Tang Shaoyi valued Li Yu very much and arranged a separate private room for him on the ship. Li Yu took these parts, thought for a long time, and removed some spokes and gears from them.
Li Yu's hands-on ability is barely passable, but the current tools are too crude, which affects his performance a bit.
After a lot of effort, I finally completed a small model. On this day, Zhang Jian, who was on the same boat with us, found Li Yu. Zhang Jian pointed to the person next to him and said, "Jizhi is also on the same boat with us. I wonder if you have met him before?" Li Yu felt that he looked familiar: "You are Zhou from Beiyang. Sir?" The other party replied: "Exactly. When you refuted the American liar at the Military Academy, I was also present, but there were many people at the time, and the young gentleman may not have noticed." Li Yu was right now, and the person in front of him It was Zhou Xuexi, the most famous businessman in the north in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.
He is collectively known as Zhang Jian of Nantong
"South Zhang and Northern Zhou". Li Yu cupped his hands and said: "Nice to meet you!" Zhou Xuexi said: "Actually, I have noticed sir for a long time. I originally wanted to get to know you when you were in Beiyang, but it happened that the Kaiping Mining Bureau incident happened, and I happened to be in Kaiping at that time. After the affair between De Cuilin and Hoover was exposed, everything was in ruins. Governor Yuan then ordered me to try my best to regain the assets surrounding the Kaiping Mining Bureau. During that time, I was really busy in order to preserve the information. It's a great success." Li Yu said: "Thank you sir! What's the progress?" Zhou Xuexi said: "The Kaiping Mining Bureau's industry is not only coal mines, but also Tangshan cement factory, coal terminals and ships, etc., which were all blocked at the beginning. Zhang Yi betrayed him. But fortunately, the information on the cement plant was kept intact by the German engineer Hans, and he hid it from the British search. Through the sub-contract signed in the early years, it can be separated from the Kaiping Mining Bureau." Zhang Jian sighed. Said: "I really can't believe that running a cotton mill in Nantong has been so difficult and dangerous, and I have to face all kinds of tricks from foreigners. How difficult it is! But we can't live without coal, otherwise how can we smelt steel? Without steel, how can we talk about industry? ." Zhou Xuexi's eyes flashed and he said: "Of course we can't give up! I plan to open another Luanzhou coal mine that is ten times larger than Kaiping near the Kaiping coal mine, surround Kaiping's mineral veins, and then overwhelm Kaiping through competition, and finally It has been taken back again." Li Yu praised: "What a good idea! Although the British bought the coal mine, the land is ours. Forcibly surrounding it is a way." Zhang Jian also laughed and said: "There are really many tricks to arrest it. ." Zhou Xuexi's method was indeed almost successful.
A few years later, the Kaiping Coal Mine was exhausted, and Yuan Shikai and others in the court also made it clear that they supported the Luanzhou Coal Mine.
The British businessmen then had no intention of continuing to operate the Kaiping Coal Mine and were preparing to sell it out. But at the end of 1911, the situation was in chaos, the Qing government was crumbling, and shareholders could not see what the situation would be like. So in the end, the British businessmen turned against customers and merged with the Luanzhou Coal Mine to form the Kailuan Coal Mine.
The cruel ending finally confirmed the saying: If the country is not strong, business cannot be established. Although the British businessmen wanted Zhou Xuexi to be the leader of the newly established Kailuan Coal Mine, Zhou Xuexi was disheartened and ultimately refused.
Until his death, he could not see the return of Kailuan Coal Mine and left with regrets. However, these are all force majeure factors, and there is indeed no problem with Zhou Xuexi's thinking at this time.
Even if it seems a little unfair, it is even more unfair for the British to take over the Kaiping Coal Mine.
The only thing that can defeat magic is magic. Zhou Xuexi noticed the small model on Li Yu's desk and asked: "What is this?" Li Yu said: "Sir, you should have heard about the battle between Huang Emperor and Chi You. It is said that heavy fog fell from the sky, so Huang Emperor built a compass. Come to identify the direction and defeat Chi You."
"Guide car?" Zhang Jian also wondered,
"You are talking about ancient things, is it true?" Li Yu said: "It is hard to say exactly what happened back then, but since we want to make a handicraft and display it in our own venue, I naturally thought of it. It tells such a story in history." Zhou Xuexi asked: "So, this car can always point south?" Zhou Xuexi felt that it was not a big deal, he also knew the compass.
Li Yu said: "It's not necessarily which direction, but as long as the arrow on the car determines a direction, no matter how the car drives or how many times it turns, the direction of the arrow on the car will not change." Originally, Li Yu wanted to Make a little man with a finger in front of it, but this requires craftsmanship, which is completely beyond Li Yu's artistic level, so he just made a simple arrow with spokes.
