Training the Heavens

Chapter 382 Ma Xiangbo's Death

The campus of Southwest Associated University was designed by Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin. When they decided to build the school here, they traveled thousands of miles to Kunming, carefully studied the local geology and topography, and designed it according to the requirements put forward by Zhang Xingjiu.

The campus now displayed in front of them is relatively loosely distributed, and each building is small in scale. This is done to prevent bombing and prevent the Japanese bombers from causing huge damage to the school.

At the same time, it can also reduce construction costs. Such houses are easy to build and the cost is not high. They can be built in a shorter time with less money. Now most dormitories and school buildings have been built, and students can start classes and study directly without wasting too much time.

But even so, because there were so many teachers and students arriving in Kunming this time, these school buildings were still not enough, and some people had to go to other places for temporary accommodation and come back after the remaining school buildings were built.

Peking University President Jiang Menglin demonstrated his noble character and said with a wave of his hand, "Students from our College of Arts and Law should go to Mengzi. There are extra houses there, and it is quiet, suitable for the cultivation of cultural heritage."

In 1885, after the Qing government signed the Sino-French New Treaty, Mengzi was opened as a commercial port, and it was transformed from a remote village into a bustling border town. Today, Mengzi has gradually declined due to transportation reasons, but this has resulted in many vacant houses, so these people no longer have to worry about having no place to live.

After resting in Kunming for a few days, these students went to Mengzi under the leadership of Zhu Ziqing and stayed there for three months. In just three months, they brought considerable changes to the local area.

First, in terms of living habits, through their words and deeds, local people changed the habit of women wearing masks and also changed some bad eating habits.

Secondly, it also made the specialties of this small place Mengzi famous throughout the country. In the future, when people talk about the special food of Yunnan, they will definitely mention Cross-Bridge Rice Noodles, which originated in Mengzi.

There is a lake in the south of the small town of Mengzi. Zhu Ziqing once compared it to Daming Lake in Jinan and West Lake in Hangzhou.

There is a small island on the lake, and on the island there is a pavilion. It is said that a local scholar locked himself in the pavilion to study hard for the imperial examination. His wife crossed a bridge every day to bring him food.

Rice noodles are a traditional local food. Every time the wife brought them to him, she found that her husband often missed meals because he was studying hard, which was very bad for his stomach in the long run.

In order to let her husband eat hot meals, the wife invented a kind of rice noodles stewed in chicken soup. Even if her husband forgot the time to eat because of studying, the chicken soup has a good heat preservation effect, so her husband can eat the hot rice noodles.

Because his wife had to cross a long bridge every time to deliver food to him, this kind of rice noodles was called "Cross-Bridge Rice Noodles".

Thanks to word of mouth among teachers and students of Peking University’s School of Literature, “Cross-Bridge Rice Noodles” gradually became famous and was brought to all parts of the country, becoming the most representative delicacy in Yunnan.

Three months later, these teachers and students returned to Kunming. The new school building had been built and they could study with students from other departments, but the changes they brought to Mengzi continued.

In addition to overseeing the daily administration of the new campus, Zhang Xingjiu also continued his research and teaching, maintaining his habit of personally teaching his students. Among the students who arrived in Kunming, he held a few in high regard, the first of whom were, of course, the two future Nobel Prize winners, Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee.

Yang Zhenning's father, Yang Wuzhi, was born in Hefei, Anhui. In his early years, he was admitted as a government-funded student to study in the United States and obtained a master's and doctoral degree from the University of Chicago. After returning to China, he followed Zhang Xingjiu to teach at Xiamen University and Tsinghua University. Now he has also come to Southwest United University to continue teaching mathematics.

Yang Zhenning is fifteen years old this year. He originally studied at Chongde Middle School in Peking and had excellent academic performance. On the way to Kunming, Zhang Xingjiu talked with him and suggested that he go directly to Southwest Associated University. With his talent and learning progress, continuing to study in middle school would be a waste of time.

Yang Wuzhi followed his advice, so Yang Zhenning first entered the Department of Physics to audit classes. When the school officially started to take the exam to admit new students, he would take the exam and become a formal student.

This is also the rule that Zhang Xingjiu has always insisted on. Even his son has to pass the exam to enter the university. Backdoors are never allowed. Even if there are occasional geniuses who are good at certain subjects, they must first prove their abilities in certain subjects and finally be discussed by the school committee before they can enter the school.

Li Zhengdao is even younger, not even twelve years old now. He attended primary school in Shanghai earlier. Last year, he participated in the selection for the junior class held by Aurora University, scored high in the exam, and was admitted to the junior class of the Affiliated Middle School of Aurora University with other talented teenagers. Now he has come to Kunming with everyone and his parents.

According to his learning progress, he would probably be able to enter the Department of Physics when he is the same age as Yang Zhenning, and then they would be real brothers in the same school.

Several universities have joined together to run a school, and the daily affairs are very complicated. The conflicts between teachers and students of each school, the various materials needed to maintain the operation of the school, plus some other trivial matters, leave Zhang Xingjiu with almost no free time.

Even Ma Xiangbo, the honorary principal who is nearly 100 years old, cannot stay at home and enjoy his retirement like other centenarians. As long as he has the energy, he will try his best to come out and help the school with some things.

In addition to school affairs, he did not forget to support the War of Resistance Against Japan. He made more than ten consecutive radio speeches to promote anti-Japanese resistance. Although he was already penniless, he took to the streets and sold calligraphy to raise funds. He sold calligraphy for 30 yuan per character and 50 yuan per couplet. In this way, he raised 10 yuan and donated it to the anti-Japanese army fighting the Japanese invaders on the front line.

He organized and established many civil groups and various patriotic salvation organizations, such as the Jiangsu National Disaster Association, the China National Disaster Relief Association and the National Salvation Association, etc. He also raised funds to set up rear hospitals. When the country was in danger, under his call, the whole nation's enthusiasm for anti-Japanese resistance was high, and an octogenarian became the "national salvation leader" of the whole nation.

Two years passed like this, and soon it was Ma Xiangbo's 100th birthday. He did not have a grand celebration, so Zhang Xingjiu and several relatives and friends had a simple meal together in private.

A few days after his birthday, Ma Xiangbo's health gradually deteriorated. He knew that he didn't have much time left, but he still couldn't see the future of China, and he couldn't help but feel sad.

Holding Zhang Xingjiu's hand tightly, he sighed from the bottom of his heart, "I am a dog! An old dog that has been barking for a hundred years! And yet it has not woken up the Chinese people!"

Ma Xiangbo left the world with great reluctance and regret.

(End of this chapter)