Just as the Time Traveler and the Observer Group held a meeting, Li Sanjie, Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also met with reporters from the three newspapers who accompanied him and answered questions raised by the reporters.

The observation team visited Tianjin mainly to negotiate and negotiate matters. Asking questions to time travelers was just to take them. The reporters were different. They were all trying to get big news in Tianjin, so they all prepared a lot of questions. In addition to being interested in the origin of time travelers, they were also curious about the social composition, political system, living habits and other things of time travelers. In addition, they also had plans, goals, and goals of time travelers after the return of time travelers, and so on. Some reporters asked whether the time travelers planned to restore such taboos in China.

However, Li Sanjie, who was responsible for receiving reporters, had long been used to the tricky questions of various reporters in the old time and space. When dealing with reporters of this era, they were naturally very comfortable. They not only answered questions, but also had long-term answers to each question, either positive answers, or side-clicking, or playing Tai Chi pushing hands. They also joked from time to time and made a few new words.

In the old time and space, these replies will definitely be labeled as official, clichés, and polite words, but in this era, it is a very fresh statement. No matter what the replies of the time traveler are, they always smile and have no impatient appearance. This has moved the visiting reporters. Although newspapers have existed in China for more than 30 years, their social status is not high. On the one hand, this is because newspapers are new things introduced to China by foreigners. Traditional scholars and officials have an instinctive rejection. On the other hand, when newspapers were first introduced to China, people generally regarded them as disguised form of the court newspaper.

The so-called court newspaper, also known as the palace newspaper, refers to an ancient Chinese newspaper that reports the emperor's daily life, words and deeds, imperial edicts, imperial edicts, imperial edicts, and laws in the form of brief messages. It includes appointments, promotions, decrees, rewards and punishments of officials, memorials and documents of ministers and local officials, as well as a small number of printed materials such as social news and anecdotes, all of which have certain characteristics of modern newspapers.

It is generally believed that the court newspaper first appeared in the Han Dynasty, but at that time the court newspaper was only used as official documents of the government and was circulated internally. When the court newspaper began to be held in the people, it was in the Tang Dynasty. By the Song Dynasty, the court newspaper had become a print for public business. Until the Qing Dynasty, the government basically accused the court newspaper of the court newspaper. However, since most of the information of the court was not disclosed in principle, the sources of the news were generally lower-level officials of the central government offices, senior officials and the families of upstarts even included eunuchs. Such news is of course half true and false, and it is difficult to distinguish, but general major news is still relatively accurate.

The sales of the court newspapers were not of high social status in ancient China, and were regarded as a profession of Tangyi labour. The news spread was not credible, so society was lighter and difficult to be elegant. Therefore, in the early days of the newspapers' career in China, there were almost no readers except foreigners and Chinese businessmen who did business with foreigners. Most of the traditional literati who worked in newspapers were unsatisfactory in the imperial examination and could not pursue official careers, and it was difficult for the scholastic people who came from the Ministry of Education to be recognized by the Shilin, who was born in the First Academic School. The main writers and reporters of the newspapers were regarded as unreputable professions, believing that newspapers "often ruined people's reputation and hurt the evil spirits, which was not the legitimate way out for good people's children." Zuo Zongtang once scolded "the scoundrel literati in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, who regarded newspapers as the end." Although it was a prejudice, it also revealed the truth of this era.

Since the social status of the newspaper is not high, the difficulty of the newspaper reporters wanting to conduct formal interviews is imagined. It is unprecedented to accept interviews with Li Sanjie so happily, and they answer questions and have rich content and friendly attitudes. Therefore, several reporters have recorded a large interview record. They feel that this trip is really worthwhile. After returning, they will definitely be praised by their employers, and their favorability for overseas Chinese has increased greatly.

It took more than two hours to receive the reporters. Li Sanjie answered more than 20 questions in one breath before announcing the end. The reporters were still unsatisfied. Finally, Li Sanjie gave a booklet of the introduction of the Time Traveler to each newspaper. At the same time, he also promised that during the negotiations in Shanghai, the Time Traveler would hold a press conference and invite all famous newspapers in Shanghai to participate. The reporters ended the interview with satisfaction.

Of course, Li Hongzhang did not participate in these activities, but instead proposed to the time traveler, hoping that the time traveler could arrange for himself to visit more places, with the goal of wanting to go and see more to get to know this group of overseas Chinese.

