The “Ryukyu Incident of 1874” was a serious warning to China.

In 1876, Li Hongzhang was invited to visit the foreign warships anchored on Yantai sea. He noticed that some young Japanese officials were receiving training on the western warships. This prompted his decision to send Chinese students abroad for military studies.

Li Hongzhang hoped that the students could attend American military academies after graduation. In 1877 he sent students to naval academies in the UK, France, and Germany.

These overseas students all came from Foochow Shipbuilding College in Mawei founded in 1867. They included Yan Fu, Liu Buchan, Lin Taizeng, Sa Zhenbing and others. They either attended the Greenwich Royal Naval College, or were sent for internships on British or French fleets.

They were the earliest elites of Chinese naval force, who later became the captains of the capital warships of Northern Navy.

After sending a group of students to Europe to study military affairs, Li Hongzhang wrote to the Chinese Educational mission in Hartford. He ordered clever children to study law and mining. He forbade them to study religion and medicine, for China had no such need.

The education budget increased as more boy students were ready to attend college. According to Rong Hong’s budget, the overseas education project needed a total of 1,200,000 liang (Chinese unit of weight) of silver to continue. The Chinese Educational Mission reported to the royal court in 1878 that the project ran short of money due to the soaring prices in the US.

According to the original plan, the expense for the overseas education would be from the Jiang Customs Bureau. But the departments concerned all felt reluctant to pay the money.

Li appropriated 280,000 liang of silver from his naval funds to the Chinese Educational mission. He wrote that the overseas education project was vital to the development of China. So it couldn’t be abandoned halfway. Every single cent invested should have its future value.

In 1878 the Chinese students began to attend American universities. Yale University, one hour’s ride from Hartford, admitted more than 20 boy students.

Yale’s Sheffield scientific school founded in 1847, was the first American college at the time dedicated to scientific research. Ouyang Gen and Zhan Tianyou attended this school in 1878.

Zhan Tianyou majored in railway construction in the Civil Engineering Department. A year before he attended Yale, the first foreign-built railway, 14.5 kilometers long, was built in his homeland, China.

But people firmly believed that railway would destroy their ancestors’ tombs and Fengshui. Within one year the railway was demolished by the Qing Government. The time for train hadn’t come yet.

Zhan Tianyou studied German, English, physics, chemistry, engineering, irrigation, astronomy and other subjects. He became the first Chinese railway engineer to receive strict and systematic education in this field.

From the year 1878, more than 20 other Chinese students such as Liang Dunyan, Zhong Wenyao, Cai Shaoji, Rong Kui, Huang Kaijia, Tang Guo’an, Tan Yaoxun, Li Enfu, and Rong Xingqiao attended Yale. Just as in high school, these boys not only excelled in study, but actively participated in various sports.

Zhong Wenyao became the coxswain of Yale’s rowing team after he attended the university in 1879.