After Li Songchen and Yan Fu met, they sent an invitation to Yan Fu. After Yan Fu was polite, he also happily accepted Li Songchen's invitation and was willing to visit Germany for cultural exchanges on behalf of East China **.

In fact, after the Far East War, Yan Fu had originally wanted to rely on the East China Supreme Court. Although Yan Fu was still loyal to the Qing court and advocated the implementation of a constitutional monarchy system in China, the performance of the Qing court was too bad, and the achievements made by the East China Supreme Court were too dazzling. Although Yan Fu once hoped to promote constitutional monarchy reforms under the leadership of the elders, Yan Fu could join the elders without any worries.

However, after understanding the overseas history of the elders, Yan Fu completely gave up this unrealistic fantasy, because, first, the overseas history of the elders had made it clear that they were descendants of the Ming Dynasty, and the descendants left by the eunuchs of the Sanbao when they went to the West were not the solitary people of the Qing court. And to a certain extent, they still had a feud with the Qing constitutional monarchy system; secondly, the elders were all republican systems overseas, which showed that the elders could not establish the royal family of the Qing court and implement the constitutional monarchy system. Therefore, Yan Fu could only choose one of the two loyalties to the Qing court and the end of the East China **, and it was impossible to achieve the best of both.

From Yan Fu's original intention, he did not only want to be a scholar. On the one hand, he had a strong sense of fame and fame, hoped to make achievements and glorify his ancestors. This is certainly not a bad thing, but also wanted to do his part to China's prosperity and strength. To achieve this goal, it is obviously that he can only surrender to the East China **. However, Yan Fu could not take the initiative to surrender to the East China **, because Yan Fu was the emperor's kindness of the Qing court. No matter how corrupt and incompetent the Qing court were, he still had kindness to Yan Fu. Although Yan Fu advocated Western learning, he would also be influenced by Chinese traditional moral concepts. Surrendering to the East China ** would undoubtedly be betrayed the Qing court and became a traitor. Therefore, for Yan Fu, the ideal result was to surrender to the East China ** after the demise of the Qing court, so there would be no need to bear the name of a traitor.

However, Yan Fu also knew that the old saying was good, it was easy to add icing on the cake, but it was difficult to provide timely help. Now that we are investing in East China, we cannot be regarded as timely help. Moreover, after East China really starts the foundation, even if East China has tolerate Yan Fu in order to show the new dynasty's demeanor, it will only give Yan Fu a free position, which is difficult to entrust important tasks. It would be better to be a scholar.

Now the invitation from East China ** has been unraveled to Yan Fu. He doesn't care about the false reputation of cultural exchanges on behalf of China and Germany. However, whether it is cooperation or helping East China **, he said that he had already had a relationship with East China **. In addition, this time he went on a visit as a scholar and did not formally serve in East China **. No matter how he commented on his future history, Yan Fu himself had a clear conscience. Moreover, Yan Fu was not a person who valued vain etiquette, so he happily agreed to Li Songchen and accepted the invitation from East China **.

After dealing with Yan Fu, Li Songchen also had a great confidence. First, he was at least half successful, and second, as long as Yan Fu agreed, he would have a way to deal with Gu Hongming. It turned out that when he received this task, Qin Zheng told Li Songchen a fun story about Yan Fu and Gu Hongming in the old time and space.

It turned out that at a banquet, Gu Hongming claimed that he wanted to kill Yan Fu and Lin Shu to thank the world. At that time, Yan and Lin Lin were both at the same table. However, Yan Fu was well-educated and smiled at Gu Hongming's big words. Lin Shu was a hot temper and asked Gu Hongming what he said on the spot. Gu Hongming said with a verbal remark: "Since Yan Fu's translation of "The Ethical Theory" was published, the Chinese people only knew how to compete for nature, but not fame, so the soldiers were in trouble. Since Lin Shu's translation of "The Girl of Camellia", students only knew that men were happy and women were happy, but not polite, so people wanted to go wild. Those who ruined the world with their doctrines were not Yan, who was Lin?"

Of course, Gu Hongming said he wanted to kill Yan, and Lin and the others were just jokes. The main reason was that Gu Hongming advocated Chinese studies and despised European civilization. Yan and Lin and Lin were both famous for translating European works. Therefore, Gu Hongming had long disliked the two, so he found an opportunity to mock the two. In fact, Yan Fu and Gu Hongming were still in-laws in the old time and space. Yan Fu's granddaughter Yan Zhuoyun married Gu Chenfu, Gu Hongming's cousin (that was the first chairman of the Taiwan Straits Foundation).