"So magical?" Zhang Jian asked in surprise. Li Yu pushed the car and showed them that no matter how Li Yu pulled the two-wheeled car to turn, the direction of the arrow on the car would not change.
Zhang Jian also thought of the compass, so he asked: "Could it be a magnet?" Li Yu picked up the car: "There is no magnet, there are just some gears inside." Zhou Xuexi and Zhang Jian said in disbelief: "It's like a magic trick. It can keep pointing without a magnet. In the same direction!" Zhou Xuexi and Zhang Jian studied the internal structure for a long time.
"Incredible, why is this happening?" In fact, it is the principle of differential. Li Yu also had an undergraduate degree in mechanics at that time, so it was a very common thing for him.
Li Yu explained the principle to them for a while. Although the two of them still didn't understand it particularly, they could generally tell that it was mechanical knowledge.
"It's interesting! With such a difference, where can the differential be used?" Both of them were industrialists and asked a practical question directly.
Li Yu said: "It has great uses, especially in cars in the future."
"Car?" The two of them had only heard about this new thing. Li Yu said: "It is a machine that can be driven by a person. Governor Yuan should have presented one to the Queen Mother last year." Although Yuan Shikai had just built a car and dedicated it to Cixi at the end of 1902, Zhou Xuexi had never seen the actual car.
The total number of cars in China now should only be in single digits. They are absolutely super rare items. The probability of seeing a car on the road is not as high as that of a tiger.
Zhang Jian said: "I have heard that there are two in Shanghai, but one can only hold four or five people. Its carrying capacity is far inferior to that of a train. It does not seem to be of much value to industrial development. It is just a plaything of the powerful class." Li Yu smiled and said: "Although it seems like this now, the future potential of automobiles must not be underestimated. One day its status will not be lower than that of trains." From the perspective of the 21st century, the upstream and downstream industrial chains of the automobile industry combined , an absolute pillar industry level.
Zhou Xuexi said: "Since foreigners also build it, it shows that it is indeed not an ordinary thing. Can we build cars with this model?"
"It's still far from enough," Li Yu said.
"The differential is just an invention related to car steering. Although it is also very important." Li Yu had carefully studied the engine and transmission drawings left by American scammers before. Although the technology seemed to Li Yu to be very old, since It’s already drawn, which really saves a lot of work.
Nowadays, without computers and design software such as CAD, it is very difficult to draw drawings and requires even more professionalism.
Zhang Jian said: "Sir, you are indeed a master of Western learning. Even if I see the real thing a hundred times, I still can't figure out the principle, let alone build one with my bare hands." Zhou Xuexi also said, "Maybe we can really build one in the future. What do you think?" If you have machines like cars, they are really not inferior to foreigners!" Li Yu is also very optimistic about the automobile industry.
"Automobile-related technologies will be used in many places in the future." Zhou Xuexi asked again: "Do foreigners already have a lot of cars?" Li Yu shook his head: "Cars are considered a rarity in Europe, but the number is naturally much greater than ours. .”
"There aren't many foreigners?" Zhou Xuexi said slightly excitedly,
"Then the gap between us is not big." After all, Zhang Jian is older and does not think it is so simple: "If foreigners have not promoted it, it means it is not easy." Zhou Xuexi's newly ignited hope was extinguished by less than half, and he turned to Regretfully: "It's really hard to do if it's that difficult." However, Zhang Jian still praised: "A young man can do such a difficult thing, and it's much more advanced than my cotton mill." Li Yu said: "You can't say that. , every industry is important, it’s just that we don’t have anyone to do cars now.” Zhou Xuexi sighed: “Not only this, there are too many industries that we don’t have people to do. This Quanye Expo should be used as a long-term experience. We can make up as much as we can in the future." The two began to play with the differential car model made by Li Yu again, although it didn't look that complicated and even the gears were exposed.
But the more things are put in front of you clearly and you still can't figure them out, the more magical they feel.
It's simply a superb display of skills. Of course, it was just that Li Yu did not have the conditions to make it more refined... Li Yu later made some reinforcements and improvements to the model, but the time on the ship was very short and there was no time to complete all the details.
Fan Xiren, Feng Zuxun, He Yujie and others were also amazed after seeing Li Yu's design. In particular, He Yujie and Feng Zuxun were more interested in the principles and discussed it with Li Yu.
The ship soon docked at Osaka Port. Osaka Port and the adjacent Kobe Port combined were once the ports with the largest cargo throughput in Japan before the war.
