Zhang Boling was indeed a sports enthusiast and found some footballs for Li Yu that day. When Li Yugang saw it, he thought Zhang Boling was holding a volleyball because they looked so similar.
Everyone must have seen the footballs of later generations. They are usually mainly white, supplemented by other colors or patterns, and the designs are very exquisite.
But the football in front of me in the early 20th century is really strange. It looks exactly like a volleyball. The color is dark brown, and it is not as smooth to the touch as modern football.
Fortunately, the overall weight is close to that of modern football, about 450 grams. Li Yu put it under his feet and dribbled it a few times. It felt a bit heavy, but overall it was fine. It almost reached 80% of the standards of modern football, which was unexpected.
It's just that this spherical surface material should be relatively absorbent. If you play a game of football, it will probably increase its weight by dozens of grams.
Zhang Boling was even more surprised when he discovered that Li Yu could actually play football: "I can't believe it, have you ever played football before?" Li Yu gently tipped the ball into his hands and said, "I have had a little exposure. After all, we need quality education. Sports How can it be indispensable? Football is my favorite sport." Zhang Boling gave a thumbs up: "Awesome! Sir, he is indeed good at both civil and military skills. His scientific skills are so amazing, but I never thought he could play football." Li Yu said with a smile: "We can't really let foreigners think that we are all sick men of East Asia."
"Sir, what you said makes so much sense!" Zhang Boling said,
"It's hard to emphasize the importance of sports now. It's just that in the entire Zhili region, only people in Tianjin know about this sport. However, I am very optimistic about it. It can not only exercise but also unite everyone." Before Opium was so poisonous to the Chinese people that even in the West, until decades later, the impression of the Chinese people was that they had rat-tailed beards and smoked big cigarettes.
Hey, although there is Western arrogance in this, the first impression remains and it is really difficult to change.
As a time traveler, Li Yu certainly knows how great the subsequent development of football will be, and said: "Of course, it will be the world's number one sport in the future after all."
"Oh?" Zhang Boling said in surprise,
"Sir, are you so optimistic about football?" Li Yu said: "As you said, there are many benefits, but it is a pity that our football level is so poor." What Li Yu meant was that the Chinese men's football team in later generations was so disappointing, but Zhang Boling thought he was talking about the present, so he said: "There is no way, after all, we developed late. But it is just a sport, I don't think the level is important." FIFA will not be established until next year, that is, in 1904, although Now there is a first-division league in the UK, but it doesn't have much international influence yet. It mainly plays between clubs.
If the national team appeared, it would be the 1908 Olympic Games. Therefore, there is no Chinese men's football team yet... let alone top teams such as England, Brazil, Germany, and Argentina.
Therefore, it was impossible to defeat the Chinese men's football team before 1908!
"Indeed, exercising is the most important thing." Li Yu also treats it purely as a hobby. He can't think about winning or losing every day. Winning or losing is something that professional players should consider more.
Zhang Boling said: "I plan to introduce football as a subject in my private middle school to inherit Mr. Yan's spirit."
"Mr. Yan?" Li Yu asked,
"Which Mr. Yan?"
"Of course Mr. Yan Fu," Zhang Boling said,
"Don't you know, when he was at the Beiyang Naval Academy, he included football as a subject of 'practice' in the curriculum early, and also invited British people to be football instructors." Li Yu praised: "Mr. Yan Sure enough, they were the first group of people to open their eyes to see the world, and their eyes actually swept across football. It is not easy." Zhang Boling said: "Of course, without Mr. Yan, there would be no football trend in Tianjin, and I would not know this sport. ." Tianjin is the first city in the north to be exposed to football. It is the absolute bud of football and echoes Shanghai in the south.
Later generations of Tianjin football also created a very glorious history in the Chinese professional football league.
This is all a story for later. Li Yu now has something he can play with. After all, he is young and full of energy. He has nowhere to vent his energy and must find a place to vent it.
Zhang Boling was overjoyed to see that Li Yu liked football very much and said with a smile: "In the future, I will find a way to establish a football league between schools, just like Nanyang Public School and St. John's University in Shanghai. It can also be regarded as a kind of promotion. If you are interested, sir." , you can also come and participate." Li Yu asked: "Shanghai already has a football team?"
"Yes," Zhang Boling said,
"As far as I know, these two schools have played many games, and they both take football very seriously. It is said that Cai Yuanpei, the head teacher of Nanyang Public School's Special Economics Department, even personally supervises every football match."
"Who are you talking about, Cai Yuanpei, which Cai Yuanpei?" Li Yu asked in surprise.
"Are there many Cai Yuanpei?" Zhang Boling wondered,
"His name is Heqing and he is from Zhejiang." Good guy, that's the Cai Yuanpei Li Yu had in mind, who later became the president of Peking University!
"It's really him." Li Yu murmured.
"What? Do you know him?" Zhang Boling asked again.
