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

Xie Yuxi almost finished the initial process.

But as before, it will take at least a month for the Concession Industry Bureau to approve and obtain the formal contract and title deed.

Fortunately, the land that Li Yu bought before has a formal contract, and Li Yu paid the remaining 8775 taels of silver, and the land is considered his.

Now you can find a construction company to build the laboratory.

Builders were called "builders" in old Shanghai.

If you want to find them, it is best to go through people in the media industry with a lot of connections. Shi Liangcai, a reporter from Shenbao, recommended a man named Yang Sisheng to Li Yu.

Yang Ruitai Construction Factory, the first Chinese self-operated construction factory in the history of modern architecture in Shanghai, was founded by him.

Yang Sisheng was from Chuansha, later Pudong.

He and his apprentices are the well-known Chuansha Gang in the history of Shanghai Bund architecture.

More than two-thirds of the buildings on the Bund, known as the International Architecture Expo, were built by them. There was a saying in history that "Pudong man-made half of Shanghai City".

China's infrastructure madness gene seems to have planted its seeds very early.

Ten years ago, the Qing government planned to build a customs building in Shanghai, and the designer was British.There is nothing to say about this. In fact, until later generations, architectural design, especially conceptual design, is still the strongest in Europe. It involves not only architecture, but also aesthetics and art, which are indeed the traditional strengths of Europeans.Although many of them are just their cultural aesthetics, the art world has almost always been in the hands of Europeans for so many years, and even the old beauty cannot win it.

After the design was completed, how to build it became a big problem. As we all know, the geological conditions in Shanghai are not good, the soil is soft, and there is a lot of groundwater. Therefore, building houses in Shanghai has always been expensive and difficult.

It can be said that the city of Shanghai was built by stacking real money little by little. There are too many soft soil layers that are not suitable for foundations, and they can only be dealt with in various ways of burning money.

Later generations can use machinery to make dense pile foundations that extend into the ground or to improve soil quality, but these methods are either expensive or require the use of modern engineering machinery.At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were not many construction machinery, not even an excavator, so there were many more problems encountered.

At that time, the Qing court chose an Italian builder, but the Italians were unable to construct due to groundwater problems.

Yang Sisheng knew that this was an opportunity, besides, how could the customs, which represented his own sovereignty, be made by foreigners?It was so embarrassing, so he decided to "do not hesitate to lose his family, but also to compete with foreigners."

The Italians really had no choice, so they let Yang Sisheng accept the bid.

Unexpectedly, this job was really done by Yang Sisheng. The Customs Building became a landmark building in Shanghai.

Yang Sisheng has become famous, and he also wants to engage in education when he has money, especially to help the development of his hometown, which is the Pudong area today.

When he knew Li Yu's name, he immediately came here happily.

"My lord, the old man is polite!" Yang Sisheng was about to salute Li Yu after entering the door.

Li Yu hurriedly supported him: "You don't have to be polite, old man, just treat me as an ordinary person."

But Yang Sisheng said: "You are not an ordinary person. Not only are you a teacher of the emperor, but you can also understand so many foreign knowledge. It is not simple, not simple!"

Li Yu said with a smile: "It's not enough to rely on myself, so I have the idea of ​​building a school and a laboratory."

Yang Sisheng said: "If it is to build a school, I will do it even if I don't take your money!"

"This can't be done," Li Yu said, "it's not a small project."

Yang Sisheng said: "I dropped out of school when I was young and never read a book. I deeply feel that only by studying can I have a future. I also intend to build a school in Chuansha. Now I hear that the emperor wants to build a school that can rival foreigners. I am so excited!"

Two years later, Yang Sisheng will spend almost all his family's wealth to build Pudong Middle School. This school has been handed down and produced many celebrities, such as the two sons of President Jiang, Jiang Jingguo and Jiang Weiguo.

Li Yu said: "Although I dare not say whether I can compete with foreigners, it is impossible to be inferior to them."

"Okay!" Yang Sisheng said, "Having the emperor's words makes me feel more at ease! No matter how difficult the project is, I will use the best quality to complete it for you."

Li Yu spread out a floor plan: "This land is not too big, only about [-] acres. My idea is to build three buildings arranged in a concave shape. In order to increase the building area, build them as high as possible. At least four floors."

This is a very common condition in later generations, but Yang Sisheng felt a little bit troubled after hearing this, and asked after a while, "Where is this piece of land owned by the emperor?"

Li Yu said, "West of Jing'an Temple."

Yang Sisheng has a good understanding of Shanghai's geology after spending more than half of his life in construction. He said, "The conditions of that land should be reasonable, but I have never built such a tall house. I don't know if the bricks and stones can hold it up."

Reinforced concrete has already begun to be used in the United States, but it is still not available in China.

