When I arrived at home, my grandfather happened to be at home, and when I saw that he had brought someone back and was still a foreigner, I couldn't help but ask strangely: 'Kun'er, who is this?'

Otto took a few steps and bowed respectfully to Zhang Zhidong, Zhang Houkun's grandfather, as if he were his grandfather: 'Hello, old man, my name is Otto Jondaus, may the glory of the Lord shine on you at all times!'

Zhang Zhidong, who also went abroad to do diplomatic affairs, also replied: "The Lord is with us."

Zhang Houkun looked at it and drank, he was still a Christian.

Then like his grandfather Zhang Zhidong returned: 'Grandpa, this man was deceived by an unscrupulous merchant and now has no place to live, and his grandson saw that he was pitiful and brought him back. I'll send him back when I can drop by later.' As he spoke, Otto glanced at Zhang Zhidong.

Zhang Zhidong nodded and said no more, and instead invited Otto to have dinner with his grandchildren. Otto, who had been hungry for several meals, was polite and devoured a meal.

After dinner, Zhang Zhidong sent Otto to the guest room to rest and Zhang Houkun came to the study.

Without waiting for Zhang Zhidong to speak, Zhang Houkun explained Otto's internal combustion engine technology and his own prediction of the future development prospects of the internal combustion engine

After listening to it and thinking for a long time, Zhang Zhidong said approvingly to his favorite grandson: "Well, no matter how important this internal combustion engine will be in the future, just look at Kun'er, you can always pay attention to recruiting talents for the country, which is worthy of praise!"

Zhang Houkun smiled proudly, and thought to himself: It seems that grandpa has not clearly understood the importance of this internal combustion engine, which requires me to pay more attention.

After saying goodbye to his grandfather, Zhang Houkun stood in the courtyard and muttered for a while, and then walked towards Otto's room.

When he entered the house, he didn't gossip and asked: "Otto, I want to hire you as my scientist in China, are you willing?" ”

Otto was stunned: "I didn't think about this, and ~~~"

Zhang Houkun saw that he was thinking about something in his heart with a difficult face, and persuaded: "Don't worry, my country's national quality can be slowly improved." And you may not be able to get ahead when you return to the United States, but now as long as you promise to be a scientist in my country, how about I give you 500 oceans a month? ”。

“500！！ Otto pretended to think about it and clapped the board: "OK, deal." ”

Both sides were overjoyed.

The next day, after breakfast, Zhang Houkun saw that his grandfather was about to go out and hurriedly asked, "Grandpa, where are you going now?" ”。

Zhang Zhidong said: "Today, the Beiyang Naval Division is holding a drill, and grandpa is going to review it, what's the matter?" Do you want to go too? ”

Zhang Houkun nodded yes, so he explained a few words to Otto, and he went on the road with his grandfather.

The Beiyang Naval Division was built about 10 miles west of Changsha, and it took half an hour to arrive in a carriage. It was noon and the sun was scorching, but a few hundred meters from the barracks, you could hear the sound of shouting and shelling. When I got closer, I saw the two soldiers standing guard at the door, wet with sweat but not moving, straight like a green pine.

Zhang Houkun and his grandfather glanced at each other and exclaimed, "Grandpa, it is unexpectedly unexpected, this good student trained by the Beiyang sailor is strict."

Zhang Zhidong also agreed: "Well, Yu Ting really has a hand in leading troops. ”。

Zhang Houkun was stunned: "Yu Ting? Be? ~~”。 Zhang Zhidong glanced at Zhang Houkun helplessly: "It's Admiral Ding Ruchang Ding." Grandson, you have been withdrawn since you were a child, but you will be the one who will do great things in the future.

Why did Grandpa send you to the Rì Study Abroad Institute? I don't want you to see more progress in other countries than our Qing Dynasty!

Don't talk about the distance, you only look at our close neighbor of the Qing Dynasty - rìben.

Do you feel the superiority in your bones that looks down on our Qing Dynasty? and ~~"

Zhang Zhidong paused at this point, looked deeply into the eyes of his most beloved grandson, and said in a low voice: "Can you feel the ambition buried in the depths of his heart, the terrible ambition!" They are always thinking about our country, a country with a population of 400 million, and the land of our country.

I once deliberately flipped through the ancient books and found a very coincidental thing -- whenever our land of China was ruled by the Son of Heaven, Rì Ben was as obedient as a sheep, but -- once the smoke of our land was everywhere, Rì Ben would immediately tear off his coat of kindness and turn into a demon, and invade excessively. At present, my Qing Dynasty can be said to be full of holes and wolf smoke, which is a great change unseen in 3,000 years. I dare to assert that in the future, the strictest person who plundered me in the Qing Dynasty will not be rì this also!! Alas ~ China suffers! The people are suffering. ”。

Zhang Houkun has long been stuck there, with the memory of rubles, of course he knows what will happen from now to the future, he is afraid of death from a wealthy family, and he has no idea of saving the building.

However, what he didn't expect was that his grandfather was such a big man who was worried about the country and the people, and cared about the people of the world, a great man!! Compare yourself again, you are in the prime of life, you should have been enthusiastic all over the world, and you should be proud of the sky, but you are so cowardly, ignoring the life and death of the people in the world, you just want to protect yourself and live in the world. How is this right, the grandfather and parents who worked hard to raise themselves. What more about his own homeland!!

