Chapter 380 Leaving Shanghai
It was summer vacation, and first, second, and third year students from Peking universities such as Tsinghua University and Peking University were conducting military exercises at a summer camp in Miaofeng Mountain in the western suburbs of Peking. More than 200 fourth year graduates stayed on campus to find jobs and prepare for graduate school and government-funded student exams to study in the United States. Most of the faculty and staff were on campus.
Upon learning that the war had broken out, Mei Yiqi decisively implemented the plan for internal relocation according to the contingency plan. He immediately packed up his personal belongings and distributed them to all teachers and students, gathering them together and preparing them to set off at any time.
At the same time, we quickly packed up the equipment, books, and materials that were still left in the school. The boxes had been prepared long ago and were numbered. Various materials had also been numbered. Now we just had to put the items into the corresponding boxes according to the numbers.
The most troublesome thing now was the train carriages. As soon as the war broke out, the train station was crowded with people preparing to go south to escape the war. Fortunately, all universities had students working in the railway department. Mei Yiqi also established connections in advance according to Zhang Xingjiu's instructions, and thus secured precious carriages for the school's relocation to the south.
The teachers and students immediately lined up in an orderly manner, jogged all the way to the train station, and quickly boarded the train. A group of specially selected teachers and students used a small number of cars and a large number of rickshaws to transport the packed equipment and materials onto the train, and arranged for special personnel to guard both ends of the carriage.
With Zhang Xingjiu's advance reminder, a detailed relocation plan was formulated, and several simulation drills were conducted in advance, the relocation work of these colleges and universities is now much more efficient than in the original history. In just a few days, all the teachers and students who were willing to leave left Peking and Tianjin, and most of the materials and equipment that could be taken away were also taken away. Some of them could not be taken away, so they were simply distributed to the nearby people. This was better than letting the Japanese get them in the future.
There were still a few teachers and students who were unwilling to leave, and Mei Yiqi had no choice but to let them stay and told them that if they wanted to go to Kunming in the future, the school would always welcome them.
Zhang Xingjiu, Zhang Boling, Jiang Menglin and others left Lushan and rushed to Shanghai immediately. When they arrived, Aurora University and many other universities in Shanghai had already made preparations for relocation. Their preparations were even more thorough than those of Tsinghua University and Peking University, because this was Zhang Xingjiu's base camp. He had been operating in Shanghai for more than 40 years and his words were much more effective than those in the north.
Some church schools and schools founded with foreign funds were indifferent to this. They felt that even if the Japanese attacked Shanghai, they would not dare to touch them and they were safe staying in the concession.
Zhang Xingjiu didn't have any better solution for this. He could only arrange people to persuade the students and Chinese teachers of these schools as much as possible, promising that they could still teach and study in the new schools when they arrived in Kunming. This did attract some teachers and students to leave with them, but the foreign consuls were quite dissatisfied with this and repeatedly found Zhang Xingjiu to protest.
Zhang Xingjiu had already hired foreign ships in advance based on the actual situation. The teachers and students from Shanghai universities set off first with supplies and students, while the teachers and students from the north took the second ship.
He knew very well that the Japanese were planning to launch an all-out war this time. Once Peking fell, Shanghai would suffer an unprecedented fierce attack. Time was most precious at this time, and it would be best to leave first, to avoid the Japanese navy coming and forcing the ships back to Shanghai or even sinking them directly.
You have to know that the two ships carry the academic elite of the entire China. Once the attack is successful, China will suffer extremely heavy losses. If this is possible, even if it is an American ship, it will be attacked. The worst that can happen is that we will have to pay compensation and apologize to the American devils afterwards.
All the teachers and students left, but Zhang Xingjiu and Ma Xiangbo stayed. They still had a lot of work to do, such as welcoming teachers and students from the north to the south and dealing with the relevant assets of Aurora University.
Aurora University is not an ordinary college. It has many factories under its name. Many of these factories are located in Shanghai. They have provided valuable funds for Aurora University and have reached first-class levels in Asia and even the world in the fields of alkali production and MSG production. It would be a pity if such factories were left to the Japanese.
Therefore, the equipment that can be dismantled should be dismantled, packed and shipped away as quickly as possible. If it is impossible to dismantle or there is no time to dismantle it, it is better to install explosives in key positions and leave trusted people to guard them. If the Japanese have not entered Shanghai, they will simply collapse. If they do, they will be detonated immediately. It is better to destroy it than leave it to the Japanese.
Various written materials were of top importance. We must not let these precious things fall into the hands of the Japanese. We took away as much as possible and burned those that could not be taken away directly. Not even a piece of paper would be left for the Japanese.
Fortunately, because of Zhang Xingjiu, the plans formulated by the northern universities were very detailed and anticipated various emergencies, so there was not much delay and most of the teachers and students from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Nankai University and other universities arrived in Shanghai smoothly.
They continued to take the second ship south to Vietnam's Haiphong Port. The equipment dismantled from the factory and the valuable data were also loaded onto the ship. Everything was ready. As long as Zhang Xingjiu gave the order, the ship would soon set sail.
But Ma Xiangbo refused to leave no matter what. He stood at the gate of Aurora University, sent off the last batch of teachers and students, and turned around to go back to school. Zhang Xingjiu quickly stopped him and said, "Father-in-law, the school is empty now, why are you going back?"
"I won't leave, Zhouping. I'm almost a hundred years old. Why am I still struggling at this age? Just let me live and die with Aurora University!" Ma Xiangbo said tremblingly with tears on his face.
He was born in the year of the Opium War and is 98 years old this year. It is hard for the old man to get over the humiliation he has suffered at such an old age.
Zhang Xingjiu knew very well that it was useless to play the family card at this time, so he chose another way, "Father-in-law, it is precisely because the national affairs are difficult now that you can't give up at this time. Going to Kunming to rebuild the school is complicated and needs an elder like you to take charge. This is your responsibility, and you must not ignore it."
"How could our country become like this? Even a 100-year-old man like me can't have peace!" Ma Xiangbo shook his head and smiled bitterly, but still accepted Zhang Xingjiu's persuasion. Even at this age, he still couldn't let go of these students.
Zhang Xingjiu was the last one to board the ship. As soon as he stepped onto the deck, the captain immediately ordered to raise the anchor and set sail. Many teachers and students refused to return to the cabin. They held the railings with both hands and looked in the direction of the school with tears in their eyes. They did not leave until the sailor came over to urge them, looking back every few steps.
Ordinary teachers and students could be immersed in sadness, but Zhang Xingjiu, Ma Xiangbo, Mei Yiqi, Jiang Menglin, Zhang Boling and others did not even have time to be sad. They immediately gathered together for a meeting as there were still many things they needed to resolve.
(End of this chapter)
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