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

Chapter 710 Epilogue : Changes in the World
Li Yu did not see Ai Dashen for two days over the weekend. It was not until Monday that he saw a luxurious Maybach car taking him to the University of Berlin.

Schrodinger grinned and said, "He went to Wanhu's manor again."

Li Yu asked: "Whose residence is that?"

"A rich widow," said Schrödinger.

"Uh..." Li Yu could only say that he understood.

An hour later, Li Yu came to Einstein's office and knocked on the door.

Einstein's voice came from inside: "Wait a moment!"

Two minutes later, he opened the door without even straightening his collar. His secretary, Ducas, was blushing as she tidied up the already clean bookcase.

Einstein coughed awkwardly: "Mr. Li Yu, please come in."

Li Yu asked: "Can I... go in?"

"Yes, of course!" Einstein said quickly.

Secretary Ducas said, "I'll go get some coffee for you two."

"Great, go ahead," said Einstein.

This female secretary was newly assigned to Einstein, and was even personally interviewed and approved by his wife Elsa.

At this time, Einstein was already sitting upright, pulling out a few sheets of manuscript paper and placing them in front of him, as if nothing had happened, "Mr. Li Yu, what's the matter?"

Li Yu put a magazine on the table: "Look at this, Dirac from the UK finally unified the special theory of relativity and quantum mechanics into one equation."

Naturally, it is the Dirac equation, which will also be written on Dirac’s tombstone in the future.

"Oh!" Einstein picked up the magazine. "Professor Schrödinger must be very shocked to know that a British man actually came up with an equation that is better than his."

Li Yu said: "This equation is much better than the previous Klein-Gordon equation."

"I know that the Klein-Gordon equation will have solutions with negative energy, and what's even more ridiculous is that there are solutions with negative probability!" said Einstein.

"Now Dirac's equation no longer has solutions with negative probability. But the solution with negative energy seems to be indispensable because it is as valid as the solution with positive energy," said Li Yu.

"It seems that the British still needs to continue his research. Isn't negative energy ridiculous?" Einstein said.

Well, actually, Dirac hasn’t figured out the physical meaning of his equation yet, just like when Schrödinger first came up with the Schrödinger equation.

Einstein didn't take it too seriously because there are too many equations in mathematics.

Li Yu noticed the calculations on his manuscript and asked casually, "Gravitational waves?"

"This?" Einstein looked at his manuscript. "This is the result of my research a long time ago. Gravitational waves cannot exist."

"Are you so sure?" Li Yu said, "If gravitational waves exist and their speed is known, doesn't that prove that gravity is not an instantaneous effect?"

"It's a good idea, but its theoretical basis is not perfect enough," said Einstein.

According to conventional reasoning, since electric charge oscillation can produce electromagnetic waves, will the vibration of matter produce gravitational waves?
Einstein began thinking about gravitational waves almost a decade earlier.

Li Yu had no need to argue with him about this issue, as Einstein did not acknowledge the existence of gravitational waves until 1936.

He wrote a paper that year, still denying the existence of gravitational waves, but the paper was rejected by the magazine.

Because the magazine found an anonymous person to review the manuscript, he discovered a mistake in Einstein's article and informed Einstein of the mistake.

Einstein was very angry. Normally, he would review papers for others, but this magazine secretly gave his paper to someone else to review? The key point was that he was writing about his general theory of relativity, and someone else knew more about it than he did? This was really the opposite!

So Einstein published the paper in other journals.

It was only later that his own assistant discovered the error, and Ai Da Shen realized that he was really wrong and has since acknowledged the existence of gravitational waves.

As for the mysterious anonymous reviewer, it was not until the confidentiality period expired in 1969 that his name was known as Howard Robertson. It was he who told Einstein's assistant about the error.

However, this old man kept the secret all the time and died in 1961 without telling anyone.

Any problem that could make Einstein make mistakes is not a small one.

It is quite difficult to verify gravitational waves, and the precision requirements for the instruments are outrageous. We have to wait until the 21st century to detect gravitational waves.

After chatting for a while, Li Yu said, "I came to see you for one more thing, to say goodbye to you."

"Leaving again?" Einstein was not surprised. "But this time we should be able to go to America together."

Li Yu smiled and said, "It seems you are short of money again."

