Shimada Han was still not convinced, but he knew that this kind of thing would take a long time to follow and would not be accomplished overnight.
Li Yu doesn't want to pay attention to him, so let him continue to pay attention. Many commercial projects in later generations actually took a long time to be followed before they were completed, and it is not uncommon for some to be followed for several years in a row.
Nowadays, the Japanese are very stubborn, and they cannot be persuaded to do something they are sure of. One more thing, Han Shimada was discovered more than ten years later for stealing and selling Japanese national treasures, and he committed suicide out of fear of crime.
Although it is not a pity to die, when you think about the degree of protection of Japan's national treasures and the current Qing government, the comparison between the two is simply speechless.
In short, Lu Shufan still couldn't bear to sell the collection of books immediately, so he could hold on for a while and give Li Yu and others some buffer time.
Even if it is 250,000 silver dollars, it is close to 180,000 taels of silver. This is not a small number.
Li Yu was actually very interested in this batch of books. If schools such as universities can be established in the future, book collections will be an absolute good thing.
Song version of the book is a national treasure and very rare. By the 21st century, there were only six to seven thousand Song editions in the country.
And there are basically no local libraries. It would be great if there are one or two volumes. For example, the Shandong Library, which has a history of hundreds of years, only has 5 Song-printed books in its collection; the Hunan Library has a little more, with 27 books, and is estimated to be worth more than 100 million yuan.
The Song Dynasty Tower has nearly 200 Song edition books. If counted in volumes, it is more than 2,700 volumes!
You can imagine how precious it is! Moreover, in addition to the 200 books printed in the Song Dynasty, the Lu family also has more than 100 books from the Yuan Dynasty, and the most is over 100,000 volumes printed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
This is the result of the lifelong efforts of the previous head of the Lu family, Lu Xinyuan, who gathered together several other libraries.
Historically, in 1906, Zhang Yuanji also approached Rongqing, the Minister of Punishment and the Minister of Academic Affairs.
One of the "Three Talented Scholars" hoped that the imperial court could allocate funds to purchase the books in the Song Dynasty Tower as the basis for the library of the Capital University, but his suggestion was ultimately not adopted.
Looking at the current situation, Lu Shufan must not be able to hold on to these collections of books. They are all national treasures. In any case, they are much better than falling into the hands of the Japanese.
After Shimada Han left, Lu Shufan hosted a banquet for several people. Zhang Yuanji introduced Li Yu to Shimada Han, and only then did Lu Shufan realize that Li Yu was such a powerful character.
Lu Shufan raised his glass and said: "It turns out that he is the imperial master of the dynasty, so disrespectful!" Well, in his eyes, the most important thing was his status as the imperial master of the dynasty, not Li Yu's scientific research achievements.
Then Lu Shufan asked: "Sir, you have been abroad. What is the difference between them and us? Why don't you want the Japanese to get involved?" Of course Li Yu wanted to say that there would be a blood feud with Japan in the future.
But for now, it is just a Sino-Japanese War, and the fighting is basically at sea. Although the Port Arthur tragedy occurred, Japan was very bad. Uchida Yasuya had long bribed various reporters. Except for a few major British and American media, most other newspapers basically did not report it, and Japan has been covering up this in every possible way.
This matter was not discovered until around 1935, when Sun Baotian risked his life to investigate. At present, everyone is mainly angry because they ceded land and paid large compensation after losing a war, and the main body of resentment is mainly directed at the incompetent Qing court.
After all, with a little research, you can find that this war should not have been lost in the first place. The small Japanese navy was really not that strong at that time.
Lu Shufan definitely didn't know what happened later, and he himself passed away in 1926, so he couldn't see how evil the Japanese would be later.
Li Yu could only say: "The relationship between Japan and Russia is tense now. The obvious reason is that both sides covet the Northeast. If Japan wins, their appetite will become bigger and bigger, and they even want to swallow up the whole country." Lu Shufan didn't believe it at all: "Although I don't I have been to Tsarist Russia, but I also know that they are Western powers. How can Japan, an Eastern country, win?" Li Yu said: "First of all, not all Western countries are strong; furthermore, the Northeast is too close to Japan and too far away from St. Petersburg and Moscow. Far, from this point alone, Japan's advantage is very obvious." Zhang Yuanji was also surprised: "Sir, do you think the Japanese will win?" Li Yu nodded, but after all, it was a pre-analysis, so he had to tactfully say: "It's very It's possible." After hearing this, several people had mixed feelings in their hearts. A once small Japanese country has now risen to such an extent.
Li Shutong said: "If I have the opportunity, I will go abroad to see why it is like this." After the meal, in order to show their sincerity and financial resources, Li Yu, Zhang Yuanji, and Li Shutong collectively gave out another 10,000 taels of silver as a gift. Deposit was paid and the contract was signed.
If Lu Shufan decides to sell it by then, he will sell it for a total of 250,000 silver dollars; if the business improves and he no longer sells it, the deposit will be returned.
Lu Shufan was very satisfied with this treatment, which gave him some time and room for maneuver. Li Yu and the others were not worried about the deposit, because Lu Shufan was still a civil servant anyway, and the Lu family still had such a large property in Huzhou.
Lu Shufan sighed: "I am unworthy and cannot keep what my father has collected. If possible, I really don't want them to be lost overseas." Later, the Lu family was criticized by all walks of life because of the sale of the Song Building to the Japanese. They knew that they were in the wrong and never Never said anything back.