For a while, Zhang Houkun felt a rush of enthusiasm to his brain, and even wanted to go and pick up a blade and cut it with the devil now. He settled down and said sincerely to his grandfather: "Grandpa, my grandson will definitely change his life and be a new person in the future." I vow to protect my great rivers and mountains, not to let them separate the slightest, and to protect the health and peace of the people of my Qing Dynasty. ”

Zhang Zhidong was amused by his grandson's appearance and laughed: "Okay! Grandpa waited for that day. ”

As he spoke, the carriage had stopped in front of the gate of the barracks, and a group of generals had already stood in front of the gate to greet him. The head has a round face, deep eye sockets and high cheekbones, two thick mustaches under the nose, and the smiling eyes are invisible, Zhang Houkun pondered: This is Ding Ruchang? It's not a good idea to sell elephants.

I saw Ding Ruchang greet Zhang Zhidong with a smile: "Your Excellency Governor, you are still full of gods after ten years, but you don't look old at all."

Zhang Zhidong also smiled: "Hehe, Yu Ting is still so good at talking, alas, decades have passed in a blink of an eye, and you are a lot haggard~'

'Who is this?'

'Oh, this is my grandson Zhang Houkun, Houkun has come and seen Admiral Ding Ruchang Ding'

Zhang Houkun smiled and said: "Houkun has seen Lord Ding, and I have heard that Lord Ding has led the troops in a good way, and it is really good when I see it today."

Ding Ruchang was slightly ashamed of his connection. [Ding Ruchang had a relationship with Zhang Zhidong when he was learning ship knowledge in Fuzhou Shipbuilding School, so the two said so].

After the two of them sighed for a while, a person stood up behind Ding Ruchang, this person is very powerful, dignified, with two crescent moon thick eyebrows, round and bulging eyes, a fat face full of red face, 7 feet tall, only to hear this person arch his hand, and said in a loud voice: "Your Excellency the Governor has always been good?" Liu Buchan, the chief soldier of the Beiyang Naval Division, was lowly.'

Zhang Zhidong let out an 'oh' and said with a little surprise: "You are the one who is often mentioned by Grai Fu [Li Hongzhangzi] 'whose jīng is the son of the algorithm measuring the heavenly ruler, then Min Tong Liu Buyun, Lin Taizeng, and Jiang Chaoying are the crowns.'" And in the following year, Liu Buchan, who became the first graduate of Fuzhou Shipbuilding School, won the first place.

Liu Buyun was very proud, and said: "It's the lower official."

At this time, the two people on the side attracted Zhang Houkun and took a closer look. Why did the two foreigners stand at the back of the line, he gestured to his grandfather, and Zhang Zhidong took the opportunity to ask, "These two must be the new chief instructors Lang Weili and Shi Bailing?" The two foreigners said in half-baked Chinese: 'I have seen the Governor,'.

Hehe, that's interesting.

At this time, Ding Ruchang looked up at Tian Sè and said with a smile: "Your Excellency, the Beiyang Navy Division's exercise is about to start, let's go in."

Zhang Zhidong nodded, and everyone walked in again. When I entered the barracks, I saw that the forts, hospitals, and training centers were all in place, and they looked in good order. Zhang Zhidong's grandfather and grandson nodded secretly.

The officers and men had been waiting for a long time, and as soon as everyone sat down, the drill began, only to see more than a dozen gunboats shuttling back and forth on the river, among which two ironclad ships were the most conspicuous. The huge cannon, thick armor, and very fast sailing speed made Zhang Houkun, who knew the foundation of the Beiyang Naval Division, feel that he was not afraid of a small rì, and carefully looked at the sides of the two ships, which were the two water weapons produced in Germany, "Dingyuan" and "Jiyuan".

After the performance of the combat team, the actual combat performance is performed, that is, the shelling of target ships and buoys suspended on the sea. only heard the rumbling of the cannon, Zhang Houkun secretly measured it, almost seven or eight out of ten! This Ding Ruchang is really promising.

At this time, Ding Ruchang saw that the shelling was over, peeked at everyone's expressions, and saw that most of them were praising their faces, and his heart was settled, and then he arched his hand to Zhang Zhidong: "Your Excellency, in addition to the mutual fire between the gunboats of the two armies in wartime, the defense in the camp of the sailor is also very knowledgeable, my lord, please see, we are full of mines at the mouth of the sea here 20 nautical miles away, if there is an enemy ship attacking, before we reach our camp, we will first touch the mines, and it will immediately become five or six tenths of a shipwreck. If our sailor takes advantage of the victory to attack, he will definitely be able to repel the enemy in the future, and even win a big victory! ”

Zhang Zhidong was overjoyed when he heard it: "Really?!" In this way, I will definitely give the Holy Grace and reward all the warriors of my sailors. ”

Suddenly, Ding Ruchang and a bunch of sailor generals bared their teeth and grinned happily. At this time, Zhang Zhidong looked around casually, but suddenly saw his good grandson Zhang Houkun yīn with a calm face, and couldn't help but wonder, just decided to wait for the review and then ask him what was wrong, and saw Zhang Houkun slowly stand up.