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

As long as Li Yu returns to Beijing, he still has to report to Guangxu before he is ordered to give a few lessons to Guangxu.

Guangxu's current state of mind is difficult to figure out, sometimes it is high-spirited, and sometimes it is depressed.

Of course, it is no longer possible to be the so-called emperor's mind, and it is more caused by mental torture.

Every time Li Yu brought handouts, he wrote them out with pens, which led Guangxu to practice calligraphy with hard-tipped pens.

When Li Yu arrived in Yingtai, Yu Deling had just finished his English class, and Guangxu was practicing calligraphy with an American-made Waterman brand ink pen.

If you want to write in English, you can only use a pen.

Waterman fountain pen is also a big brand at present, and even many international treaties are signed with this pen.For example, the "Treaty of Portsmouth" after the end of the Russo-Japanese War and the "Treaty of Versailles" after the end of World War I.

It's just that Guangxu's writing is not very good at present, and he has no chance to sign any important documents with this pen.

Yu Deling walked out of the hall and bumped into Li Yu.

Li Yu asked, "How is your majesty feeling today?"

——After all, he is not an ordinary student, so he has to know Guangxu's mood in advance, so that he can temporarily adjust the lecture mode.

Yu Deling said: "I can't say it, but when I showed the emperor some articles by British and French thinkers in the revival period, I don't know if he touched him, and suddenly said to me, 'I intend to revitalize China, but you know I can't make the decision. , can’t be like my aspirations, how can I dare to accept such a case.”

Yu Deling squinted his eyes and looked at Eunuch Cui standing beside him with his hands down.

Cixi is really vicious enough. Eunuch Cui once threw Concubine Zhen into a well with his own hands, and Guangxu hated him deeply.

Now he is asked to monitor Guangxu specially. It is expected that Eunuch Cui will work hard.

In the court, Li Yu knew that Guangxu's words were indeed a little sensitive, so he could only remain silent.

When Li Yu was in class, he talked to Guangxu about the more popular theories related to the steam engine. They were all relatively simple contents, and they were still like popular science.

Guangxu regained his energy, and after listening to Li Yu's speech, he said: "It turns out that the steam produced by such soft water can move a huge train!"

Then raised the teacup: "Is it like this water vapor?"

Li Yu said: "Things are the same thing, but the specific differences are very big."

"The same is true for ships on the sea?" Guangxu asked.

Li Yu nodded: "That's right."

Guangxu pondered: "The ancients did not deceive me. It is true that water can carry a boat and capsize it. It is nothing more than four or two strokes of a thousand catties."

He never imagined that later generations even joked that "the end of technology is boiling water", even nuclear power plants are ultimately boiling water.

But these could not be explained to him.

Guangxu felt that he had many questions and wanted to continue to ask Li Yu, but suddenly Eunuch Cui interrupted: "Your Majesty, the time has come."

The corner of Guangxu's mouth grinned, but he held back when he wanted to explode: After yelling at Li Lianying last time, he hasn't had a good meal for several days.

He immediately became a little decadent, he was an emperor, and he couldn't even control a few servants.

Guangxu waved his hands helplessly: "You all step back."

Li Yu left from Yingtai, got on his horse and prepared to return to Dongchang Hutong.

But Eunuch Cui stopped him and said, "Master Emperor, you still have to be careful when you are in class."

Li Yu took the reins: "Why did the father-in-law say that?"

Eunuch Cui said: "Don't let the emperor think that foreigners' things are so simple, it will only make him have some bad thoughts."

Li Yu was trying to simplify the complicated things, which was the most common and effective way when he was in school, so he said, "Eunuch Cui, things for foreigners are not so unattainable."

Eunuch Cui smiled and said, "This is not what Zajia wants to bring to you, you should think about it yourself."

Li Yu got off his horse and took out five 200 taels of silver bills from his pocket: "Eunuch Cui still hopes to give advice."

Eunuch Cui looked at the amount of the bank note, took it and folded it carefully and put it in his arms, then whispered: "You rented the Rong Mansion, some people would not appreciate it, after all there are many adults living around, so be careful. "

Li Yu's eyebrows frowned: "It's a normal transaction, there is a contract."

"Normal business?" Eunuch Cui chuckled, "Emperor Master, it's too normal and sometimes it's abnormal. Besides, you're doing such a big business through the Ministry of Commerce, everyone's eyes are on you."

Eunuch Cui clasped his fists together: "That's all the miscellaneous talk, let's leave."

Li Yu sighed. He knew that it was not easy to do things in the late Qing Dynasty, but he had no choice but to act.

It seems that my own resistance does not only come from the Japanese, domestic problems also cannot be ignored.

If there is a more positive side, it is that there is a relatively strong backing support.

