A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 279 Enlightenment
Xi Zhengfu coughed heavily again, and Xi Ligong immediately went over to beat his father's back.

After calming down, Xi Zhengfu said: "For Emperor's school, if you need to purchase equipment from abroad in the future, as long as you go to HSBC Bank, or any bank I can control, I will not charge a penny for the handling fee. I am old. Do your bit for the great cause of education.”

Li Yu cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, General Manager Xi."

Xi Zhengfu waved his hand: "You don't need to thank me. I have worked in a foreigner's bank for most of my life. Although I am respected by people, I still dare not show much disobedience when facing foreigners. Now seeing your rising gradually, my heart I am very moved. It turns out that we can also achieve the level of foreigners. There is an old saying that it is enough to die in the morning and evening. Seeing an outstanding young man like you in the old age is not worth living in vain. .”

Li Yu said: "General Manager Xi should take care of his illness and pay attention to his health."

Xi Zhengfu said: "I haven't done many good things in my life. I only care about making a name for myself and earning money in the circle of fortune. Looking back, I still have a lot of regrets. I can only leave them to you."

Xi Zhengfu will pass away next year, and his son Xi Ligong will take over the property of the Xi family.

After Xi Zhengfu finished speaking, he coughed even worse. He had no choice but to thank the guests.

Li Yu went to attend the house, and Xi Ligong ran out after a while, and gave him a title deed: "This is the title deed for the land on Dongping Road. My father said that the emperor can build a mansion here, although the area is not large. It is impossible to build a courtyard, but there is no problem with the small two-story western-style building.”

Li Yu took over the title deed: "Thank you, Mr. Xi."

Yang Sisheng had been waiting outside the door, and when he saw Li Yu coming out with a land deed, he immediately came over and asked, "Why did Master Di Shi come out so soon?"

"Manager Xi is ill," Li Yu said, and then showed him the land deed, "Do you think it is possible to build a small western-style building in this place?"

Yang Sisheng is an expert in architecture. After a few glances, he said: "It's a great place! What style does the emperor want to build? Everyone loves French-style buildings nowadays."

Li Yu said: "You just look at it and use the lot as much as possible."

Yang Sisheng said with a smile: "Master Dishi is really too open-minded, just leave such a big matter to me."

Li Yu spread his hands: "I don't have that much time. Besides, I believe in your ability. It doesn't matter whether you design or not. I think a small western-style building can't trouble you."

Yang Sisheng respected me in awe: "Master Di thinks highly of me, I will definitely not let you down!"

Li Yu only added one sentence: "As many green plants as possible."

400 square meters is definitely enough, and there is no big problem with a small garden.

After bidding farewell to Yang Sisheng, Li Yu still needs to find a partner——Zhang Yiyun, a tycoon in the sauce industry in Shanghai.

Historically, 20 years later, Wu Yunchu partnered with him to produce monosodium glutamate, breaking the Japanese monopoly.

Zhang Yiyun is still very young now, only in his 30s, and when he was 22 years old, he won the examination, but he was not admitted to Jinshi.

Now there are many soy sauce gardens in the Zhang family, and they are flourishing in the food industry.

But before looking for him, Li Yu still needs to show something real.

So he came to the Science Instrument Museum located on Wuma Road, Zhong Guanguang and Yu Heqin again.

Zhong Guanguang looked at the large cart of kelp and wheat bran pulled by the rickshaw behind Li Yu, and was very surprised: "Sir, are you delivering food to us?"

Li Yu said with a smile: "These are not for food, I want to borrow your laboratory and equipment for use."

"Experiment?" Zhong Guanguang asked.

"Yes, a little chemistry experiment." Li Yu said.

Yu Heqin is a chemistry student, and when he heard it, he immediately became interested, "I'll help you sir!"

Li Yu smiled and said, "I'm the one who will help you."

The extraction of sodium glutamate in the early days was not complicated. Kelp was used at the beginning, but the content in kelp was very low. Only 0.2 grams could be extracted from [-] kg, which was not commercialized at all.

Common foods rich in monosodium glutamate are wheat bran and beans.

And wheat and soybeans are cheaper than kelp.

The method at this time is relatively primitive, using chemical extraction.

——As for later generations, microorganisms have been used, which are highly efficient and non-polluting.

But at present, Li Yu and the others can only use stupid methods.

If there is a purpose, and it is a reliable purpose, it is not very difficult for the chemist to purify.

After all, it is not to study the chemical composition of MSG.

In a few days, they came up with the result. Although the purity is very average, there is no problem if you add a little more.

Now it is just a temporary test product, not the final product, so it will take some time.

Yu Heqin cooked a table of dishes, and Zhong Guanguang ate the dish with sodium glutamate, his eyes lit up instantly: "So I cook so delicious!"

Li Yu said with a smile: "There is still a lot of difference, and we still need to continue to refine."

Yu Heqin's previous experiments were basically done by himself. He has not gone to Japan for further studies, so his knowledge of chemistry is still very low.

