Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

"How do we win them over? How do we get the powerful clans to acknowledge the military's rule?" Zheng Zhongfu asked.

Li Junyi said, "Ren Yuanhou implemented reforms a few years ago, but everything was based on the Ming Dynasty system. However, after many changes, he eventually gave up."

"The General can initiate another reform and grant official positions to local powerful families."

“Those from powerful families should be appointed as cabinet ministers or ministers.”

"Those whose families are less powerful should be appointed as vice ministers or censors."

Zheng Zhongfu shook his head: "If you bring back powerful families to serve as officials, wouldn't all our previous coup efforts have been for nothing?"

Li Junyi explained:

"The Grand General can personally serve as the Prime Minister, turning the cabinet into a mere figurehead, and moving the real government office to the Privy Council."

"The Grand General can concurrently serve as the Privy Councilor, and have officials from the Six Ministries deliver official documents to the Privy Council."

"Whether it's a cabinet minister, a minister, or a vice minister, any official position held by a powerful family is all nominal and without real power."

"We should vigorously promote scholars from poor families, because these are the ones who are truly capable of getting things done."

"But scholars from humble backgrounds have power but no reputation. If they don't want to lose their power, they have to obediently submit to the general."

Chapter 3957 Battle Among the Wealthy Families

Moreover, with powerful clans monopolizing high-ranking official positions, scholars from humble backgrounds will continue to resent them.

"Let the commoners and the powerful fight it out; wouldn't that stabilize the court?"

After careful consideration, Zheng Zhongfu found the argument very reasonable and immediately bowed down, exclaiming, "General Li is indeed a man of great wisdom and strategy!"

Those powerful and influential families, each with someone killed by Zheng Zhongfu, would they be willing to send someone to Gaegyeong to serve as an official?

willing!

Moreover, they arrived very quickly, fearing that if they arrived in Beijing too late, they would miss out on a high position.

Then, a very strange situation arose in Goryeo—

The military clique could only control the capital region, while local prefectures and counties remained under the control of powerful clans.

Powerful families held high positions in the court but had no real power, while scholars from humble backgrounds controlled the Six Ministries but couldn't even become vice ministers.

The cabinet and the six ministries became mere figureheads. Mid-level officials in the six ministries were responsible for handling affairs, and all government matters required reporting to the Privy Council.

Zheng Zhongfu held both the positions of Prime Minister and Privy Councilor. The generals who followed him in the coup also obtained honorary civilian titles and real power in the Privy Council.

Powerful local officials in the capital region were also appointed from among military men and scholars from humble backgrounds.

A military government that could only control the capital region was thus quickly formed.

How could powerful families possibly submit so easily?

They dared not openly rebel, but instead began to resort to intrigue and trickery.

The brothers Li Junyi and Li Yifang were given important positions by Zheng Zhongfu, while Li Gao, who had participated in the coup, was somewhat neglected.

After being invited to several banquets by powerful civil officials and subjected to constant flattery and praise, Li Gao gradually became arrogant.

He felt that he had made outstanding contributions during the coup and had played a major role in eliminating the loyalist army, so he deserved to be rewarded accordingly.

He could tolerate Zheng Zhongfu and Li Yifang riding roughshod over him, but what about Li Junyi, who just watched the whole thing?

He was just good at talking to Zheng Zhongfu, so why did he have a higher official rank than me?

After being swayed by the civil official, Li Gao felt that he could also become the boss!

He secretly summoned his confidants to discuss a plan, deciding to ambush Zheng Zhongfu, Li Junyi, and Li Yifang on their way home from get off work and wipe them out in one fell swoop.

The plan has been leaked.

The two sides clashed in Gaegyeong, and Li Gao, the fourth-ranking figure in the military government, was defeated and his entire family was killed.

The machinations of the powerful civil officials continued, and they began to sow discord among the Li brothers.

Both were martial artists, from humble backgrounds, and each had their own family influence.

However, Zheng Zhongfu's family was too weak, while the Li brothers came from a family of generals for generations.

Li Junyi and Li Yifang relied on their family's old subordinates in the army.

Their real strength expanded rapidly, but their political power was always suppressed.

Zheng Zhongfu was greatly uneasy about this, so he ambushed the Li brothers with knife and axemen at his home and invited them to test him.

Li Junyi sensed something was wrong. Halfway through his drink, he suddenly knelt down and said, "My lord has done my brothers a great favor. If it weren't for your raising troops to eliminate the wicked, how could my brothers and I have the wealth and honor we enjoy today?"

"My father has passed away, and I wish to acknowledge you as my father!"

Li Yifang was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening and knelt down on the ground with a thud: "Father, please accept my bow!"

Zheng Zhongfu was completely taken aback by this scene. He immediately became smug and laughed heartily, saying, "Get up quickly. From now on, the three of us, father and sons, will surely be loyal to the emperor, serve the country, and revitalize the nation."

After the banquet, the Li brothers left, their vests soaked with sweat.

Chapter 3958 Small Countries Have a Lot of Trivial Matters

After returning home, Li Yifang said with lingering fear, "Fortunately, my brother was quick-witted, otherwise we would have certainly died."

Li Junyi said, "Zheng Zhongfu is a suspicious and fickle person."

“If anyone tries to sow discord in the shadows again, he will kill us.”

"Starting tomorrow, we must treat him like our own father, and kneel down to greet him every time we meet."

"Are we supposed to keep playing the role of his adopted son forever?"

“He’s not much older than us, it would be too embarrassing if word got out,” Li Yifang said, feeling resentful.

