The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 688 Beacon Fire Station Urgent Message

Time flies, and it's already the end of September.

It was already incredibly cool in the East Capital of North America at this moment.

The rice and wheat sown in spring have now ripened.

The riverbanks near the coastline are a sea of ​​golden yellow, signaling the arrival of harvest time.

By this time, Yu Zigao's fleet should be arriving soon.

On the 28th day of the ninth month, around 7 a.m., Wanli Emperor led a group of generals to a beacon tower at the entrance of Xuanfu Bay.

This beacon tower is three zhang high, and the platform on top is five or six zhang in diameter, enough to hold a hundred or so people.

In the middle of the platform stands a lighthouse about ten feet tall; if the lights are lit at night, it can be seen from miles away.

However, Wanli was not there to inspect these matters.

He had visited this beacon tower many times during its construction, and he also came to see it when it was completed.

The reason he climbed the beacon tower again was that all the beacon towers along the entire coast of the East Coast of North America had been built, and large telescopes and communication boards were ready on each beacon tower.

These were all added by him based on the system of timely communication on the battlefield; he wanted to establish a new communication system.

He came here today specifically to test the effectiveness of the beacon tower's communication function.

The problem is, there's no urgent military situation right now, so what message could we be sending?
He thought for a moment, then raised his hand and said, "Send a message south and ask where the returning fleet is now."

It only has eight characters in total, so sending a message is incredibly fast.

The border soldiers responsible for guarding this beacon tower immediately wrote down the eight large characters on the paper, clipped it to the signal board, and then ordered someone to wave the command flag to the south.

Emperor Wanli raised his telescope and swept it across the beacon tower ten miles to the south. The people on it had already reacted.

The border soldier in charge raised his binoculars and swept them in this direction. Then he bent down and began to write quickly. Soon, the completed manuscript was clipped to the signal board, and the command flag on the other side began to wave.

The large telescopes we have now can only see about ten miles away; they can't see a beacon tower more than twenty miles away.

It seems all we can do now is wait.

These beacon towers, specifically designed with communication functions, are much faster than hastily assembled real-time communication systems in the field.

He had just silently calculated that from the moment the message was transmitted from one beacon tower to the moment it was passed down from the other beacon tower, it would take less than a minute in total.

In other words, this kind of beacon tower communication system could transmit a simple message of a few words over a distance of about 600 li in half an hour, and about 1,200 li in an hour.

Moreover, these beacon towers could also transmit messages at night.

Because these beacon towers also had lighthouses, and the oil lamps on them were exceptionally large. If you held the communication board up to the light, the words on it could be clearly seen from more than ten miles away using a telescope.

In other words, if this beacon tower communication system were used to transmit simple information, it could travel more than 14,000 li in a day and a night. It would not take them more than two days to transmit the information to Xidusi in North America.

North America is only about 8,000 miles wide from east to west, less than 10,000 miles.

If a row of beacon towers were built across the land, simple messages could be transmitted to the North American Western Command in less than a day.

The North American Western Capital is only about 20,000 li away from the Ming mainland. It would take less than ten days for the Flying Dragon Ship to sail from the northern end of the North American Western Capital back to the Ming.

In other words, once the beacon towers used for land communication are built to the Western Metropolitan Commandery in North America, the communication time between the Eastern Metropolitan Commandery in North America and the Ming Dynasty mainland can be shortened to about ten days, and the round trip for transmitting messages will only take about twenty days.

He could even order the construction of beacon towers all the way north of the Western Capital in North America, extending directly to the Bering Strait.

The Bering Strait is less than 200 miles wide. In the summer, the Flying Dragon Ship can transmit a message in an hour. In the winter, a communication system is set up on the ice, and the message can be transmitted in less than an hour.

Beyond the Bering Strait lies the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, where they could extend their beacon tower communication system all the way to the capital by land!
This method of transmission seems to cover about half the distance, but the communication speed is much faster.

Twenty thousand li is about half of that distance, which is thirty thousand li. Subtracting the time it takes to travel across the Bering Strait, it would take about three days to reach the destination.

If we include the less than one day it takes for the message to travel from the Eastern Metropolitan Office in North America to the Western Metropolitan Office in North America, then it would take less than four days to send the message back to the capital, and the round trip would only take eight days.

These days, the speed of information transmission is extremely important; the infamous Waterloo information gap is a prime example.

Sometimes a single piece of information can be priceless.

Therefore, he had to establish this new communication system.

After careful consideration, Wanli decisively said, "Yunqing, we should build these beacon towers all the way from the land route to the Western Capital in North America."

Such beacon towers were also to be built in Xidusi, North America, extending northward to the other side of the Bering Strait and southward to Xidusi in the south.

Furthermore, the Nurgan Regional Military Command also needs to extend its construction from the Bering Strait all the way to the Liaodong Regional Military Command, and then from the Liaodong Regional Military Command all the way to the capital.

what?
How many such beacon towers would we need to build, and how many troops would we need to station there?
And the sheer number of large telescopes is truly astounding.

