After the meal, Qin Zheng came to the Changbai Mountain ship and sent someone to invite Zhao Weizhong to the reception room.

After being rescued by the crossing troops, Zhao Weizhong and his daughter had been living on the Changbai Mountain ship. He Xin, who was rescued with them, and He Ping's brothers returned to the village with the landing troops. Now there are only five of them left. Considering their particularity, Zhao Weizhong was arranged separately. His daughter and the servant lived in a room, and the two families lived in another room. Fortunately, the hull of the Changbai Mountain ship was huge and there were many rooms, which was enough. However, their space for movement on the ship was limited, and they could only move in a space on the deck of the ship.

Although he had lived on the Changbai Mountain ship for two days, Zhao Weizhong still feels like living in his dreams until now, because all the things that have happened in the past two days have made Zhao Weizhong feel unreal.

Zhao Weizhong was from Hefei, Anhui Province, and was a fellow villager with Li Hongzhang. His family made a living by farming for generations. His father once joined the Huai Army and fought with Li Hongzhang in the east and killed the west. He made some contributions. After suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was promoted to a general and retired and returned home. Although in the Qing Dynasty, generals could only be considered intermediate military generals, in Zhao Weizhong's family, this was already a matter of glorifying his ancestors. However, Zhao Weizhong's father passed away before he enjoyed a few days of happiness. Before his death, Zhao Weizhong, who was still a young man, went to Tianjin to surrender to Li Hongzhang, which was also paving a way for his son.

Li Hongzhang thought of his old love from his fellow countrymen, and happened to have just taken over the Tianjin Machinery Bureau at that time. Seeing that Zhao Weizhong was still able to read, he asked Zhao Weizhong to work in the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, of course, he started with an apprentice.

Although Zhao Weizhong didn't read much, he was quite clever. In addition, he was young and interested in Western machines. He was diligent in work and diligent in studying. Li Hongzhang also helped him, so he gradually became promoted from an apprentice to the book office of Tianjin Machinery Bureau.

It was the first period of the Westernization Movement. Li Hongzhang held the Westernization Movement in Tianjin, Shanghai and other places, and began to form the Beiyang Navy. He was powerful and extremely energetic. Although Zhao Weizhong was not Li Hongzhang's confidant, he could still say a few words in front of Li Hongzhang, and he was also the number one figure in the Tianjin Machinery Bureau. In addition to normal income every year, he also had another job, and he lived a good life. So he bought some industries in Tianjin, married his wife, and gave birth to a daughter.

If this continues, Zhao Weizhong can go further, either take over the Tianjin Machinery Bureau or be recommended by Li Hongzhang to be an official. If he is lucky, he will become a prefect.

However, at this moment, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Qing court was defeated, and the Beiyang Navy was wiped out. Li Hongzhang lost power in the court, and Zhao Weizhong's value also dropped sharply. In addition, the Westernization Movement was also frustrated due to the failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, and the Tianjin Machinery Bureau was deteriorating. At this time, Zhao Weizhong's wife died of illness. Therefore, Zhao Weizhong was a little discouraged and wanted to work for a few more years, save one more money and resign, go back to his hometown to buy hundreds of acres of land, and live a landlord's free and ill.

But a few years later, the Boxer Rebellion broke out, which led to the war of aggression against China by the Eight-Nation Alliance. The Eight-Nation Alliance broke through Dagukou and then entered Tianjin. Originally, Zhao Weizhong could have escaped before Tianjin fell, but Zhao Weizhong was reluctant to leave Tianjin, so he did not leave Tianjin immediately. Instead, he hid in the countryside for a few days and wanted to return to Tianjin. The situation was getting worse and worse at that time, and the Eight-Nation Alliance actually captured Beijing all the way. Now Zhao Weizhong regretted it and did not leave Tianjin early.

It was too late to regret at this time. Zhao Weizhong found out by chance that Li Hongzhang had arrived in Shanghai and was preparing to negotiate peace with the Eight-Nation Alliance. So Zhao Weizhong went to Hejiawan Village to buy a boat to go out to sea, thinking of going to Shanghai to surrender to Li Hongzhang. As a result, as soon as the ship came out of Bohai Bay, it was overturned by a ship that emerged from there. All the people on the boat fell into the sea. If it weren't for the rescue of this overseas Chinese fleet, Zhao Weizhong's family would have died long ago.

Of course, Zhao Weizhong learned from Qin Zheng that the identity of this fleet was actually overseas Chinese. According to Qin Zheng, among this group of overseas Chinese, there were both Yashan in the late Song Dynasty, and the Chinese who spread to the West seven times in the early Ming Dynasty. There were also the descendants of Zheng Chenggong's old subordinates during the Ming and Qing dynasties. They occupied a large island on the Atlantic Ocean and established a country on the island, and had been reproductive for hundreds of years. Now they want to return to China and help the Qing Dynasty defeat the Eight-Nation Alliance. These warships and ships were all made by them.

