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

Chapter 2 The North Drift Begins

The waiter in the teahouse obviously knew these bannermen, and immediately greeted them: "Masters, you came early today! Or should I have a pot of Longjing and a pot of incense as usual?"

The man named Lao Yu waved his hand: "Add two more plates of shortbread, hurry up."

"Come here!" Xiaoer echoed, "You guys please!"

After they went in, Xiao Er saw Li Yu standing at the door, saw that he was dressed in a special way, and said, "Master, please sit inside, our tea shop is famous around here, scented tea, Xiangpian and Longjing are all available."

It is said that it is Longjing, but of course it is not the Longjing of later generations. In the Qing Dynasty, green tea was called Longjing, which is an ordinary tea.

It's here anyway, let's go in and have a look.

Those banner people came here often, so they went straight to a table by the window and sat down.It was obviously the first time for Li Yu to stand in the lobby and look around.

His actions immediately attracted the attention of others, and a thin man with a melon skin cap on his head snatched it up first: "This brother, at first glance, he must be an outsider. He is here in the capital to find work?"

Well!When I came up, I was regarded as a North drifter!
"Yes." Li Yu didn't need to hide anything. The other party should be a dentist who introduced jobs to others.

Guapi Mao stretched out his hand to the table next to him: "Sit here!" He continued while pulling up the stool, "Look at Xiongtai, who is tall and well-dressed, he is from the Tianjin Concession?"

Li Yu followed his words and said, "That's right, foreign soldiers are everywhere in the concession now, so they have to come to the capital."

Guapi Mao hammered down the table resentfully: "These foreign devils have robbed us of our land, and they want so much money! Li Hefei betrayed his country and sought glory, what a disgrace!"

"Li Hefei" refers to Li Hongzhang, who is from Hefei, Anhui.

Ordinary people say this, and it seems that Cixi has indeed successfully passed on the contradiction.

After all, when her old man declared war on the Eleven Kingdoms aggressively, Li Hongzhang, as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, immediately set up mutual protection in the southeast, which was actually to resist the order.Based on Li Hongzhang's understanding of the West, he would never agree to go to war with foreigners.

The "list of culprits" handed to the Qing court by the coalition forces at the beginning was the Empress Dowager Cixi Lafayette who was the first to be named. It wasn't until then that she recalled Li Hongzhang out of fear and let him be the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang again. Sign a contract with a foreigner, and then take the blame for her as a "traitor".

I have to say that Cixi's political skills are really good.

Nowadays, although Li Hongzhang died of hatred last year, the hatred of the people towards him is still endless.

Li Yu responded casually: "Yes, Tianjin is still the hardest-hit area, and it was destroyed by the gang of foreign devils!"

"Hey!" Guapimao put away his grief and anger, and said, "Since Xiongtai is from the concession, and he doesn't look like a servant of the housekeeper, I wonder if he has any intentions?"

intention……

Li Yu is a bit uncertain about this. In fact, he doesn't know what he can do now. As a time traveler, his consciousness is of course ahead of others.But firstly, he doesn't understand politics, and even if he did, he would definitely not be able to play with those old fritters; secondly, he doesn't understand military affairs, since he was a child, he hasn't even fought a few times, so how could he lead troops to fight!

Seeing that Li Yu didn't answer, Guapimao went on to say, "Maybe if you have something special, let's hear it."

specialty!

"I'm better at studying for exams!"

There is nothing wrong with this. After all, Li Yu is a top 985 Applied Physics student, and his graduate student is still at Peking University. This is indeed worth bragging about!

Seeing Li Yu with shining eyes, Guapi Mao was stunned, "Examination? Brother, are you going to the Imperial College?"

Li Yu immediately shook his head: "I am good at mathematics and physics, oh, yes, and English!"

"That's all right!" Guapi Mao clapped his hands, "I thought Xiongtai must have some skills to come out of the concession. I heard that there are many new-style schools in Tianjin that specialize in studying things for foreigners. You can see that Xiongtai is knowledgeable." people!!"

Li Yu blurted it out just now, but he didn't expect to have something to say, so he continued: "I still need to ask a question or two."

"Well, there are indeed..." Guapi Mao deliberately slowed down his tone, and tapped his fingers on the table a few times.

Li Yu immediately understood, and said, "Of course there is an agency fee. I wonder how the capital collects it?"

Seeing that Li Yu was a sensible person, Guapimao said directly: "According to the rules of the capital, for ordinary jobs, one month's wages are generally charged as an intermediary fee, no more than one tael of silver."

Li Yu immediately felt a little troublesome, not to mention silver, he rarely even used banknotes, and now he can be said to be penniless, so he had to say: "To tell you the truth, I have lost all the silver on my body now... "

Upon hearing this, Guapi Mao's face was about to change, and Li Yu immediately added: "But I brought some good things from the concession!"

Only then did the melon skin hat soften his expression: "That's also possible, please take it out for admiration."

Li Yu fumbled in his schoolbag, and bravely took out the gel pen, "This is a Western product, called a gel pen. You don't need to dip the ink, and you can write on paper very smoothly."

"Oh?!"

The melon hat is obviously the first time to see this thing, "Is it so amazing?"

"That's it!" Li Yu took the opportunity to fool around, "The ministers of foreigners use this to sign their names!"

"Sign what kind of contract, and use this?" Guapimao couldn't help looking at the thin thing in Li Yu's hand.

"Must be! They all use this!" Li Yu said firmly.

"You bring it to me to see!"

Guapi Mao took out a piece of paper from his pocket and took the gel pen. Li Yu was afraid that he would not be able to use it, so he took off the cap for him.

Guapi Mao held the gel pen in the posture of holding a brush, and stroked lightly on the paper, "Hey! It's really good, it's so thin!"

Li Yu also turned into an unscrupulous profiteer at this time: "Look at what you said, I can still lie to you! This is an authentic signature pen for the nobles of the English country, and I usually treat it as a treasure!"

In fact, this is the most common one-yuan gel pen, but this thing is only available in the 1980s, and it must be much ahead of its time.

Gua Pi Mao was quite satisfied, "Tell me, what's the price?"

"Foreigners sell this at least one silver dollar." Li Yu said.

Gua Pimao thought about it and said, "One silver dollar, if you go to Henghe Bank to exchange it, it will be worth seven silver coins, which is almost one thousand Wen. Um... okay, I will take this job!"

Li Yu let out a sigh of relief, successfully fooling you!
"Then please tell me the way."

The melon hat played with the "treasure" in his hand, and said: "I heard that a group of high-ranking officials' children have gone to the Tongwen Museum. It is said that there will be some exams in a while. I don't know the details. But the Tongwen Museum is indeed short of people. Someone like you who understands the West will definitely be recruited if you go there, and if you can be a companion or tutor for an official family, then you will be on your way to the top."

"Tongwenguan!" Li Yu's heart lit up, this pen is really worth it!

(End of this chapter)