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

Chapter 633 Neighbors
Li Yuting hated the warlords' melee. From the day the Republic of China was founded, they had been fighting basically every month and never stopped. But there is no other way but to wait for the situation to unfold bit by bit.

In the final analysis, none of the warlords are good people. The "limitations of history" is a cliché, but it does not absolve them.

Wu Peifu can only be regarded as a slightly better one among the warlords, just as he stood out among the Beiyang Army by virtue of his status as a scholar.

When the cannon goes off, there are thousands of taels of gold. The economic foundation of the Republic of China is weak, wars are going on, and military expenditures are unbearable.

Li Yu united with the cultural circles to send a telegram to Wu Peifu, calling for peace.

Wu Peifu was happy to see that he was already preparing to counter Duan Qirui, but he had to wait for the right time to do so.

There was no need for Li Yu to care too much about the political situation and continued to give lectures at Datong University. He first talked about the recent discoveries at the Capital Observatory.

Simply discovering a satellite of Jupiter is nothing serious to Li Yu, but astronomy is a discipline that started very early but matured very late. It will take at least several decades before human beings can have a more complete framework for understanding the universe. Therefore, a satellite of Jupiter could still obtain considerable exposure in the astronomical community of the early 20th century.

After the packed lecture, when Li Yu was leaving the classroom, an American slowly walked over and said, "Academician Li Yu, please stay! I am Leighton Stuart, from Jinling Theological Seminary."

"It turns out to be...Mr. Situ." Li Yu shook hands with him.

"I'm honored that you know me," Stuart said politely, "I have attended several of your lectures, but I have never been able to get to know you sir."

Li Yu said: "I'm sorry, there are too many people every time, I really can't recognize them."

"Understood." Stuart said, and then he couldn't help sneezing twice.

"Cold?" Li Yu asked.

"Recently, there are cold patients everywhere in Shanghai." Stuart took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his mouth and nose. "I pride myself on being in good health, but I actually got sick in this season when I shouldn't get colds."

Li Yu knew that this was the first wave of the famous Spanish flu.

"There should be quite a few cold patients in your country, right?" Li Yu asked.

"Really? I'm not particularly sure," Stuart said. "I never thought of sending a telegram to inquire about such a trivial matter."

Not many people are taking this flu seriously at the moment.

Let’s talk about a concept first. “Cold” and “flu” are not the same thing at all.

A cold is written as common cold in English, and influenza is written as influenza.

Common colds often only stay in the upper respiratory tract. Because the virus cannot break through the strong immune defense line of humans, it is called "acute upper respiratory tract infection".

The common cold is generally not fatal, but the fatality rate of influenza is quite high.

Influenza viruses can be divided into four categories: A, B, C and D (differentiated according to the antigenicity of the nucleoprotein). Type D only occurs in animals;
Influenza C viruses are relatively stable and rarely mutate;
Influenza B viruses also don’t mutate much.
Influenza A viruses are the only ones that are highly variable and mutate significantly every year. Almost all influenza pandemics are caused by influenza A viruses.

By the way, one more thing, the virus responsible for this Spanish flu pandemic is the H1N1 virus.

Is it familiar?

Yes, a hundred years from now, it will still happen again.

Since the influenza A virus is an RNA virus with a single-stranded structure and is extremely prone to errors during the replication process, even if they are both called influenza A H1N1, last year's virus is not the same as this year's virus.

This makes it basically impossible to develop a vaccine. Every year, the WHO relies on data from various places to make predictions and then guide vaccine development. It is difficult for the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine to exceed 50% - it may only be 10%, depending on whether the WHO's prediction is accurate.

Stuart said that he did not know about the influenza in the United States because of the press control in the United States.

In early 1918, the U.S. Congress passed the Federal Sedition Act, which stipulated that anyone who "distributes, prints, writes, or publishes any material that is disloyal, profane, violent, obscene, or disloyal to the government, the Constitution, the American flag, or uniforms." Contemptuous, scandalous or insulting remarks" constitute a crime, punishable by a maximum fine of US$2 and a maximum prison term of 20 years.

This bill was indeed implemented. For example, a real estate businessman from Montana was insulted as a "German devil" and imprisoned just because he did not buy war bonds and did not carry the American flag.

