Chapter 53

"Ah..."

Siegel wanted to refuse, because after the Fermat conjecture was proven and solved, he had already invited the other party by phone when he saw the proof paper in the inaugural issue of *Inventiones Mathematicae*.

In the acknowledgment statement of the paper, Lin Ran even specially thanked Siegel:

"Thanks to Professor Siegel for his support and help during my PhD career; I will always miss the days at the University of Göttingen."

Honestly speaking, seeing this acknowledgment statement, Siegel was both moved and speechless: Have you ever stayed in Göttingen? And you're already missing it forever.

Later, it was precisely because of this statement that his colleagues in Göttingen all felt that it was he who let Lin Ran go.

But on the phone, after his sincere invitation was rejected by Lin Ran's gentle yet firm tone, Siegel did not insist.

After all, compared to the big metropolis of New York, a small place like Göttingen was indeed a bit far behind.

But now, facing Deuring's pressure, Siegel really wanted to refuse.

Before he could think of a way to say it, Deuring took out a stack of colorful papers from his pocket:

"Professor, this is the train ticket from Göttingen train station to Frankfurt Central Station, and this is the Lufthansa flight ticket, flying from Frankfurt Airport to New York.

If nothing goes wrong, you will be able to see Randolph in three days. Remember to tell him that his colleagues in Göttingen are eagerly looking forward to his arrival."

"You, this, I..." Siegel took the train ticket and flight ticket with a bitter face, "No, I haven't prepared yet.

Besides, what about the return ticket?"

Deuring smiled: "Professor, when the time comes, you call me, and I will book the flight tickets for you and Randolph Lin."

Deuring's subtext couldn't be more obvious: if you don't bring Randolph back, you actually don't have to rush back alone.

Siegel smiled bitterly: "Alright."

At this time, the paper was sent out, and Lin Ran knew that mathematicians doing number theory all over the world were probably talking about him.

Kunihiko Kodaira and this group of Nihon mathematicians stayed in Xiangjiang for a week.

Although his lecture was only for three days, they came to the University of Xiangjiang to find him for exchanges almost every day, even if it was only for a short hour or two after Lin Ran finished his seminar, which made him feel annoyed.

Besides academic exchanges, he also met with the two shipping magnates, Xu Aizhou and Dong Haoyun, in the middle, and explained to them in detail how to specifically operate the structuralization of container data into ports.

These two shipping magnates chose to join forces in the face of container standards.

It was not just them joining forces; they found shipping merchants large and small in Xiangjiang to join forces to establish a joint venture company named Xiangjiang Shipping, hoping to become the standard-setters, which included Pao Yue-kong, who would rise in the 60s.

The cellular deck system and the conical guide post positioning device were easy to understand; there were structural diagrams, and one could understand the general idea by making a model oneself.

The structuralization of container data was a bit complicated, especially when it involved the optimal structure of large sample data; they still needed Lin Ran to explain it.

In order to do a good job with the model project, they even specially recruited a batch of mathematics graduates from the University of Xiangjiang to do this.

The training Lin Ran gave them was mainly aimed at these mathematics graduates.

Everyone was very excited; if they were to take Professor Lin's seminar, they wouldn't be able to get into the top fifty at all, but they didn't expect to hear Professor Lin's class in this way.

"We mainly need to use paper cards to record data; everyone can think of it as a card indexing system similar to a library catalog..."

"When using paper ledgers to record data, you must follow chronological order..."

Considering reality, it is unlikely that you would let people go to IBM to buy a 1401 computer or a 1620 computer to build a database system right away.

Even if they bought one, there was no database management system in the modern sense at this point in time.

So at the beginning, they could only use manual recording methods, combining multiple manual recording methods together.

But fortunately, it is only building a container data structure for a single route now, so manual recording is not a big problem.

If it can really become a standard, it will be in time to develop databases and database management systems specifically for it.

Even by starting with this database and doing database services specifically, it could block Oracle's path.

"I think Professor Lin's class is not difficult, right?" Liang Zhengyuan complained; he was an undergraduate graduate of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Xiangjiang this year.

"Yeah, I also think it's not difficult. Isn't it easy to understand? There are so many cases to help everyone reduce the difficulty of understanding.

The Xiangjiang newspapers are too good at making things up, saying that Professor Lin's class is like something no one can understand except for immortals." Liao Mingji, a classmate in the same major at the same school sitting next to him, agreed.

They couldn't understand it and felt that Professor Lin was approachable, explained things clearly, and was very patient in answering their questions, yet these Xiangjiang newspapers portrayed Lin Ran as a high-and-mighty mathematical immortal who didn't eat the food of mortals.

They generally said that Professor Lin's talent was too high, and he felt that no problem was a problem in his eyes, so he taught a large amount of content that Professor Lin felt was easy to obtain, and the students listened like it was a heavenly book; the other party, as a genius, could not understand the world of ordinary people.

Liang Zhengyuan and Liao Mingji thought the same when they received the company's notice and knew they were coming for training; the day before, they were even so nervous that they couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, but they didn't expect it to be not even a little bit similar to the newspaper's propaganda.

Lin Ran's lecture content was easy to understand, and even the seventy-year-old Xu Aizhou listened with great interest.

"Professor Lin, thank you for your help. We will definitely do this well and make the Xiangjiang standard a global standard!" After the training ended, before Lin Ran got into the car to leave, Xu Aizhou held the other party's hand tightly and wouldn't let go.

Xu Aizhou was old, but his vision was still there. Through Lin Ran's simple and profound explanation, he knew very well that if they could use this set of container structuralization well, from the perspective of company management, an extra profit of tens of millions of Xiangjiang dollars every year was not a problem.

Coupled with the fact that the cellular hull structure could carry 30% more cargo and the conical guide post positioning device could avoid cargo damage problems, combined, how much help would it be to shipping?

If the Xiangjiang shipping industry could really get a piece of the pie in container standards, then it would not only be a matter of money, but also an unprecedented opportunity for the Xiangjiang shipping industry and even the Xiangjiang industry.

"The container revolution will make sea power greater than land power in the future.

Starting next year, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) will begin to formulate international standards for containers, establishing unified sizes, structures, and markings. This standardization process allows containers to be widely used globally and achieves seamless connection between ports in various countries under the leadership of America.

Traditional bulk cargo transportation loading and unloading a ship might take 3-5 days, while the loading and unloading time of container ships is shortened to 8-12 hours, an efficiency increase of over 80%. The popularization of mechanized loading and unloading equipment will further reduce labor and time costs..."