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

Chapter 478 The day has finally arrived

Generally speaking, study tours in the United States are mainly based on science and engineering. Hu Shi and Zhao Yuanren are relatively rare. The proportion of liberal arts students is only [-] to [-]%. Moreover, they also studied science and engineering at the beginning.

The main reason is that there is a huge shortage of management talents, so we can only do our best to support them.

Li Yu and Tang Guoan summoned all the students to Tsinghua University to prepare for going to the United States.

There are many science and engineering talents in this group. In addition to the famous Jiang Lifu, Zhu Kezhen, and Mei Yiqi, there are also Zhou Ren, Yi Dingxin, etc. who have left a mark in the history of modern science in China.

Zhou Ren is engaged in materials science, metallurgy, ceramics, etc.

Yi Dingxin's new direction was electrical, mainly in strong electricity. He later became the president of Hunan University.He happened to study for a year at the school founded by Li Yu in Changsha.

Tang Guoan gave them some routine lectures, and there was no need to arouse any emotions. At this time, those who studied in the United States were really determined to serve their country, and almost all of them would come back.

Li Yu didn't even want them to come back too early. It was best to work in American companies for a few years after graduating from American universities, and then return to China. Only in this way could they truly master what they had learned and exert greater energy.

Everyone present is considered the "foreign number one" and has already decided to study in the United States, and everyone has a very generous scholarship to ensure that they can at least live a life as good as a child from a middle-class family in the United States.

So everyone was in a very relaxed mood, and Li Yu chatted casually with them.

Hu Shi continued to praise Jiang Lifu for his help. He has always had the specialty of "a gentleman who is good at fake things" and can make the best use of other people's help.

Jiang Lifu was a little embarrassed by the praise.

Li Yu seriously reminded: "When you get to the other side of the ocean, you may find that the living conditions and social development in the United States are beyond imagination, but you must not be greedy for pleasure."

Hu Shi immediately patted his chest and said, "Of course I know the tricks of the Americans."

Li Yu was surprised: "You know?"

Hu Shi said: "Everyone with a discerning eye can see that the Americans have a conspiracy to return the Geng Geng money. On the contrary, the Qing government itself was kept in the dark and it was extremely grateful to the United States, as if it were worshiping a compassionate Bodhisattva."

Jiang Lifu also nodded: "Send troops to attack, the Americans' move is too clever."

Li Yu was really surprised now.

Li Yu knew that the idea of ​​​​the United States was entirely due to the extraordinary perspective of a time traveler, and these international students who had not yet gone to the United States had already seen it, and they were worthy of being knowledgeable people selected at all levels.

Of course, after living in the United States for several years, Hu Shi and others would inevitably be infected by American culture, so Hu Shi later praised the United States very much.

After returning to China, he said: "The customs in the United States are excellent. The houses are not closed at night, the streets are not picked up, and the people are not wandering around. Even in all games, there is always the style of a great country. This is really enviable." "

There are many people who hold similar arguments.

However, the gap must be acknowledged. If we compare China at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China with the United States, which has just become the world's largest industry, even a purely objective alien will feel the same as international students like Hu Shi.

After international students arrive in the United States, they often live in some American homes with better conditions.In Hu Shi's original words, "These high-class gentry families treat Chinese people very well, and they often invite me to their homes for discussions."

Anyway, for now, ordinary American families are also voluntarily promoting their own nation.

Later, many historians believed that Hu Shi and other overseas students with Geng Geng funds had not penetrated into the lower class groups in the United States, and did not know that there was another type of Chinese who opened restaurants, laundries, and worked as hard labor.

Almost all of them have never made a living in the United States. Most of them only live in ivory towers. Therefore, they only see the benefits of the United States and are passionately devoted to the United States.

Otherwise, the Boxer Refund and the U.S. investment in education in China are a conspiracy that spans a century and can only be broken bit by bit.

Of course, these students studying in the United States are all smart people. They have basically seen through the surface and know that foreigners still look down on the Chinese.

Li Yu asked again about their goals after going to the United States. Jiang Lifu said without hesitation: "I naturally want to study mathematics. This is the foundation of all Western learning."

Zhao Yuanren said: "I also want to study mathematics and physics."

Zhu Kezhen immediately said: "China has always been founded on agriculture, but now agriculture lags behind others, so I want to study agriculture."

