Zhang Peilun set out from the sea on October 29, docked in Yantai that night, rested for the night, and continued to set sail in the early morning of the next day, and at about 12 noon on October 30, on the sea about 30 kilometers away from Dagukou, he encountered a patrol boat of the People's Army Navy, so the two boats followed the patrol boat and headed for the Dagukou wharf.

After more than an hour of sailing, Zhang Peilun, who was standing at the bow of the ship, could clearly see that on the shore in the distance, there were a row of more than a dozen ships, two or three of which were military ships, but whether it was on the side or on the deck, there were obvious damages, and it was obvious that they had experienced fierce battles.

Zhang Peilun looked at the bow of the ship for a while, and then asked Zhao Weizhong beside him: "Weizhong, are these ships captured by overseas Chinese from foreigners?" It turned out that Zhang Peilun knew that he had a heavy responsibility for this trip to Tianjin, so when he set off from Yantai this morning, Zhang Peilun invited Zhao Weizhong to be on the same boat with him, so that after arriving at Dagukou, he could explain the situation of overseas Chinese for himself, and when communicating with overseas Chinese, he could also play a staff role, so as not to mislead his behavior and miss the important matter entrusted by Li Hongzhang.

Zhao Weizhong nodded and said, "Yes, uncle, these ships are all ships of foreigners captured by overseas Chinese, have you seen the largest warship?"

Zhang Peilun looked in the direction of Zhao Weizhong's finger, and sure enough, he saw a huge ship lying quietly on the sea, and said, "What's wrong with this warship?"

Zhao Weizhong said: "This ship was captured by overseas Chinese from the German fleet, and I heard that it exceeded 10,000 tons. ”

Zhang Peilun listened, and couldn't help but be a little touched, the turning point of his life was the Mawei Naval Battle of the Sino-French War, and later became Li Hongzhang's son-in-law, and also had some dealings with the pipe belt of the Beiyang Naval Division, so he also had some understanding of naval warfare, knowing that in the naval battle, it was very difficult to capture the enemy ship, and the two main forces of the Beiyang Naval Division, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, were only more than 7,000 tons, which was enough to make the Beiyang Naval Division dominate Asia for several years. And now this group of overseas Chinese was able to capture a 10,000-ton warship in a naval battle, and when he heard about the brilliant achievements of overseas Chinese in Shanghai, although Zhang Peilun did not doubt the truth of the results, after all, he had not seen it with his own eyes, and always felt that it was a bit exaggerated, but now that he saw the ships captured by overseas Chinese, he believed that the results achieved by overseas Chinese were absolutely not a little watery.

This time, the foreigners pushed themselves to ask the overseas Chinese to negotiate, and even the overseas Chinese could put aside the tariff increase in Tianjin, which was probably not the conscience of the foreigners, but the shock of the strong military strength of this group of overseas Chinese.

At this time, Zhao Weizhong said: "Uncle, there is a warship of overseas Chinese over there. ”

Zhang Peilun followed the sound and looked at it, and couldn't help but light up, he had seen a lot of warships, but he had never seen such a beautiful line, smooth and concise surface of the ship, and the hull was huge, it was one of the warships, it was several times the German 10,000-ton warship he saw just now, Zhang Peilun estimated in his heart that this warship was only more than 30,000 tons.

Although the actual displacement of the Changbaishan ship is only 20,000 tons, even if it is the largest combat warship second only to the aircraft carrier in the Chinese naval sequence in the old time and space, and in the case of the same tonnage, the external dimensions of modern warships are much larger than those of warships of this era, so in Zhang Peilun's view, this is a behemoth ship.

Although Zhang Peilun is not too proficient in the navy, but tonnage equals combat effectiveness, this truth is still only understood, although these warships seem to be equipped with a little less weapons, but looking at this huge size, it shows that this group of overseas Chinese are obviously proficient in foreign affairs, and their machine technology is probably not below the foreigners.

It took about 20 minutes for the two ships to reach the civilian wharf and dock. At this time there were two groups of about seven or eight men in each group, two of whom were dressed in dark blue uniforms and brimmed hats, and the others were dressed in black uniforms and rattan hats. One group stopped next to the Sea Dragon in front of them, while the other rushed towards their own ship.

After waiting for the boat to be stable, they immediately stepped onto the deck of the ship, and Zhang Peilun was a little surprised to find that among the two people wearing dark blue uniforms, there was actually a woman, wearing a straight uniform, so that she looked quite capable, it seems that Zhao Weizhong is not wrong, among this group of overseas Chinese, women have a high status and can be officials.

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly greeted him, arched his hand, and said, "I don't know what the two chiefs call them?"

