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

This year's Nobel Prize jury is bound to make some big moves to select heavyweights. For the jury, the combination of Li Yu + Onnes is convincing enough.

The reason why I use the word "persuasive" is because the winners of last year's physics prize were really lackluster.

The Nobel Prize in Physics in 1912 was awarded to Darren, a Swedish man. You must have never heard of it. It is normal, and Li Yu has not heard of it either.

Although this person has some research results - mainly improving lighthouses for navigation, this kind of engineering research results obviously cannot be counted in the field of physics, otherwise there would be too many awards. For example, inventing an airplane would be better than improving a lighthouse. Much more eye-catching.

In front of many big names at the beginning of the twentieth century, such an achievement could not stand out at all, and it would definitely not win the Nobel Prize.

Darren himself has always been a conscientious engineer, and he was a little confused when he suddenly won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

There's definitely a story in there.

It was the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences that nominated Darren and pushed him for the award.

The Nobel Prize Jury and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences are two independent organizations. According to the Nobel Prize selection process, the Nobel Prize Selection Committee is the main nominating agency, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences organizes the selection and makes the final decision.

It has a bit of a "constitutional monarchy" meaning, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is only responsible for the ceremonial content. Of course, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences can also nominate candidates.

There is currently a slight conflict between the Nobel Prize jury and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the two sides often compete secretly.

Last year the jury nominated 17 people, but the Royal Academy of Sciences only nominated Darren.

In order to show that they were the boss, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences controlled the voting and successfully gave Darren the award.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences thinks this way: As the most important physics prize, it has been awarded for so many years to not a single Swede. blindness.

With a tragic character and one of our own, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences must support it!

Anyway, it was just shoehorned in in the end.

The President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences also felt that things were not handled properly afterwards, so he canceled the award recipient's speech at last year's awards ceremony and did not issue a promotional brochure for people and achievements as usual.

This resulted in a complete silence when Darren received the award, because no one knew where he came from. It was not until the dean announced that he had won the award that applause broke out.

But the jury was still angry, and many scholars publicly criticized the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In order to calm the anger, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences did not make any nominations this year, and the Nobel Prize jury drew up all the nominations themselves.

The Nobel Prize jury is very worried that too much water will be mixed into the Nobel Prize, which will affect its authority, which will be very harmful to itself, so this year it made extraordinary physics results.

Li Yuneng actually won many awards for his research, but many of them involved advanced quantum theory or astrophysics (which is inseparable from atomic physics).

The Nobel Prize jury finally decided to award it to more scholars who can reproduce superconductivity and diamagnetism with "depth" at the same time, that is, they still do not break away from classical physics.

He must get the award. Li Yu felt that he should go out again, otherwise he would really have no chance when the battle started.

Especially at that time, it would be difficult to contact many scientific leaders in Germany. In addition to Planck and Hilbert, Einstein also moved back to Berlin just before World War I.

For four years, Germany has almost cut off contact with the outside world, including academia. Even if it is difficult to maintain communication through letters, it will be censored at all levels. In short, it is very troublesome.

Taking advantage of the time, Li Yu finished some domestic matters first, and at the same time prepared papers and patents, and then continued to collect wool.

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A few days later, when Li Yu was writing his thesis at home, Lu Xun suddenly visited.

Seeing him writing furiously at his desk, Lu Xun came over to take a look curiously, and then said: "Brother Shucai's writing ability in English is much better than in Chinese."

Li Yu put down his pen and said, "I can't tell whether you are scolding me or praising me."

"Of course I am praising you," Lu Xun said with a smile, and then asked, "What article are you writing?"

Li Yu said: "I am calculating several formulas about the energy distribution inside the atom, and deriving the atomic spectrum. The formula is a bit complicated and may take several days to calculate."

Lu Xun took another look at the mathematical symbols inside and said, "Sure enough, he is a man who can look down on the world in the way of science. I don't think there is anyone else in the country who can understand it."

"This sentence is not a compliment. I very much hope that more Chinese people can understand it," Li Yu said, "What does Yucai want from me?"

Lu Xun said: "I want to visit a classmate in the hospital."

Li Yu asked: "A classmate when I was studying in Japan?"

"Yes." Lu Xun nodded.

Li Yu asked doubtfully: "Why did you come to me first?"

Lu Xun said: "Because the hospital is in the Japanese legation. Among the people I know, you seem to be the only one who can come in and out of the foreign legation freely."

"Who is sick?" Li Yu asked again.

