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

Chapter 649 Rejection of Visa
Li Yu and the others found Police Chief Wu Bingxiang and said, "Sir, this is a patriotic movement of students. If we arrest them for this, I'm afraid they will get a bad reputation."

"It turns out he is Bachelor Li," Wu Bingxiang said respectfully, and then showed bitterness on his face, "How could I not know! I arrested a few students just to give an account to the superiors. Even if they are caught in prison, I have to keep them as babies. , How dare you lay a finger on them."

Li Yu said: "I guess the higher-ups don't dare to target the students and want to use you to blame them. If you don't arrest the students, they will blame you. If you do, they will blame you."

"Hey! Who says it's not the case!" Wu Bingxiang sighed, "I just can't be good at both ends! Bachelor Li, you are a cultural person, go back and tell the students, it's almost done, at least don't set fire, otherwise it will be really difficult for me Do."

Li Yu said: "It was just an accidental situation, and no one was killed after all. You are twenty years younger, maybe it is even more extraordinary."

Wu Bingxiang said: "Master Li, please tell the students that as long as they agree to give up the march on the 7th, I will release all the arrested students."

Li Yu said: "I have to thank you, sir, for taking care of the students."

This is just the beginning. In the future, the students who will march will even want to go to jail. They even bring toiletries, but the police will not be able to take them away.

Perhaps Wu Bingxiang himself adheres to the past view that "a doctor cannot be punished with punishment" and does not dare to touch college students. ——College students at this time are indeed the proud ones of heaven.

Several policemen helped Zhang Zongxiang and a Japanese man out. The arrested student next to him could not help cursing. Zhang Zongxiang could not find his glasses. He held his bleeding head and did not dare to speak back.

Wu Bingxiang said quickly: "Ouch, Minister Zhang! Fortunately, you are fine."

Zhang Zongxiang pointed to his head and replied angrily: "Is this okay?"

The Japanese next to him was named Nakae Chouyoshi, and he was slightly injured. He is a Japanese journalist, but he is a left-winger in Japan who opposes aggression and loves Chinese culture.

Seeing that the Japanese was fine, Wu Bingxiang was even more relieved: "You two, come back with me for a formality and record a confession."

Zhang Zongxiang said feebly: "I was beaten inexplicably. What kind of confession can I take?"

The student next to him yelled: "Traitor! You said it was inexplicable! Why did you say you were beaten? You deserve to die!"

"Yes, traitors should be killed!"

The color drained from Zhang Zongxiang's face and he said to Wu Bingxiang: "Let's go, let's go quickly!"

-

The next day, Li Yu and others came to Peking University again. The students were still angry and were still organizing activities. This time they summoned representatives from major schools in the capital for a meeting.

The fact that students from other schools could gather here shows that they have tacitly chosen to strike.

There are also Tsinghua students who "didn't have any soup" yesterday.

On behalf of Tsinghua University, Wen Yiduo said: "Our school is located in a remote western suburb. We will not have time to enter the city in the future. From today on, we will act in concert with other schools!"

Although Peking University seemed to be the most popular during the May Fourth Movement, all schools actually united together, and later Tsinghua University acted extremely tough, and quite a few students were arrested because they lined up more neatly and were arrested in groups.

Luo Jialun said: "Since more schools are participating, we should form a student union and elect an interim president. I vote for Fu Sinian."

Luo Jialun passionately wrote an article for the newspaper yesterday, calling on the authorities to release the arrested students. The article was titled "The Spirit of the May 4th Movement." ——This is also the first time in history that the concept of the "May Fourth Movement" appeared.

Fu Sinian has always had organizational skills, so there is no problem in letting him come forward. Fu Sinian said: "I hope that everyone can follow the instructions in the future demonstrations and not do anything too outrageous, otherwise it will be difficult for us to be reasonable and unreasonable."

One student said loudly: "Where did we go out of line? The ones who went out of line were those bastard officials!"

"Even so, we will still have an organized march," Fu Sinian said.

"Screw that organization!" The student was very unconvinced, "Is it useful for us to study honestly?"

Fu Sinian raised his voice: "Since you ask me to be the interim chairman, you must listen to me."

The student said: "Then you don't want to be the chairman! Bah!"

Fu Sinian, a person of good temper, replied: "Who are you spitting on?"

The student's blood surged, and he suddenly struck him. Fu Sinian didn't expect him to strike, and his glasses were smashed to the ground.

Logically speaking, this student couldn't beat Fu Sinian, but Fu Sinian knew that he couldn't take action at this time. Looking at the student's red face, he squatted down and slowly picked up the spectacle frame: "Okay, I will not be the temporary chairman!"

