Chapter 367: Prepare for a
Rainy Day Those who came to greet him were mainly people from the education and academic circles, led by Mei Yiqi and the current Peking University President Jiang Menglin. Xiao Liuzi also sent an adjutant to welcome Zhang Xingjiu on his behalf and invited him to a banquet tomorrow.
These people were quite moved when they saw Zhang Xingjiu. "Now that the situation is precarious and Beiping is no longer safe, Mr. Zhang still brought so many people to the north to support the education cause of Beiping and even the entire north. It is really admirable."
"I have been teaching for my entire life, and I don't know anything else. Now I only hope that I can train more talents for China and contribute to the construction of China." Thinking of the current situation, Zhang Xingjiu could only sigh.
After having dinner with them in the evening, Zhang Xingjiu came to Tsinghua Auditorium early the next morning and gave a speech, explaining to the teachers and students his ideas on building science, engineering and medical majors.
The domestic situation was precarious, and student protests were surging, especially at Peking University and Tsinghua University. Many students were dissatisfied with the school administrators, and there were often students making noises and making sarcastic remarks during speeches. But when Zhang Xingjiu was speaking, all the students in the audience held their breath and listened carefully with an extremely correct attitude.
This is the prestige that Zhang Xingjiu has gained from working in the education industry for more than 30 years. He has traveled all over the country to help establish schools and help them improve their teaching abilities in science and engineering. The students are just young and impulsive, not ungrateful.
Moreover, Zhang Xingjiu spoke very honestly in his speech. He always considered the students and encouraged them to improve themselves through hard work so that they could master more skills to build the country. Faced with such a teacher, how could they make trouble?
At the end of the speech, all the teachers and students stood up and applauded, welcoming Zhang Xingjiu and thanking him for all he had done for Tsinghua. Zhang Xingjiu tried to dissuade them several times, but the applause still refused to stop and lasted for more than five minutes.
After the applause, Mei Yiqi announced the appointment of Zhang Xingjiu. Zhang Xingjiu will preside over the departmental reform as the honorary president of Tsinghua University and the dean of the School of Science and Engineering. Tsinghua will also increase its investment in science, engineering, and medicine, and strive to build Tsinghua into a truly comprehensive first-class university.
In the afternoon, Zhang Xingjiu continued to hold meetings with Tsinghua teachers to appoint new teachers and professional managers for each department. These had been discussed with Mei Yiqi in advance. Mei Yiqi also did a good job of working with Tsinghua's old faculty and staff. At least at the meeting, they did not express much opinion. In fact, it was not easy for them to express their opinions because the people brought by Zhang Xingjiu were indeed superior to them in knowledge and ability.
If someone is not convinced and is refuted on the spot and is unable to save face, that would be a bad look. Science and engineering are different from liberal arts. Some things are right and wrong, and there is not much room for ambiguity.
Zhang Xingjiu originally wanted to hold the meeting until late at night, but Xiao Liuzi's adjutant was already waiting outside with the car. He had no choice but to postpone the matters that had not been discussed today to tomorrow and go to the banquet with his adjutant.
Today was a private banquet. Xiao Liuzi and Miss Zhao Si invited Zhang Xingjiu and Ma Zongwen and his wife. There were no outsiders. After meeting, Xiao Liuzi first expressed his admiration for Zhang Xingjiu, and then sighed repeatedly.
"Mr. Zhang is willing to go north to support Tsinghua University, which is a great thing for the entire northern education community. Originally, I should do my best to help Mr. Zhang, but you also know that the current situation has become like this. People all over the country are scolding me for losing sovereignty and humiliating the country. I am about to resign. At this time, even if I want to help, I am powerless. I can only use this glass of wine to express my apologies to Mr. Zhang!"
Zhang Xingjiu didn’t have much to say. He knew that Xiao Liuzi felt a little aggrieved, but if he hadn’t been cowardly first, how could he have ended up like this?
However, Xiao Liuzi still underestimated the Japanese's ambition. They would not be satisfied with just swallowing up the Northeast. In a few years, they would also covet North China. At that time, both Tsinghua University and Peking University would have to withdraw to the south.
Therefore, we have to make preparations in advance and preserve as much teaching capacity as possible to avoid suffering too much loss during the retreat. Therefore, Zhang Xingjiu starts to prepare for a rainy day now.
The frustrating thing is that it is difficult to say these things directly. It would be fine if no one believed it, but if someone labeled him as a coward and afraid of the enemy, it would probably affect the preparations.
Zhang Xingjiu could only take some more tactful ways to make preparations, such as proposing to Mei Yiqi to add military training subjects to Tsinghua's compulsory courses. There was no requirement to train students to be soldiers. And to be honest, unless it was absolutely necessary, it would be a waste to let these students become soldiers. They should play a more important role in more suitable positions.
I just hope to help them exercise and cultivate a certain degree of discipline so that they can be more efficient when retreating in the future.
The key equipment in each laboratory is also managed under a unified numbering system, and daily maintenance personnel will receive training on rapid disassembly and installation. If the situation changes in the future, the equipment can be disassembled, packed and shipped away immediately. These precious equipment must not be left to the Japanese.
At the same time, Zhang Xingjiu did not forget to continue exchanging letters with Dong Ze and others in Yunnan, so as to timely understand the needs of universities in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shaanxi and other places, and provide them with help within his ability.
In the future, in order to avoid war, universities had only two choices: one was to go to the southwest and build Southwest Associated University in Kunming; the other was to go to Shaanxi. The most famous of these was the Shanghai Jiaotong University coming to Xi'an, which gave birth to Xi'an Jiaotong University. This is the spirit of westward migration that was repeatedly promoted by the education community in the future.
However, these places are currently very backward and can only accommodate a limited number of students. If we rush there, it will take some time to resume teaching, and the results will certainly be far inferior to those in Beijing and Shanghai.
Therefore, Zhang Xingjiu planned to stay in Beijing for a few years first, and after improving the strength of Tsinghua's science and engineering, he would travel to the northwest, southwest and other places to investigate the local conditions in advance and make some preparations.
In this way, when schools flock to the southwest, northwest and other places to avoid the war, some precious time can be saved and teaching work can be resumed as soon as possible.
Now time is running out, Zhang Xingjiu wishes there were forty-eight hours in a day, but unfortunately the turbulent situation has wasted too much of his time. Just after the New Year, there is not much chaos in the capital, but problems arose first in Shanghai.
He had to take time out to go south and return to Aurora University to temporarily take charge of the situation until Shanghai recovered temporarily and then return to Peking.
In October, there was finally good news. Those people fulfilled their promise. The Nobel Prize Committee announced this year's list of winners. Zhang Xingjiu and Tang Feifan won this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their contributions to penicillin.
(End of this chapter)
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