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

Although the Harvard Chinese Medical School in Shanghai failed to achieve the same reputation as other schools, it was still well-known in the medical community in the early years of the Republic of China.

When Li Yu sent a fee to the school, he happened to meet some visitors.

The leader was a man in his 30s wearing a military uniform, who looked like a military doctor.After he saw Li Yu, he walked over directly: "Master, I have admired you for a long time. I am Wu Liande, deputy superintendent of the Tianjin Army Military Medical Hall."

Nowadays, the principals of many university halls are called supervisors.

This Tianjin Army Military Medical School is very low-key and few people know about it.

The school was established around 1902 and was part of the Beiyang system, and Yuan Shikai paid more attention to it.

Since Beiyang as a whole is very Westernized, the Army Medical School also focuses on Western medicine.This is understandable. According to Yuan Shikai, military medicine pays attention to convenience, portability and ease of operation, while traditional Chinese medicine requires too many medicines and is not very convenient to carry with the army.

"It turns out to be Doctor Wu." Li Yu shook hands with him.

I have naturally heard the name of this infectious disease tycoon, Li Yu, and it was he who was responsible for extinguishing the Great Plague in Northeast China a year later.

Wu Liande said: "The emperor's master not only studied Chinese and foreign countries, but also dabbled in so many things, he was even interested in medicine."

Li Yu said: "In troubled times, human life is like a piece of grass, which is very sad. However, doctors are kind-hearted and value life the most, and they can be considered as doing their best in the world."

Wu Liande cupped his hands and said: "The Imperial Master has a realm."

Li Yu said: "Plague is inevitable in troubled times. I am going to contact factories to produce masks and other protective equipment."

Wu Liande said: "I also have similar ideas, but currently they are limited to the military."

Li Yu said: "The great epidemic harms ordinary people the most."

Wu Liande said: "The emperor's words reminded me of the last years of the Ming Dynasty, when a great epidemic also occurred, which completely made the Ming Dynasty in turmoil fall ill. Now..."

Wu Liande did not continue.

It's like history repeating itself.

Although everyone hates the Manchus, let me explain again that the Ming Dynasty was not actually defeated by the Qing army.Those who are familiar with history should know that the Ming Dynasty died internally, allowing the Manchu and Qing Dynasties to gain a huge advantage.

There are too many specific reasons, so I won’t go into details one by one, but the great plague in the late Ming Dynasty was definitely the straw that broke the camel’s back.

It was not until many years later, near the 21st century, that scholars concluded that this plague was bubonic plague.

Plague is the number one infectious disease in the world. It has had a serious impact on human society at different stages for thousands of years and has greatly affected the direction of history.

It is difficult to estimate the exact number of deaths caused by the plague in the late Ming Dynasty, but it was definitely in the millions.

Now that the plague is coming again in the late Qing Dynasty, the wheel of history is rolling forward, and it seems that we are seeing the same scene.

Fortunately, this time Wu Liande and other infectious disease experts vigorously resisted, and no major harm was caused.

Li Yu said: "When people prosper, people suffer; when they die, people suffer. When you leave the temple, you realize what the hardships of the world are. What we can do is to reduce the suffering of the world a little."

Wu Liande said: "I returned to China with the intention of serving others."

Li Yu said: "We will definitely meet again in the future."

-

After Li Yu left Harvard Medical School, he was still preparing to take another look at Shanghai Middle School.

Unexpectedly, Chen Qimei brought a teenager to sign up.

After seeing Li Yu, Chen Qimei smiled and said, "We are old acquaintances. As my nephew, I heard that your school is one of the best in Shanghai, so I must sign up."

Chen Qimei was already acquainted and had a relationship with Li Yu.

"Nephew?" Li Yu thought for a moment, leaned over and asked, "What's your name?"

The young man said: "My name is Chen Lifu."

Well, it’s really...

But Li Yu really couldn't refuse.

Chen Qimei said: "It's hard to find foreign teachers in schools like yours now."

Li Yu said: "Okay, but when you go to my school, you must abide by the school rules."

Chen Qimei said: "Master Emperor, don't worry, this child is very obedient."

Although Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu were among the so-called four major families in the Republic of China, they were nothing compared to the Song Ziwen family and the Kong Xiangxi family.

Li Yu didn't have a good impression of any of them, but figures in the financial world were always easier to intervene than figures in the military and political circles.

In the future, at least through the influence I exert, I can make the lives of ordinary people in the country a little better economically.

Li Yu said: "Go to the registration office to adjust the form. The class placement teacher will make arrangements based on the assessment of academic ability."

Chen Qimei said: "Thank you for your help, Master!"

