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

Chapter 241
Li Yu was about to leave by train. Duan Qirui and Tang Shaoyi brought a group of people to see him off. Li Yu also saw a Japanese figure among them. Judging from his position, his rank should not be low.

Li Yu wanted to take another look, but the train had already started.

Duan Qirui and Tang Shaoyi waved goodbye to Li Yu, but Li Yu didn't care about the Japanese.

But the Japanese has been staring at Li Yu.

What Li Yu didn't know was that he was Rihachiro Sakanishi, who was Yuan Shikai's senior military adviser at the time, and the teacher of Kenji Doihara, the second-generation Japanese spy chief.

Rihachiro Sakanishi joined Yuan Shikai's staff through the introduction of Norijun Aoki, the first generation of Japanese spy chief.

It can indeed be seen that Japan's ambitions are not only big, but also sincere and persevering.It took three generations in a row on the content of secret agents, and the other aspects are similar.

It seems that whether it is a family or a country, it is really not enough time for one generation to become stronger.

However, Rihachiro Sakashi was hired as an adviser secretly, because there was a "Secret Cassini Treaty" between China and Russia, which stipulated that if the Qing army hired foreign instructors, they must be Russians.

In order to avoid trouble, Yuan Shikai asked Sakanishi Rihachiro to dress up as a Chinese and gave him a Chinese name: Ban Zhichao.Yuan Shikai said to Rihachiro Sakanishi: "Your job is similar to Ban Chao who was sent to the Western Regions when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was sent to the Western Regions. Let's call him Ban Zhichao."

Rihachiro Sakanishi spent a very long time in China. During the rule of the Beiyang warlords, he had close contact with almost all the high-level power holders in the past, and the relationship was quite good.

Sakanishi Rihachiro watched the train go away with a slightly sinister look, and immediately sent a telegram to his boss in the capital, Japan's first generation spy chief Nobujun Aoki.

Japanese spy agency, Aoki Mansion.

Yasuya Uchida, the Japanese Minister to China, is studying this radio equipment with Nobujun Aoki, Naniwa Kawashima, and Atsuko Kawahara who just arrived.

Uchida Yasuya explained and demonstrated the operation of this radio equipment to them, and several people shouted in disbelief: "If you can freely send information to friendly forces thousands of miles away, it is really a rare weapon."

Nobujun Aoki said: "I received a telegram from Banxi-kun. He mentioned that Li Yu, the inventor, received extremely high treatment in the Beiyang Army. Presumably Governor Yuan is also paying more and more attention to him. Kawashima-kun, you Is there any new information?"

Naniwa Kawashima said: "According to my investigation, Li Yu's movements have always been concentrated in the field of academics and inventions. This radio equipment should have been developed by him when he was in the United States. He seems to have contacted some high-level chaebols in the United States."

"America?" Uchida Yasuya pondered, "The United States is an unpredictable country now, but it is isolated overseas, and it must just hope to do more trade, and it will not affect our strategy in East Asia."

Naniwa Kawashima also agreed: "The military power of the Americans is not strong, and we will not have conflicts with them. But the economic strength of the American chaebols is not to be underestimated. I am not too sure about the relationship between Li Yu and the American chaebols." How close."

As a military officer, Nobusumi Aoki said: "Although he is only a scholar, he has now mastered such a powerful scientific and technological power. If other countries get it, it will always be detrimental to our Great Japanese Empire."

Uchida Yasuya said: "There is no other way. He invited envoys from various countries to release this technology at the Liuguo Hotel. The envoys of all countries have already known about it, so it is not a secret."

Li Yu just wanted to spread the word, and he couldn't hide it anyway. If everyone had it, it wouldn't be a secret weapon.And things like radios can be used commercially and military without delay.

Nobujun Aoki asked: "So, is it possible for Russia to obtain this technology?"

"It is said that they have ordered radio equipment from Li Yu," said Uchida.

Nobujun Aoki sighed: "Fortunately, it is still in a fair competition situation. I am still aware of the strength of Tsarist Russia. This equipment is of great help in field battles. It will be more beneficial if Minister Uchida can buy a few more."

Uchida Yasuya said: "I have this intention, and I have sent a request to the base camp to allocate more funds."

Aoki Nobujun said to Heyuan Caozi again: "When you go to the Gonggong Palace of Mongolia, you also bring one. You are in the hinterland, so you can know a lot of key information."

Kawahara said worriedly, "But I'm not very good at using it yet."

Aoki Nobujun said: "It's too late, the situation is getting more and more tense. Fortunately, this Li Yu has nothing to do with the military, he is just a scholar. You can send and receive telegrams in the normal way you have been trained. From now on, Minister Uchida The purchased radio devices will be sent back to the base camp, and they will develop encryption-related methods."

It will really take a lot of time to go back and forth in this way, and if the password is advanced, it can't be created casually. It contains a lot of mathematical content, and it will also involve modern mathematics. Group theory is daunting to many.

Cao Zi Heyuan nodded and said, "I understand, I will definitely live up to my trust."

Uchida Yasuya said to her: "Your task is very heavy. On the one hand, you must gain the trust of the Gong family, and on the other hand, you must spy on the intelligence behind Russia. Be careful, once..."

Kawahara Caozi said decisively: "Once captured, I will have a jade-like consciousness."

Nobujun Aoki felt that this should be the case, and said: "Very well, this is the attitude that women in Japan should have."

-

If Li Yu wanted to go to Europe, it would be faster to take the railway, so he sent a telegram to Markov and Lyapunov at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, asking if they could use the Trans-Siberian Railway again.

