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

Chapter 314 Heroes
Yan Fansun and others were very enthusiastic about their work, and thanks to the advanced and excellent handouts provided by Li Yu, the work went very smoothly.

After finishing his work, Zhang Boling said to Li Yu: "Brother Shucai, I happen to have some theater tickets here, let's go and listen to them together."

Yan Fansun said: "That's right, there are big roles today. The opening scene is the stand-up comedy by Fu Gen, the head of the 'Eight Great Monsters of Tianqiao' in the capital, and then Yang Xiaolou, a famous actor in the capital, will make his final appearance."

Fu Gen is the third generation of cross talk successor, and people in the industry call him the third master of Gui.

This lineup is basically equivalent to the simultaneous appearance of Guo Degang and Jet Li in later generations, which is absolutely sensational.

But opera is definitely more popular now.

Li Yu said: "The battle is not small, is there a big man here?"

Yan Fansun said: "I heard that Li Guojie is coming, and he paid a lot of money."

Li Guojie is the eldest grandson of Li Hongzhang, who has inherited Li Hongzhang's first-class marquis.

Unlike after Rong Lu's death, the Rong family had almost no successors, but Li Hongzhang's family has been doing well.

The wealth left by Li Hongzhang is huge, estimated at 2000 million taels of silver.Even if it is calculated according to the most conservative purchasing power parity method, it is almost equivalent to 60 billion yuan in future generations!

It cannot be said that the country is as rich as an enemy, but it is definitely the top part of the wealth pyramid at the beginning of the [-]th century.

There are really not many who can surpass the Li family at present, and it seems that they are only the little money-making expert Prince Qing.

Among the other four famous ministers in the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan died early; Zuo Zongtang left only tens of thousands of taels after his death; Zhang Zhidong was even less.

I really can't compare to Li Hongzhang...

For comparison, Hu Xueyan, the most famous red-capped businessman in the Qing Dynasty, had been in business all his life, and his assets at his peak were almost 2000 million taels of silver.

However, Li Hongzhang was only an official and did not specialize in business.

Of course, he did create many big industries, and he also had Sheng Xuanhuai, the most powerful official businessman in the late Qing Dynasty after Hu Xueyan, under his command.

Li Guojie now spends money to enter the Beijing Normal University as a lecturer, and Li Yu once met him.

Li Yu and the others came to the theater immediately.

Yan Fansun handed him a theater ticket, and Li Yu looked at it. The ticket price was 700 renminbi, which was already very high.

In the civilized tea garden in Beijing that I visited before, the "lounge" with a good location is 400 Wen.

The high ticket price today is probably due to the fact that two famous actors were invited at the same time.

Now Yang Xiaolou's reputation is not small, after all, he was able to enter the Nanfu Opera Garden of the Imperial Palace and was appreciated by Cixi.

Although the old woman is hateful, people who are pampered and pampered often go to theaters, and they watch a lot of them. It can't be called an art appreciation, but their artistic taste is indeed not low.

Just as Li Yu and the others sat down, Li Guojie entered the door. He saw Li Yu at a glance, and stepped forward to say hello: "Master Emperor! I never thought you would be so kind."

Li Yu said with a smile: "Entertainment, it's really good."

Li Guojie is a noble son, and he has listened to operas and cross talks since he was a child. He said proudly: "It just so happens that we enjoy it together today. I am not only a master of Liyuan, but also a lover of folk art."

Li Yu is really inferior to him in this respect.

Several people sat down again and started eating melon seeds.

The first ones to appear on the stage are stand-up comedy by Fugen, "Taiping Lyrics", "Exploring Qingshuihe" and so on.

Li Yu had heard of Deyun Club before, so he was no stranger to these.

Although Zhang Yunlei's "Exploring the Qingshui River" sounds better, but when it was sung by artists in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, it has the flavor of the story itself.

Because Tan Qingshuihe's story is actually quite tragic. It is roughly the story of two young men and women who were restricted by feudal ethics and finally both died in love.

It's a bit like the plot of the peacock flying southeast.

The above is an appetizer, and after that, Fugen came up with a more interesting "Bodyguard".

This is the more common double-mouth comedy in later generations, but the form belongs to the initial period, and many aspects are not as perfect as stand-up comedy.

Li Guojie introduced to him: "Fugen's master is Zhu Shaowen, whose stage name is 'Poor and Not Afraid'. He once performed for Prince Gong."

Later, many cross talk artists regarded Zhu Shaowen as the founder of cross talk.There were actually artists before him, but Zhu Shaowen's achievements and reputation are more prominent, especially the creation of double-mouth cross talk, so it is conventionally regarded as "the founder of the mountain" by the cross talk circle.

After Fugen's performance, it was Yang Xiaolou who appeared.

In terms of influence, the status of Beijing Opera is indeed higher at this time.

Accompanied by the band playing in the background, Yang Xiaolou made a chic appearance with martial arts steps, and the audience immediately burst into applause.

Li Yu can understand cross talk, but really doesn't know much about Beijing opera, so he can only cheer along with the big guys.

