Sun Yuanqi spent three days, combined with the school situation in his recollections, sorted out the speech, about 70,000 or 80,000 words, renamed it "The Preliminary Draft of the School System", and handed it to Xia Ruifang. I was still a little apprehensive in my heart, after all, this was not my area of expertise: "Brother Xia, is this book really easy to sell?" ”

"We're not afraid of printing books, what do you have to worry about writing manuscripts? Typical 'the emperor is not in a hurry, the eunuch is in a hurry'! Xia Ruifang flipped through the manuscript and quipped, "You can rest assured!" Now, it's just a pile of blank paper, wrapped in a book jacket of 'Mr. Sun Yuanqi Baixi', and some people have bought it and read it at home! ”

Didn't this mean Han Dashao?

No matter, since people don't worry about smashing their hands on their hands, what do you care?

On the second day, he took a sea ship to Tianjin.

The steamer sailed on the sea for one day and two nights, docked at Qingdao and Weihai, and finally arrived at the end point of Tianjin Tanggu. Take a train from Tanggu to Tianjin, and then take a train to the railway station outside Beijing's Qianmen. The railway, which was demolished during the Boxer Rebellion last summer, has been repaired by this time. But the city of Tianjin has been razed to the ground, and from Tianjin to Langfang to Beijing, the road is sparsely populated, and there are occasional remnants of war.

Sun Yuanqi returned to Beijing and did not tell his family the news. When I got off the train, it was already the afternoon of June 23. Hire two husbands, carry the luggage out of the train station, ask for a big car, throw the luggage on the car, and go back.

Sitting in the car, seeing the collapsed and burned houses on both sides of the street from time to time, and there were traces of smoke and fire on the walls, I asked the coachman: "Master, there was a lot of trouble in the summer and autumn last year!" ”

"Listen to Mr.'s voice, he is also from our Shuntianfu, right?" The coachman held his whip and asked first, "What was the mess last year?" The emperor and Lafayette were driven out of Beijing and went to Xi'an. Back then, Xianfeng Ye was driven to Rehe; Now, Guangxu Ye was driven to Xi'an. You say, if you pick it up later, where can you run? You can't go to the borders of those barbarians in Xinjiang and Tibet! ”

"......" Sun Yuanqi can now be sure that the mouth of the "elder brother" of Beijing City in later generations is completely inherited by a teacher. I had to ask again: "So, a lot of people died, right?" ”

The coachman came to the spirit: "Wow! But it's not old or young! In Zhuangwangfu alone, more than 1,700 boxers were killed and burned. Since the foreign devils entered Beijing, the vegetable market has been killing people every day, think about it, can there be fewer deaths? Those foreign devils, they are not good people, burning, killing and looting, they come everywhere, it is said that the German Marshal Wadsey also plundered the army for three days, and the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace were washed! Just small Japan, he snatched 3 million taels of silver from the household department, and was afraid that people would know about it, so he burned the household yamen. Isn't this a cover-up? ……”

From the front door to the back sea, a few miles away, between talking, it will be there in minutes.

When I got closer, I saw that the courtyard of the house was not damaged, and I was reassured. Looking carefully at the house where I have lived for a year and a half, I have a warm feeling out of thin air.

"Master, wait a minute, I'll ask someone to move the luggage!" Sun Yuanqi gave the money, got out of the car with one leg, and was about to call someone at the door.

Hey! The door is closed. When Sun Yuanqi was there before, students came and went every day, and the door was always open. What's going on?

Went up and knocked on the door a few times.

"Who?" An unfamiliar voice must not be Lao Tong.

Footsteps rang from far to near, and then the door opened a small crack, and a human head poked out of the gap: "Who are you looking for?" ”

Who to look for? That's what I asked. This is my home, ask me who to look for? Sun Yuan saw that he didn't know this person, so he had to ask patiently: "Who are you?" What about Lao Tong, Lao Zhao, and Lao Zheng? ”

"Are you...... Sir, right? The man hesitated, tentatively asking.

Master? I guess I'm talking about it! Sun Yuan nodded.

When the man heard this, he hurriedly opened the door, and then ran towards the backyard, shouting as he ran: "The master is back!" The lord is back! ”

Sun Yuanqi's outstretched arm in mid-air froze there: You helped me carry my luggage, why did you run?

I heard the sound of chickens flying and dogs jumping in the front and back yards, and hundreds of people poured out of the door.