However, Li Yu guessed that what Eunuch Cui said must mean that Yuan Shikai himself was deeply involved in the struggle of the court.

But Li Yu always knew that Yuan Shikai would definitely have the last laugh.

For the time being, I can only think so optimistically. As for how the situation will develop, it is impossible to predict.

Although the business environment is not good, but because there are people in the court, the progress is not slow.

Xu Shichang has even arranged for people to clear the road and prepare to set up a relatively simple train platform to facilitate future travel.

Song Jiashu also transferred a batch of machinery from the port of Singapore. As far as the current situation is concerned, it is considered relatively advanced equipment.

Li Yu contacted the employees of the Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau through Tang Shaoyi and dispatched a batch of them.

During the Eight-Power Allied Forces, Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau was destroyed by war, and many people have been unemployed for a long time.

The scale of Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau is not small, and it is conservatively estimated that there are two to three thousand employees.However, like the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, it is mainly engaged in arms production.

However, ships have also been built. Cixi's yacht in the Summer Palace Lake was manufactured by Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau.

There are even submarines.

Therefore, the employees of the Manufacturing Bureau already have a certain degree of technical accomplishment.

It is a pity that Tianjin suffered a great impact during the Eight-Power Allied Forces in the past few years. Coupled with the death of Li Hongzhang, Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau could not be reopened.

After Zhou Xuexi heard the news, he immediately brought a group of people from Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau to look for Li Yu.

Zhou Xuexi is from Beiyang, that is, Yuan Shikai's subordinate. They met before when they went to Japan to participate in the Encouragement Expo.

"Master Emperor, I almost didn't recognize you when we met again," Zhou Xuexi said.

Li Yu now has short hair and suits, and it is obvious that there are two people, so he said, "People can't be changed. For such a trivial matter, I have to trouble Mr. Zhou to go there yourself."

Zhou Xuexi said: "This is not a trivial matter. Now the whole of Jinmen is talking about you."

Li Yu knew it was about arguing with the Germans, and said, "I'm just doing something right."

Zhou Xuexi said: "The emperor's teacher can be regarded as the benchmark of Yingfeng, but Muxiu will be destroyed by the wind in the forest, so the emperor's teacher should be careful."

Li Yu remembered what Eunuch Cui said today, nodded and said, "Thank you for reminding me, sir."

Zhou Xuexi continued: "Be careful, be careful, and the emperor doesn't have to be intimidated. Governor Yuan asked me to tell you that no matter what, he will support the emperor."

Yuan Shikai is now engaged in new policies in Tianjin, and is also vigorously engaging in modern enterprises.A lot of textile factories, cement factories, mining factories, and paper mills have been built.

But technology and product quality can only be regarded as just getting started.

However, it can be regarded as laying some foundations for Tianjin's industry again. In the future, Zhou Xuexi can become a northern industrial giant and benefit a lot.

Although Yuan Shikai's reputation in later generations was not very good, among the ministers in the late Qing Dynasty, he was indeed a truly capable minister.

Li Yu cupped his fists and said, "Thank Governor Yuan for me."

Zhou Xuexi pointed to more than 20 people behind him: "They all used to be workers of Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, and many of them were veteran technicians who had worked for more than ten years. According to Tang Daotai's instructions, I specially selected those who are familiar with machines."

Li Yu said, "I can only say thank you again."

Zhou Xuexi said: "You don't have to thank me. I was ordered to set up the Zhili Arts and Crafts School just this year to train technicians. At that time, I need to recruit more students from me."

Li Yu said with a smile: "There is a shortage of talents, as many as there are."

Li Yu took this group of workers to the factory area to look at the equipment imported by Song Jiashu. They were all veteran workers and they were not slow to learn.

Li Yu also knew about machinery, so he took out some blueprints he had drawn and asked them to make simple modifications according to the blueprints.

Although they don't know how to build machinery, they were able to understand the blueprints when they inspected and repaired the machines in the Manufacturing Bureau every day.

Li Yu left several students who were interested in machinery to study with them.

-

Back home, Li Yu took up a pen and wrote a reply to Einstein.

What puzzled Einstein most was the equal sign "=", and it was particularly puzzling.

Of course Li Yu understood what was going on, so he wrote:

"Dear Mr. Einstein, your equations are amazing, simple and beautiful, and this is the most fascinating part of physics.

But I don't think it is the mutual conversion between energy and mass that you mentioned in your letter. The more essential explanation should be to explain that mass and energy are the same thing.

Like a coin, it's two sides of one object! "

Due to the short length and lack of formula, Li Yu sent it directly to Bern, Switzerland by telegram.

But even though it is short, the key points are said.

It is said that the concept of "mass and energy are one thing" is very explosive.

