Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Flag language and light language are communication methods that are still used in later generations.

Flag language is quite common and is still used by navies of various countries. By waving flags, different numbers and letters are represented.

These letters and numbers can then be translated into text information through digital codes and letter codes.

Zhu Youjian formulated the digital code and the alphabetic code mainly to transmit flag signals by flags, so that ships could still communicate while sailing.

After the flag signal was proposed, the ministers were amazed again. Qin Shiwen, who was in charge of repairing the Great Wall defense line, even proposed:
"Flag signals can be used not only by the navy, but also by border troops."

“Standing on a high place like a beacon tower and waving a flag, people far away can see it.”

"This way, the information transmitted by the beacon tower will be far better than before."

It was proposed that the soldiers stationed on the beacon towers learn flag language and wave flags at regular intervals to send messages.

This method was approved by the military officials, but opposed by the Ministry of Revenue officials.

The pressure of military pay for the nine frontiers is already great, and if their expenses are increased, the Ministry of Revenue will not be able to sustain it.

Minister of Revenue Bi Ziyan pointed out:
"The flag waved by hand is too small. If you want to see it clearly, you must equip the soldiers with binoculars."

"Also, everyone has to learn flag language, which places too much demand on soldiers, and they have to pay more, which means border defense costs are too high."

This is a practical problem. Although flag language seems simple, not everyone can learn it.

Soldiers who can learn flag language will demand higher pay. Otherwise, they will not want to work and continue to live a lazy life as before.

Therefore, Bi Ziyan believed that it was unrealistic to let border soldiers use flag signals.

So is there any way to reduce costs?
The ministers could not think of it for a moment, but Zhu Youjian had an idea.

He thought of the railway arm signals that sent out signals in the old movies he had seen.

The arms and flags can be replaced with red or yellow armboards, which can be used to send different signals by changing the angle.

(Railway arm signal)

Although he had never understood the meaning of the signals displayed on the railway armboard, he had a better idea:
That is to develop a set of armboard expressions based on flag signals.

In this way, the navy's communications soldiers using flag signals and the border troops' communications soldiers using arm boards can be trained in the same way.

The difference between land and sea is only that on land you swing the boom and on sea you wave the flag.

Even ships at sea can have arms installed on their masts to transmit signals.

After this method was proposed, the ministers were so amazed that they didn't know what to say.

The endless stream of ideas in the emperor's mind overwhelmed them, and they felt the gap between themselves and the emperor:

Beacon towers have been used for thousands of years, but no one has figured out a way to improve the transmission of information.

When it came to the current emperor, ideas for improvement emerged one after another.

Without any experimentation, they could imagine that using arm boards to transmit signals was a very feasible measure.

Installing wooden poles and arm plates on the beacon tower does not require much additional cost.

Even the soldiers who are transmitting the signals in the middle do not need to learn flag signals. They only need to imitate the arm board that sent the signal before and swing the arm board they are responsible for.

The most important addition is a telescope for observation.

In this way, the soldiers could see the beacon tower ten miles away and know how to place their armboards.

(The arm-type signal machine system designed by French engineer Claude Chap in the 1790s was spread throughout France by 1830. Countries such as the United Kingdom also developed similar communication methods, which can be collectively referred to as the swing-arm signal machine system)

Therefore, the ministers quickly approved the proposal to build an arm board and test the use of the arm board to transmit signals between Juyongguan and Changping Town.

The matter of flag signals and arm boards was thus settled.

Zhu Youjian asked the Ministry of War, the Imperial Household Department and the Navy Department to work together to develop a set of flag and armboard terms that could be used commonly by both land and sea.

Then he proposed a method of using light to transmit signals.

He ordered the young eunuch to bring an oil lamp, and Zhu Youjian had him cover it with a red cloth, and then quickly take it away.

After several rounds of this, Zhu Youjian looked at the confused ministers and asked them:

"What do you think of using this change in light and darkness to transmit signals?"

"Darkness represents Yin, which is represented by the number 0. When recording, it can be simply recorded as a dot '·'."

"Liang represents Yang, which is represented by the number 1. When recording, you can simply draw a bar '-'."

"Using dots and bars to represent numbers and letters can convey complex information like flag language."

This is more abstract than flag language and more difficult to understand.

After all, in flag language, two arms horizontally represent 1, and changing angles represent other numbers, which all the ministers can understand.

但是用灯光明暗代表1和0，再用0001、0010这样的数字代表1和2，他们的脑子一时间转不过弯来。

Xu Guangqi had a deep knowledge of mathematics. After thinking for a while, he tried to explain:
“陛下的意思是只有0和1两个数字，加上1就增加1，再加1就进位。”

“以0001代表1；加1就是0010，代表2；再加1就是0011，代表3……”

"And so on, we can express ten numbers."

