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

Chapter 157 Letter from Wuhan
As expected of a sports fan, Zhang Boling found some footballs for Li Yu that day.

When Li Yu first saw it, he thought Zhang Boling brought a volleyball because they looked so similar.

Everyone must have seen football in later generations. It is generally white, supplemented by other colors or patterns, and the design is very delicate.

But the football in the early twentieth century is really strange. It looks like a volleyball. It is dark brown in color and not as smooth to the touch as modern footballs.

Fortunately, the overall weight is close to that of modern football, which is about 450 grams.

Li Yu dribbled a few times under his feet, and the feet felt a bit heavy, but the overall situation was good, almost reaching the level of [-]% of modern football, which was unexpected.

It's just that this kind of spherical material should be more water-absorbent. If you play a game, it is likely to add dozens of grams of weight.

Zhang Boling was even more surprised when he found out that Li Yu could play football: "It's hard to believe, you played football before?"

Li Yu tapped the ball lightly with his toe, and said, "I have been in touch with it a little bit. After all, quality education is necessary. How can sports be indispensable? Football is my favorite sport."

Zhang Boling gave a thumbs up: "Amazing! Mr. is indeed capable of both civil and martial arts. While the way of science is so amazing, he can also play football unexpectedly."

Li Yu laughed and said, "We can't really let foreigners think that we are all the sick men of East Asia."

"Sir, what you said is so reasonable!" Zhang Boling said, "It's really hard to emphasize the importance of sports now. It's just that in the entire Zhili area, only people in Tianjin know about this sport, but I'm very optimistic about it. It can exercise the body and bring everyone together.”

In the past, opium was too poisonous to the Chinese people. Even decades later, the impression of the Chinese people was that they wore rat tails and smoked opium.

Hey, although there is arrogance of Westerners in it, but the first impression is left, and it is really difficult to change.

Li Yu, as a time traveler, of course knows how great the subsequent development of football is, and said: "Of course, it will be the world's number one sport in the future after all."

"Oh?" Zhang Boling asked in surprise, "Mr. is so optimistic about football?"

Li Yu said: "As you said, there are many benefits, but it's a pity that our football level is really poor."

What Li Yu said meant how disappointing the Chinese men's football team would be in the future, but Zhang Boling thought he was talking about the present, so he said: "There is no way, after all, we developed late. But sports, I don't think the level is important."

FIFA will not be established until next year, that is, in 1904. Although the UK already has a first-tier league, it does not have much influence internationally, mainly between clubs.

If the national team appears, it will be the 1908 Olympic Games.

So, there is no Chinese men's football team yet...

There are no top teams like England, Brazil, Germany, or Argentina.

Therefore, it is impossible to defeat the Chinese men's football team before 1908!

"Indeed, exercising is the most important thing." Li Yu also treats it purely as a hobby, and he can't think about winning or losing every day. Winning or losing is something that professional players should consider more.

Zhang Boling said: "I plan to introduce football subjects in my private middle school, which can be regarded as inheriting the spirit of Mr. Yan."

"Mr. Yan?" Li Yu asked, "Which Mr. Yan?"

"Of course it's Mr. Yan Fu," Zhang Boling said, "you don't know, when he was in the Beiyang Naval Academy, he included football as a subject of 'manipulation' in the curriculum early on, and invited a British football instructor .”

Li Yu praised: "Mr. Yan is indeed the first group of people who opened their eyes to see the world. It is not easy to see football."

Zhang Boling said: "Of course, if there is no Mr. Yan, there will be no football trend in Tianjin, and I will not know about this sport."

Tianjin is the first city in the north to be exposed to football. The absolute budding of football echoes with Shanghai in the south.

Later generations of Tianjin football also created a very glorious history in the professional football league of China.

This is all for later.

Li Yu now has something else to play with. After all, he is young and full of energy, and he always finds a place to vent his energy that has nowhere to vent.

Seeing that Li Yu likes football very much, Zhang Boling smiled and said, "In the future, I will find a way to build an inter-school football league, just like Nanyang Public School and St. John's University in Shanghai. It can be regarded as a kind of promotion. If you are interested, sir , you can also come and participate.”

Li Yu asked, "Shanghai already has a football team?"

"That's right," Zhang Boling said, "as far as I know, these two schools have played many matches, and they both attach great importance to football. It is said that Cai Yuanpei, the head teacher of the special economics department of Nanyang Public School, even personally attends every football match. Supervisor."

"Who are you talking about, Cai Yuanpei, which Cai Yuanpei?" Li Yu asked in surprise.

"Could there be a lot of Cai Yuanpei?" Zhang Boling wondered, "His name is Heqing, and he is from Zhejiang."

Good guy, that's the Cai Yuanpei that Li Yu had in mind, the later president of Peking University!
"It's really him." Li Yu murmured.

"What? Do you know each other?" Zhang Boling asked again.

"Of course I know him, he is very famous." Li Yu said.