So Li Yu said: "Cement can be used together with sandstone and steel bars, and the steel bars can be placed at the lower part of the floor to bear the tensile stress; the concrete can resist compression and be placed at the top of the floor."

Yang Sisheng asked: "I don't quite understand, what power?"

Li Yu took out a piece of paper and explained to him the tensile strength of steel bars and the compression resistance of concrete, and then the length of the lower side that will appear when the middle part of the floor is stressed, that is, the length of the lower side, which is tension; the upper part is shortened and compressed.

They are all the most basic things in structural mechanics. Even if Yang Sisheng doesn't understand mechanics, Li Yu quickly understood what he meant by drawing such a picture.

"If it is really as the emperor said, maybe it will work." Yang Sisheng said.

Li Yu smiled and said, "Of course it works."

Historically, Yang Sisheng would figure out this truth by himself two years later, so Li Yu told him in advance.

In fact, it can be built higher, but Li Yu knows that they don't have much experience, so if it is too high, they don't dare to build it.

Yang Sisheng took a pen and drew strokes in the air, then kept looking at the map, and said after a long time: "I know it well, don't worry, the emperor, I will definitely complete it for you!"

Li Yu said: "Just tell me how much money you need, and I will pay half in advance."

The first reinforced concrete building in Chinese history seems to be born in their hands.

It can also accumulate some experience for continuing to build larger primary and secondary schools and colleges in the future.

Yang Sisheng said: "Sir, please take me to the plot again."

After arriving at the west of Jing'an Temple, Yang Sisheng called his apprentice, Gu Lanzhou.

Gu Lanzhou is also from Pudong, and now he has also established a construction factory.

Since then, he has built more than 30 major projects, including the Jardine Matheson Building, the British Consulate on the Bund, the British Consulate in Nanjing, the British Legation in Beijing, and the Swire Building in Shanghai.

In addition, Gu Lanzhou also contributed a lot to the Shikumen architecture with Shanghai flavor.Almost 2000 buildings have been built in Shanghai, and the "Lan" characters we see today, such as Lanhuili, Lanxingli, Lanyili, Lantingli, Lanzhali, etc., are all written by Gu Lanzhou.

After the two visited the site, they felt that it was a good place. Yang Sisheng said: "The emperor really knows how to choose it. This place radiates the concession and the suburbs. It is really a good place to run a school."

Gu Lanzhou said: "The difficulty of construction is not as great as imagined. I think the garden that Mr. Hartung will build is not far away, and there will be a support in the future."

The construction company responsible for the construction of Hartong Garden in Hartong is also a Shanghai-based contractor named Wang Songyun.He not only built Hartong Garden, but also built Huizhong Hotel (predecessor of Peace Hotel).

This garden in Hartong is a big project, and the distance between the two places is not far, so things about building materials will be much more convenient in the future.

Yang Sisheng said: "I took the guys to clean up the ground first and prepare the foundation. When the drawings come, we can start construction immediately."

Li Yu cupped his hands and said, "I'm sorry."

With his promise, Li Yu immediately found a well-known design company in the Shanghai Concession, the British Elder & Co., and asked them to produce the design drawings.

Elder & Co. did a lot of architectural design in Shanghai, including a villa by Li Hongzhang, in which Eileen Chang was born.

Since Li Yu wanted to build a laboratory, he could only find foreign designers, who were more or less familiar with the construction mode of Western-style colleges and research institutes.

However, it is true that Elder & Co. has not designed several school-like buildings before, and it still needs to find information from many sources.

Li Yu roughly drew a sketch to express his thoughts.

His idea is to build a laboratory with as large a bay as possible, and the clear height of each floor should be more than three meters as much as possible, and the ground floor will of course be higher.

Design fees are not small figures.

Li Yu wasn't afraid to spend money on it, so he asked them to design in the best possible direction.

Nowadays, there is no CAD, and drawing design drawings is a very laborious task, which is done manually on large A0-level drawings with rulers and pencils.After drawing, cover the sulfuric acid paper on the white paper for tracing, spread the sulfuric acid paper as a base map on the diazonium salt photosensitive paper, clamp it with glass, expose it to the sun, and then smoke it with ammonia water, it becomes the so-called blueprint .

Although it has reached the level that can be copied, compared with the laser printing of later generations, it is still too much trouble. The most important thing is to change the hand-painted drawings to make people crazy.

Designers must have a clear mind when drawing, otherwise, once Party A is not satisfied, the cost of rework will be too high.

This was a physical effort. Since then, Lin Huiyin wanted to study architecture very much. One of the reasons why the University of Pennsylvania rejected her was that it did not accept girls;

Of course, Lin Huiyin is obsessed with this, and it is another matter to pass the exam from the art major.

