The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 554 Dear Albert, it's time to take medicine! (Please subscribe and vote)
On the second day of the second month of the sixth year of the Tianli calendar, it was misty and rainy.

Today is the day when the results of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s first “college entrance examination” are announced!

Although the Ministry of Rites of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had repeatedly stated that the college entrance examination was not an imperial examination, and that those who passed the examination would not be granted official positions immediately, or even necessarily. However, this examination was the first "big competition" held by the Ministry of Rites for students from all over the country since the founding of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Moreover, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom court attached unprecedented importance to this college entrance examination. After Wang Libin returned to China with Prussian elementary and middle school science textbooks, preparations began! Even for this "big competition", a "Imperial College" called "Taiping University Hall" was opened!
Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had held several imperial examinations before, those were not formal. They were not national competitions held by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom court, but imperial examinations held by the kings of the Heavenly Kingdom. In fact, they were examinations for the kings to recruit clerks and staff for themselves. Luo Yaoguo's Wu Wangfu also held several so-called imperial examinations, selecting hundreds of "Jinshi". However, these Jinshi were not "qualified enough", and there were no good officials to be held after passing the examination. Generally, they started as low-level staff officials. Therefore, the people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not take these "Jinshi of the kings" seriously.

This much-anticipated "college entrance examination" was regarded as a formal imperial examination and attracted the attention of countless people, at least countless scholars.

Outside the south gate of Taiping University, which was covered by rain, on the south side of the 118 "pillars of heaven". Thousands of candidates crowded under the oilcloth tent, their eyes trembling with the sound of the gongs of the Taiping Army holding umbrellas. Weng Tonghe, a candidate from Suzhou Prefecture, stood in the corner of the tent with his sleeves rolled up, holding his breath. He had long been Luo Yaoguo's staff, and he also had military merits. If he wanted to be an official, he would not be sure to be a prefect, but he would have no problem being a county magistrate, and he could get a good position. But what he wanted was the background of "college entrance examination champion"!
Only with being the top scholar and having military merits can you go far in the officialdom of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!
So in the past two years, he endured the loneliness and did not become a high-ranking official. In addition to going to Beijing several times for Luo Yaoguo to earn merit, he studied hard in physics and chemistry. Not only did he finish the high school courses, he also secretly learned some university mathematics courses from Yung Wing, in order to make a splash and win the first place in the imperial examination.
But the college entrance examination is really difficult!
Although he was sure to be admitted to Taiping University, he was not sure about becoming the top scholar.

"The first name - Hua Hengfang from Suzhou!" The person in charge of calling out the name was a loud-voiced person with a Hakka accent, and he called it out twice in a row.

"Hua" Weng Tonghe's eyes went dark and he almost fainted. Fortunately, Wu Tingfang, a young candidate from Guangdong, helped him up and said, "Brother Weng, don't worry. There are still runners-up and third place winners."

"Second place - Huang Sheng from Guangzhou!"

It's not me!

Weng Tonghe was sweating. He knew both Hua Hengfang and Huang Sheng. Hua Hengfang was a self-taught engineer at the Jiangnan Shipyard. He was a real science genius! Huang Sheng had studied in the United States and was the director of the Shanghai Tongwenguan! The university textbooks that Weng Tonghe was going to study were all translated by him.
"Third place - Li Fengbao from Taicang!"

Still no Weng Tonghe!
Luo Yaoguo, who was hiding under another tarpaulin tent and listening to the roll call officer's announcement, smiled smugly.

Weng Tonghe is certainly a genius. This time he ranked fifth - fifth in the national college entrance examination science paper. He is definitely a genius.

But there are four people who are more talented than him, namely Hua Hengfang, Huang Sheng, Li Fengbao and Tian Jiuzhong. Luo Yaoguo knows Hua, Huang and Li, but Tian Jiuzhong is a Shanghainese who is in his thirties.

He must be a genius buried by history, right?
“It’s not fair why they are all from the South!”

"There must be fraud!"

"There are so many talented people in the Central Plains, how come none of them passed the exam?"

"That's right, even Zhang Xiaoda from Nanpi is not on the list. There must be something fishy going on!"

When the roll call officer finished reading out the names of all the admitted candidates, the crowd suddenly exploded. Dozens of northern students suddenly overturned the tarpaulin tent and rushed out to protest. The Taiping Army was there to maintain order, and everyone had their swords drawn. It seemed that a bloodbath was about to happen.

Luo Yaoguo, who was comforting Zhou Xiuying who failed the college entrance examination, calmly pulled out his pistol and fired two shots into the sky. The northern candidates who had just cut their braids were stunned and all cast their eyes on the man who was wearing a blue cloth robe, had short hair, and was followed by two beauties, one big and one small.

"Who is Zhang Xiaoda?" Luo Yaoguo glanced at the crowd with a smile on his face, but he did not put down the revolver in his hand.

"I'm from Zhili Nanpi Zhangzhidong." A young man came out from an intact oilcloth shed.

It’s really hard that Zhang Xiangshuai didn’t pass the exam!

"Why didn't you pass the exam?" Luo Yaoguo asked, "Was it because the test was too difficult, or because you didn't have enough time to study math, physics and chemistry?"

