Autumn is getting stronger, and the north has shown a bit of gloom. The dead branches and fallen leaves that cover the streets add to the solemn atmosphere.

This is Beijing, the place where the crown is gathered, the place where the government decree comes out, and at the feet of the Son of Heaven, even the people walk with a bit of arrogance.

The weather is getting cooler, and the pedestrians on the street are decreasing, and occasionally a few acquaintances meet on the road, which is still the etiquette of the former Qing Dynasty. In a word, the old Beijing is still the old Beijing, and it has not fundamentally changed with the advent of the republican era.

The wonton stalls on the street still use the cloth flags of the former Qing Dynasty, but some of the exquisite stall owners write the four words "iron-blooded republic" on the cloth flags, which are exactly the same as the four words on the battle flag of the ** army, and the picture is just to attract more business. As a result, the business of these wonton stalls is much better than that of other wonton stalls, so more and more wonton stall shopkeepers have also learned this hand, and this old Beijing wonton stall is contaminated with some of the atmosphere of the new era.

But not all diners will deliberately choose this kind of "republican ravioli" to try, especially for the kind of people who are not particular about eating and drinking, this cold day, drinking a bowl of hot wontons, just to warm the hands and feet, but also to warm this heart that does not know whether it is cold or hot, this year, can drink a bowl of hot wontons, it is already very satisfying.

As a person who doesn't pay much attention to eating and drinking, at this moment, Mr. Zhan Tianyou is sitting in front of a wonton stall without hanging the "iron-blooded republican flag", holding a bowl of hot wontons, and drinking happily, and several of his assistants sitting next to him are also holding a sea bowl and drinking hot wontons.

Zhan Tianyou, the word Chengcheng, was born in the eleventh year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty, that is, in 1861 AD, Nanhai County, Guangdong, but the ancestral home is Wuyuan County, Anhui Province, when the great-grandfather of the Zhan family moved south to Guangdong during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, and settled down in Nanhai County under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou. Great, grandfather, father three generations are all operating tea estate, is half business and half Confucian, well-off family, but when it came to Zhan Tianyou's father's generation, it encountered "five thousand years of unprecedented changes", the Opium War broke out, the country's "door" and "hole" opened, Zhan's tea house's business was also impacted, it could not continue, and the family road also declined, it was very difficult to support Zhan Tianyou to study, and he had no choice but to send him to the United States to study when Zhan Tianyou was eleven years old, so Zhan Tianyou was also lucky to become the first batch of publicly-funded students in China.

At that time, the Manchu Qing court felt that foreign ships were strong and strong, and were anxious to "master the skills of the master to control the country", so it openly recruited qualified teenagers to study in the United States in the coastal areas.

After arriving in the United States, Zhan Tianyou lived with Mr. Nosob, the principal of Wieshaven Waterfront Boys' School in Connecticut, where he was accompanied by Ouyang Geng, a Chinese student. The two Chinese teenagers lived there for six years, and even though the Chinese students moved to the International Students Office to live and manage the house, Zhan Tianyou and Ouyang Geng still lived in Mr. Nosob's house.

After completing preparatory school and senior school, Zhan Tianyou applied for the U.S. Naval Academy, but was rejected, and with the advice and encouragement of the Nosobs, Zhan Tianyou changed his mind and applied to Yale University's Department of Science and Engineering Civil Engineering, a decision that was of far-reaching significance both to him and to China.

After three years of hard study at Yale University, Zhan Tianyou graduated with honors and received a bachelor's degree in philosophy, he continued his studies in the United States, but because the Qing court found that the thinking of international students was too "deviant", it decided to terminate the study abroad plan, and ordered all international students to return to China immediately, Zhan Tianyou had to give up the plan for further study, and returned to China with Ouyang Geng with the international students, and at this time, they had left their hometown for almost ten years, and among all the international students who returned to China, These two were also the only ones with a college degree.

After returning to China, what awaits Zhan Tianyou is not fresh 'flowers' and applause, but discrimination and cold reception, even Li Hongzhang, the leader of the Western-style faction, is very dissatisfied with the behavior of the international students to cut off their braids, but the dissatisfaction is dissatisfied. The Westernists still need technical talents, so with a stroke of the pen, Zhan Tianyou, who studied railway engineering in the United States, went to the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau and became a ship pilot.

