1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 190 I guarantee with my life that Brother Li must be one of my generation!
In 1904, the old witch Cixi's 70th birthday passed quietly amidst flowers.

This was also a turning point. Next, the Qing Dynasty would go from revival to decline and finally to destruction.

Li Qiwei became the biggest winner of this birthday party.

His laser beads were deeply loved by Cixi, and her previous dislike for him naturally disappeared.

Not only was Li Qiwei reinstated, but there were also rumors that he would take up an important position in the academic department, which aroused the envy of countless people.

Yu Shimei had heard of this from somewhere and was now frantically flattering Brother Li, asking him to take her under his wing.

Li Qiwei smiled faintly, hiding his achievements and fame.

However, he had no idea that his gift almost triggered a crisis about him.

January 1905, 1, in an ordinary house in Renheli, Xinzha Road, Shanghai.

A dozen young people in Western clothes sat together casually, none of them had braids on their heads.

The room was filled with smoke, and under the yellow light, there was a dull and hazy feeling.

Two of them were arguing violently.

"Hans, I'll say it again, Li Qiwei can't be a Qing Dynasty running dog!"

Tao Hansi immediately replied: "President Zhou, I know you teach at Li Qiwei's university, but this is not a reason for you to defend him."

Zhou Ziyu sighed softly. He didn't expect things to develop to this point.

At this moment, everyone in the room is a core member of the "Retro Club".

It turned out that as early as last year, Zhou Ziyu had been traveling around, establishing revolutionary organizations in an attempt to overthrow the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing dynasty rulers were incompetent and foolish, and the country was humiliated and lost. This was intolerable to the Chinese people with lofty ideals.

In recent years, various revolutionary organizations have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

In November 1904, around the time of Empress Dowager Cixi's birthday, Zhou Ziyu, Tao Hansi, Wei Shisheng and others formally established the Restoration Society in Shanghai.

There are currently more than 40 members, including intellectuals, businessmen, craftsmen, and even landlords and gentry.

On the day of its establishment, Zhou Ziyu was elected as president and Tao Hansi as vice president.

The program of the Restoration Society is: to restore the Han people, to return our mountains and rivers, to devote oneself to the country, and to retire after success.

The association had two revolutionary methods. One was written propaganda, such as publishing newspapers, establishing schools, etc., to spread revolutionary ideas.

What Zhou Ziyu did was this revolutionary method.

The second method was to promote revolution through assassination and riots, especially the assassination of Qing officials and their lackeys.

Wu Mengxia, a core member of the Restoration Society, once said: "There are two ways to drive out the Manchus: one is assassination, the other is revolution."

"Assassination is the cause, revolution is the result."

“Assassination can be done by an individual, but revolution cannot be accomplished without the efforts of the masses.”

“Today’s era is not an era of revolution, but an era of assassination.”

This shows that now is not a good time for revolution, so assassination is necessary.

Since it is an assassination, who should be chosen as the target?
The members of the Restoration Society all wanted to make a big splash, scare the Qing Dynasty, awaken the people, and make them realize the feudal evil of the Qing Dynasty.

This called on more people with lofty ideals to join the Restoration Society and overthrow the Qing Dynasty together.

Therefore, Li Qiwei, who has been in the limelight recently, unfortunately became their first target.

Wu Mengxia said fiercely: "The old witch Cixi celebrated her 70th birthday, and Li Qiwei actually gave her such a big gift."

"I have confirmed with the foreigners that the laser bead is indeed a priceless treasure."

"If it were put up for auction in the West, it could even fetch a high price of several hundred thousand taels!"

"How many guns and explosives can this buy?"

"With this money, we could even start an uprising."

"But Li Qiwei actually presented the treasure directly to Empress Dowager Cixi in order to curry favor with her."

"President Zhou, isn't he a running dog of the Qing Dynasty?"

After listening to Wu Mengxia's words, Zhou Ziyu thought of every little detail of his time with Li Qiwei.

If someone told him that Li Qiwei supported the Qing Dynasty, he would never believe it.

When it comes to patriotism, I'm afraid he is no worse than anyone here, and he may even love more deeply and more passionately.

