Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 96 Fuxi Telegram, Three Rules (Subscription Request)
In the bedroom, Lu Jin played with Zhang Yunxiu's long hair and suddenly asked, "Do you want to be remembered in history?"

"Huh? Come on, come on. What new ideas do you have?" Zhang Yunxiu shook her head like a rattle.

Lu Jin suddenly said seriously, "I'm serious."

"Well, then you say."

"Do you know who made the umbrella?"

Zhang Yunxiu immediately said, "I didn't know this before, but isn't it written in the book Gongshuzi that Gongshu Ban's ancestor, Gongshu Ban's wife, Yun, made an umbrella? Why do you suddenly ask this? Could it be that you want me to make something and go down in history?"

"That's what I mean." Lu Jin nodded.

Zhang Yunxiu said, "But I haven't learned any craftsmanship, so how can I create those exquisite things?"

"That's not necessarily true. Huangdi invented the car, Leizu wove cloth, Cangjie created characters, and Emperor Shun dug wells. These are not necessarily things that only craftsmen can create, such as creating characters," Lu Jin explained.

Zhang Yunxiu thought about it and said, "But there are already cloth and words in this world. What else can I create to spread to the world? I don't have that ability. My husband thinks too highly of me."

Lu Jin patiently said, "Among my manuscripts, there is a comparative analysis of three-code, four-code, and five-code telegrams. Have you seen it?"

Zhang Yunxiu nodded, "I saw it, but I don't understand it. The front part doesn't look like Chinese characters, and the back part seems like fortune-telling. What does it say?"

Only then did Lu Jin explain to her in detail what the five-code telegram was.

The telegraph is not some high-tech thing. The most primitive wired telegraph only needs three conditions: a wooden telephone pole, a power source, and bare metal wires.

The wire does not even need an insulation layer, only a galvanized steel wire with a diameter of 0.5 mm is needed, and even copper is not needed.

The power supply can be solved by lead-acid batteries, dilute sulfuric acid and lead plates are not difficult to find, and the relay used to relay signals is actually an electromagnet, which is made by wrapping wire around an iron core. With these things, all you need to send a telegram is a code book.

From an engineering technical point of view, telephone poles are definitely not a problem. The batteries only need to produce dilute sulfuric acid, which is not difficult because dilute sulfuric acid is a by-product of the ancient method of sulfur refining. The ancients also knew how to smelt lead metal.

Then there is the metal wire drawing technology. The technology for drawing iron wire has existed since the Song Dynasty. First, it is hammered into iron bars, and then holes are drilled on the metal wire drawing plate. The bars are gradually drawn thinner, and finally thin iron wires are obtained.

Don't think that the needles in ancient times were all made from grinding iron pestles. At least in the Song Dynasty, people used the wire drawing method to make iron needles. By the Yuan Dynasty, the technology of pulling four iron wires at the same time had appeared.

Lu Jin only needs to replace the wire drawing power with steam, improve the quality of the steel, and finally do a hot-dip galvanizing. Even electroplating is not needed. After removing the rust from the steel wire, just dip it in a zinc pot. In this way, thin steel wire that meets the requirements of transmitting telegrams can be made.

These are not too difficult, not even climbing the technology tree, it's just tiptoeing.

In fact, the most difficult part of telegraph is not the hardware, but the software, that is, the "input method".

The telegraph can only send two types of signals, tick and dit. So how to use the two signals to convey Chinese is a problem.

As we all know, the telegraph was invented in Europe, and then a Dane secretly connected it to Shanghai using a transoceanic submarine cable. When the Qing Dynasty learned about this, they were furious.
After all, it was me who led the Qing army. What can I do if my sovereignty is violated at will?

The Qing Dynasty actually knew that the telegraph was a good thing. After being forcibly connected to the international telegraph network, it couldn't just dismantle it. The Qing Dynasty also wanted to use it, but they suddenly found that they couldn't.

Because Morse code cannot send Chinese
Later, a Frenchman living in the Qing Dynasty helped China design a three-code telegraph code based on the internationally used Morse code.

