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

Chapter 150 The Affirmation of the Math Leaders
Li Yu saw that there were many newspapers on Liang Qichao's desk, and in the middle were the manuscript paper and pen and ink spread out. Liang Qichao still prefers to write with a brush.Although he is in Japan, the Japanese also like to use brushes, so Liang Qichao is not in a hurry to learn how to use a fountain pen.

Of course, even if he wanted to use it, that feudal Master Kang might not be used to it.

The manuscript paper on the table was half written, it was Liang Qichao's own handwriting.

I don't know if it was influenced by Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao's writing is also very similar to Wei Bei.

Wei Bei, a highly respected calligraphy style in modern times, also began to rise in the Qing Dynasty. After all, ancient scholars wrote calligraphy every day, and they were used to regular script, running script, or the pavilion style for exams. They have long been tired of it.

So the majestic and simple Wei Bei began to be excavated by calligraphers of the Qing Dynasty.

Wei Bei is really very calligraphy. Ordinary people may feel that it is not as good-looking as Wang Xizhi's calligraphy at first glance, but it is art, it is colorful.

Talking about Liang Qichao's calligraphy alone, if it is put into modern times, it will definitely surpass many so-called great calligraphers. After all, he has been practicing calligraphy since childhood; but in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, he was indeed not ranked at all.

Li Yu wrote on the manuscript paper: "The survival of China in the future will depend on the Japanese students studying abroad. One more person is the benefit of one more person... Those who stop sending students abroad are the public enemies of our civilization!" "Entrusting foreigners to mediate internal disputes is humiliating to the country. If internal disputes cannot be restrained and the power of outsiders is used to intervene, the humiliation will be very beneficial..."

Liang Qichao really didn't shy away from it, and the spearhead between the lines was pointing at Cai Jun, the Minister of the Qing Dynasty in Japan.

You know, the official status of a minister in Japan is not low.

Li Yu said: "Sir, do you think the envoy will agree to enroll?"

Liang Qichao said: "It should be. The matter has reached this point. If many newspapers work together to exert pressure, I don't believe that Cai Jun can stand it!"

Li Yu said: "The decision is in the hands of the ministers stationed in Japan, and I think the trouble is like this. Maybe this Minister Cai will fight against the students for his own face. Even if he can't hold on in the end, it will waste too much time." ,not worth it."

Liang Qichao sighed: "Minister Cai is really embarrassing. Now that there are so many students studying in Japan, he doesn't know how to mediate it, and he doesn't realize how powerful this is in the future."

"It would be great if he could be replaced," Li Yu said.

"Replace?" Liang Qichao asked in surprise.

"Yes, once and for all!" Li Yu said, "As you said, there are indeed too many students studying in Japan, and they are all rare talents. There should be an enlightened person who knows how to deal with similar incidents."

Today's ministers in Japan really don't have much else to do. After all, the largest Chinese force in Japan is currently students, apart from Kang Liang and the revolutionaries.

And students are obviously the focus of all parties fighting for.

Liang Qichao said: "That being said, the minister is appointed by the imperial court. Is it possible that we have to write a memorial to the imperial court?"

"That will definitely not work," Li Yu said, "but don't forget, isn't there an 'imperial envoy' in Japan at the imperial court?"

Liang Qichao said, "You mean Zai Zhenbei?"

Li Yu nodded: "I have some contact with him, and Beizi Zaizhen is thinking about doing something to accumulate capital so that he can serve in the court in the future. I think he will be interested."

Liang Qichao asked, "Are you sure?"

Li Yu said with a smile: "I'm not sure, but from the perspective of mathematical expectation, there is hope. And if there is hope, it is worth a try. The result must not be worse, right?"

"Mathematical expectation?" Liang Qichao was at a loss.

"It's probability." Li Yu explained.

"Well," said Liang Qichao, who had never studied mathematics before, "Mr. is a master of western learning, so try it."

Li Yu asked: "Sir, do you know where Beizi is now?"

In any case, Liang Qichao is currently the leader of the Japanese royalist faction, and he has a lot of eyeliners. "According to the morning statement, Beizi should play in Mount Fuji."

Well, I really know how to pick a place.

Li Yu said, "Okay, when Bei Zi comes back, I'll have a chat with him."

Liang Qichao cupped his fists and said, "Wait for the good news."

After bidding farewell to Liang Qichao, Li Yu felt that it was useless to send a letter to the embassy, ​​so he reluctantly went to the post office to send a telegram. Fortunately, Li Yu had a little savings now, otherwise sending a few hundred telegrams would really be heartbreaking.