Zhang Boling nodded, "Indeed, he is a imperial scholar after all."

Li Yu never thought that talking about football would lead to Cai Yuanpei, and said, "Shanghai football has a long history."

Zhang Boling naturally didn't know that Li Yu was speaking from the perspective of a traveler, but he just replied: "The Beiyang Naval Academy was severely damaged in the Gengzi Incident. Fortunately, some students from the Beiyang Academy were evacuated to Nanyang. Studying in public school, and now that school is starting again, it just happened to bring back football."

Li Yu nodded and said, "I didn't expect that Shanghai football was born so early, and there was already a derby."

"What's the meaning of the Derby?" Zhang Boling asked.

Li Yu explained: "It's a competition between two teams of similar level in a city."

Zhang Boling asked: "Is it from English?"

Li Yu said, "Yes, English."

Zhang Boling said: "No wonder I haven't heard of it."

Li Yu said with a smile: "The British really love football, they love it to the point of hooliganism."

The next day, when Li Yu was about to return to the capital, Zhang Boling brought him a manuscript: "This is the relevant regulations on the establishment of sports that I wrote. You can refer to one or two in the Imperial University."

Li Yu said gratefully: "Mr. Thank you! I keep the handouts at home, and I will send them over when I go back and transcribe them."

Zhang Boling cupped his hands and said with a smile: "Isn't this just reciprocity!"

After returning to the capital, Li Yu showed Zhang Baixi the regulations and the football, and even demonstrated how to play football.

Zhang Baixi was very surprised by this: "It turns out that this is football. It doesn't seem to be a popular thing, and it can indeed be promoted."

Li Yu said: "Naturally, the sport of football itself is very good. As for Gao Qi's incident, it can only be said to be a human problem, not a football problem."

Zhang Baixi felt that it was indeed reasonable, and looked at the charter and said: "The suggestions in it are also very good, and I will implement them as appropriate."

Li Yu was very happy in his heart. In addition to board games, there will be another new entertainment activity in Jingshi University Hall.

All these have effectively enriched the after-school life of the students in the Jingshi University.

Li Yu was very happy for his "innovation", but it didn't take long for him to be called over by Gu Hongming.

The reason, of course, is that Li Yu failed the economics subject of the mid-term exam again...

Gu Hongming looked at the test paper in his hand and said: "Although you took the No.1 exam again, and your grades in other subjects are very good, and you even have two additional high-scoring subjects in foreign language, the extra difficult western learning questions taught by Mr. Ding can be easily dealt with." But the articles on Confucian classics are really unsightly, so I won’t mention the articles if they don’t make sense, and the calligraphy is also so unbearable.”

Li Yu said embarrassingly: "You know, people's energy is limited after all, and the way of science really takes too much time."

Gu Hongming said: "I can understand this, but it is really unreasonable to fail. Among our students, there are many who fail in science subjects, but you are the only one who fails in classics. It is too eye-catching."

After all, Gu Hongming is the vice-president of Chinese at the Imperial University. Although the level of Chinese studies is a half-way monk, it is still several ranks higher than Li Yu.

Li Yu said, "This... really shouldn't be."

Gu Hongming picked up some manuscripts from the table: "This is an article on 'China Studies' written by me in "Zi Lin Xi Bao" in the past 20 years. Although it is all in English, I think you should be able to understand it."

Li Yu's hanging heart let go, it turned out that Gu Hongming was trying to find a way for himself.

The level of Gu Hongming's Chinese studies is indeed much lower than that of Zhang Taiyan and other bosses, but the things he wrote are really easy to understand, which is good as an introduction to Chinese studies.

Li Yu said, "Thank you sir."

Gu Hongming also said: "No matter what, I am still in the teaching position. Although I am not as good as the sages and sages, I still understand the principle of being a teacher. I should also take Confucius as an example."

Li Yu really underestimated him before, but what Gu Hongming said moved him a little bit.

In fact, now that Li Yu has more status as an emperor teacher, Gu Hongming has a higher opinion of Li Yugao and is more interested in him.

Gu Hongming took out another stack of manuscript paper: "These are the "China Notebooks" written by me, but they haven't been finished yet, it's just part of it. You should take it and read it first."

Li Yu took it over solemnly, "I must study hard."

If Li Yu was asked to read the monographs on Chinese studies by Wu Rulun, Zhang Taiyan and others, it would be a big headache.But those who have read Gu Hongming's works can find that it is really easy to understand, and it is just right for Li Yu.

Of course, to put it bluntly, Li Yu's level of Chinese studies and classics is really amazing!
It is indeed unsightly!

Come to think of it, when he was in college, he was not allowed to fail his subjects.

Li Yu has really started to read Gu Hongming's articles carefully in the past few days. He reads them quickly, so he should mention his weak Chinese studies level a little bit.

