Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 263 Long-distance telegraph line completed

Looking at the submarine cable-laying ship coming all the way in the distance, King Zheng Guohui of Chu couldn't help but smile, his mood obviously lifted, and he said;

"My fellow ministers, you will surely play an important role in the development of the history of the Chu State!"

"Your Majesty is far-sighted. With the help of telecommunications, the garrisons on various islands will be connected as one and provide mutual support. Their strength will be greatly enhanced!" Earl Qian Jiang, the Minister of Military and Political Affairs, responded with a smile on his face.

Among all the ministers present, Earl Qianjiang has the highest status and has followed Your Majesty the longest. He has been the right-hand man of King Zheng Guohui of Chu since the beginning of the Tongzhou militia.

Counting on my fingers, it has been 7 years.

Lieutenant General Qian Jiang, Minister of Military and Political Affairs, had a background in the military and was well aware of the importance of convenient communications to the military. Looking at the tall sails in the distance, his face was full of smiles and he was simply overjoyed.

After the Chu State expanded and reorganized its army, the standing field expeditionary force increased to 5 divisions, with each division having 6800 troops, and an additional mule and horse supply regiment of more than 500 people.

This mule and horse supply regiment only has an organizational framework and a dozen officers. It has no logistical personnel or mule and horse equipment. It is just an empty shell.

In the event of war, local authorities would be mobilized at any time to supplement the necessary supplies, including militia and more than 200 mule and horse carts for transporting logistical and military supplies.

At that time, it is only necessary to issue the expedition order to the local government, and the local government must cooperate in its execution without the need to issue a separate conscription order.

For example, the 3rd Expeditionary Division was stationed in Cebu Prefecture. After receiving the order to go on the expedition, the division commander, Major General Huang Shan, took the order directly to Cebu Governor Fan Zhicheng and asked him to cooperate unconditionally in the execution.

The Army Department also has more than a dozen local fortress garrison regiments and garrison battalions, which are island defense troops with varying numbers of people.

After the expansion, the number of Chu's troops doubled to 4.45, and according to imperial decrees, it had the right to recruit veterans and local militia to assist in combat at any time.

Now that the islands are connected by submarine cables, the military is also the biggest beneficiary. As Lieutenant General Qian Jiang said, "Our strength has been greatly improved."

King Zheng Guohui of Chu chatted and laughed with his ministers, and time passed quickly. Soon, more than an hour had passed.

It was a little after 2 p.m. when the submarine cable-laying ship, which had been far away, approached, revealing its tall and solid black hull. It was the "Taishan" iron ship with a displacement of 4683 tons.

The large iron ship "Taishan" was the unfinished heavy armored gunboat "Stephen Battery" purchased from North America, which was later converted into an ore cargo ship.

In order to undertake the important task of laying submarine cables, the large iron wheel "Taishan" was modified again. In the past few months, it has been running around laying submarine cables between the archipelagoes and has performed exceptionally well.

The submarine cable laying in the Hainan Islands is composed of submarine cables between islands.

The closest outlying islands are a few kilometers, a dozen kilometers or even dozens of kilometers away. Basically, a section can be paved in half a day, which is quite fast.

The process of laying submarine cables is also very simple.

Two cable turntables for loading cables were converted into the huge cargo hold of the large iron ship "Taishan". The large iron ship would move forward while lowering cables into the sea.

The Taishan cargo ship was chosen to be converted into a submarine cable laying vessel because it is large enough to carry enough submarine cables at one time without the need to splice or break them in the middle.

The Taishan has a total of 6 large cargo holds, two of which have been converted into cable-laying winches, and the remaining 4 cargo holds are also filled with submarine cables.

When a submarine cable is released to the end, the required broken end and the new cable can be connected on the ship, and the sealing and other corresponding work can be completed before being thrown into the sea.

This set of procedures for laying submarine cables has been fully verified when laying the Atlantic submarine cable.

More than 20 minutes later
The "Taishan" arrived at the port shore and anchored in the deep water area about two kilometers away from the coast. It then dropped its anchor and stopped moving forward.

The berthing location is not the port, but the beach on one side of the port.

The submarine cable will be brought ashore here and connected to the already connected telegraph lines to form a wired telegraph line throughout the Hainan Islands.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu led a group of ministers to the coast. They watched the construction workers on the shore prepare the long cables and connecting equipment, and waited for the cables from the sea to be laid.

Accompanying the "Taishan" in laying cables were two small steamers, which were responsible for providing support during the laying of submarine cables and helping the "Taishan" to stay stable on the established route.

This is because when laying submarine cables, the speed of navigation cannot be fast.

The strong winds and waves at sea can easily cause the huge cable-laying ship "Taishan" to deviate from its planned route, sometimes by as much as tens of kilometers.

