"Hello Professor Cheng, I am a freshman at Peking University this year, and just now you have been lecturing on the content of invention and creation in the School of Engineering, which my classmates and I like very much, but there is still one thing that is not clear, that is, what is invention, especially for our society?"

On the campus of Peking University, Cheng Nuo is holding an open class in the auditorium, and the main content of the lecture is engineering courses, with the aim of attracting new students to the engineering school in the next semester, especially coal, steel, machinery, and the radio that is being engaged.

Standing on the podium, looking at the performance of the students below, nodding in agreement, Cheng Nuo already had some ideas in his heart.

"It's actually very simple to 'invent' this thing." With a wave of his hand, Cheng Nuo sat down the student and continued: "Technological inventions in industrial society have a wide range of chain effects, and inventions are nothing more than answers to certain needs, and at the same time, every important new invention creates new social needs ......."

After a series of explanations, the new students' understanding of the School of Engineering was deepened, and the number of applicants for the course was endless, and the registration form was completely insufficient.

"Zhiyuan, you didn't expect the College of Engineering to be so popular, right? Thankfully, the quality of my robe is good, otherwise I would have been torn out. Cai Yuanpei walked behind and joked: "If the students are so easy to learn, our Peking University is not worse than Cambridge and Oxford." ”

Cheng Nuo sorted out his wrinkled clothes and said with a smile: "Actually, our Peking University is only a little bit of history, if it is implemented like Cai Gong for a few years, I believe it will not be too late that day." ”

Unexpectedly, Cai Yuanpei not only did not feel happy, but was a little melancholy: "Forget it, if you want to develop education, in addition to manpower, it is also inseparable from material resources. ”

Cheng Nuo frowned and said, "Is the situation so bad?" Didn't the College of Engineering allocate a large amount of special funds for education, and if the school was really unhappy, it could be embezzled first. ”

Cai Yuanpei shook his head: "It's not to that extent, the current situation of the School of Engineering is so good at the beginning, if the funds are withdrawn at this time, I am afraid it will have an adverse impact on the teaching effect, but the gains outweigh the losses." ”

Cheng Nuo also came up with other ideas: "Maybe we can ......"

Without waiting for Cheng Nuo to finish speaking, Cai Yuanpei interrupted him and said: "Forget it, I didn't look for you this time for teaching funds, you just need to teach the students well, and I have something else to inform you this time." ”

While talking, he took out a piece of paper from his sleeve and handed it to Cheng Nuo.

After taking the paper, Cheng Nuo didn't open it in a hurry, his face was full of doubts: "Cai Gong, what is this?" ”

At this time, Cai Yuanpei's eyebrows and eyes were smiling, and he said kindly: "Professor Cheng Nuocheng, this is a new contract for you, hurry up and open it and take a look, if it's okay, let's go to the office and sign it as soon as possible." ”

Cheng Nuo suddenly realized, and then remembered that the time for signing the contract was limited, and now it is about to come to the new year, and it is completely reasonable to renew the contract, but he didn't expect Cai Yuanpei to be so eager.

"It's okay, I believe that Cai Gong is not cheating me, I will sign the contract directly." Cheng Nuo smiled.

Cai Yuanpei waved his hand and joked: "Hey, it's better to take a look, don't be in case I draw up a deed of sale, then your famous Professor Cheng, you can give me a day job, let's take a look first." ”

After thinking about it, Cheng Nuo was no longer polite, and read the content of the contract while walking.

At a glance, many of the things in it are the same as the original, and the biggest difference is that the monthly salary has been directly increased to 310 yuan, which is 10 yuan more than the original one.

"Cai Gong, this salary ...... Why is it still a little up? Cheng Nuo wondered.

"Of course, it's because you do a lot of work, it turns out that you are just a professor in the School of Mathematics, and now you have to serve as a senior in the College of Engineering, and the treatment will naturally be according to the seniors, but you are originally 300 yuan, so you will be symbolically increased by 10 yuan, I don't know if you are satisfied?" Cai Yuanpei explained.

According to the salary system at that time, the remuneration of intellectual workers was generally higher than that of manual workers. In January, for example, at Peking University, the monthly salary of the dean of liberal arts was 300 yuan, the monthly salary of the professor of literature Hu Shi was 200 yuan, the monthly salary of the librarian was 120 yuan, and the monthly salary of the assistant librarian was only 8 yuan.