Lu Xun said: "Jiang Baili."

"Jiang Baili? Isn't he the principal at Baoding Army Officer School?" Li Yu said.

Lu Xun sighed: "Not long ago, Brother Baili suddenly pulled out a gun and committed suicide while speaking to all the teachers and students in the school. If the guard next to him hadn't reacted quickly and made his gun deflect a little, he would have been dead at that time."

Li Yu was stunned: "Why did you commit suicide?"

Lu Xun said: "It seems that Brother Baili said he would fulfill his promise."

Li Yu really didn't understand and continued to ask, "He's not playing a life-betting game, is he?"

After listening to Lu Xun's explanation for a while, Li Yu finally understood the whole story.

Six months ago, Jiang Baili took office as the principal of Baoding Army Military Academy. On the day he took office, he swore an oath in front of all the teachers and students of the school:

"I have been ordered to take charge of this school this time. I must make this school the most complete military school and make all the students the best officers. When I run the army in the future, I can train the most elite and best troops. I must devote myself to this task. , practice these words! If it doesn’t work, you should kill yourself to thank the world!"

After taking office, he indeed prepared to carry out drastic reforms in military discipline, teaching, school affairs, school ethos and other aspects.

Then one early morning in mid-June, Jiang Baili called all the teachers and students in the school with a rally call, stood on the stone steps of Shangwu Hall, and said to them solemnly:

"I have taught you a lesson. You must do what I want you to do. I must also do what you want me to do. If you cannot do it, I will punish you. If I cannot do it, I will punish you. I am punishing myself. Everything is fine with you now and you have nothing to do with me. If I cannot fulfill my responsibilities, I am the one who is sorry for you!"

After saying that, he drew his gun and pointed it at his heart. Fortunately, the guard next to him was quick and the bullet missed his heart by a few inches. It only missed a bit of his lungs and passed between his ribs.

The incident happened suddenly, and Yuan Shikai hurriedly sent Cao Rulin to arrange for him to seek medical treatment at the Japanese embassy.

Li Yu got into the car and took Lu Xun to the Japanese Embassy, ​​where he happened to meet Liang Qichao at the door. After informing them of the reason, the three of them entered the Embassy Hospital together.

Jiang Baili struggled to sit up after seeing them come in. Liang Qichao said: "Lie down well! How could you do such an unwise thing!?"

Liang Qichao's words were 70% reproachful.

Jiang Baili did not lie down, but said bitterly: "The students are ashamed of their teachers! The students wanted to realize their ambitions in the military school, but they did not expect it to be so difficult. All reforms encountered huge resistance. Half a year later, the school is still in a state of decline, and the artillery field There are no cannons on board, no horses on the racecourse, and even the school’s track is covered with weeds. The students wanted their superiors to allocate funds, but 60 to 70 percent of the funding disappeared inexplicably.”

Liang Qichao was silent for a while, then understood his difficulties and sighed: "The original intention of wanting to change is very good, but sometimes you have to learn to be more flexible."

Jiang Baili said: "I keep trying to work around with them, and I can't accomplish anything!"

He spoke a little hastily and coughed hard.

Li Yu went over and rubbed his back, and after his breathing stabilized, he said, "I also have many difficulties in business. From what you just said, I can tell that the problem is not yours, so why bother hurting yourself?"

Jiang Baili said helplessly: "Mr. Academician is as well-known at home and abroad as Master Liang, and countless people respond when he raises his arms. As for me, I am just an unknown pawn, a manipulated chess piece. All I can do is die to warn the world!"

Lu Xun was anxious when he heard this: "Brother Baili, I have said before that everyone is insensitive now. A person's life will not wake up many people. At most, they will be treated as after-dinner conversation."

Jiang Baili became even more depressed: "Then what can we do to alert the world?"

Lu Xun choked: "I, I don't know...but have you forgotten what happened to Chen Tianhua in Japan? Suicide will not solve the problem!"

Lu Xun is a typical sober person in the world; Liang Qichao is also a wise man; not to mention Li Yu, the most important thing for time travelers is vision.

With the joint persuasion of several people, Jiang Baili finally accepted the reality, "Okay, then I will just follow the trend and be a mainstay at the same time."

Li Yu said: "This is the correct answer."

Lu Xun took out a few books from the package, "I was afraid that you would be bored while recuperating in the hospital, so I bought a few books that you like to read. They are all about the European Renaissance."

