On a sweltering noon, there was a lot of noise in the locust trees outside the courtyard. Song Xiaofei lay down and took a nap, and had a dream in a daze, in which a modern girl was wearing a white dress, with bright eyes and bright teeth, and called "Xiaofei" softly, like a little fairy who went down to earth and walked towards him, he thought it was his first girlfriend Ouyang Xiaoxue at first, and when the two held hands and looked at each other with tears in their eyes, they realized that it was not. When he woke up, his "little monk" was high and energetic, Qiu Yi stood aside to fan him, he pulled Qiu Yi and asked him again, Qiu Yi looked shy, and refused: "Young master, in broad daylight, don't."

Song Xiaofei knocked her down and lightly covered her cherry mouth: "It's good for you to be quiet."

Qiu Yi half pushed and half pushed, the two gradually got better, and Qiu Yi shouted "I can't stand it"! Song Xiaofei was sweating profusely, flipped over and left, after ejaculating, there was a void in his heart, his eyes looked at the beams on the roof in a daze, and he didn't bother to drink water when he was thirsty.

In the evening, the silk clouds in the sky were dyed with golden glow, and there was a sound of moving boxes outside the door, and he went out in his pajamas to take a look, and the two gatehouses, one tall and one low, carried a large wooden box, which seemed to be very difficult, and there were four in the courtyard. He stepped forward to ask what was inside the box, the short porter put down the box, wiped the sweat beads on his forehead with his sleeve, bent down to say goodbye, and said to Song Xiaofei: "Back to the young master, this is the book sent to you by Teacher Rong of Rongfu." ”

"Rong Fu? Which Teacher Yung? Song Xiaofei was confused. He was puzzled when his uncle Yuan Baoheng accompanied a young girl towards him, and the girl was Rong Hong's only daughter, Rong Rong.

As soon as she saw Rong Rong, Song Xiaofei's eyes lit up, and her mood was much better, she was of medium stature, she looked about fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing a white Western round-brimmed top hat, a goose-egg-shaped baby face, a beauty the size of a grain of rice on the eyebrows of her left eye was just right, her tender eyes were as clear as a pool of tinkling spring water, the tight-fitting Western skirt outlined the plump lines of the waist just right, there were eight thumb-sized coral beads on the side of the skirt, and there was a silver sachet around her waist, she was younger and more attractive than the thirteenth aunt in the movie "Huang Feihong".

Yuan Baoheng saw that Song Xiaofei was unkempt and untidy, so he scolded angrily: "Comfort Pavilion, why don't you go to change your clothes to salute and meet the new teacher?" It's so rude when you meet for the first time, what kind of system does it become? Don't look at Rong Rong's young age, she is the daughter of Lord Rong Hong, with a belly of foreign ink, and she studied at a university in the United States......"

"Uncle Yuan, it's Columbia University. I am the same age as Prince Shikai, and I pay attention to the equality of everyone abroad, and there is no formality, so there is no need to salute. Rong Rong smiled. She smiled warmly, with a beautiful little dimple on her face, and her big round eyes were full of wit and wisdom, and her soft voice was like a wind chime in the hollow.

Yuan Baoheng stroked his beard and smiled: "Yes, Columbia University." Rong Rong is very knowledgeable, you have to learn from her humbly in the future. The box is full of books, which were brought to you by Mr. Rong, you can take a look first. ”

Song Xiaofei thought to himself, people who have eaten Western food and drunk foreign ink are open-minded, ancient girls generally stayed at home, Rong Rong was willing to come to be a teacher for herself, which also shows that the relationship between Yuan Rong and the two families is really good. Also, has Columbia produced beautiful women since ancient times? In the 21st century, it is also very popular, Leehom, Yundi, and his girlfriends are all from his brotherhood. He walked over to the box, bent over and pouted to open a box, which was full of books, many of them in foreign languages.

Rong Rong looked at Song Xiaofei's stunned expression, and said unhurriedly: "I like to collect books and read. These books, which I picked up during my travels in Europe, include astronomy, geography, politics, and Western theories such as the art of war, public international law, and ethics. A lot of it is the original. I have to teach my son some Western languages before you can understand them, starting with English. ”

Listening to Rong Rong's tone, she didn't only speak a foreign language, Song Xiaofei looked at her bulging chest with bad intentions, rolled his eyes and asked, "In addition to English, what else will you do?" ”

"German, French, Italian, Chinese."

Song Xiaofei touched the back of his head and expressed puzzlement: "Why do you know so many languages?" ”

"Actually, language is all the same. As long as you master grammar, it's easy to learn. The countries of the European continent communicate frequently and have similar languages. It's not surprising that Germans speak French and legal entities speak German. I learned it from a friend after returning to China. Rong Rong smiled, revealing her snow-white and neat teeth.

In the next seven or eight days, it was Rong Rong's turn to be stunned, she talked about some progressive views since the European Enlightenment, such as Rousseau's "social contract", Montesquieu's "legal spirit", and the United States' "natural human rights", etc., Song Xiaofei accepted them quickly and had his own opinions.

Rong Rong studied history, and she told Song Xiaofei about the French Emperor Napoleon, who conquered almost half of Europe and was a great hero in the eyes of the French people.

