it was strange, and patiently waited for Zhao Weizhong on the ship, and at the same time carefully read the [Dagukou Wharf Docking Instructions and Precautions for Staying on Ships], and repeatedly told the crew members who stayed behind to respect the regulations of overseas Chinese and not act rashly.

After Zhao Weizhong returned, Zhang Peilun and his party left for disembarkation, and under the leadership of the customs staff, they boarded the ship sent by the traverser to welcome them to Tianjin.

The boat that the traverser arranged to pick up Zhang Peilun and his party to Tianjin was a 318 boat, because among the ships crossed, only 318 boats could sail into the Haihe River.

In the previous battle, the traversers captured a total of eight shallow water gunboats or torpedo gunboats, namely the Russian ship Beaver, the German ship Iltis, the French ship Lyon, and the Sea Dragon, Haiqing, Haixi, Haihua, and Feiting, which were originally part of the Beiyang Naval Division and were later captured by the Eight-Nation Alliance, with tonnages ranging from hundreds to thousands of tons. Because these boats were all surrendered directly, there was basically no damage, and after the traverser recovered the Kaiping coal mine, the fuel of the ships was completely solved, so now these eight boats have taken on the task of patrolling the coastal waters of Tianjin, and also serve as training newly recruited naval soldiers.

At this time, several ships that crossed basically stayed in the alley, but every two or three days, one went to the offshore to go around, and two 318 were put into the dock of the Changbai Mountain ship, after all, the ship that crossed has limited fuel, and there are basically no accessories that can be replaced, so try to use it as little as possible to avoid loss. It was only this time that in order to show the importance that the traverser attached to Zhang Peilun's visit to Tianjin, a 318 boat was dispatched to send him to Tianjin.

When he came to the 318 boat, Zhang Peilun took a closer look at the ships of overseas Chinese. Although this small boat is not large, but in terms of shape, it is roughly the same as the warships of overseas Chinese, with a slender hull, a slightly flat bottom, and a silvery-white body, a large oblique pointed bow with a simple line, smooth and flat, but there are not many weapons assembled.

Zhang Peilun and other people boarded the 318 boat, was invited to the reception room to sit, although the 318 boat is only a displacement of 200 tons of small boat, but the design is required to meet the needs of about 20 officers and soldiers on the boat 7-10 days of sea duty, so the space in the boat is quite large, the deck building is divided into two floors, the upper floor is the wheelhouse, the first half of the lower floor is a very large activity room, can be used as an office when going to sea to execute, and at this time can also be used as a reception room.

The 318 boat started, sailed into the Haihe River, and headed for Tianjin. And Zhang Peilun sat in the cabin, only felt that the boat was very stable, and the speed was quite fast, the scenery on both sides of the strait seemed to retreat, Zhang Peilun's life has been on a lot of boats, and the warship has also been on a few times, but it is the first time to take such a fast, and so stable boat, I can't help but be secretly surprised.

Because patrol boats generally require high speed, the maximum speed of the 318 boat is 32 knots, which is the same as the Kunming ship, which is higher than the other four warships, although it is now only traveling at a speed of about 23 or 4 knots, but in this era, this is a rare high speed. During the First Sino-Japanese War, the Yoshino, the capital ship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and the two capital ships of the current Beiyang Naval Division, the Haitian and Haiqi, could reach a maximum speed of 23 or 4 knots, but this was only in an emergency and would travel at the maximum speed, and it would generally not exceed 20 knots in peacetime.

Dagukou is about 40 kilometers away from Tianjin, driving at a speed of about 23 or 4 knots, and it takes less than an hour to reach the wharf in Tianjin New Area. Looking at the shore through the porthole of the cabin, I saw that dozens of people had gathered on the shore, more than half of them were soldiers, and the first one was wearing a military hat and uniform, waiting on the shore to greet Zhang Peilun and his party.

And when the shore was closer, Zhao Weizhong also saw the person who came clearly, and couldn't help but be a little surprised, and said to Zhang Peilun: "Uncle, this is the political commissar Qin who came to pick you up." ”

Zhang Peilun was also a little surprised when he heard it, because he had heard Zhao Weizhong introduce that Qin Zheng is one of the leaders of overseas Chinese, and he is generally ranked second after Xia Bohai in official documents. Even if it is changed to the official system of the Qing Dynasty, Qin Zheng is at least the first level of the admiral of the navy, and he can almost be regarded as a member of the party. Although he was a special envoy to Shanghai, he had no official position, although he had some fame in his early years, but Mawei was defeated in a war, and it was only later that he became Li Hongzhang's son-in-law, so he was exempt from being strong and had some prestige, and he thought that overseas Chinese would only send second-level officials to greet him, but he didn't expect that Qin Zheng would come forward, so Zhang Peilun was also quite flattered.

In fact, the reason why Qin Zheng came forward to greet Zhang Peilun was mainly because Qin Zheng was familiar with the history of this era, and he was also good at communicating, so it was most appropriate for Qin Zheng to communicate with people in this era. After all, the various systems of the entire crossing group are not yet fully on the right track, so there is not so much attention.

