1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 169: Appointed as the Imperial Tutor, Deputy Minister of Education, and Principal, and the New Deal Education Reform Accelerated

After Li Qiwei came out of the Forbidden City, he went to the Ministry of Personnel to register and officially became an official of the Qing Dynasty.

While going through the formalities, he did not encounter any blind people who came forward to provoke him.

Officials are all shrewd people. If there is no conflict of interest, no one will take the initiative to cause trouble and make enemies for themselves.

If you offend someone you shouldn’t, you can only go home and farm.

Li Qiwei, the Deputy Minister of Education, nominally oversees all schools in the country.

However, at present, since all provinces are in the early stages of new-style education reforms, the situation is chaotic and difficult to centrally manage.

So, at his suggestion, his position was adjusted.

Minister of Education Zhang Baixi was in charge of the reform of Imperial University (now renamed), while Vice Minister of Education Li Qiwei was in charge of the reform of Guangdong University.

According to Li Qiwei's proposal, Guangdong University will be a new-style university that draws entirely on Western ideas, and an experienced person must serve as the president, and the choice is self-evident.

So, Li Qiwei had just arrived in the capital and was about to return to Guangdong.

He will serve as the emperor's tutor, deputy minister of education, and president of Guangdong University.

There is Imperial University of Peking in the north and Guangdong University in the south.

These two universities will be the leaders in university education reform in the Qing Dynasty and play a model role.

Li Qiwei himself has become the most popular figure in the field of education in the Qing Dynasty.

On June 1903, 6, the Qing government ordered to accelerate the reform of the New Deal.

In the field of education, it was almost entirely implemented in accordance with Li Qiwei's outline.

However, abolishing the imperial examination system and establishing a ministry of education are major matters that will affect the national system, so they are still under discussion.

Of course, this is just an official announcement. The real situation is that the bigwigs have not yet reached an agreement on the division of interests.

After all, this reform may lead to the establishment of several central institutions such as the Ministry of Army, Ministry of Commerce, and Ministry of Education.

It will take more than a few days to determine who will be the Shangshu, Shilang and other chief officials.

This involves countless interests, personal relationships, power struggles, plans, etc.

However, all this has nothing to do with Li Qiwei.

When his identity as the imperial tutor was announced, it immediately caused an uproar in the court and among the people.

All the officials were stunned.

Damn, what’s going on? This kid just returned to the country and only met the emperor once, and he became the emperor’s teacher?
Although he was a teacher of Western learning and had a relatively low status in the traditional system of the Qing Dynasty, he was still a real imperial tutor.

Throughout the ages, how many people have desired to obtain such a lofty status.

Nanyuan of the capital, the military camp of the Right Army of Wuwei.

Yuan Shikai looked at the "Beijing News" in his hand, and the news on it made him feel incredible.

No wonder Li Qiwei was unwilling to be his advisor, it turned out that the emperor valued him.

He sighed in his heart, fortunately Li Qiwei was devoted to studying education. If he had other thoughts, he might not be able to sleep.

The current situation in the Qing Dynasty was turbulent, but Yuan Shikai discovered a hint of hope.

He is slowly accumulating strength and will not reveal his ambitions.

When Li Qiwei said goodbye to his elder brother Li Bokai, he said: Regain your energy and wait for the opportunity.

The two brothers exchanged glances and said nothing more.

When Li Qiwei returned to Guangzhou, Zhou Ziyu and others were full of admiration for him.

After going to the capital, he would become the emperor's teacher when he came back.

This kind of holy favor makes everyone jealous to the point of madness.

Li Qiwei was very calm and said with a smile: "I am just teaching the emperor Western knowledge. I can't compare with a true imperial teacher like Weng Tonghe."

The Weng Tonghe he mentioned was an old minister who served in the three dynasties of Xianfeng, Tongzhi and Guangxu, and was the teacher of both emperors Tongzhi and Guangxu.

He was promoted to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and joined the Grand Council, participating in domestic and foreign affairs.

However, because he supported the Hundred Days' Reform and helped Guangxu draft the "Edict on National Affairs", he was ordered by Cixi to be dismissed and return home, removed from his post and placed under house arrest, and never re-employed.

Weng Tonghe is now living in his hometown of Changshu, and according to real history, he will die next year.

It can be seen that being an imperial tutor is not that easy. If the emperor is in trouble, you will be in trouble too.

The second brother Li Zhongxing's eyes almost popped out. He had been an official for many years, but he had never seen the emperor, let alone the governor.

And my third brother is already the imperial teacher. The gap between people is too big.

"Third brother, you have to help me, your second brother, from now on."

"Put in a good word for me in front of the Emperor."

Li Qiwei didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Second brother, you and I are from two different systems. We are totally unrelated."

"Unless you change your class to the Education Department, I can help you with the operation."

When Li Zhongxing heard this, he decided to give up. He had no interest in education and only liked administrative management.

His dream is to become a provincial governor.

Li Qiwei patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "Second brother, don't worry, in the future you may be able to become an official more powerful than the governor."

Li Zhongxing didn't believe it at all, "Okay, then I'll lend you my good words."

Next, Li Qiwei officially started his work.

After the new education policy reform, at the suggestion of Li Qiwei, a new department in charge of education was established at the provincial level: the Education Commissioner's Office.

As for prefectures, states, and counties, they set up "Institutes for Encouraging Learning".

At present, the Qing Dynasty still focuses on running universities, and universities are established in the name of provinces, so their status is high.