"Sir?"

"Master, you're coming back!"

"Mr. Sun!"

……

Sun Yuanqi didn't expect that there were so many people in the yard, and there were many people he didn't know. Dozens of people who ran out of the front yard were acquaintances, and the first ones were Han Yu, Chen Jide, Zhou Zongwu, Zhang Chun, Gu Zhilin, Liu Bin, these old students, as well as the two boys of the Zhao family, Zhao Jingxing and Zhao Jingfan, and the others lagged behind, it is estimated that the old Tong family, the old Zheng family, and the last two batches of students from Chongshi Middle School.

In front of Sun Yuanqi, "poof" and "poof" knelt together, and they couldn't stop it.

"Boyu, Yide, everyone is okay? Don't kneel yet, my luggage is still in the car outside! Go and move me in! "No way, the luggage is still outside.

"Okay!" Han Yu and Chen Jide kowtowed, stood up and shouted, "Pickles, Jing Xing, Jing Fan, Jing Xian, come and carry your luggage!" ”

Suddenly, Ying Sheng jumped four and a half children from the crowd and followed the two of them out to carry their luggage.

"Everybody get up, all get up." Sun Yuanqi saw that Zhao Jinghui, Song Jingyao, and Zheng Jingyi were also kneeling at the back, and wiped their tears from time to time.

Before the group could get up, dozens of men and women came, and they knelt down in the back.

They all kowtowed before they stood up. Waiting for Han Yu and Chen Jide to command a few boys to carry their luggage into the house, the big guys went to the main hall to talk. At this moment, Lao Zhao touched it: "Mr. Sun, you just came back, I have to tell you something first, please take a charter." ”

Sun Yuanqi looked around, but didn't see Lao Tong, according to reason, Lao Tong should have run to his side. Is it out? Seeing that Lao Zhao had something, he said casually: "What's the matter?" Go ahead. ”

"Mr. Sun, have you seen a lot of people in the courtyard?" Lao Zhao's face was uneasy.

Sun Yuan nodded.

"In the summer and autumn of last year, when you walked on the front foot, there was chaos in the city on the back foot, and the people who practiced boxing went crazy by demolishing churches and burning foreign books everywhere. I don't know who told the secret, saying that we have foreign books here, and there are 100 boxers who come to raid the house. Sir, you also know that I am from Shandong, and the leader who happened to come to raid the house is also from Shandong, and I am still a fellow villager in a county. I said that the lord of this house is a good man, and he saved the lives of my whole family, and I begged him to do well. For the sake of the fellows, they didn't copy it and left. Lao Zhao looked at Sun Yuanqi as he spoke, saw that Sun Yuanqi kept nodding in approval, and then continued, "Later, foreigners entered Beijing and killed people everywhere, especially boxers, and killed one by one. The chief who had come to raid the house was desperate, and remembering what had happened, he came to beg me to take them in. We Shandong people are the most righteous, don't you say that the singers don't say, 'the grace of a little water, should be reciprocated with a spring'. I thought that I couldn't be ungrateful, so I took it upon myself to leave them behind. ”

"Lao Zhao, you did the right thing!" This simple spirit of benevolence and righteousness is at least worth advocating, so Sun Yuanqi is very much in favor of Lao Zhao's approach, "There are many more people, is there enough food to eat?" ”

"That's enough!" Lao Zhao saw that Mr. Sun not only did not scold himself for "sheltering bandits", but also praised himself, and immediately calmed down, "Sir, don't worry, there are a lot!" Porridge made with white rice does not require much food per day. ”

Sun Yuanqi asked in surprise: "Do you drink white rice porridge every day?" Won't be hungry? ”

"Hungry?" Lao Zhao asked in astonishment, "These cats are in the yard, all day long, they don't do three or two jobs, and they drink two meals of white rice porridge every day, how much of a creation is this?" Our landlords in Shandong live like this. ”

Forget it, have a virtue with Lao Tong. Seeing that he entered the main hall, Sun Yuanqi still didn't see Lao Tong, so he asked, "Lao Zhao, why didn't you see Lao Tong?" What about people? ”

Hearing Sun Yuanqi's question, Lao Zhao, who was fine just now, had red circles in his eyes, swallowed his throat and said, "Lao Tong...... Lao Tong passed away......"

