Chapter 312：

The optical communication experiment was a great success, and Paul announced to the crowd that he named this thing the "telegraph"—as the name suggests, it is as fast as lightning. He also announced that the telegram would be open to the public. As long as the public is willing to spend money, they can enjoy the convenience brought by telegram communication. When their information reaches its destination, someone will write it on paper and send it to the recipient. doorstep.

Paul's words were conveyed through the [telegraph], not only to Port Flanders, but this time it was also transmitted eastward to Butuya, the capital of Berdin.

In Paul's plan, the right to use [Telegram] is divided into three levels.

The first is military information. In most cases, military-related information must be transmitted first, and it is free of charge.

The second is the information from the government affairs department. Officials of all sizes can use telegrams to exchange short, fast, and urgent news with Huxin Town, but it must be related to official business, and it needs to cost money—reimbursed by their own departments.

The above two types of messages need to be classified into confidentiality levels. For confidential messages, the sending and receiving base stations must not keep files. Moreover, confidential military intelligence documents and government affairs documents are specially encrypted when they are written. To the uninformed, they are just a mess of letters, words or unsmooth sentences. If they don't understand, they just need to strictly follow the rules and arrange the signal arm into the shape corresponding to each letter.

In order to reduce the probability of ciphertext being cracked, the encryption rules need to be changed from time to time, and this requires manpower to send new encryption rules to various places. In addition to sharing a set of encryption rules, there are unique encryption rules between some special regions or special departments and Huxin Town, which depends on the situation.

Of course, the current encryption method is still very primitive. It simply scrambles or replaces the letters or words in the message according to certain rules, but it should be enough in this era.

The third level is the information of the civilians. Their information will only be transmitted when the telegraph line is idle, and it will cost a lot of money, which most people probably cannot afford. The tentative price is 1 copper coin per letter (the names and addresses of the sender and recipient are also counted), and spending one silver coin (equivalent to 1000 copper coins) can only transmit about 200 words, they You have to think carefully when you write a letter.

Take Mr. Marlowe, the chief cannon casting director of the Ordnance Factory as an example. When he first came here, his monthly salary was only 800 copper coins, but at that time the whole of Arda was not very rich. Mr. has been promoted many times, and his salary has been raised to 3 silver coins. In terms of economic level, he is already a middle and upper class person in Arda and even Huxin Town. If Mr. Marlowe wants to send his greetings to his friends by telegram, he should be a little more enthusiastic It would cost nearly one-third of his monthly salary.

But for those businessmen and factory owners who regard market information as extremely important, it is worthwhile to spend more money on a piece of high-value news, and the speed of information transmission may determine whether they earn or accompany. [Telegraph] In the private sector, it mainly targets such groups.

Private information must be sent in clear text, and files need to be kept when sending and receiving. The Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Intelligence will regularly check to determine whether there are any unstable factors. However, many people may use some codes and lingoes to convey some private information that they do not want others to know, especially some commercial secrets, which cannot be identified one by one.

A few days later, Paul sent a message to Port Fulan and Butuya by telegram in the name of the Government Affairs Council: Huxin Town Machinery Factory will hold a "product release conference" to showcase several newly developed products, mainly focusing on agriculture and textiles. Industry, welcome the relevant understanding of these two industries to come to observe.

After receiving the information sent by the lord, the local government affairs department quickly communicated and spread it to the surrounding areas, even the newly taken over Emden.

Judging from the information sent by the Government Council, the new products of the machinery factory will greatly promote the improvement of the so-called "productivity". According to the past examples - such as harvesters - this often means an opportunity to make a fortune. People with a little bit of wealth are all moved when they hear the news, and it is always right to keep an eye on the movements of Huxin Town.

Before the product launch event of the machinery factory, Paul held a banquet in Huxin Town, entertaining the former vassals of the Kent family, even the branches of the Kent family.

During the Usurper War, these small lords all provided financial, material, and human support to Maltzkent, and now they have become losers. As punishment, they are now under the control of the Lake Town Council.

The guests came to Huxin Town anxiously. It used to be a rural place that they didn't even bother to talk about, but after coming here, it changed a lot. Huxin Town is showing a thriving scene. The road is being widened, the original dirt road is paved with stone slabs, a large number of houses are under construction, and the town area is beginning to expand to the south bank of Lake Weiss.

The streets are full of businessmen and tourists, and people are noisy and horses neighing. It doesn't look like the remote town in the previous impression at all.

This scene made the old-fashioned lord's castle on the island in the middle of the lake look out of place and even a bit shabby.

However, the guests didn't have the guts to laugh at Graeman's taste. After the banquet started, they were all well-dressed and seated respectfully under the arrangement of the castle steward Old Philip.

The owner, Paul, was the last to arrive. He raised his glass and said, "Everyone, welcome to Huxin Town. Today's dishes are made under the guidance of famous chefs from Jiaowan. The authentic Jiaowan cuisine. Please enjoy it to your heart's content." Enjoy, drink to your heart's content."

"Thank you, Earl Greyman."

Everyone picked up their wine glasses and toasted Paul from a distance.

After saying a few words in the opening remarks, Paul was not very active. Suffering from a certain degree of "social phobia", he actually didn't like this kind of scene with many strangers, even the desire to eat also greatly reduced. Most of the time, he pretended to be enthusiastic and answered a few words when others took the initiative to ask him something.

The banquet was mainly promoted by a group of high-level officials from the Government Administration Council, such as Old Ford and Hansel, and it could be regarded as a feast for the guests and host.

What pleased everyone the most was that Paul announced that firstly, they would not deprive them of their territories, and secondly, they would not abolish their titles, and the Government Council would not "actively" infringe upon their power in the territories.

Of course, the lords still need to cooperate in some "major policies", such as the adjustment of tariffsPaul advised them: "Everyone, I advise you not to leave in a hurry, and stay in Huxin Town for a few days. You must have heard that the machinery factory will hold a product launch in a few days, and there will definitely be something that interests you."

Finally he said: "People, don't always stare at the one-acre three-point land under your feet. Sometimes you voluntarily give up some old-fashioned things in exchange for better things. You have to give up to get something!"

Everyone's ears were pricked up, the Earl's words seemed to have a lot of meaning.

A viscount stood up, toasted Paul first, and asked, "I heard that the Earl is promoting culture and education?"

The old Philip standing behind Paul quickly reminded him in a low voice: "Viscount Helson."

Paul nodded: "Well, Viscount Helson. That's right, I plan to build Huxin Town into an academic center in the Northwest Gulf. Haha, you must think I'm bragging. Let's see in a few years."

The Viscount surnamed Helson waved his hands again and again: "No, no, I have no doubts about the determination of the Earl. When I first arrived in Huxin Town, I visited the school you opened, and there are teaching some things that even I don't know. Unheard of knowledge. May I ask the Earl, can I send the children of the family to your school to study."

The other guests were surprised, someone showed their loyalty so soon? The lords of Emden are far away from Huxin Town. People from the family must live here permanently when they come to study. Isn’t this just sending protons in disguise?

Paul nodded to the viscount: "Of course, I very much welcome young people from other places to come here. Everyone communicates and learns from each other. We will welcome anyone who is interested in this."

"Master Earl, I also have this wish..."

"Master Greiman, and my family..."

The banquet became more and more lively.