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 make a report at 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 are 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 said.
Na Tong said: "If the prince wants calligraphy treasures, he just casually says, I can have as many as I want!"
Yikuang stroked his beard: "I have a huge appetite. When I build a garden, I want you to write me a large character like 'Tsinghua Garden'."
Na Tong smiled and said, "Your Majesty, you really have a big appetite."
When the British and French allied forces burned the Old Summer Palace, the Near Spring Garden was spared, and the Tsinghua Garden was part of the Near Spring Garden.
The famous "Tsinghua Garden" on the gate of Tsinghua University today was written by Na Tong.
But there was no Tsinghua University at that time, and Tsinghua Garden was just a royal garden.
Yikuang 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."
"Thank you, Minister," Yi Kuang said. "Is it because you came 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 it was to apologize. It was really embarrassing. This time it is finally a serious matter."
In 1901, a secretary of the Japanese embassy was killed, so Na Tong went to apologize as the Minister of Tobe, which was similar to the apology Zaifeng went to Germany.
It's just that Na Tong had no sense of shame at all, and even lamented in his diary "the true country's benefactor and family celebration". Even during the Xuantong period, when the Qing Dynasty was almost gone, he still wrote it down in his diary with satisfaction during the New Year.
One sentence: "The affairs of the country are going very smoothly."
However, Yi Kuang and him have similar mentality. They are both heartless and have the same bad temper.
Yi Kuang said: "Of course it's business. We, the Qing Dynasty, are an official participating country this time, and we should also show off our treasures in front of foreigners."
"Ouch," Na Tong said worriedly, "Speaking of treasures, wouldn't it be bad if foreigners worry about them again?"
Yikuang said: "What Shangshu said really made me wary."
These two old guys really thought they could bring out some decent "treasures" at the Industrial Products Expo.
But they really don’t understand.
While they were talking, Yikuang's translator Rui Zheng walked in: "Your Majesty, this is a telegram from Japan."
"Japan? Who sent it?" Yikuang asked.
Ruizheng said: "Look at the signature, it's Tokyo Imperial University."
"University?" Yikuang took the telegram and read it.
Na Tong asked curiously from the side: "What was written on the telegram?"
Yi Kuang said: "The university wants to ask if there is anyone named Li Yu among the people participating in the exhibition. If so, they hope to invite him to the university."
"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 knew something about Li Yu and asked, "Is this person really so talented?"
"That should be the case," Yi Kuang said, "after all, foreigners regard him as a scholar."
But 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. Don't people like Li Yu want to have as much as they want?
What a fuss!”
Yi Kuang said: "As expected of the minister, he has true knowledge and insight, and what he has seen is extraordinary!"
Na Tong said: "I have long heard from Rong Shangshu (Rong Qing, Minister of the Ministry of Justice and Minister of Management) that although this person ranked first in the entrance examination of the Capital University and had good grades in all subjects of Western studies, he only
I failed a subject related to classics and history. What does the prince think this means?"
Yikuang asked: "What does it mean?"
Na Tong said proudly: "Of course it means that the knowledge of classics and history is more difficult, but the so-called scientific method of foreigners is just mediocre!"
"Oh, why didn't I think of this key point!" Yikuang suddenly realized it and praised, "That Shangshu is worthy of being the third talented person under his banner."
What a logic genius.
Na Tong has always been conceited. Along with Rong Qing and Duan Fang, he is known as one of the three talented people under his banner, but they are only of a lower level...
The telegram was soon transferred to Li Yu, the Capital University Hall.
Those who sent the telegram were Hantaro Nagaoka, a physics professor at Tokyo Imperial University, and Masataka Ogawa, a chemist who is the executive president of Tohoku University.
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 considered 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 from.
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 high-ranking 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, and the Qing government was not really willing to spend so much money on basic education. This would be very difficult to solve, and it would be difficult to escape from the deadlock.
Due to the large number of people going to Japan this time, Li Yu and other students from the Capital University went to sea 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 only tea and porcelain now?"
Tang Shaoyi, who was seeing him off, said: "Well, Minister, we really don't have any industrial products that we can get rid of now."
Yulong, one of the five ministers who traveled together, said: "We have established so many machine manufacturing bureaus and have been studying for decades, but we haven't found anything yet?"
Tang Shaoyi spread his hands: "It's too far."
Yulong said in disbelief: "Is it so difficult?"
Tang Shaoyi replied in his exact 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 they are enough for an Oriental person to appreciate."
Na Tong was not satisfied, "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 the smelted iron and the mined 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 education? Let's ask him to build an industrial exhibit on the road."
This time not only Tang Shaoyi was stunned, but also Li Yu was confused after hearing this, "Build one on the road?"
Na Tong was very satisfied with his arrangement: "Look, you guys, 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 said awkwardly: "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. This Quanye Expo has a total of nine categories, divided into agriculture, forestry, aquatic products, mining and metallurgy, chemical technology, dyeing and weaving technology, manufacturing industry, machinery, and education. If we forcibly add our smelting
As for the products and processes of ironworks and mining sites, we can put together some exhibits for the first seven categories; only machinery and education do not have any exhibits.”
Li Yu feels the same way. Now that we have just started, there is really nothing to display these two things.
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 said in surprise.
"There is no other way," Tang Shaoyi said. "Some of the papers you published have not yet been translated into Japanese. They are all extraordinary things. It is reasonable to force them to be counted as an education category."
"this……"
Tang Shaoyi said again: "But there are really no good ideas for machinery. 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 is nothing you can't do!"
Li Yu smiled and said, "Don't laugh at me if you don't do it well."