The two men in dark blue uniforms first saluted Zhao Weizhong and said, "We are Zhang Chengbin and Pang E, staff members of Tianjin Customs, who are here to inspect your ship. ”

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly said: "It turned out to be Chief Zhang and Chief Pang, and Zhao Weizhong left Tianjin to run business in Shanghai in the name of the new district government, and now he has returned to Tianjin, and he sent a telegram back to Yantai this morning. ”

Zhang Chengbin said: "Mr. Zhao, we have received your telegram, but please show your documents and cooperate with our work, please rest assured, we are just a routine inspection, and there is no other meaning." ”

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly pointed to the Sea Dragon in front of him and said, "Chief Zhang, that is my ship, and my documents are all on that boat." I was accompanying Mr. Zhang Peilun on this boat, and as I said in the telegram, Mr. Zhang had made a special trip to Tianjin for a visit. ”

Zhang Chengbin let out an "oh", turned his head to Pang E and said, "Ask over there." ”

Pang E immediately dialed the walkie-talkie from her waist and made a call to the staff who inspected the Sea Dragon, before she said: "Mr. Zhao, I have already confirmed that the ship is indeed the Sea Dragon you took when you left, but after you get off the ship for a while, you still have to go over to go through the formalities, because there are some records that you personally confirmed." ”

Zhao Weizhong nodded again and again, and said, "Yes, yes, I'll go over in a while." ”

Zhang Chengbin asked again, "Where is Mr. Zhang Peilun?" ”

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly introduced Zhang Peilun to the two of them. The two came to Zhang Peilun and saluted, Zhang Chengbing said: "Mr. Zhang, we have received a notice from the Tianjin New District Government that the ship to take you to the Tianjin New Area has been prepared, as long as you complete the registration procedures for this ship, you can set off." ”

Pang E also said: "I only need to delay you a little time, please cooperate with our work." ”

Zhang Peilun smiled and arched his hand: "It's easy to say, it's easy to say, I don't know what the two of you need to do? ”

Pang E took out a clip from her satchel, handed it to Zhang Peilun, and said: "It's this form, I want you to fill it out, of course, others can fill it out, you just need to sign a name, you can ask me if you don't understand." ”

Zhang Peilun took the form and looked at it, it turned out to be the basic information of the ship arriving at the port, including nationality, displacement, purpose, whether there were weapons, the date of berthing, as well as the goods on board, the number of crew members, etc., and all kinds of items were clear at a glance.

Zhang Peilun nodded, and immediately ordered the person to take the pen and ink and fill in the form carefully, and in some places he didn't know how to fill it out, just like Pang E asked.

After filling it out, Pang E confirmed it again, took out a booklet from his satchel, handed it to Zhang Peilun, and said: "This is [Dagukou Wharf Docking Instructions and Precautions for Staying on Ships] Please give them a careful reading, during the stay, please respect the above matters, and someone will come to them to apply for a temporary pass after a while, so that they can go ashore for activities, but before the temporary pass is done, you must not leave the ship casually, in addition, please keep the temporary pass, when you leave or handle the renewal of berthing, you have to return it to us, or re-handle it. ”

Zhang Peilun took the booklet and flipped through it casually, all of which were printed in simplified characters, and it was typeset horizontally, which looked quite awkward, but after reading a few articles, he found that the regulations were quite detailed, and he happened to see one of them, which was the size and weight of the items carried by the crew on the shore, and the size and weight of the items purchased on the shore.

Zhang Peilun was quite puzzled, and said to Zhang Chengbin: "Dare to ask sir, why is this rule formulated?"

Zhang Chengbin said: "Mr. Zhang, this regulation is to prevent the crew from smuggling goods and evading customs duties by taking advantage of the convenience of berthing, but it is not intended to make things difficult. ”

After Zhang Peilun listened, he nodded frequently and said, "So that's the case, I've been taught." "I was secretly a little surprised in my heart, I didn't expect these overseas Chinese to be so strict with customs supervision. Compared with the customs managed by foreigners, it is really better.

Although at this time the customs of the Qing court has been controlled by foreigners, tariff pricing can not be autonomous, but it is undeniable that foreigners are indeed in accordance with the advanced management mode of foreign countries, and strict system in the management of customs, so the customs has become a rare institution in the Qing court to maintain integrity, and can operate efficiently, although the customs of the Qing court is only 5% of the tax rate, but the annual customs revenue accounts for about one-third of the entire Qing court.

Zhang Peilun used to be a Qingliu in Beijing, he had been demolished many times, and he was angry about foreigners' control of the Chunting Customs, but after becoming Li Hongzhang's son-in-law, he had a certain understanding of the operation of the Customs, and he had to admit that if the Chunting Ting managed the Customs, he would definitely be in a mess. The management of customs by overseas Chinese is obviously no worse than that of foreigners, and in some details, it is even excessive.

However, Zhao Weizhong's face changed, it turned out that he had purchased a large number of goods from Shanghai, which must have exceeded the regulations, and he needed to pay tariffs according to the standards of the goods.

However, Zhao Weizhong knows in his heart, now the whole Tianjin is in ruins, his own batch of goods arrived, it must be a hot goods, and paying tariffs is only a little less, there is no need to violate the regulations of overseas Chinese, during this period of time, he has not rarely violated the regulations of overseas Chinese, and has been punished. So Zhao Weizhong said to Zhang Peilun: "Uncle, I'm going to the ship over there, my goods are taxable, and this procedure can only be handled by me personally." ”

Zhang Peilun nodded and said, "Go ahead, I'll wait for you here." ”