Sure enough, when Li Songchen talked with Gu Hongming, Gu Hongming rejected the invitation from East China ** in an instant, and said that Yan Fu was uneducated and had the qualifications to represent China to conduct cultural exchanges with German scholars. He did not want to be with Yan Fu. This result was as expected by Li Songchen, and he knew that Gu Hongming was not that easy to speak, so he didn't care too much. He just said that this opportunity was rare. Please don't make a rash decision, and think about it for a few days if you don't visit, and come back to visit again in three days.

After Li Songchen left, Gu Hongming's friends came to visit and persuade Gu Hongming that, firstly, the current East China is at its peak and will definitely be replaced by the Qing court. Therefore, offending the East China is harmful but not beneficial. Secondly, this cultural exchange with Germany is not only the first time in Chinese history, but also the first time that the two countries are dominated by cultural exchanges, and it is also the collision of East and West culture. This is a rare cultural prosperity in a century. Those who participate will be famous in history. If they miss it, wouldn't it be a pity. Thirdly, Gu Hongming has always advocated Chinese studies, which is a great opportunity to promote Chinese studies to the overseas world. If Gu Hongming does not go, this cultural exchange will inevitably be dominated by Yan Fu. Yan Fu advocates Western learning. How can he promote Chinese studies to the world? When Gu Hongming went, he happened to compare with Yan Fu to see who is more popular in Germany.

In fact, this was entrusted by Li Songchen to persuade Gu Hongming from the side, but these words did touch Gu Hongming. In fact, Gu Hongming really wanted to participate in this visit, because promoting Chinese civilization to European countries has always been Gu Hongming's lifelong goal, which is indeed a great opportunity. In addition, Germany also has special significance for Gu Hongming, because Gu Hongming studied in Europe for 14 years, of which 6 years were in Germany, divided into two stages. The latter stage was studied at the famous University of Leipzig in Germany, which is one of the oldest universities in Europe and the second oldest university in German history, and has cultivated countless famous figures. Therefore, if Gu Hongming could go to Germany this time, it would be like returning to the school in a pure manner. In the end, the historical reputation also had a strong attraction to Gu Hongming.

Gu Hongming is a typical scholar and is not interested in being an official. In addition to promoting Chinese civilization, he also attaches great importance to his reputation and honor. Although Gu Hongming advocated the teachings of Confucius and Mencius and advocated imperial power, he published the collection of "Respecting the King" to defend the Qing court during the change of the Gengzi Kingdom, in fact, Gu Hongming had no good feelings for the Qing court. On Cixi's birthday, he wrote a sarcastic poem: The emperor spent thousands of years, the people spent money, and the people lived forever, and the people suffered. His respect for imperial power was actually because imperial power had an extremely important position in traditional Chinese civilization, not because he had special feelings for the Qing court. In fact, scholars of this era could not have a good impression of the Qing court, after all, the performance of the Qing court was too bad.

Rejecting the invitation from East China ** was not happy with Yan Fu on the one hand, and on the other hand, it was also the aloofness of the literati. Therefore, after listening to the persuasion of his friends, he couldn't help but feel a little regretful. He really refused too hastily. Fortunately, Li Songchen did not say anything and would come to visit him in three days, just hope that he could really do his best.

Sure enough, three days later, Li Songchen came to visit Gu Hongming again, and this time Gu Hongming did not feel pretentious anymore. He agreed to visit Germany as soon as he met, but he put forward two conditions. One is that this time he visited Germany, he must be the leader in cultural exchanges; the other is to arrange for himself to visit his alma mater.

Since he decided to go to Germany, Gu Hongming gave up his face and tried his best to win the greatest benefits for himself. This visit will of course leave a strong mark in history. Therefore, if he is the leader of cultural exchanges in East China, he can naturally stand out among the participants and become the most dazzling one. The visit to his alma mater has not only great symbolic significance, but also substantial significance. After all, the University of Leipzig has cultivated outstanding figures such as John Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche, Robert Schumann, and Karl Leebknecy. This return to school can also enable Gu Hongming to achieve a position of being on par with these predecessors. Of course, Gu Hongming also promised that he would fully cooperate with the visit of East China to ensure a successful visit.

In fact, these two conditions are not too much. Only Yan Fu is qualified to compete with Gu Hongming for the leader of cultural exchanges. However, Yan Fu does not care about the identity of this leader, and of course he will not compete with Gu Hongming. As for the visit, it is not a problem to arrange Gu Hongming to visit his alma mater. After all, this is a good thing for Germany and the University of Leipzig. I believe that Germany will do its best to cooperate to promote this visit.

Yan Fu and Gu Hongming were invited, and Li Songchen invited several scholars according to Qingdao's requirements, and a total of 7 people were gathered to form a cultural group in the East China ** delegation to visit Germany, with Gu Hongming as the group leader.
Chapter completed!