-

During this period, Li Yu issued invitations to mathematics competitions through several schools he built, as well as major newspapers such as Shenbao and Ta Kung Pao.

Since it was difficult to organize centralized examinations, Li Yu adopted a very "rude" method to conduct auditions: he directly published some questions in newspapers, and then asked people from all over the country to write back to him after reading the newspapers.

The postage was borne by Li Yu and was sent to Beijing, the current distribution point of Qing Post.

The questions are mainly concise, not too complex, but must test sufficiently profound mathematical knowledge.

Basically, it is at the level of the second-to-last major question in mathematics in the college entrance examination.

Don't feel too good about making things difficult for others.

After returning to the capital, Li Yu received some replies. After a general look, he found that not many people answered correctly, but there were still quite a few that stood out.

Li Yu then sent back the re-examination questions to these selected people who had passed the preliminary examination.

The retest questions are more difficult, such as mathematics. Li Yu came up with a super simple equation-solving question:
X(3)-3x+1=0
The "3" in brackets means cubic.

At first glance, it seems simple, but in fact, this equation is the so-called "Wei Dongyi equation", which cannot be solved by the classic factorization method. The solution situation is also relatively complicated, and is expressed by trigonometric functions.

Even fewer people answered this time.

But there was a letter that caught Li Yu's attention, and he answered it very beautifully.

Looking at the postmark again, it was sent from distant Kunming, and his name was Xiong Qinglai.

Xiong Qinglai, who later became the director of the Department of Mathematics at Tsinghua University, discovered Hua Luogeng's talent.

Li Yu immediately wrote to him and asked him if he would like to go to the middle school he built, or to a nearby middle school such as Guangzhou.

Xiong Qinglai is currently only 16 years old. He immediately replied: "I would rather go to Tianjin or Shanghai, which are closer to the Imperial Master."

Li Yu directly put a banknote in the letter and sent it back as payment.

Xiong Qinglai was also very courageous. After arriving in Guangzhou alone, he took a ferry to Tianjin.

When Feng Chenwen arrived in the capital, he had already lost a lot of weight.

Seeing this young man, Li Yu felt a little emotional. Sure enough, mathematics is a natural talent!
Xiong Qinglai came to such a distant place for the first time and asked, "Are you Academician Li Yu?" Li Yu said, "Yes, I am."

"Great!" Xiong Qinglai said happily, "I finally see you!"

Li Yu glanced at his backpack: "There's a lot of luggage."

Xiong Qinglai put down the package, opened it and said: "There are a few mathematics books. I was bored on the road and kept reading them."

Li Yule said: "Read math books when you are bored?"

Xiong Qinglai blinked and said, "Mathematics is interesting! Sometimes I forget to eat in order to solve a problem."

Li Yu looked at the book cover. It was a collection of mathematical problems published in the UK. There were many similar books and the difficulty was not low.

Li Yu suddenly said: "I still want to give you a test. If you can still do it, I can give you one of the study abroad places in the next batch as soon as possible."

Xiong Qinglai said confidently: "Please ask the emperor to come up with a question."

Li Yu took out a piece of paper and said while writing: "Last time it was a question about solving equations. This time it is the same as before, but it is much more difficult."

The title is still very concise:
X（5）+10x（3）+20x-4=0
Same as above, the numbers in brackets represent the 5th power and the 3rd power.

That is a fifth equation of one variable.

This equation is the authentic "Wei Dongyi equation".Although it appears harmless to humans and animals, it is actually extremely difficult.

It is said that when Wei Shen Wei Dongyi participated in the Mathematical Olympiad training team, the teacher asked this question. Among more than 100 people, only Wei Dongyi solved it, so he is quite famous.

(Of course, later refuting the rumors was not Wei Dongyi’s topic when he was in the training team. But it has spread and is called a habit. Wei Dongyi is famous, and many topics are based on him.

And the difficulty of the questions is not that mysterious.

This kind of question can stump ordinary players, but for Wei Dongyi and other people on the Olympic team, it is at most a basic question.

By analogy to ordinary people, it is equivalent to taking a multiple-choice question in the college entrance examination mathematics.

But just because it was a relatively simple math competition question with a very simple form and a relatively high reputation, Li Yu remembered it. )
Li Yu looked at the solution. It was actually very simple. There were some calculations, but the difficulty of the calculations was at most the level of the final big question of mathematics in the college entrance examination.

But that's not the point.

The real key is to start with an assumption, which is the essence.

You need to assume from the beginning that the roots of the equation are of the form: x=a-2/a.

It's over!

As long as the rest are substituted in, you will find that most of the multiple items have been eliminated, leaving a very simple form.