At the end of a song, everyone just took advantage of the gap to go to the toilet and buy more tea.

Suddenly, someone behind the side shouted loudly: "You, are you Japanese?"

The speaker has a strange mouth, obviously a foreigner.

The Japanese replied: "Are you a Russian red deer?"

"Red deer? Are you scolding me?" the Russian said angrily.

"That's right, you are the Russian red deer!" the Japanese said arrogantly.

The Russian quit directly and cursed back in Russian: "Sukka is not listed! Do you have the guts to fight with me?"

The Japanese directly unbuttoned his clothes: "I'm a judo master, I'll let you Russian red deer know today that not only can we beat you on the battlefield, but we can't lose in fights either!"

"What kind of broken judo! Strength is king, little Japan, I will not show mercy, be careful to die here!" The Russian looked very burly and began to unbutton his clothes.

Without waiting for the Russian to finish taking off his clothes, the Japanese reached out and grabbed his collar abruptly and threw him out.

The Russian fell heavily on a table, cracking a leg in an instant.

The audience around saw that they were really fighting, and they all avoided it.

These two people were red-eyed. After all, the two countries were already warring countries, and they declared war on each other, so they couldn't understand each other very much.

The Japanese rushed over and then grabbed the Russian by the collar. The Russian didn't take off his clothes, and punched the Japanese in the face.

The Japanese had to loosen their collars and dodge backwards.

The Russian then jumped off the table, stood up again, and cursed: "Sukhabuli! You are making a sneak attack!"

The security guard of the theater hurried over to persuade the fight: "You two guests, you have something to say, don't do it!"

The Russian punched him, but the security guard didn't block him, and he was knocked aside.

The Russian scolded angrily: "What right does a Chinese have to stop me? Today I must let this damn Japanese die here!"

The Japanese were also not to be outdone: "Come here, I'm going to comfort the emperor with you today!"

The Russian was furious, rushed over and threw a punch, the Japanese raised his hands to block, but the punch was really powerful, it made him take several steps back and overturned many tables and chairs.

The Russians were about to take advantage of the victory to pursue, but suddenly another Chinese appeared in front of them.

The Chinese shouted angrily: "Stop running wild here!"

The Russian didn't think much of him at all, and punched him, but the other party dodged it lightly, and kicked him at the crook of the knee.

The Russian couldn't stand on his feet and fell forward.

Seeing this opportunity, the Japanese quickly kicked the Russians in the face.

The Russians cannot avoid this situation.

But the Chinese followed with one foot, facing the Japanese's legs impartially.

The Japanese let out an "ouch" and fell down clutching his calf.

But the Chinese lightly retracted their legs, and then scolded: "Don't you see that this is a public place, and let you mess around? If you don't accept it, set up the ring, and I, Huo Yuanjia, will accompany you all to the end!"

Li Yu's eyes lit up, good guy, it turned out to be Huo Huo Huo Huo Huo Huo Huo Huo!

With a sip of his mouth, he actually sang Jay Chou's song.

Huo Yuanjia has not yet gone to Shanghai to establish the Jingwu Sports Association, which is the famous Jingwumen in the film and television works since then.

But he has already made a name for himself in Tianjin. Three years ago, a Russian strongman took advantage of the Gengzi national calamity and clamored to "fight all over China with invincible hands."Then Huo Yuanjia immediately made an appointment with him through Nong Jinsun, but he didn't expect that this strongman would retreat when he heard that Huo Yuanjia was a hard stubble with real kung fu.

So when the Russians heard Huo Yuanjia's reputation at this time, they also felt guilty.

The Huo family was originally from an escort agency, and the blood licking business was on the knife's edge, and the fights were very ruthless.

The Japanese, however, had never heard of Huo Yuanjia's reputation. After rubbing their calves for a while, they stood up and said angrily, "Baga! Don't block me, the sick man of East Asia!"

He made a gesture and rushed over again, a young man flew out from behind Huo Yuanjia, kicked his calf again when he raised his leg.

Even in the real group arena of later generations, such as the very famous K1 (a well-known international stand-up fighting event), it is very useful to hit a position with a whip leg at the same time, which will cause muscle tearing, and the opponent will quickly lose combat power and collapse. I can't afford it.

At this moment, the Japanese was hurt more and more, and screamed in pain, clutching his calf, completely shrunk to the ground and couldn't stand up.

Huo Yuanjia greeted the security: "Throw them out!"

Then he said viciously to the Japanese and Russians: "Remember my name, we will see you in the ring if something happens."

The security guards quickly crossed the Japanese and Russians and left, which happened to be not far from the newly established Tianjin Police Department.

The Police Department was established by Yuan Shikai, and they did not dare to deal with foreigners at will, and at most sent them back to their respective embassy areas.

The boys in the theater rushed out to clean up the broken tables and chairs.

Li Yu stepped forward and cupped his fists, "Master Huo!"

Seeing that Li Yu didn't have braids, Huo Yuanjia asked suspiciously, "You are?"