Zhao Weizhong was half-believing and half-doubted about Qin Zheng's law. Of course, he knew that there was another world by the sea and there were many Chinese left overseas. However, Zhao Weizhong had never heard of Chinese people establishing a country overseas. On the contrary, many Chinese overseas were bullied by foreigners. Since foreigners came to China, there were almost every few years that overseas Chinese asked for protection of the Qing Dynasty, which also caused trouble for the Qing court and he was still exhausted. He still had the spirit to protect overseas Chinese. Moreover, in the eyes of the Qing court, overseas Chinese could not be regarded as the people of the Qing Dynasty.

However, Zhao Weizhong cannot deny that Qin Zheng is in Hu. After all, the world is so big and there are all kinds of strange things. Who can have no country established by Chinese people overseas? Moreover, the appearance of these people is indeed Chinese-born. Although in the eyes of Westerners, East Asians, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans, they still have some subtle differences between East Asians. What's more, for the group of people Zhao Weizhong comes into contact with, everyone has to speak fluent Mandarin, and many people can have local dialects, Tianjin, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, and Cantonese. Zhao Weizhong knows that some Japanese can make Chinese Mandarin a real thing, but it is impossible to get so many dialects. Therefore, Qin Zheng's words are still credible.

But Zhao Weizhong felt unbelievable. After staying on the boat for two days, Zhao Weizhong saw too many things that subverted his perception. Zhao Weizhong had been working in the Westernization Movement for more than 20 years and had seen all kinds of foreign machines. Even when the Beiyang Navy formed an army, every warship had been on board. In this era, he was definitely a person who was knowledgeable and widely visited. Although Zhao Weizhong and others had not had much room for movement after being rescued, they could still see many things that they had never seen or heard of.

The first thing that surprised Zhao Weizhong was the electric lights. Although there were not many things in the Tianjin Machinery Bureau at this time, there were only a few, but on this ship, electric lights were almost everywhere and countless. Moreover, although the electric lights at the Tianjin Machinery Bureau were indeed better than candles and oil lamps, it would still be a bit exaggerated if they were as bright as daytime. However, the electric lights on the ship were definitely as bright as daytime, and the light was soft and not dazzling at all. In addition, the room where Zhao Weizhong lived was not big. Apart from a narrow bed, there was only one table and one chair, but I don’t know what material it was made of, neither iron nor wood, but it was very strong.

Of course, these things are secondarily, but there are a few that make Zhao Weizhong feel a little bit stubborn. First, there are often sounds on the walls of the aisle to inform some things, but they can't find anyone. And there are often people holding a black strip in their hands. At first, Zhao Weizhong didn't know what it meant, but another time he heard a black strip also making a voice. Second, Zhao Weizhong found that someone was holding a flat square plate, and some strangely deformed human figures appeared inside, and they were able to move. Third, once Zhao Weizhong was walking on the deck, and clearly saw a bold long-tailed, rotor-shaped thing flying past the side, and from the open ship door, they could see their soldiers sitting inside.

However, Zhao Weizhong was a man who had done Westernization after all, so he would not have even brought the things he saw to the gods and ghosts, but instead believed that these things should be some kind of technology or machines. But Zhao Weizhong was also very clear that these technical machines were not even Westerners. In other words, this group of overseas Chinese made technical machines are better than Westerners, or at least some of them are better than Westerners.

After thinking through this, Zhao Weizhong's heart did not feel relaxed, but on the contrary became heavier. Zhao Weizhong was not an ignorant boy. He really believed that this group of overseas Chinese were concerned about China, so he wanted to return to the Qing Dynasty and serve the country. Although Zhao Weizhong had never heard of the saying "No love for no reason, nor hatred for no reason", he still understood the principle that no profit would not be early. Otherwise, the Qing Dynasty had been in charge of China for more than 250 years. Why did this group of overseas Chinese want to return to China until now?

Another advantage of the Westernization Affairs is the flexible news, which is overseas news. Zhao Weizhong knew that among the overseas Chinese, there were many revolutionary parties who were determined to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. During the Wuxu period, the Kangliang Rebellion Party, who led the reform, fled overseas. He was entangled with a group of rebellions. Under the banner of the royal family, he actually did something to subvert the Daqing, which led to bewitching many overseas Chinese. In addition, in recent years, a man named Sun Yat-sen overseas began to gain fame. His behavior was even more terrifying than the Kangliang Rebellion Party. He didn't even need the banner of the royal family. He claimed that he wanted to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and establish a republic. It was also very popular, and it was more powerful than the Kangliang Rebellion Party.

Although Zhao Weizhong had no hope for the Qing Dynasty, it did not mean that he would oppose the Qing Dynasty's rule, so he naturally had no good impression of the overseas unrest and the revolutionary party. When he knew that this group of people came from overseas, he instinctively equated them with the revolutionary party in his heart.
Chapter completed!