Therefore, he had to speak up for Li Qiwei.

“Before the Retro Club was established, I had an in-depth conversation with Li Qiwei.”

"I don't want to debate his ideas and ideals here."

"But I can guarantee with my life that Brother Li must be a fellow traveler of my generation."

“I have even promoted Li Qiwei’s great love in several revolutionary organizations.”

"He was a true patriot."

After that, Zhou Ziyu looked directly at Wu Mengxia, "Mengxia, do you know where our Fu Gu Society's guns and explosives came from?"

Wu Mengxia shook his head. He didn’t understand why President Zhou said this. What did it have to do with Li Qiwei?

Zhou Ziyu said: "These are all obtained with the help of Li Qiwei."

"Through his help, I was able to contact the arms company in Europe."

"Only then can we purchase such excellent weapons at a low price."

"Do you think explosives are simple things?"

“Just last year, a revolutionary group had an accident while using domestically produced explosives.”

"After the fuse of the explosive was lit, it burned out at an extremely fast speed, causing the person who threw the bomb to die before he could throw it away."

"But the German products in our retro club will never have these problems."

"Do you think a Qing lackey would help a revolutionary organization like this?"

Zhou Ziyu's deafening words shocked everyone present.

I didn’t expect that President Zhou, who is usually gentle and polite, has such a hidden side.

He has direct contact with European arms companies!

In the late Qing Dynasty, this kind of relationship was something that countless forces were vying to win over.

Wu Mengxia was speechless for a moment, "This this."

Even Tao Hansi couldn't help but ask: "Zi Yu, is this true?"

It's no wonder he was surprised. If Zhou Ziyu really had this kind of relationship, then the Retro Society would definitely be the number one revolutionary organization in the country.

"Why didn't you tell me before? I always thought you bought those guns and explosives in China."

Zhou Ziyu sighed and said, "The more people know about this, the more danger Brother Li will be in."

"We can assassinate the people of the Qing Dynasty, so won't the Qing Dynasty assassinate our people?"

"Brother Li was dismissed from his post by Empress Dowager Cixi before. If the Qing Dynasty knew about this, what consequences do you think would happen to Brother Li?" Everyone finally understood. At the same time, they were very confused. Since Li Qiwei was so supportive of the revolutionary cause, why did he send such an expensive gift?
Wu Mengxia did not give up. He proposed a conjecture, "Chairman Zhou, is there such a possibility?"

"When Li Qiwei opened up to you before, he was indeed disgusted with the Qing Dynasty and was concerned about the revolution."

"But as he gradually realized the benefits of being an official, his original intention changed, he was corrupted by the Qing Dynasty and turned away from the revolution."

"That's why I gave him the Laser Orb to seek a better position and benefits for him."

Wu Mengxia's words made everyone nod their heads, it did sound reasonable.

However, Zhou Ziyu just smiled lightly, and at this moment he suddenly felt a little sorry for Li Qiwei.

I lie dormant because of the deepest love, and I am misunderstood because of the dormancy. I cannot explain the misunderstanding, because after the explanation I will never be able to lie dormant again.

Zhou Ziyu slowly looked at everyone's faces. Although they were hostile to Li Qiwei, everyone's patriotism was unquestionable.

Otherwise, as the president, he would not agree to let these people join the association.

Everyone has to go through rigorous assessment before being accepted as a member.

Everything they do is for the country, not for personal grudges or self-interest.

Besides, Li Qiwei had never met anyone present, so how could there be any grudge between them?

"I don't know why Li Qiwei gave me the laser bead."

"But I believe he must have his own reasons."

"And there must be something wrong with this orb, but we are all laymen in science and don't understand the reason behind it."

"Richard Ridgwell is a great scientific master in the West. He is worthy of the courtesy of a king and prime minister."

"His scientific knowledge has long exceeded the imagination of those present here."

"I have audited a few classes at the Huangpu Institute of Technology's Physics School. To be honest, it was no different from listening to a foreign language."

"You know, those are just what freshmen learn."

"From this, we can see that Li Qiwei's talent in Western learning has reached an incredible level."