"Of course I know him, he is very famous." Li Yu said. Zhang Boling nodded,
"Indeed, he was a Jinshi after all." Li Yu didn't expect that Cai Yuanpei could be brought up during the conversation about football, and he said, "Shanghai football has a long history." Naturally, Zhang Boling didn't know that Li Yu was talking from the perspective of a time traveler. He just replied: "The Beiyang Naval Academy was severely damaged in the Gengzi Incident. Fortunately, some students from the Beiyang University Academy evacuated to Nanyang Public School to study. Now that the school is reopening, it happens to bring football back with them." Sports." Li Yu nodded and said: "I didn't expect that Shanghai football was born so early, and there is already a derby match."
"What does the derby mean?" Zhang Boling asked. Li Yu explained: "It is a competition between two teams of similar level in a city." Zhang Boling asked: "Is it from English?" Li Yu said: "Yes, English." Zhang Boling said: "No wonder I I've never heard of it." Li Yu said with a smile: "The British really love football, they love it to the point of hooliganism." The next day, when Li Yu was about to return to the capital, Zhang Boling brought him a manuscript: "This is the relevant regulations about the establishment of sports that I wrote. The Capital University Hall can refer to them." Li Yu said gratefully: "Thank you, sir! I keep the lecture notes at home. I will send them over after I go back and copy them." Zhang Boling smiled and cupped his hands. Said: "Isn't this just reciprocity!" After returning to the capital, Li Yu showed the charter and the football to Zhang Baixi, and even showed a little how to play football.
Zhang Baixi was very surprised by this: "It turns out that this is football. It does not seem to be a popular thing, but it can indeed be promoted." Li Yu said: "Of course, the sport of football itself is very good. As for the things that were highly sought after back then, It can only be said that it is a human problem, not a ball problem." Zhang Baixi felt that it was indeed reasonable, and looked at the charter and said: "The suggestions in it are also very good, and I will implement them as appropriate." Li Yu was very happy, and in the future, Capital University In addition to board games, the hall also has a new entertainment activity.
All these have truly enriched the extracurricular life of the students at the Capital University. Li Yu is his own
"Chuangshi" was very happy, but not long after he was proud, he was called over by Gu Hongming. The reason, of course, is because Li Yu failed the Confucian classics subject again in the mid-term exam... Gu Hongming looked at the test paper in his hand and said: "Although you got first place again, and your scores in other subjects were very good, you even got two more foreign languages." In the high-scoring additional subjects, Mr. Ding can easily handle the difficult Western-style questions given by Mr. Ding. But the articles on Confucian classics are really unsightly, so I won’t mention them if they don’t make sense, and the calligraphy is also so bad.” Li Yu said awkwardly: “You You know, human energy is limited after all, and science does take too much time." Gu Hongming said: "I can understand this, but failing is really unjustifiable. Today, among our students, there are many students who fail in various science subjects, but You are the only one who failed in Confucian classics, which is so eye-catching." After all, Gu Hongming is the vice-president of Chinese at the Capital University. Although his level of Chinese studies is only half-way to become a monk, he is still several levels better than Li Yu.
Li Yu said: "This... really shouldn't be done." Gu Hongming picked up some manuscripts from the table: "These are articles about 'Chinese Studies' that I have written in the "Zilin Xibao" in the past twenty years, although they are all It's in English, but I think you should be able to understand it." Li Yuxuan was relieved, it turned out that Gu Hongming was thinking of a way for himself.
Gu Hongming's level of Chinese studies is indeed much lower than that of elders such as Zhang Taiyan, but what he writes is really easy to understand and is good as an introduction to Chinese studies.
Li Yu said: "Thank you sir." Gu Hongming added: "No matter what, I am still in a teaching position. Although I am not as good as the sages and saints, I still understand the principles of being a teacher and should follow Confucius as an example." Li Yu also said before I really looked down on him, but what Gu Hongming said actually moved him a bit.
In fact, now that Li Yu has gained the status of imperial master, Gu Hongming has taken a higher regard for Li Yugao and has shown more concern for him.
Gu Hongming took out another pile of manuscript paper: "There are also these, which are the "Notes on China" written by me, but they are not finished yet. They are only part of them. You should take them and take a look first." Li Yu took them seriously and said,
"I will study hard." It would be really troublesome for Li Yu to read the Chinese studies monographs by Wu Rulun, Zhang Taiyan and others.
But those who have read Gu Hongming's works will find that it is indeed very easy to understand, which is just right for Li Yu.
Of course, to put it bluntly, Li Yu’s level of Chinese classics is really amazing! It is truly unsightly!
Come to think of it, when he was in college, he was not allowed to fail. Li Yu really started to take a good look at Gu Hongming's articles in the past few days. He read them quickly, so he thought he would mention his weak level of Chinese studies.