This requires a small steamer to push at the bow and stern of the ship's side to stabilize the trajectory of its submarine cable laying.

Watching the two small steamers emitting billowing black smoke busy back and forth, pulling and tugging, King Zheng Guohui of Chu did not show any sign of anxiety and had already sat down under the colorful tent on the shore.

He drank tea with his ministers while waiting leisurely.

Laying submarine cables ashore is not a quick task, but sitting on the picturesque Cebu beach, drinking tea and chatting about trivial matters is also a very pleasant experience.

Less than a hundred meters in front of the tent, a deep trench was dug extending to the depths of the beach. That was where the submarine cable came ashore, and many workers on the beach were ready.

Not long after

The "Taishan" had cut the cable. At one end of the long cable, there was a small steamer pulling it with a rope. The "Dudu" rushed to the shore with black smoke.

The cables behind him were put into the sea one by one, splashing high water.

The small steamer rushed to the shore and stopped. More than a dozen workers rushed over, waded through the waist-deep sea water, took the rope as thick as their wrists, and worked together to drag the ship ashore.

The steam engine on the shore roared, and after it started to run "gurgling", it released a long steel cable and dragged the tow rope back from the beach.

This steam engine is the power source of the winch. With the "gurgling" sound of the machine running, the released steel cable is quickly recovered, and the rope on the beach is quickly stretched straight and dragged all the way up.

Behind the tow rope was the broken end of the submarine cable, which left a clear scratch mark on the beach.

The broken end of the submarine cable had been treated and was wrapped with a waterproof asphalt material as thick as a bowl, about three or four meters long in total, which was moving heavily across the beach.

After the winch dragged up the submarine cable, it untied the towing rope, stretched the steel cable to its longest point again, and then dragged the submarine cable toward the shore again with a "gulp, gulp" sound.

After repeating this four or five times, the winch could no longer drag.

At this point, the preliminary work for bringing the submarine cable ashore is basically ready.

Dozens or even hundreds of strong men stepped forward, lifted up the long submarine cable together, and threw it into the deep trench that had been dug earlier. Then they picked up shovels and began to fill and smooth it out.

On the beach
The workers were busy cutting the excess submarine cables and then connecting them to the cables on shore using a high-temperature furnace. This was a delicate job.

The submarine cable is made of eight twisted copper wires, with a central steel cable wrapped in insulating plastic. This high-strength steel cable, imported from the United States, is only as thick as a little finger, yet it can withstand a tensile force of up to 8 tons.

Each strand of copper wire must be individually fused together, and the joints must be doubly securely treated before being wrapped layer by layer and completely sealed with melted asphalt felt.

Although there is only a small break, after the entire connection is completed, the connection is as thick as a large bowl, five or six meters long, and is covered with layer upon layer of thin waterproof asphalt felt.

Finally, cover it with melted asphalt. This process must be repeated three times before it is completed.

The same connection process is easier to complete on shore, but submarine cable laying vessels often have to connect broken ends when operating in the sea.

If a large roll of cable is laid out, the next roll of cable will be connected at sea. After the connection is ready, it will be laid into the sea, and this process will be repeated continuously.

This requires that the submarine cable laying vessel must have a sufficiently large operating space, a sufficiently large carrying capacity, and a hull layout that is convenient for laying cables.

Generally, large Western-style sailing ships have a tall and heavy poop, which is where the helmsman and captain are located, and is also the core of operating a sailing ship.

Such inherent layout is not suitable for releasing submarine cables from the stern.

Therefore, the several workboats used to lay the first Atlantic submarine cable were converted from iron cargo ships. The stern operating space was relatively spacious, making it convenient for laying cables and performing other operations in various sea conditions.

The British used the 3-ton Great Eastern to lay the Atlantic submarine cable. The ship underwent a special modification and successfully completed the feat in July of the previous year.

In Chu
The most suitable ship to be converted into a submarine cable-laying ship is the Taishan freighter. Compared with laying more than 5,000 kilometers of Atlantic submarine cables, the challenges faced by the Chu State laying construction team are much smaller, and the Taishan freighter is fully capable of doing the job.

The current situation of laying cables in the Hainan Islands is that the distance is not long, but there are dozens of straits that need to be connected. Most of the submarine cables are several kilometers to dozens of kilometers long, and there are few that exceed 100 kilometers.

The submarine cable in front of us is a long-distance submarine cable that runs from Zamboanga in the Tongzhou Islands, through Cagayan Province, across the strait, and directly to Cebu Island. It is the longest submarine cable that needs to be connected, with a total length of 578 kilometers.

Once laid, the submarine cable project connecting the Hainan Islands will be fully connected, and there will be no more obstacles to interconnection. This is a major event worthy of being recorded in history.

