Rong Hong's thoughts and deeds, if you look at his life history, the following points are very revealing:

First, from the age of 7 when he entered a church school run by the British in Macao, until he graduated from Yale University at the age of 26, Yung Hong received a complete "Western education" from childhood to adulthood, which was basically the same as "middle school". For "middle school", Rong Hong has no in-depth understanding, and he can't talk about any feelings.

Second, Yung Wing is a devout Christian.

Third, at the age of twenty-four, Rong Hong, who was studying at Yale University, became an American citizen.

Guan Zhuofan does not doubt Rong Hong's loyalty and feelings for the motherland, otherwise he would not have entrusted him with a heavy responsibility and relied on his arms. But at the same time, he also admits that Yung Hong's identity and experience made it difficult for him to have real respect for the legitimate government of China at the time. Otherwise, Rong Hong would not have done such a thing - when he intended to make a difference in politics, it was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that took refuge first, not the imperial court.

Of course, Rong Hong's characteristic is not a bad thing for Guan Zhuofan personally, in a sense.

However, if Rong Hong supports the "young children studying in the United States" to believe in foreign religion and lightly abolish the "middle school" because of this, it is unacceptable -- the imperial court of the original time and space, whether it is the "conservatives" or the "Westernists", including Li Hongzhang, the biggest pillar of the "young children studying in the United States", cannot accept it.

Guan Zhuofan was even more unacceptable.

The joint point is on the age of the "young children in the United States" - this is an authentic double-edged sword.

Since childhood, he has received the education of modern science and culture in the West, and has studied in primary school, middle school, and university "all in one". Naturally, what you have learned is more solid and thorough. The thinking is also more flexible and open. Fewer stumbling blocks, and using them for the "New Deal" and "Westernization" -- China's modernization drive is naturally more handy.

At that time, under the background of China's undeveloped wisdom and strong conservative forces, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Rong Hong and others had a very special significance for the painstaking design of "young children studying in the United States".

However, there is another side to the story: "young children in the United States" are too young and their minds are far from mature. They are highly susceptible to external influences, and in the process of their growth, how can they ensure that their ethnic and national identities are not shaken and transferred? How to ensure that after adults drop out of school, they will not return to China with a group of "yellow skins and white hearts"?

It must be admitted that for teenagers, education and life in the United States at that time were ten times more attractive than their own motherland. More interesting learning, more humane teaching, more equal interpersonal relationships. More free-spirited air, without a normal child. Able to resist these all-pervasive temptations.

You can't put them in a sleeve -- and you can't do it because you're going to school and studying in somebody's school. What's more, "increasing knowledge" -- observing, understanding, and understanding the study destination, and drawing nutrients from a more advanced social system -- was originally one of the original intentions of designing "young children studying in the United States".

For this reason, at the beginning, the children in the United States were not concentrated in the dormitory, but dispersed to dozens of different families in the United States.

This kind of practice, even if applied to the standards of the 21 st century, is "fashionable" and "advanced." You must know that "young children studying in the United States" are a matter of the mid-to-late nineteenth century.

Since you can't put children in a condom, what managers can do is to keep the bottom line:

First, do not enter the foreign religion.

Second, pay equal attention to "Western learning" and "middle school". In addition to school education in the United States, teachers are dispatched from China to the United States to provide considerable "middle school" education for young students, so as to ensure that "young children studying in the United States" do not forget their roots.

The imperial court ruled: "After going abroad, I still teach middle school while studying Western studies, and teach books such as the Book of Filial Piety, Primary School, the Five Classics and the laws of the national dynasty. Every time there is a room, void, pleiades, stars and other days, the two members of the committee gather all the children and preach the "Holy Oracle", showing the righteousness of respecting the monarch and his own superiors, so that he will not be confined to different studies. ”

As a person who has traveled from the 21st century, Guan Zhuofan himself is not interested in these "middle school" courses. However, he admits that in the environment at that time, there was no better plan to ensure that the young students were attached to the motherland and did not change their ethnic and national identity.

Of course, in this time and space, the matter has fallen into his hands, and the specific curriculum will naturally have to be slightly adjusted, for example, the "Sacred Oracle Extensive Training" will probably be taken down and replaced with something else.

However, the general direction will not change, that is, to ensure that the "color" of primary international students remains unchanged with "middle school" education.

Unfortunately, Rong Hong wants to challenge these two bottom lines.