Not long after, Li Yu received another letter from Wuhan. Looking at the specifications of the letter, he knew that it was extraordinary. The Zhang who signed it was the Governor of Huguang.

My God, Zhang Zhidong!
After reading the letter, Zhang Zhidong's meaning was very simple: "I have recently heard that Li Yu, the head of the capital, is well-known and well-known in the West, and his scientific methods have shocked China and the world. Mr. Wang came to Wuhan to learn more about the construction of the Western Industry and Mining Industry. "

Zhang Zhidong had served as governor of Huguang for many years, and Li Yu certainly knew that the industrial and mining industries mentioned were Hanyang Iron Works and Daye Mine.

Moreover, the Hanyang Iron Works is very well-known, and Li Yu once knew about it, and it is definitely considered an incredible big project today.

The construction of Hanyang Iron Works began more than ten years ago, and the construction process suffered a lot.

Although everyone now knows that people who don't understand should not be allowed to direct people who understand, but when Zhang Zhidong built the Hanyang Iron Works, there were no people who understood at all, and there was no precedent for building an iron factory in China. river.

So it's not surprising that you suffer a little.

Of course, later generations know that the composition of ores varies greatly.At that time, the British people were naturally aware of this problem. When Zhang Zhidong purchased the furnace for the steelmaking plant, the British mentioned: "If you want to set up a steel plant, you must first send all the iron, stone, coal, and coke to the factory for testing. , and then know the quality of coal and iron, what kind of steel can be smelted, that is, what kind of furnace is used, the difference is a little bit, and the difference is a thousand miles, so don’t take it rashly.”

But this kind of detail is completely meaningless to the leader.

Zhang Zhidong believes that China has a vast land and abundant resources, what kind of coal does it have?What ore is there?Let the UK buy what it uses!
The result turned out to be that the machine furnace was located in Hanyang, but the Daye Iron Mine was used for iron, and Ma'anshan coal was used for coal.

Perhaps this kind of thing is nothing in modern times, after all, logistics is developed, but how could there be such a strong transportation capacity in the early [-]th century, there were not many railways, let alone roads.

In addition, after starting trial production, it was found that the coal in Ma'anshan was not suitable, and thousands of tons of coke were imported from Germany.

Anyway, starting from 1890, it took five or six years, but the steel has not yet been smelted, but more than 560 million taels of silver have been spent.

Even if the coal from Pingxiang, Jiangxi was later used, the steel produced was still too brittle and cracked at every turn, making it completely unusable.

In short, after going through many detours and spending a lot of money, Zhang Zhidong realized that the model of the machine furnace purchased was wrong and could not remove the phosphorus in the steel, which caused the steel to be too brittle.

Then borrowed another 300 million from Japan, and changed the previous acidic furnace to an alkaline configuration, and then successfully smelted qualified steel.

It can only be said that this is the tuition fee!Anyone who asks himself not to know something is an unavoidable detour.

But it cannot be said that Zhang Zhidong is behind, because in a horizontal comparison, Hanyang Iron Works is the first large-scale steelmaking plant in Asia. Even in Japan, the construction of the steel plant was several years late.

Through these things, Zhang Zhidong thoroughly understood the importance of science and technology. It is not something that can be done if you want to.

It's a pity that few people really understand it, so education was built again, and the self-improvement college, the predecessor of Wuhan University, was derived from this.

In fact, Zhang Zhidong served as the governor of Liangjiang for a short time, and he founded Sanjiang Teachers College during his tenure.This school is quite remarkable. Nine colleges and universities including Nanjing University, Southeast University, Nanjing Normal University, Hohai University, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Forestry University, Jiangsu University, and Jiangnan University will all establish Sanjiang Normal School in 1902. It is regarded as the source of school history.

It's unbelievable!
Now that a person who understands science has finally come out of China, Zhang Zhidong certainly wants to come and get to know him, and Li Yu understands the upstream mathematical sciences, which is even more rare.

Before this, Zhang Zhidong had recruited many people with knowledge of Western science, but Li Yu was indeed too dazzling.

Seeing Zhang Zhidong's invitation, Li Yu certainly would not refuse. Among the core officials in the late Qing Dynasty, there are not many people who can support it, and only Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai can enter the power center.

The other ministers of the royal family are nothing to worry about, they are basically high-level bastards.

Li Yu immediately wrote back: "It is a great honor to learn of the invitation from the Taiwan Governor. I will leave for Wuhan in the near future."

In fact, this trip was not just to Wuhan. Li Yu planned to take the sea route and pass through Shanghai first, then go to Huzhou to see the Lu family's Song Tower, and then go up the river to Wuhan.

There is no way to go this way. Now the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway and the Beijing-Shanghai Railway are not fully open to traffic, so they can only travel part of the way. There is no way to meet the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.

Li Yu even ordered some banknotes in advance. This trip to Huzhou may cost a lot of money.

　Embarrassing, the next chapter is under review, you can read it after ten o'clock tomorrow...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)