The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 265 The Great Cross-ocean Cable

On November 1731, 11, the wind was sunny and the "Yanfeng" sailed into the narrow Guangning Strait (Sunda Strait) less than a day after passing Wen Island (now Bangka Island, Indonesia).

The Guangning Strait is the choke point that connects the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is located between Jinzhou Island (today's Sumatra Island) and Kaihua Island (today's Java Island). It is the maritime channel from the Southeast Asian islands through the Indian Ocean to East Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, and even West Africa and Europe. To rush.

As early as the eve of the Second Sino-Dutch War, the Qi State secretly signed a secret alliance agreement with the then Banten Kingdom, and took advantage of the situation to lease Guangning on the east side of the strait (today's Peacock Port in Cilegon City on the west side of Java Island). , built it into a strong fortress, threatening Batavia from the side and rear.

In 1659, through the Banten War, the Qi State forcibly seized the Lampung area on the west side of the Strait of the Banten Kingdom and incorporated it into the Guangning Governorate, thus completely controlling this narrow strategic waterway.

Later, with the collapse of the Banten Kingdom, most of its territory became the jurisdiction of the Quang Ninh Governor-General. After the Dutch East India Company transferred all Batavia and surrounding colonial territories to Qi, it was also brought under the control of Quang Ninh.

The entire Guangning was successively divided into five prefectures and 1730 counties, plus Wen Island and Baixi Island (today's Belitung Island), covering an area of ​​more than square kilometers. According to the census data of the first year of Yonglong (), the population of this area is more than , and its industrial and agricultural production is relatively developed. Although the living standards of residents are not as good as those of Hanzhou itself, they are also good in many overseas directly administered territories. It's considered above average.

In June of the first year of Vinh Long, the cabinet abolished the structure of Quang Ninh Governor-General and established Quang Ninh Province, ending the region's more than 60-year military-political integration model.

Agricultural production in Quang Ninh is mainly based on crops such as oil palm, rubber, rice, cassava, cocoa, black pepper, coffee, corn, and sugar cane, which are also the province's main export commodities. Several cities, including the provincial capital Quang Ninh, have built a large number of factories focusing on the production of local agricultural products, providing a strong impetus for the economic development of the entire Quang Ninh region.

At the same time, Quang Ninh also made full use of the region's excellent location advantages and key route node locations, making Quang Ninh, Zhaoping (now Bandar Lampung City, Indonesia), and Yongan (ie Batavia) the main commodity distribution centers in the region and logistics and shipping center, attracting the favor of many domestic and overseas investors.

Therefore, there is an endless stream of merchant ships passing through the Quang Ninh Strait every day, and its business is no less than that of the Malacca Strait.

"What do those two ships do? How come they have been parked at sea for a long time without any movement?"

Pan Guangfeng, who was standing on the side of the Yanfeng, pointed to the two large ships parked in the distance. Judging from their shape, they did not seem to be like large fishing boats at work, and he could vaguely see the decks of the ships. A huge bracket has been erected high, and a long wire harness is being continuously placed in the sea.

"It should be a construction ship for laying submarine telegraph cables." Qu Bingquan, the captain of the Yanfeng, held up the telescope and observed it carefully for a while, then handed it to Pan Guangfeng and said with a smile: "If your guess is correct, a One is a construction ship and the other is a support auxiliary ship."

"Oh, have we solved the problem of unstable telegraph signal transmission under the sea?" Pan Guangfeng took the telescope and looked at the two ships.

“A year ago, when I went to India from my homeland, I seemed to have heard that Jianye went from Xinxiang on Xuanhua Island (today’s Suai Town in East Timor), to Haijiao (today’s Bamaga Town in northern Australia) to Yanjin on Weiyuan Island (today’s Suai Town in East Timor). The two submarine cables in Daru City, southern Papua New Guinea, have been laid. After several months of continuous operation, the signal transmission is basically stable. Now, judging from the appearance of the two construction ships, they should be laying Kaihua Island to Jinzhou Island. It seems that China has started a large-scale construction of submarine telegraph lines.”

"I don't know when we can lay an undersea telegraph cable to India, Persia, and even Europe." Pan Guangfeng put down the telescope and said with a smile, "In this way, any major events that happen tens of thousands of miles away can be transmitted to Hanzhou and Chang'an in an instant, and your majesty and the cabinet ministers can make timely and effective decisions and disposals at the first time. By that time, the influence of our Qi country will surely increase a hundredfold or a thousandfold, and we can even control any region in the world without leaving home."

