Xie Yuxi has almost completed the initial process. But just like before, it will take at least a month to wait for the approval of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Bureau of the Concession to get the formal contract and land title.
Fortunately, the land Li Yu bought previously had a formal contract. Li Yu paid the remaining 8,775 taels of silver, and the land became his.
Now you can find a construction company to build the laboratory. builders were called in old shanghai
"Constructor". The best way to find them is through well-connected people in the media industry. Shenbao reporter Shi Liangcai recommended a man named Yang Sisheng to Li Yu.
Yang Ruitai Construction Factory, the first Chinese-owned construction factory in Shanghai's modern architectural history, was founded by him.
Yang Sisheng was from Chuansha, later known as Pudong. He and his apprentices are the famous Chuansha Gang in the history of Shanghai Bund architecture.
More than two-thirds of the Bund architectural complex, known as the International Architectural Exposition, was built by them. Historically, they have
It is said that "Pudong people created half of Shanghai". China’s infrastructure-mad gene seems to have been planted very early.
More than ten years ago, the Qing government was planning to build a customs building in Shanghai, and the designer was British. There is not much to say about this. In fact, until later generations, Europe was still the strongest in architectural design, especially conceptual design. It involved not only architecture, but also aesthetics, art, etc., which were indeed the traditional strengths of Europeans.
Although many of them are just their cultural aesthetics, in the art world for so many years, the right to speak has almost always been in the hands of Europeans, and even the United States cannot take it away.
After the design is completed, how to build it becomes a big problem. As we all know, the geological conditions in Shanghai are not good, with soft soil and abundant underground water. Therefore, building houses in Shanghai has always been expensive and difficult.
It can be said that the city of Shanghai is built up bit by bit with real money and silver. There are too many soft soil layers that are not suitable for foundations, so they can only be dealt with in various ways that burn money.
Later generations can use machinery to make dense pile foundations that extend into the ground or improve soil quality, but these methods are either very expensive or require the use of modern construction machinery.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were not many construction machinery, not even an excavator, so we encountered many more problems.
At that time, the Qing government chose an Italian builder, but the Italians were unable to construct the building due to groundwater problems.
Yang Sisheng knew this was an opportunity, and besides, how could the customs, which represented his own sovereignty, be allowed to be created by foreigners? It was really shameful for him to do this, so he decided to
"We will go bankrupt and compete with foreigners." The Italians themselves had no choice but to let Yang Sisheng take over the bid.
Unexpectedly, Yang Sisheng succeeded in this job, and the Customs Building became a landmark building in Shanghai. Yang Sisheng immediately gained a reputation. Since then, his business has been booming, and he has quickly become a rich man and a major construction company in Shanghai.
Yang Sisheng has become famous. When he has money, he also wants to engage in education. He especially wants to help the development of his hometown, which is now Pudong.
When he learned Li Yu's name, he immediately came happily.
"Master Imperial Master, I'm so polite!" Yang Sisheng was about to salute Li Yu after entering the door. Li Yu quickly supported him: "Old sir, you don't have to be polite. Just treat me as an ordinary person." Yang Sisheng said, "You are not an ordinary person. You are not only the emperor's teacher, but you also understand so much foreign knowledge. It's not simple. It's not simple!" Li Yu said with a smile: "It's not enough to rely on myself alone, so I came up with the idea of building a school and a research laboratory." Yang Sisheng said: "If it is to build a school, I won't accept your money even if I don't. Do it!"
"This is impossible," Li Yu said,
"It's not a small project." Yang Sisheng said: "I dropped out of school when I was young. I have never read a book. I deeply feel that only studying can have a future. I myself also intend to build a school in Chuansha. Now I heard that the emperor wanted to build a school that could rival foreigners. , It really makes me excited!" Two years later, Yang Sisheng would spend almost all his family wealth to build Pudong Middle School. This school has been passed down and has produced many celebrities, such as Jiang Jingguo and Jiang Weiguo, the two sons of Principal Chiang.
Li Yu said: "Although I don't dare to say whether I can match the foreigners, I can't be worse than them."
"Okay!" Yang Sisheng said,
"The words of the emperor make me feel more at ease! No matter how difficult the project is, I will complete it for you with the best quality." Li Yu spread out a floor plan: "This land is not big, only About twenty acres. My idea is to build three buildings, arranged in a concave shape. In order to increase the building area, build them as high as possible, at least four floors." This was a very common condition in later generations, but after hearing this, Yang Sisheng But he was a little confused, and after thinking for a while, he asked: "Where is the land of the Emperor's Master?" Li Yu said: "To the west of Jing'an Temple." Yang Sisheng, who has spent most of his life in construction, has a relatively good understanding of Shanghai's geology, and said: " The conditions of that land should be acceptable, but I have never built such a high house, so I don’t know if the masonry can hold it up.” Reinforced concrete has been used in the United States, but it is not available in China yet.
