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

Chapter 437 Jinling
At this time, the German pharmaceutical industry was very powerful in the world, with Bayer and Merck being the two leading companies.

Cooperating with Germany to establish a pharmaceutical factory early is a very forward-looking move.

Germany has good technology and is willing to invest because they lack colonies and, like the United States, prefer to expand their territory economically.

In addition, the most critical point is the subsequent historical development.

During the two world wars, because Germany was the country that initiated the war, it was subject to extremely severe blockades and sanctions from various countries. Many foreign branches of large German companies were forcibly confiscated.

A very typical one should be Merck & Co., the US subsidiary of Merck & Co.

Before Li Yu traveled through time, Merck was also one of the top ten pharmaceutical giants in the world.

Merck was originally a branch of Merck in the United States, and its business was doing very well. However, it was confiscated by the United States during World War I and handed over to domestic companies for operation.

Merck, a pharmaceutical company, has a long history with China, and some historical events still seem to reflect the present.

For example, in the 1980s, we launched a large-scale epidemic prevention campaign, in which the rampant hepatitis B was a key focus.

Merck had already produced the first recombinant rDNA hepatitis B vaccine in humans. However, the price of this vaccine in China was much higher than that in the United States. China's request to introduce production technology and a complete production line was rejected.

Then in 1988, Tao Qimin led a team to successfully develop a domestic vaccine.

Merck suddenly panicked and realized that this was the last chance to open the Chinese market. If it was too late, there would be no chance, so it quickly shared the production technology with a symbolic fund of US$700 million in the name of humanitarian aid.

It can be seen that Merck, as a branch of Merck, is already extremely powerful.

If Germany's Bayer and Merck can be allowed to build factories in China early and run them well, after the First World War is over, not only will the two pharmaceutical companies be able to operate as their own, but they will also be able to cultivate several outstanding national pharmaceutical companies.

This is an excellent opportunity, and it is also an advance judgment that only time travelers can have.

It will take a few days for general agent Elias to get a reply from Germany.

Li Yu is not in a hurry, and it is estimated that the German side will still bargain, such as holding a larger share.

As long as it does not exceed [-]%, Li Yu can accept it. Sooner or later it will be his own anyway... It would be better if they want to invest more!
However, the specific planning and land approval required Li Yu to run errands. Taking advantage of the fact that there is still a lot of undeveloped land in and around the concession, it should not be difficult to get a high-ranking official like the Governor of Liangjiang to come forward.

After walking out of the cafe, Li Yu called to a kid selling newspapers on the street and asked for a copy of today's "Declaration." When he opened the first page, he saw a huge advertisement:

In the middle is a Japanese officer wearing a navy hat and a beard. On his chest are two large characters "Ren Dan", with "Unique in the World" and "Standing Miracle Medicine" written on both sides.

The introduction in the article is even more miraculous. The words "bring the dead back to life" and "cure all diseases" seem to be a panacea.

Li Yu bought another newspaper, and the most prominent position was still this advertisement.

Well, it seems that Li Yu needs to move faster. Little Japan has already targeted China's huge pharmaceutical market.

It is said that Little Japan has no choice now. Almost all of its foreign trade targets are Chinese customers. Without the Chinese market, Little Japan may not be able to implement the economic policies of the Meiji Restoration so smoothly.

But the Japanese really don't follow principles when doing business. Unlike Europeans and Americans, even if they engage in competition, it is at least a commercial method, and underhanded tactics will be placed in the economic category.

Little Japan doesn't care about this, and its conscience has been snatched away by the dog, so why talk about competition?Business?Economics and trade?
-

After returning to Yuyuan, a courier handed Li Yu a letter from Nanjing. It was found that the signed sender was Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang. He happened to have something to see Li Yu.

When he was really sleepy, someone handed him a pillow, and Li Yu happily agreed.

Li Yu knew that the county magistrate in Shanghai County Government definitely did not have the authority to allocate land to the factory, and at least he had to grant it to the official or the governor of the province.

What's more, the land is close to the concession and foreigners are involved, so it is very sensitive.

As for Duan Fang, he also had something serious to do with Li Yu. Firstly, Duanfang had just petitioned for the construction of Jinan Academy (later Jinan University) and wanted to ask Li Yu to come and give a few words at the academy. Secondly, Li Yu bought the Song Building some time ago. He encountered the sale of another large library, so he needed an experienced person like Li Yu to talk about the price.

Li Yu took Lu Bicheng on a small steamer of the Steamship Merchants Company, went up the Yangtze River, and soon arrived in Nanjing.