As for other industries, the monthly salary of employees, teachers, editors, and doctors engaged in intellectual work can generally reach 100~200 yuan, which is significantly higher than that of workers and shop assistants with a monthly salary of 10~20 yuan.

Now that Cheng Nuo has many hats and has suddenly become the dean of engineering, the treatment will naturally be raised a little higher.

"Cai Gong, will the dean of engineering be handed over to me? This was too sudden, I didn't expect to receive your appointment without any preparation. After carefully reading the contract twice and being sure that there was an appointment of the dean of engineering, Cheng Nuo was still surprised.

Cai Yuanpei stood firm, leaned over and said, "What else do you need to prepare?" The class you just took is the best preparation, in terms of strength, who of us at Peking University knows better than you in this regard? ”

But Cheng Nuo is still thinking about keeping a low profile at the moment, and his time is very tight, so he has no extra time to spend on the affairs of Peking University, so after thinking about it, he still decisively refused:

"Cai Gong, if I am allowed to teach and educate people by myself, there is no problem, but if I do anything else, my time and energy will be a little stretched, and it may even delay the major events of the School of Engineering."

Cai Yuanpei still refused to withdraw the appointment, and insisted: "You can't say that, you also said in your lecture just now, social needs are the beacon for the progress of human civilization, and new technological inventions promote the development of industry, so that the production capacity of human beings has been greatly improved...... That's what you said, right? ”

Cheng Nuo nodded: "Yes, I mentioned it in this regard just now." ”

Cai Yuanpei tightened his face and continued: "Following what you said, taking the steel you are good at as an example, economic development has put forward higher requirements for steel production, and new machinery and equipment have higher and higher requirements for steel quality and output, and you need to change your efforts, and it is obvious that you know better than anyone else in this regard."

If you are only responsible for the teaching of students, then the knowledge outside these disciplines is almost difficult for students to touch, and the application of knowledge is naturally much worse. ”

Seeing that Cheng Nuo was deliberately moving, Cai Yuanpei took a breath and directly carried out "coercion": "Zhiyuan, at the beginning, I wanted to directly ban engineering and save the funds and use it elsewhere, at that time, you strongly persuaded me not to ban it, I thought about it or agreed, you can't leave it alone now, right?" ”

After a few words, he directly sealed the back road that Cheng Nuo wanted to refuse, and put on a posture of not agreeing and refusing to give up.

And just as the two were talking, a student passing by accidentally listened to two sentences, and instantly understood that the president was going to pull Professor Cheng to be the dean of engineering, and immediately trotted all the way, spreading the news all over the campus, and the entire Peking University was in an uproar.

Some of the excited students simply ran over and surrounded the two.

Professor Cheng ...... No, no, Senior Cheng, is there going to be a major change in engineering next semester, I am very interested in the 'wireless hotline' you proposed, can you directly learn to make equipment that generates electric waves and devices that receive electric waves? ”

"At first glance, you didn't read Professor Cheng's article well, what 'wireless hotline', it is obviously wireless telegraphy, and the machine is just a transmitter and receiver, its mechanical principles and operating methods are similar to that of a wired telegraph...... Senior Cheng, do you think my explanation is okay? ”

"Senior Cheng Cheng, last time you said that adding a certain amount of other elements to the steel can improve or obtain a certain performance, I was deeply inspired after reading the article, adding some manganese to it, the performance is very different, it can be used as a cutting steel, I want to talk to you about it......"

"Professor Cheng......"

Seeing that the scene was getting bigger and bigger, in the face of the enthusiasm of the students, although Cheng Nuo was a little overwhelmed, he really didn't want to extinguish these sparks, so he stomped his feet violently, climbed directly onto the rockery, and said to everyone:

"Students, thank you for your trust, next semester I will officially take up the position of Dean of Engineering, then welcome everyone to study in the School of Engineering, as for the questions reflected by the students, I will answer them one by one later, but not here, but in our new School of Engineering.

