open sea

Chapter 877
Wanli looked through the encrypted text for a long time, and there was indeed no word "Zhen".

After several transformations over the years, the telegraph network promoted by Zhang Juzheng spread from the capital to North Zhili, and then from North Zhili to various places. The telegraph code of the Ming Dynasty also underwent many changes.

From the earliest codebook of the Qi family army to the current three sets of parallel yin-yang and five-element codebooks for officials, soldiers and civilians, the ciphertext covers almost all characters, but there is no "zhen".

In fact, it has nothing to do with taboo. The word taboo is sometimes used to convey information, but the word "zhen" is really unnecessary.

After Xiao Wanli entered the telegraph room for a stick of incense, a telegram beginning with "I am Yijun, remember to add my self-proclaimed to maintain majesty when reading the decree" was quickly sent across the land of the Ming Dynasty. with.

After sending the telegram, the emperor was in a good mood, and was about to take Lu Wang out of the telegraph room, when he suddenly thought of something, turned his head and asked the eunuch: "The telegram can be sent so far, is it because the telegraph lines have been repaired there? I remember correctly In other words, from Jiayuguan to Jiulian City, it is nearly ten thousand miles, not to mention the south, how long is this telegraph line? One hundred thousand miles?"

The eunuch didn't know what the emperor meant when he asked this question, so he said without hesitation: "Your Majesty, in the past four years, the imperial court has repaired more than [-] miles of telegraph lines, and all prefectures, big cities, and important towns have set up branch offices for telegraph offices, and the places have to go directly to the counties. , Guards, where is it enough to repair a hundred thousand miles?"

The eunuch said with a mysterious expression on his face: "I heard that the cabinet will set the account for the Ministry of Industry next year, and there is a goal of increasing the national telegraph line to 37 miles."

As he was talking, the eunuch found that the little emperor had raised his fingers there, so he simply walked out, squatted on the snow and drew with his fingers, and clapped his hands for a moment and said angrily: "Okay, the imperial court repaired the telegraph line three times." For more than ten thousand miles, I sent craftsmen in the palace to make telegrams, and they dared to ask me for 50 taels per mile!"

"How smart I am, how dare I lie to me!"

The little emperor's sleeves were rolled up, and he strode out angrily, but was stopped by the eunuch: "Grandfather, don't worry, 50 taels is normal in the palace, it's normal!"

"Normal fart! Do you want to become a pure army?" The little emperor turned his head and said angrily: "50 taels in the palace is normal, but it takes 37 million taels to repair a 800-mile telegram outside the palace! My Daming Where is so much money!"

Daming is rich, Xiao Wanli knows, but Daming is not so rich, right?
"Your Majesty listened to the servant girl, don't be impatient when you are safe, don't be impatient when you are safe!"

"Don't be impatient, please don't be impatient. Qian Zhen from the household department can figure out the obvious things. There are not so many!" The little emperor was furious. After speaking, he immediately felt that he had revealed some great secret. Shut up and looked around, and then continued: "After paying the military salary and Lumi, there was at most 600 million taels left last year, and we have to go to disaster relief. It has been like this for the past few years. How can telegrams be so expensive!"

"Your Majesty, this telegram is really so expensive. In the past four years, the imperial court has spent 100 million taels on it."

"The cost of digging up the floor of the palace to lay the circuit is higher than that of the poles. Outside the palace is the section of the elephant house in Hucheng. The cost of one mile is 94 taels of silver. We are all eunuchs in the palace, and grandpa digs stone slabs. In a word, people have to be recruited to start work outside the palace, and there are expenses here and there."

This is true. In this era, when such a huge project is built within a few years, all provinces, prefectures and counties start construction at the same time, and the cost will not be low.Twenty years earlier, even if the courtiers knew that the telegraph was a good thing, they would definitely not lay it on such a large area. At most, they would build one horizontal and one vertical in the Gyeonggi area.

Only when the prosperous overseas trade provided the imperial court with a large amount of tariffs, and the examination method hung a sharp knife over the heads of every bureaucrat, this huge project that could not be implemented at first, and would have to be delayed for several years or even more than ten years, was carried out rapidly. .

The test method is really a sharp knife, not just sticking in the back of a person's buttocks to make people unable to relax.

As long as Zhang Juzheng thinks about it, the examination method is also a good helper to control the court from top to bottom for his own use. "Setting limits to test things and taking responsibility for things" can break the ills of seniority in the officialdom in the most efficient way under this historical condition. So it's a sharp edge.

But what happened to the so-called "setting limits to examine things and taking responsibility for people with things"?The matter came from the cabinet and from Zhang Juzheng. This is like a sieve, not only officials with no practical ability are screened out, but also officials who oppose reform can be screened out of the officialdom by demotion and dismissal in the most efficient way.

Make a rule and stop playing with you.

Wanli slowly hugged himself with his arms around his chest, frowned and pondered, and said: "There is some truth in what you say, I heard that Shandong used work as relief this year, and the telegraph poles were the most powerful. Set up a civilian telegraph room, and the counties are allowed to charge a fee to transmit the news - the wages for digging the ground should be the bulk of the cost, right?"

The eunuch in charge nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, and the little emperor's words made his face turn green when it was over.

"Eunuchs don't need wages for digging the land, and the electricity in the palace doesn't use a two-way steam engine at the post station. There is a fire engine room next to the telegraph room. So where did the 50 taels come from? How dare you say that no one is greedy for ink?"

The little emperor folded his arms and raised his head. A detective, Yijun, frowned and said, "Answer after thinking about it. It's none of your business. If you say no, I will find out and send you to Xiaolingwei first." .”

No delusion!

How can the eunuch in charge dare to speak? To be honest, the greedy people in the Forbidden City are only divided into greedy and greedy. The eunuchs are not perfect, and naturally they cannot be perfect. Don't want to put in some ink?
Fifty taels per mile is definitely stolen, but the money taken away is definitely not much. He wants to protect it because it is only seven or eight taels per mile at most. Can he use his head to protect it?
The eunuch in charge stopped talking.

Wanli's age is no longer considered a child, but the invincible growth environment prevented him from learning the introversion that others had understood in his youth. At least in front of everyone except Zhang Juzheng and Queen Mother Li, he didn't need to show the slightest restraint, but he Can understand the meaning of other people's expressions.

"That means you know someone is greedy."

The emperor's expression was clear, and he secretly admired his wit as an emperor once again, and he followed the temptation: "Tell me, how many taels have you been greedy for?"

The eunuch in charge had no choice but to bite the bullet and tell the truth, but he still hid it a bit, and said: "My servant estimates that there are four or five taels."

"Okay, if you covet me for four or five taels for one mile, and for two and a half miles, you will covet me for ten taels of silver. I don't need this kind of silver, but I can't take what I haven't given."

The little emperor bared his teeth, stroked his sleeves and pointed his left hand to the sky: "Zhu Yichun, tell me to take him... wrong, it wasn't you who repaired it, go back and send a telegram, and summon Xu Jue, the governor of Nanzhen, to enter the Qianqing Gate and wait. Go to the dessert room and get two pancakes and go find him!"

"Everyone who is not greedy will be rewarded with ten taels, and those who are greedy will all go to Nanjing to serve as a clean army!"

(End of this chapter)