Due to the long content, it took a lot of time for the telegraph operator to send the telegram.But it happens that there is an eight-hour time difference between the East Ninth District where Tokyo is located and the East First District in Germany, which will not delay too much official working time.

When the telegraph office in Gogentin received the distant telegram, it was immediately sent to Professor Hilbert.

Seeing that it was Li Yu who sent it, Hilbert asked in surprise, "Why so fast?"

Then look at the content again, good guy, he even gave 20 solutions of the Riemann ζ function in one breath, all of which can be used as graduate thesis of the Department of Mathematics.

——In this era, computing power is still quite respected.

It's just that they don't know that Li Yu's computing power comes from integrated circuits...

Of course, having said that, even in the 21st century, the computing power of supercomputers is also very important, and it is even a symbol of national strength.

"Boom boom boom!"

There was a knock on the door, and Hilbert said, "Come in. Oh, it's Professor Minkowski."

Minkowski entered the door and said, "Just now I saw that the telegraph room brought a stack of papers to you. Is it a good thing?"

Minkowski just came to the University of Göttingen from ETH Zurich last year, and it was Hilbert who invited him.

Hilbert handed over the manuscript: "It's from Li Yu."

"Li Yu who wrote Fractal and Chaos?" Minkowski asked.

Hilbert nodded: "That's right, it's him. I sent him a telegram a few days ago, hoping that he would write a small manuscript on mathematics, but I didn't expect him to send me twenty Riemann zeta function papers in one go." untie."

"Twenty?" Minkowski asked in surprise, "What an amazing computing power!"

Hilbert said: "I didn't expect so many. So far, I haven't seen a solution."

Minkowski immediately flipped through the manuscript: "There is no problem in the calculation process mentioned above. As for the result, I can just ask the students to verify it together."

Hilbert agreed: "Verification is much simpler than calculation, but it will take some time to think about it."

Hilbert is a professor in the Department of Mathematics. There are many students. The homework assigned that day turned out to be to verify these solutions. In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, he also asked the students to cross-validate, and each of them was divided into two to three solutions.

In this way, the efficiency is very high, and the result will be delivered soon: all solutions are completely correct!
Hilbert felt even more incredible, and called Minkowski again: "How do you guess the verification results of those solutions?"

Minkowski said, "All right?"

"How do you know?" Hilbert asked puzzled.

Minkowski said: "Because I also randomly selected two to verify in person, the result is no problem. But the calculation of the verification alone makes me quite painful. I really don't know how he calculated it."

Hilbert took a sip of his pipe: "Although it is still far away from proving the Riemann Hypothesis, it is still a step forward to see the real solution so soon."

Minkowski said: "There are not many people who understand Riemannian mathematics today. I think one of my less outstanding students may also be interested."

Hilbert asked: "Not so good students?"

Minkowski said: "Yes, I mentioned to you, that really annoying Einstein."

Hilbert said: "I have a little impression. I heard you said that he is now in Switzerland and has become a Swiss citizen."

Minkowski nodded: "That's him! It's embarrassing to say it. It took more than a year to find a job. He just became a probationary employee at the Berne Patent Office half a year ago."

Hilbert frowned: "It does sound like a worrying student. A student from the ETH Zurich is struggling to find a job." Then he asked: "Why, could it be that he is good at mathematics? , Is it just a partial student?"

Minkowski said: "He is indeed a partial student, but on the contrary, his mathematics is not good. When he was at ETH Zurich, he spent a lot of time thinking about physics and often skipped my mathematics class. , I have to borrow other students' notes to revise in surprise every time I take an exam, just like a 'lazy donkey'!"

Hilbert said: "That being the case, how could he be interested in Riemann's mathematical content?"

Minkowski said: "Coincidentally, he wrote several letters to me recently, wanting to study Mr. Riemann's works carefully, so he asked me for advice. After all, he is his own student, so he can't ignore it."

It turned out to be love and hate...

It seems that "poor students" from ancient times to the present are likely to attract the attention of teachers?
Hilbert asked again: "Do you need to study advanced mathematics to work in the patent office?"

"Certainly not," Minkowski said, "but it is precisely because of this that I feel that he does not seem to have given up on research, which makes me feel quite comforted."

Hilbert nodded: "It seems that you, an uneasy student, will still be uneasy."

Minkowski said with a smile: "After all, you are a young man. If you have the desire to study, you should be encouraged. And this Li Yu seems to be about the same age as Einstein. I think it would be better for young people to communicate with each other."