"Oh, passed away. Yes...... Lao Tong passed away? Sun Yuanqi was taken aback. Lao Tong was the first person he met after coming to the Qing Dynasty, and he has always lived together as if he were family. Why did you go out for a while, and then the people were gone?

Lao Zhao looked at the people around him, choked up and persuaded in a low voice: "Mr. Sun, there are still many people here, all of them...... Lao Tong's matter, I'll go back to the backyard later, and I'll tell you slowly. ”

Sun Yuanqi understood that now was indeed not the time to study carefully, so he had to hide his sadness for the time being, and on the main seat in the hall, the students stepped forward to greet them one by one and roughly inquired about their studies. Later, he told the students about the upcoming establishment of the school, and after that, the "Physics Institute" was merged into the research institute of the newly built school as a complete unit. I hope that all the students here will study hard and take the exam in August, and decide the grade in their new school based on their grades.

When the students heard that Mr. was going to build a university, they all cheered and hurried back to study.

Sun Yuanqi turned into the backyard and saw Lao Zhao and Lao Zheng coming in, so he asked, "Lao Tong...... Why didn't Lao Tong have it? As he spoke, his voice was choked, and tears flowed uncontrollably.

Suddenly, the backyard burst into tears.

After crying once, Lao Zhao intermittently told the whole story of Lao Tong's death.

It is said that not long after Sun Yuanqi left, the Boxers entered Beijing, and the whole Beijing became a mess.

The "Boxers" are often referred to as the "mob" in Western documents. This is indeed not bad, they are not only burning foreign books and demolishing churches, but also destroying electric lights, telephones, self-striking bells, pipe organs, and so on. Bureaucrats or diplomats who participated in the Westernization Movement were often called "two devils" and had their homes raided, and many dignitaries and dignitaries were affected, even Sun Yuanqi's cheap uncle, Sun Jianai's home of an official to a university scholar, and others can be imagined.

Lao Tong found shabby clothes, carried six hundred taels of silver tickets exchanged for broken silver and copper coins, went out before dawn every day, didn't even eat breakfast, walked around Beijing, or inquired about news in the teahouse. As soon as I heard that there was a raid on the house, I immediately went over and pretended to be a scavenger, picking up books. If you see a boxer holding a book, you will exchange it for copper coins and steamed buns. When others asked him what he wanted books for, he pretended to be stupid, saying that someone collected waste paper and used it for paper money.

When he had run out of six hundred taels of silver, he went out every day to collect them. Lao Tong is illiterate, but he always remembers the principle of "the more the better" explained by Mr. Sun, as long as there are paper books with words, he will pick them up at home. When the Boxers lived in the hall of Beijing Normal University, Lao Tong was deceived and picked up the pieces of paper in the hall of Beijing Normal University little by little. Even those who were thrown into the pool were fished up and brought back.

Since the Boxers were called "mobs", they were naturally not gentle, courteous and frugal gentlemen. Seeing Lao Tong secretly loading books into his arms, scolding a few words is good, and he comes up to punch and kick a few times at every turn. Lao Tong can only accompany the smiling face and pretend to be a grandson. Sometimes when he encounters a violent person, he beats Lao Tong, tears up the book, and snatches the last copper on his body before leaving. When Lao Tong could move, he picked up the torn book again and brought it back.

Around June 20 of the Western calendar, the Qing army and the Boxers besieged the embassy area in Dongjiaomin Lane. As the northern barrier of the British Embassy, the Hanlin Yuan was one of the most important book collectors in the Qing Dynasty, and it houses a variety of classics, as well as woodblock blocks for printing, including the base of the revision of the Siku Quanshu, the most valuable of which is the Yongle Canon.

In the first year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di ordered Hanlin to study bachelor Xie Jin and others to collect books from all over the world, classify and edit them into books, and never get tired of the voluminous. In the winter of the second year, a large-scale book was compiled, and Zhu Di named it "The Great Completion of Literature". But Zhu Di still thought that this book was brief, and ordered Yao Guangxiao and others to rebuild, since the book deed, all scriptures, history, children, collections, hundred schools, astronomy, geography, yin and yang, medicine, divination, monks, Taoism, skills of each book are all included. In the fifth year of Yongle (1407), the book was completed, and Zhu Di gave the name "Yongle Canon". The book has 22,937 volumes, including 16 volumes of the table of contents alone, with a total of 11,095 volumes, totaling about 370 million words. It is the largest class of books in ancient times, from the pre-Qin period to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there are as many as seven or eight thousand kinds of books cited, and a large number of documents and materials are preserved, which are extremely precious. Later generations have compiled 590 kinds of books from it. The existing important historical books such as "Dongguan Han Ji", "History of the Old Five Dynasties", "Continuation of the Governance of Tongjian", and "Records of the Years since the Establishment of Yan" are all compiled from the "Great Canon".

