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

As expected, Beijing Tramway Company's stock, as a typical high-quality stock, is very easy to sell.

Zhu Qiqian and Li Yuanhong were superior and did not buy it, but they could not stand there being so many officials, warlords, and big businessmen. Even if Li Yu published the news in the newspaper in advance, the proportion of ordinary shareholders still did not exceed 10%, but it was still better than in history.

As for the construction process, foreign companies still need to participate. Europe is at war, and only the United States still has the strength to do it. In the future, components such as locomotives and cables will be custom-made from the United States and then shipped over. The entire construction process will take approximately two to three years.

During the Republic of China, the status of trams was almost equivalent to that of subways in later generations (although several European and American cities already had subways, but there were too few). Trams not only greatly improved urban transportation, but were also the most powerful representative of a city's strength.

Li Yuanhong's title of vice president in the Beiyang government is a sinecure with little real power, but with his character, he is happy and relaxed.

Recently, he often comes to Zhu Qiqian to study municipal construction matters, and he also calls his good neighbor Li Yu over to drink tea and chat.

Li Yu arrived at Li Yuanhong's house with a box of chocolates, "It's shipped from the United States, let the vice president have a taste."

"What about sweets? Children like it more," Li Yuanhong called his second daughter, Li Shaofang, "Chocolate brought by the academician uncle."

Chocolate is still a rare commodity in China, and it is like a killer to an eight-year-old girl. Li Shaofang couldn't stop after taking one bite.

"Dad, can you buy me delicious food like this every day from now on?" Li Shaofang raised his head and asked.

She was still at an age where she could get anything just by crying. Li Yuanhong doted on her: "Okay, okay, I buy it every day."

Li Yu said with a smile: "Don't eat sweets unscrupulously, or you will lose your teeth."

"Look how good my teeth are!" Li Shaofang was not convinced and bared his teeth at Li Yu.

"Okay, protect your chocolate and go find your mother," Li Yuanhong said. Just as the little girl was about to turn around and leave, he pulled her back and whispered, "Tell your mother again, don't be angry."

Watching his daughter leave the living room, he sighed: "A few months ago, the president insisted on marrying me. After counting, only two daughters were suitable, and the Yuan family had nine sons. Madam does not agree with this marriage, but what can I do? ? We can only have an engagement banquet."

Many of Yuan Shikai's children have political marriages, and Li Yuanhong must be the key target to win over.

But this marriage is quite tragic.

Because the children of the two families were too young, they only engaged in baby marriage and had to wait until they reached adulthood to get married. However, the Yuan family soon collapsed.

According to the tradition of the Republic of China, engagements in the upper class must be published in black and white in newspapers.

Later, Li Shaofang entered Nankai University and became a new woman, insisting on free love; and she hated the Yuan family and opposed this marriage.

At that time, Li Yuanhong believed that regretting the marriage after the Yuan family fell was adding insult to injury and would make people angry, so he demanded that the two of them get married.

In fact, at the same time, Yuan Shikai also arranged for his son to have a baby wedding with Xu Shichang's daughter.

More than ten years later, Xu Shichang regretted his marriage, citing that his daughter was mentally disturbed.

So Li Shaofang also said that he had mental problems and wanted the Yuan family to give up.

Unexpectedly, Yuan Kejiu, the ninth son of Yuan Shikai, suddenly said: "I just like mental illness!"

There is no choice, the two can only get married.

But Li Shaofang suffered from excessive pain and really became mentally ill. He was admitted to a mental hospital a year after his marriage and died of depression before he was forty years old.

The tragedy of the old society is always happening everywhere.

At this time, Li Yuanhong could not foresee what would happen next. Most people still believed that with Yuan Shikai's methods and abilities, as long as it was not too outrageous, it would be difficult for the Yuan family to fall.

Li Yuanhong stood up and said to Li Yu: "Sucai, come with me. I asked Zhu Qiqian to get something good."

Coming to another courtyard, there is a large simple model of the capital city in the west wing.

Li Yu was surprised and said: "The handwriting of Xiang Lei?"

Zhu Qiqian said proudly: "Mr. Academician is right. Mr. Li spent 300 taels of silver, so Lei Xiancai was willing to make it. In normal years, without a thousand taels of silver, the Lei family would not do anything."

After the founding of the Republic of China, Shinglei, as a royal designer, fell into an embarrassing situation with no way out. It would be good to make money.

Li Yuanhong said: "Ever since I was lucky enough to see a perm sample at Mr. Zhu's house, I couldn't put it down. Today I got the real thing. I love it to death!"

No man can resist the charm of a model.

If Vice President Le was twenty years younger and born in the 21st century, he might be an avid figurine enthusiast.

Li Yu also liked it and planned to ask Shanxi Lei to make some fun iron-on models another day.

Zhu Qiqian pointed to the model and said: "I have thought carefully about it and found that Beijing can plan about ten tram lines. The most important ones are from Tianqiao to Xizhimen, from Tianqiao to Beixinqiao..."

