A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 11
Rui Zheng thought to himself: This Li Yu has become a "Mr." as soon as he came to the mansion, and he can still give lectures to Prince Qing. Wouldn't his status be immediately higher than his own.

As an interpreter for Prince Qing, he is also a banner man, so if he sees him in the future, this Han Chinese will be a head shorter!It's really unreasonable!

He sat on the chair, picked up the teacup and concealed his face, thinking about how to make Li Yu's status lower than his own.

Li Yu didn't have time to think about his mental activities at all, he just got up casually and walked around the hall.

This chandelier is indeed very beautiful at close range, and it looks even more magnificent in the low-rise main hall.The teacup I drank from just now looked smooth and clean, so it must be a famous kiln porcelain; even the chair I was sitting on was inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which was very expensive.

Yikuang was worthy of being the top tycoon in the late Qing Dynasty, and all aspects of his life showed wealth.Coincidentally, he also lived in Heshen's old house at the beginning, and it really has a greedy inheritance in the dark.

Li Yu moved to the wooden box containing the chandelier, and saw a few pieces of paper randomly thrown on the ground, which seemed to be documents.

He picked it up and saw that it turned out to be a tax declaration form from the customs, on which was written "LANDED PRICE 1688 TAEL", that is, the landed price was 1688 taels.

Li Yu accidentally discovered a little secret.

The price of this chandelier imported from Italy is actually 1688 taels, but when the young prince Zaizhen chatted with Ruizheng, he said it was 3000 taels.

Li Yu guessed that Ruizheng should have been tricked, otherwise why would such a document be thrown here at will.

Maybe Ruizheng didn't understand the meaning of "landed price". During their period, there was still very little import and export trade in the Qing Dynasty.In Li Yu's era, China had long since become the world's largest import and export country, and it was completely incomparable.

On the contrary, the number 1688 is really interesting and connotative.

Li Yu didn't intend to expose him just like that, so he folded up the tax return and put it in his pocket.

Ruizheng didn't see Li Yu's actions either, he finally came up with a set of words in his mind: "I heard that you are going to be a gentleman in the palace?"

This question was a bit inexplicable, and Li Yu replied: "I can't talk about the husband, I just want to be a student to help the prince understand the knowledge of Western learning."

Rui Zheng snorted: "If you want to be a gentleman in the palace, you must at least have a reputation, at least you must be a Jinshi, right? How about you?"

Li Yu heard the sting in Rui Zheng's words, and replied, "I've already said, I'm just a student assistant for Western studies, not a teacher."

"Then there is no fame." Rui Zheng felt triumphant as he had caught Li Yu's handle.

Li Yu continued to say lightly, "So what. Do you have a reputation?"

Ruizheng said airily: "Naturally! I am from Juren, and I am a graduate of Tongwenguan in the 24th year of Guangxu."

"Oh, that's really amazing." Li Yu praised with a smirk.

Ruizheng continued: "I don't even care about those things I learned from the West. They are all weird skills. Learning those things will not bury my ancestors!"

Li Yu didn't expect that he, a Tongwenguan graduate, would still be so old-fashioned in thinking, and said, "Then you have to keep the things of your ancestors, and you will be in trouble if you are snatched away by those strange and obscene skills."

"you!"

Of course Ruizheng knew the importance of Western learning, but he didn't learn much in the Tongwen Museum back then, so he could only try his best to belittle Western learning and then highlight himself.

"The imperial court has said that Chinese learning is the body and Western learning is the application. This is what the great government wants!" Rui Zheng said in disbelief.

Li Yu is well versed in the essence of Internet debates, and immediately replied: "Well, well, you are right!"

When Rui Zheng heard this, he was really dumbfounded, it was the first time he had seen someone argue like this!I thought for a long time about the flirty words, as long as Li Yu dared to refute, I could fight back immediately, but I didn't expect him to say such a sentence directly!As a result, one's own ammunition was directly misfired, and all the organized language in the stomach was invalidated.

What was even more uncomfortable was that although Li Yu verbally "agreed" with him, Ruizheng always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't tell.

Although Li Yu didn't want to argue with him, Rui Zheng didn't want to let it go, he thought for a while and said: "In short, without fame, Potian can only be a book boy in the palace!"

This sentence is what he really meant - to let Li Yu rank below him.

Li Yu really felt speechless, but he couldn't let him be provocative, so he said, "Since we're talking about fame, I wonder what your excellency is best at?"

Ruizheng said: "Reciting poems and doing the right thing, naturally everything is fine."

"There's no point in reciting poems. When it comes to fighting, why don't I make a pair for you. You have a reputation, so you won't be afraid of a pair made by someone like me who has no reputation?"

"You want to test me?" Rui Zheng was really aggressive.

"Don't dare, just study together." Li Yu looked at Ruizheng jokingly.

"Then you go out to the Shanglian!"

Rui Zheng felt that it was impossible for him to lose the pair to Li Yu, who was not even a scholar.

Li Yu also didn't expect that the other party would sneak in after he played a little trick, so he could only say: "Then I will go crazy!"

Ruizheng pricked up his ears: "What are you posting? Hurry up, right!"

Li Yu said: "Listen! This is just a little self-deprecation. The first line is: In the picture, the dragon does not sing, the tiger does not roar, and the little book boy is ridiculous!"

"Huh!" Rui Zheng was startled, he had never heard of Li Yu's pair, and this guy in front of him, who is not even considered a scholar, could blurt out such a high-level Shanglian!
After all, he had just ridiculed that the other party was a book boy, and Li Yu immediately took the opportunity to publish the first couplet, which can be described as very "appropriate", and it was really difficult for him to come up with the second couplet for a while.

Li Yu saw that Ruizheng's forehead was dripping with sweat, and he was overjoyed: Just think hard, to be right, at least you have to be Tang Bohu.

Ruizheng felt that he couldn't get off the stage, but luckily at this moment, Prince Qing's voice came from the inner hall:

"President Ding has been waiting for a long time, this Russian envoy is really a bit long-winded."

Yiqian was quite polite to Martin Ding, because he happened to be an American, and Yikuang always felt that Americans were easier to deal with than Japanese and Russians.

He continued: "What I can't stand the most is the envoys from Russia and Japan. They can't discuss anything for most of the day. The Russian envoys are really aggressive and unpleasant; the Japanese envoys have a lot of demands, and the documents are even worse One after another."

Yikuang knew that the United States had always been neutral, and Martin, as an educator, would not get involved in politics, so he was not afraid to speak out.

In fact, the attitudes of the two countries were well known even at that time.

Moreover, during the period of the Republic of China, all countries began to stop or even refund Boxer indemnities. After calculating the "Xin Chou Treaty", we paid more than half of the total compensation, which is more than 5 million taels of silver.

But there is only one country that has not reduced or refunded a penny, and that is Japan!

(End of this chapter)