As for why I chose engineering, in fact, the reason is very simple, it is because a very small number of the richest and most powerful countries exploit more and more small countries, in order to get rid of the marginalized status and choose certain industries as a breakthrough, so as to drive the improvement of the entire economy, it is the best choice for us to climb upward.

Engineering can greatly maintain our survival and independence, and even focus on cultivating industries that are directly related to national defense and have technological leadership in the process of industrialization, so for the sake of national independence and national prosperity, we welcome more and more students to join our engineering family to ......"

This impromptu speech completely ignited the atmosphere of the audience, which was more popular than the classroom just now, and the students were excited, but also directly stopped Cheng Nuo, preventing him from coming down from the rockery, lifting it up and throwing it into the sky, falling down and then throwing it up, what a word excited.

There is a reason why students are so excited, because they have long experienced the pain of being restricted everywhere in industry, and not only hope for the revitalization of national industry on campus, but also outside the campus under the influence of "domestic products should be self-reliant".

In particular, import substitution itself is not a purely economic consideration, but often contains a nationalist component in the development of domestic industries, as is the best example of the previous innovation machine factory, which is often embedded in the entrepreneurial spirit.

This kind of nationalist ambition beyond the level of "business, speech, and business" may not be the primary motivation for the development of national industry among the enthusiastic young people in modern times, but it is at least an important driving force.

In the early years, Yang Junsheng, the founder of the Zhonghua Shipyard, was a pity because some people complained to him that our waters were vast, but the warships sailing on the rivers and seas were all made by foreigners, and this ignited his enthusiasm for developing national industry.

Now, during the period when Cheng Nuo is developing the national industry, the students of Peking University have all seen it in their eyes and remembered it in their hearts through books and periodicals, and they are all thinking about what to do for the national industry through industry, so as to change the current situation.

However, because Peking University's strength in this area is very weak, and although engineering has not been banned, it is basically in a half-dead state, even if you want to apply for engineering, you are powerless.

Now that Cheng Nuo has been officially announced as the dean of engineering, the industrial dream that he gave up in his early years can be picked up again, not to mention how happy he is.

"Okay, let's let me get up first, I'm afraid of heights, and I'll faint if I pick it up again." Cheng Nuo, who was thrown into the air, tried his best to stabilize his body, trying to persuade the students under him to give up.

"What? Professor Cheng dislikes us for not throwing high enough? Students, we can't let our engineering dean look down on us before the official class, and hurry up to give me the strength to breastfeed...... Listen to my command, one, two, throw! In the thick atmosphere, there are still students coaxing below.

"Oh, you guys slow down, whose head is on my waist, is that head okay......"

……

Although Cheng Nuo wants to keep a low profile and downplay the matter of serving as the dean of engineering at Peking University, there are some things that are difficult to hide from those who have a heart.

Especially the two die-hard fans above, after learning the news, they couldn't wait to fly to Beijing immediately and become one of the members of Peking University.

"Ah Fu, why don't you say Professor Cheng doesn't come to our Nanyang University as a senior, so that we can ask questions at any time, where are the nails everywhere like now, and the head is broken and bleeding doesn't know where it is." Zhang Yulin said enviously while winding the antenna.

"What else can there be, it must be that your Nanyang University temple is too small to accommodate Professor Cheng's big Buddha, if you want me to say, you might as well drop out of school and apply for Peking University with me." Xi Kangfu rubbed the ore and joked: "Now that I drop out of school, I still have time to review my homework." ”

"Fuck you, Peking University is what I can take if I want to? What's more, now that Peking University has officially recruited female students, the competitive pressure is even greater, so I still try to write a letter to Professor Cheng, although the chance is slim, but there is still some hope. Zhang Yulin said weakly.

While the two were still talking, there was a commotion in the attic, followed by the sound of dense footsteps coming from the stairs, and the door of the room was slammed open.

A column of soldiers in military uniforms barged in, and the two were escorted together.

Then a man in a windbreaker walked out, squatted in front of the two of them, looked left and right, and finally hooked Xi Kangfu's chin: "You are young and don't study well, and you actually become a spy in the north, saying, who asked you to do it?" ”

Xi Kangfu didn't know why, and said in a daze: "Master Jun, how can we be spies?" ”

The man snorted coldly and threw the antenna on the ground: "Still quibbling? What is this? ”

(End of chapter)