This three-code telegram consists of three English letters. Every three different letter combinations represent a Chinese character. There are 26 English letters, so the three-code telegram is 26 to the cube of 17576. A total of Chinese characters can be expressed, which is enough.

However, this three-code telegraph system required a combination of three letters for each word, which was still too troublesome, so later the Chinese developed a four-code telegraph system.

The four-code telegraph is also based on the international telegraph code, using different combinations of four-digit Arabic numerals to represent different Chinese characters. Therefore, from 0 to 9, the fourth power of 10 can express Chinese characters.

Although the number of characters that can be expressed is reduced, there are only a few thousand commonly used characters in Chinese, which is barely enough. The key is that this four-code telegram is easier to remember and is not less efficient than the three-code telegram.

Until now, the State Post and Telecommunications Administration still uses these two types of national telegraph unified standards.

But it is impossible to use Lu Jin directly. I have to do it from scratch this time. I can't use other people's English letters and numbers.

In the international telegraph code, each Arabic numeral is represented by five ticks. In other words, to send a Chinese character using the four-code telegraph, you have to tap the keys 20 times in a row to send one character.
So Lu Jin planned to create a five-code telegraph, which was actually just a reprogramming of the input method.

What was the most familiar thing to the ancient Chinese? Of course, it was the I Ching and the Eight Trigrams.

The Eight Trigrams are a kind of mathematical symbols. For example, the Qian Trigram means "all connected", the Kun Trigram means "disconnected", the Zhen Trigram means "disconnected and connected", and the Xun Trigram means "all connected and disconnected".
These symbols can be easily converted using 'tick'. A tick represents continuity and a tap represents disconnection. In this way, only three ticks are needed to represent a hexagram.

Then using five different combinations of hexagrams, which is five digits, 8 to the fifth power, we can express 32768 different Chinese characters.

Why not use a four-digit number? Because the fourth power of 8 is only 4096, which is not enough. There are at least six thousand commonly used characters in ancient classical Chinese, and four thousand characters cannot even accommodate the commonly used characters.

Although the five-code telegraph has one more digit than the four-code telegraph, it is more efficient because it only requires 15 keystrokes at most to represent one Chinese character, three ticks in a group, and five groups of three are enough.

It used to be four-five-twenty, now it’s three-five-five, and five-digit numbers are even faster!
As long as we develop this telegraph code and promote it to the whole world in the future, even if the foreigners want to send a telegram, they will have to learn the I Ching and the Eight Trigrams first!
Lu Jin even thought of a name for it, which was "Fuxi Telegraph Code".

The mathematical principle of this five-code telegram is very simple, but it is rather boring to write. One has to read a large number of books, court reports, official documents, imperial edicts and other text contents first, and then pick out the commonly used characters.

Chinese characters are divided into different telegraph intervals according to their common and uncommon uses, which makes them more convenient to use.

Lu Jin could design the principles, but the specific writing was too time-consuming. It was a completely boring physical job, and what he lacked most was time. He didn't have time to compile a code book.

So I thought of Zhang Yunxiu.

As a queen, you set an example for all women in the world. Women can also learn science!

"If you compile this Fuxi telegraph code, it will definitely go down in history, comparable to Cangjie's achievement in creating Chinese characters. From now on, as long as there are still people in the world who use telegraphs to send messages, they will always remember you."

Zhang Yunxiu was a little dumbfounded. She didn't expect that this was what Lu Jin was talking about.

"Can this thing really transmit messages thousands of miles away and arrive in an instant?"

"Yes." Lu Jin said with certainty.

“If there had been telegraphs in the Han Dynasty, all it would have taken was a wire from Chang’an to the Western Regions, and Emperor Wu of Han would have been able to communicate with Zhang Qian in real time. Emperor Wu of Han could have said a word in Chang’an, and Zhang Qian, who was far away in the Western Regions, would have received it immediately. There would have been no need to wait thirteen years to receive a message from Zhang Qian.

“Also, when An Lushan rebelled in the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court did not receive the news until six days later. If the Tang Dynasty had sent a telegram, we would have received the news as soon as the rebellion broke out.