When it was Hu Shi's turn, he thought for a moment and said, "I also want to study agriculture. I open a tea shop in my home. Agriculture and tea are closely related."

It is more economical to choose agriculture. Like later generations, American universities now implement protection policies for some majors. For majors such as agriculture, the annual tuition is much less, or even almost free; and the Geng Grant subsidy will be paid to Everyone has made money in disguise.

Li Yu added: "Now I have very friendly relations with universities in the United States, and I can be of some help. Is there a school you really want to go to?"

Jiang Lifu was still the most decisive: "Go to the best one, Harvard or Yale!"

Zhu Kezhen was more casual: "I thought the university picked us. I would be happy to go anywhere."

Zhu Kezhen, like Jiang Lifu, later entered Harvard University.

Hu Shi said: "I heard that Cornell University is the best in agriculture. I will choose Cornell University's agriculture major."

Li Yu smiled and said, "I remember."

Hu Shi made a small mistake in English. He did not know that the word "state" in the United States mainly refers to a state (currently translated as a province) rather than a country, so he mistakenly thought that Cornell University was an American national university.

In fact, these powerful Ivy League schools are all private universities.

However, Cornell University's College of Agriculture is indeed funded by the state government, so it is exempt from a large amount of tuition like public universities.

It was not until several years after staying in the United States that Hu Shi learned that Cornell University's College of Agriculture was "provincial" rather than "national."The previous belief that agricultural science was “the most famous” was naturally a misunderstanding.

Even if the Agricultural College of an Ivy League school like Cornell University ranks first in the United States, its status within the school will never be the most famous.

The Department of Philosophy at Columbia University, to which Hu Shi later transferred, is really a strong brand of Columbia University.Maybe that's why he switched departments.

-

After returning home, Li Yu found an extra package, sent by Hilbert.

After opening it, in addition to some magazines, books, letters, and a pack of Darjeeling black tea.

Most likely, Hilbert thought that Chinese people loved tea, so he specially selected a popular tea among European aristocrats and sent it over.

Darjeeling black tea is the absolute favorite among European upper class society, especially among British aristocrats.

Since Darjeeling itself was cultivated by the British who introduced lapsang races from Wuyi Mountain in China's Fujian Province to India, they follow the same pattern as Chinese tea, with distinct grades such as first-picked tea, second-picked tea, rainy season tea, and autumn tea.

The most precious thing is Mingqian tea, but Mingqian tea is too expensive. Hilbert sent the first-picked tea, which is also of good quality.The best thing Li Yu had ever drunk in his previous life was the four- to five-hundred-dollar Jin Junmei. It felt good to be able to drink high-quality black tea.

What's more, Hilbert sent it all the way, so I was very touched that he was remembered.

Li Yu unfolded Hilbert's letter. After a brief opening statement, he wrote:
"When I first entered this summer, I felt that my energy had declined, and I seemed to have fallen into a kind of mental depression. I don't know if every scientist has such confusion, but I heard a psychologist say, Almost every great scientist he knew had fallen into this kind of severe depression. So did Klein, who was also at the University of Göttingen, and so did many others.

“There are times in the life of a creative person when he feels, perhaps literally, that he has lost all power.

"I have to admit, it's a huge blow."

Hilbert's condition is quite common, but he usually recovers after taking a long vacation. It is not a real mental illness like Cantor.

Hilbert wrote in the letter: "I really envy such energetic young people like you. Even if you think about girls every day, you still have the energy to think about the most difficult mathematical problems, as if you are tireless."

In addition to Hilbert's letter, the package also contained a letter from Minkowski. His letters were not as casual as Hilbert's, and almost all of them talked about the mathematics of relativity that he had been studying with great effort recently.

Minkowski more completely proposed the formal representation of the four-dimensional space of special relativity, or gave a geometric description of Einstein's transformation.

Minkowski wrote in the letter: "Some time ago, Hilbert pulled me to discuss Waring's problem in number theory - I couldn't believe it. He actually said he had given a proof of this difficult problem. Anyway, I didn't believe it.

"This caused me to postpone my research on the mathematics of relativity theory, and I have only now sorted it out and sent you a manuscript for your viewing.

"As for why I sent it to you, it's very simple because I have read the paper you co-authored with Einstein. The mathematical arguments in it, I dare say, are definitely from your hand. Based on my experience of Einstein when he was taking classes at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Performance-wise, he would never have such good math skills.