Hilbert said: "It is true. I have met Li Yu, who is very young. And he has a very deep understanding of mathematics and physics in terms of the papers he published before."

Minkowski said: "I am also looking forward to this Li Yu. If he comes to Europe next time, I must meet him."

Hilbert said: "It is worth meeting. He once promised me that he will come to the University of Göttingen."

"You must tell me when the time comes!" Minkowski said, "And this paper, remember to give me a copy immediately after it is published, and I will send it to Einstein, a student in Switzerland."

Li Yu's article did not cause a special sensation. After all, not many people understand the Riemann zeta function 100 years later, let alone now, it is completely an academic article, which has only attracted attention in the mathematics circle.

However, some people outside the mathematics circle have seen it, including Mr. Boltzmann and Einstein.

Switzerland, Bern.

Einstein rode home on a bicycle with a freshly published mathematics magazine in his hand.

"Mireva, come and see, what a good thing I bought!"

Mileva came out in an apron: "Bicycle? From the Patent Office?"

Einstein said: "Of course not, I just bought this, to commemorate our newly registered marriage."

Yes, Einstein just registered his marriage with Mileva in January of this year, but they already have a daughter.

Mileva said: "You have only been a patent officer for half a year, and there are many places to spend money. Why are you so anxious to buy a bicycle? I think walking to work can also exercise your body!"

Einstein said with a smile: "Although I have always wanted to be a professor, I found that the salary offered by the Patent Office is not low. 3500 francs a year is enough for us to live on."

Mileva said dissatisfied: "That's because you don't know how many other expenses a family has. Three meals a day and everything in daily life cost money."

Einstein said: "My beautiful Mileva, don't always think about these trivial things with your excellent mind. You are an excellent scientist."

Mileva also studied mathematics and physics at ETH Zurich, where she and Einstein met.

Mileva said: "You can ignore your life, but we are married and I have to worry about these things. Although you are no longer a tutor wandering in various families, you are only a third-level technical expert at the Patent Office Our salary is not enough for us to live the life we ​​want.”

After Einstein graduated, due to the bad relationship with the professors and teachers in the school, no one wrote him a letter of recommendation, so he couldn't find a job and had to be a tutor for a year.

I don't know how the family who hired Einstein as a tutor will feel when they find out that Einstein has become famous ten years later.

My family once invited the great Mr. Einstein as a tutor!

Speaking out, I feel like an incredible cow.

Of course, these are bad memories for Einstein. He said dissatisfiedly: "Mileva, I will eventually prove that I am not just what I am now, and sooner or later I will become a real professor."

Mileva said: "I hope, I also hope that day will come soon. Fortunately, the business of the college student hotel I opened in my spare time is not bad, but every weekend these students really have no scruples, and the voice is so unpleasant Forget it, I don’t even know how to take measures, let alone take care of the sheets and quilts.”

Einstein said with a smile: "We were not like this at the beginning, what's so strange about it."

Mileva nuzzled: "If it weren't for you, I would have had a formal university degree."

Einstein laughed again: "It doesn't matter, with my beautiful Mileva's smart mind, sooner or later she will be a doctor!"

Mileva's eyes were a bit sad, but Einstein didn't notice, but said with the mathematics magazine in his hand: "In addition to this bicycle, today I found that Li Yu from the East wrote another interesting article. "

Knowing that Einstein was most interested in mathematical sciences, Mileva asked, "What did he write?"

Einstein was really interested, and immediately said: "It's about the solution of the Riemann ζ function. In the paper, he also gave the calculation steps, which are very delicate and have strong computing power. The most amazing thing is that I learned from the newspaper Knowing that he is the same age as me, I couldn't help but want to write him a letter to communicate! You know how difficult it is to find a theoretical scholar who understands both physics and mathematics. It's a brain that knows how to think!"

Mileva said in a low voice: "Yeah, it's not easy."

Mileva is actually in a bad mood. Since they registered their marriage, their lives have changed a lot.

Doing housework became her obligation, and she had less and less time to discuss mathematics and physics with Einstein, which made her feel depressed.And because there was not enough time to continue studying, Mileva sometimes couldn't keep up with Einstein's rhythm, so Einstein also discussed science with her less and less.Even when discussing together, Mileva gradually became a bystander.

Now Einstein has not become famous yet, nor has he stepped into one romantic story after another, but this marriage seemed destined to end in tragedy from the moment it was registered.

(End of this chapter)