"The imperial court had at least six more days to gather troops to support the king and assemble a large army to suppress the rebellion. How could An Lushan have reached Chang'an?"

After Lu Jin gave this example, Zhang Yunxiu, who was familiar with history books, immediately understood the importance of the telegram.

"Then doesn't this telegram become a national treasure?"

"It is not only beneficial to the country, but also to the people. Merchants can also use it to pass on business news; ordinary people, such as scholars who go to Beijing to take the imperial examinations, can also send messages to their hometowns, no matter how far away, it can be delivered on the same day.

“It can also be used for disaster relief. Wherever a natural disaster occurs, the court can prepare relief supplies in advance and allocate them before it is serious. This round trip can save a lot of time and save many lives.

"The benefits will be felt for generations to come!"

Zhang Yunxiu hesitated after hearing this, "After hearing what my husband said, what if I can't do such an important thing well?" Lu Jin encouraged, "Don't worry, I'll help you. If you don't understand, just ask me. Besides, there's no rush. You can spend ten or eight years to compile it. Anyway, I can't make a telegram now."

"Well, then I'll try it first." Zhang Yunxiu agreed only after hearing that it would take so long.

The next morning, October 8th, there were still two days left before the deadline set by Lu Jin to take over Wuwei.

Not long after Lu Jin got up, an uninvited guest came to Luzhou.

Liao Yongan brought Li Pusheng here by boat from Wuwei.

History once again showed a huge deviation. Li Pusheng, who was supposed to join Xu Shouhui in Nantou in 1355, seemed determined to stay in Lu Jin this time.

The main thing was that Lu Jin defeated Kang Maocai's main force of more than 10,000 troops with the strength of two regiments that day, which made Li Pusheng feel shocked when he saw it.

His master Peng Yingyu failed in his rebellion in Jiangxi, fled to Huaixi, rebelled a second time, failed again, and now fled to Hubei to continue his third rebellion. No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like he will succeed.
On the other hand, since taking over the Chaohu navy, Lu Jin has become stronger and stronger, with more and more soldiers and more territory.

In the past, he led his troops to hide in Wuwei and pretended not to see Lu Jin, but now Liao Yongan was ready to lead tens of thousands of troops to besiege Wuwei. Even if Li Pusheng wanted to play ostrich, he could no longer do so and had to confront Lu Jin.

Either invest or leave, which one should you choose?
Li Pusheng chose to surrender, after all, it seemed more promising. However, it was difficult to say that he and the Chaohu generals were in the same faction. He was in the same group with Zhao Pusheng, who had been murdered.

In this situation, it is unknown whether Lu Jin will take him in.

The words that Lu Jin asked Liao Yongan to convey, "If you don't have the courage to come see me, don't ask," finally made Li Pusheng make up his mind.

Lu Jin has already made his statement publicly. If he is killed after this, wouldn't it ruin Lu Jin's own reputation?
Of course, what he was betting on was whether Lu Jin would care about his reputation, and his own bet was his life. Li Pusheng also came here at a great risk.

The two waited in the front hall of the Marshal's Mansion for a while before they finally saw Lu Jin, who had arrived late.

As soon as Li Pusheng saw Lu Jin's figure and appearance, he felt that he was tall and majestic. He was worthy of being elected as the marshal by the generals of Chaohu. If nothing else, at least he looked good.

Seeing Lu Jin coming over, Li Pusheng immediately knelt on one knee and clasped his fists, saying, "Greetings, Marshal!"

"Yeah, I know you." Lu Jin nodded and didn't let him get up.

This inexplicable reaction put Li Pusheng under great pressure. What does this mean? Why don’t you tell me whether you will accept it or not?

Then I heard Lu Jin say.

"Let's get straight to the point. I don't like beating around the bush. You are the one left behind by Peng Yingyu. You know it yourself, and I know it too. If you want to stay, you can. I am not a petty person who cannot tolerate others, otherwise my brothers would not let me be the marshal.

"But if you want to stay, you have to agree to my three conditions. If you don't agree, you can leave now."