Upon hearing this, Deng Zilong thought carefully for a moment and then cautiously said, "Your Majesty, it took hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men more than two months to build these hundreds of beacon towers in the Eastern Capital of North America."

If we were to build all the way from here to the capital, it would probably take millions of able-bodied men more than two months. Furthermore, we would need to station people at the beacon towers, and each beacon tower would have to be equipped with a large telescope.

"Your Majesty, do we really need to build so many beacon towers?"

This means it's time-consuming, laborious, expensive, and requires a lot of manpower, plus a large telescope—it's not worth the effort, right?

you are wrong!
Emperor Wanli slowly shook his head, then explained in detail: "You should know how many post stations the Ming Dynasty has, right?"

There are now more than 500 post stations in the Ming Dynasty, and each post station needs to be equipped with at least ten people and two horses.

Just think about it, how much time, manpower, and money did it take us to build so many post stations? Just maintaining the operation of these post stations costs us hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels of silver every year.

Moreover, the current relay system can only deliver messages at an urgent rate of 800 li, which is slower than the speed of a flying shuttle.

If we establish this beacon tower communication system, or beacon relay station system, it can transmit messages over tens of thousands of miles a day.

Just think about it, how many times faster is a 10,000-mile express delivery than an 800-mile express delivery?
You should understand how important this urgent communication speed would be to us if we really went to war with the European colonial powers, right?
Besides, even if we don't fight a war, like now, we only need to transport some things from the Ming Dynasty, such as fishing boats.

We've been waiting for over two months. You should know very well how many bison we've hunted in those two months, right?

If this beef were to be bought, do you know how much it would cost? More than six million catties a day! At ten coins per catty, that's more than sixty thousand taels. That's nearly two million taels a month.

With the beacon fire relay stations, urgent messages could reach the Ming Dynasty mainland in four or five days, saving us more than a month's wait. Did you know that?

The speed at which this message is delivered is indeed very important, especially during times of war.

It is quite possible that the speed at which information is transmitted can determine the outcome of a major battle.

Upon hearing this, Deng Zilong nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise. We must indeed build this beacon post station."

Then let's build it as soon as possible.

After careful consideration, Wanli decisively said, "Yunqing, you will send the Flying Dragon Ship to the vassal states along the line from Xuanfu City to Jinshan City to convey my decree, instructing them to gather manpower to prepare for the construction of beacon fire stations."

As for how many to build in each vassal state, and where to build them, you can have someone arrange that.

In short, you must complete the beacon tower relay station from the East Commandery to the West Commandery in North America within three months.

You don't need to worry about the money. We can also provide meat for the able-bodied men we recruit to work in their home countries.

Anyway, the fishing boats will be here soon, and by then we'll be catching over ten million kilograms of fish every day, so their little bit won't make a difference."

Deng Zilong heard this and nodded repeatedly, saying, "I understand."

Wanli pondered again, "Also, you need to send people to the Western Regional Military Commission in North America, the Western Regional Military Commission in the South, the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, and the Liaodong Regional Military Commission to convey my decree, instructing them to quickly build beacon fire stations."

"We will first establish beacon fire relay stations connecting the Eastern Metropolitan Commandery in North America and the Western Metropolitan Commandery in South America to the capital. Later, a beacon fire relay system will be established in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, as well as in the southern and northern deserts, the southeastern Metropolitan Commandery, and other areas."

How many beacon towers and relay stations would we have to build?

Deng Zilong heard this and nodded repeatedly, saying, "I understand."

As they were discussing the matter, a command flag suddenly waved from the beacon tower to the south.

The border soldiers guarding the beacon tower immediately raised their large binoculars and scanned the area.

However, he was stunned when he took a look.

Upon seeing this, Emperor Wanli couldn't help but raise his large telescope and scan the area.

Report: Fifty-two more have been added to the south.

He was taken aback when he saw the words on the beacon tower's communication board.

This means the message came from the fifty-third beacon tower on the south side.

In other words, Yu Zigao's fleet is still about 530 li away from here.

Adding a few dozen is manageable, but if there were hundreds or even thousands, the sheer number of beacon towers would require several words to fill a message.

The key is that when you see this kind of beacon tower for transmitting messages, you have to pause for a moment and then add more information, which wastes even more precious transmission time.

After thinking it over carefully, Wanli instructed, "Yunqing, from now on, each beacon post station must be numbered."

This number is simply the border town in charge plus a digit, which allows for accurate location.

For example, the news that came from this time travel can be shortened to, "Report, at Xuanwu 53."

That's much more accurate.

If the area near the beacon post station were attacked during a war, this number would be even more important. Without the number, they would have to estimate the enemy's location themselves.

Upon hearing this, Deng Zilong nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise, I understand."

(End of this chapter)