1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 170: University Company Newspaper, Going Hand in Hand, Li Qiwei's Ideals and Reality

As the New Deal education reform was in full swing, a wave of school establishment swept across the Qing Dynasty.

Within almost two months, universities were established in every provincial administrative region of the Qing Dynasty.

These universities were certainly not newly built, but were directly merged and transformed based on the original universities or colleges.

The same is true of Guangdong University, which was formed by the merger of several schools.

However, the final site was changed to another location in the center of Guangzhou.

Since there was no concept of "city" at that time, Guangzhou was actually equivalent to a region in later generations and had a very large area.

And its center is naturally the most prosperous.

When the Qing Dynasty built a university, they did not consider Li Qiwei's opinions and placed it in a remote place.

Cixi believed that universities should be built in the most conspicuous places to demonstrate the majestic grandeur of the Celestial Empire.

As a result, provinces followed suit and found the best craftsmen to build university buildings.

Li Qiwei also obtained some information about the craftsmen from Yu Shimei.

Of course, he did not want to build Guangdong University, but to build his own Huangpu Polytechnic University.

Guangzhou Prefecture, Panyu County, Huangpu, and Cheung Chau Island.

Li Qiwei, along with He Yujie, Xia Yuancong, Xu Qitai and Zhou Ziyu, were touring the scenery of the island.

Now, because of Li Qiwei, Zhou Ziyu has temporarily escaped the Qing government's wanted list, but he needs to keep a low profile in the near future.

"Qiwi, you really know how to choose a place."

"This place has beautiful scenery, is far away from the downtown, and is self-contained. It is a great place to do research and study."

Although Cheung Chau Island has not been developed at this time, the various flowers, plants and trees on the island have a pure natural atmosphere that makes people linger.

During the Opium War, the first thing Britain wanted the Qing government to cede was Cheung Chau Island.

However, the plan failed due to strong protests from the people of Panyu, and XG was ceded.

This place was once an important seaport for foreign trade in the Qing Dynasty, and the Huangpu Branch of the Guangdong Customs was established here.

Cheung Chau Island was once crowded with merchants and flourished, but now it has gradually declined because there are better ports.

Li Qiwei smiled slightly. After the Whampoa Military Academy was established here in the future, it would probably be known as a double giant together with his own Whampoa University of Science and Technology.

One civil and one military, transforming China.

"According to estimates, the main building of the university will be completed by the end of this year, and we can start recruiting students then."

"I am now also the president of Guangdong University, and they also need my participation there."

"So, Yujie, you need to share some of the work for me."

“You need to follow up on the progress of the project and the details of the construction.”

He Yujie quickly said, "Okay, Brother Li."

"During this period of time, I plan to live here, so that I can supervise and write my teaching materials at the same time."

He Yujie is now in high spirits. Not long ago, his large-scale translation work "Physics" was officially completed.

The book consists of 12 volumes, which provide a detailed introduction to the development history of Western physics.

There is also the review work of various physics terms.

This work also received strong support from Xia Yuanzhen and Xu Qitai.

Xu Qitai even used his family connections to proofread and print this book, which later became an introductory textbook for physics in China.

The textbooks previously compiled by Li Qiwei in the UK were too professional and not suitable as popular books.

It is more suitable as a further study textbook for physics students with a certain foundation.

He Yujie and the other two also discovered this, so they did not copy it rigidly, but added their own understanding.

As an authority on physics in China at that time, Li Qiwei personally wrote the preface for this book.

In the name of Deputy Minister of Education, he promoted this book nationwide as a required reading textbook for all university physics majors.

Lecturers can use this book to write their own teaching materials that are suitable for their school's teaching methods.

The Qing Dynasty was not a fool, so it would naturally not allow Li Qiwei to control all contents in the field of education.

The Qing government also hired a number of Western teachers to be responsible for science education in universities.

There is a shortage of talent nowadays, and there may be only a few professors in a university.

The liberal arts are a little better, with a lot of talented people, but the science and engineering can only be described as terrible.

Now He Yujie and his team have only found a few people who are interested in teaching at Huangpu University of Technology.

In later times, a university teaching position would probably be fought over by hundreds of candidates.

Li Qiwei praised He Yujie highly, making the latter smile with joy.

He Yujie not only completed the compilation of "Physics", but also determined the subjects he wanted to write textbooks and teach.

After seeing it, Li Qiwei was shocked.

Wow, in He Yujie's plan, the courses he will teach include: electricity, thermodynamics, gas kinetics, quantum theory, relativity and other courses.

