Zhang Peilun set off from the sea on October 9. He took the boat to dock in Yantai that night, rested for a night, and continued to sail the next morning. At about 1 noon on October 0, he encountered the People's Army Navy's patrol boat on the sea about 30 kilometers away from Dagukou, so the two ships followed the patrol boat and drove towards the Dagukou Wharf.

After more than a while of sailing, Zhang Peilun, who was standing at the bow of the ship, could see clearly that there were more than a dozen ships docked on the shore in the distance, two or three of which were military ships. However, there were obvious damages in both the side and the deck, and it was obvious that he had experienced fierce battles.

Zhang Peilun looked at the bow of the boat for a while before asking Zhao Weizhong beside him: "Weizhong, are these ships captured by overseas Chinese from foreigners?" It turned out that Zhang Peilun knew that his trip to Tianjin was of great responsibility, so when he set off from Yantai this morning, Zhang Peilun invited Zhao Weizhong to ship with him, so that after arriving at Dagukou, he could solve the situation of overseas Chinese for himself, and when communicating with overseas Chinese, he could also play a role in counseling, so as not to have improper behavior and mislead the major matters entrusted by Li Hongzhang.

Zhao Weizhong raised his head and said, "Yes! Son-in-law, these ships are all ships of foreigners captured by Chinese overseas. Did you see the largest warship?"

Zhang Peilun looked in the direction of Zhao Weizhong's finger and saw a huge ship lying quietly on the sea and said, "What's wrong with this warship?"

Zhao Weizhong said: "This ship was captured by overseas Chinese from the German fleet, and it sounds like more than 10,000 tons."

When Zhang Peilun heard this, he couldn't help but feel a little moved. His life's relocation was the Ponytail naval battle of the Sino-French War. Later, he became Li Hongzhang's son-in-law and had some contact with the Beiyang Navy's Guandao. Therefore, he also had some understanding of naval battles and knew that it was very difficult to capture enemy ships in naval battles. The two main forces of the Beiyang Navy, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan iron-clad ships were only more than 7,000 tons, which was enough to make the Beiyang Navy dominate Asia for several years. Now this group of overseas Chinese can actually capture a 10,000-ton warship in the naval battle. In the past, he used to listen to the brilliant achievements of overseas Chinese in Shanghai. Although Zhang Peilun did not doubt the truth of the results, he did not see them with his own eyes and always felt a little exaggerated. But now he saw the ships captured by overseas Chinese with his own eyes, he believed that the results achieved by overseas Chinese were absolutely not as good as he could.

This time, the Foreigners Commission recommended that it make negotiations with overseas Chinese, and even overseas Chinese raise tariffs in Tianjin can be put aside. This is probably not the conscience of the foreigners, but the shock of the strong military strength of this group of overseas Chinese.

At this time, Zhao Weizhong said: "Son-in-law, there is a warship for overseas Chinese."

Zhang Peilun looked in the voice and couldn't help but lit up his eyes. There were many warships he had seen, but he had never seen such a beautiful line, smooth and simple surface, and a huge hull. It was one of the warships, which was several times the size of the German ten-ton warship I just saw. Zhang Peilun estimated that this warship was probably only more than 30,000 tons.

What Zhang Peilun saw was actually the Changbai Mountain ship. Although the actual displacement of the Changbai Mountain ship was only 20,000 tons, it was the largest combat warship second only to the aircraft carrier in the Chinese naval sequence in the old time and space, and under the same tonnage, the appearance size of modern warships is much larger than that of the warships of this era. Therefore, in Zhang Peilun's view, this is a giant ship.

Although Zhang Peilun is not very proficient in the navy, his tonnage equals combat effectiveness, and he only understands this principle. Although the weapons on these warships seem to be less equipped, judging from his huge body shape, it shows that this group of overseas Chinese are obviously proficient in the Westernization Affairs, and their machine technology is probably not inferior to those of the foreigners.

After driving for about twenty minutes, the two ships arrived at the civil dock and were docked. At this time, two teams of people came over on the shore, with about seven or eight people in each team, two of whom were wearing dark blue uniforms and brimmed hats, and the others were wearing black uniforms and rattan hats. One team stopped beside the Sea Dragon in front, while the other team rushed over to their own ship.

After the ship was stable, they immediately stepped onto the deck of the ship. Zhang Peilun was somewhat surprised to find that among the two people wearing dark blue uniforms, one of them was a woman, wearing a straight uniform, and she looked quite capable. It seems that Zhao Weizhong is right. Among this group of overseas Chinese, women have a high status and can be the head of the officials.

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly went up to meet him, bowed his hand, and said, "I wonder what the two leaders call them?"

Two people wearing dark blue uniforms saluted Zhao Weizhong first and said, "We are Zhang Chengbin, a staff member of Tianjin Customs, and Pang E, here to check your ships."

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly said, "It turned out to be Chief Zhang and Chief Pang. Zhao Weizhong left Tianjin and went to Shanghai to do business under the name of the New District Government. Now he has returned to Tianjin and sent a telegram back in Yantai this morning."