Li Junyi reassured them, "Although we have many old subordinates in the army, Zheng Zhongfu is now extremely prestigious, and most military men regard him as a hero."

"Now we should flatter him and praise him to the skies."

"He himself is a military man, but he actually looks down on other military men. These days he spends more time associating with civil officials."

"Once the martial artists are no longer loyal to him, we can make our move!"

The next day, the two brothers went to work at the Privy Council.

In front of many civil and military officials, the two ran to Zheng Zhongfu, knelt down and cried out, "Your children greet Father."

All the civil and military officials stared at them dumbfounded, but Zheng Zhongfu's vanity was greatly satisfied. He smiled and said, "Good children, you can go to your work now."

"Resign, kid!"

The two brothers kowtowed again and left respectfully.

If this trend continues, the Li brothers will be able to get rid of Zheng Zhongfu in just a few years.

But they had no time. A letter from the Ming Dynasty arrived in Pyongyang, questioning Jeong Jung-bu about his rebellion, imprisonment of the monarch, and installation of a new king.

Zheng Zhongfu was terrified by the letter from the Ming Dynasty and immediately summoned Li Junyi to discuss the matter.

"The Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty refuses to appoint a new ruler. What should we do?"

"Without the Ming Dynasty's investiture, we will always be traitors and rebels."

Li Junyi said, "The only thing we can do is send someone to Luoyang to give the emperor more gifts; perhaps that can salvage the situation."

Zheng Zhongfu said, "Military men are good at fighting, but they are not reliable enough to be entrusted with important tasks when sent as envoys to the Ming Dynasty."

“I am really not comfortable sending a civil official over there.”

"Among martial artists, you are the smartest. This time, you must make a trip to Luoyang."

“I will do my best to fulfill my father’s request,” Li Junyi said. “I need to bring some gifts.”

"I want the finest, most flawless cotton paper, the roundest and largest pearls, and the best furs and ginseng. Oh, and beautiful women too."

Zheng Zhongfu said, "Go and look for it in the national treasury first, and then I will have the local prefectures and counties pay tribute."

"As for beauties, search the entire capital region and find the most beautiful woman."

Li Junyi said, "With these gifts, we should be able to please the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty."

……

Compared to the destruction of the Jin and Western Xia dynasties, the annexation of Goryeo is not worth making a big deal out of, but it is destined to be recorded in history.

It should not only be recorded in the annals of the Ming Dynasty, but also in the annals of human civilization.

Because it's associated with telegrams!

Last winter, Wen Huanzhang brought his family to Luoyang and began developing a telegraph machine before the Chinese New Year.

His research and development process was particularly unscientific.

The code was designed before any parts for the telegraph machine were even produced.

Wen Huanzhang had not studied Morse code, but he knew that it was a combination of long and short signals.

So he abandoned the English alphabet altogether and used only long and short signals to represent numbers and punctuation.

Chapter 3959 Radio?

Each commonly used Chinese character is composed of four numbers.

They even came up with a system of using rhyme categories to represent dates, using the latest version of the "Da Ming Zheng Yun" (大明正韵) to replace the specific date of the report.

The design work of converting Morse code to Chinese characters was quite tedious, so it was handed over to several of his wives, with Shen Yourong, Li Qingzhao, and Wen Xiaomei being the main contributors.

Wen Huanzhang thought that wired telegraph should be simple, but he found that there were many problems when he actually started working on it.

The first prototype of the wired telegraph was completed in just a few days after all the materials were prepared.

However, the effective transmission distance is only a few meters.

Signals can only travel a few meters using wires!

Because Wen Huanzhang's telegraph machine had too low power; it wasn't even a battery, but rather a primitive voltaic pile.

Despite numerous improvements, although the transmission distance was greatly increased, the results still failed to satisfy Wen Huanzhang.

After discussing it with his son and student assistant, Wen Huanzhang replaced the fuel cell stack with a hand-cranked generator.

They continued like this until after the Lantern Festival, and finally decided to stop making wired telegrams altogether.

He went straight to wireless telegraphy, knowing that radio transmission uses electromagnetic waves.

The first wireless telegraph prototype had an effective transmission distance of approximately 200 meters.

A few months later, on the Dragon Boat Festival, which coincided with the coup d'état by the Goryeo military, the sixth wireless telegraph prototype was unveiled.

When Wen Huanzhang summoned the emperor, his first words were: "The wireless telegraph is complete."

"Wireless telegraph?" Zhao Yuan was extremely shocked.

Wen Huanzhang said helplessly, "But the farthest we can send telegrams is Baimasi Town."

Zhao Yuan laughed and said, "Only thirty miles. But it's a very good start. Dean Wen, please keep up the good work."

It's quite remarkable that Wen Huanzhang was able to produce such a basic version of the machine in just six months.

There is still a great deal of room for improvement.

Wen Huanzhang said, "I racked my brains with my students, and we tried every possible method, but it's difficult to improve them in a short period of time."

"There are still two ways to achieve miracles with great effort."

"What method?" Zhao Yuan asked.

Wen Huanzhang said, "First, build large transmitting and receiving antennas; second, establish relay stations in or near each county town."

"How big is the antenna?" Zhao Yuan asked.

Wen Huanzhang said, "The Buddha Tooth Pagoda at Tianwang Temple in Luoyang is tens of meters high, and an antenna can be erected along the pagoda."

"Many of these antennas can be built along the route."

"As for relay stations, they can also help relay signals. It would be best to build one every two or three hundred miles."

In another timeline, humanity first used wireless telegraphy to send information across the Atlantic Ocean, which was achieved by building enormous antennas—a powerful brick that could fly!