Not long after, Li Yu received another letter from Wuhan. Looking at the format of the letter, he knew it was extraordinary. The person signed was the Governor of Huguang.
Oh my God, Zhang Zhidong! After reading the letter, Zhang Zhidong’s meaning was very simple: “I have recently heard that Li Yu of the Capital has published a wide range of knowledge, which has alarmed the West and shocked China and foreign countries with his scientific approach. I hope you will come to Wuhan to learn more about the Western Industry and Mining Industry established. "Zhang Zhidong has served as the governor of Huguang for many years. Li Yu certainly knows that the industrial and mining industries mentioned are Hanyang Iron Works and Daye Mining Plant.
Moreover, the Hanyang Iron Works is very famous, and Li Yu once knew about it. It is definitely considered a huge project nowadays.
Hanyang Iron Works began construction more than ten years ago, and suffered many losses during the construction process. Although everyone now knows that you can't let people who don't understand command people who understand, when Zhang Zhidong built the Hanyang Iron Works, there were no people who understood at all, and there was no precedent for building an iron plant in China. It was all about feeling the stones. river.
So it’s not surprising to suffer some losses. Of course, future generations will know that the composition of ores varies greatly.
At that time, the British people were naturally aware of this problem. When Zhang Zhidong purchased the furnaces for the steelmaking plant, the British mentioned: "If you want to build a steel plant, you must first send all the iron, stone, coal, and coke to the factory for testing." , and then we know what the texture of coal and iron is, what kind of steel can be made, and what kind of furnace is used. The slightest difference is a thousand miles, so we should not engage in it rashly." But this kind of detailed issue is completely meaningless to the leaders.
Zhang Zhidong believes that China has a vast land and abundant resources, but what kind of coal is there? What ore doesn’t exist? Let the British side purchase whatever they need!
It turned out that the machine furnace was located in Hanyang, but the iron used was Daye Iron Mine, and the coal used was Ma'anshan Coal.
Perhaps this kind of thing is nothing in modern times, after all, logistics is developed, but there was no such a strong transportation capacity in the early 20th century. There were only a few railways, let alone roads.
In addition, after the trial production started, it was found that the coal in Maanshan was not suitable, and thousands of tons of coke were imported from Germany.
Anyway, starting from 1890, it took five or six years, but no steel was produced yet, but more than 5.6 million taels of silver were spent.
Even if coal from Pingxiang, Jiangxi Province was later switched to, the steel produced was still too brittle, cracked easily, and was completely unusable.
In short, after taking many detours and spending a lot of money, Zhang Zhidong learned that the model of the machine furnace purchased was wrong and could not remove the phosphorus in the steel, thus causing the steel to be too brittle.
Then he borrowed 3 million from Japan and changed the previous acidic furnace to an alkaline configuration, and then successfully produced qualified steel.
All I can say is that this is the tuition fee! Anyone who doesn’t know something is an unavoidable detour. But it certainly cannot be said that Zhang Zhidong is lagging behind, because in horizontal comparison, Hanyang Iron Works is the first large-scale steelmaking plant in Asia. Even in Japan, the construction of steel plants is several years later.
Through these things, Zhang Zhidong fully understood the importance of science and technology. You can't just do it if you want to do it. You must understand it, and you need people who understand it.
It is a pity that few people really understand, so they also built education, which gave rise to the self-improvement college, the predecessor of Wuhan University.
In fact, Zhang Zhidong also briefly served as the governor of Liangjiang during this period, and founded Sanjiang Normal University during his tenure.
This school is quite impressive. Nine universities, including Nanjing University, Southeast University, Nanjing Normal University, Hohai University, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Forestry University, Jiangsu University, and Jiangnan University, have established Sanjiang Normal School founded in 1902. Considered as the source of school history.
Unbelievable! Now that a person who understands science has finally come out in China, Zhang Zhidong certainly wants to find him and get to know him, and Li Yu also understands upstream mathematical sciences, which is even more rare.
Zhang Zhidong had recruited many people who understood Western science before, but Li Yu was indeed too dazzling.
Seeing Zhang Zhidong's invitation, Li Yu certainly would not refuse. Among the core officials of the late Qing Dynasty, there were not many people who could support him, and only Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai could enter the power center.
The other ministers of the royal family are not worth mentioning at all, they are basically high-level bastards. Li Yu immediately wrote back: "I am honored to receive the invitation from Mr. Taiwan Maker. I will leave for Wuhan in the near future." This trip is actually not just going to Wuhan. Li Yu plans to take the sea route through Shanghai first, and then visit Huzhou. The Lu family's affair with the Song Dynasty Tower then went up the river to Wuhan.
There is no way to go this way. Now the Beijing-Hankou Railway and the Beijing-Shanghai Railway are not fully open to traffic, and we can only walk part of it. There is no way when we encounter the natural gorges of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.
Li Yu even ordered the banknote in advance. This trip to Huzhou may cost a lot of money.
