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

Chapter 305
San Francisco.

Kang Youwei also had a mansion here.

Liang Qichao met him after traveling around the United States for a long time.

Liang Qichao's trip to the United States was quite long and he visited many places. He even met with Secretary of State Hay and President Theodore Roosevelt.

In Kang Youwei's mansion, there is always a special room set up as a "worship room", with a banner on the wall that reads "Following clothes with edicts".

Yidai Zhao is still the best way for him to network people's hearts.

Even though Li Yu once wrote an article to expose him, after all, the power of news dissemination in the early [-]th century is incomparable with that of later generations, and many people still don't know it.

The silk banner of "Following Clothes and Edict" was facing the direction of the capital, and the two kowtowed to it together, which was equivalent to kowtowing to the Qing emperor.

Kang Youwei stood up and said, "Zhuo Ru, how did you feel during your trip to America?"

Liang Qichao said on the side: "The United States is more powerful than Japan, and there are many things worth learning."

Kang Youwei sat on the sofa, picked up the tea bowl and took a sip: "Study is naturally necessary to learn, but we still have to find a way to rescue our master, otherwise we will not be able to use all our abilities. How is the domestic situation?"

Liang Qichao said: "According to some news, the Empress Dowager is still in control of the government, and the emperor has no intention of loosening the ban."

Kang Youwei sighed: "At the beginning of the reform, those people wanted to put us to death. If it weren't for the emperor, we would have been decapitated long ago. How can we still be here today? You must remember that my life was given by Emperor Guangxu. Your life is also given by the emperor!"

Liang Qichao could only say: "My disciple knows."

Kang Youwei continued: "That's why I established the Royal Society to win over overseas forces and rescue our real master."

Liang Qichao said: "Teacher worked hard."

Kang Youwei sighed: "Hard work is deserved, otherwise I will have trouble sleeping and eating. But now some young people even say that I am a fake emperor, but I really protect myself! They also say that my clothes and belts are fake, which is not the same as the emperor's." The photos are also fake."

Liang Qichao said, "Could it be that the teacher is referring to Li Yu?"

Kang Youwei said angrily, "That's the yellow-haired kid!"

"But..." Liang Qichao paused and said, "I have met him before, and I think he is very knowledgeable and a pillar of talent. I went to visit Mr. Yung Wing before, and he took his disciples to Harvard University. The Director of the Observatory of Harvard University is full of praise for Li Yu, saying that he is the top scientist in the world today. Our country is short of such great talents, and..."

"Enough!" Kang Youwei interrupted him, "If you really have a peerless talent, how can you slander me like this? Could it be that he can't see that I'm dedicated to serving the country? It's ridiculous and shameful to fabricate lies to slander me!"

Liang Qichao said: "The ancients said that different routes lead to the same goal. Li Yu told his disciples that he wanted to save the country by a route other than politics and law. After careful consideration, my disciples think what he said is very reasonable."

"That makes sense?" Kang Youwei snorted coldly, "There's a reason for that! Don't you know that he even cut off his hair?! What kind of behavior is this? This is ungrateful! He must agree with Sun Wen's revolution route!"

Liang Qichao said: "Li Yu once said that he would not participate in any revolution-related affairs."

Kang Youwei asked, "Did he really say that?"

Liang Qichao nodded: "That's right."

Kang Youwei said: "He is still a bit self-aware. By the way, I remember that you also met Sun Wen. How do you think I compare with him?"

Liang Qichao said: "A teacher is a teacher, and Sun Wen is Sun Wen, there is no comparison."

Kang Youwei suddenly said angrily: "Can't compare? What can't be compared? He is not worthy to compare with me! What is Sun Wen? A charlatan, he has my knowledge? Could it be that you are also bewitched by him and want to join him? "

Liang Qichao quickly denied: "Teacher, there is absolutely no such thing! We just met once, and the disciple has no intention of defecting!"

Kang Youwei said: "But why didn't you use your pen to refute his theory and let our believers continue to lose for nothing? Honolulu is now full of his believers! In addition, there is another Li Yu in the United States, allowing us to donate money. Reduced again and again! If this continues, how can we protect the emperor and rescue our master?"

Liang Qichao opened his mouth, and said immediately: "I still can't see whether their line is wrong, so I can't find a point to refute it."

"Really?" Kang Youwei slammed his teacup on the table, "You don't even have a firm belief, how can you succeed? You must understand that only the emperor can save the people from the fire!"

"Yes Yes……"

Liang Qichao's voice was obviously lacking confidence.