Germany's economy was in a very embarrassing situation after World War I. First, it was tormented by terrible inflation for several years. The Weimar government finally stabilized the currency by issuing new marks, but the economic crisis came again the next year.

Einstein complained: "The Germans have always claimed that they have the greatest technology, but many people can't even get enough to eat, and they earn much less money than the technologically backward United States. I think the Germans can no longer maintain their outward decency and nobility."

Li Yu joked: "The man called Hitler in southern Germany has a very loud slogan now, saying 'Let every German household have milk and bread on the table'."

This slogan spread throughout Germany during the mustache election.

Einstein said indifferently: "Germany's hunger is his support. Once the economy improves, he will not seem so important."

Well, today I seem to have heard three mistakes from the God of Love...

-

Wu Youxun had also completed his lecture tour in Europe at this time and continued to travel to the United States with them.

Einstein was quite interested in this Chinese who won the Nobel Prize again: "It seems that American universities are not completely useless."

Li Yu smiled and said, "Maybe in a few years you will also go to the United States."

"I won't!" Einstein said firmly.

The cover of Time magazine in the United States this time was very interesting. It featured Einstein's wife Elsa, and then wrote an article introducing: "Because mathematician Einstein could not manage his accounts properly, his wife had to take care of his expenses and travel arrangements."

Time magazine also interviewed Elsa.

“I have to do all these things so that he feels he is free,” Elsa told Time magazine. “He is everything in my life and he deserves it… I am happy to be Mrs. Einstein.”

In addition, she charged Einstein $1 for each autograph and $5 for each photograph; she maintained a ledger account from which she could donate the money to children's charities.

But when the reporter asked about Einstein himself, it was no longer about these mundane matters.

“How would you define the fourth dimension in one sentence?”

Einstein: "You can only ask a wizard."

“Can you define the theory of relativity in one sentence?”

Albert Einstein: “It takes three days to give a short definition.”

Those are still the difficult questions to answer.

After dealing with some affairs in the United States, Li Yu officially set off to return home.

Einstein said goodbye to him: "I hope it won't be too long before we meet again."

"Probably not." Li Yu said.

The situation will become even more turbulent in the future. There will definitely be a period of time during World War II when we need to take shelter in the United States and Sweden.

-

The domestic situation has changed greatly. 1928 was the most obvious watershed in the Republic of China, which is generally divided into the early and late periods.

This year, the Northern Expedition was completely completed; Zhang Zuolin hastily withdrew to Fengtian, but was killed by the Japanese in Huanggutun. After Zhang Xueliang became the leader of the Fengtian clique, he immediately announced the change of flag in the Northeast. After that, Nanjing became the capital, and another era of the Republic of China began.

God, things have changed.

Li Yu was in no mood to care about politics, but the pace of Japanese aggression was indeed getting faster and faster. Li Yu also had to step up his "invasion" of them. Of course, it was an economic invasion. The effect of soft knives was not obvious in the short term, but in the long run, it would definitely be enough to make the Japanese suffer. War, after all, is all about logistics.

Moreover, he could continue to expand his scale secretly during an economic crisis, so that he could transfer more of the Japanese's money out quietly.

These are things that Li Yu can control, but there is no way to say anything about some fanatical Japanese militarists, such as the Japanese military, their ambitions are about to explode.

Li Yu received a telegram from Sun Xuewu, Fu Sinian and others, asking them to go together to hold a meeting to discuss the re-organization of National Shandong University.

Sun Xuewu also graduated from Tsinghua University, and later studied for a Ph.D. in chemistry at Harvard in the United States. Now he is running the Yellow Sea Chemical Industry Research Society with Hou Debang, Fan Xudong and others.

Li Yu immediately set off, accompanied by Zhao Qian and guard Zhao Xue and others. Zhao Qian had to go to the capital to continue packing some luggage.

The train stopped in Jinan, and Li Yu felt a sense of solemnity as soon as he got off the train.

The shadow of the Jinan Massacre caused by the Japanese army has not completely dissipated, and a large number of Japanese troops are still stationed in Jinan City.

When Li Yu walked out of the station and passed by the Jinan Negotiation Office, he took out the camera he carried with him and took a few photos. His actions were immediately discovered by several Japanese soldiers, who stepped forward to stop him.

"Baga! What are you doing, Chinese?"

Li Yu slowly put down the camera: "I'm taking pictures in China, what do you Japanese have to do with it?"

