"When the enemy is about to take away the defenses of our country, when there is a serious crisis in the country, our relatives are left unclothed, our children are starving, and our homes are being taken over, can we say yes?"

At the assembly of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Cheng Nuo quietly entered through the back door and found a corner where no one was paying attention and sat down gently.

It was better to come early than to coincide, just in time for Planck to give a speech at the congress of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

"Colleagues, my dear German colleagues, what is at stake is the hope of our German scientific community, and even more so the future of our country, can you agree?"

"Can't!" Everyone in the audience replied in unison.

"Good." Planck nodded with satisfaction and pressed his hands down: "I believe that while a more serious crisis may be yet to come, there is at least one thing here that no external or internal enemy can take away from us, and that is the position of German science in the world......"

In strong contrast to the warm atmosphere on the scene, there was a young scholar with sparse hair in front of Cheng Nuo, who was muttering incessantly and shaking his head from time to time, obviously disagreeing with the above.

Cheng Nuo couldn't help but lean forward and said curiously: "Sir, it seems that you don't agree with Professor Planck's point of view, do you have a better opinion here, can you share one or two?" ”

The young scholar looked left and right to make sure that there was no one else next to him, and after sitting in the row, he hesitated a little: "Are you talking about me?" ”

Cheng Nuo nodded: "Yes, it's you, sir, to be honest, I also oppose blindly beating chicken blood." But the future of German science is at stake, and I'd like to hear what others have to say and see if I can learn anything from it. ”

The young scholar smiled kindly, twisted his neck back, and said: "Actually, I think that Professor Planck has not recognized the reality, and our Germany will definitely be defeated, and the best way at this time is to stop the study of militarism and ease relations with international colleagues." ”

After a pause, the young scholar said softly: "Just like Professor Haber, he volunteered to the Ministry of War to take on the task of solving the problem of raw material supply, researching chemical weapons and throwing them directly into the battlefield, but now I heard that he has stepped down as the director of the institute, abandoned the villa assigned to him, and has long since run away without a trace." ”

Cheng Nuotong tightened: "You mean, Professor Haber may have been doomed?" ”

The young scholar smiled and said: "Needless to say, the news that our German army is deflated on the battlefield has long spread to all the alleys of Berlin, and in the past half a year, the German army has more than 850,000 dead, wounded and captured, and it is very close to defeat."

Once defeated, Professor Haber, as the head of chemical warfare, will definitely be liquidated. On the day of the real defeat, I couldn't run away if I wanted to. ”

Cheng Nuo was secretly happy in his heart, it seemed that the trick he had given Haber before was not in vain, so he waited for the back to make efforts to make it impossible for him to stay in a neutral country, and finally had to follow Cheng Nuo to China.

The so-called "three" refers to each neutral country, and "one" refers to China.

But this matter is not the point at the moment, looking at this young scholar, Cheng Nuo inexplicably feels a sense of familiarity.

Although I was sure that I hadn't seen a photo of this person exactly like this person in my mind, I just looked familiar, so I didn't ask directly, but continued to think of ways to talk about it.

"Sir, you seem to know Mr. Planck well?"

"I am also a teacher and a friend, and the relationship is okay." The young man thought for a moment and gave his answer: "At least compared to you and me, I must be familiar with a lot, and some words can be blunt." ”

Cheng Nuo was a little embarrassed when he heard this, and scratched his head embarrassedly.

But just as he was scratching his head, Cheng Nuo suddenly found that the young scholar had a white rose on his chest, which matched the temperament of the other party, which looked chic and coquettish, and was really handsome.

couldn't help but be curious, Cheng Nuo asked, "Sir, is your white rose purely a decoration?" ”

The young scholar smiled mysteriously: "Of course not, this flower is not an ornament, but a gift for a friend." ”

Cheng Nuo asked: "Is it a female friend?" ”

The young scholar shook his head and smiled, "No, it's a male friend. ”

These Cheng Nuo are even more curious, sending flowers, sending white roses, and giving white roses to male friends, the reason is really unpredictable.

It's a pity that this young man's mouth is too tight, no matter how Cheng Nuo asks later, the other party just refuses to reveal half a word, which directly makes Cheng Nuo's heart itch.

