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

Chapter 68
The special mission came to Canary Wharf on the banks of the Thames River. This time, not only Prince Arthur, but also Edward VII's son, Prince George, were seeing off.

In addition, Lord Kelvin and President Huggins also came to the pier in person.

Lord Kelvin liked this young man who brought surprises every day very much. Although he was very reluctant, he still wanted to leave temporarily: "You will boldly use the telegraph machine of the Times Office in the future. If they dare to charge you, let me know!"

Li Yu smiled and said, "Thank you, Lord, for your kindness."

President Huggins shook hands with him again: "I have decided not to use the observatory on Mount Hals, and I have changed its name to Pluto Observatory to commemorate your discovery."

Li Yudao: "President, there is no need for you to do this, such a good device..."

Lord Kelvin waved his hand: "Don't worry about him, he is not short of money."

Uh... Li Yu really remembered that President Huggins was originally a businessman, and his pursuit of science was a hobby.

The ship's whistle blew, and Li Yu was the last to board the ship, standing on the deck and waving goodbye to them.

Zai Zhen and the others were dumbfounded. Why do the British like Li Yu so much? !
Zai Zhen said: "This time you really stole the limelight, the queen mother must be very happy to know."

Li Yuxu and Wei Snake said: "It would be great to make the Empress Dowager happy."

But he was cursing secretly in his heart, what does it have to do with her!
Li Yu is somewhat ambitious now. Although he has not experienced any hardships himself, he has seen history!

As for why the 5000 million Chinese suffered so much, he also understood, so he didn't have any good feelings for the corrupt rulers of the Qing court at all, and he even said that he was full of hatred.

It's a pity that he doesn't understand politics, let alone military affairs.

Fortunately, he is more or less a modern person with a broad vision, able to bend and stretch, and can bear braids, so he will just play around and use them for the time being.

Perhaps what I can do in the future is to find ways to make as many people as possible suffer less.Even if it only helps one thousandth or even one percent of people, such a large base is 45 to 450 million people!

What concept is this!

But it is obviously far from such an ambitious goal at present.

The salty sea breeze from the North Sea blew on his face, and Li Yu didn't smile much, although the fame in front of him was enough for him to become a professor at a Western university, and even go down in history.

However, not enough!

The passenger ship crossed the English Channel, went up the Seine River, and sailed to Paris.

The tall spire of the Eiffel Tower in the distance appeared in everyone's view.

Liang Cheng pointed to it and said, "Master Bei Zi, this Eiffel Tower is more than ninety feet high, and it is the tallest building in the world today."

Zai Zhen looked over with a binoculars: "It's astonishing that such a tall tower can be built. Liang Cheng, you have been abroad for many years, can you build it?"

Liang Cheng smiled awkwardly, but he didn't expect Zai Zhen to ask such a question: "Master Bei, I don't know much about construction."

"It's a pity. If one can be built outside Yongding Gate, the Empress Dowager will definitely like it when she sees it from a distance every day."

Look at Master Bei's consciousness, he only wants to make the Queen Mother like him!

hehe!But it's right to think about it, if the Queen Mother doesn't like things in the Qing court, it's really hard to do anything.

The original construction purpose of the Eiffel Tower was to hold the Paris World Expo in 1889 and to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the victory of the Great Revolution, but the tender required that it could be easily demolished later.

And there were many people who opposed the construction of the tower, such as Maupassant and Dumas.So no matter what, some people will oppose it.

But neither supporters nor opponents could have imagined that the Eiffel Tower would become a national symbol of France in the future.

Liang Cheng still didn't forget to teach Zai Zhen a lesson: "Master Bei, France and Prussia lost 50 billion francs in the war, but they are not as strong now."

"Five billion francs?" Zai Zhen asked in surprise, "How much is this?"

"In short, it far exceeds the silver taels we pay to other countries."

Zai Zhen said in disbelief, "Why is France still so strong after losing so much money?"

Liang Cheng said in a timely manner: "Because they have changed, we also need to make changes."

"What change?"

"Like a republic or a constitution..."

Zai Zhen waved his hand, "It's not up to me to decide, go back and write a report for the Queen Mother to decide."

Li Yu secretly laughed at the side, how could it make sense, no matter how hard Liang Cheng tried, it would be useless.

Back then, in order to unify Germany, Bismarck induced France to declare war on Prussia with a small "Emsmy Telegram". Napoleon III really thought he was Napoleon, but he was beaten to death.

In terms of superb skills, Napoleon III is like a younger brother in front of the iron-blooded Prime Minister Bismarck.

In private, Li Yu even felt that although Li Hongzhang was credited, some people called Li Hongzhang the "Oriental Bismarck", which really elevated Li or lowered Bismarck, and the gap in their achievements was still very large.

Bismarck himself said after hearing this statement: "Li Hongzhang is the Bismarck of the East, but I will not be the Li Hongzhang of the West."

This sentence is very intriguing.

Besides, Li Hongzhang signed the indemnity treaty no matter what, and Bismarck was a tiger's mouth, and he typed out the indemnity from France.

It goes without saying how important the Franco-Prussian War was to Germany. Although the target of the war was France, it was a war fought for their own unity.

After the victory of the war, William I was even crowned Emperor of Germany in the Palace of Versailles in France, which was full of ridicule.

After the Franco-Prussian War, Germany demanded 50 billion francs in compensation from France.According to the unit "Guan Ping Yin" used in the Xin Chou and other treaties, the conversion is about 12 billion taels of Guan Ping Yin, which indeed exceeds the total amount of all compensations in the Qing Dynasty.

And before the compensation is over, Germany will station troops in France, forcing France to pay money honestly.

But miraculously, France sent away the German army very quickly.Because they mobilized the power of financial capital, they only issued national bonds three times, and quickly raised 50 billion francs!
As a result, France has tasted the sweetness of finance. It has been issuing capital everywhere since then, and it has become a "usury empire".

The rise of Japan has also learned a little bit from Germany. It also gained compensation and international status through launching wars, building national self-confidence, and then developing industry and commerce.

But well, it's a blessing in disguise, and the biggest legacy of war is hatred.

Later, France fought so fiercely in the First World War. Millions of people died under the Maxim machine gun with infinite hatred for Germany. The Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme were so tragic. Human lives are like leeks. It was cut off one by one.

After the victory, France made Germany compensate 1120 billion gold marks, which is almost 300 billion taels of silver!It was not until 2010 that Germany paid off the last payment...

When is the injustice reported!
Germany also held grudges again, and launched World War II again decades later, and countless lives and properties were wiped out.

From the perspective of future generations, Li Yu knew that only when these things were seen together, would they find that they all had causes and effects, and were intertwined, which was even more shocking.

However, he couldn't tell Zai Zhen about this.

Just talking about the financial means used by France to tide over the difficulties will clear up the level of corruption. You let them try to issue national debt?Leaving aside the poor credit of the Qing Dynasty, there is a question of whether anyone will buy the national debt.If someone buys it, they will definitely use it to loot the people's property desperately. I am afraid that the golden round coupon will come out more than 40 years in advance.

How many people will be destroyed by that, I really shudder when I think about it.

(End of this chapter)