Although Zhang Jian could see clearly, not many people in the court were self-aware at all, the most typical one being Na Tong.
Na Tong has now become the Minister of Household Affairs, and has just received news from the court that he and Zai Zhen will go to Japan as envoys to participate in the Quanye Expo.
Of course Na Tong didn't understand industry, but he was a famously fun-loving official in the late Qing Dynasty who didn't care about state affairs. He was naturally in a good mood when he could go out and have fun.
Since he was going abroad, he naturally had to report to the Prime Minister's International Affairs Office. Although he didn't need to come in person, it was very close anyway, and he also wanted to get closer to Prince Qing Yikuang, so he came in person.
"Prince Qing, you're fine!" Na Tong said as he entered the door.
"Then why is Shangshu here? Could it be that he wants to give me a calligraphy treasure?" Yi Kuang asked. Na Tong said: "The prince wants calligraphy treasures, and he just said casually, I can have as many as I want!" Yi Kuang stroked his beard: "I have a huge appetite. When I build a garden, I also want you to write me a painting like" Big characters like Qinghua Garden." Na Tong smiled and said: "Your Majesty has a big appetite." When the British and French allied forces burned Old Summer Palace, Jinchun Garden was spared, and Tsinghua Garden was part of Jinchun Garden.
Nowadays, the famous one on the gate of Tsinghua University
The three words "Tsinghua Garden" were written by Na Tong. But there was no Tsinghua University at that time, and Tsinghua Garden was just a royal garden.
Yi Kuang said: "It's just a joke." Na Tong was the most proficient in messing around in the late Qing Dynasty, so he said: "Of course it's okay to write a few words. I will go to the palace to write a plaque for you in person one day."
"It's time for you to prepare the book," Yi Kuang said.
"Did you come to the Prime Minister's Yamen today to go to Japan?"
"Isn't that right?" Na Tong sat down on the chair,
"Your Majesty, you also know that I went to Japan last year, but I went there to apologize. It was really embarrassing. This time it was finally a serious matter." In 1901, a secretary of the Japanese Embassy was killed. So Na Tong went to apologize as the Minister of Household Affairs, which was similar in nature to Zaifeng's apology in Germany.
It's just that Na Tong has no sense of shame at all, and even laments in his diary every now and then
"The true country's benevolence and family celebration". Even during the Xuantong period, when the Qing Dynasty was almost gone, he still contentedly wrote down in his diary during the New Year: "The affairs of the country are going very smoothly."
However, Yi Kuang and him have similar mentality. The two of them can be said to be heartless and have the same bad temper. Yi Kuang said: "Of course it's business. As the Qing Dynasty, we are an official participating country this time, and we should also show off our treasures in front of foreigners."
"Hey, you," Na Tong said worriedly.
"Speaking of treasures, wouldn't it be bad if foreigners were to worry about them again?" Yi Kuang said, "Shang Shu said this, which really made me wary." These two old guys really thought they could win at the Industrial Products Expo. Come up with something decent
"Baby". But they really don’t understand. While he was talking, Yi Kuang's translator Rui Zheng walked in: "Your Majesty, a telegram from Japan."
"Japan? Who sent it?" Yi Kuang asked. Ruizheng said: "Look at the signature, it's Tokyo Imperial University."
"University?" Yi Kuang took the telegram and read it. Na Tong asked curiously: "What is written on the telegram?" Yi Kuang said: "This university wants to ask if there is anyone named Li Yu among the people participating in the exhibition. If so, they hope to invite He goes to college."
"It's Li Yu again!" Na Tong said in surprise. But Yi Kuang was no longer surprised: "I have seen many foreign telegrams like this. Some foreigners don't know that Li Yu already has a telegraph machine at home, so they always send telegrams to the Prime Minister's Yamen for questioning." Of course Na Tong also understands Li Yu asked, "Is this person really so talented?"
"Probably," Yi Kuang said,
"After all, foreigners regard him as a scholar." Na Tong didn't take it seriously: "Foreigners' Taoism is just weird skills after all, so what's the difficulty? When our school is built, we can easily be better than them. Like Don't you think there should be more people like Li Yu? What's the fuss!" Yi Kuang said: "As expected of that minister, he has real knowledge and insights, and his vision is extraordinary!" Na Tong said, "I have heard from Rong Shangshu that this man is in Beijing. Although he ranked first in the entrance examination of the Normal University Hall and had good grades in all Western subjects, he failed only one subject related to economics and history. What does the prince think this means?" Yi Kuang asked: "What does it mean?" Na Tong He said proudly: "Of course it means that learning classics and history is more difficult, but the so-called scientific methods of foreigners are just mediocre!"
"Oh, why didn't I think of this key point!" Yi Kuang suddenly
"Suddenly enlightened", praised,
"The Minister is worthy of being one of the three talented men under his banner." What a genius of logic. Na Tong has always been conceited, and together with Rong Qing and Duan Fang, he is considered one of the three talented men under his banner, but he is just of a low level... The telegram was soon transferred to Li Yu of the Capital University.