So Li Yu said: "You can use cement mixed with sand and gravel and steel bars, and place the steel bars at the bottom of the floor to withstand tensile stress; the concrete can resist compression and be placed on the top of the floor." Yang Sisheng asked: "I don't quite understand, what? Force?" Li Yu took out a piece of paper and explained to him the tensile strength of steel bars and the compression resistance of concrete. Then, when the middle part of the floor is stressed, the depression will appear. The length of the lower part is in tension; the upper part becomes shorter and is compressed. model.
They are all the most basic things in structural mechanics. Even if Yang Sisheng didn't understand mechanics, Li Yu quickly understood what he meant by drawing the picture like this.
"If it is true as the emperor's master said, maybe it will really work." Yang Sisheng said. Li Yu smiled and said: "Of course it works." Historically, Yang Sisheng would figure out this truth on his own two years later, so Li Yu told him in advance.
In fact, it is completely possible to build it higher, but Li Yu knew that they did not have much experience and would not dare to build if it was too high.
Yang Sisheng took the pen and drew strokes in the air, and then kept looking at the map. After a long time, he said: "I have an idea in my mind. Don't worry, Emperor Master, I will definitely be able to complete it smoothly for you!" Li Yu said: "Just tell me how much money you need." Said, I will pay half in advance." The first reinforced concrete building in Chinese history seems to be born in their hands.
It can also accumulate experience for the future construction of larger primary and secondary schools and university halls. Yang Sisheng said: "Please sir, take me to the land to have a look." After arriving at the west side of Jing'an Temple, Yang Sisheng also called his apprentice, Gu Lanzhou.
Gu Lanzhou is also from Pudong, and now he has also established a construction factory. After that, he built more than 30 major projects such as the Jardine Matheson Building, the British Consulate on the Bund, the British Consulate in Nanjing, the British Legation in Beijing, and the Shanghai Taikoo Matheson Building.
In addition, Gu Lanzhou also contributed a lot to the Shikumen architecture, which is very Shanghai-style. Almost 2,000 buildings have been built in Shanghai. What we see now
The word "lan" is at the forefront, such as Lanhuili, Lanxingli, Lanyili, Lantingli, Lanzhali, etc., all of which were written by Gu Lanzhou.
After the two people visited the site, they felt that it was a good place. Yang Sisheng said: "The emperor is really good at choosing. This place radiates from the concession and the suburbs. It is really a good place to run a school." Gu Lanzhou said: "The construction difficulty is not as difficult as expected. I think The garden Mr. Hartung wants to build is not far away, and there will be someone to take care of it in the future." The construction company responsible for building Hartung's Hartung Garden is also a Shanghai contractor, named Wang Songyun.
He not only built Hartung Garden, but also the Huizhong Hotel. Hartung's garden is a big project, and the two places are not far apart. From now on, things about building materials will be a lot easier.
Yang Sisheng said: "I will take the guys to clean up the ground first and prepare the foundation. When the drawings come, we can start construction immediately." Li Yu cupped his hands and said, "Thank you." With his promise, Li Yu immediately I found a well-known design company in the Shanghai Concession, the British Aird & Co., and asked them to produce design drawings.
Elder & Co. has designed many Shanghai Bund buildings, including a villa by Li Hongzhang, in which Zhang Ailing was born.
Since what Li Yu wanted to build was a laboratory, he could only find foreign designers, who were more or less familiar with the construction models of Western colleges and research institutes.
However, Elder & Co. has not designed many school-type buildings before, and it still needs to find information from many sources.
Li Yu drew a rough sketch to express his thoughts. His idea is to build a laboratory with as large a space as possible, and the clear height of each floor should be as high as three meters, and the bottom floor will of course be higher.
The design fee is not a small number. Li Yu was not afraid of spending money on this, so he asked them to design it in the best possible direction.
Nowadays, without CAD, drawing design drawings is a very laborious task. It is all done manually on large A0-level drawings with rulers and pencils.
After drawing, cover the sulfuric acid paper on white paper for tracing, use the sulfuric acid paper as a base map and lay it on diazonium salt photosensitive paper, clamp it with glass, expose it to the sun, and then smoke it with ammonia to become the so-called blueprint. .
Although it has reached the point where it can be copied, it is still too troublesome compared to later generations of laser printing. The most important thing is to change the drawing by hand, which is maddening.
The designer must have a very clear mind when drawing, otherwise if Party A is not satisfied, the cost of rework will be too high.
This was physical work. After that, Lin Huiyin really wanted to study architecture. The reason why the University of Pennsylvania rejected her was that it did not accept girls; the other reason was that even if it accepted girls, the architecture major would not accept girls because it was more tiring.