"With the national strength of our country, as long as the government is determined, it will only take a few years to lay submarine telegraph cables to Europe. Isn't it just a matter of putting the produced cables directly into the sea? How simple!"

"If it were simple, we wouldn't have started laying submarine telegraph cables until seven or eight years after the telegraph was officially put into use." Pan Guangfeng said lightly: "The invention and application of science and technology are not achieved overnight. It’s not something that laymen like us can just guess at will. Before a certain technology is successfully applied, we don’t know how many failures and setbacks we have to go through before we can see the brilliance and success we can see.”

In October of the 1723th year of Taiping (10), the wired telegraph between Chang'an and Daxing was successfully connected, and a clear and unambiguous message was sent to each other, thus further breaking through the limitations of human time and space and realizing long-distance communication. information transmission.

In the following years, with the joint promotion of the government and many commercial capitals, wired telegraphy was rapidly spread throughout the country and overseas territories. Only five years later, wired telegraphy was launched in all cities in Hanzhou mainland and the neighboring overseas territories such as Weiyuan, Xuanhua, Jingping (Sulawesi), Kaihua, and Guangning, which greatly promoted the communication between regions. exchange of information.

While wired telegraphs were being set up on land, many scientific research institutions such as the Imperial Academy of Engineering, the Royal Academy of Sciences, the Chang'an Industrial Research Institute, and the Black Mountain Industrial Research Institute began to study and test how to lay submarine telegraph cables to connect information transmission between the mainland and overseas territories. .

In the 1726nd year of Taiping (), under the joint auspices of the Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology and the Black Mountain Industrial Research Institute, the first experimental cross-sea cable was started from Jianye to Xiaomen Island (now Bathurst Island in northern Australia) layout.

This kind of project can be said to have no precedent for reference, and all the work is in the exploratory stage. Even so, laying the world's first submarine cable spanning more than 100 kilometers is definitely a great initiative.

This is completely a fantasy adventure. No one in this era knows what the 100 kilometers of seabed looks like. Whether this soft and flexible cable material can ensure the transmission of electrical signals. The laying requires construction ships to be at sea for at least three days. days, what kind of bad weather will be encountered during the process, in short, various uncontrollable factors surround this project.

The cables that needed to be laid were wound into the inner cabin of a ship in advance. On a calm day, accompanied by several supply ships, the construction ship sailed toward the sea amid the cheers of many officials, scholars and people on the shore.

During the laying process of the construction ship, several electromagnetic experts were constantly conducting experiments and exchanging signals with their colleagues on the shore in the cabin. Although the shore was no longer visible, the signals were still very clear.

The construction ship entered the deep water from the shallow water area, and the cables continued to enter the seabed from under the ship. Day and night passed, more than 40 kilometers of cables have been laid, and the signal is still clear and stable.

However, on the second night, an unexpected accident happened. The cable suddenly slipped from the winch for some unknown reason, and it was impossible to find where the cable was broken, let alone to pull it up from the deep sea and reconnect it.

As a result, the construction ship and the accompanying material support ship returned to Jianye Port in disgrace, disappointing the eagerly awaited audience.

This failure resulted in the loss of more than 60 kilometers of cables and an experimental cost of approximately 30,000 yuan. However, although the first submarine cable laying failed, there were still many gains. At least it proved that there were no problems with cable communication in the submarine environment.

In the following months, the scholars and experts involved in the experiment significantly improved and optimized the cable unwinding machine on the ship to avoid the cable from breaking again during output.

In September of that year, the submarine cable from Jianye to Xiaomen Island was successfully laid, and in the following six months, information transmission remained clear and stable.

In the twenty-fourth year of Taiping (1728), Qi State began to lay submarine cables with longer distances. The targets of this experiment were selected as Nandu (now Melbourne) and Nanyu County (now Tasmania). It is more than kilometers long, and it is still in the South Island Strait (today's Bass Strait) with high winds and strong waves.

The laying of submarine cables this time involved two construction ships working in opposite directions and sailing to the predetermined middle zone at the same time. After arriving, technical experts and workers connected the cables, and then the two ships set off to Nandu and Nanyu County respectively. Lay the cables.

Emperor Taiping, who was recuperating in Nanyu County at the time, was looking forward to this very much, and even asked his attendants to draft a congratulatory message, which would be sent to Nandu as soon as the undersea cable was successfully laid.

