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

Li Yu's Shanghai Middle School is booming, and the textbooks he compiled before are selling better.

Zhang Yuanji found Li Yu and showed him an account: "This is the cost of the first edition, a total of 7636 taels."

Li Yu didn't expect there to be so many, so he said: "Keep this money to improve existing textbooks. It would be best to set up a special textbook editorial committee."

"Textbook editorial board?" Zhang Yuanji thought it was a good idea. The future textbook market would be huge, so there was no need to care about the next one or two years. "But even if we want to set up an editorial board, we have to go through a process. The money must be paid first." On your account, you will then fund the editorial board.”

Li Yu smiled and said, "Okay, let's go through the fixed process."

Most of the money collected by the Commercial Press is scrap money, mostly in banks.Although it is not as convenient as a bank, the bank's reputation is quite good.

The two took a boat together to a bank on the Huangpu River. After settling the accounts, they saw a young man trying to jump into the river as soon as they came out.

The two people hurriedly stopped him and pulled him to the shore.

Zhang Yuanji gasped and asked: "Young man, why are you so worried about it?"

The young man said helplessly: "It is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice, and the public school is ruined! I, Yao Hongye, can only die to clarify my ambition and warn everyone."

Li Yu felt very overwhelmed. Why was he thinking of dying to make his ambition clear?So he asked: "Chinese Public School or Nanyang Public School?"

"China Public School." Yao Hongye said.

It turned out to be a group of students who had returned from studying in Japan. They were indeed more impulsive.Although it is not a bad thing in the current situation of the late Qing Dynasty, it is not worth it to seek death for nothing.

Historically, Yao Hongye encountered some setbacks when he was a secretary in a Chinese public school and committed suicide in anger.

Zhang Yuanji advised: "My child, there is no need to lose your life, there are still so many things to do."

Yao Hongye suddenly recognized Li Yu: "You are the emperor's master! Is there anything you can do?"

"What's the matter?" Li Yu asked, "I will do my best if I can help."

Yao Hongye sighed: "School funds are still insufficient. Everyone is quarreling every day and has no intention of running a school."

Li Yu wondered: "Didn't Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang, donate 1000 taels per month?"

Yao Hongye said: "The number of students is increasing, but it is still unsustainable."

Li Yu said: "Things are not difficult, I..."

Zhang Yuanji interrupted Li Yu and said, "Brother Shucai, you can't always spend money on this kind of thing. Running a school should be a matter of the imperial court. I will publish it in the newspaper tomorrow to ask for funding."

After the article was published, I didn't expect that the first person to come forward was the Qing Dynasty Bank, and the money was 10 taels, and a new school building was built for them in Wusong.

It is estimated that the imperial court also wanted to use this to win over students studying in Japan.

But there are so many students studying in Japan that it’s hard to win them over.

But at least the funding problem was solved.

Yao Hongye was extremely grateful to the two men for not only saving his life, but also saving the Chinese public school.

Yao Hongye came to thank Li Yu separately, and when he found Li Yu, he even expressed his intention to follow Li Yu in the future.

Li Yu asked: "Aren't you a member of the Tongmenghui? I can't make a revolution here."

Yao Hongye said: "Now the Tongmenghui is divided and everyone is scattered. And it is not necessarily the case that joining the Tongmenghui is for revolution. Like Brother Tianhua, I just want to make the country prosperous and strong."

Li Yu thought for a moment: "Okay, you can come to me after you finish your studies and graduate, and I still have some very important tasks for you. So you must study hard in the past two years."

Yao Hongye said: "Don't worry, Imperial Master, I will definitely not let you down. I will at least graduate among the top three in the public school."

Li Yu smiled and said, "Then I'll wait for you."

Li Yu had a plan in mind.

Just this morning, he had just read in the newspaper that Japan had established the notorious South Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd., which was the core Japanese company that exploited the Northeast.

Li Yu must insert some of his own people into Japan's Northeastern enterprises, and cannot allow the Japanese to plunder resources so easily.

But such people need to be carefully selected, because the dormant period will be very long, and the treatment provided by Japan is extremely high, so long-term loyalty must be guaranteed.

Li Yu's current best choices are Zou Rong and Yao Hongye. They are both people who are not even afraid of death. They truly regard money as dirt and have strong will.

Of course, they must first develop their ability to deal with economic and trade issues. Breaking into predatory companies such as Japan Manchuria Railway is a step-by-step process.

Li Yu finished her business in Shanghai and was about to return to the capital. He was afraid that Qiu Jin would no longer be concerned about the revolutionary cause, so he persuaded her to go north together. After all, her family was still in the capital. Qiu Jin finally agreed after hesitating for a while.

On the ship, Li Yu met Sheng Xuanhuai, who had also returned to Beijing, and had met him before.

Sheng Xuanhuai is not as famous as Hu Xueyan, but his significance to the modern economy is much greater.

Li Yu cupped his fists and said, "Man Shanda."

Sheng Xuanhuai also clasped his fists: "Emperor Master, long time no see." Li Yurong asked, "Why did Shanda come back to the capital?"

"What else could it be? Of course it's the railway!" Sheng Xuanhuai said, "The imperial court asked me to be the Minister of Posts and Communications. To put it bluntly, we still have to solve the railway problem."

"Jinpu Railway?" Li Yu asked.

Sheng Xuanhuai shook his head and said, "It's the Sichuan-Hankou Railway."