In the next seven years, Zhan Tianyou has not had anything to do with the railway, until 1888, in order to transport coal from the Kaiping Coal Mine to the Beiyang Military Port, the Qing court decided to extend the Tangxu Railway, build the railway from Lutai to Tianjin, and set up the China Railway Company in Tianjin, and appointed Wu Tingfang as the company manager.

From the Tangjin Railway to the Tanggu Railway, from the Tanggu Railway to the Guluan Railway, Zhan Tianyou's performance was very 'outstanding', and the construction of the Luanhe Railway Bridge made him famous, and the British Institution of Civil Engineers officially recruited him as a member.

But the decline of the state cannot be saved by individual strength, and the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War and the invasion of the Eight-Nation Coalition have made China even weaker, as a Chinese engineer. From 1895 to 1905, he only participated in or presided over the construction of a few sporadic railways, such as the Pingli Railway, the Guannai Railway, the Guanwai Railway, and the Xiling Railway, and the total length of these railways was only more than 900 kilometers, which was far from Zhan Tianyou's goal of becoming a railway power.

After the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, out of national defense needs, the Qing court decided to use the surplus profits of the Guanwai Railway to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, but because the surplus profits of the Guanwai Railway were deposited in the British HSBC Bank, the British minister asked the Qing court to hire British engineers in the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, but on the other hand, Russia signed a treaty with the Qing court under the pretext of signing a treaty. It was stipulated that the railway north of the Great Wall could not be built by a third country other than China and Russia, and that Russian engineers must be hired.

In order to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, Zhan Tianyou tried his best to "fine", but did not wait for the completion of the railway, "Wushen **" broke out, and the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Road project was immediately suspended.

It was not until Xu Shichang went into the field, Zhao Bei took over as the president of the Republic of China, the Jingzhang Road project was able to resume work, under the supervision of President Zhao, the Ministry of Finance completed the transfer of surplus profits from the railway inside and outside the customs with rare high efficiency, and now, the road repair funds are directly in charge of Zhan Tianyou, and the construction progress of the railway has naturally been greatly accelerated.

Originally, according to Zhan Tianyou's meaning, if the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is not fully opened, he will never cross the Great Wall to the south, but after all, he is an engineer and technician, not the head of state, when to transfer him back to Beijing to report on his work, this has to be decided by President Zhao, and now, Zhan Tianyou is going to Beijing to meet Zhao Bei, President of the Republic of China, and this is also the first time that the two have spoken face-to-face.

Now the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway has basically been completed, but the opening ceremony has not yet been held, this time Zhan Tianyou southbound Beijing. He rushed over by a train of engineering vehicles, this timetable is not available, all the way to stop and stop, even rushed to Beijing a few hours earlier than the scheduled time, but the people who picked them up at the station did not go, Zhan Tianyou had to take a few assistants to have breakfast in front of the wonton stall, and wait for those who came to pick them up, after all, to meet the president of the Republic of China is not to say to see them, this has to pay attention to a procedure.

Zhan Tianyou is eating wontons while studying a sketch of railway development, and as a Chinese engineering expert, he, like Zhao Bei, hopes to build railways to every corner of China as soon as possible.

Railway ambitions, not enough for outsiders either.

After eating the wontons, Zhan Tianyou instructed an assistant to buy a few newspapers, Zhangjiakou is not as good as the Guannei, where the news is blocked, all rely on the camel caravan to and outside the Guanxi to deliver the news, although there is a telegraph office, but the telegram required to send a telegram is expensive, Zhan Tianyou is reluctant, so, what has happened in the country these days, he is also half-understood, and now he is just looking through the newspaper to see what happened in the "Guangdong Incident" a few days ago.

Although he was not very interested in politics, Zhan Tianyou was still very worried about the situation in Guangdong, because according to the news in the newspapers, the "Guangdong Incident" was not only a matter of Long Jiguang's armed rebellion, but the key was that the "radical" forces of the League also participated in this incident, and more importantly, the press speculated that there was an international background behind the incident, and the "Pioneer Daily", as the central mouthpiece, pointed the mastermind behind the "Guangdong Incident" directly at the Japanese government.

