Yuan Shikai understood immediately and laughed loudly: "I am really looking forward to the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the Prince's Mansion."
While the three of them were talking, they came to the military aircraft office. Ronglu was now the chief military aircraft minister and usually worked here.
Yi Kuang and Yuan Shikai were not military ministers. The reason why Cixi agreed to let them go to such a core place of power was because she deliberately cultivated them. After all, Rong Lu's health is not good now, and he will be unable to work one day if he is not protected.
It's a pity that Cixi didn't know that Yuan Shikai, as Li Hongzhang's "successor", didn't really care about whether he could enter the army.
After all, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, the masters and disciples, were not military ministers at the time, but they still dominated the government and were arrogant to their ministers.
Since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the power of local feudal officials has been expanded to the point where they can control the military, government and finance, and even the imperial court cannot control it.
When the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China, the Qing government's prestige was even more discredited by the "Southeast Mutual Protection". Li Hongzhang, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, and Sheng Xuanhuai, the minister of railways, including Yuan Shikai, the governor of Shandong at that time, were completely disobedient and disrespectful. They had already made an agreement with the foreigners, but they just watched Cixi declare war on the foreign powers. Then he was beaten to pieces.
Afterwards, Cixi had no solution at all and could only praise them for being "mature in seeking a country."
How comfortable it is for the local governor to do so! Yuan Shikai didn't want to be a military minister, not to mention that his new Beiyang Army was also in Tianjin.
Ronglu sat down at the table, took a sip of the tea at just the right temperature, and said to Yuan Shikai: "I have seen the brochure you handed over. I want Tang Shaoyi to pass through the customs in Tianjin. I heard that there are foreign troops stationed there. , can they release it to you?"
Yuan Shikai said: "Don't worry, Zhongtang. I have already arranged for the police from the Industrial Inspection Bureau to control the customs road. The foreigners have already taken over the customs tax. They cannot also take over the customs road we set up. In that case, how much will they collect?" We really don’t know about the money.”
Nowadays, almost all customs and taxation departments are controlled by foreigners. The Qing government had no choice but to make do with setting up customs roads to monitor customs and taxation.
Ronglu asked again: "The customs department has a lot of dealings with foreigners, is Tang Shaoyi qualified for the job?"
"Back to Lord Zhongtang, Tang Shaoyi was a student who was sent to study in the United States in the early years. He studied and lived in the United States for seven years. Later, he stayed with me in North Korea for ten years. He specialized in handling foreign affairs and was quite familiar with foreign things."
Ronglu said: "That's good."
The two were just having an official exchange, dealing with official matters, and the person who wrote Yuan Shikai's memorial would definitely not change.
Yuan Shikai added: "In addition, the president of Peiyang University, Li Minchen, has passed away, and the position of president is currently vacant. I have the courage to recommend Tang Shaoyi as the new president."
Naturally, Ronglu would not care about such a trivial matter. Yuan Shikai just said that he was Ronglu's person and wanted to let Ronglu know about everything.
"Since you are qualified, you just follow the regulations." Ronglu acquiesced.
Yuan Shikai responded: "I understand the humble position."
Ronglu dealt with official affairs for another half an hour, and the important memorials were almost sorted out. He turned to Yuan Shikai and said, "When Weiting comes to Beijing this time, are you still going to see the Queen Mother?"
Yuan Shikai immediately said: "When I return to Beijing, I will naturally meet the Queen Mother and listen to the holy teachings."
Ronglu said: "Then let's go together."
Cixi lived in Yiluan Hall in Xiyuan, where she basically met with ministers. The highest authority today is actually no longer in the Forbidden City, but in Xiyuan.
These memorials compiled by Ronglu would naturally go to Xiyuan to show to the Queen Mother.
In the Tongwen Hall at this moment.
Li Yu had nothing to do during the day, Yi Kuang went to the palace to run errands, and his son Zai Zhen disappeared early in the morning. Even the somewhat annoying Rui Zheng went to the Prime Minister's Yamen.
Li Yu remembered that he still had such a great position as a librarian, so he returned to Tongwen Library.
As soon as I entered the door, I met Ding Hailiang, who was about to enter the office carrying several newspapers and magazines.
"Good morning, Sir!" Li Yu greeted.
Ding Haoliang saw Li Yu and said with a smile: "Why, can't you let go of your job as a librarian?"
Li Yu spread his hands: "If you didn't fire me, I couldn't be absent from work. I'm a qualified worker."
Ding Haoliang thought he was joking and replied: "There is no need to do such a simple job in the future."
Li Yu smiled bitterly and said: "Master Xi, I am penniless now. I can't just eat and drink in Prince Qing's Mansion every day."
Ding Haoliang touched his beard: "What you said makes sense, I did neglect it. Well, I will arrange for you to be a temporary student of Tongwen Hall, and you will receive a monthly subsidy of 2 taels of silver."
"Can I still get money as a student?" Li Yu wondered if there might be some backdoor for him.
Ding Haoliang said: "Regular students of Tongwen Hall receive a monthly subsidy of 10 taels, but now Tongwen Hall has been merged into the Capital University and no longer enrolls students separately. These 2 taels are a special allowance given by the imperial court to our preparatory students. , can be issued for three months.”
Two taels of silver is not much, but it is better than the one or two taels a month for those idle banner clan clans. Sure enough, knowledge is power!
Li Yu is a person who doesn't like free rice. He can't take this money for nothing, so he is thinking about ways to make money.
He glanced at the magazine in Ding Haoliang's hand and said, "The one in the hands of the chief professor is probably an English journal. If I publish some academic articles, I wonder if I will get any money?"
"Of course it's possible. However, publishing academic articles is not easy."
"I think you can try it."
Ding Haoliang flipped through the magazines in his hand, and after thinking about it, he felt that he could really test Li Yu's level. "Well, I admire you for having such courage and knowledge. It just so happens that you are currently in the "Natural Science Society" under the Royal Society. The newspaper is asking for articles, I think you can submit it."
"Proceedings of the Natural Science Society"?
"Yes, Newton, Faraday and others have published many excellent papers on it. The Royal Society rarely solicits manuscripts from the public, but now the scientific momentum in Germany is too strong, and they naturally do not want to lag behind Germany."
Ding Haoliang still knows a lot about these latest news.
Li Yu said: "Okay, then I will go back and write a paper to try."
Ding Haoliang handed several magazines in his hand to Li Yu: "Go back and take a look. The quality of these magazines is very high. It is very difficult to write an excellent new paper."
Li Yu thanked Ding Haoliang and took the magazine. He saw that the issue number was from last month. It was already quite new when he traveled across the ocean and arrived in Qing Dynasty. It contains not only publications under the Royal Society, but also cutting-edge scientific magazines of the time such as "Annals of Physics" and "Edinburgh Review".
And the last one is surprisingly "Nature"!
Good guy, I didn’t expect to finally see one of the three famous CNS academic journals in later generations in the late Qing Dynasty more than 100 years ago.
In Li Yu's era, "Cell", "Nature", and "Science" were definitely the most influential journals, collectively known as CNS.
The impact factor of "Nature" is as high as over 49, and the other two books are also over 40. What kind of concept is this!
Being able to publish a research paper signed by the first author on it is 100% academic top-notch! As long as they are not the top ones in the country, you can be rated as a professor, associate professor, etc. in 985 universities, and you can definitely go sideways.
