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

Chapter 404
The Shanghai Concession was indeed very prosperous at this time, and the Shili Yangchang lived up to its reputation, even comparable to some big European cities.

Li Yu was about to buy some melons and fruits to eat on the ship, when he suddenly bumped into Chen Tianhua who was walking in a hurry.

Li Yu greeted him, and Chen Tianhua paused when he saw Li Yu, then lowered his voice and said, "Okamoto and Qiutong are in trouble, can you rescue them?"

Okamoto was the internal code name used by Huang Xing when he founded the Huaxing Club, and Qiu Tong was Zhang Shizhao's code name.

Li Yu asked, "What happened?"

Chen Tianhua said: "Brother Okamoto sent a volunteer, Wan Fuchun, to assassinate the former governor of Guangxi. The matter failed, and the righteous was arrested. Brother Okamoto and Brother Qiutong were also implicated and imprisoned."

This former Guangxi governor is called Wang Zhichun. A few years ago, he aroused public outrage because of the sale of mining rights and road rights.

Huang Xing then sent Wan Fuchun to assassinate him at Sima Road (now Fuzhou Road) in the Shanghai Concession. Unexpectedly, they were inexperienced, and the gun they took was defective.

Chen Tianhua brought Li Yu to Cai Yuanpei's residence, where many people were discussing countermeasures.

Cai Yuanpei said: "The righteous man Wan Fuhua may not be released from prison, but the two brothers Huang Xing and Zhang Shizhao should try to rescue him."

Tao Chengzhang worried: "I am afraid that the Qing government will send people to intervene. If the capital is escorted, it will be very bad."

Seeing Li Yu's arrival, Cai Yuanpei immediately invited him to sit down: "Brother Shucai, don't come here without any problems."

Li Yu immediately asked: "Now they are in the patrol room in the concession?"

"Yes," Cai Yuanpei said, "Since it was the former Guangxi governor who was assassinated, we were very worried about being taken away."

Li Yu said: "Then what are you waiting for? Hurry up and find a lawyer, a lawyer in the concession, and leave the case in the concession. And it is best to find a lawyer in England. As long as the money is in place, the big problem can definitely be reduced."

Cai Yuanpei said: "British lawyers are not easy to hire, and the fees are quite high."

At present, these revolutionary groups are indeed very short of money. One reason everyone is looking forward to Mr. Zhongshan is that he is capable and can raise money abroad.

Li Yu said, "For a lawyer, I can try to contact the Bureau of the Ministry of Industry."

Cai Yuanpei knew that Li Yu and the Bureau of the Ministry of Industry had several large-scale transactions, and he was able to speak up, so he said happily: "If Brother Shucai can accomplish this, it will be a great achievement!"

Li Yu stopped talking nonsense, and immediately found the Bureau of the Ministry of Industry. On the pretext of needing a lawyer to draw up the contract, he got the contact information of a British lawyer in Shanghai.

This lawyer is called Dan Wen, but fortunately he is a more objective lawyer.

However, lawyers in the general concession do not like to deal with Chinese cases very much, and the matter still happens in the French Concession, which has relatively loose management.

But after Li Yuliang showed his foreign academician of the Royal Society and the royal medal in his hand, and was willing to give a generous reward, Dan Wen agreed to take the case.

The case is not complicated, but the attempted assassination is really impossible, so Wan Fuchun, the righteous man who did the assassination, will definitely spend several years in prison.

But Wan Fuchun kept his mouth shut and insisted that he did it alone and had nothing to do with anyone else.

It was indeed impossible for the court to produce evidence of Huang Xing and Zhang Shizhao's participation, so the case was hastily closed and Huang Xing and Zhang Shizhao were acquitted.

Huang Xing was quite emotional, and when he saw Li Yu, he said, "Thank you this time, otherwise I don't know how much I will suffer. If I am extradited to the capital, I am afraid that my head will be lost."

Li Yu asked, "What is Brother Okamoto going to do next?"

Huang Xing said: "Mr. Zhongshan sent a secret report from Japan, asking me to go to Tokyo."

Li Yu said, "It's also good to avoid the limelight."

Zhang Shizhao said: "Now I feel that I am really weak and weak, and I have repeatedly hurt my brothers and colleagues. I am also planning to go east to Japan and study hard."

The two were arrested because Zhang Shizhao inadvertently revealed the truth when he went to the police station.

Li Yu said, "Your Excellency, this is the right way."

Huang Xing extended another invitation to Li Yu: "Sir, you have great talent and righteousness, can you join our organization this time?"

Li Yu still declined politely: "I have my own way to serve the country, but brother Okamoto, don't worry, we will definitely come to the same goal with you."

Huang Xing clasped his fists and said, "Then we will meet later."

A few of them were worried that the Qing court would continue to pursue the matter, so they hurriedly boarded the ferry to Japan.

Li Yu boarded another boat and parted ways with them.

-

On the ship, the sea breeze is cold.

Li Yu stood on the deck and looked at the ship of Huang Xing and others, when a person came by his side: "Master Emperor."

Li Yu turned around and took a look: "Brother Zhan, why are you also on the boat?"

Zhan Tianyou said: "Originally I was surveying the Chaoshan Railway in Guangdong, but I didn't expect that the right of way of this railway was in the hands of the Japanese. I really didn't want to do things for them, so I left angrily. It just so happened that the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway wanted to hire me as the general manager." engineer, and return to Beijing again."

