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

Li Yu saw Kozlov with severe ulcers in a Russian hospital.

As soon as he entered the room, he smelled an unpleasant stench even though he was wearing a thick mask. Kozlov on the bed was almost out of shape.

Li Yu frowned and came to his side.

Kozlov opened his eyes weakly and said: "I don't know why, but after entering the Tunguska region, my physical condition began to deteriorate rapidly, without any warning."

The translator covered his nose and told Li Yu the English meaning.

Fortunately, this guy did not suspect the radium water. Of course, the truth of this matter will not be revealed until many years later. By that time, Russia no longer existed and became the Soviet Union. It also fought with Belarus for several years. In the arduous civil war, who would care about this explorer from the old era? At that time, Kozlov had long since become gravel in the wind and disappeared into thin air.

But Li Yu still comforted him: "I guess it may have something to do with the appearance of meteorites, but it's a pity that you don't have advanced instruments to measure the intensity of rays."

"Is it a ray?" Kozlov asked weakly.

Li Yu nodded: "Previously, when I was in the UK, I conducted cosmic ray detection with a professor named Rutherford, and found that the intensity of this ray is extremely high, contains extremely high energy, and is enough to damage the human body structure."

What Li Yu said was actually correct. He died from the radiation.

Kozlov said: "But can't radium rays save people?"

Li Yu said: "This ray is not that ray. Cosmic rays do not belong to the earth, so they are harmful. If the rays already present on the earth are harmful, how could life be born?"

Li Yu deceived him one thing after another, but Kozlov believed it and said, "It turns out that the Supreme One really protected us."

At this time, Li Yu had no time to argue with him about science and religion, so he made a sign of the cross and said, "The Supreme Being will also protect you."

Kozlov said: "So do you still have radium water?"

Li Yu knew he had enough, so he took out a bottle of water and said, "This is enough."

Kozlov said: "If I die from cosmic rays, I may have made a great contribution to the advancement of scientific research."

Li Yu said: "Yes, you are like Bruno in Russia."

Kozlov became energetic: "Then even if I die, it will still be meaningful."

Li Yu said: "It's so meaningful."

"I..." Kozlov was still about to speak, but suddenly he groaned in pain and started to have diarrhea. The stench became even stronger, and Kozlov fainted from the pain.

Li Yu hurriedly walked out of the room and breathed a long sigh of relief, thinking to himself, you really can talk more.

After being far away from the hospital, Li Yucai took off the heavy protective clothing from his clothes, and his whole body suddenly felt much lighter.

After spending a day in Harbin, when he went to the hospital that night, Kozlov was completely out of breath.

It is impossible to be sad, after all, tens of thousands of Chinese people died at the hands of Goose Fei and the little devils.

People are divided into eras. At this time, many of Goose Fei and the Little Devils were thinking about how to carve up the Northeast.

Returning to the capital by car, when passing by Harbin Railway Station, Li Yu found that the security here was significantly stronger, and everyone entering the railway station was subject to strict body searches.

Li Yu was queuing up to enter the station when several soldiers suddenly screamed and pushed a man to the ground.

After asking a passenger, I found out that today there were also high-ranking officials from the Qing Dynasty: Zai Xun, the Qing Navy Minister, the younger brother of the Regent Zaifeng, and Sa Zhen Binghui, the admiral of the Beiyang Navy, stopping in Harbin.

Well, it's obvious that the revolutionaries want to assassinate Zai Xun.

Recently, the assassination activities of the Revolutionary Party have become more intensive, because a year ago, the reformist Liang Qichao published an article in the "Xinmin Congbao" attacking the Revolutionary Party: Your Revolutionary Party always incites other people's children to die, but you live in high-rise buildings. An Ran is nothing more than a "revolutionary at a distance."

Liang Qichao's words deeply hurt the revolutionary faction. Indeed, although Liang Qichao's faction also experienced many defeats and exiles, at least they produced the "Six Gentlemen of [-]" who shed blood and sacrificed for the reform.

Many people from the revolutionary faction immediately stood up and wanted to show Liang Qichao the courage of the revolutionary faction.

The person Li Yu met was one of them, named Xiong Chengji.

Li Yu trotted over and asked the soldiers before the Qing soldiers arrived, "What's going on?"

After speaking in English, Japanese and German, the squad leader of the Russian soldiers replied in German: "This Chinese is armed."

Li Yu glanced down at him and cursed: "You bastard! Don't you know that a murder occurred at the train station a few days ago? How dare you drag a family member into the train station with a weapon? Isn't there something rebellious on your part? Heart, right? Humph, I’m afraid you don’t dare! Now the train station is surrounded by Russian and Japanese soldiers on several floors, and our policemen from the Qing Dynasty are guarding every platform so that no flies can fly in!”