After Kang Youwei heard it, he shouted angrily, "Kneel down!"

Liang Qichao didn't dare to disobey his teacher's order, and immediately knelt down in front of him.

Kang Youwei pointed at him and said, "You must always remember in your heart that you only need to protect the emperor, and no revolutions are allowed! Only reforms are needed, and no revolutions are allowed!"

Liang Qichao said hastily, "I remember it."

Seeing that his attitude had eased, Kang Youwei said, "Get up. You are my first disciple, and you should be able to see how much I value you. That's why I left the entire affairs of Japan to you alone. After returning , you have to pick up your pen carefully, and let me see your sharp articles again."

Liang Qichao said: "Students must live up to the teacher's high expectations."

Now Kang Youwei's thinking has begun to sink.

Although Liang Qichao is still a reformist, he is obviously still learning.

In any case, Japan, which is close at hand, generally seems to have succeeded through improvement.

After Liang Qichao returned to Japan, he would use his own "Xinmin Congbao" as a base to start a big debate with the Tongmenghui's "Minbao".

Liang Qichao almost single-handedly carried all the leaders of the League: Mr. Zhongshan, Zhang Taiyan, Chen Tianhua, Hu Hanmin and Wang Zhaoming (at this time, Wang Zhaoming was still a passionate young man. You are the four handsome men of the Republic of China. mutiny revolution).

However, Kang Youwei's writing skills are much worse than Liang Qichao's. He wrote two articles before, but Zhang Taiyan directly made him powerless.

At the critical moment, we have to rely on Liang Qichao, the big disciple.

Speaking of which, Kang Youwei is really a bit of a troublemaker. Other famous teachers accept apprentices when others are not famous or capable, and then make their disciples successful and famous through teaching.

Kang Youwei forcibly accepted others as disciples after they became famous, and then claimed that a famous teacher turned out to be an excellent apprentice.

Liang Qichao is a typical example.

Kang Youwei greeted Liang Qichao: "Zhuo Ru, there is one more thing. You can also publish some articles in the United States recently, calling on tens of millions of Chinese in America to contribute more to my cause of protecting the emperor."

To put it bluntly, to contribute is to donate money.

Kang Youwei also grasped the mentality of the Chinese.

The vast majority of Chinese are really patriotic. They don't know much about royalism and revolution, and they only want the country to become better.

Kang Youwei relied on his fame to make money easily.

Liang Qichao said: "The teacher meant to refer to the article written by Li Yu before? But the disciple has not read it."

Kang Youwei was a little embarrassed. He knew that Li Yu's article was very sharp.It's really strange, how can a person who is engaged in science have two hands in writing articles?
He still doesn't seem to know that English articles are not so particular. ——It should be said that the vernacular is not so particular, and it does not seem to have the feeling of proud literary talent like classical Chinese.

Kang Youwei said: "If you haven't read it, don't read it. You just need to write our proposition."

However, Liang Qichao knew that the greatest resistance in the United States must come from Li Yu, so he asked, "Don't you need to deliberately mention Li Yu? To be honest, when I went to New York, people in Chinatown praised him for doing practical things, not only don't donate money , and find ways to get them into factories and earn more than Americans.”

Kang Youwei slapped the table angrily: "How can you see this kind of small favor? He just wants our poor Chinese people to be his tools to squeeze and make money for him! Can't you see this shameless and inferior behavior?" come out?"

Liang Qichao said: "But my disciples have heard that, don't do nothing because of the smallness of the good. From him, the disciples found out whether our previous focus was wrong? It may be a route to start with small things, and it is not necessary to focus on everything. at the court."

"Stupid, you are really stupid!" Kang Youwei said, "We are going to do great things, and Li Yu is just studying some strange skills. Since ancient times, have you ever seen a person who can achieve great things by relying on strange skills?"

Liang Qichao said: "However, Professor Pickering, Director of the Observatory of Harvard University, told me that in astronomy alone, Li Yu is a figure like Halley and Kepler."

"Halley? Kepler?" Kang Youwei was taken aback. "I've never even heard of being a teacher. What's there to show off?"

Liang Qichao said: "My disciples didn't know much about it before. After consulting the information, I realized that they are the same as the masters of astronomy, and even directly inspired Newton, the greatest scientist in the West."

Even though Kang Youwei didn't understand science, he had heard of Newton.

After all, the two great gods, Einstein and Planck, are still unknown, and Newton was definitely the "God of Science" at the beginning of the [-]th century.

