One day in May 1891, a small sedan chair stopped in front of the Governor's Mansion of Zhili in Tianjin, and a man in his sixties wearing a suit holding a civilized staff came out of the sedan chair, slammed the cane on the ground, raised his head to look at the golden plaque hanging on the Governor's Palace, shook his head slightly, and sighed softly.

By this time, the attendant who was with him had already handed a gilded prayer to the janitor of the Governor's Palace. The janitor opened the post, glanced at it, immediately closed it, and said to the man, "Mr. Yung, the Governor is waiting for you in the living room. Please come in. ”

The visitor who came to visit Li Hongzhang was none other than Rong Hong, who later became known as the father of Chinese students. Under his strong leadership, and Scrooge's arrangement, the Manchus sent more students to the United States than ever before. Tong, however, as in history, by 1881, because of the power struggle within the Manchus, the Manchus suddenly made the absurd decision to withdraw all their students, and by this time, most of them had not yet had time to complete their studies.

At this time, Scrooge did a very "inauthentic" thing to dig up the wall, and at his behest, some of the best of these international students were retained. Most of the reasons Scrooge's lawyers found for these people to stay were "political. Govern. Avoid. difficult".

This reason is particularly convenient to use, because in the eyes of the Americans, the Manchus were barbarians, and the barbarians engaged in politics. Govern. Urgent. Do you need a reason for something harmful? Moreover, the Manchu Qing Dynasty suddenly interrupted the agreed study abroad without any contractual spirit, which must have been due to political reasons. Therefore, after some international students return to the Qing Dynasty, they will be affected by the government. Govern. Urgent. Is there anything doubtful about this?

At the time, a certain newspaper was even very important for possible political . Govern. Urgent. Harm made this explanation:

"It is a well-known fact that men in the Qing Kingdom will have long braids. This custom is very different from that of the United States. And in the young. In the process of living in the United States, in order to better integrate into American society, they will of course adopt the same clothes and hairstyles as Americans. This posed a danger to them - Qing law provided for the brutal punishment of beheading anyone who did not wear braids. The Manchu government even slaughtered millions of unarmed civilians for this. Originally, the plan was for these students to start growing their hair one to two years before their scheduled return date, so that when they returned home, they would have a braid that would allow them to avoid the brutal and cruel law. But the Manchu government suddenly ordered them to return to China, which put them in sudden danger. According to well-informed sources, one of the reasons why the Manchu government ordered the recall of international students was that they wanted to punish those who dared to violate their laws abroad......"

Anyway, the public opinion of the entire Ohio is basically in the hands of Scrooge, and the government personnel in Ohio will not take the initiative to jump out and get along with the McDonald consortium. So, these apply for politics. Govern. Avoid. Almost immediately, the international students who were in difficulty were granted asylum in Ohio. As for the federal government, they will not make a fuss with Ohio for such a trivial matter, let alone offend a big conglomerate for such an inconsequential trivial matter.

Of course, there are so many young. Another reason why Tong students stayed in the United States is said to be this. It is said that Mr. Hikari Chen, who was in charge of communicating with the international students at the time of the MacDonald Foundation, is also said to have saved Scrooge's life, and said even more rebellious things to the students. He actually analyzed to those students that the Qing Empire was running out, and even if he stayed in the United States now and offended the Manchu government, he would be able to return to China in the future. In any case, the Manchu Qing Dynasty's control over the local government was already so weak that it was a mess, and by that time, the Manchu government probably had forgotten about it. He even went so far as to say: "Even if the Manchu government remembers, what is there to fear? You stay here, then apply for an American citizen, and after you finish your studies, you can swagger back and work for the motherland -- I'm talking about China, not the Manchus -- anyway, they have extraterritoriality, and the Manchus can't do anything to you. When you came, many people had dealings with our representative, Mr. Wang Qinian, in China, and Mr. Wang Qinian was a bandit, but if you see him going in and out of the Manchu Yamen, who would dare to arrest him? Not only did they not dare to arrest him, but they even had to stammering him many times......"

A large number of young. Tong did not return as ordered, but stayed in the United States to continue his studies. The MacDonald Consortium agreed to continue paying their tuition anyway, as long as they worked for the McDonald Consortium for a while after graduation. The Manchu government was slapped in the face, of course, extremely unhappy, but it did not dare to really trouble the Americans. I had to take out the anger of the people who pushed for this in the first place. Yung Hong is one of them.

Of course, Rong Hong has American nationality, so strictly speaking, the Manchus can't do anything to him. However, at that time, he was working in the Manchu yamen, receiving a Manchu salary. A group of "Qingliu" in the Manchu government naturally had the opportunity to pick their noses and eyes at him. As a result, in 1882, Rong Hong, who was extremely disappointed with the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the Westernization Movement, simply resigned and returned to the United States.