Xiong Chengji was a little confused at first after hearing Li Yu's words, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed to be a reminder to himself.

He knew that today's plan could not be realized, so he could only spit: "I just can't bear to part with this knife I bought in Harbin."

"Go away! You're so stupid!" Li Yu continued to scold, "I'm not as stupid as you. Why do you come to the train station to seek bad luck when such a big thing happens?!"

Xiong Chengji fluttered his clothes and threw the knife on the ground, "I don't want it anymore! I don't want to take the train anymore! What's all the fuss about!"

Li Yu said to the Russian soldier: "A good knife costs one silver dollar, so he probably couldn't bear it. But in order to cooperate with the work, he didn't throw it away."

The Russian soldier wanted to say something else, but he didn't understand Chinese at all just now. He could only believe what Li Yu said, "But he must leave the train station immediately!"

Li Yu said to Xiong Chengji: "You heard me, Master Bing asked you to get out of his sight quickly."

Xiong Chengji pretended to be arrogant and walked out: "I have a clear conscience and nothing wrong with me."

A few hundred meters after leaving the train station, Xiong Chengji suddenly felt that something was wrong. There was a [-]% chance that he had been sold.

He immediately ran back to a house where he had been introduced by a friend, and sure enough he saw him counting money in the house.

Xiong Chengji pushed open the door and shouted angrily: "What are you doing?"

The other party was shocked: "Why are you back?"

"Sure enough, sell me!" Xiong Cheng basically wanted to kill him, but he didn't have the knife in his hand, so he picked up a stick and smashed it over, and then ran away.

Historically, he would have died this year due to the leak of the assassination of Zai Xun, but he happened to meet Li Yu and saved his life.

However, given the current dangerous situation of the revolutionaries, it is hard to say how long these people on the front line of assassinations can survive.

-

After getting on the train, Li Yu sat in the upper-class carriage, far away from Zai Xun and Sa Zhenbing's carriage, and did not meet each other.

It wasn't until he got off the train in Beijing that Sa Zhenbing saw Li Yu. He asked unexpectedly: "The emperor's master is also on this train?"

Li Yu pretended to say: "Admiral Sa, I didn't expect you to be here either."

Sa Zhenbing said: "I and Navy Minister Zai Xunbeile have just inspected the naval affairs of various European countries, and then returned by Russia's Siberian Railway."

Li Yu said: "So, the Siberian Railway is now open to others."

"Yes, this railway is really convenient," Sa Zhenbing said. "By the way, when we were inspecting the navy, many foreign naval generals praised the radio. In our art of war, we can anticipate the enemy's opportunities. Know yourself and know the enemy.”

Li Yu said: "I dare not comment on things in the military, but radio is very good even in the civilian field."

Sa Zhenbing said: "I will submit a memorial as soon as possible to expand the purchase of radios in the field of coastal defense. I would like to call it the Silent Great Wall." The chubby Zai Xun came over at this time and said: "The Great Wall has long been abandoned. I want to defeat foreign enemies." , What's the use of just relying on a little trick? Our Qing Dynasty should be a dignified formation and a banner of righteousness."

Li Yu said: "Master Beile, this is called radio communication, not a trick."

Sa Zhenbing also said: "The excellent role of radio in the military has been highlighted during the Russo-Japanese War."

"Really?" Zai Xun asked in surprise, "Why didn't I know?"

Li Yu was speechless and didn't want to explain to him at all.

But Sa Zhenbing took the trouble to teach Zai Xun about science via radio, but he only knew the basics and gave a rough idea.

Even so, Zai Xun still couldn't listen and interrupted: "Admiral Sa, please don't mention these little things to me again. You can handle it yourself."

-

The city of Beijing was very lively at this time, because Cixi's coffin, which had been parked for almost a year, was finally being transported to the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty.

Cixi and Guangxu died together, causing their funerals to be chaotic.Cixi, who had spent her whole life extravagantly and extravagantly, had already arranged a grand funeral for herself.

It was a year after her death that the Qing court prepared and perfected it.

The Tombs of the Qing Dynasty are located in Zunhua, Hebei Province, a long way away, about 120 kilometers away.

The funeral procession amounted to almost tens of thousands of people, and it took five days to reach the Qing Dong Tomb.

Cixi's coffin is called "Zigong" and weighs a ton. There were more than 100 people carrying the coffin.They were divided into several shifts, so there were probably nearly a thousand people carrying the coffin alone.

This was a big news in the capital, and many newspapers were ready to take photos and report on it.

However, the Qing government issued an imperial edict early on, strictly prohibiting any photography.

But the more this happens, the more people can take photos and sell them for higher prices, there will always be people who take desperate risks.

