Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1012 1007 [Secret Word Verification System]

In the newly established telegraph room in the imperial city of Luoyang, a group of important officials from the cabinet and the ministries had different expressions.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty, were these two words 'received' really sent back from Liaoyang?" Li Bao was the first to come back to his senses, his tone containing three parts of shock and seven parts of excitement.

Zhu Ming nodded and said, "It was sent back from Liaoyang."

Li Bao quickly asked again: "If I were the commander-in-chief, could I give all the generals these things? Then send telegrams to them every day, asking them where they have marched to and whether the scouts they sent out have found any traces of the enemy?"

Zhu Ming said: "At present, there is no problem in sending telegrams to each other if the distance is 20 to 30 miles. If the distance between the units is farther, we need to assign special personnel and use something called a repeater to ensure that the telegram can be sent to the friendly forces."

Li Bao gave a more vivid understanding: "That repeater is like a beacon tower between the various departments?"

"You can say that." Zhu Ming nodded.

Li Bao was overjoyed: "With this magical object, the Ming soldiers will surely win every battle!"

Li Hanzhang expressed his concern: "Your Majesty, I have a question. What if a traitor falsely transmits a government or military order?"

Before Zhu Ming could say anything, Li Bao laughed and said, "The method of verifying with words is it."

For a while, there was no sound.

Only Yang Zhi was a good guy. He moved his feet calmly and kicked Li Bao's heel lightly with his toes.

Li Bao reacted immediately, and quickly clasped his fists and bowed his head: "I lost my temper, please forgive me, Your Majesty."

Of course, it was not a gaffe, but a real transgression.

The Prime Minister is asking the Emperor, why are you rushing out to answer? Do you want to be the Emperor?

Zhu Ming didn't seem to care. Instead, he smiled and called him by his nickname affectionately. He said in a joking tone, "You, Li San, it seems that you know how to use your brain."

Li Bao bent his back even lower and responded carefully: "Your Majesty taught me well. This method of character verification comes from the "Wu Jing Zong Yao". I first read this book by borrowing it from Your Majesty. Without Your Majesty's cultivation, I would be nothing more than an ignorant village man."

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

Important civil and military officials took the opportunity to flatter the emperor and cover up what had just happened. The atmosphere in the telegraph room returned to normal.

Li Bao was so scared that sweat broke out on his back.

When he was crowned a king, he was trembling with fear for several years. After the fall of Western Xia, another person was crowned a king, and Li Bao finally let go of his temper and was no longer so cautious in his conduct as a person and an official.

Moreover, his temper gradually worsened, or he no longer restrained himself all the time, and he somewhat regained some of the recklessness he had in his youth.

But in the big case last year, one of his former personal soldiers was killed, which made Li Bao terrified for a while again.

He was just too excited just now, immersed in the joy of fighting a war with telegrams. When he heard the questions raised by Li Hanzhang, he immediately answered them before the emperor.

Zhang Guangdao was secretly observing the emperor at this moment, and seeing that there was nothing unusual on Zhu Ming's expression, he didn't think about it any more.

This emperor is still tolerant.

The "word verification" method was a military code book developed in the Northern Song Dynasty. The pre-agreed poems were used to correspond to the coded codes. Even if the enemy intercepted the letter, they would not be able to figure out what was written in it.

In ancient Chinese history, the most difficult military code to crack was the Fanqie code created by Qi Jiguang.

Qi Jiguang's code book only has 56 characters, the first 20 characters are a poem, and the last 36 characters are a ci. The eight tones of the Fuzhou dialect are used to rhyme the two poems, thus forming a myriad of pinyin combinations.

Zhu Ming said:

"After the imperial court officially uses telegraphs, the corresponding speeds will be 800 miles, 600 miles, and 400 miles respectively."

"Only urgent documents above 400 miles are allowed to be sent via telegram. Ordinary documents are not allowed to be sent by telegram. Follow the previous process."

"For express trips of 600 or 800 miles, a code is required to verify the characters."