In other words, many comprehensive universities recognize that the highest overall quality of beauties is also from the Department of Architecture~~~~
In short, the current blueprints are quite precious, and the value is naturally very high, and they will not be able to get them out for a while.

During this period of time, it is estimated that Yang Sisheng and the others can also handle the leveling of the site, purchase materials, and select construction personnel.Once the drawings come out, they can be seamlessly connected, and the project construction can be completed as quickly as possible.

After staying in Shanghai for so many days, it was time for Li Yu and Xie Yuxi to return to the capital.

The two still arrived at Tianjin Port by ship, and then took the train to Zhengyangmen Railway Station.

It was still somewhat troublesome. Li Yu was going to find a way to get the Qing court to promote the construction of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway as soon as possible. Strictly speaking, it should be from Beijing to Nanjing Pukou. From Pukou, you need to take a ferry to cross the Yangtze River, and then continue to take the train to Shanghai.

Although there is no bridge on the Yangtze River, two transfers are required in the middle, which is still much faster than the boat.

On the train from Tianjin to Beijing, Xie Yuxi suddenly said to Li Yu: "Where is the best place to make clothes in the capital?"

Li Yu was surprised: "There are so many clothing stores in Shanghai, why don't you just buy them?"

Xie Yuxi said, "No, all they sell are western clothes, I want the most traditional one."

Well, it seems that not only does she like traditional courtyard houses, but now she also wants to try traditional clothes.

Li Yu thought for a while and said, "It just so happens that I should also order a suit. Let's go to Dashilan tomorrow to have a look."

Beijing's silk and satin industry is known as Badaxiang, which means eight silk shops with the word "Xiang".

Ruifuxiang is still handed down to this day.

But when they first arrived in Dashilar, they were first attracted by the first Xiangyi brand.

The specialty of this store is that it specializes in high-end custom-made garments. Although the scale is not as large as that of Ruifuxiang, the silk and satin are all tributes from the palace, which are rarer and more expensive, with a touch of luxury.

When Li Yu and Xie Yuxi entered the silk shop, they heard a shrill voice from inside:
"Shopkeeper Feng, Lafayette specially ordered these pieces of silk to be brought. It is equivalent to the costumes you made for the Nanfu Shengping Department a few times ago. It should be more than enough."

It was Xiao De Zhang who spoke.

The shopkeeper Feng Baoyi said: "Eunuch De, I am sorry for your trouble."

Xiao Dezhang said: "It's all my own business, so there's nothing to do."

The finances in the late Qing Dynasty were quite tight, but Lafayette certainly couldn't suffer, and the clothes were made very diligently.

Considering that there are mountains of silk and satin tributes in the palace, under Xiao Dezhang's suggestion, Cixi agreed to convert the palace silk and satin tributes into silver taels to Xiangyi as the cost of processing palace clothes.

As a result, Xiangyi began to sell tribute silks and satins in the palace, and introduced royal silk products to the people, attracting a large number of high-ranking officials and nobles at once.

The reason why Xiao Dezhang suggested this is actually because he and Feng Baoyi co-founded the Xiangyi Company.

Xiaode Zhang's real name is Zhang Xiangzhai, and the word "Xiangyi" is derived from Zhang Xiangzhai's "Xiang" and Feng Baoyi's "Yi".

Relying on this trump card, Xiangyi will not fall behind its competitors with Ruifuxiang.

Even now that the location of Xiangyi has been changed to Dashilan No. 1, it has the reputation of "No. [-]" in Dashilan silk and satin.

It's just that the price of Xiangyi's clothes is quite high.

Xiao Dezhang saw Li Yu and said, "Yo, it's the Emperor Master who is here."

"Morning, Eunuch De," Li Yu said, "Today I ordered a dress for this lady from the United States of America and myself."

Xiao Dezhang looked at Xie Yuxi: "We don't know how to make clothes for foreigners here."

Li Yu said: "It is just to make some everyday casual clothes, not foreign clothes."

"It turns out that's what happened," Xiao Dezhang said to Feng Baoyi, "Master Feng, this is the Emperor's Master of the dynasty. He showed our store's best housekeeping skills and made good clothes for the Emperor's Master."

When Feng Baoyi heard that he was the emperor's teacher, he quickly said: "Since you are the emperor's teacher, of course you must use good fabrics, please."

Xiao Dezhang doesn't care about the specific operation of the silk shop, but Feng Baoyi was born in a Hangzhou silk family and has been making clothes for most of his life, so his professional level is quite high.

He selected robes, mandarin jackets, jackets, and skirts for each of them.

After all, it was really not cheap. It cost more than 60 taels to customize the two clothes. This is just ordinary clothes, and it is really a luxury price.

If it is a more complicated court uniform for officials, it is really expensive, and the key point is that the court will not issue it.It's no wonder that many officials can't afford it, and some decorations such as gems can only be disguised with colored glaze.