Now China, as long as everything is involved with foreign forces, it is to cut and sort out and 'mess', Zhan Tianyou can't help but worry, what kind of thing is Japanese politics, he knows very well, as for the strong neighbor Tsarist Russia in the north, it is not a good thing, since the first time, Japan and Russia have been in the northeast and the 'door' ancient region to make small moves, although under the pressure of Britain and the United States, Japan and Russia do not dare to take direct action blatantly, but they are full of support. Even on the construction site of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, there are also ancient bandits roaring and coming, among which the Taoketao bandit gang is the most active, and the weapons equipped by the bandit horse team are also all 'color' Russian-made weapons.

In order to protect the safety of the engineering corps, the War Department had no choice but to send a cavalry regiment to be stationed in Zhangjiakou to deter them, and originally planned to send troops to the hinterland of the grassland to carry out a sweep, but due to the outbreak of the "Guangdong Incident," the War Department postponed the sweep plan, and the defense force of the Beijing-Zhangjialu Road has become relatively weak.

Even Zhan Tianyou returned to Beijing to report on his work this time, he also brought the guards, and Zhan Tianyou's briefcase also had a small pistol in it, which was borrowed from the cavalry regiment before leaving, so he was prepared, and now under this kind of 'chaos' situation, no one dares to be careless.

In fact, Zhan Tianyou very much hopes that the War Department will send the armored train to the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Road, but the War Department does not have that power, the armored train battalion is now under the direct command of the presidential palace, and if you want to mobilize the armored train battalion, you must directly request the president, so this time in Beijing, Zhan Tianyou is also ready to make conditions with the president, he wants the president to understand that the Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway is very important, if the defense is not strengthened, it is not good to say when the horse team of the 'gate' G bandits will cross the Great Wall and plunder Gyeonggi.

Zhan Tianyou doesn't know much about military affairs, but he at least understands that modern warfare is about sharp guns, and armored trains may be the best weapon to protect railway lines.

Just when Zhan Tianyou was pondering how to persuade the president to transfer the armored train to Beijing-Zhangjialu to protect the railway project, a four-wheeled carriage drove from the direction of the railway station, stopped in front of the wonton stall, and the car 'door' opened, and a person jumped inside, but it was Cai Tinggan.

Zhan Tianyou and Cai Tinggan are acquaintances, both of them not only worked under Li Hongzhang, but also served in Yuan Shikai's curtain, and more importantly, both of them were young students studying in the United States.

"Chengcheng, you came so fast, I rushed to the train station twenty minutes early, but when I inquired at the station, I found out that you were eating wontons here. I said, no matter how short the railway company is in silver, it will not lack money for this breakfast, right? Go, follow me to Quanjude, I invite you to eat roast duck, that is the old store that opened during the Tongzhi period, about the same age as you and me, when we went to the United States to stay abroad, Quanjude was already famous in Sijiu City. Cai Ting smiled dryly and pulled Zhan Tianyou up from the stool.

"Aren't you going to see the president?" Zhan Tianyou carried a briefcase and got into the carriage with one of his assistants, while the other assistants were ordered to return to the train station.

"No hurry, no hurry. Now the President is meeting with a few guests from the three eastern provinces, and I don't know when I will see you. Besides, the first place we want to go to is not the Presidential Palace, but the Rokkoku Hotel, but the food there is not authentic enough, so you will not be invited to eat there. Cai Tinggan said a few words and instructed the coachman to drive the car to the city.

"What are you going to do at the Six Nations Hotel? It's not on the agenda. Zhan Tianyou was a little strange.

"To meet a person, an American. I arranged it for you, the president doesn't know, you have to keep it a secret. "Cai Tinggan is a little mysterious.

"Americans? It can't be the Fengtian Consul Si Dade, right? You've been working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lately? Zhan Tianyou immediately remembered someone.

"Chengcheng, if you set up a stall to tell fortunes and measure words, I will definitely hold you. Yes, the person who wants to meet you at the Six Nations Hotel is Stade, but he is no longer a consul, but now he is the acting minister of the United States to China. Cai Tinggan nodded.

"Stade is the trade representative of Harriman, the American railroad tycoon, and he is a foreign 'diploma' official in China, just to build a railroad in China for the American consortium and seize the profits of the railway, this person is insatiable, I don't see him." Zhan Tianyou shook his head.