The boat docked and docked, took the gangway, Zhang Peilun hurriedly got off the boat, came to Qin Zheng in a few steps, and took the initiative to reach over and shake hands with Qin Zheng. It turned out that he heard Zhao Weizhong say that this group of overseas Chinese is quite Westernized, and generally practices Western-style handshake ceremony, if Zhang Peilun was still Qingliu in the early years, he would have despised overseas Chinese for forgetting their mother's and performing barbarian etiquette, but now Zhang Peilun's edges and corners have long been worn out, and he is also very clear about his role positioning, in fact, he is a messenger, and the other is to try his best to promote negotiations between overseas Chinese and foreigners, of course, he can't offend these overseas Chinese, and in terms of etiquette, he will follow the local customs.

And Qin Zheng was a little surprised, because when dealing with people in this era, he was used to bowing his hand, but Qin Zheng also reacted immediately, stretched out his hand to shake Zhang Peilun's hand, and said: "Mr. Youqiao, on behalf of the Provisional Government of Tianjin New Area, I am glad that you are here." ”

Zhang Peilun hurriedly said: "Political Commissar Qin, Lord Zhongtang and Zai Xia have heard the name of the political commissar in Shanghai for a long time, and when I see it today, I am really fortunate to have three lives." And you are my overseas Miao descendants of China, although they have been far away from their homeland for hundreds of years, they still do not forget to keep China in their hearts, and at this time of national crisis, they returned to our Qing Dynasty and resisted foreign invaders, which is really admirable. ”

Qin Zheng said with a smile: "Mr. Youqiao is too awarded, the Chinese nation is connected by blood, although we have lived overseas for hundreds of years, but we have not forgotten our homeland for a moment, and we have always regarded ourselves as the Chinese ethnic group, this time to return to China, it can be regarded as the wish of the ancestors, to fight against foreign invaders, it is still the obligation of every Chinese daughter, the country is in trouble, we naturally will not stand idly by." ”

Zhang Peilun nodded again and again, and said, "Your people have a pure heart, and I admire it." ”

Qin Zheng said: "This is not the place to speak, we have prepared a room and a banquet for Mr. Youqiao at the Li Shunde Hotel, and washed the dust for Mr. ”

Zhang Peilun hurriedly said: "Don't dare, don't dare, Peilun is just a cloth cloth, this time I came to Tianjin, one is entrusted by the Lord Zhongtang to greet the nobles, and the other is also at the invitation of Wei Zhong, how dare I be treated so seriously." ”

Qin Zheng said with a smile: "Those who come are all guests, and Mr. doesn't have to be polite." He turned his head and ordered, "Drive the car over." And while waiting for the car, he said hello to Zhao Weizhong again.

After a while, I saw three electric cars still driving over, stopping in front of Qin Zheng, Zhang Peilun and others, Zhang Peilun's eyes flashed a look of surprise, looking up and down at the electric cars, and at this time someone came to open the car door for them, Qin Zheng said: "Mr. Youqiao, please get in the car." ”

Zhang Peilun hesitated slightly, lowered his head and got into the car, and Qin Zheng also got into the car. Such an electric car was originally used for the transfer of personnel at the construction site, the car is divided into four rows of seats, each row can seat three people, now the middle two rows have been changed to sit opposite, and a small table is also supported, Qin Zheng is sitting opposite Zhang Peilun, the front and rear are the guards brought by Qin Zheng, and Zhao Weizhong and Zhang Peilun brought the entourage, as well as the items carried by the latter two cars are loaded.

After the group got into the car, the three electric vehicles started in turn and drove towards the Li Shunde Hotel. Zhang Peilun sat in the car, only feeling very stable, and he didn't even need armrests. At this time, Zhang Peilun asked: "Dare to ask Political Commissar Qin, this car does not see the fire door, boiler, chimney, or water and coal, but I don't know what kind of power it is driven by." ”

Although the foreign affairs movement has been carried out for more than 30 years, although it has not made China really strong in this era, it has indeed made a group of Chinese understand the world and initially have a scientific consciousness, so when they see the hot wheel, train and other machinery that rely on automatic force, they will not think that it is the power of ghosts and gods, but understand that this thing is driven by a steam engine, and with a steam engine, there will inevitably be fire doors, boilers, chimneys and other things. However, the steam engine was too large and complex to be miniaturized, so it could only be used by large carriers such as ships and trains.

When Zhang Peilun first saw the car, he didn't think it was right, thinking that it was just a kind of machine powered by a steam engine similar to a train, but it was just made smaller. But after a close look, Zhang Peilun found that there was no chimney on the top of the car, and after sitting in the car, he found that there seemed to be no space for a steam engine in the car, and there was no fire door, no boiler, and no huge noise when the steam engine was running, which was greatly beyond Zhang Peilun's cognition, so he asked Qin Zheng.

Qin Zheng smiled, Zhang Peilun was able to say this, it seemed that he had some insight, and said: "Mr. Youqiao, this car is not driven by steam, but by electricity, so it is called an electric car." ”