However, to Cheng Nuo's surprise, don't look at the other party looks very young, but his academic attainments are quite high, and when it comes to some mathematical problems, young scholars can not only catch it, but also give Cheng Nuo a lot of inspiration with his imaginative thinking.

Mathematics and physics are not separated, and in the end, the topic somehow turned to physics, and now it is a relatively unfamiliar field for Cheng Nuo, and the discussion of the problem is not as easy and freehand as before.

Fortunately, Cheng Nuo's brain was enough, and after the young scholar slowed down slightly, the topic became enthusiastic again.

Looking at the other party's hairstyle, faintly developing in the direction of the explosion, a name suddenly appeared in Cheng Nuo's mind, and his strong curiosity prompted him to ask the identity of the other party again: "May I ask if you are Professor Albert Einstein?" ”

"Oh? Do you know me? If there wasn't a second guy named Albert Einstein around here, then you were talking about me, and I thought you only knew Professor Planck? Einstein generously admitted his identity, and did not forget to make fun of Cheng Nuo in the middle.

Cheng Nuo is really embarrassed now, and he can only blame the fact that there is no photo of Einstein in the history textbook, so he has to hang a naughty photo with his tongue sticking out, and the memory left by Cheng Nuo is too deep, so after seeing the young Einstein, he didn't recognize the real person after most of the day.

Fortunately, Einstein was also a generous person, and he didn't take this matter to heart, but became curious about Cheng Nuo's identity: "With your understanding of mathematics and physics just now, your academic level is also very high, I don't think you must be a general, I don't know what your name is?" ”

Cheng Nuoxin said that you finally asked my name, otherwise I wouldn't know how to introduce myself later.

After organizing the language a little, Cheng Nuo smiled and said, "My name is Cheng Nuo, I am from China, and I am a math enthusiast. ”

Albert Einstein suddenly realized: "I know you, your mathematical research is very famous, I also read your paper at that time, it helped me a lot in the study of physics, I didn't expect you to be so young, it's unbelievable." ”

I already admired Cheng Nuo's talent, but now after learning Cheng Nuo's identity as a mathematician, Einstein liked Cheng Nuo very much, and then threw all the mathematical problems he had accumulated to Cheng Nuo for him to help solve them.

The first questions were fine, but in the back, as Einstein's understanding of mathematics deepened, the questions raised became more and more tricky, and there were many sub-disciplines involved.

Even if Cheng Nuo answered, it would take a lot of effort.

Seeing that there were more and more questions behind him, Cheng Nuo was a little overwhelmed, and hurriedly found a topic to divert the other party's attention, his eyes glanced at the white rose on Einstein's chest again, and asked curiously: "Professor, can you tell me why you are carrying a white rose?" ”

Unexpectedly, Einstein still shook his head: "Keep it secret for the time being, and you'll know in a while." ”

At this moment, Planck came down from the podium at some point, not only did he not sit back in the first row, but also walked straight to Cheng Nuo.

After seeing Cheng Nuo, he took the initiative to stretch out his hand: "You are Professor Cheng Nuo, right?" Nice to see you. ”

Cheng Nuo was a little surprised, he didn't expect the other party to recognize him directly, to know that he had never been to Europe before, how could people here know what he looked like, it was really puzzling.

However, Planck's next words dispelled Cheng Nuo's doubts: "I saw you in the newspaper, and during the period when you published your paper, you and your academic results were listed in the journal of our Academy of Sciences. ”

Cheng Nuo hurriedly stepped forward to shake hands: "Where, I just made some simple achievements at the beginning, but I didn't expect to leave such a deep impression on you, professor, I am a little ashamed to think about it." ”

Einstein, on the other side, coughed, took the initiative to separate the two, and gave Planck an affectionate and powerful hug.

Nothing was said, and everything seemed to be said again.

After a long time, Einstein suddenly broke free, took off the white rose from his chest, and took the initiative to hand it to Planck.

"This flower was actually given to Planck by Einstein?!"

However, thinking about the relationship between the two carefully, Cheng Nuo exclaimed, but also felt that it was reasonable.

From 1912, Planck was one of the two permanent secretaries of the Mathematical Physics Division of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, the most influential position in German science, and later succeeded him as rector of the University of Berlin.