He gestured and spoke, very vividly.

Li Yuanhong said: "In terms of planning, the tram also takes Zhengyangmen Railway Station as its radiation center, and the three tracks entering the city will cross the city wall."

Zhu Qiqian said: "Just dig a few more holes. In recent years, due to the train tracks, several urns in the capital have been demolished, which will not affect the line. This year, the Ministry of Transportation also planned a road surrounding the capital, connecting Xizhimen, Deshengmen, Andingmen, Dongzhimen, Chaoyangmen and Zhengyangmen are connected to the Beijing-Fengcheng Railway at Dongbianmen and will be put into use within a year. For this line, the entire urn city in the capital will either be torn down or holes will be dug. .”

Li Yu felt it was a pity: "Wouldn't the connection with the arrow tower also be destroyed?"

Zhu Qiqian said: "If it is destroyed, it will be destroyed. Traffic is a big problem, and the design of the Wengcheng is completely inconsistent with the traffic concept. The Wengcheng was designed to slow down the traffic entering Beijing, but now what is required is convenience and speed."

Li Yu knew that what Zhu Qiqian said was right, so he said: "Okay, but I think it's quite majestic. People who get off the train will definitely like it when they see such a high city gate building. It will be the first good thing for people entering Beijing." impression."

Zhu Qiqian said: "It can be kept as a traffic symbol for the time being."

But the Wengcheng cannot be saved, because most of the stations will be located outside the city gate. As soon as the flow of people increases, the Wengcheng will be a real hindrance.

As early as the late Qing Dynasty, the Beijing-Fenghuang Railway entered Beijing from Shenyang. The barbicans on the east and west sides of Chongwenmen were demolished to make way for the train, and the station was built at Dongbianmen.

In the 30s, in order to build a straight Beijing-Hankou Railway, the Xuanwumen Urn City was also demolished.

At this point, the most famous "first three gates": Chongwenmen, Zhengyangmen and Xuanwumen are no longer complete.

The city gates of Beijing were much more powerful than the Xi'an city gates that still existed later, and they definitely represented the majesty of the imperial authority in the imperial era.

In the feudal era, ordinary people could feel a strong sense of pressure just by standing under the tower.

However, the arrival of railroad tracks and locomotives caused planners to abandon the pride and glory that had accumulated for hundreds of years. The railways shook the city walls forever, making them seem like relics of a bygone era, their practical and symbolic meaning gone.

It's like the Great Wall has lost its function of guarding against invaders.

Seven city gates were opened one after another, the urns of all city gates in the inner city were either demolished or pierced, one arrow tower (Chongwen Gate Arrow Tower) was knocked down, two turrets (located at the northeast and southeast corners of the inner city wall) and five arrow towers." "Outside the lonely city", fifteen Western-style stations are located next to the four city walls.

In fact, during the Republic of China, there was debate about whether to completely demolish the city wall, but this project was too big, and more than ten years later, the capital was transferred to Nanjing, and Beijing could no longer afford so much municipal expenses. Li Yuanhong looked at the model and said, "The walls of the Imperial City have been torn apart and are now in disgrace. The inner city tracks around the base of the walls should be better repaired."

The Imperial City is within the first ring.

But no one seems to talk about the concept of a ring.

The Imperial City includes the Forbidden City, Beihai, etc. The four gates are Dong'anmen, Xi'anmen, Tiananmen, and Di'anmen. The area is roughly equivalent to the four Forbidden City.

Zhu Qiqian said helplessly: "The walls of the Imperial City are made of high-quality bricks, which are different from the wall bricks of the inner and outer cities. Many people recycle and buy the bricks of the Imperial City walls, and some secretly come to demolish the walls every night."

In a few years, the walls of the imperial city will be completely demolished.

The Beiyang government once sent people to recycle, but these people also secretly sold it on the black market.

Li Yu said: "I usually drive in the city. To be honest, the road conditions in the city are really bad. When it rains, most roads feel like driving off-road."

Zhu Qiqian said: "Road renovation is within the plan. In one or two years, if the war in Europe does not stop, we can only improve road conditions through the issuance of bonds by the Salt Bank."

Li Yu said: "There will be no shortage of people buying public bonds."

Li Yuanhong seemed to be accumulating political experience and asked: "When issuing public bonds, you don't need to borrow money from foreigners?"

Li Yu said: "Yes, this is the power of finance."

Li Yuanhong marveled: "That's much better than asking foreigners."

Li Yu said: "But public debt relies on the government's credibility. Under the current situation, unless there is a very clear reason, such as municipal construction, it is only a luxury to simply raise funds on a large scale."

Zhu Qiqian said: "It would be nice if we could raise money for municipal construction without exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes."

For Zhu Qiqian, the city government's work first focuses on road construction and maintenance.

If the road conditions are too poor, trams cannot even be laid.