The Sichuan-Hankou Railway is a railway from Wuhan to Chengdu. Planning began as early as 1903.

Li Yu said: "The road to Shu is as difficult as climbing to the sky. The Sichuan-Hankou Railway is really difficult."

Sheng Xuanhuai sighed: "It would be okay if it was just that the construction was difficult, but I really didn't expect that the Sichuan-Hankou Railway Company had so many troubles! Four years later, more than 800 million taels of funds have been raised. Not even an inch of the railway has been repaired, but 150 yuan has been spent. Ten thousand taels were spent on wages and office expenses! They even invested 200 million taels in Chongqing Copper Yuan Bureau, but lost everything."

Li Yu was stunned.

Those who are familiar with modern history must know that the "last straw" that broke the Qing Dynasty was not the Wuchang Uprising, but the road protection movement in Sichuan, and the "road" in it was the Sichuan-Hankou Railway.

At the beginning of the [-]th century, there were not many construction machines, and railway construction was inherently expensive. The Qing government, which had experienced several failed foreign wars, owed huge foreign debts of more than one billion taels of silver, and was unable to invest in railway construction.

The only way to crack it is to raise foreign debt or raise private funds.

But the situation at this time was too special. They had already lost the battle, lost so much money, and had to borrow money from foreigners. Many people could not accept it and were very resistant to foreign investment.

Therefore, even if the Qing government knew that it was cost-effective to raise foreign debt, it would be stigmatized as a "traitor" and had no choice but to choose "official supervision and commercial management".

Fortunately, the public has realized that investing in railways has huge returns, so they are very enthusiastic about raising funds.

But the Sichuan-Hankou Railway Company established for this purpose was really unsightly.

In other places, most funds are raised through the gentry class, but Sichuan is different. It is raised through increased taxes. In other words, almost everyone among the 7000 million Sichuan residents is a shareholder.

This is the reason why a road protection movement will break out in Sichuan.

Li Yu was quite speechless, but even if he knew the crux of the problem, there was nothing he could do, let alone stop it. After all, the Qing Dynasty died in the Sichuan road protection movement, so it was best to sit back and watch.

Li Yu casually replied in official terms: "Railways, communications, military industry, and finance are all important assets of the country and should be taken seriously. The imperial court must have called you back to Beijing because you have been in charge of the railway minister for many years and have rich experience."

Sheng Xuanhuai said angrily: "The mess has been put away, what can I do! I have said before that we should insist on raising foreign debt. If you don't like Britain and France, you can find neutral countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland! What's the matter of 'official supervision and business affairs'? ', the railway should be nationalized."

Li Yu smiled awkwardly: "What you said is absolutely true."

There is nothing wrong with what Sheng Xuanhuai said.

Even if we look at it from a modern perspective, we can only do this. After all, we are just borrowing money, not giving the right of way to foreigners. The railway is ultimately our own, and the money can be paid back slowly.

Before Li Yu traveled through, a country in South Asia and a country in Southeast Asia were building high-speed railways and had to borrow debt from Japan.

It is a routine economic operation.

Unfortunately, the Qing government's execution was shocking time and time again, and the operation of the Sichuan-Hankou Railway was even more psychedelic.

Two years later, the general revenue and expenditure of the Sichuan-Hankou Railway (ie the chief accountant) actually misappropriated 300 million taels to speculate in stocks in Shanghai!
Mom, can this be helped?

In 2023, the American company BlackRock, the world's largest capital supervision company and the boss behind countless large companies, invested in A-shares for three years, but lost money to the point of crying and ran away in despair.

They are super financial giants and top players, but they can't even handle Big A. How can a small accountant who doesn't understand finance at all still want to make money by speculating in stocks in Shanghai?
Go dream!

Even Buffett can't save it.

Therefore, 300 million taels were completely lost in a short period of time, and there were not even a few splashes.

When the time comes, Sheng Xuanhuai will forcefully take back the railway, which is actually a wise move and will redeem it at the original price.

However, the situation in Sichuan is special. The shareholders are countless ordinary Sichuan people, so it is difficult to implement the redemption operation in detail.What's more, if this happens, the huge deficit of the Sichuan-Hankou Railway Company will be revealed.

That's all the hard-earned money of countless Sichuan people who have turned their backs on the earth. It would be strange if they didn't beheaded alive when they found out!
That's why they confused the situation and shouted the slogan "Refuse to borrow foreign money, cancel the contract to protect the road" to divert doubts from all walks of life on the whereabouts of the funds raised, and blackmailed the court to "wipe their butts" for them.

But Sheng Xuanhuai knew the whole story and didn't want to wipe their butts for them.

As a result, a vigorous "Road Protection Movement" broke out soon.

Everyone knows what happened next. Yuan Shikai was invited out of the mountain again. A few months later, the Qing Dynasty was completely buried.

It’s really interesting that a mere 300 million taels of silver actually sounded the death knell of the Qing Dynasty and swept it into the garbage heap of history.

Of course, this is just a vent. If it doesn't break out on the Sichuan-Hankou Railway, it will break out elsewhere. After all, the time is almost here.

However, ever since the Sichuan-Hankou Railway project was established, things were destined to reach this ending.Because the railway in and out of Sichuan is too difficult to build, even more difficult than Fujian, and the cost is huge.The Qing government simply couldn't afford so much money, and even if it took it, it would be ruined.

Li Yu knew this period of history very well, but Sheng Xuanhuai did not.

Moreover, so much money has been raised that the arrow has to be fired.