Well, free speech! Old double standard.

The most terrifying thing about the Spanish Flu was the second wave at the end of World War I. It is currently the first wave with a less fatal rate.

According to epidemiological traceability, the virus originated from a military camp in Kansas, USA. ——At this time, the United States had many military camps for new recruits, just to train soldiers going to Europe.

One day, a cook discovered that he had a cold in the early morning. By noon, more than 100 people in the military camp had symptoms of cold and fever.

In the end, more than 1100 people were infected in the military camp, and 46 died.

Although it was still the beginning of the 20th century, epidemiology was no longer a new subject. It stands to reason that an epidemic of this scale must attract attention, but this was not the case in the United States.

It didn't take long for these recruits to travel to Europe with the virus.

Then the virus took off and quickly spread all over the world, infecting places where there are many people.

During this period, only Spain, a neutral country that did not participate in the war and did not need to impose press controls, reported news of the influenza outbreak. Millions of people in Spain were infected at the time, including King Alfonso III. So this huge shit basin was inexplicably blamed on Spain, and it was called the "Spanish Flu".

(The WHO has since stopped allowing any epidemic viruses to be called by place names.)
The first wave of influenza had a large impact, basically affecting the whole world, and many influenza patients also appeared in China.

But the virus at this time did not have such a high fatality rate, so countries just treated it as an ordinary flu event.

Li Yu felt it was necessary to produce another wave of masks for distribution.

Leighton Stuart didn't take it seriously. He returned to the topic: "Mr. Li Yu has full experience in education. I'm here to ask for advice."

"We can't talk about asking for advice. If you have anything to say, sir, just say it." Li Yu said.

"According to the requirements of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, it is necessary to establish another university in China, just like Tsinghua Academy and the Union Medical College that has just started construction." Stuart said.

"It's a good thing. I support investment in education." Li Yu said. Leighton Stuart said: "I raised a sum of money in the United States from the late American Aluminum King Mr. Hall. He entrusted a lawyer to donate part of his estate to an education fund, and declared that part of it must be used in China. Because he himself is also Li Yu Beneiciary of Mr. Stainless Steel Patent and a huge fan of Star Wars.”

"Thank you Mr. Hall." Li Yu said, Star Wars actually has this effect.

Leighton Stuart said: "When Beijing's Huiwen University and North China Union Women's University have discussed the merger, the new university can be established."

This new school was naturally the famous Yanjing University during the Republic of China.

Among the two schools to be merged, Huiwen University is called Peking University in English, which has the same name as Peking University.

Administrators from both schools are still debating the merger, including what to call the new school.

Li Yu said: "I know that the subsequent financial support will depend on the church, but I still hope that the new school will have less of the tradition of a church school. Huiwen University has two services a week and a Bible study, which is obviously not in line with ordinary universities. and Chinese habits.”

Leighton Stuart did not object to this proposal: "Your country's Ministry of Education has always had regulations that prohibit forcing students to worship religion and prohibiting the establishment of compulsory religious courses. I will abide by it in the new school, but it will take some time to convince the board of directors."

Li Yu said: "Mr. Situ is very wise. Although the United States supports the establishment of education in China, it must be in accordance with the wishes of the Chinese people, otherwise it will not be possible."

"Yes," Leighton Stuart knew the situation in East Asia very well. "Americans are easily influenced by China's close neighbor Japan in terms of education. I think China's interests should be consistent with those of the United States, while Japan is a factor that threatens peace."

"I hope sir will always stick to this point of view." Li Yu said leisurely.

Leighton Stuart said: "This is a view I have always adhered to. In letters to churches and friends in the United States, I have mentioned many times that the United States should maintain a tough policy toward Japan instead of the current laissez-faire attitude. In the future of mankind, In peace, nothing is as important as the United States' attitude towards Sino-Japanese relations. Only the United States has the ability to limit Japan's expansion of power in China; but if the United States acts too late, it will lose the opportunity to contain Japan."

Li Yu thought to himself, no wonder he later became the minister to China.

Stuart continued: "It's a pity that no one in the U.S. Congress has paid attention to it."

"Perhaps you can find a sociologist to study the Japanese and form an authoritative work." Li Yu suddenly said.