However, the day after sailing to the scheduled rendezvous point, the construction ship departing from Nandu encountered a huge storm. It was originally a well-equipped main sail warship of the Qi Navy that had withstood various tests in the ocean and war. However, due to modifications for this mission, this decommissioned ship almost sank to the bottom of the sea in strong winds and huge waves. Many crew members were injured, and the ship's hull suffered varying degrees of damage. After finally arriving at the scheduled rendezvous point, they found that thousands of precious cables had been severely damaged. Some cables were in a mess, and the protective layers of some cables were worn away. Broken, scratched.

A carefully prepared submarine cable laying plan was unexpectedly interrupted by bad weather, which frustrated people on both sides who were looking forward to telegraph connectivity. It also disappointed Emperor Taiping, who was preparing to send the world's first cross-ocean telegraph message.

In November of that year, the crown prince fell from his horse and died, triggering the empire's biggest political crisis in decades. Emperor Taiping and his grandson hurried to Chang'an to preside over imperial affairs and stabilize the government.

The second submarine cable laying work from Nandu to Nanyu County also started again at this time. Without the attention of officials and the public, the two construction ships once again sailed opposite to the preset location.

On November 11, the two ships connected the cables stern to stern. There was no ceremony or cheers. In an atmosphere of silence, everyone began to lay the cable into the sea.

After each of the two ships laid more than 130 kilometers of cables, they arrived at Nandu City and the small town of Xinyi (now Smithton, Tasmania) in Nanyu County, but there were no enthusiastic welcoming people on the coast. , everyone is paying close attention to the evolution of the situation in Chang'an City, and such a great feat was completed so silently.

After several days of continuous signal transmission, both Nandu and Xinyi were able to receive the information from the other party accurately, proving that the cable can still work normally in areas with rough sea conditions.

Then, submarine cables with longer distances and more complex sea conditions can be laid next. In the future, the instantaneous transmission of information in the world will be perfectly realized, and the mythical and legendary wind ears will also become a reality.

Qi will open a new chapter in the history of science and technology.

However, just before the call ended, the cable transmission signal from Nandu to Xinyi suddenly became confusing and unrecognizable.

After December 12, no clear telegraph signal was transmitted from both sides of the Nanyu Strait.

What a hell!
In order to ensure the stability of submarine cable transmission signals, the required cables must be very strong and cannot break, but at the same time, they must be very soft, otherwise it will be difficult to lay. On the other hand, its workmanship must be very precise, otherwise, a slight flaw may cause instability and interruption of electrical signals. Its technical requirements are much higher than those of telegraph cables on land.

Since the submarine cable was laid successfully, but there are problems with signal transmission, there must be defects in the production and manufacturing of the cable.

Of course, it is also possible that the protective layer of the cable is damaged, affecting the clarity of the signal.

Therefore, unwilling telegraph experts and scholars re-entrusted the cable factory to produce a batch of cables with stricter quality requirements in preparation for re-laying submarine telegraph cables.

However, the Royal Academy of Sciences, as the host of the project, has been unable to obtain special funding due to various reasons such as the succession of the emperor and the changes in the directors of the royal fund, and is unable to promote the re-laying of the submarine cable, causing the project to be temporarily shelved. .

In July of the first year of Yonglong (1730), after the emperor's enthronement ceremony, all affairs of the royal family and the government returned to normal. After receiving a large amount of funding, the Royal Academy of Sciences immediately resumed the experimental laying of submarine cables.

In September, a new submarine cable was re-laid in Nandu and Xinyi. It has withstood several months of testing and achieved the expected success.

From March to May this year, the undersea cables connecting Weiyuan Island and Xuanhua Island in Hanzhou were successively laid, making the empire's decrees and information directly and instantly accessible to overseas territories for the first time. This means that the empire will achieve greater control over remote territories. for effective governance and control.

And just as the "Yanfeng" passenger ship left the Guangning Strait and entered the vast North Sea (today's Timor Sea), heading towards the mainland of Hanzhou, several submarine cable construction ships were heading towards each other in the southeastern waters of the Indian Ocean, preparing to lay An undersea telegraph cable from Changning, Guizhou (now Durban, South Africa) to Guizhou, the mainland of Hanzhou (now Perth, Australia), thus closely connecting the overseas territory full of gold and diamonds with the mainland, becoming an indispensable part of the empire. part of the split.

With the development and progress of communication technology, people in Qi are making the world smaller and smaller, and the distance between people is getting closer and closer.

(End of this chapter)