Qu Yuan's "Li Sao" said that the dusk is over, and the road is changed in the middle of Qiang. "The Peacock Flying Southeast" Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi "after the dusk, the quiet people are settled. My life is gone today, and the soul leaves the corpse will remain forever." Jiang Kui's "Yangzhou slow" said, "It is gradually dusk, the clear horns blow cold, and they are all in the empty city." I think in ancient times, dusk is inseparable from sadness, separation, or even death.

In other words, Wang Xiaobo said, "There is no difference between ancient and modern times."

In the first year of the Xuantong period of the Qing Dynasty, in 1909, the late spring of the Western calendar. Another empire was dusk, with the pancake-like sunset passing through the declining North China Plain, illuminating the Tianjin Weide Concession, the three-color black, white and red flags of the German Empire were flying.

William II's primary school classroom, a female teacher from Konesburg, Prussia, wrote "die Daemmerung" on the blackboard, which is the German "duet".

"Who are you?"

Qiu Xiaogeng sat behind the desk, looking out the dazzling sunset outside the window. The sea and river were sparkling, and sailing boats and small motorboats were shuttled.

At dusk, if he had a stick of incense, he would wander in Taixu and ask himself this difficult proposition? If he was over 70 years old and had a good reading of poetry or an old monk entered into meditation, it would not be surprising, but he was a child who was still not dry and was less than ten years old.

Qiu Xiaogeng subconsciously scratched his arm. A few days ago, his family just invited a German doctor to come to him and planted cowpox for him, leaving a small acne scar. "Matthias!"

The teacher called Qiu Xiaogeng's German name "Mathias", warning him not to stop passing the class.

This school is named after the current German emperor. In the classroom, half of the German children and half of the Chinese children are all boys.

Qiu Xiaogeng's academic performance is actually the best in the class. Adhering to the German craftsman spirit, the school offers mechanical classes. Any parts of the machine can be played in the hands of Qiu Xiaogeng, or turning scrap iron into a weapon, which makes the mechanical teachers from Ruhr District amazed. The principal of William II Primary School is a doctorate from Heidelberg University and also serves as the vice president of the German Concession Engineering Department. He also attaches great importance to this kid and promises to fund Matthias to study in Germany in the future.

The bell rang for the end of get out of class. He grabbed his schoolbag and ran out of the school, with the slender braid behind his head flying like a cat's tail.

A few Chinese classmates greeted him, would you like to watch a foreign film? Qiu Xiaogeng smiled and shook his head and said, "Do you want to play chess with me?" As a result, no one dared to respond, because he has never lost since he was seven years old. On weekdays, German classmates rarely interacted with Chinese classmates. Both sides formed a group of races, but Qiu Xiaogeng was alone. His only good classmate was a blonde boy named Hermann, who often played chess together.

When he ran across William Street, a bronze statue of the German Emperor stood here. The German soldier standing guard saw the braids of the Chinese boy and laughed loudly. Qiu Xiaogeng immediately scolded him "Arschloch!" This was a swear word he heard from his German classmates, meaning a bastard. The German soldier was shocked, and for the first time a Chinese child scolded him in German.

The Tianjin De Concession is located in the current Dayingmen Street and Xiawafang Street in Hexi District. The ruins are now gone, and they are all newly built villas by later generations.

Tianjin is the gateway to the capital of the capital, North China is the main gate of the sea, and the base of the Beiyang ministers. Since the British and French coalition forces burned the Old Summer Palace, the British have surrounded the concession in Tianjin. Later, France, Russia, the United States, Japan, Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and even Belgium established concessions here, and Tianjin became the most fashionable city in the north. During the Republic of China, Junichiro Tanizaki came to Tianjin for a trip and was amazed as if he had arrived in a European city.

Nine-year-old Qiu Xiaogeng trotted along the winding sea river. Last winter, a kitten fell into the sea river. He was about to drown, so he took off his cotton jacket and pierced it into the water. He risked his life to save the kitten. He almost fell seriously ill after he was so cold.

When I arrived at the door of my house, it was dark. This was a brick house in the courtyard, with a unique family. Swallows built nests outside the eaves, and roses were planted in the courtyard. My mother had prepared dinner and had crabs and razor clams that Xiao Geng liked to eat.

Dad Qiu Desheng took off his glasses and put down today's German newspaper and said: "The Regent's younger brother Zaixun is inspecting the navy in Germany, and there are still people who will inspect the constitutional monarchy. How can such a noble noble be able to bear the great responsibility?"

Qiu Desheng was in his forties and was one of the first students studying in Germany. After returning to China, he settled in Tianjin and worked at the Tianjin Branch of Deutsche Bank. Last year, he was commissioned by the Qing Dynasty Foreign Ministry to translate the full text of the Constitution of the German Empire into Chinese for reference for constitutional purposes, so he was quite concerned about current affairs.

My son ate supper voraciously and suddenly interrupted: "Dad, when I grow up, I want to be an admiral."

"You kid is thinking about it again. The Regent replaced Yuan Shikai as soon as he came to power. Now those who can become generals are either royal families or Manchus. What's your turn?"