"A sociologist who studies the Japanese?" Stuart had never thought of this before. "That's a good suggestion. If you know yourself and the enemy, you will never be in danger."

Li Yu said: "Mr. Situ's idioms are used well."

Leighton Stuart said: "I like idioms. If I have time in the future, I might write a book specifically introducing Chinese idioms for Americans to read."

"I guess some people can't wait." Li Yu said.

Leighton Stuart said: "This is not very difficult. The study of Japanese books you mentioned is a complicated subject."

Li Yu said: "Don't some American universities have departments of East Asian culture? There must be professors and scholars in this field."

Stuart Leighton was surprised: "Mr. Li Yu is very concerned about this matter?"

Li Yu smiled and said: "This is to help you think of ideas. You don't know about Sino-Japanese relations. If there are American scholars willing to study Japan, I am even willing to provide funding."

"I will take note of your words, sir, and pay attention to them when I return to the United States in the future," said Stuart.

Li Yu's status was too sensitive to handle this matter, but Leighton Stuart had no problem.

At this time, people still pay too little attention to the "bad character" of the Japanese - that is the real bad character, rotten to the core.

Li Yu asked casually: "Has Mr. Situ chosen a place for the new university?"

Leighton Stuart said: "I have long been interested in a royal garden next to Tsinghua Garden. To be honest, if I want to build a new university, the campus will never be worse than the Tsinghua Garden where the Boxer Refund was given."

"You really have a special liking for royal gardens." Li Yu said.

Of course, what Leighton Stuart mentioned was Yanyuan, which later became the main body of Peking University. However, during the Republic of China, it was Yanjing University.

Yenching University and Tsinghua University were both schools that were not short of money during the Republic of China.

After completion, Yenching University is quite luxurious. There are two dormitories for two people. Each dormitory is equipped with a bathtub, telephone, drinking fountain and laundry facilities. The school has an uninterrupted supply of hot water. There is also a small kitchen on each floor.

In contrast, at Peking University at the same time, six students lived in a dormitory. There were no normal toilets in the dormitory building. What was even worse was that there was no hot water supply in winter.

In this regard, a reporter raised a very pointed question: "You have built Yenching University so magnificently and allowed students to live an extremely comfortable life, which is divorced from the actual situation in China. Once you leave school and enter real life, How can I adapt to it?"

Leighton Stuart's answer was: "I just make them unable to adapt, and they will know about reform."

Although if you think about it carefully, this sentence is a bit too idealistic and one-sided, but he does want to run this university well.

Leighton Stuart added: "It is a pity that the Boxer refunds from other countries have not been used effectively. Now that the Russian Empire is in turmoil, even millions of square kilometers of land can be given up. The new regime will definitely not look down upon the mere Boxer compensation. "

Li Yu said: "It will take a few years for the situation in Russia to be clear."

The fierce civil war in Russia had just begun, and the familiar "How Steel Was Tempered" originated from the period of the Soviet-Russian Civil War.

The situation for the Bolsheviks was very tight in the early days. The great powers would definitely not allow a country with this kind of ideology to be born and sent intervention troops one after another. A large number of highly qualified military officers in Russia also stood on the hostile side and controlled most of the territory.

However, the Bolsheviks were led by the working class. They occupied the industrial cities and their war potential far exceeded their opponents.

The Soviet Union did abandon the Boxer reparations after the war.

Leighton Stuart invited: "When the United States has finalized the matter of the new university, I will go north. I hope that the academicians will come to support me."

"No problem, after all, we will be neighbors in the future," Li Yu said easily, "By the way, every school is carrying out the New Culture Movement now, Mr. Situ had better listen to the voices of students."

"Definitely," said Leighton Stuart. "I am not only opposed to the implementation of church education, but I will also not support Mr. Kang Youwei's so-called Confucianism, because it is not a panacea to save China's current situation; the restoration movement has no way out. In my opinion, those in power It is unwise to use the form of religion to enhance national cohesion by strengthening the propaganda of Confucianism, thereby overcoming the social unrest and loss of control caused by the revolution; in China, neither government decrees, rituals, nor teachings can bestow this ancient Philosophy has sufficient power to solve China’s national problems.”

Li Yu smiled and said: "We can indeed be good neighbors."