"In the future, telegraph offices and telegraph stations will be set up in the provincial capitals, prefectures and military headquarters. At the local level, only the chief and deputy chief officers of the three-official offices, the chief and deputy chief officers of the prefectures, and the chief and deputy chief officers of the military headquarters can send and receive encrypted telegrams."

"When these chief and deputy officers took office, they were immediately given their own codebooks."

"For example, when sending a secret message to Liaoning Provincial Government, they would not send the text first, but two words. One word would be verified by the Left Provincial Government Envoy, and the other word would be verified by the Right Provincial Government Envoy. The telegraph operator could not look at their code book, but could only say the number of words on a certain line on a certain page, and let the two chief and deputy officers say the verification words themselves."

"The telegraph operator sent the message back to the court for verification. If both characters were correct, the court would then send the text of the telegram."

"For an urgent telegram of 600 miles, the code book must be changed after being sent a maximum of ten times. For an urgent telegram of 800 miles, the code book must be changed after being used once. Of course, the term 'one time' or 'ten times' depends on the specific situation."

"If a major incident occurs, it will definitely be rushed over 800 miles repeatedly. As long as the first verification is passed, it can continue to be used. The court will also immediately send someone to deliver a new code book."

"Also, if one of the two officers dies or loses the code book, so that the two verification codes are incomplete, we need to find the two officers from other departments as soon as possible to explain the situation through a complete verification code."

"For example, if the left governor of a province is killed by a traitor, the right governor must send an urgent telegram. Then, we can find the chief and deputy officials of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Military Affairs and ask them to use the verification characters to report to the court. At the same time, the right governor's own verification characters must also be attached. The more officials who verify the characters, the more credible the content of the telegram will be."

"The above is the court verifying officials, and officials also need to verify the court. For example, for a major order like sending troops, only when the court responds with the correct verification characters can the relevant civil and military officials carry it out."

Zhu Ming said so much, except for keyword verification, the main text of the telegram is all in plain text.

Because most emergency telegrams do not actually need to use codes, the main purpose is to confirm the identity, and it is the officials who confirm the identity of the court.

Only a true leader would have the code and could act secretly at a critical moment. The Military Intelligence Department of the Ministry of War would also have a set of codes.

Qian Chen raised a question: "Your Majesty, what if the chief and second officials are at odds and do not cooperate with each other when sending telegrams?"

Zhu Ming said:

"For ordinary events, there is no need to send telegrams, and you can just submit a normal memorial. Even if you send a telegram, there is no need to verify the characters, and there is no need for the cooperation of the chief and deputy officials."

"Only in emergencies do we need to send encrypted telegrams. If the chief and deputy officials refuse to cooperate and don't honestly report the truth to the court, then what are we keeping them for? We will punish them based on the consequences. At the least, they will be dismissed from office, and at the worst, they will be beheaded."

"If one official doesn't cooperate, the other official can send an unencrypted telegram to the court! If they don't cooperate, both can send unencrypted telegrams to the court, and the court will send people to conduct a detailed investigation."

Encrypted telegrams require cooperation between the main and second officials to verify the characters, one is to ensure confidentiality, and the other is to check and balance each other.

If you dare not cooperate in an emergency, it means that the contradiction between the chief and the second officer is exposed, and it can almost be said that they are mortal enemies. Anyone who dares not to be honest will definitely suffer the consequences after being investigated.

Fang Mengqing hesitated to speak.

It was Chen Dong who asked, "Your Majesty just said that local areas should set up telegraph offices and telegraph stations, so the capital must have a telegraph department. May I ask which ministry this telegraph department should be affiliated with?"

All the ministers, civil and military alike, pricked up their ears.

This is what they are most concerned about!
Everyone knew that the telegraph system was of great importance, and whichever department had jurisdiction would be more powerful.

Zhu Ming said:

"The capital's telegraph has two teams. One is under the control of the emperor, and the other is under the Tongzhengyuan."

"For ordinary telegrams, they can be submitted to the Tongzhengyuan as usual. As for encrypted telegrams, the coded copies of officials from all regions are locked in the stone chamber of the cabinet, and the key is kept by the prime minister and the deputy prime minister. The prime minister and the deputy prime minister must open the lock together, and bring more than half of the cabinet ministers with them to open it."

