At the end of the negotiations with Ito Hirobumi on the same day, Li Hongzhang talked to Song Xiaofei about the Huai Army's artillery is now too weak, and he is ready to select seven people from the outstanding cadets of the Army Officer Academy to study in the artillery specialty of the Army Academy in Berlin, Germany, and ask him if he has any suitable students, Song Xiaofei first thought of Duan Qirui in his mind and recommended it to Li Hongzhang: "Speaking of which, he is still a little fellow of his mentor, and his grandfather Duan Pei also served in the Huai Army."

Li Hongzhang said: "Oh, there are still such students in the Army Academy, and they should be trained well. ”

Song Xiaofei said: "Last time he listened to his teacher's speech in the Army Officer Academy, he admired him very much, and he has been asking students to find opportunities to introduce them to his teacher. He is a bit interesting, he doesn't do six things in his life: don't smoke, don't drink, don't call a game, don't gamble, don't embezzle, don't take advantage, the students thought he was talking about fun at first, but then after getting along for a long time, they found that he was really like this. ”

When Li Hongzhang heard this, he remembered his teacher Zeng Guofan's "moral self-cultivation" that he always emphasized back then, and said with emotion: "This person is a little interesting, if Wen Zhenggong is still here, he will definitely like it, and the old man can see it." ”

At that time, the best restaurant in Tianjin Wei was Wangchun Building, and Song Xiaofei took the opportunity to say: "It's better to change it, or tonight, the students will book a place in Wangchun Building and wait for the teacher's visit." ”

Li Hongzhang said: "Today, I am talking about myself, you say that Ito Hirofumi is silent, and you are happy to be a teacher, so let's see you." ”

Wangchun Tower is a three-storey traditional attic, because of the higher terrain, the upstairs can put the spring of Tianjin City. The color is in full view, hence the name. Song Xiaofei and Duan Qirui took a carriage in the afternoon, and arrived at the door early, the aragonite stone of this building is the wall, the cloud screen paints the door, and the pavilion hangs three big red lanterns, which are respectively pasted with the words "Wang", "Spring" and "Lou". They asked for a private room, in which there was an ancient ding, a high-necked blue and white porcelain vase, a bronze mirror, a square table in the center, eight chairs on both sides, and four coffee tables.

Song Xiaofei wrote a menu for the guys in the store and prescribed more than a dozen dishes: roasted anchovies, Dingwan mutton, stewed beef tenderloin, kingfisher chicken, turtle asparagus, lettuce English legs, braised pig's feet, Bailang pudding, clear beef soup, swallow vegetable pigeon egg soup, etc., and also asked for a pot of Lu'an melon tea, four kinds of sake, and Gali egg rice.

Duan Qirui looked at it and said that there were only five people, would it be too wasteful to order so many things?

Song Xiaofei knew that Duan Qirui's education was not much, and he had to support his family, so he was afraid of spending more money, so he said: "Don't worry, I have a treat for this meal, if you can't finish the rest of the food, you can take it back to open meat for your younger brothers and sisters, I heard Qifu say that your family only eats meat for two or three months, and your younger brothers and sisters are all growing up, so it's not good, if you are short of money, just like Feng Guozhang to learn, just tell your brother, don't be embarrassed to speak." ”

At that time, Song Xiaofei had already helped Duan Qirui take his fourteen-year-old eldest sister Duan Qiying, twelve-year-old second brother Duan Qifu, and eleven-year-old younger brother Duan Qixun to Tianjin, arranged a place to live, and often went to see them to know their family's situation.

Duan Qirui then understood why Song Xiaofei ordered so many dishes, and he was so moved that he didn't know what to do, and even said: "Brother Da Ende, Zhiquan is unforgettable." ”

Li Hongzhang wore a robe and a horse coat that night, and traveled in plain clothes, only bringing two attendants, and did not sound the gong to open the way, he took a carriage to Yichun Tower. The two carriages looked similar from the outside, one in front of the other and one in front of the door, Takezoe Jinichiro took eight people called Ben Ronin, disguised as Chinese traders, to a Fulai inn opposite Wangchun Tower, asked for a room on the second floor facing the street, waiting for an opportunity to move.