"Your Majesty, the submarine cable connecting the Tongzhou Islands has been officially connected. The Hainan Islands long-distance telegraph office can be put into use. Whether to communicate... please make your decision, Your Majesty." Minister of Transportation Viscount Wehorst clasped his fists and bowed, reporting respectfully.

At this moment

King Zheng Guohui of Chu was chatting with Lieutenant General Qian Jiang about some old stories of Shenzhou. The two of them were laughing and reminiscing about the past. When they heard the report, they were obviously stunned for a moment and asked, "Is everything ready?"

"Your Majesty, all preparations are complete. Your Majesty, please proceed to the ceremony site."

"Oh, it's done. Let's go then. It's already taken quite some time. What time is it now?"

"Your Majesty, it is a quarter past three in the afternoon."

"We've been here since 9am, and half the day has already passed without us noticing. Let's hurry up and finish this soon so we can go back and rest."

"I will obey your majesty's order."

King Zheng Guohui of Chu led his people to the ceremony site, where colorful flags were fluttering all around. The royal guards set up a cordon to prevent unauthorized personnel from entering.

The ceremony was attended mainly by construction workers, local clerks and assistants from the Cebu government. Hundreds of people gathered together, gongs, drums and firecrackers were all ready, and there were also several lion dance teams to add to the fun.

A small red carpet was prepared at the ceremony site, with two tables placed on the carpet, on which were placed old-fashioned steampunk-style telegraph machines used to send Morse code.

Two bamboo poles supported a long banner with the words "Warmly celebrating the official establishment of the Royal Nanyang Telegraph Bureau and the national long-distance telegraph network connection ceremony" written on it.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu strode to the ceremony site surrounded by a crowd of people.

Everyone bowed and saluted, saying, "We humble servants respectfully welcome the arrival of Your Majesty. Long live our king, long live our king, long live our king!"

King Zheng Guohui of Chu walked onto the red carpet with a normal expression. This red carpet had obviously been used many times, and traces of cleaning were still there, but it did not affect its use.

Cebu Governor Fan Zhicheng bent over and led the way, leading King Chu Zheng Guohui to the table.

Two tables covered with white tablecloths were placed side by side, with thin wires connected to the main cable at one end and to the telegraph machine at the other.

This section of the main cable line was not filled in order to send the first telegram after the long-distance telegraph line was built, highlighting the sense of ceremony.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu stood in front of everyone. He looked around at everyone with a proud look on his face and announced loudly:
"My people, today is a great moment worthy of being recorded in history. The first long-distance telegraph line in Asia has officially been completed in the State of Chu.

This represented that the Kingdom of Chu was ahead of its peers and was at the forefront of the emerging steam industrial revolution worldwide. This was a major step of epoch-making significance.

I believe that in the near future..."

King Zheng Guohui of Chu was very good at this kind of impromptu speech. He could just sprinkle some inspirational words and make the onlookers so excited that they could hardly control themselves and cheer loudly.

Wherever he went, King Zheng Guohui of Chu exuded a divine aura. His confidence and open-mindedness were particularly contagious, and his impromptu speeches were extremely tempting. How could he not cause a sensation?

While King Zheng Guohui of Chu was giving an impromptu speech, the telegraph operator sitting behind a table sent out a decree from the King of Chu that had been prepared long ago.

It was a simple Morse message, a dozen or so characters long, which read: "The King says: The Telegraph Office has been established, and it will be convenient for all the people throughout the country. I hereby decree."

It won't take long

Prime Minister Li Hezhang sent a congratulatory message from Manila, and Deputy Prime Minister Count Zheng Shouxin, who was inspecting the Tongzhou Islands, sent a congratulatory message from Zamboanga, with the same content.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty! Long live our king! Long live our king! Long live our king!"

The moment the telegram was received, the entire celebration atmosphere reached its climax. Cheerful drum music sounded, firecrackers blasted, and the lion dance team, shaking their heads and tails, entered the venue and gave a wonderful performance.

There were also young men and women presenting bouquets of flowers to His Majesty. King Zheng Guohui of Chu gave earnest instructions to his ministers with a kind expression. The ceremony was a lively and festive scene.

It took only about ten minutes.
After attending the ceremony, King Zheng Guohui of Chu and his ministers, who were already hungry, got on their carriages and left one after another, and the atmosphere at the ceremony quickly cooled down.

The workers gathered up the carpets and loaded the tables onto a wagon to be taken back with the carpets.

Then they began to fill the deep pit and bury the submarine cables deep underground.

This telegraph line extending from Cebu City already has a telegraph office building, a telegraph room and a business office in the city. It has a long-distance line that has been in use for some time and can send telegrams to Manila.

The addition of this submarine cable line made telegraph communication from south to north unimpeded and fully connected.

(End of this chapter)