The train driver in the courtyard

Under the leadership of Professor Gilotti, the research and development team has produced ten special machines for railway networks.

The Cangjie language is like the foundation.

With the foundation, there is the main framework of the railway network program built by Li Aiguo, plus the help of more than a hundred researchers.

Even though the railway network program is extremely complex, Li Aiguo is confident that he can compile it.

Just when Li Aiguo was busy in the laboratory.

The letter written by Professor Hua himself passed layers of inspection and sailed across the ocean from Hong Kong to North America.

In Princeton, in a small villa with a beautiful environment.

A thin old man was putting manuscripts into a suitcase with his artificial hand, and he spoke loudly without turning his head.

"Eisenhart, do you think I'm an easy target? I've already told you that I don't have time. I'm going to France to meet with Oswald to discuss the combination of differential geometry and relativity. I don't have time to pay attention to your crappy magazine."

Eisenhart stood in the living room with an awkward smile on his face, but there was nothing he could do.

Because, the person standing in front of him was the famous Solomon Lefschetz - the originator of fixed point theory, the generalizer of Brouwer's fixed point theorem, the inventor of intersection index theory, and the recipient of the Aguila Azteca Medal.

Because he achieved success late in life, he did not win the Fields Medal, but he is recognized as one of the main founders of the Princeton School of Topology.

Even at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, an institute that houses mathematical geniuses from all over the world, Solomon Lefschetz is unique.

Although Eisenhart is the editor-in-chief of the "Mathematical Annals", he is also a well-known mathematician internationally.

In front of such an old senior, you can only be scolded.

This is not about seniority, but about respect for knowledge and awe for wisdom.

If it had been an ordinary paper, Eisenhart wouldn't have taken it so seriously.

It was just that this paper was recommended by his good student Loo-keng Hua from across the ocean, so he didn't take it seriously at first.

After all, the University of Tokyo is now a mathematical desert. Apart from a few mathematicians who returned from abroad, such as Loo-keng Hua, no famous figures have emerged.

I just flipped through it casually out of trust in my students, and it turned out that this paper actually proved the Poincare conjecture.

Although it is only a part, it has solved the problem in three dimensions and its value is extraordinary.

However, Eisenhart felt that it was difficult for him to review such an important paper independently, so he had to ask the great figure Lefschetz to step forward.

Seeing that Lefschetz was not interested, Eisenhart could only continue to persuade him: "Professor, this is a paper from the East, recommended by Loo-keng Hua."

Hearing this, Lefschetz's face looked a little strange. He first said, "Loo-keng Hua? Is that your oriental student? He is the most diligent person I have ever seen. He always gets up at two or three o'clock in the morning and hides outside my office to read."

After receiving Eisenhardt's nod of confirmation, Lefschetz sighed again: "In Princeton, there are many talented students and many hardworking students, but few who have both. It's a pity for Loo-keng Hua. If he could stay here, maybe we wouldn't have returned empty-handed with the Fields Medal in 58."

The mathematics community, like other industries, is divided into various schools, and there is competition among these schools.

In the last Fields Medal, all three winners were from Europe, which made Lefschetz, a leading figure of the Princeton School, somewhat embarrassed.

Seeing that Lefschetz's expression had eased, Eisenhart continued to persuade him, "This paper is about the Poincare conjecture. You are the most knowledgeable mathematician in Princeton on the Poincare conjecture. Can you take a look at it?"

"Poincare conjecture? Are you kidding me?" Lefschetz was furious again. "I recognize Loo-keng Hua's efforts, but talent is everything in mathematics. Now you tell me that one of his students proved the Poincare conjecture. Do you think I'm too old to see mathematical formulas clearly?"

He paused for a moment, staring straight at Eisenhart. "Oswald is waiting for me in Paris. If all goes well, we will solve a key problem in topology. You want me to waste my energy on this bullshit paper and give up the opportunity to change topology?"

Eisenhart had long been accustomed to his mood swings, and said sincerely: "I assure you that this paper is absolutely not fabricated. You will understand it at a glance."

Staring into Eisenhart's eyes, Lefschetz was silent for a moment, then he suddenly reached out and snatched the paper.

"I want to see what kind of bullshit you recommend!"

He just took a look and frowned: "Li Aiguo's theory. What a big tone."

If it were in the past, he would have thrown the paper into the trash can.

The reason is simple. Those who think they have mastered the secrets of mathematics always like to come up with all kinds of strange theories.

I spent a lot of time and effort researching it thoroughly, only to find out in the end that it was just a bunch of shit.

But now that he had promised Eisenhart, Lefschetz decided to give the paper another ten seconds.

“Li Aiguo flow is a deformation process designed to smooth large-scale or global irregularities in complex spaces or surfaces.”