Li Yu said: "If you stay in the country, it will be transferred to other libraries or libraries. If you want to see it, you can still go and have a look." Lu Shufan said: "Perhaps that is the best result." - After the Huzhou incident , Li Yu will continue to Wuchang, while Zhang Yuanji and Li Shutong will return to Shanghai.
Li Yu took a ship along the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal to the Yangtze River, and then went up the Shuo River. Fortunately, the ships of the Neijiang Shipping Company are all steamships with sufficient power, otherwise it would be difficult to drive up.
Hankou opened as a port as early as 1861, and concessions from various countries have been established. The main way to communicate with the outside world is inland waterway shipping.
It would take several days along the way, so Li Yu took the time to get out the introductory lectures on biology. The content was satisfactory, but it was a pity that there were no good photos for illustrations.
The Huguang Governor's Office was located in Wuchang, right on the edge of the Yangtze River, where the Wuchang Shipyard is today. The pier is also very close, and not far across the river is the Hankou Concession area.
Li Yu got off the boat and went directly to the Governor's Mansion, which was not far away. Of course, not just anyone can enter the Governor's Palace.
Two soldiers guarded the door and stopped when they saw Li Yu.
"Who?" the soldier asked. Li Yu said, "I, Li Yu, have been asked by Master Zhang to come here to visit me." Li Yu took out the letter written by Zhang Zhidong and handed it over.
"Look." Unfortunately, the soldier couldn't read and it was a bit difficult to hold the letter, and he didn't know whether it was true or false. Fortunately, someone came over at this time.
The soldier said: "Master Hua, you are here." The person who came over was Hua Shifang, and he asked: "Is Commander Xiang in the house?" The soldier said: "Master Zhang is here, I will inform you." Li Yu hurriedly He called the soldier and said, "Hey, hey, tell me, my name is Li Yu, don't forget!" Hua Shifang was surprised: "Which Li Yu are you?" Li Yu spread his hands: "This Is the name very common?" Hua Shifang actually took out the first edition of "Fractals and Chaos" and asked, "Is this Li Yu?" Li Yu was surprised: "How come you have this book? I wrote it I didn’t expect that there would be a first edition in China, I remember there weren’t many releases.”
"Oh my God," Hua Shifang looked Li Yu up and down.
"Is it really you?" Li Yu asked, "May I ask your surname?" Hua Shifang said, "I am Hua Shifang, whose courtesy name is Ruoxi. I used to teach mathematics at Ziqiang College."
"It turns out it's Mr. Hua, whom I've admired for a long time. I'm Li Yu, whose courtesy name is Shucai." Li Yu also introduced himself.
Hua Shifang is Hua Hengfang's younger brother and a mathematician. His research area is mainly continued fractions in mathematics.
This is a hot topic in mathematics research at present. Later, the famous mathematician Ramanujan, the son of India, played the best six games with continuous fractions.
I don’t know why there are so many modern mathematicians with the surname Hua. Later Hua Luogeng was more famous, and they were quite close to each other: Hua Hengfang was from Wuxi, Jiangsu, and Hua Luogeng was from Changzhou, Jiangsu. The two cities are close to each other.
Hua Hengfang passed away last year, and another chemist, Mr. Xu Shou, who worked with him on scientific research under Zhang Zhidong in the early years, also passed away.
"I didn't expect to see you here," Hua Shifang then said to the soldier,
"Tell Xiang Shuai that Li Yu from the capital is here to visit. It's genuine!" The soldiers agreed and left.
Hua Shifang smiled and said: "Sir, don't be offended. Xiangshuai always likes people who understand Western science, and the treatment he gives is high. Many fake people come here to pretend to be fake." Li Yu also smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, it's normal to be cautious. After all, this is the Governor's Mansion." Zhang Zhidong is the kind of person who is not greedy, and he is one of the few people in the late Qing Dynasty who did not give a penny to Prince Qing Yikuang on his birthday.
I have already seen another person who does not give gifts, and that is Zhang Baixi, now the president of the Capital University and the Minister of Management.
However, the cost of maintaining officialdom is still very high. Zhang Zhidong's annual income is estimated to be only about 20,000 taels. For comparison, the annual income of a county magistrate is 20,000 taels. This is the kind of magistrate that is relatively honest and praised by the people.
Three years to clear the magistrate's office and one hundred thousand snowflakes of silver are really not in vain. Because the Qing government was really corrupt to the core, a county magistrate's normal income was about 1,500 taels, including Yang Lian Yin, but it was not enough to spend.
Because every year he raises a large family and various masters, and the most important thing is managing relationships, treating guests and giving gifts, which costs ten to twenty thousand taels.
As for where the money comes from, of course it can only be the poor, extremely poor people. Zhang Zhidong and Zuo Zongtang were very incorruptible. As frontier officials, they were many levels higher than a county magistrate. Their incomes were actually the same, which showed that they basically only relied on normal money and annual salary, and there was basically no corruption.
Hua Shifang said to Li Yu: "I really admire you beyond words. I have wanted to meet you for a long time. It was also my suggestion to Xiangshuai to write to Xiangshuai and ask him to come to Wuchang." Then he picked up the book "Fractals and Chaos": "After getting the news from the newspaper, I asked someone to get a copy with great effort. I have read this book countless times, and it is simply amazing." Li Yu said: "You can do it. It is indeed not easy to come here, but there are some vocabulary words in this English version that I created, which may seem a bit difficult." Hua Shifang nodded: "Yes, I studied many places several times before I understood it, just because of the vocabulary Question." Li Yu said: "I will entrust the Commercial Press to print a batch of Chinese versions in the future. If you are interested, sir, you can take a look." Hua Shifang said happily: "That's great! It's so rare to have a mathematics book now. .”