This evaluation is not an exaggeration at all.

Needless to say in physics, Newton's three laws of mechanics directly established classical physics.

Mathematics is also very strong. No matter how you rank the "four greatest mathematicians in history", there will be 100% three people: Euler, Gauss and Newton.

The fourth pick is somewhat controversial, but the three of them do their part.

Kang Youwei frowned: "Even so, it's just a scientific approach. How can it affect the overall situation?"

Liang Qichao's thinking has indeed been shaken a lot now. When he went abroad, he found that there was something wrong with the Western learning that Kang Youwei taught him. After reading the original foreign language works, he found that it was different from what Kang Youwei said.

Furthermore, after contacting Mr. Sun Yat-sen, Li Yu, Rong Hong and others, his attitude towards revolution changed to a certain extent.

Now that I have arrived in the United States in person, I found that the United States must be good, but even New York, the center of the United States, still has slums in the core area of ​​Manhattan. I immediately sighed: "The most prosperous place in the world is New York, and the darkest place in the world is New York."

There is a famous saying in later generations: If you love someone, you send him to New York; if you hate someone, you also send him to New York.If you love him, send him to New York, because it's heaven; if you hate him, send him to New York, because it's hell!
Liang Qichao keenly captured the duality of one side of heaven and one side of hell 100 years in advance.

Liang Qichao said: "My disciples think that if we want to enrich the country, we must naturally seek change. Improvement is the pursuit of change, and science is also an important change."

Kang Youwei pointed at Liang Qichao: "You..."

I really don't know what to say about him, I can't argue with Liang Qichao long ago.

Immediately put down his hands and said: "Zhuo Ru, Zhuo Ru, your vision is very good, but as a teacher, I'm really afraid that you will go astray. Are there few extremely intelligent people in history? How many have fallen into the abyss of eternal doom, you can't follow them follow suit."

Liang Qichao said, "Thank you, Teacher, for your reminder."

Kang Youwei said helplessly: "Forget it, you go down. I can only remind you, don't write out of line with the pen in your hand. Remember what I told you today, only reforms are allowed, and revolutions are not allowed; only the emperor is allowed, and revolutions are not allowed!"

Liang Qichao read it again: "Only improvement is required, no revolution is allowed; only emperor protection is allowed, no revolution allowed!"

Then he left the room.

-

Li Yu knew that Liang Qichao was in the United States, but he could not be contacted because he did not have a regular telegram.

But it would be convenient for others to contact Li Yu.

The U.S. Navy’s radio verification in Panama has yielded results. There is no doubt that Li Yu’s radio equipment with vacuum electron triodes has a technically superior dimensionality reduction strike-like generation difference compared to Marconi’s radio equipment. Both sex and coverage are far better than Marconi.

Coupled with Marconi's failed leasing proposal, the U.S. Navy announced that Li Yu was the winning bidder.

After Li Yu got the news, he immediately realized that the radio production capacity would be opened soon.

So the newspaper began to recruit a group of Edison employees.

And in the future, Chinese with better knowledge will be trained in radio.

Fedenson is responsible for the training business, and he is busy during this time.

Considering that there is not much production capacity for radio equipment produced by itself and Tesla's two laboratories, it is imminent to set up another radio factory.

It happened that Yung Wing introduced Booth earlier, so he asked him to help, and rented a factory in the northern part of Manhattan Island, which is today's Bronx District of New York.

There must not be much production capacity during the initial construction period, and it is estimated that the business will not be able to produce in the future, so Li Yu contacted Westinghouse Electric and General Electric and asked them to supply some components required for the production of radio equipment.

My side is mainly responsible for the core triode production and signal debugging.

The boss of Westinghouse Electric, Westinghouse, was quite bitter. Li Yu had just poached one of his important engineers and asked him to supply the goods.

But the orders in hand can't be thrown away in vain, as long as the factory is ordered to speed up production.

General Electric, on the other hand, is much happier.

Speaking of which, the predecessor of General Electric was the Edison Electric Light Company, but it was bought by Morgan more than ten years ago.

Morgan is now Li Yu's "angel investor", so he naturally accepted Li Yu's request for production.

Li Yu felt a little bit of the meaning of "supply chain" in a trance, just like the mobile phone manufacturers of later generations are able to integrate upstream and downstream supply chains.Even if it is as strong as Apple, many important components such as screens, vibration motors, and batteries must be purchased through the supply chain.

The current head of Apple, Cook Sr., is from the supply chain.

(End of this chapter)