In the original history, Yung Honghui stayed in the United States until 1894, and after the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War, he once again contacted the country and returned to China to make desperate efforts to revitalize China. As a result, he was involved in the Wuxu Mutiny, and almost died in the coup d'état launched by Lafayette.

However, things have changed a bit in this era. More than two months ago, Wang Qinian, who had dealt with Rong Hong many times, suddenly found Rong Hong. So Rong Hong hurried to China.

Looking at the plaque of the Governor's Mansion in Zhili, Rong Hong remembered the meeting between Wang Qinian and him at that time.

At that time, Yung Wing was building a lawn in his yard. From afar, he saw a Volkswagen driving over, the car stopped outside his fence, Wang Qinian got out of the car, waved at him and shouted: "Mr. Rong, I have something to do with you." ”

Rong Hong stepped forward and opened the fence gate, and said to Wang Qinian with a little surprise: "Mr. Wang, why do you have time to come to me." Although Rong Hong and Wang Qinian know each other, they have never been friends. Wang Qinian, who originally worked in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, has always hated the Qing Dynasty government very much. Therefore, he is always cold to anyone related to the Qing Dynasty government, and from time to time he will deliberately find fault and embarrass people. Rong Hong was also sarcastically ridiculed by him back then. So the attitude towards him is not enthusiastic.

Mr. Wang Qinian said to Rong Hong with a dark face: "Let's go in and talk, something big is going to happen." ”

Rong Hong knew that although Wang Qinian's temper was disgusting, he was by no means a person who liked to talk nonsense and fool people. So I got out of the way and said, "All right, come in and talk to my room." ”

Entering the living room, Wang Qinian sat down on a chair, Rong Hong's wife was about to make him tea, but Wang Qinian said, "I don't need this." He turned his face to Rong Hong and said, "Mr. Rong, here is some information, you can take a look." It's quite a high level of confidentiality, you can only look at it, you can't make a record. ”

Rong Hong took the information and looked at it. The top piece of information is about the composition and performance of the warships of the Japanese naval fleet. This information makes a detailed comparison with the situation of the fleet of the Beiyang Navy. This comparison made Rong Hong feel a little shocking. In particular, in the column of firepower comparison, he was rather shocked to find that the weight of the shells fired by the Japanese fleet per unit time had exceeded that of the Beiyang Fleet by nearly ten times. It's simply ...... In Rong Hong's memory, the strength of the Beiyang Fleet should be obviously stronger than that of Japan, but how could it be like this now. So he asked Wang Qinian: "Is this information reliable?" ”

"Nonsense. These things are all publicly available information that can be collected casually. If you don't believe me, go and read the newspaper yourself. Wang Qinian replied.

Rong Hong knew that Wang Qinian's news should be very reliable, but he still felt a little incredulous, so he asked again: "How can the Japanese have so much money and catch up in just a few years?" ”

Wang Qinian replied with a dark face: "Look at the things behind yourself." ”

So Rong Hong continued to read the following content, and then he was shocked into a cold sweat - Japan's industrial scale, industrial level, and even fiscal revenue surpassed China's.

"Japan will soon wage war against the Manchus." Seeing that Rong Hong had roughly finished reading, Wang Qinian said so.

"How can you be so sure?" Rong Hong asked.

"Have you seen it?" Wang Qinian suddenly became angry, "Didn't you see the intelligence on the number of rice riots in Japan in recent years?" Japan only has such a large market, and there is neither raw material nor market, so at this point in its development, doesn't it have to immediately go out and find a raw material origin and market? In addition to the chao. Xian, where else could he find these things? To swallow the chao. Xian, isn't it just to fight a war with the Manchus? Besides, the Manchus are so stupid and incompetent, who will they fight if they don't beat him......"

As for political economics, Rong Hong doesn't know much. However, after Wang Qinian worked very hard and patiently explained to him, he finally understood something, and at the same time was convinced, and he really felt that the situation was in danger.

"The ships in Beiyang are all too old to look good, and I don't know if there is a half of the intact rate. Now look at the delivery time of Japan's purchased warships, taking into account the time of formation of combat effectiveness. Beiyang still has time to react. For example, the old cannons on warships were replaced with new rapid-fire guns. Although most of them can't beat other people's new warships, they are much stronger. Also, if you can convince the Manchu fools to make the decision to order new warships, we can even build you better warships than the latest ones ordered by Japan. If you are short of money, MacDonald Ventures can also give you a loan......" Wang Qinian finally said to Rong Hong.