"Then these numbers are translated into digital code to express words."

When Zhu Youjian heard that Xu Guangqi could actually understand it, he immediately clapped his hands in praise.

Binary system was proposed by Leibniz in history, who would not be born until another eighteen years later.

He thought that it would be difficult for anyone to understand if he raised this question at this time.

Unexpectedly, Xu Guangqi managed to understand binary with his profound knowledge of mathematics.

This made him very happy, and he asked Xu Guangqi to explain it to his ministers.

Xu Guangqi explained for a long time, but not many of the old men in the court understood.

Zhu Youjian had no choice but to draw a table and ask them to remember the corresponding relationship.

The table also adds dots “·” and bars “-”, which are called short codes and long codes, and together are called long and short codes.

(Correspondence between characters and binary numbers, long and short codes)
(Morse Code)

This long and short code was naturally created by Zhu Youjian in imitation of the later Morse code.

It's just that he had never memorized the Morse code, nor did he think he should copy it exactly.

So he developed his own method based on the principles of Morse code:
Use a four-digit code to represent numbers and a five-digit code to represent letters.

The extra four or five dots represent a period, which is used to break up a message.

The others represent the Heavenly Stems symbols, corresponding to the corresponding code books.

In this way, when sending digital codes, the long and short codes can be automatically distinguished by four digits. When sending letter codes, they are distinguished by five digits. Compared with Morse code, there is no need to record intervals. When transmitting messages, it is faster and more convenient.

One, two, or three-digit codes that are shorter than the four-digit code are used as codes to convey fixed messages.

For example, the car light language of later generations uses the headlights to flash at intervals to express a certain meaning.

Zhu Youjian also came up with the idea of ​​using lights to send signals from the language of car lights.

In this way, when night falls and it is impossible to send messages by flags and arm boards, lantern language can be used to convey information. When the ministers heard the emperor's thoughts, they didn't know what to say.

Although most of them didn't understand it, judging from Xu Guangqi's delighted and shocked expression, the light language was obviously feasible.

Many people have an idea in their minds:
Is this something a normal person could come up with?

Could it be that the emperor really dreamed of Taizu and Chengzu, and that this was a gift from heaven?

With this idea in mind, although most of the ministers did not understand, they did not dare to refute the emperor's proposal. They agreed to set up lighthouses on the beacon towers in the Juyongguan area to test the transmission of light signals at night.

Zhu Youjian also proposed using red, yellow, and green lanterns to represent different codes, and put forward all the communication methods he could think of. He asked Qin Shiwen to be responsible for the communication test, and Xu Guangqi, Chen Qiuyu, Zheng Shiyi and others to assist.

The endless stream of ideas made many of the ministers feel dizzy after the meeting. Those who did not understand requested to copy a copy of the meeting minutes and go back to think about it carefully.

Seeing how eager they were to learn, Zhu Youjian agreed immediately and asked the officials in charge of recording the daily life to copy the records with them, omitting the confidential parts.

As the person in charge of the communication experiment, Qin Shiwen had to understand this. He asked Xu Guangqi for a long time, and finally he reluctantly understood the binary system:

"So this is what binary means!"

"There are only two numbers. If you exceed them, you have to go up one."

"So the ten numbers we usually use can be called decimal system?"

Xu Guangqi nodded and said:

"Every tenth is incremented by one, so it can naturally be called the decimal system."

"Your Majesty has established the metric system of weights and measures, and almost all units are in decimal, which makes calculations easier."

"The old system used sixteen taels to make one jin. This hexadecimal conversion is very inconvenient."

Qin Shiwen nodded repeatedly and finally understood.

But his admiration for the emperor has not diminished at all, and he still hasn't figured it out:
How did the emperor come up with binary, light and flag signals, as well as digital and alphabetic codes?

These things are not simple individually, but it is truly amazing that the emperor combined them into a system.

When I discussed this matter with Xu Guangqi, he didn't understand either.

For him, who had a deep knowledge of mathematics, binary brought a greater shock. Moreover, from binary, he thought of ternary, decimal, hexadecimal... He almost felt that he had entered a new world of mathematics.

What amazed him even more was that the long and short codes proposed by the emperor used the rules of binary, but not completely in binary. It was as if he had already used it before and knew it was more convenient to use it this way.

So after the two discussed, they agreed that the emperor was either taught by someone or was granted by heaven.

It was like dreaming about Taizu and Chengzu, and receiving instruction from heaven.

This rumor quickly spread in the capital.

