1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 94: Unexpected Incident, Calm Arrangement

On November 1901, 11, Li Qiwei received a message from his father via telegram.

He was shocked. He never expected that his winning of the Nobel Prize in Physics would cause such a stir in the country.

In particular, the Shenbao also confidently stated that Emperor Guangxu valued him.

This made him laugh and cry. He thought that the editors of Shenbao were talking nonsense. How could they know what the emperor said?

This is actually Li Qiwei's fault for not having enough experience.

In real history, Shenbao had spies inside the imperial palace. When Emperor Guangxu was seriously ill, they published a tabloid every three days and a large newspaper every five days.

The content was very well-organized, even what medicines were taken were reported, which showed that he had great connections.

However, this is a good thing for Li Qiwei after all.

The awakening of the domestic people gave Li Qiwei hope.

He was not afraid of the large amount of funds and manpower required for the Spark Project, but he was afraid that most people were indifferent to science and technology.

In that case, no matter how much knowledge you have in physics and chemistry, it will be useless.

Fortunately, his deeds received a strong response, and many young people were willing to take the initiative to learn Western knowledge.

It is also time to start planning and preparing for the second batch of Spark Plan.

Just when Li Qiwei was excited about the enthusiastic response at home, three days later, a piece of bad news came.

Lord Zhongtang Li Hongzhang passed away due to illness!
Li Qiwei was staring blankly at the telegram. Although it was sudden for others, it was inevitable for him.

He didn't feel any sadness or joy, just a little bit of pity.

I will never have the chance to meet this legendary figure who has been featured heavily in history books again.

Without discussing his merits and demerits, his influence on the direction of Chinese history alone is profound.

Li Qiwei still had many questions he wanted to ask the other party, but now he could only bury them in his heart.

Soon, he calmed down and chose to move forward.

In the future, he will experience more and more such things.

After the boss dies, everything related to him will be reshuffled.

Whether they are enemies or friends, they will examine the latest situation and make choices that are beneficial to themselves.

After all, this world is nothing but interests. All respect, timidity, weakness and provocation are just superficial.

Sure enough, my father then mentioned in the telegram that I should not be too aggressive.

Because he had inside information, Cixi was very unhappy with the report in The Times, believing it to be a hoax and a deliberate attempt by foreigners to disgust the Qing Dynasty.

This is incredible. As the supreme ruler of the empire, Cixi's words are more important than imperial edicts.

Her every word and action, her joys and sorrows, are the most important things that countless people ponder day and night.

The phrase "sensational" is enough to make many people make up their minds.

The Li family was also affected, and the attitudes of many of its former business partners became somewhat ambiguous.

There is not much impact on business with foreigners.

When Li Qiwei saw this, he understood everything, one was praise and the other was criticism.

The two supreme beings of the Qing Dynasty had diametrically opposed views of him.

It seems that this was an open and covert struggle between Guangxu and Cixi.

Although Guangxu had suffered a crushing defeat and became a puppet before, his appearance might have brought him hope again.

Li Qiwei thought, the more intense your internal fighting is, the better, and I can reap the benefits.

As for Cixi's reaction, he was a little surprised. He thought the other party would not care.

It seemed that she was severely beaten by the Eight-Nation Alliance and fled everywhere like a stray dog.

So she was furious and hated everything that was foreign.

I was just unlucky and happened to run into the muzzle of the gun.

However, there is no big problem for the time being. Cixi is still on her way back to the capital and has no time to care about the small Li family.

If Li Qiwei remembered correctly, Cixi returned to the palace on January 1902, 1, which was November 8 in the lunar calendar. She probably wanted to go back to celebrate the New Year as soon as possible. The old witch had too high a demand for enjoyment.

Finally, it was the message sent by Xu Jianyin that left Li Qiwei puzzled.

Zhang Zhidong asked him to help arrange workers from the country to learn Western experience?
This was a bit beyond his expectations as to what the other party was going to do.

With his status as a frontier governor, he would definitely be treated carefully and properly if he just said a few words to the German and British ambassadors to China.

Is it necessary to trouble yourself?
Li Qiwei couldn't figure it out, so he gave up thinking about it. He just wanted to do a favor. He had originally planned to find a candidate from his family and bring him over.

The Li family's industrial fields are very broad, exporting tea, porcelain, silk, etc., and importing various industrial products from abroad.

At the same time, the company also has many small-scale factories that produce nails, machine parts, etc.

Of course, it cannot be compared with domestic giants such as the Hanyang Iron Works, the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, the Fuzhou Shipyard, and the Jinling Machinery Manufacturing Bureau.

But it does involve some aspects of the current industrial system, which is better than a small workshop.

After reading all the messages, Li Qiwei began to reply.

He first persuaded his father not to rush to expand the family business for the time being, but to focus on low-key contraction and prepare for the crisis that might come at any time.

As long as you are careful and don't give others any handle, there won't be too much risk.

At the same time, the family will select a few people with business acumen and factory management experience and send them here when the time comes for other uses.

Then he told Xu Jianyin that he agreed with Zhang Zhidong's request, but the premise was that quality was more important than quantity.

It is best to have no more than five people, and all of them must have good technical skills, be able to understand mechanical drawings, etc., and have certain management experience.

For this purpose, he also specifically proposed the term "senior engineer", and he believed that Xu Jianyin could understand what he meant.

After dealing with everything, Li Qiwei finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Ever since he won the first Nobel Prize in Physics, he has been flooded with letters.

Although some of these letter writers discussed physics issues, more of them wanted his autograph.

Some even asked him to review their own results. Li Qiwei could only silently encourage them as his research was only at the junior high school physics level.

Of course, there were a few people who cursed him, but he simply ignored them. Only mediocre people would not be criticized.

So, during this period of time, he even spent less time going to the laboratory, for fear of disturbing other people's work.

However, this made Thomson very scared, because he thought that Ridgwell wanted to graduate directly with a doctorate after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Logically speaking, with his current achievements, he would be more than qualified to be a professor at Cambridge University, not to mention a doctorate.

But neither Caldwell nor Thompson wanted that.

The former was because he had previously discussed it with Li Qiwei and had a gentleman's agreement.

At the same time, Cardwell also wanted to use his name to ask the government for more resources.

The latter was purely for Li Qiwei's consideration. He was too young and suddenly reached the top, and it was easy for him to lose himself.

Thomson didn't want to see a genius fall. The other party still had plenty of time and it was entirely possible for him to go higher. He must not be blinded by temporary glory.

So he found Li Qiwei and asked him about his plans in a roundabout way.

Li Qiwei understood Thomson's thoughts and immediately said that he was just an ordinary doctor now.

How can I graduate before completing my doctoral thesis?

After hearing this, Thomson felt relieved and joked that he should prepare well for his speech in a month.

Li Qiwei smiled embarrassedly.

December 12th is the Nobel Prize award ceremony.

Except for the Peace Prize in Norway, the remaining four awards are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden.

That was when it really attracted worldwide attention.

To be honest, Li Qiwei was a little nervous and didn't know what to say.

After all, I had no experience in this matter in my previous life.

Thank you for your support and rewards, thank you everyone.

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(End of this chapter)