"It's quite interesting to jump out of geometry and do the reverse operation from the curved space."

Lefschetz put away his contempt, unconsciously spread the paper on the desk and read it carefully.

Time passed by minute by minute.

For a full twenty minutes, Lefschetz maintained his original position, motionless, his eyes fixed on the paper.

The more he looked, the more he was convinced that this Li Aiguo was no simple person.

"It seems to be feasible, but how did he come up with it?"

Lefschetz finally changed his action, flipped to the back of the paper, and looked at the author of the paper.

LiAiGuo
Li Aiguo? Li Aiguo style?

This guy is quite confident to name a theory after himself.

But who is this person?
I've never heard of this name.

Time passed little by little, and the living room was so quiet that the only sounds were the turning of pages and the sound of the pen tip sliding across the draft.

After two full hours, Lefschetz put away his draft and stood up.

When Eisenhart saw Lefschetz taking action, he quickly asked, "Professor, how is it?"

"Be quiet!" Lefschetz stood up, picked up the phone and called the University of Paris.

The person who answered the phone should be Oswald's assistant. Lefschetz still said arrogantly: "Please tell Professor Oswald that I have come across something interesting and it will take a while. Ask him to prepare all the information so as not to waste my time."

After hanging up the phone, Lefschetz didn't even look at Eisenhart, turned around and went into the study with the paper.

Seeing this situation, Eisenhart secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He knew that the paper had attracted the attention of Professor Lefschetz.

Although Professor Lefschetz has a rude and proud personality, once he encounters something truly interesting, he will be like a hound encountering its prey and will never let go.

Eisenhart looked around and suddenly realized that he seemed to be in an awkward situation.

Now that Professor Lefschetz has not been confirmed as a reviewer, he has no way to leave.

There was no choice but for Eisenhart to sit in the living room and wait patiently, while admiring the decorations of the Lefschetz family's home.

The so-called decoration is no decoration. The entire living room has only a sofa, a table and a fireplace hanging on the wall.

Fortunately, Eisenhart didn't have to wait too long this time. About four hours later, when his stomach began to growl, the study door opened and Professor Lefschetz came out with the thesis in his hand.

Seeing this, Eisenhart immediately stood up and asked, "How is it?"

Professor Lefschetz waved his paper and said, "I'll need half a month to give you an answer."

Hearing this, Eisenhart suddenly became excited.

He knew Professor Lefschetz's temper too well. If there was any problem with this paper, Professor Lefschetz would have thrown the paper in his face, scolded him for wasting his time, and then kicked him in the butt with his leather shoe and kicked him out of the villa.

Half a month may seem like a long time, but it is actually not long at all.

The proof of a world-class problem like this is extremely obscure and difficult to understand. It often takes half a year or even longer to thoroughly understand the proof process without any errors.

Sometimes, even after the paper has been published, problems will still be pointed out by peers.

Now that Professor Lefschetz serves as reviewer, the credibility of the paper will be greatly enhanced.

Once the paper is finally proven to be correct, it will be published in the Annals of Mathematics.

This is also a huge victory for the Princeton School.

And Eisenhart himself, as editor-in-chief, will prove his worth to those old-timers.

****
At 8 o'clock on Monday morning, a large number of dispatchers dispatched by the Ministry of Railways arrived at the Red Star Computing Institute.

The leader of these dispatchers is Dou Wu.

Ever since Dou Wu heard about the idea of ​​a railway network from Li Aiguo, he has been thinking about how to realize this railway network that can display scheduling details in real time.

You know, there are thousands of trains running on the national railway network at every moment.

These trains stop at hundreds of thousands of stations of all sizes to load passengers and cargo.

This is an extremely complex project that exceeds human coordination capabilities.

Even if we train thousands of dispatchers to coordinate the positions of trains in real time, it is still impossible to do it.

When he saw the national railway network on the black and white monitor, he was completely stunned.

On the railway network, each train is represented by a train number code. These codes are like small spots of light running on the railway line.

When the two small light spots are about to be in the same block section, the railway network system will alarm and the neon bulb above the display will flash.

"This, how is this done?" Dou Wu stretched out his hand to touch the screen, but was afraid of breaking it, so he quickly retracted his hand.

He was filled with awe at this strange device.

Li Aiguo pointed to a computer case the size of a metal filing cabinet and said, "It contains a processor. The processor is like the human brain and can perform calculations."

Dou Wu took another breath when he heard that the processor could perform hundreds of thousands of calculations per second.

How many math problems can he solve in one second?

Together?
At this moment, Dou Wu was speechless, because everything in front of him had exceeded his imagination.

"Dou Wu, the researchers at our Red Star Computing Institute have already built the main program, but they don't know anything about scheduling, so they still need your cooperation."

This is why Li Aiguo invited these dispatchers.

