African Nationhood

Chapter 117 Guo Songtao’s Travels (Part )
  At the Guest House in Anhai Town, Guo Songtao, who was neatly dressed, stood up and opened the door of the room. Mrs. Liang respectfully sent her husband out.

Guo Songtao was a strange person in the Qing Dynasty. Before he was fifty-seven years old, he could only be regarded as a well-behaved Qing official.

His life has undergone earth-shaking changes since he was promoted by Cixi to serve as minister to Britain.

All because he was the first to open his eyes and see the world clearly, and called on the Qing Dynasty and the public to put aside the arrogance of the "Chinese Great Power" and seriously learn from the great powers of Europe and the United States.

Since then, he has become a public enemy in the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty and the target of "cyber violence" by all officials.

Until now, he has not recovered, and until he left Hexi in 1891, his fate of being cast aside by the officialdom did not change.

His close friend Li Hongzhang and Li Zhongtang wanted to give him a posthumous title and write a biography for him, but Cixi refused.

His fate in life is pitiable.

……

"Good morning, Mr. Guo, did you have a good rest last night?"

Standing outside the door to say hello was Cai Shaoji. As the education specialist of Nanhua Company, he never thought that he would be arrested one day.

When Shi Wenyuan informed him, he was eating with his family at Sihai Hotel.

It was normal for him to be excited when he learned that he was going to accompany Guo Songtao, a big figure from the Qing Dynasty.

Early this morning, after Cai Shaoji was fully dressed, he rushed to the Guest House first and waited for the important Qing minister to get up.

Guo Songtao's face is rosy and his complexion is good.

He was not surprised by Cai Shaoji's respectful greetings, and felt that the juniors here were quite polite.

"you are?"

"The junior Cai Shaoji of Guangdong Xiangshan is currently the education specialist of Nanhua Company."

"Education Commissioner, where is your company's Shi Jintang?"

"Sorry, Mr. Shi still has official business to deal with, so I will accompany you to inspect Anhai Town today, and I will meet with you when Mr. Shi is free."

Guo Songtao was a little unhappy when he heard that the other party was busy with official duties. He was able to come here only because Rong Hong from the United States wrote him a letter.

Rong Hong has been living in the United States since his young children who were studying in the United States were forcibly deported back to China.

I learned from my nephew Rong Kui that his former student Shi Jintang had established a colony in Africa and poached the Qing Dynasty.

After being shocked, he discovered that this daring student had also sponsored many international students to stay and complete their studies.

These deeds made Rong Hong very distressed and conflicted.

The smart and wise Shi Jintang would rather go to Africa to open up wasteland than return to the Qing Dynasty to serve the country. This shows how serious the problems of the Qing Dynasty were!

Why can't all the princes in the court wake up?

……

Later, when he corresponded with Guo Songtao, he learned that this senior was depressed.

Therefore, he suggested that Guo Songtao go to Southwest Africa to see and relax.

Guo Songtao didn't care at first, but he had resigned from office for so long, and the criticism against him in the court had not stopped. He could not vent his depression, so he had to use poetry and wine to relieve his sorrow.

On the first day of this year (1883, the ninth year of Guangxu), he also wrote: "Everything before my eyes changes with the clouds, and the fading face in the mirror is warmed by wine. I feel sad about the confusion of my life, and who can I talk about the ups and downs again and again?"

No one appreciated his desire to serve the country with his fists. Feeling depressed and indignant, he once again thought of Rong Hong's suggestion and started to travel.

So he took the initiative to contact Rong Hong, and Rong Hong contacted Southwest Africa through Rong Kui.

After Shi Jintang heard the news, he was a little interested in this "renovationist" figure, so he told Zhong Wenyao to pick up Guo Songtao when he sailed to Shanghai.

After arriving in Hong Kong yesterday, Zhong Wenyao sent the old gentleman to the Anhai Town Guesthouse and left.

……

Now that the other party has made arrangements, Guo Songtao can't refuse. He is now much depressed.

I was relieved by Shi Jintang's contempt. I was just an old man, and the other party was the leader of the British colony. Arranging for someone to receive me was already a great honor.

