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Receiving the gift of the four-wheeled vehicle invented by Ford, Song Xiaofei's mind burst out with a spark of inspiration, and he secretly thought to himself, "The Chinese first invented gunpowder in ancient times, but it was only used to make firecrackers and fireworks, and now the Americans invented the car, we Chinese transformed it into a tank, and the historical tank was not made by the British until World War I, if China can develop a tank in 1897 and form a tank corps, the future Asian army battlefield will definitely be the world of the Chinese!" ”

So, in the VIP conference room of the Presidential Palace, President Song Xiaofei smiled and talked to the 24th President of the United States, Grover. Cleveland also held a friendly discussion to discuss Sino-US cooperation in building an automobile plant.

Through the translation, Cleveland made clear to Song Xiaofei the diplomatic position of the United States: after the outbreak of the financial crisis caused by the railroad investment bubble in 1893, American diplomacy gradually turned to "dollar diplomacy", Cleveland told Song Xiaofei: "The United States government has a responsibility to use all resources to win business opportunities for American entrepreneurs, manufacturers, contractors, and bankers, and the expansion of the United States into Panama and the Caribbean, and the establishment of new settlements in the Pacific, are also motivated by the need to find new markets." ”

When Song Xiaofei heard this, this was obviously a defense of the expansion of the United States, but compared with other Western countries, such as Germany and the United Kingdom, the United States has no colonies in China, and the Americans are very active in building new hospitals, schools, and factories in China, which is worth interacting with, so Song Xiaofei did not debunk Cleveland's lies, but echoed them: "In the past, China was based on agriculture and emphasized agriculture and suppressed business. So the industry is backward, but now it is completely different. The cabinet government headed by Premier Sheng Xuanhuai has formulated a series of policies to stimulate business development, China's stamp duty rate is now the lowest in the world, and China is very welcome for American entrepreneurs to invest in China. In fact, the Chinese government plans to build a 7,000-mile railway in five years. There are already a thousand miles that American businessmen have invested. I like the four-wheeled car you gave me, China and the United States can cooperate, American four-wheeled vehicle companies can invest in Tianjin, China, and China can give the greatest preferential treatment in terms of land and taxes, and the Chinese government can place an order first to buy 500 four-wheeled vehicles. There is an old Chinese saying. There are quite a few businessmen in China who have become rich now, and as long as I, the president and government officials, go to work in a four-wheeled car, the Chinese businessmen will certainly be interested in this four-wheeled car. ”

Because of the economic crisis, Cleveland's popular support in the United States has been declining, and he nodded happily when he heard Song Xiaofei solve the order for 500 cars as soon as he opened his mouth. "Your Excellency the President is so supportive of four-wheeled vehicles, I believe that there will be no problem in selling 1,000 cars a year in China in the future, and I will immediately send someone to inform the American car merchants. Went to Tianjin and China to build a factory. ”

Song Xiaofei said that the cooperation was pleasant, and he also introduced Cleveland to Cleveland the changes that have taken place in China since the Republican New Deal: "In the past, there were very few Western-style houses in Beijing, there were no police on duty on the streets of Beijing, torture was very common in prisons, and many of them used medieval torture. Right now. With barbaric and backward punishments abolished in prison, you can stay in the new-style hotel in Wangfujing, follow the wide gravel streets, take a horse-drawn carriage ride to the Summer Palace, and the streets are full of uniformed police officers to maintain order, and you will feel safer in Beijing than in New York. Now all kinds of newspapers can be bought on the streets of Beijing, new schools are being established every day, and the attitude of the Chinese towards foreigners has changed radically, and there will be no more xenophobic acts of fist chaos. The status of women had also been greatly improved, with the establishment of their own party, the Women's Party, and the establishment of their own newspapers. ”

Cleveland nodded, "The White House presidential adviser told me that the biggest changes that have taken place in China are the establishment of a policing system across the country, as well as the emancipation of women, and these changes are really surprising. ”

Song Xiaofei also took the opportunity to ask Cleveland about democracy, saying: "Your Excellency the President just said that the U.S. government pursues 'dollar diplomacy' and that the U.S. government serves American entrepreneurs, manufacturers, contractors and bankers everywhere, is that still a democracy?" Isn't this for the capitalists? Isn't it democracy for the few? How could the common people agree? ”

Cleveland said with a smile: "In any country, the government is in the hands of a few, and the same is true of the United States, which pursues democracy. In the United States, if the ruling party does not work for the benefit of the people, only looks out for its own selfish interests, or is corrupt**, voters will vote with their feet and elect them out of office. A businessman is a person who tries to provide products and services to the people, and the government serves the businessmen, that is, indirectly serves the people, how can there be people who are dissatisfied? ”

Song Xiaofei laughed and said, "Most of us Chinese think that 'no business is not adulterous', it seems that this traditional concept has to be changed." However, there are indeed many profiteers in society, who manufacture and sell counterfeit and shoddy goods. What does the United States do with such profiteers? ”

"That's going to require government regulation and Congress enacting laws to punish these profiteers," Cleveland said. However, I have heard that this year's currency reform in China has shot some businessmen who are unwilling to cooperate, is it true? ”