Previously, only some ignorant people believed that the emperor had dreamed of Taizu and Chengzu. Most of the learned people did not believe it.

It was just because of the emperor's status as the Son of Heaven that they dared not refute.

At this time, when these people saw the flag signals, light signals, binary system, long and short codes, digital codes, letter codes... proposed by the emperor, they had to believe them.

Because many of these self-proclaimed learned people can't even understand it, let alone combine it into a practical system to solve communication problems.

They really couldn't think of anyone who could have thought of these things unless it was gifted by heaven?
The more knowledgeable a person is, the more he knows how difficult it is to come up with these things out of thin air.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian benefited from the flag and light signals before they were finalized.

His prestige in the Ming Dynasty was further enhanced.

At this moment, many people believe that the current emperor was sent by God to save the Ming Dynasty.

If not, how could it be possible that the Ming Dynasty seemed to be thriving and so many new things emerged in just over a year?
Even the honeycomb briquettes that were produced and promoted by the Imperial Household Department benefited from it.

The people believed that this new thing invented by the emperor would be beneficial to their lives.

Qin Shiwen and others who were in charge of the communication test were even more eager to test out the emperor's idea as soon as possible.

They selected some fixed digital codes to represent characters, prepared the experimental equipment, and then left Beijing in a mighty procession the next day to conduct the experiment at Juyongguan.

Some idle people in the capital even went along to watch.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard did not prohibit it, because the emperor said that such things would inevitably be promoted on a large scale and could not be kept secret.

What the Jinyiwei needed to keep secret was the code book they used. The work of the Confidentiality Department focused on formulating codes and using them to keep them secret.

Therefore, many people have seen that between Juyongguan and Changping Town, there is a long pole erected every ten miles. On the pole is a wooden board that looks like an arm, which can be pulled with a rope to change the angle and shape.

Soon, the agreed time came. The arm board on Juyong Pass changed its shape. At the signal station ten miles away, Jinyiwei Commander Fang Hongzan saw it through a telescope and immediately pulled the rope to change the arm board he was responsible for into the same shape.

The signal station behind him, where another assistant commander, Fang Junqing, was in charge of the arm, soon changed as well.

It was passed on from one stop to another, and the fifth stop was Changping Town.

A number representing "4" quickly spread from Juyongguan to Changping Town.

Then after a while, other numbers came out one after another, forming a group of 4080670244228050, which translates to:

Long live the Ming Dynasty!

After Xu Guangqi successfully decoded the digital code in Changping Town, the crowd watching this scene cheered.

They shouted "Long live the Ming Dynasty" and were delighted to see this scene:
As they were near the Great Wall, they knew how significant the success of the arm communication test was.

This means that what happens on the Great Wall can be quickly transmitted to the rear.

If Juyongguan was attacked, Changping Town would be able to quickly get the news and send troops to reinforce.

Many idle people who came from the capital to watch spread the good news back to the capital by beating gongs and drums.

Hou Baoshan, the eunuch in charge of watching the test on behalf of the emperor, rode a fast horse to the capital to report the good news to the current emperor.

As a eunuch in charge of secret reports on silver medals, he knew the importance of confidentiality better than anyone else.

The success of this experiment meant that the Ming Dynasty’s communication and confidentiality methods had made a qualitative leap.

As the eunuch in charge of secret reports on the silver medal, he also had to agree on codes for each minister who received the silver medal to ensure confidential communications.

The spectators left, but Xu Guangqi and others wanted to stay. After the armboard test, they conducted a flag signal test, asking the signalmen to wave flags to convey the corresponding messages.

This experiment was not very successful because the flags were too small and the colors on the land were too colorful. It was difficult to clearly identify the signal stations at a distance of ten miles. If the distance was five miles, it would be clear, but the cost would at least double.

The people in the Navy believed that if they were at sea, it would not be a problem to use a telescope to see the flag ten miles away.

After all, the colors on the sea are too monotonous. If the flags are slightly painted red and yellow, they can be recognized from a distance.

So in the end they came to the conclusion, as the emperor said: flag signals are suitable for the sea, and arm boards are suitable for land.

Then at night, they experimented with using fire to light and dark to signal, and using lanterns of different colors to signal.

In the end, I felt that the color of the lanterns could not be seen from a distance. It was more practical to use the light and darkness of the fire to transmit signals.

Long and short codes are indeed feasible and can be translated into digital codes and then translated into text.

Similarly, for information encryption, you can agree on an encryption method and let the recipient decrypt it according to the corresponding method.

These test records were sent to the capital the next day.

Zhu Youjian received the news of the success of the experiment in the Forbidden City. (End of this chapter)