The "Overseas Rehabilitation Bureau" stipulates: "Young children come to the bureau once every three months to learn Chinese, 12 people each time, 14 days is full, after the deadline, these 12 people will return, and then 12 people will come." Take turns and repeat the cycle. ”

At the beginning, this regulation was strictly enforced, and the effect was good. However, the further back it goes, the more difficult it becomes.

The reasons are, firstly, because young children in the United States have been immersed in "Western learning" for a long time, and their interest in "middle school" has decreased, and they have even reached the point of "abandoning Confucianism"; Second, and more importantly, as one of the main managers of the "Overseas Vocational Bureau," Rong Hong not only did not adhere to the existing principles and regulations, but instead set fire to the "middle school" and supported the students in boycotting the "middle school."

In this regard, Li Hongzhang was deeply worried and wrote to Chen Lanbin, the minister to the United States at the time, saying: "It is indeed true that the apprentices abandoned the middle school, because of the paranoid opinion of Chunfu, he does not want to study more middle schools for apprentices, that is, he can review after the summer school vacation, and Chunfu is not the only one. ”

莼甫, Rong Hong's word.

That is to say, not only the three-month "rotation training", Rong Hong did not support, and even the students took the summer vacation and used the vacation to make up Chinese, Rong Hong also obstructed it.

In addition to the neglect of the "middle school", students have embraced foreign religions and attended worship, and Yung Hong, as a devout Christian, took "freedom of belief" as a matter of course -- what power did the imperial court have to interfere?

Needless to say, the "young children studying in the United States" themselves stand on Rong Hong's side, regardless of whether "middle school" and "Western learning" are more important, or whether "freedom of religious belief" is allowed or not.

As for the Americans, they naturally support Rong Hong openly and covertly -- what is wrong with developing a few more pro-American factions and even "leading the way" among China's first batch of government-sponsored students?

On these two issues, the "Overseas Migrant Bureau" is aimed at each other, and the rest of the problems derived, such as what young students change their clothes and fall in love with American girls, are all small cases compared with these two problems.

The imperial court finally had no choice but to intervene: Rong Hong was transferred to the post of deputy minister to the United States, and he was no longer in charge of the "Foreign Affairs Bureau".

As a minister to the United States, he was naturally greatly promoted, but Rong Hong did not appreciate it, he said:

"If I am dedicated to one body, I am supervised by a small number of international students, and I am promoted to a plenipotentiary minister, it is the government to meet me as a national soldier, and I am not grateful for it, which is not humane. However, in terms of the education plan, it is the only policy that is regarded as the greatest cause and serves the country. At the beginning of this development, the foundation is not solid, once he is gone, he will be succeeded by the latter, who can be as enthusiastic as he is, and seek happiness for students? Besides, if you have been with the students for a long time, the affection is like the father and son of the family, and if you go, then this life is like an orphan, is it evil? …… I ask the government to retract the order and continue to supervise the students, so as to keep the matter going. ”

In other words, Rong Hong regards himself as the sole protector of "young children studying in the United States", and the "education plan" of Chinese students studying in the United States is Rong Chunfu's forbidden and cannot be touched by others.

The imperial court had no choice but to take a step back, and at the same time as transferring Rong Hong to Washington as deputy minister to the United States, the "Foreign Affairs Bureau" gave him a vague power to "help".

It was a terrible decision. Under this pretext, Rong Hong went from Washington to Hartford, Connecticut, where the "Foreign Settlement Bureau" was located, and continued to point fingers, as before. However, because he is no longer the "general office" or "deputy office" of the "Overseas Bureau" after all, the current management of the "Bureau of Foreign Affairs" is extremely dissatisfied, and the long-accumulated contradictions have finally completely erupted and become out of control.

At this time, the entire "young children studying in the United States" program had reached the point where it could not be carried out normally, and the imperial court understood that even if he broke his face with Rong Hong and completely removed him from any position and nominal power in the "Overseas Vocational Bureau," it would be useless -- Rong Hong's influence on the "young children studying in the United States" and his role in the entire study abroad program were irreplaceable. In fact, dealing with the U.S. government, schools, and local powerful people is all Yung Hong's first and last words.

If Rong Hong is unwilling to let go, you can't do anything with him - he is American.

At this point, there is no better way to go except to abolish martial arts.

Although the "young children studying in the United States" died halfway, Guan Zhuofan believes that the original intention of this plan is very good, even if it is difficult, after moderate adjustment, it is still worth implementing again in this time and space.

The lessons of history must be remembered, and what should I do if I am replaced?

*(To be continued......)

PS: There will probably be book lovers who complain about the "water" in this chapter - the lion admits that it is indeed a bit boring, sorry. The next chapter will be more interesting.

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