Originally, Li Qiwei proposed the Department of Education, but the court did not agree.

The Office of Supervision of Government Affairs believed that this name was inconsistent with the Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office and the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner's Office, so it was changed to the Education Commissioner's Office.

The real reason was that Yixin and other bannermen were very unhappy with Li Qiwei. They felt that this guy was too popular recently and wanted to suppress his arrogance.

Originally, everyone was slowly implementing the new policies.

You, on the other hand, wrote a memorial with so many words, full of data and logic, making it seem as if you were the only loyal official who cared about the court. Now when the empress dowager reprimanded them for their poor performance, with Li Qiwei as a benchmark, the reason was more sufficient, and the officials were speechless.

In later generations, Li Qiwei was a typical struggler.

Therefore, some bigwigs don’t like him.

However, there are still many people who support Li Qiwei.

After the establishment of the Education Commissioner's Office, the original academic administration was abolished and replaced by the Education Commissioner's Office.

Moreover, the education envoy was no longer an official directly appointed by the central government, but had his own direct officials and subordinate departments.

In other words, education makes one a magistrate.

Because of its special status and role, the Education Envoy is not a subordinate of the Governor, the two are on the same level.

This shows the importance the Qing Dynasty attached to educational reform.

Because in Li Qiwei's education reform outline, education has too many tasks to undertake and it is impossible for one person to handle them all.

Therefore, educators must have their own subordinates and offices.

In the officialdom, there has always been a situation where there is only one position for each person. Now that there are new official positions, the competition has become less, and those reserve officials waiting for the vacancies will of course be happy.

When Li Qiwei arrived at the Guangdong Education Commissioner's Office, he was immediately warmly welcomed by Yu Shimei.

Today, Yu Shimei is the first Education Commissioner of Guangdong. He has subordinates and funding from above.

He truly experienced what it felt like to be an official.

"Master Li, I haven't seen you for a few days. You have become the emperor's teacher."

"It really makes me ashamed."

Li Qiwei said with a smile: "Master, there are no outsiders here, so please don't be so formal with me."

"If you don't mind, I'll call you brother, how about that?"

Yu Shimei was overjoyed. Being able to be on friendly terms with the imperial teacher was an honor unimaginable for a scholar.

Although he didn't dare to call Li Qiwei "brother" in public, it didn't matter in private.

He has already seen through Li Qiwei's character. He is definitely not the kind of person who would stab him in the back and report him for being disrespectful to the emperor.

Otherwise, if he, a small educator, dared to call the imperial teacher "brother", he might be asking for trouble.

"Brother Qiwei, you are really my lucky star."

"It has only been a short time, and the academic official who was once unwanted has become a hot commodity."

"You have no idea how many people envy me. Some of them are still working as editors in the Imperial Academy, while I have become an official in charge of education in a region."

Yu Shimei was so happy that he even called him "brother", totally ignoring the fact that he was more than 20 years older than Li Qiwei.

Li Qiwei smiled and said, "I have to thank Brother Yu for helping me submit the memorial, so that I have the opportunity to be summoned by the emperor."

Yu Shimei pretended to curl his lips, "Hey, brother, you are too modest. Your memorial is really a blockbuster."

"The Queen Mother and the Emperor both praised you highly. This shows that you are very knowledgeable and have great potential."

"I don't know about the department, how much do you know, brother?"

Li Qiwei was speechless. When he first met Yu Shimei, he seemed to be a clean and upright person.

How come you've become an official fan now?

Little did he know that Yu Shimei had no way out before and could only muddle through.

Now that I have the opportunity, the desire to move up naturally grows.

The next step for an education envoy is to work in a newly established department.

"Brother, you think too highly of me."

"How could I possibly know about such a big thing as the establishment of a school department? That's something that the bigwigs in the court have to consider."

"I think you should just focus on improving Guangdong's education. Then you can become a minister with good academic performance."

Yu Shimei was embarrassed for a moment and smiled, "That's right, that's right."

"But I still need to trouble you to help me with the new education."

"To be honest, I have studied your memorial over and over again."

“Although the method is described in detail, I am still a little worried.”

Li Qiwei smiled and said, "Brother, don't worry. The emperor has allowed me to serve as the president of Guangdong University, and I have absolute management power."

"I'm going to let you serve as the vice-principal. Are you willing?"

Yu Shimei opened her mouth wide, "Yes, yes, I'd love to have that."

What kind of university cannot be run if it can follow such a great master of Western learning?

By then, Yu Shimei might become the second best person in Western studies.

Li Qiwei also smiled slightly. He pulled Yu Shimei over to use her as a laborer.

His focus will definitely be on Huangpu University of Technology, and he will not have much time to spend on Guangdong University in the future.

It would be better to train Yu Shimei to help share the pressure.

You can also win the favor of other educators, so why not do it?

I will definitely be in charge of national education in the future. If the education envoys of each province follow my lead, why would I be afraid of not getting things done?

Now that he has been ordered to preside over the construction and reform of Guangdong University, he must make some achievements in order to gain the trust of the Qing Dynasty and be given more power.

Therefore, Li Qiwei will spare no effort to run Guangdong University well.

At the same time, it can also accumulate experience for Huangpu University of Technology.

You know, so far, all the plans exist only on paper.

Li Qiwei didn't know whether any unexpected problems would arise during the actual teaching.

Guangdong University is his experimental subject.

(End of this chapter)