The Japanese soldier said angrily: "This place is now under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Army! You are disturbing the peace, I can execute you on the spot!"

Li Yu Wuming was furious: "Haven't you killed enough people?"

The Japanese soldier raised his rifle: "Asshole!"

"Wait a moment!"

The guard Zhao Xue behind him stepped out and said, "You can't do anything to him!"

The Japanese soldier took one look at her graceful figure and said: "You can live a little longer."

The Japanese were going crazy in Jinan, killing nearly 10,000 people at random, for no reason. This is the nature of Japan.

Li Yu couldn't suppress the anger in his heart when he thought about the more than a dozen Chinese diplomats who were brutally killed in the negotiation office in front of him.

At that time, the Japanese soldiers cut off the ears and nose of the special negotiator Cai Gongshi, but he still kept cursing: "The Japanese are worse than beasts. We Chinese can be killed but not humiliated. We Chinese will definitely take revenge!"

The brutal Japanese soldier then inserted the sword into his mouth, twisted it vigorously twice, and gouged out his tongue; later he cruelly gouged out his eyes.

In the end, he and more than a dozen other ministers were shot to death.

What a beastly act!
These Japanese dared to stir up such a big incident before the battle even started. It was obvious that they were fearless and dared to kill anyone.

Another Japanese officer came over with a samurai sword in his hand, his eyes full of murderous intent. They would not allow the secrets here to be leaked out.

Seeing him slowly draw out his samurai sword, Konoe Akiyuki knew that this group of people had gone crazy. "Kill us, you will regret it."

"No one knows." said the Japanese officer.

"Asshole!" Konoe Akiyuki cursed, "Do you know who he is?"

The Japanese officer said: "I know that since a scholar who can only play with a pen is not a member of the Great Japanese Empire, what is the point of keeping him?"

Konoe Akihide asked angrily, "Do you know who I am?"

"You'll only know after you take off your clothes," said the Japanese officer.

Konoe Akiyuki had never expected to run into such a soldier who couldn't make sense at all. Seeing him approaching step by step, he pulled out a folded paper from his pocket in a hurry: "Look carefully, I am a captain special intelligence agent of the Empire of Japan!"

The Japanese officer was stunned and looked at the paper carefully: "General Aoki's signature...you..."

"You are not worthy to talk to me, get out!"

The Japanese officer glanced at her and said to the Japanese soldier angrily, "Let's go!"

-

Konoe Akisetsu breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Yu on the side suddenly said coldly: "You don't have to do this."

"You are not afraid of death?"

"I have plenty of ways to get out of this."

"But just now..." Konoe Akiyuki knew he could no longer hide it. "Anyway, you already knew everything."

"I already knew it."

"You knew it a long time ago?" Konoe Akisetsu bit his lip.

"Otherwise, how could I be at ease letting you stay in China for so many years?"

"why?"

"Because you are a shield."

"Are you using me as a shield?"

"Otherwise?"

Li Yu's eyes were very cold.

Konoe Akihide avoided his gaze and said, "So that's why you allowed me to follow you?"

"Yes."

"after……"

"There is no future. Go back to Japan and don't appear in front of me again."

In fact, Konoe Akisetsu has already gotten used to her current life, and she can't stand the sudden change.

Although I had guessed this ending long ago, I still feel disappointed.

"But……"

"There is no but," Li Yu said resolutely, "Don't forget, you are a spy."

Konoe Akisetsu shuddered, "I, I'm a spy!"

In fact, Li Yu originally wanted to keep her for a while longer, but he couldn't stand seeing these bastard Japanese soldiers today, so he had to use the "Japanese card" at hand.

Moreover, he would have to hide completely behind the scenes in the future, leaving only the Americans to handle economic matters. It would be difficult to hide with a Japanese around.

Li Yu would not have any feelings for the Japanese. Even if she really could not forget them and lived out her life alone in Japan, it would have nothing to do with her anymore.

——After all, I had already made up my mind about her.

Li Yu continued walking towards National Shandong University.

Along the way, we saw some corpses that had not been buried in time. No wonder the Japanese have not relaxed their control yet.

It is a pity that Chiang Kai-shek continued to tolerate it. From then on, Japanese soldiers occupied Jinan for a whole year.

And this was just the beginning of Japan's tyranny.