One day in early April 1850, on the beach of Deep Water Bay on Hong Kong Island, a group of young men in suits were talking about something. These young people are the first batch of graduates of Hong Kong Chi Shi University. It seems that Emperor Zhu had the earliest dream of opening Hong Kong Jishi University and transforming China with a new type of education, and he did invest tens of millions of dollars in it. Four modern comprehensive universities, including Hong Kong Jishi University, Guangzhou Jishi University, Shanghai Jishi University, and Yingtian Jishi University, as well as dozens of academies equivalent to primary and secondary schools, as well as the Army and Navy Military Academies that adopt all-Western-style military education.

But it seems to take more time to train a qualified college student than it takes to build an empire. According to the educational process of later generations, six years of elementary school, three years of junior high school, three years of high school, and four years of college require sixteen years of hard study to produce a college graduate.

Even in this era, people have far less scientific knowledge than later generations, and the curriculum from primary school to university is relatively simple, the process cannot be shortened much. The reason why it only took about four years to train the first batch of college students of the new Ming Dynasty was that in China and Nanyang in the 1840s, some so-so Chinese young people equivalent to secondary education could still be found.

They began to enroll in 1846, first a year of pre-university education, then three years of formal university education, and then half a year of internship, and it was not the kind of university education that could be graduated from the casual gangsters in later generations, but the strictest and hardest study - due to the lack of qualified students, Jishi University could only use the method of wide entry and strict exit at the beginning, and many new students who entered the university could not reach the level of secondary school graduation. Therefore, in 1846, there were 149 Chinese freshmen enrolled in Hong Kong Chi Shi University, and now only 72 have graduated, and some of the rest have dropped out for various reasons, and some have retained grades because they failed the examination. I won't be able to graduate until next year or even the year after!

For these college graduates, who can definitely be regarded as the pride of the sky, they are full of hope for the future, but they are also not without regrets.

Most of them did not think about becoming officials and politicians, let alone that China would undergo earth-shaking changes in just a few years. Those students who came to Hong Kong Island with them, because they couldn't get into Jishi University, and they didn't even have the qualifications to enter the genuine Jishi Academy, so they could only go to the Ap Lei Chau Branch, but they were coerced by Zhu Jishi to rebel, and now all those who are still alive have become aristocratic officers! The youngest is also a major baron, and some are even high generals! And these real elites are just ordinary college graduates. It's impossible to say that there isn't a little bit of loss.

This batch of Chinese university graduates was trained at the expense of Emperor Zhu, and they did not pay a penny of tuition, and even Zhu Jishi paid for food, clothing, housing and transportation. Therefore, I signed a contract when I entered the school, and I had to serve Zhu Jishi for at least 5 years after graduation! Now His Majesty the Emperor has personally arranged the work for each of them - all of them are assigned by the package, and the number one of the countries will personally take care of them! That's awesome. But everyone was still a little disappointed. After getting the graduation assignment notice, they gathered on this beach and started talking.

"I studied engineering. The apprenticeship was at the Hong Kong shipyard of Nanyang Hong. This time, he was assigned to the steam engine branch of the Guangzhou Shipyard of Nanyang Company as a trainee engineer. The salary is not bad, I get 300 silver dollars a month, and I have to double it after becoming a formal engineer, which is not bad, but unfortunately it is not a career path. Do you know that I met Zuo Zongtang on the way to Kaojishi University. He was a down-and-out scholar at the time, and now he is a master......"

"What's so good about getting into the office? A petty official of eight or nine grades, with a salary of more than a dozen silver dollars a month, is not as good as us even if he is more famous. We are all famous. I, Huang Kuan, went to Yingtianjishi University this time as a lecturer and a surgeon in an affiliated hospital, with a salary of 350 yuan, maybe I can see the emperor often! ”

"If you want to say that you have a good score, it has to be Rong Dameng, the vice principal of Emperor City Public School...... Resting in front of the court is the chief master of the study! In the future, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, several princes and the sons of the high-ranking officials and dignitaries of the Heavenly Dynasty will be his students, and they will be much better than me, the vice principal of Hong Kong Jishi College......"

