Chapter 378 Preparations for the Internal Relocation
A ciphertext telegram sent from Beiping was delivered to Zhang Xingjiu, and the translation was as follows: "Mr. Zhou Ping, the situation is becoming increasingly tense, and I'm afraid the plan you made earlier will have to be put into action."
The sender of the letter was Mei Yiqi, president of Tsinghua University. As early as when Zhang Xingjiu went to the north, he expressed similar concerns, "As for whether I can continue to study quietly like this in this academic year and the next year, it is unknown at this time."
At this year's annual opening ceremony, Secretary-General Shen Lu clearly pointed out that "Tsinghua is in Peking, and Peking is now the forefront of national defense. This is an undeniable fact."
In addition to Zhang Xingjiu's reminder, Tsinghua University had begun preparing to evacuate Peking a long time ago. There were two main opinions about the evacuation location. Some people thought that Xi'an was appropriate, and some people proposed to move to Hunan because they believed that Japan's invasion would never extend as far as Hunan, and Hunan produced rice. Even if Japan wanted to blockade China, Tsinghua faculty and students would not starve.
Mei Yiqi supported going to Hunan. He once decided to stop the construction of the large-scale liberal arts and law school buildings, and prepared to transfer 400,000 yuan of infrastructure funds to Yuelu Mountain in Changsha to build a new school building as a retreat in case of war in North China.
However, Zhang Xingjiu expressed a different opinion. When the Japanese pirates launch an attack in the future, their target will definitely not only be North China. They will definitely use their naval advantage to attack important economic areas along the coast and then go straight to Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China. If Nanjing is lost, then Changsha will not be safe. They will definitely go upstream along the Yangtze River to attack Wuhan, Changsha and other places.
Their planes can even directly bomb Tsinghua University’s new campus in Changsha, so if you want to leave, go further away.
From this perspective, Xi'an is more suitable than Changsha. It is not easy for the Japanese to reach Xi'an because of the natural barriers such as Zhongtiao Mountain and the Yellow River. However, Xi'an is relatively poor and has limited grain production. It is probably difficult to accommodate so many teachers and students. Moreover, it is relatively cold in winter, requiring additional heating expenses, which is also a considerable amount.
If it was just one or two schools, there would be no problem. But this time, there are definitely more than just Tsinghua University going south. Peking University, Nankai University and other schools will also be going. This is beyond Xi'an's ability to bear.
So after comprehensive consideration, Zhang Xingjiu proposed to set up the school in Kunming, located in the southwest rear area. This place is far away from the front line, allowing teachers and students to carry out their teaching work with greater peace of mind.
At the same time, Yunnan has a subtropical climate with good water and heat conditions, and crops can be harvested twice or even three times a year, so it is much easier to feed these teachers and students than in Xi'an; plus, Kunming has spring-like weather all year round, which reduces a lot of expenses.
After some consideration, Mei Yiqi and Zhang Xingjiu convened a group to discuss the matter and finally passed the plan of choosing Kunming as the place of residence. The 400,000 yuan of funds was also sent to Kunming, and with the help of Zhang Xingjiu's old acquaintances such as Dong Ze, they began to select a site for building a school building.
Finally, the school was located on the east bank of Dianchi Lake, which is the location of the Haigeng Base in later generations. It is far away from the city and suitable for students to study.
In addition to Tsinghua University, Zhang Xingjiu also persuaded northern universities such as Peking University, Nankai University, Shandong University, as well as southern universities such as Xiamen University, Zhejiang University, and Sun Yat-sen University. As for Aurora University, it had already made preparations for moving south early on.
These schools pooled their money to purchase a large amount of land on the shores of Dianchi Lake, which quickly became a busy construction site. They hoped to complete the construction of the school buildings as soon as possible so that when teachers and students arrived in Kunming, they could immediately start resuming classes.
At the same time, all schools began to inventory and organize their valuable resources such as books, equipment, and teaching materials. At the end of last year, Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Nankai University secretly transported a batch of books and instruments to Shanghai, with 50 train cars in each batch and about 40 boxes in each car. This number is three times more than the original history.
These equipment and books will become very important teaching equipment for Southwest Associated University in the future, and will play an extremely important role in ensuring the normal teaching and limited scientific research of the university.
Aurora University also joined forces with several universities in Shanghai, as well as schools in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other places, and also raised a large number of equipment, books and other supplies. Zhang Xingjiu specially hired a French cargo ship to transport these supplies to Haiphong Port in Vietnam, and then changed trains here and sent them to Kunming via the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway.
Why not go through China, but go to Vietnam? There is really no other way. The Republic of China has been established for more than 20 years, and the domestic transportation construction is still slow. There are not many railways in the southwest region now, and it is very difficult to transport so many materials to Kunming.
If we first use the Yangtze River shipping to send the goods to Sichuan, and then hire a caravan in Sichuan to transport the goods to Kunming, it will be time-consuming and laborious. The most important thing is that the road is not safe. It would be a pity if these precious supplies were stolen by bandits or even warlord soldiers.
Therefore, they can only go through Vietnam. In the original history, when Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University moved inland, two-thirds of the teachers and students entered Yunnan via the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. Zhang Xingjiu is just rehearsing this route in advance so that problems can be discovered and solved in time. In this way, when the official relocation is made in the future, more teachers and students can be safely sent to Kunming.
After receiving the telegram, Zhang Xingjiu immediately went north. Mei Yiqi, president of Tsinghua University, Jiang Menglin, president of Peking University, Zhang Boling, president of Nankai University, and others were shocked to see him. "Mr. Zhouping, the Japanese are about to invade. It is too dangerous for you to come to Beiping at this time. The Japanese have always regarded you as a thorn in their side."
"The relocation of the school is a big deal. You have never been to Kunming, but I have traveled all over the country. You have to listen to me when the time comes to decide on the relocation route." Zhang Xingjiu explained, then raised his hand to stop their persuasion, "Now is not the time to talk nonsense, let's come up with a charter!"
"First, each school should immediately set up a school relocation committee to be fully responsible for the relocation matters and clarify the responsibilities and ranking order of each committee member, so that when the time comes, there will be no one to make the final decision and time will be wasted on communication back and forth."
In the original history, when the Japanese invaders launched the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, these principals were all in Lushan attending a talk meeting on national affairs convened by Zheng Sanfazi. They could only communicate with the school via telegrams. The Nationalist government was also slow in making decisions, and it was not until mid-August that it decided to relocate the school. By then, the Japanese invaders had already entered the city.
These problems caused the schools to waste a lot of valuable time, and a large amount of equipment, books and materials could not be withdrawn, and even many teachers and students were killed.
The first thing Zhang Xingjiu needs to solve now is this problem. He hopes that all schools can withdraw faster by then.
(End of this chapter)
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