Fu Sinian turned around and left angrily. The leader of the student movement on May 4th day has not participated in subsequent movements since.

Fu Sinian came to the outskirts of the crowd and saw Li Yu, Hu Shi, and Dewey.

"Professor, it's so difficult to be an organizer." Fu Sinian said helplessly.

Hu Shi said: "I have mentioned many times that simply using strikes as a weapon is the most uneconomical method and the worst policy. Using them repeatedly is a sign of the bankruptcy of the student movement. Strikes will cause no harm to the enemy, but they will cause great losses to themselves. "

Li Yu said: "However, the movement will definitely continue. After all, students are still arrested, and the peace meeting has no results."

Fu Sinian asked: "Do they really want to sign?"

Li Yu said: "Your resistance is timely. Yesterday, while you were marching, the Supreme Council in Paris passed the final result. After the documents are sent back to various countries, the signing ceremony will be held in a month."

Fu Sinian asked: "What is the attitude of the Beiyang government?"

Li Yu said: "As far as I know, they are still inclined to sign."

Fu Sinian was stunned: "Didn't we fight for nothing? Do they still want to imitate Aisin Gioro and Yehenala and sign a treasonous treaty? Why is this?!"

Li Yu said: "Prime Minister Duan Qirui of the Anfu faction advocated signing because they believed that if they did not sign the contract, they would not be able to join the League of Nations and all favorable conditions would have to be given up."

"Isn't this still a deal? A traitorous deal!" Fu Sinian said.

Li Yu sighed: "So it's not over yet. If nothing happens, the Beiyang government will definitely agree to sign. Once signed, it will be really difficult for Shandong to get back."

Fu Sinian said angrily: "I really don't know what the superiors are thinking every day!"

"Of course it's profit," Luo Jialun walked over and said, "Wu Bingxiang from the Capital Police Department is here."

Fu Sinian was ready to solve the problem of the arrested students before withdrawing, so they went to the principal's office together.

Cai Yuanpei told student representatives from each school: "Director Wu said that as long as you stop the demonstrations and strike, the students will be released safely."

Wen Yiduo said: "We have just decided to go on strike. Are we going to resume classes tomorrow? This is really impossible, and we cannot afford this responsibility."

Wu Bingxiang said: "You guys beat Minister Zhang to the point where he couldn't urinate or defecate for two days. That's almost enough."

Luo Jialun asked: "Did you hit that part?"

Wu Bingxiang said: "I don't know the details." Fu Sinian asked: "What if we resume classes tomorrow and you don't let them go?"

Wu Bingxiang said loudly: "I can use my personality to protect him. If he is not released, I will be your son for life!"

When it came to this, the student representatives had no choice but to resume classes first and see what the situation was.

Fortunately, Wu Bingxiang fulfilled his promise and released the students. He thought the matter could be brought to an end.

But this is just another calm before the storm.

-

A few days later, Peking University reconvened Dewey’s lecture.

Dewey was inspired and said: "I appreciate your patriotic enthusiasm and express my affirmative attitude. College students do their best for the country, regardless of the interests, organize huge groups, and take powerful actions. I think those Chinese in the United States will see it. We will also deeply agree. This is what the citizens of the republic should do, because the responsibility for the rise and fall of the country lies entirely with the people.

"Whether it is a republic or a dictatorship in the world, all construction projects must be carried out by the people themselves, which is particularly important for a republic. But if you want to have the spirit of a republic, you must have a complete education to develop a truly republican spirit."

Dewey was indeed an educator. Finally, he returned to education. He went on to say:
"After such a patriotic movement, I think you will be more enthusiastic about studying. Because diplomatic issues arouse patriotism, you will have new motivations and new motivations, and your desire to study will be stronger.

"I believe that reason and emotion are not opposites, but complementary."

"Emotions can help reason and encourage reason; reason can guide emotions and strengthen emotions, so as to prevent blind actions or an anticlimactic end."

After Dewey finished speaking, Li Yu added:
“Professor Dewey said very reasonably that even if one is patriotic, emotions and reason should cooperate with each other.

"Saving the country and the people is easier said than done. There are many ways to do it, which must require specialized knowledge. It is impossible to do things based on emotion alone.

"If you only have feelings but no knowledge, if you want to be hygienic but don't know how to prevent diseases, if you want to do business but don't know how to manage, there will definitely be no hope of success.

"So emotions must be guided by reason.

"Some people would say that emotion comes before reason, which is not wrong, because emotion is the driving force of behavior, but when it comes to practice, knowledge is more important.

