On December 30, in Jinan, Shandong Province, Governor Zheng Hui and hundreds of Shandong officials stood in the telegraph station, waiting with great interest for the world's first administrative telegram.
All the officials in Jinan were very interested in witnessing this magical moment.
The slightly fat magistrate of Jinan Prefecture raised his hands and said: "Sir Governor, I have only heard about the strange man in the opera who flies pigeons to deliver messages. He can carry messages hundreds of miles a day, and he can arrive from Tianjin to Shandong in the morning and evening. But I have never heard of it.
I heard something can travel hundreds of miles in a few seconds!"
Another tall director of the Shandong Police Department smiled and said: "Even the prince has invented many magical things, and they are all things that ordinary people like us can understand. For example, the bicycle, although magical, still has some traces.
Xun. But now this telegraph machine is really a bit weird."
"It takes two days to travel from Tianjin to Jinan on a 600-mile dry road. It takes two days to hire a fast horse to send a message. The prince's technician said that this telegraph machine can transmit messages between the two places in a few seconds. I don't believe it."
"Isn't it magic to send the news in just a few seconds?"
The surrounding officials shook their heads and discussed:
"It's impossible. Even if the immortals are flying in the clouds and mist, it will take time."
"I don't think it's possible to transmit a message six hundred miles in a few seconds!"
"No matter how great your prince is, there is a limit. I don't think it will work this time."
Everyone was discussing there when they heard a clerk next to Zheng Hui say: "It's eleven fifty-nine, there's still one minute left."
When everyone heard this, they all looked out the window. Sure enough, on the clock tower in the distance, the hour hand and the minute hand were almost stuck together. In one minute, it will be the time to send a report from Tianjin to Jinan.
Everyone stopped talking and stared at the telegraph machine one by one, hoping to see if the telegraph opportunity would really turn decay into magic and send out a telegram.
In the telegraph station, it was suddenly so quiet that you could hear the wind outside the window.
As time passed by, the eyes of the officials in Jinan became wider and wider.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The first thing to ring was not the small printing rod of the telegraph machine, but the clock tower in Jinan City. The clock tower outside began to chime at noon, ringing a clear bell.
The prefect of Jinan Prefecture looked at the telegraph machine that had not been moved, sighed, and said: "Sure enough, there is still no telegram transmitted..."
However, before he finished speaking, the telegraph machine started to move.
"Ta. Ta. Ta."
A thin official suddenly grabbed the hand of an official next to him, pointed at the telegraph machine and shouted: "Move! Move!"
All the officials stared at the telegraph machine.
Under the stunned gaze of the Jinan officials, the small printing rod next to the telegraph machine made a crisp sound, pulling out small dots on the small paper that kept advancing, or getting stuck on the paper, and pulling out small dots one by one.
straight line.
The director of Shandong Jinan Department's eyes widened with disbelief on his face. He rubbed his eyes vigorously and looked at the telegraph machine again, only to find that the telegraph machine was indeed printing signals.
"God, God... Your Majesty has really shown his spirit..."
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty is really descending from the stars..."
Soon, a telegram was sent. The telegraph operator who had been trained by Li Zhi tore off the paper from the telegraph machine and began to search the Chinese characters represented by each signal on the signal table, converting those dots and lines into words one by one.
Soon, the final telegram results came out.
"Noon has arrived, and the last working day in the 23rd year of Chongzhen has ended. Please go home to celebrate the New Year!"
Seeing this sentence, the officials of Jinan Prefecture were stunned for a long time.
Is this a message from Tianjin?
Is it really a complete sentence? Did this telegraph line really transmit the words from Tianjin to Jinan?
This is amazing. This telegram said that it was noon on New Year's Eve and it was time for a holiday. This was obviously a message that had just been sent. The clock tower in Jinan had just announced twelve o'clock at noon. In the blink of an eye
, the news traveled six hundred miles from Tianjin to Jinan?
In the end, it was Shandong Governor Zheng Hui who reacted quickly. He knelt on the ground with a plop and shouted: "Your Majesty Shengming, we have received the order! The holiday will begin immediately!"
After Li Zhi's popularization over the years, the modern term "holiday" has already been used in one town and nine provinces.
Only then did everyone realize that this telegram was the prince's oral instruction. All the officials were subordinate to the prince, just like receiving an imperial edict. It's time to kneel now!
Everyone knelt down in front of the telegraph machine. While suppressing their surprise, they kowtowed to the telegraph machine and shouted: "I'll take the order!"
"I'll find out later!"
"Prince Shengming!"
Everyone suddenly received Li Zhi's order from the telegraph machine, and they were obviously frightened. They seemed to feel that Li Zhi was in Jinan. Everyone lay on the ground and did not dare to get up for a long time.
Finally, the boy in charge of the telegraph machine also knelt down and kowtowed to the telegraph machine along with the other officials.
The prefect of Jinan and the director of the police department knelt on the ground and stared at each other for a while, their eyes full of surprise at seeing ghosts and gods casting spells. For a moment, it seemed as if their world view and outlook on life had been shocked, and they were speechless.
Zheng Hui tugged at the corner of the telegraph operator's clothes and said: "Don't kneel! You don't have to kneel! You can send a telegram back to the prince and say that he is kind and that Shandong has received the order and will start a holiday immediately!"
The boy in charge of the telegraph machine got up, opened the signal text comparison table, and began to send Zheng Hui's reply to Tianjin.
...
On the right side of the main hall of the Tianjin County Prince's Mansion, in the telegraph room, Tianjin officials gathered around the telegraph machine, waiting for replies from the provinces.
The telegraph machine had just sent out telegraph signals to all provinces, and now we just need to wait for the reply.
After a while, Shandong's reply was the first to be typed out of the telegraph machine.
The telegraph operator in charge of the telegraph machine compared the code list and sang loudly: "Your Majesty, Shandong has received an order to start a holiday immediately!"
It was also the first time for the officials in Tianjin to witness the magic of this telegraph machine, and they all shook their heads in admiration.
"God! So amazing!"
"The sound can be transmitted thousands of miles, what a truly magical method!"
"Now, no matter how big or small the matter is in Shandong, we can ask Tianjin to make decisions."
After a while, the telegram just sent to Liaodong also received a reply. Zheng Yuan, the governor of Liaodong, replied: "There are many problems on the way to transport grain in Liaodong Province. We can't have a holiday yet. We can't have a holiday until six o'clock today."
After a while, Li Xing sent a message back from Yangzhou: "Jianghuai Province has a holiday at ten o'clock this morning! Brother Wang, don't miss it!"
In just a few minutes, all the situation in each province was reported to Tianjin.
The officials gathered around the telegraph machine, as if they were seeing a treasure, and they were all amazed.
Li Zhi thought for a while and said: "Li Laosi led an army of 150,000 to conquer the Indochina Peninsula, spending countless amounts of food and wages every day. Now the Ministry of Finance is very short of money. After the Lantern Festival, let Liaodong, Shandong, Henan and Jianghuai quickly
This year's land tax is arriving in Tianjin, so there must be no delay!"
