Against the north wind, the steamer "Yuexiu" sailed all the way to Shanghai along the shipping routes of Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang, and Zhang Zhidong, who had always hated the boring entertainment of officialdom, naturally did not get off the ship along the way, not to mention that there were few people in the officialdom who could be worth talking about in his eyes now, so the kind invitations and boarding visits of local officials at all levels along the way were all rejected by him, and even Bian Baodi, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, did not give face. When the boat arrived at the mouth of the Minjiang River, Fuzhou Mansion was close at hand, and he neither went ashore to go to the city to see Bian, nor did he refuse Bian's kindness to come on the boat to see him.

Zhang Zhidong's behavior is rare in official places. Some people say that he is not close to people, some say that he is noble, and some say that he is proud, but he turns a deaf ear and does his own thing. Zhao Fengchang and a group of staff around him persuaded him not to be so stubborn, such as the governor of Shanghai, Zhejiang, and the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, these officials have important status and old qualifications, so they might as well meet and talk, there are only benefits and no disadvantages. But Zhang Zhidong sneered: "What kind of status is important, the qualifications are old, they are all corpse vegetarians!" ”

For this qiē, Tang Haoran, who had already entered the Zhangzhidong Shogunate, naturally had heard of it, but for him, the official affairs naturally did not require him to get involved, not to mention that he had no time to get involved in this matter.

He didn't expect the task given to him by Zhang Zhidong, but it was for him to write down his feelings and understandings after traveling in Europe and the United States for 20 years, so as to introduce the West to the Chinese people.

From that day on, Tang Haoran closed the door in the cabin and began to write the book, the title of which is naturally called "The Rise of a Great Power", which is when writing the rise of a great power according to his memory, Tang Haoran suddenly recalled the special features of China in this period of history.

At this time, the Manchu Dynasty was in the midst of changes unseen in 3,000 years, and the central empire was unprecedentedly linked to the world situation. After the end of the Sino-French War four years ago, people all over the country also vaguely realized that they needed to change, otherwise the great powers of various countries would fight in turn. So the whole country has a consensus on the big foreign affairs, this is why Zhang Zhidong served as the governor of Huguang and supervised the affairs of the north-south railway, although Zhang Zhidong was a figure who was raised by Cixi to resist the forces of the Hunan army and the Huai army, of course, this is the balance of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and wants to use Zhang Zhidong to set up foreign affairs to counter the situation of Li Hongzhang and others leading foreign affairs, but on the other hand, now even the stubborn conservatives who have dominated the imperial court are also in favor of running foreign affairs, and Zhang Zhidong is one of the representatives, and at the same time also advocates understanding the West.

Why others are strong and prosperous, and why "I am in the Qing Dynasty" are always beaten and paid compensation, has long been a question that scholars and doctors have been puzzled by in the past few decades. Some people close their eyes and become ostriches, still immersed in the dream of the Central Empire, but many more want to open their eyes to see the world. Find out what's really changed in the world.

During the Meiji Restoration, Japan had figures like Yukichi Fukuzawa. With the experience of traveling in Europe and the United States for ten years, he wrote the book "Western Affairs" to introduce the West to China. It was through the books written by Kido Takayoshi, Okubo Ritsu, and Ito Hirobumi that the Meiji Restoration scholars understood the West, learned from the West, and then revolutionized domestic affairs. Policies such as national education were basically copied directly from Western events.

On the other hand, the "I Daqing" of this meeting has been holding Wei Yuan's "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" for decades, which not only involves some skins of the West, probably things like strong ships and guns, but more importantly, there are many fallacies. In the most critical two decades of the late 19th century, China did not have a single book that systematically introduced and studied the West!

Even if there is five years of Tongzhi, the envoy to the Taixi Zhuguo Bin Chun, will travel to the west to see the book "Ride the Notes", and then published in the Beijing Division, although it is more inclined to hunt for curiosity, and the perception of the West is all superficial, but it is also a time to spread the view of the country, copy the words of Xiangyang, suddenly for the paper expensive.

For example, the scholar class headed by Zhang Zhidong and Li Hongzhang does not need this kind of book, otherwise there will be no Luoyang paper of "Notes on Investigation". The ruling class of this society also desperately needs capable people who are familiar with foreign affairs, and as a result, they can use either translators who can only understand foreign languages trained by the Translation and Book Bureau, or a few young children who studied in the United States back then. It is difficult to talk about understanding the internal situation of the countries of the world at that time. As early as more than ten years ago, Li Hongzhang and Shen Baozhen each paid 3,000 taels of silver, a total of 6,000 taels of silver as Wu Tingfang's annual salary.

And now, Zhang Zhidong has asked himself to write a book of what he has heard and seen in Europe, why is this? Do you want to borrow your own books to let domestic officials and scholars have a comprehensive understanding of the West? Understand why the West is strong?

