Out of the door, Qin Kai went straight to a nearby ready-to-wear store, his clothes looked really bad, he was not short, and the original owner of this clothes, He Xing, was indeed a small man, so it was awkward to wear it on his body.

The service attitude in the tailor shop is very good, Qin Kai asked the price and tried it on, spent two taels of silver to buy a set of ready-to-wear robes and horse coats, and spent three taels of silver to buy a set of old style dresses, the kind-looking tailor Wang obviously also noticed the back of Luo Dong's head, and very politely brought a melon skin hat, but it is a little strange that the back of the hat is also decorated with long braids.

"Guest officer, this only costs 500 Wen, do you need it?" Tailor Wang asked with a smile.

Qin Kai had also pondered about this, and the Westernization Movement had already begun vigorously on this devastated land, but now the essence of the Westernization Movement is just the last effort of the ministers in the court to save this declining dynasty, and the Dousheng Xiaomin naturally can't get any benefits from it, and braids are indeed a problem that needs to be considered!

"Done! Shopkeeper, I just came back from overseas, and I don't know the current situation, is it a bit of an obstacle for me to walk around outside without braids? He put an extra 100 copper coins, which is considered a consulting fee.

Tailor Wang didn't mean to be polite, and smiled at the copper coins under his hand, "Guest officer, if you don't see the official, it will be a sight to behold on the road...... It's troublesome, after all, there are more children of those princes and nobles who don't have braids now, and there are those who want to come back from the West like Mr., and there are the foreign devils in the Mawei Academy. ”

When it came to the Mawei Academy, Luo Dong naturally fell in love, this was his next destination, "Shopkeeper, are you familiar with the Mawei Academy?" Tell me about it! ”

"Guest officer, that's not familiar, it's just that my tailor shop is close to the east gate, and the students and Westerners of the Mawei Academy like to come to me to make clothes, so I know a little bit about it, but I heard that they are recruiting teachers of Western studies recently, could it be that you are interested in this?"

Hearing this news, Qin Kai smiled slightly, it is really better to come early than to come by coincidence, this Mawei Shipbuilding School is a famous school in modern history, founded in modern Zuo Zongtang, and then supervised by Lin Zexu's nephew Shen Baozhen, here has come out of a large number of founders of modern industry, in this era, it is currently the most suitable place for themselves to settle.

"Thank you, shopkeeper!" The news provided by Tailor Wang is much more valuable than the two sets of clothes he just bought, Qin Kai went out with a smile, went back to the inn to change his clothes first, and then went out to hire a car, asked for directions, and went out of the east gate to the southeast.

This Mawei Ship Master School is near the dock of Fuzhou Mansion, not far from Fuzhou Mansion, but this carriage also drove unhurriedly for half an hour, and a large number of factories and houses appeared in the distance in the distance.

"Brother who drove the car, this is the Mawei School in front? How can there be so many houses? Qin Kai was a little surprised.

"Guest officer, you don't know this!" It is rare for someone to ask him so politely in the handlebar style, and he immediately came to the energy, and said vividly: "This Mawei School was built by Zuo Dashuai, and it is a mile away from the wharf. ”

Qin Kai's attention at this time was naturally not on the handlebar-style thing, on the side of the road, not far away was obviously a large steel mill, and several strange buildings attracted his attention. One of the blast furnaces, even without the help of a light brain, he recognized that it was the open-hearth steelmaking commonly used in Western steelmaking in the first industrial revolution, which surprised him very much.

At this time, the West was walking in the late stage of the first industrial revolution, and the industrial capacity had been greatly improved, and steel production could be said to be an obvious indicator of the industry of this era.

The gate of the Mawei Shipbuilding Academy is a classical Chinese wooden door, and there are two teams of Qing soldiers standing at the door, but to Qin Kai's surprise, these Qing soldiers do look well-trained, not at all like the soldiers seen at the gate of Fuzhou City, one of the officers wearing military attache robes has come up to interrogate. ,

"What kind of place is this, have you figured it out?" This officer is in his forties, and he speaks official dialect with a Hunan accent, and listening to his tone, it is time to drive people out.

His official robe was embroidered with a pattern of a seahorse, Qin Kai naturally didn't understand what this meant, but he knew that the official uniforms of the Qing Dynasty were all represented by beasts, but he really didn't know what level this seahorse was. As soon as he arched his hand, he said politely: "This lord, when I returned from studying overseas, I heard that the Harbour Master School was going to recruit teachers, so I came to inquire about it. ”

The officer heard Qin Kai say that he had returned from overseas and came to apply for an instructor, but he did not dare to underestimate it, the former minister of the Mawei Ship Master School was Lin Zexu's son-in-law Shen Baozhen, who could be described as a leader in the Westernization Movement, and a few years ago, the school had begun to send many batches of students to study in France, including many pipe bands of the Beiyang Naval Division, including Deng Shichang and others, as well as many famous figures who influenced modern times, such as Yan Fu.