"If an official from the Tongzhengyuan or the Telegraph Department receives an encrypted telegram and fails to report it, he will be dismissed from office at the least and executed at the worst!"

Zhu Ming did not mention the emperor's telegraph team, and the ministers did not dare to ask.

This means that the emperor has five sources of information.

One is the Cabinet, one is the Tongzhengyuan, one is the Inspectorate, one is the "Da Ming Monthly", and one is the Emperor's Telegraph Office.

As long as they obtained the special code book given by the emperor, any official could send a code or coded telegram directly to the emperor - electromagnetic secret message!
Zhu Ming turned and left, and the ministers hurriedly saw him off. They were allowed to stay in the telegraph room and observe.

The person responsible for explaining to the ministers was Zhu Guoxiang's craftsman student Yu Ang.

"Excuse me, Mr. Xiao Yu, how was this telegram sent?" Li Gang asked hurriedly.

Yu Ang said: "As the name suggests, telegraph uses electricity."

Qian Chen asked: "Is it the kind of electricity that comes from thunder and lightning?"

Yu Ang said, "When you take off your clothes at night, do you occasionally see sparks? The emperor said that is also electricity, and the thunder and lightning in the sky are also electricity. Electricity is not an illusory thing. As long as you understand its physical properties, people can also master and use it."

"Your Majesty, and Your Excellency, may I ask you how you mastered electricity?" Ling Guxu said.

Yu Ang smiled and said, "Of course. Your Majesty has also made a battery, but because the voltage is too small to be used, it will be used as a teaching toy for the students. As for the electricity used in the telegraph, it is generated by electromagnetic induction. Although it cannot be touched, it can be seen through experiments..."

After saying a lot, the ministers were still confused.

After asking many questions and looking for a long time, everyone left the telegraph room with great regrets.

Hu Anguo said with emotion: "Before His Majesty the Emperor abdicated, he said that all the stars revolve around the sun, which shows that he has already learned a lot about heaven and earth. Now he has mastered the art of electricity, which is simply amazing and beyond the reach of ordinary people like us."

"That's quite true." Everyone agreed.

In fact, what they feel at this moment is more of awe.

They felt that Zhu Guoxiang was unfathomable and that there was a mysterious divine power attached to him.

No wonder the retired emperor has no attachment to the throne. I'm afraid that in the eyes of the retired emperor, secular power is not worth mentioning at all.

The emperor has most likely already glimpsed the mysteries of heaven and earth, and will be able to ascend to heaven in the future!
The emperor who could ascend to heaven was now playing telegraph with his concubines and children.

Li Qingzhao, in particular, had a lot of fun watching the telegraph. They were in different places in the palace, sending messages via telegraph, and conducting the first "online chat" in human history.

Zhu Ming strolled over to his father and reminded him, "After the Telegraph Department is officially launched, you should stop interfering with the signal."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Just stagger the sending times in the morning, afternoon and evening. I will try to set up a frequency band for private chat."

The fixed time for sending and receiving telegrams every day was quite tiring for the telegraph operators due to the errors of the current clocks. If the other party came online late, the other party had to keep sending messages. When their hands were almost sore from pressing the telegrams, the party who came online late would finally reply.

Moreover, it will not be used for civilian purposes for the time being, and will not be open to the public.

After Zhu Guoxiang improves the hand-cranked motor, or when provincial capital cities develop small hydroelectric generators, the Ministry of Industry will be asked to develop a civilian telegraph system.

Zhu Ming's ultimate idea was to separate the grain transport army and post stations from the Ministry of War, and then separate the civilian telegraph system from the Ministry of Works.

Take these out and set up a separate postal department!
(In ancient times, there was no signal interference, and low-power radio stations could send messages very far. During the Anti-Japanese War, a hand-cranked telegraph machine with a higher power could send messages directly from Shanghai to Yan'an. Of course, there was a large antenna in Yan'an, and visitors once mistakenly thought it was a radar.)
(End of this chapter)