"That's why I made such a conclusion. But I can't be wrong."

Li Yu turned to the thick professional manuscript at the back and took a long time to finish reading it.

This was Minkowski's last mathematical achievement during his lifetime, and it is basically his most famous achievement.

Minkowski would die from appendicitis surgery next year.

This kind of thing is difficult to avoid. Some people can survive, and some people cannot survive the infection.Many years later, there was a great master who performed appendix surgery on himself in the freezing cold.

Anyway, Li Yu always thought that this was a minor illness, and he felt a little sad when he looked at Minkowski's notes in front of him.

Li Yu wrote a reply to the two of them respectively, and just as he asked Zhao Qian to send it, he saw several eunuchs from the palace hurriedly passing by, holding packages in their hands, followed by several people dressed as doctors.

Ordinary people would not dare to ask, but Li Yu knew that this was Guangxu's death struggle, and he searched for famous doctors all over the country, hoping to prolong his life.

Guangxu's health was not good to begin with. He had been in bad health since ten years ago. It might have been a chronic disease. But last year, it suddenly took a turn for the worse.

The governors of each province selected and sent the best famous doctors to Beijing. After a year, there was no change.

As the saying goes, a long-term illness makes a doctor good. Over the years, Guangxu also studied medicine. He also became the "team leader" of his own medical team, adding and subtracting arbitrarily to the prescriptions prescribed by imperial doctors and famous doctors.

When he was about to die, he almost used his survival instinct to issue an edict, urgently requesting the governors of various provinces to select medical experts to come to Beijing as soon as possible.

He even proposed that no matter whether these people had official positions or were of upright background, as long as they could treat them, they could do anything.

Emperor Guangxu also promised that if his illness was cured, he would not only reward these famous folk doctors, but also those who recommended him.

But no matter how good the doctor is, no matter how good the medical skills are, no matter how good the medicine is, they can only cure the disease but not the life.

Guangxu was destined to die. As for who killed him, it is very clear.

What a coincidence, you say. Just before Emperor Guangxu's condition turned critical, the 74-year-old lady Cixi also suffered from diarrhea for a long time because she ate something inappropriate.

Diarrhea can be fatal, especially for the frail elderly.

Cixi was probably suffering from dysentery.

Cixi's desire to survive was not weak either. Because she held power, the officials did their best to take care of her body.

Li Lianying, who was next to Cixi, was especially worried. Once Cixi died, he would be a lost dog. He had been in trouble in the palace for so many years, and he knew very well what the little eunuch below was thinking.

He seemed to have seen the excitement that could not be concealed in the eyes of Xiao De Zhang, the eunuch of Queen Mother Longyu.

"Hey, after becoming a eunuch, I lost my roots and my feelings. I am really unkind." Li Lianying sighed alone.

He didn't want to give up, so Prince Yikuang of Lianheqing issued another edict, asking all possible people to give up in order to find a way to rescue him.

He was in urgent need of treatment.

Human nature.

Li Yu also received a request to submit a memorial.

Li Yu didn't know anything about medicine, so he could only write a bunch of articles on physiology, evolution, and genetics in order to make things mysterious and make sure that Li Lianying and Cixi couldn't understand them.

Cixi looked weakly at Li Yu's excerpts. He still had a glimmer of hope in this so-called scientific giant and the person who knew the most about Western learning in China.

But the various terms in the article really gave her a headache, and she didn't have the energy to ask what they meant.

But when she turned her eyes, she suddenly discovered a detail. Li Yu wrote the word "Queen Mother".

Li Yu made a mistake here.

After all, Li Yu used simplified Chinese characters before and started using traditional Chinese characters after time travel. He didn't know that "hou" and "后" are not actually related to traditional Chinese characters and simplified characters.

"Queen" originally has a noble meaning and is used as the queen mother.

The word "hou" means "later" and "after" in the modern context.

In other words, these two characters have existed in history, and "hou" itself is a traditional Chinese character, but in the process of simplifying the characters, two different characters were combined into one character.

What did Cixi suddenly think of, "Qing Pills"?
This Li Yu...he...

Unfortunately, Cixi could no longer speak. As soon as her fingers loosened, the fold slipped, and she fainted again.

(End of this chapter)