Naturally, in fact, Tang Haoran, who has never traveled to European countries, can not write a book that comprehensively introduces the economic, political, and cultural history of Western countries, and it is impossible to analyze the national system and politics of Western countries. It lies in education, and others can also get a glimpse of the powerful roots of the West from the book.

What he wants to do now is to turn the original very complex and simplistic into a simple historical story, so that people can understand the history and culture of the Western powers more intuitively, and more importantly, see their rise road.

So without any suspense, Tang Haoran chose to plagiarize the later "The Rise of Great Powers", and took Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States, Russia, and even Japan and the Ottoman Empire as the protagonists of "The Rise of Great Powers".

Although the book "The Rise of Great Powers" that he had read in the process of writing was very clear in Tang Haoran's mind, but when he wrote, Tang Haoran still added a lot of things, and when telling the rise of various countries, he also introduced the political, economic, educational, military, diplomatic strategy, etc. of the world's major powers at that time, and introduced them one by one in the process of change. But it has already introduced many other aspects of content.

In the second-class cabin of the "Yuexiu" on the subsequent voyage, Tang Haoran kept writing every day except for eating, as for where the ship went, what scenery outside the ship, and whether it was about to arrive in Shanghai, he didn't notice, and Gu Hongming, who was polishing his pen, was also busy, and he had to polish the content of his writing every day.

When the boat sailed into the mouth of the Yangtze River and was about to end this long voyage, when Zhang Zhidong put down the Huguang Dizhi in his hand in the cabin, he glanced around the cabin, but as if something was missing, he asked Zhao Fengchang on the side.

"What are you busy with these days? Looks like I haven't seen him in a few days? ”

For several days, Zhang Zhidong, who has never seen visitors, has been obsessed with books about Hubei and Hunan provinces. From the historical evolution to the establishment of the modern era, from the cultural source to the customs and products, from the major events and celebrities of Jianghan and Jingxiang in the past to the ups and downs of Huxiang characters in the late period, he has them all in his chest. In his opinion, these provincial conditions are far more important than insincere polite words and courteous hospitality. The only interruption was when he learned the obituary of Peng Yulin's death in Hengyang, he was sad for half a day, and wrote a letter of condolence to the relatives of the old general. It was precisely because he was too addicted that he forgot what he told Gu Hongming to do.

"Xiang Shuai, didn't you ask Tang Sheng to polish the manuscript written by Tang Ziran, the two of them have barely left the cabin in the past few days, writing the manuscript in the cabin."

Zhao Fengchang's answer reminded Zhang Zhidong of his earlier instructions, and when he thought of the long talk with Tang Ziran that day, he immediately became interested.

"How is Ziran's writing? Quick, please Ziran ......"

When the words came to his mouth, Zhang Zhidong changed his words again.

"Please come over and show me the manuscript that Ziran has written!"

The reason why Tang Haoran wrote his travels in the West into a book is not only because Zhang Zhidong was eager to understand the West, but also because there were a few people in the entire Qing Dynasty who did not want to understand the West, and in recent years, he has been able to tell the history, culture, politics, military, science and technology of Western countries in simple terms like Tang Haoran.

In just a moment, Gu Hongming, who had been instructed, held a thick stack of polished manuscripts and walked happily from the second-class cabin where he lived to the first-class cabin.

"Xiangshuai, even if you don't call me, I will come to you, take a look! This is the manuscript of Ziran's book."

Gu Hongming said loudly to Zhang Zhidong, who was lying on the soft leather sofa in civilian clothes, his expression seemed very excited, and his face was ruddy, and he even looked a little excited.

Zhang Zhidong put down the "Jingzhou Mansion Chronicles" in his hand, and saw Gu Hongming like this, although he was also full of expectations for Tang Ziran's book, he pressed the curiosity in his heart.

"Oh, what a nice look, let me see it too."

"Xiang Shuai, look at this."

Gu Hongming handed over the manuscript in his hand.

"In the past few days, Ziran has been writing all day long, and now he has written Portuguese chapters, Spanish chapters, English chapters, French chapters, and Russian chapters, which is really an unprecedented book!"

Gu Hongming's words made Zhang Zhidong's curiosity even stronger, he took the book and looked at it, and saw that the book was written with a foreign pen, and he immediately felt a little unhappy in his heart.

"If it is written by the people, how can it be written in foreign languages?"

Seeing this, Gu Hongming hurriedly said.

"Xiang Shuai is angry, so I use a foreign pen to write, but I write too fast, 40,000 or 50,000 words a day, I can only use a foreign pen to polish it, so that Xiang Shuai can see. But ......" Gu Hongming suddenly smiled again,

"Ziran's article is okay, although most of it is vernacular, but there are too many typos!"

"There are a lot of typos, oh, this is inevitable, after all, he grew up in the West, and it is not easy to learn Chinese characters."

Zhang Zhidong nodded in response, but was immediately attracted by what was written on the paper.

(In the release of the new book, ask for support, ask for collection, ask for recommendation!) ）

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