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

"Then we exchanged telegrams with them every day, asking where they had marched to and whether their scouts had discovered any enemy tracks."

Zhao Yuan said, "As it stands, we are only twenty or thirty miles apart, so there is no problem exchanging telegrams."

"If the units are further apart, we need to assign special personnel to use something called a repeater to ensure that telegrams can be sent to friendly forces."

Li Bao offered a vivid analogy: "That repeater is like a beacon tower between different departments?"

"You could say that," Zhao Yuan nodded.

Li Bao was overjoyed: "With this divine object, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty will surely be victorious in every battle!"

Li Hanzhang expressed his concern: "Your Majesty, I have a question. What if a treacherous person falsely conveys government or military orders?"

Before Zhao Yuan could speak, Li Bao laughed and said, "The method of verifying by words is just that."

Chapter 3963 The Emperor's Majesty

For a while, there was no sound.

Only Yang Zhi, being a kind-hearted man, subtly shifted his feet and gently kicked Li Bao's heel with his toes.

Li Bao immediately realized his mistake and quickly clasped his hands and bowed his head, saying, "Your Majesty, I have lost my composure. Please forgive me."

It wasn't just a loss of composure; it was a blatant act of usurpation.

The Prime Minister is asking the Emperor a question, why are you rushing out to answer?

Do you want to be the emperor?

Zhao Yuan didn't seem to care. Instead, he smiled and called him by his nickname affectionately, saying in a joking tone, "You little rascal Li San, it seems you know how to use your brain after all."

Li Bao bent his back even lower and replied cautiously, "It's all thanks to Your Majesty's excellent teaching. This method of character verification comes from the 'Complete Essentials of Military Classics,' which I first read by borrowing from Your Majesty."

"Without Your Majesty's guidance, I would be nothing more than an ignorant villager."

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

The high-ranking officials, both civil and military, seized the opportunity to flatter him and cover up what had just happened, and the atmosphere in the telegraph room returned to normal.

Li Bao was so scared that his vest was sweating profusely.

He was in a state of fear and trepidation for several years when he was granted the title of king.

With the fall of Western Xia and the granting of titles to others, Li Bao finally let loose and became less cautious in his conduct and official duties.

Moreover, his temper has gradually worsened, or rather, he no longer restrains himself all the time, and has regained some of the carefree spirit he had in his youth.

But last year's major case resulted in the execution of one of his former personal guards, which terrified Li Bao for a period of time.

He was just too excited, immersed in the joy of fighting with telegrams, and when he heard Li Hanzhang's question, he immediately answered it before the emperor could.

Zhang Guangdao was secretly observing the emperor at this moment. Seeing that Zhao Yuan's expression was normal, he stopped thinking about it.

This emperor was still tolerant.

The "character verification" method was a military codebook developed by the Northern Song Dynasty.

By using pre-arranged poems and pre-coded codes, even if the enemy intercepts the letter, they will not be able to figure out what is written in it.

The most difficult military code to crack in ancient Chinese history was the reverse code devised by Qi Jiguang.

Qi Jiguang's codebook contains only 56 characters: the first 20 characters form a poem, and the last 36 characters form a ci poem.

Using the eight tones of the Fuzhou dialect, the two poems were rhymed to create a variety of phonetic combinations.

Zhao Yuan said:

"Once the imperial court officially puts the telegraph into use, the telegraph will be delivered by express mail at 800 li, 600 li, and 400 li respectively."

"Only official documents of the 400-li express level or above are allowed to be sent by telegram. Ordinary official documents are not allowed to be sent by telegram without authorization; they should be sent according to the old procedures."

"For urgent deliveries of 600 or 800 li, a password is required to verify the characters."

"In the future, telegraph offices and telegraph stations will be set up in the provincial capitals, prefectural capitals, and areas under the jurisdiction of the general."

"In local areas, only the chief and deputy officials of the Three Offices, the chief and deputy officials of the prefectures, and the chief and deputy officials of the General's Office can send and receive encrypted telegrams with verified characters."

"These chief officers received their own unique codebooks immediately upon taking office."

"For example, when sending a secret telegram to the Liaoning Provincial Administration Commission, the main text would not be sent first, but only two words."

"One character was verified by the Left Provincial Governor, and the other character was verified by the Right Provincial Governor."

Chapter 3964 Cipher

"The telegraph operator could not see their codebook; he could only say which page, line, and word it was, and let the two chief officers say the verification word themselves."

"The telegraph operator sends back the verification text to the imperial court. If both characters are correct, the imperial court then sends the full text of the telegram."

"A telegram sent at an urgent speed of 600 li (approximately 300 kilometers) can only be sent a maximum of ten times before the codebook needs to be changed."

"Emergency telegrams sent over 800 li must be replaced after each use."

"Of course, whether it is used once or ten times depends on the specific circumstances."

"In the event of a major incident, there will definitely be repeated urgent dispatches. As long as the first verification passes, it can continue to be used."

"And the imperial court will immediately send someone to deliver a new codebook."

"Furthermore, if one of the chief officers dies or loses the codebook, the two verification characters cannot be matched."

"At this point, we need to find the chief officers of other departments as soon as possible to verify the situation through a complete textual analysis."

"For example, if the left provincial governor of a certain province is murdered by a treacherous person, the right provincial governor must urgently send a telegram."

"Then we can find the chief officials of the Provincial Judicial Commissioner's Office and the Provincial Military Commissioner's Office, and have them use the verification code to report to the imperial court,"

"At the same time, the Right Provincial Governor's own verification mark must also be attached."

"The more officials who verify the characters, the more credible the contents of the telegram become."