"We talked about the unity of knowledge and action in Shanghai before. If we have strong feelings, knowledge, and clear problems, we can achieve our goals."

Anyway, Li Yu also expressed his affirmation of the student movement.

The reason? Of course it’s not over yet.

Liang Shiqiu also mentioned some interesting things in his article many years later. After the May Fourth Movement, several student demonstrations broke out. As a student of Tsinghua University, Liang Shiqiu followed the crowd. They encountered an obstructing car. Someone shouted, and everyone smashed the car.

In this regard, Liang Shiqiu said this: "I felt that everyone was just angry and didn't know who to vent to. They hated the Beiyang government for being incompetent and the officials for betraying the country. This hatred could only be vented in the streets like crazy. In No one can remain calm in this torrent, which is called mass psychology. The car that was beaten was unjust, but if you think about it later, it may not be unjust, because at least there were only a few people in the car at that time who did not deserve to be beaten. ”

The last sentence is quite interesting.

Zhang Zongxiang's son happened to be in the same dormitory as Liang Shiqiu. After the May Fourth Movement, he quickly sneaked away. But many students still rushed into their dormitory and smashed Zhang Zongxiang's son's bed.

Liang Shiqiu felt that "this shouldn't be done".

However, these little episodes are nothing to make a fuss about, because compared to the students' small actions, the Beiyang government's sin of abandoning Shandong is hundreds of times greater, so there is no need to divert attention.

In the final analysis, the May 4th outbreak was aimed at Japan, their encroachment into Shandong, and the inaction of the Beiyang government. It was the general public resentment across China against Japan's desperate expansion and encroachment into China.

Ten days later, the student movement began to appear on a larger scale. Even though hundreds of people were arrested, five to six thousand students continued to demonstrate.

At this time, the Beiyang government became a little afraid and did not dare to let the military and police arrest students anymore. At the same time, they released all the detained students.

Li Yu then sent a letter to the Shanghai Industrial Association, saying that the students were on strike, and the industrial and commercial industries should also show some energy and go on strike!
After Shanghai joined, the Beiyang government became even more difficult to deal with. In fact, from this time on, the movement became even larger.

They can also deal with students, and industrial and commercial strikes are even more lethal to them.

Finally, the Beiyang government finally agreed to remove Cao Rulin, Zhang Zongxiang, and Lu Zongyu from their official positions.

But the key issue that everyone is arguing about is whether to sign the peace conference or not.

The delegation in Paris kept sending messages asking the Beiyang government whether to sign or not.

However, the Beiyang government was unsure and kept talking vaguely.

The delegation was divided into two factions. Hu Weide, the minister to France, and Wang Guangqi, the minister to Italy, were the signatories; Wang Zhengting, Gu Weijun, Shi Zhaoji and others insisted on opposing the signature.

The head of the delegation, Lu Zhengxiang, just wanted to get instructions from the Beiyang government. After all, the responsibility was too great.

After more than a month of telegram communication, the Beiyang government still did not give an accurate letter. Lu Zhengxiang could not bear the pressure and resigned due to illness. From then on, the main work of the delegation was done by Gu Weijun.

In other words, if the signature was signed, it would also be Gu Weijun.

At this time, there are only ten days left before signing.

Gu Weijun and others knew in their hearts that refusing to sign was the best option, so as to preserve the possibility of fighting for Shandong in the future.

Although this will lead to the loss of some things negotiated, there are some things that cannot be given up after all. Otherwise, with the little devil's behavior, he will definitely push his limits and cause endless troubles.

It stands to reason that the Beiyang government must give an accurate letter no matter what it says, but until the last day, the delegation did not receive clear instructions from the Beiyang government.

This is very incredible.

The delegation speculated that maybe the Beiyang government no longer wanted to make its own decision and wanted the delegation to decide whether to sign or not.

On the final signing day, Gu Weijun made a decision and refused to sign.

On the next day, he received the order from the Beiyang government to refuse the visa.

——It is very likely that the Beiyang government sent the message after the meeting to calculate the final signing of the peace conference began. There is an obvious desire to shirk responsibility, and one can also blame poor radio communication...

Hey, what are you picturing? How can you be so clever with your own people?

Later developments were relatively good, as public opinion played a role, and various countries sympathized with the Shandong issue; the U.S. Congress also had objections to Wilson's final concession to Japan.

Since it did not sign, Japan could not legally occupy Shandong, and Beiyang did not agree to it again.

A few months later, the delegation signed on the Austro-Hungarian issue first, taking back the rights ceded to Austria-Hungary. The following year, China and Germany also signed an agreement. Germany paid part of the money and then canceled the Boxer Indemnity.

The students did.