Given Einstein's great influence, the Prussian Academy of Sciences at that time took a strong interest in him.

Under Planck's efforts, he successfully passed the proposal to co-opt Albert Einstein as an academician by a huge margin of 21 votes.

Planck and Nernst immediately went south to Zurich to try to persuade Einstein to take up a post in Berlin, where he became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, a professor at the University of Berlin, and director of the soon-to-be-founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics.

They agreed to meet at the train station at noon the next day, holding a red rose if Einstein agreed to go to Berlin and a white rose if he disagreed. The next day, Albert Einstein showed up with a red rose, and the two became important partners.

However, now Einstein is holding the rose again, but it has turned from red to white, which makes Cheng Nuo curious.

Planck, who was next to him, was obviously stunned when he saw the rose, and then said with a bitter face: "Do you really want to do this?" ”

Albert Einstein was a little helpless: "I don't want to go to the dark with those fierce elements, it is not wise to resist stubbornly, the future of the motherland should not be the only way you said, whether it is for the people, or for us scholars, peace is the most important thing." ”

Planck also wanted to struggle: "But now you are at odds with the mainstream ideology of the fight to the end at home, which will have an unnecessarily negative impact on your reputation." ”

Einstein shrugged: "You know me, I don't care." ”

Looking at the white rose in his hand, Planck couldn't be happy anyway, but his friend couldn't persuade him, so he had to wave his hand in the end.

"Whatever you want."

Although the two were temporarily deadlocked, Cheng Nuo's opportunity to perform had arrived, and after the communication between several people and the relative familiarity between them, Cheng Nuo took the initiative to speak for Planck:

"One of the imperatives of the nation's survival is to protect the few great assets it still possesses. And German science occupies a prominent place in it.

Science is not only the most important prerequisite for maintaining a country's education, technology and industry, but also the most important prerequisite for a country's reputation and world standing. ”

Planck nodded, turning to curiosity, "So what are you trying to say?" ”

Cheng Nuo smiled: "I want to establish a good cooperative relationship with the Prussian Academy of Sciences. ”

World War I is seen as the first modern industrial war, in which basic and applied research played a greater role than ever before, contributing to the militarization of the emerging modern sciences.

Scientists engage in wars for a variety of motivations, such as patriotic, nationalistic, or naïve political goals, such as dedicating one's talents to the military cause of one's homeland or using them to flee the front lines, such as to obtain additional research funding to continue the research projects and goals of individuals or institutes.

Since the military was initially not interested in these scientists engaged in basic research, the society and scientists took some initiative under various motives and in the name of fulfilling their patriotic obligations, and the direct consequence of these actions was the transformation from basic research to applied research.

In particular, the new discoveries in basic research are applied not only to military technologies such as wartime communications, weapon sound insulation, ballistics, and ammunition, but also to medical and industrial production.

It is the winter of life, but it is also the warm spring of practical science.

However, there are two sides to everything, and there are advantages and disadvantages.

The use of the knowledge of civilian scientists in the war changed the behavior of the war, but at the same time prolonged the war and made it more brutal.

For example, the inventor of the Gatling gun is called Richard Jordon Gatlin, as a doctor, his original intention to invent this gun was actually to reduce casualties, but he did not expect that more soldiers were injured or killed because of it.

To add insult to injury, the exchange rate between the mark and the dollar before World War I was 4.2 marks per dollar, as the currency used to maintain the gold standard.

But in 1918, when inflation was still growing slowly, the exchange rate fell to 8.9 marks per dollar.

In other words, the mark is worthless, and the German economy is about to collapse.

It will be difficult to apply the results of wartime research to Germany's post-war economic recovery.

What Cheng Nuo wants is to use the least amount of benefits to get as many benefits as possible from the German scientific community and help the development of domestic industry.

Commonly known as it, rob while the fire is on!

"This world war was an incubator in which almost all technologies, strategies and ideologies were developed in the arsenal of political actors."

Looking at the two of them, Cheng Nuo said slowly: "These things can also reflect their value when they are placed elsewhere, that is, I am willing to contribute some modest efforts to everyone."

Red roses, white roses, all good roses. ”