Song Xiaofei did not deny it, and said: "There is such a thing, but it is also forced by the situation, so I have to do it as a last resort." ”

Cleveland sighed and said, "It seems that the Chinese still lack the spirit of democracy." ”

Song Xiaofei said: "No, the democracy mentioned by His Excellency the President is still a little different from the democracy that we Chinese understand; the spirit of the Chinese people, since the time of Confucius and Meng, has had the spirit of democracy, 'the people are precious, the monarch is light', China's villages and towns below the county level are self-governing, and some villages have not had a village chief for forty or fifty years." China is the country with the most democratic traditions, and by passing the national examination, even the children of the poorest families can obtain the most prestigious positions in the country, such as President Li Hongzhang. However, in a big country like China, democratic reform must be slow, and a stable environment is needed. In fact, most people only care about supporting their families, and they don't care what kind of government there is, as long as the government doesn't oppress the people. So I raised the salaries of most of the civil servants, but now they only get half of them, and they need to make no mistakes and they can only get the other half when they retire, and that's what I learned from your U.S. government. ”

"It's a great way to reduce the number of officials," Cleveland said. I did not expect that the face of China has changed so much, and if the United States and China cooperate well, these two republics will surely become the world's two first-class powers in the future. During my visit, I also brought a gift to the Chinese, that is, the United States repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act. Song Xiaofei welcomed this.

After meeting Cleveland, Song Xiaofei immediately summoned Tan Sitong from Tianjin at the presidential palace. Although Tan Sitong has been following Song Xiaofei since he was in Shandong, he did not hold an important position in the government department, and Song Xiaofei arranged an unremarkable position for him: director of the China ** Machinery Manufacturing Bureau.

In 1895, Song Xiaofei merged China's three largest military enterprises, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau, and Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, and newly established the Zhongyi Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, and eliminated all the original bureaucrats, leaving only 5,000 technical personnel and skilled workers who returned from studying abroad, as well as technical consultants hired from Germany and other countries, all of which were handed over to Tan Sitong, specializing in research and development, and transforming foreign guns and artillery.

After Tan Sitong took office, with the support and guidance of Song Xiaofei, he also severely punished more than a dozen corrupt managers, including Li Hongzhang's nephew Zhang Shiyan, who served as the quartermaster procurement officer of the Ordnance Bureau, and received a kickback of 50,000 yuan from Japanese businessmen when purchasing ammunition, and the gunpowder content bought was obviously insufficient. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment before a special military court.

Punished Zhang Shiyan, Tan Sitong established authority, improve the status of technical personnel, one year, on the transformation of the German Mauser rifle, named "Tianlong gun", the newly transformed "Tianlong rifle" using spiral rifling, metal shell fixed gun bullets, the use of smokeless gunpowder, the warhead is armor type, improve the strength of the warhead, by the shooter to operate the bolt handle, to achieve unlocking, shelling, loading and locking, the warhead compartment can hold eight bullets, a load, multiple shots, almost no muzzle flame and white smoke, And switched to 7.7 mm caliber bullets to solve the shortcomings of the Mauser gun's lack of lethal power, and with a half-meter-long single-edged bayonet, it is one generation better than the performance of Japan's Type 38 rifle, two generations more advanced than Zhang Zhidong's "Hanyang-made", and has an annual output of 60,000 pieces, and also produced 20 800-pound breech-loading cannons and 40-pound all-steel fast guns.

After listening to these reports, Song Xiaofei was very satisfied, and he said to Tan Sitong: "It is necessary to imitate and improve foreign guns and foreign cannons now, and 60,000 Tianlong rifles will be distributed to the new army stationed in the capital and Zhili immediately after the year. I am now going to give you a groundbreaking task, which can only be secretly developed by the Chinese, do you have reliable engineers under you, preferably mechanically and artillery. ”

Tan Sitong thought for a while and said: "There is a person, do you think it is appropriate for the president, his name is Dai Xiaohou, a native of Renhe, Zhejiang, born in a family of weapons manufacturers, and his ancestor was Dai Zi, a famous machinery and weapons manufacturer during the Kangxi period, who once created the 'Lianzhu Fire Gun' and 'Mother and Child Cannon'. Dai Xiaohou has been brilliant since childhood, he fell in love with mechanical manufacturing when he was a teenager, he had made a variety of firearms, which could hit targets beyond 100 steps, and studied mining and metallurgy at Princeton University in New Jersey in the early years, and later went to Germany to study machinery manufacturing and blasting technology, and after returning to China, he participated in the development of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau's 800-pound breech-loading cannon and 40-pound all-steel gun. ”

Song Xiaofei asked, "How old is he?" ”

Tan Sitong said: "Thirty years old. ”

When Song Xiaofei heard this, this was exactly the talent he needed, and said, "You will be lined up immediately, and I will meet him in person." ”

Tan Sitong said: "I'll go back to Tianjin immediately to arrange, what do you want us to develop and design?" ”

Song Xiaofei thought to himself, the tank didn't come out until World War I, and said with a smile: "I haven't thought of a name yet, maybe it's called a four-wheeled chariot!" ”