"Why do you always want to be an official? What if you become prime minister? If there is no Xuntian, it is just a thousand yuan a year, and it is not much better than a foreign engineer. I heard that the annual salary of HSBC's soup class is more than 100,000 yuan! I, Tang Tingshu, want to be the second soup class. ”

"What kind of foreign business class, my Feng Ziming's life goal is to open a factory and become the boss by myself...... What those foreigners can produce, we Chinese can also produce! Can do better than them! Isn't this how our emperor made his fortune? I plan to work in Lanfang for 5 years first, just learn to do business, save some capital, and do it myself after 5 years...... Which of you would be interested in working with me? ”

"I'm not interested in doing business! Our generation of young people should take the rise and fall of the world as their own responsibility! If we don't go into politics, who will go into politics? Does it depend on those sour talents who read the eight-strand article? What kind of brains are they, and everyone still doesn't know what kind of brains they have? If the country is always in charge of the country, sooner or later it will follow the old path of defeat and defeat...... Moreover, the monarchical dictatorship system has been proven to be backward in Europe and the United States, and now the advanced countries in Europe and the United States are all practicing parliamentary constitutionalism and taking the line of serving the public in the world, but our constitution is still prescriptive, and the Constituent Assembly is just a vase. ”

When the words were lively, they suddenly heard someone come out and say such a big rebellious thing, and they were still so righteous, everyone stopped and looked at the person who spoke fixedly. But the man didn't care, and was calm. He is burly, with a doughy face, and his facial features are still upright, he is not a graduate of the first phase of Jishi University, but Hu Zhenguo, a freshman who has just been admitted to the preparatory department of the law department of Jishi University. According to himself, this person is the son of a wealthy overseas Chinese businessman who has traveled to Europe and the United States, and he is also very generous in his daily life, is easy to make friends, likes to talk about politics, and has established an organization called the "Constitutional Research Society." It was also the internal journal of Hong Kong Chi Shi University, "Youth", which published several articles advocating the republic, so it became famous. He is considered by several foreign professors to be China's future political star, but the graduates of the first phase of Jishi don't treat him very well - these graduates have a salary of 300 to 500 silver dollars as soon as they leave the campus, and even if they get thousands of yuan, it is only a matter of a few years, who will have enough to support the rebellion?

The buzzing voice sounded again: "Our Ming Dynasty has its own national conditions, it has been the way of the family for thousands of years, and the top and bottom have long been accustomed to it, if you want to do something republican custody all at once, you have to mess up the rules, and you won't be able to do anything at that time." ”

That is, there are only a few countries in the world that have constitutional parliaments in the world, such as the United States, England, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the Ming Dynasty. As Hu Jun said, does the world really exist as a public country? I've heard of Louis of France. Napoleon was preparing to become emperor, and there were slaves in the United States! ”

"That's right! The world for the public is just a fantasy, and everyone is for selfishness is the reality. If Brother Hu is made the commander, he may be the Louis of China. Napoleon is up! In my opinion, our constitutional assembly in the Ming Dynasty has already done a good job, and there is no need to carry out political changes. the second is to develop industry and commerce to strengthen the national capital; The third is to open up the northeast, desert north, northwest and south seas to alleviate the dilemma of a large number of people and a small amount of land in the interior. All of this is already being done now, and the country is thriving, and my classmates will only be able to make great achievements in the coming days......"

After the discussion, these graduates of the first phase of Jishi University became supporters of Emperor Zhu, and no one paid attention to Hu Zhenguo's remarks anymore. In the final analysis, under the leadership of Zhu Ming, China is not in danger of becoming a colony, it is also the No. 1 power in the world, the capitalist economy is thriving, and the personal future of these young students is also very good, so naturally they have no idea of worrying about the world. (To be continued......)