The original copy of the Yongle Grand Canon was destroyed by fire, and the copy was hidden in the Imperial Palace after Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, and moved to the Hanlin Academy during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. In the fifty-ninth year of Qianlong (1773), a detailed count was made on the number of copies of the "Great Canon": the "Great Canon" was 11,095 volumes, of which 9,881 were left at that time, and 1,215 volumes were lost. The "Great Canon" was scattered on a relatively large scale, starting from the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860). According to Miao Quansun's "Yongle Grand Canon Examination": "Xianfeng Gengshen (1860) negotiated peace with the Western Kingdom, and there were many embassies, and the Hanlin Academy was close to each other, and the book ("Great Canon") was gradually lost. The main reason for the dispersal of the "Great Canon" was that the officials who were hungry for profit at that time guarded and stole themselves, rather than some treatises took for granted that it was the plundering of the British and French forces. Liu Shengmu's "Essays on Chang Chuzhai" volume 3 records the tricks of the thieves: "Admitted to the hospital in the morning, brought a baggage, wrapped a cotton horse coat, about the size of two copies of the "Great Canon", and discharged from the hospital at night, put the horse coat on his body, and stole two copies of the "Yongle Canon",...... Wrapped in the baggage, it comes out. This is indeed a "very cleverly carved" stealing calligraphy. After they stole the "Great Canon", they sold it to their foreign customers for ten taels of silver each. Therefore, Wang Songwei said in the annotation of the poem "Sending Huang Gongdu to England and France": "The "Great Canon" is now preserved in the Hanlin Academy,...... It is rumored that the British bought it and stored it in the museum. And in the poem, he sighed that "I heard the city of London, and the manuscript was still two houses".

In the first year of Guangxu (1875), there were less than 5,000 copies of the "Great Canon" left in the Hanlin Academy. In the second year of Guangxu (1876), there were only more than 3,000 copies left of the "Great Canon". In the twelfth year of Guangxu (1886), Miao Quansun personally read more than 900 volumes of the "Great Canon" in the Jingyi Pavilion of the Hanlin Academy. In the eighteenth year of Guangxu (1892), there are still 870 copies of the "Great Canon" in the Hanlin Academy, because the next volume of the "Catalogue of Old Books of the Hanlin Academy" clearly contains: "The Yongle Grand Canon, there are 870 copies. In the twentieth year of Guangxu (1894), there were about 800 copies of the "Great Canon", because Weng Tongyi read this book in the Hanlin Academy at that time.

Lao Tong didn't know where to find out the news, and from the beginning of the siege of the embassy area, he walked around the Hanlin Courtyard. Seeing that the officials in the Hanlin Courtyard had fled, he found a big car, beckoned Lao Zhao and Lao Zheng together, and secretly transported books to his home. In two or three days, more than a dozen trucks were transported, piling up three large rooms. I don't know if Lao Tong made the money, or if his conscience found that the besiegers maintained a tacit approval of Lao Tong's stealing behavior.

On June 23, the 26th year of Guangxu, in order to attack the embassy, the Qing army and the Boxers adopted the technique of fire attack, and set fire to the Hanlin Courtyard, which was the northern barrier of the British Embassy. This was clearly premeditated, as it was a cool north wind blowing and the flames were blowing closer and closer to the embassy building. At the same time, the attackers and defenders engaged in a stubborn battle that lasted until the evening. On the one hand, the British Legation was to save itself, and on the other hand, it was to rescue books, and actively dispatched personnel to save them. The flames were extinguished in the evening, but before they were extinguished, the temples, examination rooms, and libraries that made up more than three-quarters of the houses of the Hanlin Temple were burned down.