When most people see the mass-energy equation, their first impression is that it is the mutual conversion of mass and energy.

There are even many people who have misunderstood that Einstein developed the atomic bomb through the mass-energy equation.

Of course this is obviously wrong.

The atomic bomb was only available in 1945, and Einstein proposed the special theory of relativity in 1905. There is a 40-year gap between the two, and there have been quite a few technological iterations during the period.

Of course, the special theory of relativity did provide a powerful theoretical basis for the development of the atomic bomb.

But really speaking, it should be attributed to the rapid progress of atomic physics.

Einstein's only help to the atomic bomb may be that he himself wrote a letter to the current US President Roosevelt in 1939. The general content is that he must study the atomic bomb as soon as possible. It would be bad if it was developed by Hitler.

But even so, the US government did not pay attention.

At the beginning, only 6000 US dollars was given to the research and development of the atomic bomb. This amount of money can't do anything, even the salary of scientific researchers is not enough.

Later, Japan slapped its head and thought of an excellent strategy. After Pearl Harbor, it attracted the attention of the Americans and launched the famous "Manhattan Project".

And it doesn't have much to do with Einstein, because Einstein was anti-war almost all his life.

He just wanted to be a pure scientist, how could he directly participate in the development of weapons.

-

Since Fengling is also a researcher now, working with Ding Deshan on the development of "new pastry", there is no time to send him a telegram, so Li Yu had to send the telegram himself.

I haven't been in touch for a long time, and I'm already very unfamiliar. It took a long time to finish typing a short message.

Li Yu stretched himself, lamenting that practice makes perfect for this kind of thing.

The next day, Lu Bicheng found Li Yu with the manuscript of the prequels of Star Wars.

"I've finished polishing and revising." Lu Bicheng said as he put down a stack of thick manuscript paper.

Li Yu picked it up and looked at it, but Lu Bicheng insisted on writing it with a pen.Although the handwriting is not so beautiful, it is all Chinese characters. Those who have a solid foundation in soft pen calligraphy will not be slow to learn hard pen calligraphy.

Li Yu praised: "Run, it's so moist!"

Lu Bicheng asked: "Do you still want to translate it for Miss De Ling?"

Li Yu said: "That's right, you have to believe me, only the Chinese can really translate the articles written by the Chinese. When the time comes, let foreigners translate into other languages ​​based on English, and they won't lose too much of the original style."

Lu Bicheng whispered, "I understand."

Li Yu didn't think much, and then gave the manuscript to Yu Deling.

Yu Deling smiled and said, "I've been waiting for the follow-up, it's really fast."

"By the way," Li Yu asked again, "Is there anything unfavorable to me in the court recently?"

Yu Deling thought for a while and said: "I have always been with the Queen Mother in Xiyuan. I can't be present for the discussion of the political situation, but I will pay more attention indirectly. Why, is there any trend?"

Li Yu said: "Not yet, I hope there will be no problems in the future, I don't want to get too entangled with those courtiers."

Fortunately, there is Yu Deling's eyeliner by Cixi's side.

While Yu Deling was busy translating, Li Yu's article on Maxwell's demon was also sent to the United States and published in the latest "Science".

The American Association for the Advancement of Science feels that Li Yu's creative ability is too incredible. He almost single-handedly pushed "Science", a magazine that no one cares about, to the top of the industry.

It's a miracle!

They are now devoting most of their energy to the operation of this magazine.

——Of course Li Yu has to work hard, after all, it is his own magazine...

Just talking about this article, although everyone can’t explain Maxwell’s demon now, but after reading the content of the article, it is clear that Li Yu has fully adopted Boltzmann’s theory of studying molecules with statistical methods.

From the perspective of future generations, this is a completely right path.Because there is no absolute in the microscopic field, statistics and probability theory must be used for research.

But at the beginning of the twentieth century, the scientific community simply could not accept these two theories into the sacred physics.

In the eyes of many physicists at this time, statistics is engaged in the study of economics and social sciences, and probability theory is the study of gambling. How can it have anything to do with high-level physics?
Just kidding, okay?
But Li Yu's reputation in the scientific community is indeed too great now. His previous papers are not only shocking, but also can't find faults.

And this thesis is in Li Yu's usual style. While the physical explanation is detailed, the mathematical derivation is extremely rigorous.

It has been said several times that current physicists are generally not good at mathematics.

Of course, it doesn't mean that they can't understand it, it's entirely because physics at this time doesn't pay enough attention to mathematics.

As strong as the great god Einstein, the level of mathematics is also very worrying.

So even for physics researchers, it takes a lot of brain cells to study the mathematics part of it to understand it.

But it is precisely because of this that Li Yu's thesis can stand up to debates from all walks of life.