The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is Zhan Tianyou's most famous project.

When Li Yu was in Tianjin, he heard the new Tianjin Taoist Liang Dunyan talk about this line.

Many railways are located in the Zhili area. Yuan Shikai's suggestion is to use the surplus of the repaired railways inside and outside the Guanzhou for the construction of this line, and no longer use foreign capital.

Zhan Tianyou has made a good reputation in railway construction in recent years, so Liang Dunyan urged his old classmate to be the chief engineer.

Li Yu said: "Brother Zhan is running around, it's really hard work."

Zhan Tianyou said: "Hard work is nothing, I'm just afraid that I can't do the railway construction well. Our terrain is very different from what I saw in the United States. It is much more complicated. Every project is an unprecedented test for me. .I only regret that I didn’t bring enough books back, and often need to do trial and error tests.”

It was already 1881 when Zhan Tianyou graduated from the Civil Engineering Department of Yale University in the United States. After being recalled to China, he was useless at all. He worked as a seaman and taught for seven or eight years before he had the opportunity to contact railway engineering.

The recall was rushed and not enough books were brought back.

Anyone who has worked in engineering knows that it is impossible to have thick specifications and other materials at hand during the survey and design stage.

Li Yu said: "I spent a lot of time in Europe and America last year, and brought back a large number of books, including many engineering materials. Brother Zhan, if you need them, use them."

Li Yu spent a lot of money to buy these English original books, but fortunately, some of them can be funded by the foundation.

Zhan Tianyou said happily: "Thank you, Master Emperor, this is of great help to me."

Li Yu said: "It's all in English. If it needs to be published for others to read, brother Zhan needs to translate it himself."

Zhan Tianyou said: "I don't need to worry about this matter. And I am planning to unify the railways to be built in the future into standard gauges. The materials bought from the United States can be used completely."

Zhan Tianyou wanted to stay in Tanggu, and went to Liang Dunyan to continue studying the follow-up handover, while Li Yu returned directly to the capital.

He began to think about the things he needed to bring to Dunhuang, first of all, silver and two radio devices.

After more than a year, although there are not enough base stations in the country, almost all major cities have purchased Li Yu's radio equipment.Xi'an and Lanzhou government offices in the west are also equipped.

In addition, Li Yu contacted Huo Yuanjia and asked him to set off with a team of bodyguards.

While he was busy, Wang Chonglie, the son of Wang Yirong, the discoverer of oracle bone inscriptions, came to find Li Yu.

— Another bad news.

From his mouth, I learned that something happened to Liu E.

Things have something to do with railways. Modern China has several of the most important railway lines, including the Beijing-Shanghai Railway.

Since the Beijing-Shanghai Railway needs to cross the Yangtze River, the northern section was actually built to Pukou.

Because of the Pukou Railway Station, Pukou has a very important status in modern times.Liu E bought a piece of land in Pukou in his early years. It happened that a commercial port was going to be opened here, and the price of the land doubled instantly.

However, some local officials hoped to buy back the land at the original price, so Liu E naturally refused.

This Yuan Wai Lang found out some things about Chen Zhima and rotten millet: when there was a disaster, Liu E bought rice from the granary controlled by the Russians to relieve the disaster, and Yuan Wai sued Liu E for the crime of "privately selling granary millet".

The official's relationship with the DPRK and China was quite strong, and Liu E was quickly convicted and sent to Xinjiang.

Historically, Liu E finally died in Urumqi.

Li Yu quickly found Tang Shaoyi in Beijing to see if he could think of a way.

After thinking about it, Tang Shaoyi gave Li Yu an idea: "The distribution is irreversible, but if the governor of Gansu and Shaanxi can be bribed, it will save him from going so far. Gansu is already far away from the emperor, and no one will continue to ask him whether he is there or not." Did not go to Xinjiang. Even if you ask, they will not be able to verify if you mention it.”

Li Yu called for a clever plan. It happened that Tang Shaoyi had a good relationship with the son of the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu. The two were colleagues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so he wrote a letter for Li Yu.

Li Yu took the letter and found Liu E who was being imprisoned.

Liu E was in a bad mood at the moment. He still had a lot of things to do, but somehow he was charged with such a crime, so he had to give up all of them.

After Liu E saw Li Yu, he sighed and said, "Shucai, I never thought that my fate would be so difficult. I'm afraid I won't be able to see you again in the future."

Li Yu said: "Brother disabled, don't be so pessimistic."

Liu E smiled wryly: "Pessimistic? Of course pessimistic, I am completely disappointed in the current situation!"

Li Yu said: "Actually, there is nothing to do in the northwestern frontier. The old disabled brother still has a lot to do. The Hexi Corridor and the 36 countries in the Western Regions were so prosperous back then, and there are countless gold and stone treasures left behind."

Liu E is a master of gold and stone, and he can only use his hobbies to ignite his enthusiasm.

The corners of Liu E's brows relaxed after hearing this: "I don't know if I will be free at that time, and can I bring my tools and materials with me."

Li Yu took out the letter: "I have already obtained a letter for you, allowing you to stay in Gansu. In fact, I also want to go to Gansu. There is a place that will definitely interest you."

Li Yu told the story of Dunhuang, and Liu E really became interested: "Okay! I've seen enough intrigues and rivalries in the capital, and going to the northwest border to do research for a lifetime, away from worldly troubles, is exactly what I want!"

(End of this chapter)