Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 462 Blood Harbor, Goodnight
Galahad was not surprised at all. Although he was also burning with passion, he had spent a long time with this lord and, thinking of the oath from which his power came, he couldn't help but smile slightly.

"Alright, let's not talk about that. Galahad, what has Castells been up to lately?"

"They minted a batch of coins."

"Coins? Are they going to build a factory and start minting coins?" This was somewhat unexpected for the prince. In this era, coins were still metal currency, and minting coins was often a losing proposition, so there was really no need for it.

"Well, no, those coins seem to have a special purpose, they're not for circulation. The symbols on them are very strange, I even think they look like some kind of heraldry."

As he spoke, Galahad pulled a coin from his pocket: "They gave us some too, this is it."

The prince looked down and saw that the coin was larger than ordinary coins, covered with various letters and symbols, and was very exquisite. Galahad was right; it did indeed resemble a coat of arms, or perhaps a church emblem.

(Similar to this, except the letters above are not English, but Imperial.)
Imperial English is a alphabetic script where different letters form words, and words form sentences, which in turn constitute speech.

This coin has all the letters of the Imperial language listed on it, both on the front and back.

On one side, each letter is followed by a pattern made up of varying numbers of dots and horizontal lines, while on the other side is a beautiful tree diagram, with different branches pointing to different letters.

After examining the coin for a moment, the prince picked it up and pointed to it, saying, "There are letters marked on it, as well as dots and lines. Each letter is different. This must be some kind of reference table, and these dots and lines must be a unique script."

After he finished speaking, he frowned again.

Why would a script formed using only two symbols be extremely long?

Galahad also figured it out. He excitedly pointed to the other side of the coin, drawing a part that looked like a tree diagram: "Your Highness, I understand. The asterisk in the middle is the starting point. By adding the dots or lines along the way, you can spell out all the letters!"

The prince nodded: "Did they say what it is?"

"I told you... um, this is the instruction manual!"

Galahad pulled out a booklet with a line of text written on it—Hughes code.

The two of them flipped through the book with great interest. Yu An, who had been standing to the side, hesitated for a moment before joining in.

He suddenly became curious about what exactly this "power of knowledge" that his young master spoke of was, that it could be so captivating.

The three studied the "Hughes code" for a while, each revealing a thoughtful expression.

"this thing."

Galahad's expression turned strange. He looked at the prince and said, "This thing looks somewhat like the signal tower coding invented by the Queen."

The prince's eye twitched.

With its vast territory and constant warfare, how to get news from the borders to the Rhineland was always a major problem.

Generally, royal families try to cooperate with the Papacy. Although the method of transmitting information through the Sea of ​​Ignorance is costly and unreliable, it can indeed transmit information over long distances.

The Queen, naturally unwilling to be controlled by the Papacy even in the transmission of intelligence, devised an information transmission system that relied on signal towers.

Signal towers sound impressive, but in reality, they function more like beacon towers. However, while beacon towers can only transmit two states—"the beacon is lit" or "the beacon is not lit"—signal towers can transmit much more. A signal tower is essentially a tall structure with several wooden poles supporting it, and different arrangements of these poles represent different meanings.

It looks a bit like flag signals on a ship.

The distance between each pair of signal towers is far, and each tower has a fixed telescope that can be used to look at the other signal tower.

Different arrangements of the rod correspond to different letters—yes, similar to the "Hughes code" on coins.

Then messages can be transmitted in this way.

(Many civilizations have similar methods of communication; the one pictured is the one used by France during the Napoleonic Wars.)
This method of information transmission is costly, requiring the construction of sufficient signal towers, and it has many limitations, at least it cannot be used at night—it's impossible to see what's on them at night.

But it was indeed effective; one signal tower after another quickly transmitted messages from the western battlefield to the Rhineland and relayed the Empress's orders to the battlefield.

This gave the empire the ability to control its own body and the foundation for continued expansion.

The prince took a deep breath, his eyes filled with excitement: "He must have had a similar idea. The only symbols for transmitting messages are dots and lines, which means that it is very likely not transmitted visually. If it were visual, there could be many more basic symbols. If it is not visual, then... sound?"

The prince instinctively looked towards the distant clock tower, where Josh and Zoe had first witnessed the colossal body of the Mother, which had not been rebuilt since its destruction.

Ringing the bell on the clock tower would be heard throughout Blood Harbor, making it a suitable tool for transmitting messages.
"No, it shouldn't be. It should be something more portable."

The prince felt as if ants were crawling all over him and wished he could run to Hughes immediately to get an explanation.

You have to understand that she put a lot of effort into designing this signal tower system, and she even lost a lot of hair. Now that she sees similar ideas, she can't suppress her curiosity.

"Prepare the horses! I'm going to find out the truth right now!" Ignoring the approaching dusk, the prince made the decision almost immediately.

The prince came to the window, ready to go out, when he suddenly froze.

Not only the prince, but everyone in Blood Harbor stopped what they were doing at the same time and peered outside.

The literacy class had just ended, and the students were walking home, chatting excitedly. Many of them were holding a coin and looking at it.

In the sea, Nini, who was chasing a shark, raised her head from the water and tilted her ears.

The melodious sound of the ship's horn echoed throughout Blood Harbor.

First came a long whistle, then a series of sounds, some long and some short, followed by a strange rhythm, like a chorus of steel under the setting sun.

The prince rushed to the table, grabbed a piece of paper, and began to write. Galahad and Ewan took out coins and excitedly spelled out the prince's notes.

The group's coordination was extremely clumsy, and they were quite flustered. However, the whistle was not urgent. After a while, when the whistle stopped, a few words appeared on the white paper.

Goodnight, Bloodharbor.

(End of this chapter)