If you continue to be ignorant, I'm afraid you will humiliate yourself. So the group of people left the guest house and boarded a carriage.

"What are you taking me to see?"

Cai Shaoji smiled at the stern-faced old man and said, "According to Mr. Shi's instructions, I will take you to visit the farm in Anhai Town today, and then go to the arsenal."

Hearing Cai Shaoji mention the arsenal, Guo Songtao immediately became interested, "Let's go directly to the arsenal. What's there to see in the farm?"

Cai Shaoji still responded with a smile, "Sorry, we must abide by the orders given by President Shi."

Guo Songtao's face froze when he heard this, and he said perfunctorily: "Okay, let's go quickly."

The carriage started, the road was flat and wide, and there were not many pedestrians on the road.

Guo Songtao looked around and found that the town was not big. The buildings were of different heights and there was nothing new. It was much worse than famous European and American cities.

Cai Shaoji smiled and began to introduce, "The name of our current town is Anhai Town, and its construction only started three years ago.

At that time, it was just a desert, but now it is not only connected by trains, but also has thousands of acres of fertile farmland. "

After listening to Cai Shaoji's introduction, Guo Songtao's tight cheeks relaxed, and the previous contempt dissipated.

“It’s really not easy to build something like this in three years!”

Cai Shaoji was secretly happy when he heard the other party's relaxed tone, then pointed to the fallen rice fields not far away and said: "These rice are grown with rice seeds introduced from the Qing Dynasty. We have an agricultural society here to study how to harvest more food." New species.

What you see in front of you is a rice field used to experiment with high-yield breeding. If the research is successful, we will be able to feed tens of millions of people in the future with rice alone. "

Guo Songtao laughed and poured cold water on him: "For thousands of years, the output of rice and wheat has been constant. Except for auspiciousness, there has never been any increase in output. What a nonsense!"

Cai Shaoji didn't take it seriously and continued: "Going further west, we can see experimental fields using drip irrigation technology."

“Drip technology?”

Cai Shaoji had a panoramic view of Guo Songtao's reaction, and he was finally interested.

“This is a new technology developed by Professor Shi, because our Anhai reservoir capacity is limited.

In order to cultivate more land, Mr. Shi proposed using bamboo poles as irrigation tools.

By drip-irrigating water at a fixed time every day and applying water accurately, you can achieve the goal of planting a large area with a small amount of water. "

After listening to this, Guo Songtao's curiosity increased. If it is true as what this young man said, this "drip irrigation technology" is really a good planting method and should be vigorously promoted.

"After one season of experimentation, the results are remarkable. We plan to vigorously promote it next season. Anhai Town and the entire Binhai District and Jinghai District can try this new planting method."

After hearing this, Guo Songtao nodded in agreement. He was now very curious about what the so-called "drip irrigation technology" was like. Seeing is believing.

The carriage drove for nearly two-quarters of an hour, passing by a large vegetable field with a rich variety of peppers, cabbage, radish and eggplant.

After passing these vegetable fields, they arrived at a large green sandy orchard.

Cai Shaoji carefully helped Guo Songtao out of the car, and then they walked slowly into the vineyard.

When Guo Songtao took a closer look, he found that the orchard was lined with bamboo poles. It was easy to see from the pattern of the series that these bamboo poles acted as water channels.

The so-called "drip irrigation technology" means that small holes are drilled into the moso bamboo tied to the root of each grapevine.

Water comes from the thick bamboo pole that serves as the main water channel, and the water from the small bamboo pole drips naturally.

Long-term drip irrigation ensures that fruit trees have water sources to nourish their roots, so there is no risk of water shortage and fruit trees can grow vigorously.

After looking at the grape trees, look at the apple trees and orange trees again, they are almost the same.

Without exception, these fruit trees are maintained and flourish in the sand.

I didn't think so at first, but after thinking about it carefully, I realized that this operation is indeed exquisite.

It is indeed a good planting method. If this method was used in the northwest region of the Qing Dynasty, it should be able to feed a larger population.

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  (End of this chapter)