Therefore, the difficulty is how to think of assuming the form of the root in this way.

After Li Yu finished writing the question, he went back to write a letter to the great Einstein.As soon as he finished writing, Xiong Qinglai had already solved it.

Li Yu looked at it and said with a smile: "Very good, you passed the assessment. Next year I will give you an opportunity to study in Europe and the United States, but you must also take up other homework during this time to prepare for studying abroad."

Xiong Qinglai opened his eyes wide and said, "You must keep your word!"

Li Yu said: "When will what I say not count? You can study in a middle school in Tianjin with peace of mind during this period, and all expenses will be reimbursed to you."

Xiong Qinglai was so happy that he was already dancing for joy: "I knew that learning mathematics would be useful and that I could become the number one scholar studying abroad!"

Li Yu said: "The ocean of mathematics will still be very broad in the future, but you must bring this beautiful scenery to more people."

Xiong Qinglai was very grateful to Li Yu: "I will remember Mr. Academician's words."

-

Li Yu first let him stay in his house tonight and sent him to Tianjin after arrangements were made another day.

Lu Bicheng looked at Li Yu's expression and said, "I find that when you are studying these numbers and symbols and seeing some young students, you are more happy than meeting the high officials of the court."

Li Yu said: "Of course! No matter how the world changes, science is eternal."

Now Li Yu is respected by all parties, and all the people who visit him are important figures from the Republic of China.

Speaking of which, even if it was only in the fields of education, science and culture, it would have been unbelievable during the Republic of China.

Talking about the education sector alone, although it seems powerless and does not have any actual power, in the turbulent ups and downs of the Republic of China, the education sector has always been a force that all parties must win over and value.

A simple example will make it clear: College students during the Republic of China were the real "proud sons of heaven". They were either rich or noble, and they were few in number. Sooner or later they were one of the most popular.

And they naturally respect the schools and professors who educate them, so paying attention to people in the education sector means investing in the future and making long-term plans.

Lu Bicheng said: "But our science is too weak."

Li Yu confidently said: "It's just a temporary weakness."

Suddenly, there was a rapid knock on the door. A man who looked like a domestic servant came into the house and said, "Master Li Yu, Master Zhang Zhidong is critically ill. He wants to see you."

After hearing this, Li Yu quickly got into his car and rushed to Zhang Zhidong's residence on Baimi Xiejie.

This important central minister has not received any due importance since the regent Zaifeng came to power.

Yuan Shikai was driven away by Zaifeng. Zhang Zhidong should have been asked about important matters in the court, but Zaifeng was young and energetic, so he only discussed it with his young brothers and did not pay attention to Zhang Zhidong, a veteran of three dynasties.

Zaifeng is Puyi's biological father, but according to Cixi's arrangement, Puyi has been adopted by Cixi's own son Tongzhi, and is no longer Zaifeng's son ethically.

But Puyi was young after all, so Zaifeng thought about adopting him back if there was a chance in the future.

Even if the adoptive mother doesn't come back, blood is thicker than water, and it's okay to give yourself more seals. In short, in his opinion, there will always be a better situation in the future.

Therefore, Zaifeng has turned a deaf ear to Cixi's words, and no longer even bothers with Empress Dowager Longyu about some important matters, relying solely on her own pat on the forehead.

At this time, Zhang Zhidong knew that his end was approaching, and he did not feel any special sadness. Instead, he arranged his posthumous affairs in an orderly manner.

When Li Yu arrived, the regent Zaifeng had already arrived at Zhang Zhidong's bedside.

At this time, Zhang Zhidong has not forgotten to give advice to Zaifeng:

"The railway is a top priority, and the minister of management cannot appoint corrupt people. Prince Regent, the candidate you proposed has a serious history of corruption. If he is allowed to manage the construction of the railway, I am afraid it will provoke a civil uprising. You must not blame yourself. selfishness, and shake the foundation of the country."

Anyway, Zhang Zhidong dared to say anything since he was about to die.

Zaifengti's staff are still Manchus, but they don't know anything and are very greedy for money. This is not a mess.

Zaifeng said casually: "What are you afraid of! There are soldiers here!"

This sentence made Zhang Zhidong stunned, and he became more and more desperate for Zaifeng's stupidity and arrogance.

Zaifeng didn't understand politics at all, let alone what methods to use. He was like a novice in the political arena, but such a person became the supreme ruler.

Zhang Zhidong knew that there was nothing he could do, so he could only say dejectedly: "The Regent must think twice."

Zaifeng said: "The Lord of the Central Hall is loyal to the country, take good care of it."

After Zaifeng finished speaking, he left.

Zhang Zhidong sighed, this dynasty was really coming to an end.