This kind of thing really needs to be asked, after all, it has not yet been fully opened to traffic.Although there is only a small section of the entire Trans-Siberian Railway that has not been repaired, it has not yet been put into commercial use.

Moreover, the Trans-Siberian Railway is currently a single-track railway, and its transport capacity is not strong.

The situation between Japan and Russia became more and more tense, and the war was about to break out. Once the war started, the Russian side only allowed trains to run from west to east, and would not return when they reached the Far East.

It was also through this method that Russia assembled more than 30 troops in the Far East. Although it failed to recover from the overall defeat, it finally made Japan only dare to sign the very compromised "Treaty of Portsmouth."

It is said that after the Japanese won the Sino-Japanese War, they still wanted to learn from the First Sino-Japanese War and demanded compensation from Tsarist Russia. Even considering that Russia was rich, it was 30 billion yen after the calculation. At present, the yen is still quite strong, which is almost 8 million taels of silver. It is four times the 2 million taels of silver in the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" after the Sino-Japanese War of [-]-[-], and also wants Tsarist Russia to cede territory.

Japan has always liked to gamble on the country's fortunes in wars. What I think is that I have used the power of the whole country to spend this war, and even owed 8 million yen in foreign debts, while the fiscal revenue is only about 2 million a year, and I still have to spend money on the war. After pensions and other constructions, so I have to get it back no matter what.

Unexpectedly, Tsar Nicholas II replied directly: Want money?Not a single one, if you don't agree with Little Japan, let's move on!
Not to mention the cession of land, the Tsarist Russian negotiator bluntly said: "The land of Russia is the property of His Majesty the Emperor", and flatly rejected the request for land cession and compensation.

As for the half of Sakhalin Island that was given to Japan, it belonged to the one that had just been ceded from the Qing court in 1860, and the Russians didn't feel bad at all.

So the benefit Japan gained was actually Russia's transfer of rights and interests in the Northeast.

Japan was indeed unable to fight anymore. At that time, Tsarist Russia's main military force was concentrated in the west, and it did not hurt the root cause. It let the United States act as a mediator and peacemaker and accepted the "Portsmouth Treaty."

Looking at the attitude of Nicholas II, on the other hand, Li Zhongtang, who had to continue to sell miserably after being shot in Maguan, hey, he still needs to have national power.

However, this railway is really expensive, and Tsarist Russia really paid a lot of money. Japan saw that the railway would be repaired soon, and Tsarist Russia's control over the Far East would become stronger, so it went to war without declaring it.

Tsarist Russia has suffered a lot of bad luck. It spent so much money, throwing 14 billion rubles in, just wanting the rights and interests of the Northeast.

So much money spent on the railways had a great impact on the economy and people's livelihood, which indirectly led to a series of events such as the October Revolution, similar to the construction of the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty, which benefited the later dynasties.

After receiving Li Yu’s telegram, Markov quickly contacted the Academy of Sciences. Anyway, Li Yu is now a famous person in the scientific community. When he came last time, he established a good relationship with Mendeleev and other big men. They jointly signed the St. Petersburg Hermitage Write a letter, and the Tsar naturally agrees.

Li Yu breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the reply. These bigwigs from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences still have some influence in Tsarist Russia, and they can manage things with their words.

It's a pity that Li Yu doesn't care too much about what the Qing court says now, so he can only ask Beiyang to help.

Now you can wait for the document sent by the embassy in Russia, and with this thing, you can walk the Trans-Siberian Railway unimpeded.

While waiting for the letter, Li Yu was invited to the Imperial University Hall again.

A recent newspaper published the story of Li Yu's trip to Qufu, and the big guy found out that Li Yu was able to "conquer the Confucian scholars with their tongues"—he was really a Confucian scholar with tens of thousands of direct lineages, and he still did not lose the wind.

This is really surprising, after all, the other party is dignified Yan Shenggong.

It just so happened that recently the Jingshi University Hall opened a Jinshi Pavilion.

You can tell by the name that it is specialized in recruiting Jinshi, and those who come in are all recent high school Jinshi, especially the Guimao Department that just ended this year.

This is a traditional imperial examination. It was supposed to be held in 1901, but it was postponed to 1903 because of the Gengzi national calamity.

Therefore, in 1903, not only the special economic examination was held, but also a serious imperial examination.

More than 300 Jinshi were admitted to the imperial examination this time, some of them with better grades were selected into the Imperial Academy, and some of them entered the Jinshi Hall of the Imperial University Hall.

It can also be seen from here that the current status of the Capital University Hall is not an independent university in the conventional sense. Many functions are somewhat similar to the Imperial College and the Imperial Academy, and it is to train officials for the imperial court.

But it is also a reasonable situation, after all, the leader of the university hall is a second-rank official.

As the No.1 graduate, Li Yu, who is now well-versed in Western studies, was called back by Minister of Education Zhang Baixi to communicate with the new students.

Li Yu wanted to refuse at first, but after all, they all passed the traditional scientific examinations, which was quite different from his own learning environment.

Moreover, it was not easy to be a Jinshi in the feudal period. These people generally regarded themselves very highly. Unless they thought about it themselves, others should not even think about changing their thinking mode. It is impossible.

Therefore, education still has to start with young people, and only education from an early age can be truly effective.

However, Zhang Baixi made it clear that since these people wanted to come to the Imperial University, they were people who were interested in Western learning and would not deliberately oppose Western learning.

Li Yu didn't want to refute the principal's face, so he agreed to go.

(End of this chapter)