There were five papers in this college entrance examination, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, Confucianism, and Taiping Classics (mainly the contents of "Anti-Classics", "Tianchao Tianmu System", and "Zizheng Xinpian"). "Reciting classics" would definitely not be difficult for Zhang Zhidong, but the science subjects should be difficult for him. "Sir, I didn't do well in mathematics, physics, and chemistry." The young Zhang Zhidong said calmly, "But I will definitely pass the exam next year!"

"Good, you have great ambition!" Luo Yaoguo nodded approvingly, then he looked around and took in the aspirations of these thousands of students. "Anyone who has confidence in themselves can stay in Tianjing to repeat their studies. I will arrange for students who have been admitted to Taiping University to give you extra lessons, and we will fight again next year. I will be waiting for you at the top of the mountain!"

Billowing black smoke permeated the twilight on the north bank of the Han River. Yang Xiuqing, with a livid face, strode into the accident scene. The cast iron shell of the Russian blast furnace was cracked like a turtle's back. The broken leg of the North Korean craftsman Park Qi was still stuck in the feed port. In his hand, he held a piece of coke with a seriously excessive sulfur content - it was coke made by a primitive method using coal imported from China. It could be the cause of the explosion, or it could be that the refractory materials were not up to standard, or something else.

Tupolev followed Yang Xiuqing with sweat all over his forehead. He didn't really know much about iron smelting, and he was forced to do it. He was clearly following the blueprint, but somehow it still blew up.

"The dead and wounded will all be given generous compensation," Yang Xiuqing glanced at the casualties on the ground, and then his cold eyes swept over Tupolev: "Keep working, we must succeed!"

The sound of clogs came from behind Yang Xiuqing. Daozi quietly walked behind Yang Dongwang with a secret letter in his hand: "Dongwang, there seems to be a cheating in the imperial examination in Tianjing. After the big exam, someone made trouble, and Luo Wuwang also detained two or three thousand people to attend some kind of 're-study class'!"

"What did you get in the exam?" Yang Xiuqing asked with a frown.

"Mathematics, physics, chemistry, Confucianism, and the Taiping Classics." Daozi replied.

"What is this? There is no such thing as a test in the imperial examination. Who can do it?" Yang Xiuqing turned his eyes back to the blown-up blast furnace and said to Daozi, "You should work harder and go to Shanghai to see if you can hire some people who can build blast furnaces! Also, don't be afraid to spend money, get some more drawings and formulas!"

"Hai!"

The carved copper bed in Buckingham Palace glowed warmly in the firelight. Prince Albert curled up in the silk quilt, and the sound of his intestines mixed with the sound of rain in London outside the window sounded like the rhythm of death knocking on the door. He was exhausted by the war with the Russians during this period, and he knew that he would die soon. He was always a little depressed and his physical condition was getting worse. I don’t know what he ate a few days ago? As a result, he vomited and had diarrhea. Could it be that his death was approaching?

He was supposed to die in 1861, but it is only 1856 now, so there are still 5 years left!

"God, save me, I am still young and don't want to die." Prince Albert was praying to God when he suddenly heard the sound of the door being pushed open.

"Ta, Ta, Ta"

High heels shattered the silence of the corridor, and then Prince Albert heard his wife's cheerful voice: "Dear Albert, it's time to take medicine."

same moment.

At the San Francisco dock, the smoke from the steamship had not yet dissipated, and Huang Shiren's thousand-layer cloth shoes were already stepping on the muddy ground outside the dock. He suddenly heard a familiar sound of gongs and drums, and looked up to see a Cantonese opera troupe singing "Heavenly Father Punishes Demons". The one beating the gong was a boy with a strange appearance, not like a Han Chinese, not like a white man, and certainly not like a black man, with cinnabar talismans painted on his face.

In the salty sea breeze, a gilded statue of Hong Xiuquan was being carried in a parade. The statue had been modified to have three heads and six arms - holding the Bible in the left hand, the True Testament in the right hand, and the Tianchao Tianmu System in the middle hands. Xianfeng was wearing the black robe of a True Testament pastor, holding the True Testament in his hands, muttering something, probably chanting scriptures, but his eyes were fixed on the oil-paper umbrella of a Japanese geisha - she looked a bit like Rinko, but it was not her!
"Senator O'Connor is applying gilding to the statue of the Heavenly King in the cathedral." De Ling, who was with Xianfeng, suddenly pointed to the True Jesuit Cathedral in the distance and shouted to the group of Chinese and Irish people below, "His Japanese wife said that we must learn to pray in Hakka, because the Heavenly King said that the Father speaks Hakka."

At this time, the Chinese on the dock suddenly became excited. Smith, who was running for mayor of San Francisco, came with his wife in a furisode kimono, with a Colt 1851 Navy pistol in his suit pocket. The trigger guard was engraved with "Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau".

Huang Shiren looked at the scene in front of him, which seemed a little unreal. For a moment, he doubted whether he had really arrived in the United States or in Guangdong. Or maybe he was still in Shanghai and it was just a dream.
"Brother, what is your name and where are you from?" A hoarse Beijing dialect voice suddenly sounded in Huang Shiren's ears.

(End of this chapter)