Just like industrial software in later generations.

Even though China's Internet technology has become highly developed in later generations and Internet technology giants have begun to compete with vegetable vendors for food, they have not thought about developing our own industrial software.

The reason is not that they don't want to, but that they can't.

The focus of industrial software is on "industry" rather than "software".

Without decades of data accumulation and years of practical fine-tuning, it is impossible to create industrial software that is universally used across the industry.

By the time we realized the importance of industrial software, we had already missed the "trend" of that year.

Although Dou Wu did not understand the working principle of the processor, nor did he understand why the trains on the railway network could move, he knew that once the railway network was built, it would be just around the corner to achieve a major speed-up of trains across the country.

"Aiguo, don't worry, I will take care of this task. I promise to help you build the railway network!"

At this time, Dou Wu was very passionate.

With the railway network, trains across the country can be dispatched and scheduled in real time, which will greatly improve transportation efficiency.

Afterwards, Dou Wu briefly explained the importance of the railway network to the dispatchers.

The dispatchers' enthusiasm was instantly aroused.

"Work hard for a week and build a railway network!"

"I won't go home to sleep until the railway network is built!"

Various slogans were heard one after another.

Li Aiguo knew that he no longer needed to hold mobilization meetings.

Things turned out just as Li Aiguo had expected. Under Dou Wu's command, the dispatchers worked closely with researchers from the Red Star Computing Institute.

A week later, the prototype of the railway network was designed.

At this time, in an office of the Ministry of Railways.

A middle-aged man in a well-dressed Mao suit is reporting to an old leader.

"Old leader, to be honest, since the ministry abolished our Progress Office and established the Speed-up Working Group, the speed of our trains has not improved much."

Deputy Director Cao said this, and he carefully glanced at the old leader's face. Seeing that there was nothing unusual, he continued, "In my opinion, this speed-up team they set up is obviously aimed at us."

The old leader was implicated in the Wang Wude incident a while ago and had to go to the south to recuperate for two months.

But now as the wind in Beijing is getting stronger, with the support of some old friends, he returned to the Ministry of Railways yesterday.

Ever since the old leader went on vacation, life has become difficult for Deputy Director Cao and others.

Some were sent to work at the grassroots level, while others were transferred to idle departments and sat on the bench.

Now that the old leader is back, these people will naturally actively move closer to the old leader.

As the representative of these people, Deputy Director Cao came to find out what the old leader had to say.

But to his great surprise, the old leader seemed not to hear him. He just held the brush and splashed ink on the rice paper, ignoring his words.

Deputy Director Cao gritted his teeth and made up his mind to try again. "Old leader, although Wang Wude made a mistake back then, he was only doing it for his job. His starting point was good, but Lao Teng and his gang were too ruthless and showed no mercy at all."

"I know about Wang Wude's affairs. He was indeed too rash and excessive in his actions." Sure enough, when the old leader heard Wang Wude's name, his originally calm expression changed slightly.

Deputy Director Cao was delighted and lowered his voice: "Since they were able to do such a cruel thing to Wang Wude, who knows if it will be our turn someday in the future."

"Pah!" The old leader slammed the brush on the table, his eyes glaring at Deputy Director Cao: "Dealing with Wang Wude is an organizational decision! Lao Cao, you are also an old comrade who has been working for many years, and you don't even have this little bit of organizational discipline?"

"Yes, yes, yes." Deputy Director Cao was startled and beads of sweat instantly broke out on his forehead.

"But having said that, they dealt with Wang Wude and also cancelled the Progress Office. Old Teng and his team really went too far."

The old leader calmed down, picked up the brush again, and asked casually, "I heard that Lao Teng has always been obsessed with building that railway network. What's the situation now?"

"I went to inquire about it, but there was no news. The ministry allocated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Red Star Research Institute, but it was like a stone sinking into the sea, without even a splash."

Upon seeing this, Deputy Director Cao hurried forward and whispered, "I think there might be something fishy going on here."

The old leader had finished writing the last stroke at this time. He slowly put away the brush, looked at the big characters he had just written, and said slowly: "I still trust Lao Teng. I'm just afraid that he will be fooled by some people with ulterior motives. As comrades, we should give him a warning."

As he said this, he handed the calligraphy to Deputy Director Cao and said, "Xiao Cao, this calligraphy is for you."

"Hey, the old leader's calligraphy is priceless. I will find a good place to frame it when I get back and keep it as a family heirloom." Deputy Director Cao stared at the calligraphy and smiled so hard that his mouth almost reached his ears.

He knew clearly that these were not ordinary big characters, but a letter of introduction with a hidden secret.

The old leader took the towel from his assistant, wiped his hands and said, "There will be a meeting in the department tomorrow. You can mention the Red Star Computing Institute at the meeting. Remember, only raise issues, don't target anyone.