"The above are the methods by which the imperial court verifies officials, and officials must also verify the imperial court."

"For example, for major orders like sending troops, the relevant civil and military officials can only carry them out after the imperial court has replied with the correct verification code."

Zhao Yuan said so much, except for keyword verification, the telegram text was all in plain text.

Because most urgent telegrams do not actually need to use codes; their main purpose is to confirm identity, and specifically, for officials to confirm the identity of the imperial court.

Only high-ranking officials would obtain the code and act secretly at crucial moments.

The Ministry of War's Military Intelligence Division also had its own set of codes.

Qian Chen raised a question: "Your Majesty, what if the chief and deputy officials disagree and fail to coordinate when sending telegrams?"

Zhao Yuan said:

"For ordinary matters, there is no need to send a telegram; a normal memorial to the emperor is sufficient."

"Even when sending telegrams, there is no need for verification of characters, nor is the cooperation of the chief and deputy officials required."

"Only in urgent situations should encrypted telegrams be sent. If even the chief officials don't cooperate and don't honestly report the truth to the court, then what's the point of keeping them around?"

"Punishment will be based on the consequences; minor offenses will result in dismissal from office, while serious offenses will result in beheading."

"If one official does not cooperate, another official can send an unencrypted telegram to the imperial court!"

"If neither side cooperates, they can send unencrypted telegrams to the imperial court, which will then send people to investigate in detail."

Encrypted telegrams require verification by both the chief and deputy officials to ensure confidentiality and to provide checks and balances.

Daring not to cooperate in an emergency is tantamount to making the conflict between the principal and subordinate officials public, and it can almost be said that they are mortal enemies.

Anyone who dares to be dishonest will definitely face dire consequences if it's discovered later.

Fang Mengqing hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Chen Dong asked the question: "His Majesty just said that telegraph bureaus and telegraph offices should be set up in local areas, so a telegraph office must be set up in the capital."

"May I ask which ministry or department this Telegraph Bureau belongs to?"

Whether civil or military officials, all the ministers pricked up their ears.

This is what they're most concerned about!

Chapter 3965 The Codebook

Everyone understands the crucial importance of the telegraph system; whichever department gains jurisdiction gains greater power and influence.

Zhao Yuan said:

"There are two teams in the capital that handle telegrams. One team is controlled by the Emperor, and the other is under the jurisdiction of the Court of State Affairs."

"Ordinary telegrams can be sent to the Executive Yuan as normal."

"As for the encrypted telegrams, the coded copies of the telegrams by officials in various regions are locked in the Cabinet Chamber, with the keys kept by the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister."

"The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister must unlock it together, along with more than half of the Cabinet members."

"If officials of the State Council or the Telegraph Office receive encrypted telegrams, they should conceal them."

"At best, he'll be dismissed from office; at worst, he'll be beheaded!"

Zhao Yuan did not mention the emperor's telegraph team, and the ministers dared not ask.

This means the emperor had five sources of information.

One was the Cabinet, one was the Council of State Affairs, one was the Censorate, one was the "Da Ming Yue Bao" newspaper, and one was the Emperor's Telegraph Office.

Anyone who obtained the special codebook given by the emperor, regardless of their rank...

They could directly send coded or secret telegrams to the emperor—electromagnetic secret messages!

Zhao Yuan turned and left, and the officials hurriedly saw him off. They were allowed to stay in the telegraph room to observe.

The person responsible for explaining to the ministers was Yu Ang, Wen Huanzhang's artisan student.

"Young Master Yu, how exactly was this telegram sent?" Li Gang asked hurriedly.

Yu Ang said, "As the name suggests, telegraphs use electricity."

Qian Chen asked, "Like lightning?"

Yu Ang said, "When you all take off your clothes at night, is there sometimes a firelight?"

"Your Majesty said that is also electricity, and the lightning in the sky is also electricity."

"Electricity is not some ethereal thing; as long as its properties are understood, people can also master and utilize it."

"Your Majesty, and Your Excellency, how did you gain control of electricity? May I inquire about that?" Linghu Xu asked.

Yu Ang smiled and said, "Of course. His Majesty also made a battery, but because the voltage was too low to be usable, it will soon be given to the students of the Imperial Academy as an educational toy."

"As for the electricity used in telegraphs, it is generated through electromagnetic induction."

"Although you can't touch it, you can see it through experiments..."

He said a lot, but the ministers were completely confused.

After asking many questions and observing for a long time, everyone left the telegraph room with a heavy sigh.

Hu Anguo remarked with emotion, "I heard that even before His Majesty the Prime Minister abdicated, he said that all the stars revolve around the sun, which shows that he had already mastered the study of celestial phenomena."

"Now he has even mastered the power of electricity, which is simply miraculous and beyond the reach of ordinary people like us."

"That's very true," the crowd echoed.

In fact, what they felt at that moment was more of awe.

They felt that Wen Huanzhang was unfathomable, and that he possessed a mysterious divine power.

No wonder Wen Xiang showed no interest in the position; worldly power was probably not worth mentioning in his eyes.

Hearing this, one can see that he has already glimpsed the mysteries of heaven and earth, and he will be able to ascend to immortality in the future!

The Prime Minister, who could ascend to immortality, was currently playing with telegrams with his wife and children.

Li Qingzhao, in particular, was having a great time watching the telegrams.

They were located in different parts of the palace, sending messages via telegram, and conducting the first "online chat" in human history.

Zhao Yuan strolled over to Wen Huanzhang and reminded him, "Once the telegraph service is officially launched, you must not interfere with the signals."