Of course, Lin Huiyin himself is obsessed with this. It is another matter to pass the exam from the art major. By the way, many comprehensive universities recognize that the ones with the highest overall quality of beauties are from the Department of Architecture~~~~ In short, the current drawings are quite precious and the value is naturally very high. They won't be able to produce them for a while.
During this time, it is estimated that Yang Sisheng and the others can also handle the leveling of the site, purchase of materials, and dispatch of construction personnel.
The drawings can be seamlessly connected as soon as they come out, and the project construction can be completed as quickly as possible. After staying in Shanghai for so many days, it was time for Li Yu and Xie Yuxi to return to the capital.
The two still took a ship to Tianjin Port, and then took a train to Zhengyangmen Railway Station. It was still a bit troublesome. Li Yu planned to find a way for the Qing government to promote the construction of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway as soon as possible. Strictly speaking, it should be from Beijing to Nanjing Pukou. From Pukou, you need to take a ferry across the Yangtze River, and then continue to take the train to Shanghai.
Although there is no bridge on the Yangtze River and it requires two transfers, it is still much faster than a ship. On the train from Tianjin to Beijing, Xie Yuxi suddenly said to Li Yu: "Where is the better place to make clothes in Beijing?" Li Yu was surprised: "There are so many clothing stores in Shanghai, why not just buy them?" Xie Yuxi said: "No, They sell all foreign clothes, and I want the most traditional ones." Well, it seems that she not only likes traditional courtyard houses, but now she also wants to try traditional clothes.
Li Yu thought for a while and said: "It just so happens that I should have one made, let's go to Dashilan tomorrow to have a look." The silk and satin industry in Beijing is known as Badaxiang, which means Bajiadai.
A silk shop with the word "xiang" in it. Another one that has been passed down to this day is Ruifuxiang. However, when they arrived at Dashilar, they were attracted by the first one, the Xiangyi.
The specialty of this store is that it specializes in high-end custom-made garments. Although the scale is not as large as Ruifuxiang, the silk and satin used are tributes from the palace, which are rarer and more expensive, and have a bit of a luxury taste.
When Li Yu and Xie Yuxi entered the silk and satin shop, they heard a shrill voice coming from inside: "Shopkeeper Feng, these silks were specially ordered by Lafayette. It's equivalent to the few times you made them for the Nanfu Shengping Office." The costumes are more than enough." It was Xiao De Zhang who spoke.
Shopkeeper Feng Baoyi said: "Eunuch De, I've got to help you." Xiao Dezhang said: "It's all my own business, so I can't do anything for you." In the late Qing Dynasty, finances were quite tight, but Lafayette certainly couldn't bear the hardship, as he worked very diligently on making clothes.
Considering that there were mountains of silk and satin tributes in the palace, Cixi agreed to convert the silk and satin tributes in the palace into silver taels as the cost of processing palace clothes to Xiangyihao at the suggestion of Xiao Dezhang.
Since then, Xiangyi Hao began to sell tribute silks and satins from the palace to the outside world, and introduced royal silk products to the public, attracting a large number of dignitaries at once.
The reason why Xiao Dezhang suggested this was actually because he and Feng Baoyi jointly founded this Xiangyi store.
Xiaode Zhang’s real name is Zhang Xiangzhai.
The word "Xiangyi" is taken from Zhang Xiangzhai
The word "xiang" and Feng Baoyi's
The word "righteousness". Thanks to this trump card, the Xiangyi Hao is not far behind against Ruifuxiang's competitors. Even now that the location of the Xiangyi has been changed to Dashilan No. 1, there is Dashilan Silk again.
The reputation of "No. 1". It’s just that the prices of Xiangyihao’s clothes are quite high. Xiao Dezhang saw Li Yu and said, "Young, it's the Imperial Master here."
"Good morning, Mr. De," Li Yu said,
"Today I am ordering some clothes for this lady from the United States of America and for myself." Xiao Dezhang looked at Xie Yuxi: "We don't make foreign clothes here." Li Yu said: "We just want to make some daily casual clothes. , not a suit."
"So that's what happened," Xiao Dezhang said to Feng Baoyi,
"Shopkeeper Feng, this is the emperor's master at that time. He showed off his best housekeeping skills and made clothes for the emperor." When Feng Baoyi heard that he was the emperor's master, he quickly said: "Since he is the emperor's master, , Of course we have to use good fabrics, you two are invited." Xiao Dezhang will not care about the specific operation of the silk and satin shop, but Feng Baoyi was born in a silk family in Hangzhou and has been making clothes for most of his life, so his professional level is quite high.
He selected robes, mandarin jackets, jackets, and skirts for each of them. It was really not cheap after all. The two custom-made clothes cost more than sixty taels in total. These were just regular clothes, and they were indeed luxury goods.
If it were more complicated court uniforms for officials, they would be really expensive, and the key thing was that the court would not issue them.
It's no wonder that many officials can't afford it. Some decorations such as gems can only be disguised with colored glaze.