Liangjiang Governor-General's Office was later the Presidential Palace. Li Yu visited here before traveling through time.

According to the official system of the Qing Dynasty, the governor of Liangjiang was the highest official after the governor of Zhili.

As for "Two Rivers", it refers to Jiangnan Province and Jiangxi Province, of which Jiangnan Province included what would later become Jiangsu and Anhui.

Duanfang was a Manchu, one of the few decent Manchu officials in the late Qing Dynasty.

Especially since he went abroad for inspection as the fifth minister last year, his thoughts are much more open-minded than ordinary Manchu officials.

——In other words, the thinking of most Manchu officials is too backward.

Duan Fang knew that Li Yu had a very deep background. He was not only an imperial master, but also had close friendship with the two most powerful officials, Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong. Not to mention that foreigners respected him very much, so he arranged a very formal reception ceremony.

In the Governor's Mansion, Duanfang held a very sumptuous banquet.

After a few polite words, Duan Fang got down to business: "Master Emperor, last month the Ding family of the Eight Thousand Volumes Building in Hangzhou contacted me. They really can't maintain the operation of the library and want to find a buyer. Because the amount is huge , I thought about it and couldn’t decide what price to pay, so I asked the Imperial Master to make a trip.”

There were four major libraries in the late Qing Dynasty, and the Eight Thousand Volumes Building was one of them.

This building also contains many Song-printed books, but not as many as in the Song Dynasty Tower, about forty sets, but the total number of books in the collection reaches 20 volumes, which is twice as many as in the Song Dynasty Tower.

Historically, many people were heartbroken after the Gaosong Building was sold to the Japanese. Therefore, after the news came out that the Baqianjuan Building was looking for a buyer, Duan Fang immediately contacted the Ding family.

Li Yusi thought: "I bid 20 silver yuan. Considering that there are many Song edition books in the Song Dynasty Tower, but the total volume is small, I think you can offer [-] to [-] silver yuan for the Eight Thousand Juan Tower."

"It's a relatively reasonable price," Duan Fang stroked his beard, "I will ask the court tomorrow to allocate funds to purchase the Eight Thousand Volumes Building as soon as possible. By the way, what do you plan to do with your books after you buy them back?"

"I built a library in Yuyuan, Shanghai, and hired ten scribes to copy the books. I will then store these books in the future university library," Li Yu said.

"library?"

Duan Fang has seen many libraries, but he has never heard of libraries in China.

"Didn't Master Taipei go to Europe last year? I must have seen that many European cities have libraries." Li Yu said.

"It's quite impressive what you said," Duan Fang thought for a moment. "If we can build a public library, it will be similar to the current implementation of new education, and it can inspire people's wisdom." Li Yu took the opportunity to suggest: "Why don't you come here, sir?" Build a library in Nanjing, let’s call it Nanjing Library, and move the eight thousand volumes of books into the library. It will not only protect it, but also recruit outstanding talents to conduct in-depth research and exert greater value.”

"It makes sense!" Duan Fang was persuaded, "But I'm afraid it's inappropriate to call it Nanjing Library. I think it would be better to call it Jiangnan Library."

"It all depends on your decision," Li Yu said.

Anyway, this library was indeed called Jiangnan Library at first, but it will eventually be changed to Nanjing Library.

Duan Fang did indeed do this, so later generations sometimes regard him as the founder of modern libraries.

After the establishment of the Jiangnan Library, Duan Fang was out of control and directly regarded the creation of the library as his life's work. Since then, he has contributed a lot to the Hubei Library, Hunan Library, and the Capital Library.

Duan Fang added: "One more thing. I just founded the Jinan Academy in Drum Tower. The standards are based on those of the Capital University. The students are specially recruited overseas students who have returned from Nanyang. The imperial teacher is the best master of Western learning in the world today, no, the world. , I must give a speech for me at the opening ceremony to show that I respect the new learning."

Li Yu laughed and said, "Being respectful is worse than obeying orders."

Anyway, Li Yu is happy to engage in education and cultivate future talents, so it doesn't matter if he goes.

Li Yu took the opportunity to tell Duan Fang that he wanted to unite with the Germans to open a pharmaceutical factory.

Duan Fang said: "It's a good thing, I can agree, but the location needs to be negotiated by the Germans in person. After all, they still rent land in Qingdao. If Qingdao is finally chosen, there is nothing I can do."

Duan Fang's statement is not unreasonable. Qingdao is the bridgehead of the Germans in the Far East and has been carefully managed.

Moreover, since the Gengzi national crisis, local officials have become much more cautious in doing business with foreigners.