But after Li Yu explained the experiment process to him several times, he immediately understood the truth, and after several days of joint research, he learned a lot of modern chemical knowledge, and immediately said that he would devote his time to the purification of sodium glutamate .

And Li Yu first brought the test product to Zhang Yiyun, the king of the sauce industry.

When he heard that Li Yu was able to purify and produce a very "fresh" thing, it was very difficult to understand: "My lord, I know that you understand the most advanced foreign scientific theories, but what you call 'fresh', I really can't think of what it tastes like."

Li Yu took out a pack of monosodium glutamate, "Boss Zhang can try it with today's lunch."

Li Yu's reputation was too great, Zhang Yiyun had to pay attention to it, and handed over the package of monosodium glutamate to the back chef.

After the dishes were cooked at noon today, the guys really praised them after eating.

Zhang Yiyun tasted a few sips and found a unique good taste.

"What is this thing? It's so amazing, is it also from foreigners? I thought foreigners can't cook, it seems that I'm ignorant." Zhang Yiyun said.

Li Yu said with a smile: "There are no foreigners now. By the way, are you interested in producing it together in the future?"

"It's very worth it!" Zhang Yiyun was originally engaged in food, and understood the market potential of this product, "But I still have some questions, what is its price?"

The sauces produced by the Zhang family are not cheap.

Li Yu said: "My purpose is to do it at a low price, so that more people can experience the deliciousness of food. Because there are too many poor people in our country, many people can't eat enough, and those who can eat can't afford it." It's tasteless to eat."

Zhang Yiyun praised: "It's worthy of the emperor's teacher! It's really high righteousness!"

Li Yu said: "Frankly speaking, I will not seek any profit from domestic operations."

Seeing Zhang Yiyun's hesitation, Li Yu immediately added: "But this kind of product can be distributed overseas, such as in Japan, and can make very considerable profits."

Zhang Yiyun's brows immediately relaxed: "The emperor is a good strategist! If I can earn money from the Japanese, I really admire it even more. Based on this alone, I must cooperate!"

Li Yu said: "The product will be developed in a short time. In the future, I will set up factories in Beijing and Tianjin, and I will also have a branch factory in Shanghai. I will try my best to build word of mouth."

Zhang Yiyun is much more familiar with doing business: "Master Emperor, don't worry, our Zhang Family's soy sauce garden will spare no effort to promote it."

-

At this moment, things are almost completed, and Li Yu still needs to build a school in Wuchang.

According to the plan, it is impossible for the central part to have no schools.

But before he had time to leave, Zhang Yuanji from the Commercial Press came to him again.

"Sir, my publishing house is going to launch a magazine called "Oriental Magazine". I just heard that you will publish a prequel to the Star Wars series. I wonder if it will be serialized at that time?"

"Oriental Miscellaneous" was the leading large-scale comprehensive magazine in China during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. It faithfully recorded the historical vicissitudes of nearly half a century, and it was also a venue for celebrities to publish their works.

Liang Qichao, Cai Yuanpei, Yan Fu, Lu Xun, Chen Duxiu and other famous thinkers and writers have published articles in this journal.

"Of course, it's just not finished yet," Li Yu said.

Zhang Yuanji was not in a hurry: "The magazine is still in the preparation period now. I finally heard that you came to Shanghai. I hurried over to make an appointment for a manuscript."

Li Yu smiled and said, "From now on, you can just send a telegram."

Speaking of manuscripts, it's time for Li Yu to write a manuscript for "Science" in the United States.

It just so happens that the Star Wars series in Europe and the United States has become popular recently, and readers are very interested in space-related content, so Li Yu wrote a more understandable paper.

That is to calculate the three cosmic velocities in turn.

It's obviously not a very difficult question, but at present, no one dares to think about it, so no one will calculate it.

Because the speed of the third universe is about to leave the sun, everyone regarded it as a fantasy before. After all, there are no planes, so why go to space!
But this article will let Star Wars fans know that it is possible to go to outer space.

In fact, this is indeed the case. Many readers of the Star Wars series even came to buy the professional "Science" magazine, which caused the magazine to be out of stock again.

The Association for the Advancement of Science was really convinced, but the publications of Li Yu's articles were bound to sell well, and it seemed to have become a gold-lettered signboard.

Except for Star Wars fans, such a concise and hearty derivation directly aroused Einstein's attention.

Because the derivation process used kinetic energy formulas and integrals, Einstein's mind was not so fast, and he immediately deduced by analogy, and started the derivation on the parchment paper.

After using it all morning, he was stunned to see an unbelievable result: E=mc2.

That is the famous kinetic energy formula.

Of course, Lorentz transformation, integration by parts, etc. will be used in the process, which are generally high-level math content that science students can learn, and it is actually not difficult.Majors such as economics and management should also learn this part.

But for Einstein, the results were truly inexplicable.

There are only energy, speed, and mass in the formula. From the perspective of today's physics community, it is not shocking at all, it is simply "bullshit"!
Einstein had a big head, and he immediately thought of Li Yu, who was also proficient in Lorentz transformation and physics.

He immediately wrote a letter and sent it to the East.

(End of this chapter)