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

Chapter 14 Submit a Contribution

Yuan Shikai understood immediately, and laughed loudly: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the Prince's Mansion, I am really looking forward to it."

While the three of them were talking, they came to the Military Aircraft Department. Rong Lu is now the Chief Minister of Military Aircraft, and he usually works here.

Yikuang and Yuan Shikai were not ministers of military aircraft, and the reason why Cixi agreed with them to go to the core of power was also to train them intentionally.After all, Rong Lu's health is not good now, and if he is not in good health, he will not be able to do it someday.

It's a pity that Cixi didn't know that Yuan Shikai, as Li Hongzhang's "successor", actually didn't care whether he could enter the machine department.

After all, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, the master and apprentice, were not military ministers, but they still had power in the court and looked down upon the ministers.

Since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the power of the local feudal officials has long been inflated to the point where they can't control the military and government finances, even the imperial court.

The "Southeast Mutual Protection" when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China, the Qing government lost its prestige even more.Li Hongzhang, Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhang Zhidong, Governor of Huguang, Liu Kunyi, Governor of Liangjiang, Sheng Xuanhuai, Minister of Railways, including Yuan Shikai, the governor of Shandong at the time, were completely disrespectful at the time. Then get spanked the crap out of it.

Afterwards, Cixi had nothing to do, and could only praise them for "experienced in seeking the country".

How comfortable the local governor is!Yuan Shikai didn't want to be a minister of military affairs, not to mention that his new Beiyang army was also in Tianjin.

Rong Lu sat down at the table, took a sip of warm tea, and said to Yuan Shikai: "I have read the brochure you handed over. Tang Shaoyi is going to be the customs road in Tianjin. I heard that there are still foreigners garrisoned there." , can they let you go?"

Yuan Shikai said: "Don't worry, Zhongtang. I have arranged for the police from the Industrial Inspection Bureau to control the customs road. The foreigners have already taken the customs tax, so we can't also collect the customs road we set up. If that is the case, how much will they charge?" We really don’t know about the money.”

Now almost all customs and tax departments are controlled by foreigners. The Qing court had no choice but to set up customs roads to monitor customs taxes.

Rong Lu asked again: "The customs department has a lot of dealings with foreigners, can Tang Shaoyi be competent?"

"Master Zhongtang, Tang Shaoyi was a student sent to study in the United States in the early years. He studied and lived in the United States for seven years, and later followed me in North Korea for ten years. He specialized in negotiating with foreigners. He is quite familiar with things about foreigners."

Rong Lu said: "That's good."

The two of them were just talking to each other in the officialdom, dealing with official business, and the person who wrote Yuan Shikai's memorial would definitely not change.

Yuan Shikai also said: "In addition, Li Minchen, the president of Beiyang University, passed away, and the post of president is now vacant. The humble staff dared to recommend Tang Shaoyi as the new president."

Naturally, Rong Lu would not bother with such a trivial matter. Yuan Shikai said it only to show that he was Rong Lu's person, and he had to let Rong Lu know about everything.

"Since you are qualified, you should follow the regulations." Rong Lu tacitly agreed.

Yuan Shikai replied: "The humble job understands."

Rong Lu dealt with official business for another half an hour, and the important memorials were almost sorted out. He turned to Yuan Shikai and said, "Will Wei Ting go to Beijing this time to see the Queen Mother?"

Yuan Shikai immediately said: "When you return to Beijing, you will naturally have to meet the Queen Mother and listen to the sacred teachings."

Rong Lu said: "Then let's go together."

Empress Dowager Cixi lived in the Yiluan Palace in Xiyuan, where she basically met with ministers. The highest authority today is actually not in the Forbidden City, but in Xiyuan.

The memorials that Rong Lu had sorted out would naturally go to Xiyuan to show to the Queen Mother.

In the Tongwen Hall at the moment.

Li Yu had nothing to do during the day, Yikuang went to the palace on errands, his son Zai Zhen disappeared early in the morning, and even the somewhat annoying Rui Zheng went to the Prime Minister's Office.

Li Yu remembered that he still had such a great position as a librarian, so he returned to Tongwen Library.

As soon as he entered the door, he ran into Martin Martin, who was just about to enter the office with several newspapers and magazines.

"Good morning, Sir!" Li Yu greeted.

Seeing Li Yu, Ding Weiliang smiled and said, "Why, can't you let go of your job as a librarian?"

Li Yu spread his hands: "If you haven't dismissed me, I can't be absent from work. I'm a qualified worker."

Martin also thought he was joking, and replied: "There is no need to do such a simple job in the future."

Li Yu smiled wryly and said, "Master Xi, I am penniless now, so I can't just eat and drink in Prince Qing's mansion every day."

Martin stroked his beard: "You are right, but I was really negligent. How about it, I will arrange you as a temporary student of Tongwen Hall, and you will receive a monthly subsidy of 2 taels of silver."

"Is there still money for being a student?" Li Yu wondered if he was going to give himself some back door.

Ding Weiliang said: "The regular students of Tongwenguan have a monthly subsidy of 10 taels of silver, but now Tongwenguan has been merged into the Imperial University Hall and no longer recruits students separately. This 2 taels of silver is a special allowance given by the imperial court to our preparatory students. , can be issued for three months."

2 Two taels of silver is not much, but it is better than the one or two taels per month of those idle bannerman clans.Sure enough, knowledge is power!

Li Yu is a person who doesn't like to eat free rice, so he can't take this money for nothing, and he thinks in his mind that there is any way to make money.

He caught sight of the magazine in Martin's hand and said, "The chief professor is holding an English journal. If I publish some academic articles, will I get any money?"

"This... of course. However, publishing academic articles is not easy."

"I think I can try it."

Weiliang Ding flipped through the magazines in his hand, thought for a while and felt that he could really test Li Yu's level, "Well, I appreciate your courage and knowledge, and it just so happens that the Natural Science Society under the Royal Society The newspaper is asking for a draft, I think you can submit it."

"Proceedings of Natural Science?"

"Yes, Newton, Faraday and others had published many excellent papers on it. The Royal Society of England rarely invites papers from society, but now the scientific momentum in Germany is too strong, and they naturally don't want to fall behind Germany."

Martin knew quite a lot about the latest news.

Li Yu said, "Okay, then I'll go back and try writing a paper."

Martin Martin handed several magazines in his hand to Li Yu: "Go back and have a look. These journals are of a very high level. It is very difficult to write an excellent new paper."

Li Yu thanked Ding Weiliang, took over the magazine, and saw that the issue number was last month——traveling across the ocean and coming to Daqing, it was considered quite new.It contains not only the publications of the Royal Society, but also cutting-edge scientific journals such as "Physical Yearbook" and "Edinburgh Review".

And the last book is "Nature"!
Good guy, I didn't expect to finally see one of the three famous CNS academic journals in the late Qing Dynasty more than 100 years ago.

In Li Yu's era, "Cell", "Nature", and "Science" were definitely the most influential journals, collectively called CNS.

The impact factor of "Nature" is as high as 49, and the other two are more than 40. What kind of concept is this!

Being able to post a research paper with the first author on it is 100% top academic!As long as they are not among the top ones in the country, any 985 university can be rated as a professor, associate professor, etc., and they can definitely walk sideways.

(End of this chapter)