Song Xiaofei touched his chin and asked: "After the French Revolution, Napoleon abolished the French Republic, restored the feudal monarchy, and ascended the throne as an emperor, isn't this a historical regression?" ”

Rong Rong disagreed, retorted: "The Chinese mistakenly think that having an emperor is feudal [***], but in fact, Napoleon promulgated the "Republic Ten Year Constitution" in 1802, the "Civil Code" in 1804, and the "Commercial Code" in 1807, these codes have become the legal model of France and even Tessie (Western) countries today, and France is now strong, he has contributed a lot!" So the French considered Napoleon to be their national hero, and the Ctessi countries also gave Napoleon a very high evaluation, although he suffered a defeat at Waterloo in the end. A nation that cannot objectively and impartially evaluate historical figures will not have a future. ”

Rong Rong's analysis is reasonable and well-founded, which reminds Song Xiaofei of a historical problem, Yuan Shikai, known as China's Napoleon, was elected the first president of the Republic of China in a bloodless way in the great changes that China has not encountered in 3,000 years, and is also the democratically elected president of the first republic in Asia, why are the two so different in terms of historical evaluation? This historical question troubled Song Xiaofei, who asked Rong Rong, "Is there a problem with the constitutional monarchy?" ”

Rong Rong said: "Looking at the countries of Thailand today, Britain is a constitutional monarchy, Prussia Germany is a monarchy and militaristic system, the United States is a United States system, and France is a republic system. It can be seen that the constitutional monarchy is the most advanced system in the world today. ”

Song Xiaofei was silent, it seems that the historical question of Napoleon and Yuan Shikai's disparity in evaluation in later generations can only be answered after his own personal experience and understanding of the inside situation in the future.

Seeing that Rong Rong was not only beautiful, but also knowledgeable, Song Xiaofei gradually fell in love with her. "Love" has a kind of magic, in order to have a common language with Rong Rong, and in order to better deal with ministers from various countries in the future, Song Xiaofei studied hard, not only learned English, German, French, Yue and other Chinese, but also read a wide range of books, which greatly broadened his international vision.

Time flies, spring and summer have gone in a blink of an eye, autumn is coming, Song Xiao got up early and went to read under the old locust tree in the courtyard. The old locust tree has thick branches, the crown is more than ten zhang high, several adults can't hold it, the green shade is covered, the cool breeze has a surname, Song Xiaofei looked at the book, squinted his eyes after a while, and actually took a nap under the tree.

When Rong Rong arrived, the sun had already risen from the treetops. She saw Song Xiaofei napping under the tree, so she quietly walked to him and waited. She looked at Song Xiaofei from head to toe, after arriving in the capital, Yuan Xiaofei ate very well, eating big fish and meat, Song Xiaofei's size grew fast, he had grown more than one meter seven, and he had grown into a handsome young man who was down-to-earth and generous, with a strong and slender body, a ruddy complexion, an angular forehead, and a heavy breathing sound from his nose. Rong Rong accidentally saw a hair on Song Xiaofei's neck, so she gently reached out to take it. Before her hand reached out, the bird of a tree didn't know what to be frightened, and with a "boom" at the same time, it flew out of the locust tree, quacking, and woke Song Xiaofei up.

Rong Rong asked with concern, "Seeing that you study so hard this time, why don't you sleep more?" ”

"My uncle said that being educated may not necessarily be able to get ahead in the current officialdom, and he wants to take me to meet some uncles and build some relationships, and he may take me to meet Master Li Hongzhang recently. Recently, I lit up the lights and read at night, and in the morning I smelled the chickens and danced, and I didn't dare to slack off in the slightest. ”

It turned out that Yuan Baoheng saw that Song Xiaofei's knowledge was thousands of miles, so he took him to visit some colleagues from time to time to familiarize him with officialdom, and he even recommended Song Xiaofei to help in Li Hongzhang's mansion, so that he could be promoted to be an official in the future. This is the unspoken rule of the officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty, and the gangs of ordinary high-ranking officials are equivalent to the secretaries of the current leaders, and they are easy to be recommended as officials. Back then, Li Hongzhang entered the camp to help Zeng Guopan and became Zeng Guofan's staff, so that he was able to form the Huai Army and rise step by step.

Rong Rong said, "Your uncle is right. My father won't have a relationship, and now he has been repeatedly ostracized, not only the conservative Qing faction attacks him, but the Westernists don't have any friends, you should prepare well during this time, I won't bother you for the time being. ”

Song Xiaofei asked, "Do you have any suggestions?" ”

Rong Rong replied: "I heard that Master Li Hongzhang was born in regimental training, and he is interested in and accomplished in military affairs, and his Huai army is mostly trained in foreign weapons, and there are foreign gun teams and flowering artillery teams, and there are many people who use new weapons. Check out Clausewitz's Treatise on War, a classic of Tessie's modern military theory, which examines more than 130 wars and conquests in Europe between 1566 and 1815, as well as Robbins's 1783 Theory of the Profession of Artillery and Giebel's Introduction to Tactics. ”

Song Xiaofei nodded, admired Rong Rong so much, and sighed in her heart that if she was born in modern times, she would definitely be a female scholar!

Ten days later, at noon, Yuan Baoheng came back from the morning court, hurriedly pushed open Song Xiaofei's door, and said to him: "Lord Zhongtang wants to meet you alone, you change into new clothes, and the carriage of the Li Mansion is waiting outside the door." ”

"Huh? I'm going alone? ”

Yuan Baoheng said: "Well, this morning, Li Zhongtang and the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces discussed the matter of sending students from the Qing Kingdom to Taixi, Lord Zhongtang wanted to send a group of students to Germany to learn military skills of the army, and the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces nodded and agreed, I think he wants to inspect you, and if you have something to say, Lord Zhongtang does not like to beat around the bush." ”

Song Xiaofei's mood was very excited, he knew that at this time Li Hongzhang was already the humerus minister of Cixi and the Westernists, this was a rare opportunity, the fortress was the easiest to break through from the inside, to change the old system, the best way is to enter the system, if he can get Li Hongzhang's appreciation this time, life can take a lot of detours.