But Li Yu felt that he should be able to persuade Bayer to build a factory in Shanghai, but it would have to be in the concession or in an area close to the concession.

After all, Bayer is a company in the final analysis, and it will definitely choose to do business wherever it is convenient. Currently, Shanghai's transportation and business radiation capabilities are the best in Asia.

They won't have trouble with money.

So Li Yu replied: "I understand. I will inform Bayer of your thoughts later."

After eating, Duanfang was in a good mood and took Li Yu to visit his collection.

Li Yu was not surprised. The feudal officials of every dynasty and every generation seemed to be particularly fond of collecting.

But Li Yu was indeed a little surprised today.

In the library called "Baohua Temple" in Duanfang, needless to say, there are books, and there are even bronzes from the Shang Dynasty, but it was still not enough to shock Li Yu.

"This, this is..." Li Yu pointed to the front, "Could it be that you bought it from Egypt?"

Displayed in front of Li Yu were more than 30 Egyptian stone tablets, a dozen Egyptian statues, and many scattered artifacts, all of which were placed next to a human-shaped colorful coffin.

At first glance, the style is Egyptian.

"Eh!" Duan Fang was even more surprised than Li Yu, "The Imperial Master is indeed knowledgeable about the entire West, and even knows things about Egypt."

Li Yu pointed to the stone tablet: "It is in a typical Egyptian script, which is easy to identify."

"Good eyesight! You can recognize it at a glance. You are worthy of being an imperial master!" Duan Fang praised, "I specially sent the rubbing to Kang Youwei last month, but he didn't even recognize the source."

Li Yu took a closer look and found that they were undoubtedly genuine.

He called it a good guy. Duanfang is the No. 1 collection of ancient Egyptian cultural relics in China.

Li Yu asked: "How much money did you spend?"

“Not much,” Duan Fang said proudly of his “treasure hunting” experience. “When I visited museums in Europe, I saw many exquisite ancient Western inscriptions, and I wanted to make rubbings of them and bring them back home. It's a pity that the museum failed to agree, maybe they didn't know about the rubbing technology.

“I could only board the ship back home with disappointment. Unexpectedly, the Suez Canal needed repairs and the ship had to stay in Cairo for two days.

"I was idle, so I wandered around the streets of Cairo and found that cultural relics were being sold everywhere, and there were even thousand-year-old masterpieces. If I hadn't brought too few followers, I could have bought more." Duan Fang explain.

Li Yu also took Lu Bicheng to visit Egypt the year before last, but at that time, his eyes were full of beauties and pyramids around him, and he didn't care about these cultural relic dealers at all.

He has no intention of acquiring or even protecting foreign cultural relics. The domestic ones are not enough for him.

Moreover, Duanfang was one of the officials who died the most during the Revolution of 20, and his descendants lived in very poverty. During the Republic of China, through a Canadian as an intermediary, the most valuable set of Shang Dynasty bronzes in Duanfang's collection was sold at about the same price. Sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for [-] silver dollars.

Li Yu must be more concerned about this set of bronze vessels than Egyptian cultural relics.

Li Yu said: "Your Excellency has really searched for treasures thousands of miles away. Egypt is a country with a long history that is also known as an ancient civilization like us."

"Really? I don't know much about Egyptian history, but the things look really good," Duan Fang said proudly, "To be honest, Master, these Egyptian cultural relics are my treasures and cannot be seen by ordinary people."

Li Yu smiled and said, "I'm really honored."

He really treasures these things, so much so that many people don’t even know about them.Fortunately, these cultural relics were not damaged much during the war, and most of them ended up in the Forbidden City and the library warehouse of Peking University.

Duanfang also tried to study the inscriptions and made many rubbings.It's just that there is no Egyptology in China at this time, and many people, including Kang Youwei, can't see why.

In 56, we established diplomatic relations with Egypt, and the Beijing Library gave Egypt a gift, which were the 12 ancient Egyptian inscriptions that Duan Fang had inscribed.

The Egyptian side was quite shocked when they saw it. Not only the British Museum, but also the Beijing Library? !

Moreover, these inscriptions are well preserved and are not found in Egypt.

As for the human-shaped colorful coffin, it has been sleeping in the old warehouse of Peking University Library for half a century.

Until 2005, when an old professor from Peking University was cleaning out the warehouse, he accidentally discovered it in the corner. There were also nine ancient Egyptian stone tablets and numerous rubbings in the coffin.

Later, after expert identification, the human-shaped colorful coffin came from the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt more than 2000 years ago. It originally contained a priestess, but the mummy must have been long gone.

(End of this chapter)