It can be said that the railway broke the city wall, and the tram and commerce took action on the eternal peace of the royal enclosure within the city wall.

Hundreds of years of vicissitudes left Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty with streets that could no longer be used normally.

It's terrible! Li Yu deeply felt that almost all roads were not hardened and were basically "three feet of soil when there is no wind, and one street of mud when it rains."

Moreover, the center part of the street, due to its lighter traffic load, is already much higher than the heavier lanes on both sides.

During the Reform Movement of 1898, many people wanted to change this situation. Kang Youwei was deeply impressed by the neat streets in colonial cities such as Hong Kong, and once wrote to Emperor Guangxu asking for changes in road conditions. But it was not until the early years of the Republic of China that the project began slowly.

When the Republic of China was first founded, there were no asphalt and concrete roads in Beijing, and there were only more than 50 kilometers of gravel roads. It was also during Zhu Qiqian's tenure that steam rollers were introduced and the technology for building modern roads became available.

The first asphalt road in Beijing was built in Dongjiaominxiang, and was under the responsibility of the Embassy District Affairs Office.

What's more ridiculous is that the Chinese would not be able to embark on this road without riding a horse-drawn carriage or car.

Later, the Beiyang government signed an agreement with the Embassy District, paying 5000 yuan in road maintenance fees in the Embassy District every year, and then allowing Chinese people to pass through the streets of the Embassy District.

——According to the Beijing government's road maintenance budget standards, it is stipulated that every square meter of streets should be allocated 1 yuan for road maintenance every year.

This agreement was later abrogated, but in 1917 the Legation Quarter requested the money again due to the increase in traffic passing through the Legation Quarter. After consultation with the Kyoto Police Department, the Kyoto Municipal Government decided to allocate 2000 yuan from the vehicle tax every year to the Embassy District for road maintenance.

Building roads may be easy or difficult, but the key is money.

If there is no money, transportation hubs will be delayed again and again. A typical example is Xinhua Street, which took ten years to fully commence construction.

Of course, there are also objections from merchants, because Xinhua Street wants to open a new gate on the city wall, namely Peace Arch.

This gate can facilitate Yuan Shikai's travel from the presidential residence, and can also make transportation in the model urban area around the incense factory more convenient, thereby further developing urban trade, so the plan was approved by Yuan Shikai from the beginning.

However, the gentry and merchants in the Zhengyangmen area were worried that once the new city gate was opened, pedestrians would no longer need to pass through the territory they controlled, and their business would be affected.

The businessmen were smart and did not directly state this reason. Instead, they warned Yuan Shikai that the opening of the new city gate would be detrimental to the country and his presidential status on the grounds of damaging Feng Shui.

Then, uh, then Yuan was convinced, and the project was shelved, leaving a large section of Xinhua Street between the inner and outer city unfinished. It was not until Duan Qirui came to power that he ordered the completion of the project and named the newly opened city gate the Peace Gate.

By the way, Zhou Zuoren also wrote an essay about this city gate. There is a very interesting sentence in it. Let’s understand it:
"The Peace Arch that everyone has been waiting for for two or three years has finally been completed...but I have only walked through it twice, once to enter and once to exit."

——Is there any flavor of Lu Xun’s famous saying “In my back garden, you can see two trees outside the wall, one is a jujube tree, and the other is also a jujube tree”?

Li Yuanhong said: "In the future, I will pay to build the road in Dongchang Hutong into asphalt road, and then I will also buy a car."

Li Yu smiled and said, "Can the Vice President drive?"

Li Yuanhong said: "No, is it difficult to ride a horse?"

Li Yu said: "It's definitely easier to drive."

Li Yuanhong said: "Then I will need to learn it in the future."

Li Yu said: "As long as there is a four-wheel drive system, there is no need to wait for asphalt to be paved before driving."

Li Yuanhong was very free anyway: "Okay, I will buy one now to experience the most advanced industrial products."

Zhu Qiqian said: "The most advanced cannot be called the most advanced. Next time, let Mr. Academician fly a plane and take you for a spin in the sky."

Li Yuanhong waved his hands quickly: "I don't dare to go to heaven."

Li Yule said: "Is the Vice President afraid of heights?"

Li Yuanhong said: "It's not that I'm afraid of heights, but my ears can't stand it. I went to Yunnan and Guizhou once before, and my ears felt uncomfortable on mountains that were too high."

Zhu Qiqian added: "By the way, I haven't considered it yet. If airplanes become a means of transportation, the entire situation may change drastically."

Li Yuanhong said: "It is better to study the tram issue first. Airplanes are too expensive."

Beijing still has more than ten years to develop its urban construction before losing its status as the capital.

Once Nanjing became the new capital in 1928, Beijing's status as a city immediately dropped a lot. Many people flocked to Nanjing and Shanghai. Beijing's fiscal revenue was greatly reduced and it was unable to vigorously develop municipal administration.

However, during the Republic of China, Beijing had many flight routes and was very convenient.