This kind of book is not easy to buy at present, and some of them are in English or Japanese. What Jiang Baili wants to study most is how countries become stronger, and then find ways to do so. He happily said: "Yucai understands me!"

While they were talking, a Japanese female nurse came in to change his dressing. Seeing Jiang Baili sitting up, she immediately said, "Jiang Jun, how many times have I told you, please lie down!"

Jiang Baili was extremely obedient and quickly lay down obediently, looking at the female nurse with affectionate eyes.

After the nurse left, Li Yu murmured: "A drama of "Bright Sword" was actually staged."

"Bright sword?" Jiang Baili and Liang Qichao asked in confusion, "What bright sword?"

Li Yu smiled and said, "It's nothing. I just want to say that if a man likes a woman, he can't hide it. The woman can definitely feel it."

"Really!" Jiang Baili sat up suddenly, oozing twice after pulling the wound, but still endured the pain and asked, "Can Nurse Sato feel it?"

Liang Qichao and Lu Xun looked at each other.

"Baili, you..."

Jiang Baili looked at Li Yu and nodded, laughed twice and said, "Me too, no, it's nothing..."

Jiang Baili really fell in love with this Japanese female nurse, and then launched a fierce pursuit.

Nurse Sato did not want to marry a Chinese at first, so she returned to China. Her parents did not agree after hearing this.

But Jiang Baili knew Japanese and kept writing letters to Nurse Sato in Japan, and showed excellent ability to write love letters: "I was born because of you, and now you want to kill me! I will go to Japan soon, and I will die if I want to." In your home."

Sato was finally moved by his infatuation, and his parents finally agreed after seeing it.

A year later, Sato returned to China, married Jiang Baili, and changed his Chinese name to Jiang Zuomei after her husband's surname.

From then on, she was devoted to Jiang Baili, and the two had five daughters.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Jiang Zuomei was worried that her Japanese identity would damage her husband's prestige, so she insisted on living in Hong Kong, declined all Japanese visits, and even severed ties with her natal family.

When Jiang Baili died of illness in 1938, his friend Feng Yuxiang suspected that Jiang Zuomei had assassinated her husband.

Jiang Zuomei's husband was devastated when he died, and he suffered injustice again. But she proved herself with actions and stood firmly on the side of the Chinese, declaring that "it was wrong for the Japanese to start the war." She not only took the initiative to raise funds for the anti-Japanese war, but also went to the front line to treat the wounded Chinese.

For the rest of her life, she would never wear a kimono or speak Japanese again, and insisted on educating her daughter in traditional Chinese culture.

Li Yu definitely hopes that the two of them will get along well with Qin and Jin. There is no doubt about Jiang Zuomei's character, and the third daughter she gave birth to has a very amazing husband-Qian Xuesen and Qian Lao!

Li Yu said to Ren Hongjun as if he was giving him advice at that time: "I sometimes write nonsense short poems in vernacular. The literary content is not very high, but it is very useful in chasing girls."

Jiang Baili said seriously: "Master Li, please give me some advice!"

Li Yu wrote a very common love song lyrics on paper, from "I Only Care About You" by Teresa Teng.

This song was adapted by Teresa Teng from a Japanese song, and it may have a miraculous effect on Japanese girls.

Liang Qichao shuddered all over after watching it: "It's so disgusting!"

"Let me see!" Lu Xun took it over and read, "As time goes by in a hurry, I only care about you. I am willing to be infected by your breath. How many times in life can you get a confidant, and it is not a pity to lose the power of life. Well, there is a little It’s gross! But if you think about it carefully, it means that the plain language has a strong expressive power, which is worth pondering.”

Among them, Lu Xun was undoubtedly the one with the highest literary literacy and achievements, and his perspective on the problem was indeed unusual.

Jiang Baili didn't care whether it was literary or not, gross or not, and asked: "Brother Shucai, does it really work?"

Li Yu said: "It works! If you don't have enough, ask me again. Let me tell you, what women can't stand the most is sweet words. As long as you persist and don't give up, you will definitely succeed!"

Jiang Baili clenched his fist: "Thank you, Brother Shucai, for your guidance! If this happens, you will be my eldest brother!"

"Ahem!" Liang Qichao interrupted him and said, "Baili, just now you were looking sad and bemoaning the failure of reform. You must have changed your face too quickly now!"

Jiang Baili glanced sideways at the sky outside the house and said slowly: "Only now do I know how powerful free love is. No wonder people want to carry out the feminist movement."

Lu Xun and Liang Qichao couldn't help but feel a little thump in their hearts after hearing this.