At this time, Zuo Zongtang, the boss of their Hunan army, was still recruiting with the Russians in Xinjiang, and these veterans who were not suitable for continuing to fight were arranged to find an errand in Fuzhou Mansion, and they had more contact with the students of the school, so they naturally knew the weight of studying abroad.

The officer looked Qin Kai up and down, and saw that his complexion was slightly dark, his attitude was neither arrogant nor humble, and he was dressed very decently, so he nodded and said, "Oh...... Then you come with me, but I heard from the adults that this time we are recruiting Western teachers, so let's try it! ”

"Thank you!" Seeing that the knock was successful, Qin Kai immediately followed the officer into the door, and as soon as he turned the door, he arrived at the door of a room next to him, and the officer knocked on the door, and then motioned for him to enter.

Entering the room, it was unexpectedly spacious, with a long table that was seven or eight meters long and two meters wide, in addition to a fat-headed and big-eared Qing Dynasty official, there were four Westerners sitting on the other side, and the strange eyes of the five people were focused on Qin Kai who came in at this time.

The Mawei Ship Master School is divided into two schools, the front hall and the back hall, and the former school is the manufacturing school, also known as the "French school". It is to cultivate shipbuilding and design talents, and the top students were sent to France for further study. The latter school is the driving school, also known as the "English school". It aims to train pilots and naval captains at sea, with the main major being piloting, and similarly, top students have the opportunity to study in the UK.

The fat official seemed to be in charge here, and his thick eyelids seemed to be raised very hard, and after looking at it twice, he immediately returned to that drowsy appearance: "You are from there, what are you doing here?" ”

"My lord, my name is Qin Kai, I am a student who has returned from overseas, and I have come to apply for the position of instructor here, I am proficient in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and I also have a dabbling in machinery." Qin Kai bowed and replied, and at the same time greeted the four Westerners next to him in very fluent English and French, and briefly introduced himself.

The four foreigners were very surprised by Qin Kai's fluent English and French speaking, these four British and French instructors were all hired from French and British research institutes and colleges with high salaries, and some of the schools were military instructors with certain official backgrounds recruited by the British and French compradors in the two countries, and of course there were many skilled blacksmiths, carpenters and mechanics.

These instructors enjoy generous benefits, with a salary of up to 1,000 taels of silver per month, which is nearly twice as high as that of Shen Baozhen, the Minister of Shipping of Fujian, and the minimum of 200 taels of silver for newly hired instructors, and the only requirement for the contract signed with a high salary is to teach and package the club, which can be said to be a bloody investment.

You know, the price of this era is very low, a tael of silver can be exchanged for huàn 1.4 silver dollars, the corrupt court of this era even lost the right to mint money, the circulation of silver dollars are from foreign banks, and this era of high-quality white rice and an old stone, Yue He modern 177 city catties, as long as the silver dollar 2.7-2.8 silver dollars, that is, a tael of silver can buy 90 catties of rice, converted to the present, with the current purchasing power, can be close to 200 yuan RMB.

The chubby official was also a little surprised by Qin Kai's appearance, after all, those who can understand Western languages in this era are not very unusual, and the students enrolled in the Mawei Ship Master Academy have basic requirements for English and French, but they are proficient in several foreign languages, and they also have the ability to apply for the position of instructor, which is absolutely rare, but ......

"Qin Kai, can there be an acquaintance in Fuzhou Mansion as a guarantee?" The fat man asked quietly.

This obviously stumped him, and after thinking about it, Qin Kai said: "I just returned from overseas, and I don't have any acquaintances in Fuzhou Mansion. ”

"It turned out to be a Bai Ding with no background, and I also want to come here to intervene," the fat man laughed at Qin Kai fiercely in his heart, and his tone of voice was a little higher, and his eyelids rolled, "I don't care where you come back from, we only recruit Western junior teachers to assist the foreign instructors here, you don't meet the recruitment conditions, go quickly, I'm very busy!" ”

Several Westerners obviously understood Chinese, and the expressions on their faces were different, obviously quite strange about the fat man's remarks, but for this matter that had nothing to do with them, they didn't have the slightest intention of expressing their opinions, and immediately regarded Qin Kai as an air-like store, turned around and sat around and continued to drink coffee, chatting.

Hearing this fat man's illogical answer, Qin Kai was naturally extremely angry in his heart, but he naturally understood that this was not the time to deal with this kind of villain, although he didn't understand the reason why this fat man made things difficult for himself, but obviously, the door here had been closed to him.

Raising his eyes and looking at the fat man's drowsy appearance, he naturally wanted to go up and slap this garbage in his heart, but Qin Kai was naturally not so stupid and arched his hand slightly, and turned around and walked out of this room.

);