Cai Jun, the Qing ambassador to Japan, and some officials from Osaka City, Japan came to greet him. Because there were so many people, they stayed at the Koryo Qingqing Hotel built by local Chinese businessmen. This hotel had recently been specially used to welcome Chinese officials and gentry businessmen attending the expo.
The next day, they went directly to visit the Fifth Quanye Expo. The Japanese high-level officials also paid great attention to this. Li Yu and the others saw a large group of people coming from a distance. Judging from the formation and the iconic chrysanthemum badge, it turned out to be Emperor Meiji of Japan coming in person.
He was accompanied by former Prime Minister Hirobumi Into, current Prime Minister Katsura Taro, and Foreign Minister Komura Jutaro.
The emperor of Japan generally does not give speeches in public. The one who gave the speech was Yoto Hirobumi. Although Yin Teng Bowen is no longer prime minister, he is still respected by both the government and the public.
The key point is that the current Prime Minister Katsura Taro and another important figure in Japanese politics, Saionji Komochi, have an unclear relationship. They have been taking turns to be Prime Minister. Anyway, the struggle in Japanese politics today is very complicated.
Now that the emperor was present, Yin Teng Hirobumi stepped forward and everyone was convinced. After all, the emperor did have extreme trust and dependence on Yin Teng. Otherwise, Yin Teng Hirobumi would not have served as prime minister for the fourth time.
Yin Tengbo said loudly: "Twenty-six years ago, Mr. Okubo founded the Quanye Expo, which has continued to expand in scale and is now held for the fifth time. I believe everyone can see that today, all actions in the world can no longer exclude our country. And every move of our country will also affect all corners of the world." Yin Teng's tone was still loud, and there were other old empires such as the United States and Britain participating in the exhibition.
Yin Teng seemed to be talking to them. After a lot of speeches, he said: "Today's grand event, although it is called the Quanye Expo, can actually be called a world expo!" Good guy, he wants to hold several meetings with Europe. How can it be compared to the World Expo?
After listening to Yin Teng Bowen's speech, Zhang Jian next to Li Yu sighed: "The gap is really huge! If I want to start an industry in China, it will not only be difficult to get actual support from those in power, but even a group of scholar-bureaucrats will sneer and dismiss it." Li Yu understood what he meant. In the final analysis, the Qing court was still too backward.
"It is actually us who put the cart before the horse, peasants, farmers, industry and commerce. In this era, we still put the status of industry and commerce so low." Zhou Xuexi also said: "I heard that Japanese scholar-bureaucrats can choose between officialdom and business according to their own wishes. . If you choose to be an official, you can concentrate on being an official; if you choose to be a businessman, you can also devote yourself to being a businessman. But we don’t understand it clearly. If you want to do business, to put it nicely, you can only be a gentleman businessman. ; To put it bluntly, it is still just a vassal of the imperial court."
"More than that," Zhang Jian said,
"Look, what you see in front of you is just an industry exposition. The emperor and prime ministers of Japan are all here to celebrate. Japan's emphasis on industry and commerce and its support for industry and commerce are completely different." Li Yu saw it in his eyes. As a person from the future, I feel that the gap now cannot be described in words. It was really difficult for our ancestors.
Gentlemen and merchants, that is
"Shi" and
Combining "business", Qu Qiubai once said about this era: "In China now, only the so-called gentry and businessmen are worthy of being called citizens." The difficulties faced by early gentry and businessmen such as Zhang Jian and Zhou Xuexi were not comparable to those faced by later generations in running businesses.
Naturally, the emperor and others could not stay at the expo venue all the time, otherwise it would be too inconvenient, and they left soon after.
Everyone then started walking around the venue. There are still many things on display. Of course, in Li Yu's opinion, the things in the most advanced industrial museum are also very ancient to him.
But others felt it was an eye-opener. Li Yu also found that Zai Zhen, Na Tong and others did not seem to want to stay here any longer.
After going around in a circle, Na Tong said: "Japanese stuff is really interesting, no wonder it's so awesome." Zai Zhen also said: "It's really not easy." Na Tong said: "After going around a circle, have you finished reading it? ?" Zai Zhen said: "I've finished reading it." Na Tong said: "Just finished reading it. I don't know what other interesting places there are in Osaka Castle." Cai Jun, the ambassador to Japan next to him, said: "There is a famous man in Osaka during the Warring States Period. The castle built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi is called the castle tower.”
"Tianshou Pavilion?" Natong became a little interested.
"Why don't we go and take a look?" Zai Zhen glanced at Zhang Jian, Li Yu and others, and felt that it was enough for them to do things. As a royal relative, but a master, you still have to enjoy more, so he said: " Let’s go! Go and see what Japan’s Warring States Period was like. This is also learning!”