Zhang Chengbin said: "Mr. Zhao, we have received your telegram, but please show your ID and cooperate with our work. Please rest assured. We are just routine inspections and have no other intentions."

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly pointed to the Hailong in front and said, "Chief Zhang, that one is my ship, and my documents are all on that ship. I accompanied Mr. Zhang Peilun on this ship. I passed by the telegram. Mr. Zhang made a special trip to Tianjin this time."

Zhang Chengbin said "Oh" and turned to Pang E and said, "Ask that."

Pang E immediately dialed the walkie-talkie from her waist and made a call to the staff who were checking the Sea Dragon, then said: "Mr. Zhao, I have confirmed that the ship is indeed the Sea Dragon you took when you left. However, after getting off the ship for a while, you still have to go over and go through the procedures, because some records have been confirmed in person."

Zhao Weizhong said repeatedly, "Yes, yes, I'll go there in a while."

Zhang Chengbin asked again: "Where is Mr. Zhang Peilun?"

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly introduced Zhang Peilun to the two of them. The two came to Zhang Peilun and saluted. Zhang Chengbing said, "Mr. Zhang, we have received a notice from the Tianjin New District Government. The ships from you to the Tianjin New District have been prepared. As long as you complete the registration procedures for this ship, you can set off."

Pang E also said: "It only takes you a moment to delay. Please cooperate with our work."

Zhang Peilun smiled and bowed, "Okay, okay, I wonder what you two need to do? We are making up for cooperation."

Pang E took out a clip from her bag and handed it to Zhang Peilun, saying, "It's this form, you need to fill in it. Of course, others can fill it in it. You only need to sign a name. You can ask me if you don't understand."

Zhang Peilun took the form and saw that it was the basic situation of the ship arriving at the port, including nationality, displacement, purpose, weapons, date of mooring, as well as goods along the ship, number of crew members, etc., and various items were clearly visible at a glance.

Zhang Peilun bowed his head and immediately ordered someone to take the pen and ink and fill out the form carefully. Some places don’t know how to fill it out, just like Pang E asked.

After filling in it, Pang E confirmed it again, took out a booklet from her bag and handed it to Zhang Peilun, saying, "This is [the matters to be informed by ship berthing at Dagukou Wharf and the people who stayed on the boat]. Please give it to them to read carefully. During the stay, please respect the above matters. Someone will come to apply for a temporary pass for them later, so that they can go ashore. However, before the temporary pass is completed, you must not leave the ship at will. In addition, please save the temporary pass. When you leave or apply for additional mooring, you must return it to us or re-process it."

Zhang Peilun took the booklet and flipped it out casually. It was printed in simplified characters and it was lazily typed, which looked quite awkward. However, after carefully reading a few items, he found that the regulations were quite detailed. He happened to see one, which was a detailed regulation on the items carried by crew members on the ashore activities, the size and weight of items purchased on the shore. If the regulations exceed the regulations, excess tax will be required. If a certain standard is reached, customs duties must be paid according to the standards of the goods.

Zhang Peilun was quite puzzled and said to Zhang Chengbin: "I wonder, sir, why is this rule formulated?"

Zhang Chengbin said: "Mr. Zhang, this regulation is to prevent crew members from using the convenience of mooring, smuggling goods and evading tariffs, and it is not intentional to make things difficult."

After hearing this, Zhang Peilun frequently said, "So that's the case, I've been taught." But he was a little surprised in his heart. He didn't expect that these overseas Chinese would have such strict supervision of customs. Compared with the customs managed by foreigners, there are really better than those managed by foreigners.

Although the Qing court's customs was controlled by foreigners at this time and the tariff pricing was undeniable, it is undeniable that foreigners were indeed managing customs according to advanced foreign management models and strict systems. Therefore, the customs became one of the few institutions in the Qing court that remained honest and could operate efficiently. Although the Qing court's customs had a tax rate of 5%, the annual customs revenue accounted for about one-third of the entire Qing court.

When Zhang Peilun was a Qingliu in Beijing, he had been demolished many times and was worried that foreigners would control the Qingting Customs. However, after becoming Li Hongzhang's son-in-law, he had a certain understanding of the operation of the customs. He had to admit that if Qingting was the one who managed the customs, he would definitely be in a mess. The overseas Chinese management of the customs is obviously not worse than that of foreigners, and in some details, it is even worse.

However, Zhao Weizhong's expression changed. It turned out that he had purchased a large number of goods from Shanghai, which must have exceeded the regulations and had to pay tariffs according to the standards of the goods. He knew that this group of overseas Chinese would not be selfish in doing business. He would be fined for any mistakes and rewarded for any merits. Therefore, this tariff would definitely be inevitable.

However, Zhao Weizhong knew that the whole of Tianjin is in chaos now. His own batch of goods must be in high demand. Paying tariffs only makes less money. There is no need to violate the regulations of overseas Chinese. Over the past period of time, he has violated the regulations of overseas Chinese and was punished. So Zhao Weizhong said to Zhang Peilun: "Son-in-law, I have to go to the ship over there. My goods have to be paid taxes. I can only handle this procedure myself."
Chapter completed!