Tianjin belongs to the territory of Zhili, after being opened as a treaty port in the Xianfeng period, it is the second largest industrial and commercial city in China at that time and the largest financial and commercial center in the north, Britain, France, etc. have set up concessions in Tianjin, many of Li Hongzhang's foreign enterprises are located in Tianjin, railways, telegraphs, telephones, postal services, mining are involved, relatively prosperous, there are many officers and soldiers patrolling the city with muskets on the streets, and the words of shooting are bound to attract their attention, plus the samurai were accustomed to using knives at that time, so Zhu Tian and a few people planned to fly back to Song Xiaofei on the way, assassinate him.

When Duan Qirui saw Li Hongzhang, he was still wearing the clothes of a cadet of the military academy, and he had been standing in the room, his waist was straight, and his head was sweating, looking very restrained, but Li Hongzhang was easy-going and let him sit down. Duan Qirui talked about some of his own experiences, only then relaxed a little, and talked about the truth, Li Hongzhang was quite satisfied, remembered him, and had the heart to send him to study, and said: "The rise of China in the future will depend on you descendants." ”

Unconsciously arrived at Hai, it was late, the night was thick, Li Hongzhang and Song Xiaofei and others went back to their homes, originally the two carriages were in opposite directions, and then Li Hongzhang remembered the negotiation on the Ryukyu issue, and had to explain Song Xiaofei to do two things, did not take a few steps, then asked the coachman to turn the horse's head, to chase Song Xiaofei's carriage, just turned a corner to a junction, was blocked by a group of black-clothed and masked gangsters.

Zhu Tian and the eight ronins were all dressed in black and masked, mistakenly thinking that Li Hongzhang's carriage was Song Xiaofei's carriage. The cold wind was blowing, in the dark night, he couldn't see his five fingers, one of the yellow horses in Li Hongzhang's carriage was a man who rushed forward, and cut the horse's leg with a katana, the samurai sword has always been known for its sharpness, and it can even cut off the barrel of a heavy machine gun without any damage to itself.

Li Hongzhang's two attendants hurriedly jumped out of the carriage, pulled out the Mauser gun, and fired two shots "bang", hitting the chest of the ronin who cut off the horse's leg, and the ronin who was shot was shot and fell to the ground bleeding, and then was dragged away by his companions, the knife and gun were eyeless, and the two sides entered a stalemate for a while.

At this time, Song Xiaofei and Duan Qirui heard gunshots at the intersection in front of them, and quickly turned their horses' heads, wanting to run back to see what was going on. As soon as the carriage had taken a few steps, a dozen black-clad masked men appeared on the street, blocking their way, and one of the leading men in black, riding a white horse and holding a large knife overflowing with cold light, cut off the wheels of the carriage with one sword.

Song Xiaofei and Duan Qirui jumped out of the carriage, took out a revolver and raised the gun to shoot, Duan Qirui's "bang" shot hit an accomplice next to the man in black, and Song Xiao flew to the intersection in front of him and ran wildly, the two ran backwards while shooting, and the gang of men in black chased after him.

When Song Xiaofei and Duan Qirui ran to the place where Li Hongzhang had an accident, Li Hongzhang was standing behind the carriage, escorted by two attendants, in a stalemate with six or seven people with sharp katanas. Song Xiaofei and Duan Qirui arrived, and when they saw that Li Hongzhang was in danger, they hurriedly raised their guns to shoot, and two warriors were shot and fell to the ground, bleeding profusely.

At this time, Takezoe Jinichiro realized that he had made the wrong object, and seeing that Song Xiaofei and the other four people's firearms were very fierce, he had no intention of fighting again, and thought about retreating, and a group of ronins surrounded him and retreated together. At this time, another group of black-clothed masked people who attacked Song Xiaofei also arrived at the scene, just blocking his way, Zhu Tian thought that this group of masked people was Song Xiaofei's people, Song Xiaofei had already taken precautions, and quickly let the black-clothed ronin kill a bloody way, and the two groups of black-clothed people couldn't help but say that they actually killed. Later black-clothed assassins mostly used knives and darts, and at first glance they were Chinese.

Song Xiaofei watched the two groups of assassins fighting desperately, inexplicable, but he didn't think too much, the most urgent task at the moment was to protect Li Hongzhang, Song Xiaofei and Duan Qirui, as well as Li Hongzhang's two guards, holding guns around the Chengren Wall, protecting Li Hongzhang in the middle, sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight, watching the two groups of assassins fight each other.