Those who sent the telegram were Hantaro Nagaoka, a physics professor at Tokyo Imperial University, and Masataka Ogawa, a chemist who was executive president of Tohoku University in Japan.
Reading between the lines, the two of them still respect Li Yu very much, but Japan's science is not strong at present, and they are not big figures in Japan.
The early universities in Japan were not much different from those in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. They mainly focused on politics, law, and industry and commerce.
However, Japanese universities have made rapid progress since then, quickly making up for their shortcomings in science and engineering. This is worth learning.
Learning from the foreigners and developing skills to control the foreigners is something that is simple to say but extremely difficult to do. Of course, Li Yu also understood that Japan had to plunder and plunder a large amount of gold and silver before it could invest heavily in basic education. It took many years of accumulation to accumulate a lot of gold and silver.
If you can really learn this theory, it is indeed very valuable. However, from a historical perspective, the five senior officials sent out by the late Qing Dynasty, including Zai Zhen and Na Tong, basically went around for sightseeing in Japan and did not fulfill their inspection mission.
Moreover, education is indeed a very time-consuming and expensive matter. The Qing government was not really willing to spend so much money on basic education.
This is very difficult to handle, and it is difficult to escape from a dead end. Due to the large number of people going to Japan this time, Li Yu and other students from the Capital University went to sea in one batch together with Zai Zhen and others.
Under the arrangement of Uchida Yasuya, the Japanese minister to the Qing Dynasty, Prince Gong boarded a special Japanese mail ship with Prince Su's son Xian Zhang and Nayan Tu's son Qi Chengwu.
When arriving at Tanggu Port in Tianjin, Na Tong looked at the many exhibits and asked: "I heard that many of the exhibitors at the Quanye Expo were mainly industrial products. Why are they all tea and porcelain now?" Tang Shaoyi, who was seeing him off, said: "Well, now, Shangshu, now We really don’t have any industrial products to sell.” Yulong, one of the five ministers traveling together, said: “We have established so many machine manufacturing bureaus and have been studying for decades, but we haven’t developed anything?” Tang Shaoyi asked. Spreading his hands: "It's too far." Yulong said in disbelief: "Is it so difficult?" Tang Shaoyi replied in his original words: "It's so difficult!" Yulong's grandson was Qi Gong, a great calligrapher of later generations.
He clicked his tongue, looked at the tea leaves and said, "The tea leaves chosen are of high quality, and enough for an Oriental person to appreciate." Na Tong was not satisfied, however.
"No matter what, there should be a few decent industrial products. We, the Qing Dynasty, should come up with something for the Japanese people to see."
"What does Shangshu mean?" Tang Shaoyi asked. Na Tong said: "It's like smelting iron and mining coal." Tang Shaoyi said helplessly: "Okay, I will arrange it this way."
"That's right," Na Tong suddenly remembered,
"Isn't there a guy named Li Yu in our group who knows Western learning? Let's ask him to build an industrial exhibit on the road." Not only Tang Shaoyi was stunned this time, but Li Yu was also confused after hearing this.
"Build one on the road?" Na Tong was very satisfied with his arrangement: "Look, what's so difficult about this? How can you do things for the court if you can't arrange such a small thing well?" Li Yu and Tang Shaoyi looked at each other, Tang Shaoyi Embarrassed, he said, "I didn't expect such an incident. What should I do?" Li Yu asked, "Do we really have no industrial products on display this time?" Tang Shaoyi said, "No. There are a total of nine industrial products on display at this Quanye Expo. The main categories are divided into agriculture, forestry, aquatic products, mining and metallurgy, chemical technology, dyeing and weaving technology, manufacturing industry, machinery, and education. If we forcibly add the products and processes of our ironworks and mining sites, then the first seven categories You can put together some exhibits, but there are no exhibits for machinery and education." Li Yu felt the same way. Now that we are just starting out, there is really nothing to display in these two areas.
Tang Shaoyi glanced at Li Yu and suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "Perhaps you can be used as an exhibition in the education category yourself, and some of your achievements can be fully displayed!"
"Uh, me?" Li Yu asked in surprise.
"There is no other way," Tang Shaoyi said,
"Some of the papers you posted have not yet been translated into Japanese. They are all extraordinary things. It is reasonable to force them to be included in the education category."
"This..." Tang Shaoyi said again: "But the machine really doesn't have any good ideas. Is there anything you can do?"
"Okay!" Li Yu touched his chin: "In that case, it's too late for more. Please help Daotai get me some small machine parts and tools. I have the right to give it a try." Tang Shaoyi said happily: "Great, As long as you can speak, there's nothing you can't do!" Li Yu smiled and said, "Don't laugh at me if you can't do it well."