Li Qiwei expressed his doubts as to whether you, an undergraduate student, could really say these things.

However, he still expressed encouragement, asking Xinghuo and the other two to try boldly and correct any mistakes they made.

Anyway, in terms of physics level, the three of them are definitely the strongest except for himself at the moment, and are good enough to be teachers for everyone.

Xia Yuansong was not to be outdone. The courses he was going to teach included optics, fluid mechanics, advanced theoretical mechanics, acoustics, elasticity theory, etc., which just complemented He Yujie.

Xu Qitai was not so exaggerated. He still focused on his expertise and taught only one course: Theory of Radiology.

However, he was responsible for all experimental courses alone.

At this point, the physics courses at Huangpu University of Technology have been preliminarily determined, while mathematics, chemistry, life sciences, etc. are still being gradually improved.

Li Qiwei agreed to their plan. Next, it would depend on the specific teaching results.

Since Li Qiwei returned to his country in March, he had no leisure time throughout 3 and was busy with countless things every day.

By the end of June, the Qing Dynasty had established a total of 6 new-style universities across the country.

Among them, Imperial University of Peking and Guangdong University had the highest status and were directly under the central government of the Qing Dynasty, with two ministers in charge of academic affairs.

The remaining universities are under the charge of the provincial education departments.

In addition, private universities like Li Qiwei have not yet been included in the Qing government's statistics, but they are subject to varying degrees of supervision.

Elementary schools, primary schools and middle schools in various provinces also sprang up like mushrooms after a rain.

These low-level schools operate faster and better because they do not require strong teaching staff.

In developed regions such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the number of students in a grade can even reach 100.

In July, the first engineering university in the Qing Dynasty, Beiyang University (the predecessor of Tianjin University), officially opened.

Inspired by Li Qiwei's suggestion, the Qing government also established engineering universities such as Beiyang University in the north.

In fact, Beiyang University was also transformed on the original basis.

In 1895, Sheng Xuanhuai, the Tianjin Customs Commissioner, reported to Emperor Guangxu the proposal to set up a new-style school. Emperor Guangxu approved the establishment of Tianjin Beiyang Western School with his own handwriting.

In 1896, Beiyang Western Learning School was officially renamed Beiyang University.

It was the first higher education institution named "University Hall" in the Qing Dynasty, two years earlier than the establishment of the Imperial University of Peking. Now, Beiyang University Hall has been renamed Beiyang University and has begun to enroll students in the name of a university.

In the same month, the first higher vocational school in the Qing Dynasty: Beiyang Technical School was established in Tianjin, with Zhou Xuexi as the first principal.

Li Qiwei was also quite surprised when he heard the news.

He had not yet established his own vocational high school and technical school, but the Qing Dynasty had already started taking action.

It seems that not all people in the Qing government are idiots, it’s just that some of them are not famous in history.

Li Qiwei's outline is written very clearly. Anyone who is interested in education and does in-depth research can basically think of this.

From these actions, it can be seen that Li Qiwei was taking advantage of the Qing Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty was also taking advantage of Li Qiwei.

Because Guangdong University is located in the south, which has been a place under the weak control of the Qing Dynasty since ancient times.

Of course, Cixi and others would not let Li Qiwei go, but copied his ideas and established a university in the capital area which they could control.

Only then did Li Qiwei realize that although he was a time traveler, it did not mean that he was smarter than everyone else.

In September, the Qing government formally established the Ministry of Commerce, with Zaizhen, the eldest son of Prince Qing Yixin, as the Minister, and Wu Tingfang and Chen Bi as the left and right vice-ministers.

The Ministry of Commerce immediately issued a statement encouraging private individuals to set up factories and businesses.

There are even tax incentives for heavy industry.

Li Qiwei immediately found Hu Xizhong and asked him to take advantage of this opportunity to accelerate the development of Shanhe Industrial Group.

At present, with the full commitment of General Manager Hu Xizhong, Shanhe Industrial Group has developed rapidly and has reached cooperation with many domestic giant companies to provide them with consulting or overall solution services.

Li Qiwei still felt that it was too slow, so he asked Hu Xizhong to produce the product as soon as possible.

Hu Xizhong did not complain about this. He continued to learn from foreign companies and strive to achieve the goals of the chairman.

However, it is worth mentioning that the transaction of 50 tons of uranium ore reached with Belgian Crown Prince Albert has been successfully completed.

Currently, these uranium ores are stored in the warehouse of Taishan Industrial Company. Li Qiwei ordered Hu Xizhong to keep a close watch on them and not to use them for the time being.