The time travelers did not refuse this. On the morning of the same day, Qin Zheng accompanied Li Hongzhang and his party to visit the printing factory and the woodworking factory. Both factories were purchased by time travelers in Tianjin and renovated. Now a batch of machines were introduced. However, the scale of these two factories is not large. The printing factory has only 155 employees, while the woodworking factory has a larger number of people, with only 287 people. Qin Zheng explained to Li Hongzhang that when opening these factories, we should not be eager for quick success or instant benefits, but should weigh the balance between investment and profit. Therefore, at the beginning, we should not blindly expand production, but mainly accumulate experience and cultivate technical workers. After the conditions are ripe, we should gradually expand the production scale.

When Li Hongzhang heard this, he couldn't help but sigh that "fast-win situations and greed for success" was one of the mistakes of the Westernization Movement. The Westernization faction never cares about the balance between investment and profits, nor whether the subjective and objective conditions are favorable. Instead, he immediately started working with a slap in his head, regardless of the cost, and blindly seeking perfection. As a result, some factories only found that there were many original design problems halfway through the establishment of the factory. They either added additional investment for transformation or gave up halfway. Although some enterprises were established, they either lacked raw materials or had no workers. As a result, they could only solve them one by one. Not only did they fail to start production after the factory was completed, but the cost was also doubled.

Therefore, like overseas Chinese, the right way is to work steadily, start from a young age, and gradually expand. This is also the experience and lessons learned by Li Hongzhang after more than 30 years of Westernization.

In the afternoon, Qin Zheng took Li Hongzhang and his group to change into plainclothes and went on a trip. He first went around the old city of Tianjin, and then went out to a built new countryside to visit.

The scene I saw also surprised Li Hongzhang and his group. First, it turned out that the city of Tianjin changed a lot. The original uneven streets were filled and compacted, and the streets were cleaned very clean. The weeds on the corners of the house were also removed. There was almost no debris and garbage, and no one dared to litter, let alone convenient for the place. Except for the narrow streets, this is the urban structure of Tianjin and cannot be changed. Just looking at the scene of the streets, it is basically the same as the concession.

The concession has a reasonable planning, proper management, excellent environment, and clean and hygienic. This is a consensus. Therefore, Li Hongzhang was not surprised when he arrived in the Tianjin New District. However, now he saw that the old city in Tianjin has been completely renewed, and he has to admire the governance methods of overseas Chinese.

Of course, Li Hongzhang also had many trash boxes and toilets in the streets of Tianjin. One could see almost every few hundred steps, and there were special people guarding them. There were also many people wearing black newspapers, boat hats, and a short stick in their hands. They were patrolling the streets. Li Hongzhang saw with his own eyes that they arrested two people who spitted everywhere, which also made Li Hongzhang understand that the methods of overseas Chinese were not new. It turned out that foreigners managed the concession in this way. These men in black were probably similar to those of yamen officials, and were called police stations in the concession. When Qin Zheng asked, he learned that overseas Chinese called them police officers and the institutions were called police stations.

After arriving in the countryside, Li Hongzhang was even more shocked. Li Hongzhang had not been to the countryside, but had never seen such neatly planned and clean villages. Even ordinary rural households did not have such clean and neat houses. Qin Zheng also introduced the new rural construction project of the time traveler and the land policies implemented by the time traveler in Tianjin like Li Hongzhang.

After hearing Qin Zheng’s words, Li Hongzhang’s face became a little unnatural, and it took a while to recover.

As the most important official of the Qing court, Li Hongzhang certainly knew that China is essentially an agricultural country, with rural population accounting for more than 90% of the country's population. If any ruler wants to firmly stand, he must stabilize the farmers. If he wants to compete for the world and replace it, he must also win the support of the farmers. Therefore, rulers of all generations have regarded peasant uprisings and wars as a major concern.

If overseas Chinese opened factories and started businesses in Tianjin before, and managed Tianjin in an orderly manner, including disdain for the Qing court, Li Hongzhang did not make Li Hongzhang too worried, but the practice of overseas Chinese in rural Tianjin made Li Hongzhang feel a lot of fear, because overseas Chinese divided the land in rural areas and built houses for farmers, this was clearly a way to win people's hearts.

Li Hongzhang was quite confident before, believing that although overseas Chinese are brave and good at fighting, proficient in Western affairs, and good at governing the local government, they are not worth worrying. After all, they are foreigners, have little foundation in China, and their homeland is destroyed, and they have no support in succession. Therefore, as long as the Qing court can stabilize its own stance and control Beijing as soon as possible, even if overseas Chinese are temporarily allowed to rule, the Qing court can still gradually resolve overseas Chinese with a 25-year basis, and ultimately completely naturalize overseas Chinese for my use.

But Li Hongzhang did not expect that overseas Chinese actually knew how to buy the hearts of farmers, and once they took action, they grasped the foundation of the countryside, which was the land. This was something that shook the foundation of the Qing Dynasty's rule.
Chapter completed!