"Dad, I want to sail the earth by carving a giant ship, reaching the gates of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia, so that they will never dare to point the Chinese coastline with naval guns."

There is a wooden model of a dreadnought ship on the windowsill, which was carved by Xiao Geng himself, and it is vivid and not inferior to any metal model.

Every time he saw a ship model, even if it was just a ship drawing in the school, the turbulent sea would automatically appear in front of him. A ship was spraying black smoke and riding the wind and waves. The keel under the water line was shiny, and the propeller at the stern flew. From displacement to speed to boiler horsepower and even the center of gravity of the hull, it flew across his brain like dense newspaper layouts...

"Dream in the day! I see, China has to be poor and weak for another hundred years!" Qiu Desheng lit a cigarette, touched his son's forehead and said, "Xiao Geng, you are the only son of our enemy. Since ancient times, the only son has not been in the army, and no one will want you."

"Dad, you said I was born in the year of Gengzi. I heard Zhang Laizi pulling a cart at the alley. That year, the Eight-Nation Alliance hired him to push a wheelbarrow to transport food from Tianjin to Beijing. He saw with his own eyes that foreign devils killed innocent people indiscriminately, and all the way were full of corpses of ordinary people, especially the soldiers from Germany, Japan and Russia. However, the German teacher in our school said that this is a punishment for barbarism by civilization. Is this really a civilization?"

Hearing the three words "Gengzi Year", Qiu Desheng's expression changed and he slapped the table and shouted: "Don't mention Gengzi Year again! Don't go to find Zhang Laizi anymore. He is just a big fool who talks about the train! Don't talk about what the teacher said, don't miss your bright future!"

Qiu Desheng had never scolded the child, and he never wanted to beat him. His wife came over to dissuade him, asking him to calm down and let the child eat as soon as possible.

"Don't I have the word "Geng" in my name?"

My mother said that he was born in the Gengzi year. In order to support him, he added the word "small", just like the nicknames of a rural child, Goudan, Erniu, etc. Qiu Desheng stopped talking and looked at the dark night outside the window, feeling a little uneasy.

"Dad, I'm sorry. I know that the year of Gengzi is a taboo for my family. I promise not to mention it again in the future."

Looking at this smart son, Qiu Desheng was happy again and smiled faintly: "It's okay! Daddy has been busy with work these days, and is responsible for the settlement of the Boxer Indemnity of Deutsche Bank."

"A Boxer indemnity of 450 million taels of silver? On average, every Chinese person will have to pay one tael of silver to pay?"

"This huge sum of money will be paid in thirty-nine years, with an annual interest of 4 cents, with a total interest of 1 billion taels of silver! Germany will be divided into 20%, with a annual interest of 5 million taels of silver every year. From this year, it will be transferred to the Tianjin branch of Deutsche Bank. It will also be converted into a German mark and then shipped to Germany. It is really a headache."

"How much does it cost for five million taels of silver?"

"When I was studying in Germany, the contract cost of the Beiyang Navy's Dingyuan ironclad ship was 1.63 million taels of silver."

Qiu Xiaogeng immediately converted the answer: "It means that China has to compensate Germany three Dingyuan ships every year! If someone robbed the ship halfway, wouldn't it be as wealthy as a country?"

"Two years ago, the Boxer Indemnity sent to Japan was carried by a Japanese ship carrying one million taels of silver. It set sail from Wusongkou, Shanghai, but disappeared in the center of the East China Sea. There were hundreds of passengers on the ship, and their lives were unknown. Some said they encountered pirates, some said it was a shipwreck, and some even said it was a captain's robbery. In short, after this major case, all countries strengthened the protection of the Boxer Indemnity silver during the transportation."

"The Million Silver Case? It sounds interesting, like the story of Sherlock Holmes's four signatures, maybe it was done by a thief who robbed the rich and helped the poor!"

"Don't talk nonsense, go do your homework!"

Qiu Xiaogeng said "Yes", but a ghost ship full of millions of silver floated on the sea...

The lights were turned on at home. After finishing his homework under the lights, he went to his father's study to read the embroidered image book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Last night, I just read the 104th chapter "The Great Star Han Prime Minister returned to heaven and saw Mu Sisi, the governor of Wei, was frightened." On August 23, 12th year of Jianxing, Zhuge Liang died before he could succeed in the autumn wind Wuzhangyuan-

"That night, the sky was sad and the earth was miserable, the moon was dull, and Kong Ming was dying."

After reading this, Qiu Xiaogeng seemed to see the yellow land on the bank of the Wei River, the vast night sky, and a big red star fell. His heart was sore, and when his nose was blocked, he even shed tears.

Outside the gate of this courtyard, a crisp knock sounded.

Qiu Desheng, sighing, opened the door nervously. A man stood in the night. Although he was wearing a blue silk gown and a top hat, he looked like a young man, and his eyes stabbed Qiu Desheng in the face like a dagger. There were two Chinese policemen from the German Concession behind him.
Chapter completed!