"I bet that the Laser Orb must have some unknown secrets, and the truth will be revealed in the near future."

Wu Mengxia and others were shocked by Zhou Ziyu's decisive words, but these could not completely convince them.

Zhou Ziyu also understood this, so he continued, "Meng Xia, you said that Li Qiwei might be greedy for the high official positions and wealth of the Qing Dynasty, and thus become disgusted with the revolution."

"I can tell you with certainty and responsibility that this is impossible, absolutely impossible."

"The so-called Imperial Tutor of the Qing Dynasty, the Vice Minister of Education, and the senior officials of the Ministry of Education are all shit in Li Qiwei's eyes."

"If he didn't want to smoothly promote domestic education reform, he wouldn't even look at these positions."

"As a citizen, Li Qiwei was able to obtain the British lower order of knighthood."

"If he is willing to take British citizenship, given his achievements, I'm afraid even becoming a baron wouldn't be a problem."

"As for high-ranking government officials, I'm afraid the British would be scrambling to get him the job."

"You will never understand what a world-class physicist means to a country."

"Not to mention Li Qiwei's huge network of contacts in Europe."

"The people from the arms companies that I contacted all hope that Li Qiwei can visit their headquarters."

"Do you think such a gifted person would care about a position in a feudal country?"

"It would be better if he could just become the Minister of Military Affairs."

"As for wealth and glory, that's not to mention."

"The Shanhe Industrial Group, which has emerged as a rising star in the country, has total assets of several million taels."

"Li Qiwei is the chairman of this group and the only shareholder."

"In other words, this group company belongs to him personally."

"He also has a huge business in Europe, with transactions worth tens of thousands every day."

"Will he still care about the little money the Qing dynasty gave him?"

"Gentlemen, please tell me how a man like Li Qiwei could be corrupted and won over by the Qing Dynasty."

At this point, everyone was so shocked that they were speechless.

They knew Li Qiwei was awesome, but they didn't expect him to be so awesome.

No one could imagine how a young man of only 25 years old could achieve so many achievements at the same time.

This can no longer be described as a rare talent among humans; it can only be described as a monster.

Such an existence will never be inferior to others, let alone become a running dog of the Qing Dynasty.

Now, Wu Mengxia and others completely believe that Li Qiwei was indeed colluding with Man Qingxu in order to promote educational reform.

Otherwise, with the other party's identity and status, he can live freely in any country in the world.

Why should we go back to China and suffer, carrying out reforms and teaching students?

Now he almost became the first assassination target of their Retro Society.

It's even more unfair than Dou E's.

Wu Mengxia said ashamedly: "President Zhou, I was reckless. Please apologize to Li Qiwei on my behalf."

"He is a true hero."

Tao Hansi also sighed: "Zi Yu, fortunately you are here, otherwise we would have done something that we would regret for the rest of our lives."

"Richvili deserves the gratitude of all of us revolutionaries."

Zhou Ziyu said: "Everyone's intention is the same, that is to overthrow the Qing Dynasty, but the means are different."

"I believe Brother Li will understand us, too."

"Everyone, if you meet people from other revolutionary organizations in the future, you must explain clearly and not let these patriots down."

What Li Qiwei didn't know was that it was because of Zhou Ziyu's insistence and standing up today that he was saved from disaster.

Moreover, his reputation spread among the rest of the revolutionary organizations in a confidential manner.

A few years later, when the world was in chaos, the Li family received special treatment because of Li Qiwei's kindness.

Not only were no one harmed, but even the family property was well protected.

When Zhou Ziyu was wanted by the Qing Dynasty and was on the run, it was Li Qiwei who sheltered him and supported his revolutionary cause.

Now, it was Zhou Ziyu's turn to speak up for Li Qiwei, demonstrating his unwavering patriotism and preventing him from being accidentally injured by his comrades.

What goes around comes around.

Li Qiwei and Zhou Ziyu, one is a soul from the future life, the other is a predecessor in this life.

Their paths intertwined perfectly at this moment.

Using education as our pen, we will jointly write a bright future for China.

(End of this chapter)