Li Yu just looked at it from a distance, not that he didn't want to get close, but that he wanted to kowtow when he got closer.

But the view from Li Yuxuan's place was so good that when he had free time to take a small telescope and look at Lu Bicheng from time to time while eating melon seeds, several people suddenly started setting up cameras not far from them.

Li Yu said to Lu Bicheng: "Let's stay away."

This group of people came from Tianjin. They were members of a company called Fusheng Photo Studio, and they obviously wanted to grab headlines.

It is said to be difficult to operate, but they secretly bribed Duan Fang.

After seeing what Tianjin Fusheng Photo Studio was doing, another group of people from the Beijing Photo Studio were ready to come over and set up cameras.

The people from Tianjin Fusheng Photo Studio said displeasedly: "Which photo studio are you from?"

People from the Beijing Photo Studio said: "We are Shouzhen Photo Studio."

People from Tianjin Fusheng Photo Studio said: "Don't stay here, go somewhere else."

Someone from Shouzhen Photo Studio in Beijing said, "Why? Could this be your family's land?"

"Hey!" the people from Tianjin Fusheng Photo Studio said angrily, "Why don't you drink wine as a penalty for toasting?"

People from the Shouzhen Photo Studio in Beijing were not to be outdone: "We don't want to offend the river, so what are you yelling about?"

Another person from the Shouzhen Photography Studio in Beijing said, "Ji Xin, stop arguing. Look, the Queen Mother's coffin is coming."

The two people in the photo studio hurriedly started messing with the equipment.

Li Yu felt that it was too coincidental. Ji Xin was Wang Zhaoming's name.

As soon as the two groups of people in the photo studio pressed the shutter button, a burst of smoke rose from the camera.

Someone in the funeral procession immediately saw it and shouted: "Someone is taking pictures!"

People in the two photo studios suddenly panicked.

"Ji Xin, did you get the photo?"

"I haven't even had time to look at the viewfinder!"

"Stop filming and run away!"

They didn't care about the camera equipment and ran away.

The people at Tianjin Fusheng Photo Studio were reluctant to part with the film they had just taken, so they were caught by the Qing soldiers a step too late.

Xiao Dezhang also rushed over. After seeing a few people, he asked: "How did you bring the equipment so close?"

The people in the photo studio were frightened and confessed truthfully: "We pretended to be the servants of Mr. Duanfang, the governor of Zhili, and followed the team all the time."

Xiao De Zhang narrowed his eyes: "So it's him."

Then he said to the Qing soldiers: "Arrest him and put him in prison!"

Despite strict precautions, some foreigners still took photos of Cixi's funeral.The photographer was the then Beijing correspondent of the Dutch newspaper Telegraph, a German.

He hid the camera in his suitcase and used a small camera similar to the one recently produced by the American Kodak Company.

After the funeral was completed, the Qing court began to punish the candid photography incident.

Because the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi did not make the headlines, the arrest of several people from Tianjin Fusheng Photo Studio made the headlines that day.

The revolutionaries then published an article to criticize: "According to the portraits of kings and queens in European and American countries, it is not considered obscene to hang them everywhere, but now the Manchurian government takes a picture and imprisons it. It is evident that an autocratic country is dictatorial here!"

The matter became more and more serious, and the regent Zaifeng had to personally try it. After all, it involved Duan Fang, the governor of Zhili.

Originally, Zaifeng wanted to minimize the big issue as much as possible, and did not want a somewhat capable person who was finally found among the Manchu nobles to be dismissed.

However, Xiao Dezhang had enmity with Duan Fang before, and together with Li Hongzhang's grandson Li Guojie, they wanted to kill Duan Fang with the words "disrupting Feng Shui, destroying the spiritual path, secretly taking pictures of the emperor's face, and deliberately blaspheming".

Empress Dowager Longyu also wanted to expand her power. She felt that Duan Fang was on the regent's side, so she also agreed to severe punishment.

Duanfang hurriedly went around to plead for mercy. In the end, the Ministers of Military Aircraft Xu Shichang, Yi Kuang and others felt that it was too harsh to sentence the minister to death for this matter, so they proposed to be dismissed only.

It can be considered that a balance was reached between Zaifeng and Longyu, and both parties finally agreed with the decision of the Military Aircraft Department.

Fortunately, Li Yu had quick eyesight and stayed away, otherwise he might have been implicated a little.

A few days later, Westinghouse, the founder of Westinghouse Electric, finally came to the capital and was ready to serve as the technical director of Li Yu Factory.

As a businessman, he also brought hundreds of small handheld cameras from Kodak, which are definitely easy to sell.

Li Yu looked at these devices and smiled awkwardly: "I don't know whether they came early or late."