"He is Li Yu." A voice came from Huo Yuanjia's side, and it was Nong Jinsun who spoke, "Junqing (Huo Yuanjia's character), you forgot, I told you."

Huo Yuanjia said: "I remembered, you are the emperor's teacher, you are famous all over the world, you also set up schools and run education, you are a great sage!"

Li Yu laughed and said, "I can't say a saint."

Nong Jinsun stepped forward and cupped his hands and said, "Master, I am Xia Nong Jinsun."

Li Yu replied: "I have long admired you!"

Li Guojie on the side was a little frightened. He hid outside the gate just now, and then he came back and asked, "How about treating foreigners like this?"

Nong Jinsun had received a strict education and acted more prudently. He said: "Don't worry, my lord, this place is under the direct jurisdiction of Beiyang. Besides, the Japanese and the Russians are at war with each other. We have fought on both sides, without losing our bias. Instead, nothing happened."

Li Guojie said: "That's fine."

He was also worried that the Russians and the Japanese would unite.But I forgot that the current Qing Dynasty is fish and meat, and what people are fighting for is you.

After such a fuss, the play will definitely not go on.

At this moment, Yang Xiaolou suddenly ran out with the flower gun on the stage. He just took off his heavy costume from the backstage, and said angrily: "The foreign devils dare to fight in front of me! Come out!"

Huo Yuanjia smiled and said: "No need, I have already beaten them away. And you are a flamboyant person, don't really fight with others."

Yang Xiaolou was not convinced: "If you can't fight, you have to fight!"

Huo Yuanjia put away his smile, stopped mocking him, and praised: "You have courage."

Seeing that the Japanese and Russians were indeed not there, Yang Xiaolou looked at the flower gun in his hand and sighed: "I just hate that although I play heroes like Zhao Zilong and Guan Yunchang, I don't have the ability to kill the enemy."

Li Yu said to him: "Everyone has their own strengths, Brother Yang, don't be depressed."

Yang Xiaolou didn't know that Li Yu also came to listen to the play, so he was surprised: "Brother Li! You came too! I'm really sorry that I didn't let you finish listening."

Li Yu didn't understand Beijing opera anyway, so he said, "It's okay, I just saw a good show today."

Then he said to Huo Yuanjia: "Master Huo, you really deserve to be a hero of Jingwu."

Huo Yuanjia was stunned and said: "Jingwu Hero? Good name! I like it!"

Li Yu looked at the boy who kicked the Japanese again and asked, "Who is this?"

Huo Yuanjia introduced him: "His name is Liu Zhensheng, and he is my apprentice."

Liu Zhensheng stepped forward and cupped his fists and said, "I have seen the emperor."

Liu Zhensheng is Huo Yuanjia's great apprentice, who is also the prototype of Chen Zhen, the protagonist of the later "Jing Fu Men".

Li Yu said happily: "It's rare to see so many heroes, how about having a drink together?"

Huo Yuanjia and Nong Jinsun said: "It is a great honor to be invited by the emperor's teacher."

In fact, in their eyes, the status of Li Yu and others is much higher.

Yan Fansun and Zhang Boling also felt very passionate when they saw Huo Yuanjia's master and apprentice make a move, and they immediately agreed to go together.

Li Yu looked at Li Guojie: "Master Hou, where are you?"

Li Guojie didn't particularly want to associate with the green forest characters, so he said: "I still have something to do, so I won't go."

Li Yu didn't force him to stay either.

Yang Xiaolou said, "Can I be together?"

"Of course." Li Yu readily agreed, and then said to Fu Gen, "Mr. Fu, let's go together."

Fu Gen didn't expect the dignified master to invite him on his own initiative, and said excitedly, "It's a great honor to be seated with the master."

Huo Yuanjia said with a smile: "By the way, act one more time."

Fu Gen is specialized in cross talk, and he is very good at talking: "It's just right for the food and drink."

Before leaving, Huo Yuanjia suddenly asked again: "Have you settled the fee yet?"

Yang Xiaolou and Fugen shook their heads.

Li Yu's eyes flashed, and he said to Li Guojie: "Master Hou, look..."

Li Guojie understood very well, and immediately said: "Today's performance fee and reward will not be less."

Fugen and Yang Xiaolou immediately said, "Thank you, Lord Hou!"

Li Guojie said awkwardly: "It should, it should."

Yang Xiaolou and Fugen each earned 60 taels of money today, which is 4 taels of silver.In conversion, it is equivalent to 1200 yuan in later generations.

And this kind of situation is not uncommon. In addition to the performances for dignitaries and dignitaries, there are at most ten performances a month.

Sometimes dignitaries will give more rewards, but no matter how you calculate it, compared to the income of later generations of stars, it is just a drop in the bucket.

After all, they also belong to the absolute top class in the current entertainment industry, especially Yang Xiaolou who is so popular.

Fortunately, on the whole, they can already live above the middle class.

After the Republic of China, their performance fees will rise steadily.

(End of this chapter)