At the same time, Li Qiwei also called Sheng Jingran who was far away in the UK, asking him to pay attention to a newly established automobile company in the United States called Ford Motor Company.

Try to invest in the early stages of the establishment.

Sheng Jingran did not ask why, but followed the chairman's instructions and contacted Henry Ford, the president of Ford Motor Company.

Pioneer Investment Group invested $2 and became the second largest shareholder of Ford Motor Company.

In October, a piece of overseas news made Li Qiwei feel as if he was in another world.

The third Nobel Prize in Physics was announced, and the winners were Becquerel, Pierre Curie, and Marie Curie.

The award was given in recognition of their joint research on the discovery of radioactive phenomena.

Li Qiwei immediately wrote a letter via telegram and asked Sheng Jingran to pass it to the Curies to congratulate them on their achievement.

At the same time, he was sighing in his heart.

Ever since he returned to China, it seemed like he had returned to another world.

In Europe, he was a powerful figure and a king in the field of physics, respected and admired by countless academic leaders.

However, in the country, almost no one could understand his achievements in physics.

Although there was publicity in newspapers such as Shen Bao, it was simply a fantasy to expect anyone in a country that didn't even have a proper university to understand the theory of relativity.

Everyone knows that David Ridgwell is a great scientist in the West, a very powerful one, but they don’t have a specific concept.

It’s just like modern people know that aliens have awesome technology, but have no idea what’s so awesome about it.

Li Qiwei misses his days abroad a little bit.

However, he knew his responsibilities and now was not the time to go abroad for fun.

On the one hand, physics is now in a vacuum period.

In real history, quantum mechanics was first published in 1905, then in 1916, and finally in 1925.

There was a gap of more than ten years in between.

If Ridgway stayed abroad, he would be very bored unless he published these theories in advance.

However, he could not do this, as he had to wait for Bohr, de Broglie and others to grow up.

On the other hand, his atomic bomb project required too many talents.

It's not just physicists, there are also a huge number of ordinary engineers, industrial personnel, etc.

If he had not returned to China to establish science and engineering education in advance, it would have been even more impossible when the warlords came to power.

If we start training now, we can graduate at least four or five generations of students.

By then, they will become the backbone of the City of Science and help Li Qiwei complete that grand plan.

Moreover, in times of chaos, Li Qiwei can provide them with shelter and protect the scientific spark in the country.

Therefore, running education in the country is now a must.

In order to avoid feeling too disconnected from the world, Li Qiwei suddenly had an idea that he might as well start a newspaper.

Although there are already many universities in the country, they are still a drop in the bucket considering China's huge population base.

In fact, more people cannot go to university, even if it is free.

But if he could publish a science and technology newspaper, perhaps it would improve the scientific literacy of the general public.

During this era, the Qing Dynasty actually had science and technology newspapers, but the content therein was really not satisfactory.

The newspaper that Li Qiwei is planning to publish will naturally be more professional and focused, and will not lead people astray.

Li Qiwei gave this task to Xu Qitai.

Their family is a family of Western scholars. They have not only translated a large number of Western scientific and technological documents, but also have some experience with newspapers.

With the accumulated connections, doing this kind of thing is easy.

Soon, a newspaper called "Science Weekly" was published.

The above mainly introduces the latest scientific advances in the West, covering various fields such as physics, chemistry, life sciences, and engineering.

Moreover, the content reported above is not a rigid article full of pure theories and formulas.

Li Qiwei has the experience of later generations and naturally knows what is most important for a newspaper.

When he chooses content, he chooses content that is closely related to people's lives.

For example, Science Weekly reported that German scientists are researching an artificial fertilizer that, once developed, will no longer require natural manure fertilization.

By then, grain production could even increase dozens of times.

This news instantly caused a sensation among the people, and even the rulers of the Qing Dynasty were alarmed.

Food is the most important thing for people. If the food crisis can be solved, there will probably be no changes of dynasties in this world.

Only then did the Qing government realize the importance of science and technology. Although this research has not been successful for the time being, it has great potential.

In November, the main building framework of Huangpu University of Technology was completed and it is expected to be officially put into use in another two months.

In December, Science Weekly reported that the Wright brothers of the United States completed the first human flight on the airplane they invented.

Ordinary people in the country just treated this news as a topic of conversation, but only Li Qiwei knew how the birth of the airplane would change the whole world.

In the same month, he personally took charge of Cheung Kong Industries and began the secret research and development of aircraft.

(End of this chapter)