On the same day, Lao Tong, Lao Zhao, and Lao Zheng dragged a cart and rushed to the Hanlin Academy. At that time, the fire had already begun, and the Hanlin Temple was full of flames. This did not have any impact on Lao Tong's smuggling. Lao Tong, as a housekeeper, arranged for Lao Zhao and Lao Zheng to transport them home, and carried books out of the yard by himself. Lao Tong slipped into the courtyard with a familiar car, found the library, and hurriedly moved the books out. In the morning, two trips have already been returned. Lao Tong saw that the fire was too big, so he didn't even bother to eat lunch, and urged him to move it quickly.

At that time, the two armies were exchanging fire, and bullets rained down in the Hanlin Courtyard, which was the main attack site. Just as he was moving the book, a stray bullet hit Lao Tong. When Lao Zhao and Lao Zheng came back with the car, Lao Tong was leaning on the side of the pile of books, and he had already breathed, and half of the pile of books was dyed red......

After listening, Sun Yuan burst into tears, and remembered the first time in the Horse Temple:

Scolding him for being Japanese, he slumped his neck and said slowly: "Japanese? We're not uncommon! We are serious flag men. ”

When he had nowhere to stay, when he was caught, he screamed: "Murder - help——! ”

When the old man was asked to buy something, he said: "Don't be suspicious, don't be suspicious!" Our Lao Tong is also the number one, and he will never do such a bad thing! ”

When he was visiting Dashilar, he gave a thumbs up in front of his acquaintances to show off: "Mr. Sun's knowledge, that's the number - this!" ”

……

After a while, Sun Yuanqi stood up and said to Lao Zhao and Lao Zheng: "Let's go, look at the books that Lao Tong brought back!" ”

Lao Zhao and Lao Zheng responded, and led the way.

On the way, Sun Yuanqi suddenly asked, "What happened to Lao Tong?" What about the three boys of the Tong family? ”

"Doesn't Lao Tong have a nephew who works as a porter in the hall of Beijing Normal University? When there were boxers, they came to stay with us for a few days. Later, I couldn't go on for a while, so I went back to the countryside. Who would have thought that in a few days, Lao Tong would pass! At that time, it was a mess, and I didn't dare to go out, so I had to set a deputy Shoumu and bury it first. Fortunately, Lao Tong's grandson Jing Sheng is here, and there is no shortage of etiquette. In the middle of the year, Lao Tong's nephew went to Beijing to pick up the child and go home for the New Year, and by the way, he found out that Lao Tong had passed away for half a year. hired a car and took Lao Tong back, which is considered to be in the ground! Speaking of this, Lao Zheng sighed, "Lao Tong, a good person!" ”

"It's not like that!" Lao Zhao said, "A few years ago, when Lao Tong's nephew came to pick up the children, we told him: Lao Tong is from the house, and he also brought these three children to school. Therefore, the three children will be sent over next year. This is the last wish of the deceased, and we cannot break it. Later, when Mr. Sun came back from abroad, he would say the same. Years later, they sent the child over again, and brought a lot of things. We didn't want it. ”

"Well, you're doing a very good job." Sun Yuan nodded, "Next time, come to Lao Tong's house, tell them that we are short of people here, let them come over, and have a good response." ”

Lao Zhao and Lao Zheng nodded again and again, indicating that they had written it down.

As he spoke, he had already arrived at the front of the house. Lao Zheng went up and opened the door, and saw that there were five or six rooms full of books, all kinds of things.

Sun Yuanqi said: "You guys go get busy first, I'll take a look here." ”

Lao Zhao and Lao Zheng went in response. Sun Yuanqi stayed alone in the room, reading carefully. The books have been left untouched and have fallen with a layer of dust on them. The bottom of the ground is a little damp, and if it is not treated, it will definitely rot a lot this summer. It is necessary to take advantage of the sunny day to let the old Zhao family and the old Zheng family move the books out to dry. There are a few books with black and red on the covers, but when you look closely, they are dried blood. I think it's the last book that Lao Tong carried. Flipping, the nose was sour. Hurriedly put aside.

I flipped through the stacks of books again. The books that Lao Tong picked up, there are everything, the former one may be the Ming book "Historical Records", the latter one may be "Three Character Classic", "Hundred Family Names", and even "Shixian Book", "Mai Xiangfa" and the like. In the end, Sun Yuanqi saw a copy of "Elementary Physics Textbook" written by Mr. Sun Yuanqi Baixi and published in Beijing Normal University, thinking that Lao Tong picked it up in Beijing Normal University, and couldn't help laughing and scolding: "Lao Tong, you stupid!" ”

scolded, but tears fell.

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