Upon hearing this, Li Pusheng hurriedly said, "I am stupid, please tell me clearly, as long as I can do it, not to mention three conditions, thirty will also do."

"Hahahaha, it seems you have made a great determination." Lu Jin smiled playfully.

Li Pusheng also had his own difficulties. Since he got on Liao Yongan's boat, he had no way out. No matter what Lu Jin asked for, he had to agree.

Otherwise, could he still leave?

Lu Jin let him go, but Liao Yongan might not. The boat might sink halfway.
Lu Jin immediately stretched out a finger and said.

“First, before taking Luzhou, you didn’t contribute anything, and you didn’t make any achievements. Now there are some veterans in Chaohu, such as Zhao Yong and Zhang Desheng, who are still battalion commanders. Even if you stay, your position will not be higher than theirs.

"Since you are one of the founding fathers of the uprising, I can let you start as a thousand households, and in the future, promotions will be treated equally, based only on military merit. What do you think? Can you agree?"

Li Pusheng immediately expressed his opinion, "The Marshal rewards and punishes fairly and does things justly, I am willing to do so."

"Okay, secondly, you are not allowed to spread your Maitreya teachings in our army. Can you do that?"

Li Pusheng had already prepared for this, and reiterated, "I had already burned the scriptures before I came. From now on, I will not talk about Maitreya Buddhism, and I will not even go to Buddhist temples."

Wow, it seems like this guy is really prepared mentally before coming here.

Lu Jin said after hearing this.

"You don't have to agree so readily. I won't just believe your one-sided words. I will send someone to keep an eye on you. If you dare to do it, don't blame me for not telling you in advance."

Li Pusheng quickly reiterated, "I will keep my word and am willing to be supervised by the Marshal."

"Okay, the third rule is that you must cut off contact with Peng Yingyu and sever your relationship as his disciple. Can you agree to this?"

This time Li Pusheng frowned and was silent for a moment, probably thinking about what to say. Lu Jin didn't rush him and just waited quietly.

The main reason is that in ancient times, the relationship between master and apprentice was taken very seriously. Once a teacher, always a father. To sever the master-apprentice relationship, isn't that disloyal and unfilial? If he readily agreed, would Lu Jin think that he was not loyal at all?

After thinking for a moment, Li Pusheng gave the answer.

"Marshal, I don't have to take the initiative to contact Peng Yingyu, but if he sends someone to find me, I can't just kill him. Can I tell you first if he sends someone to look for me again, and then you can make the decision?"

Lu Jin was very satisfied with the answer, “Very good, it seems that you really came here prepared.

"In that case, then you should change your name."

Upon hearing this, Li Pusheng immediately looked up at Lu Jin in confusion.

Lu Jin immediately explained, "You are still using the name Peng Yingyu gave you. How do you prove that you have severed your master-disciple relationship with him?"

Li Pusheng suddenly realized and clasped his fists again, saying, "General, I didn't have a name before, only a number. This name was given to me by Peng Yingyu. I might as well ask you to give me another one."

Lu Jin thought about it and it made sense. Who knows if this guy was called Sanwu or Liuyi before? Chang Yuchun’s father was called Chang Liuliu.

He walked around the hall twice before stopping in front of Li Pusheng and speaking.

"From now on, you will be called Li Ruizhong. Rui means smart and wise. I hope you will use your brain before doing anything and consider the consequences carefully. Secondly, you must be loyal.

"As long as you can do these two things, I will treat you the same as other generals and will not discriminate against you."

"Yes, I will definitely remember your teachings. Thank you for the name!"

"Get up. Bring your soldiers from Wuwei first. I will ask Zhu Shou from the 1st regiment to help you reorganize them into a battalion. You will train with the 1st regiment first. After a few days, I will arrange a destination for your troops." Only then did Lu Jin help Li Ruizhong, who had changed his name, up.

Li Ruizhong immediately clasped his fists and said, "Yes, I will obey your orders!"

I have written almost 5,000 words without realizing it. I feel that the number of words is not enough to divide into chapters, so I will post them all.

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(End of this chapter)