Why was Wang Wude disciplined by Minister Teng back then?

The most important point is that he loves to be in the limelight and acts flamboyantly. Once a person wants to be in the limelight, he will easily become complacent and relax his requirements on himself. "

"I understand, I understand." Although Deputy Director Cao understood, he still nodded without hesitation.

The old leader has been able to stand firm for so many years, his methods and strategies must be unfathomable and far beyond the reach of ordinary people.

"Then I'll go back first." Seeing the old leader sitting back in his chair and closing his eyes to rest, Deputy Director Cao tactfully backed out of the office.

The old leader's eyes were slightly narrowed, as if he was asleep, but also seemed not to be asleep.

****
The next day was Tuesday, the day when the Ministry of Railways held a meeting.

This is the twelfth meeting since the Ministry of Railways established the speed-up group.

After several months of hard work, there has been some progress in increasing train speeds, but not much.

The atmosphere became increasingly tense with each meeting.

Before this meeting, there was a rumor from somewhere that some people wanted to do something to the train speed-up working group at this meeting.

The source of this information is mysterious and cannot be verified, but who dares to take it lightly?
Therefore, when the leaders stepped into the conference room, their faces were more solemn than before, and the conference room was filled with a tense atmosphere.

To the leaders' surprise, several young comrades, led by the waiter, sat in the side area.

The side area has always been prepared for railway technical experts who give technical presentations at conferences.

But these young comrades were not wearing railway uniforms, but white coats, looking exactly like researchers in a research institute.

It was not until Li Aiguo and Professor Xia Zhongsu showed up that everyone realized that these people were from the Red Star Computing Institute.

Deputy Director Cao also saw Li Aiguo, and for some reason, his heart skipped a beat.
The scene that took place in this conference room several months ago is still vivid in my mind.

It was this seemingly ordinary train driver who caused a huge uproar at the conference and disrupted the layout that the old leader had painstakingly built up over several years.

But this time, no matter how much Minister Teng supports him, he cannot save the Red Star Computing Institute, let alone Li Aiguo.

As usual, the conference was chaired by Vice Minister Zhou.

He first talked about the speed increase of trains this month. The progress of speed increase is still not good, only less than one percent.

"Next," Vice Minister Zhou finished speaking and was about to hand over the right to speak to Minister Teng.

At this time, a hand was raised high.

Seeing Deputy Director Cao stand up, Deputy Minister Zhou frowned slightly and said, "Comrade Cao Gan, it's not time for free discussion yet. Please be patient."

"Minister Zhou, I just have one thing to say." Deputy Director Cao knew very well that once Minister Teng began to speak, he might never have another chance to interrupt.

Deputy Minister Zhou first glanced at the old leader, who squinted his eyes and leaned leisurely in his chair, as if he was out of the matter.

He looked at Minister Teng again. Minister Teng looked calm and nodded slightly: "The meeting is open and we must practice democracy. Since Comrade Cao Gan has an idea, let him speak out."

Deputy Minister Zhou raised his wrist to check his watch: "I'll give you two minutes."

Cao Gan was delighted and said quickly: "First of all, I have to make my position clear. I fully support the work of the railway speed-up group. However, the speed-up group has been established for half a year, but the results are very few. Moreover..."

He turned his head suddenly, his eyes piercing Li Aiguo, "Moreover, the Red Star Computing Institute has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as countless materials, but has not produced any output so far. Is this appropriate?"

His tone seemed calm, but as soon as these words came out, they exploded in the conference room like a bombshell.

Everyone knows that the Red Star Computing Institute was established with the full support of Minister Teng. Cao Gan is now directing his criticism at the Red Star Computing Institute, which is clearly questioning Minister Teng's decision.

"You" Deputy Minister Zhou did not expect Cao Gan to be so bold.

He wanted to stop Cao Gan, but saw that several key leaders were silent. He was shocked. Could it be that the scene from a few months ago was going to happen again, only this time the roles were reversed?

Cao Gan felt that he had made the right bet, so he emphasized his tone and pressed the issue: "Hundreds of thousands of dollars, that is the country's precious property, how can it be wasted like this? I suggest that we immediately set up an investigation team to thoroughly investigate the Red Star Computing Institute."

He paused and added, "Of course, this is just my personal suggestion. Everything will be up to the organization."

After saying this, Cao Gan sat down steadily.

At this moment, everyone in the conference hall focused their attention on Minister Teng.

They wanted to know how the head of the railway would resolve this crisis.

Minister Teng took his time, picked up the enamel pot, took a sip of tea, and a meaningful smile appeared on his face: "Comrade Cao Gan's concerns are not unreasonable. In fact, one of the purposes of this meeting is to introduce the achievements of the Red Star Computing Institute to everyone."

(End of this chapter)