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On December 30, in Jinan, Shandong, Governor Zheng Hui stood in the telegraph station with hundreds of officials from Shandong, waiting with great interest for the world's first administrative telegram.

Officials of all sizes in Jinan are full of interest to witness this magical moment.

The slightly chubby prefect of Jinan Mansion arched his hand and said: "Lord Governor, I have only heard that the strange people in the opera fly pigeons to pass on books, and they transmit messages for hundreds of miles a day, and they can come from Tianjin to Shandong. But I've never heard of anything that can travel hundreds of miles in a matter of seconds! ”

Another tall director of the Shandong Police Department said with a smile: "It is the prince who has invented many magical things, and those are all things that can be understood by ordinary people such as us." For example, the bicycle, although magical, is still traceable. But now this telegraph is really a bit unbelievable. ”

"The 600-mile dry road from Tianjin to Jinan takes two days to hire fast horses to deliver messages. Wang Ye's technician said that this telegraph can transmit news between two places in a few seconds, but I don't believe it. ”

"The news came in a few seconds, isn't that immortal?"

The surrounding officials shook their heads and discussed:

"It's impossible, even if the immortals soar through the clouds, it will take time."

"I don't think it's possible to transmit a message six hundred miles in a few seconds!"

"No matter how divine the prince is, there is a limit, I don't think it will be possible this time."

Everyone was discussing there, but they heard a scribe next to Zheng Hui say, "It's eleven fifty-nine, and there is still one minute left." ”

When they heard this, they looked out of their windows. Sure enough, on the clock tower in the distance, the hour hand was almost glued to the minute hand. In another minute, it will be the time for Tianjin to send a report to Jinan.

Everyone stopped talking, and stared at the telegraph one by one, to see if the telegraph opportunity would really turn decay into magic, and sent the telegram.

In the telegraph station, it was so quiet that you could hear the wind outside the window.

As time passed, the eyes of the officials in Jinan opened wider and wider.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! ”

The first thing to ring was not the small printing rod of the telegraph, but the bell tower in the city of Jinan. Outside, the clock tower began to chime at noon and rang a clear bell.

The prefect of Jinan Prefecture looked at the telegraph that had never moved, sighed, and said: "Sure enough, there is still no telegram..."

But before he could finish his sentence, the telegraph moved.

"Click. Click. Click. ”

A skinny official grabbed the hand of an official next to him, pointed at the telegraph and shouted, "Move! It's moving! ”

All the officials stared at the telegraph.

Under the stunned gaze of the Jinan officials, the small printing rod next to the telegraph made a crisp sound, pulling small dots on the moving strips of paper, or stuck on the slips of paper, pulling out small straight lines.

The director of the Jinan Hall in Shandong Province widened his eyes and his face was full of disbelief. He rubbed his eyes vigorously, and then looked at the telegraph, only to find that it was indeed printing signals.

"God, god... The prince has really appeared..."

"Lord Wang... The prince is really a star..."

Soon, a telegram was sent. The telegraph operator, who had been trained by Li Zhi, tore off the slip of paper from the telegraph and began to search the signal table for the Chinese characters represented by each signal, converting the dots and lines into characters.

Soon, the final telegram results came out.

"Noon has arrived, the last working day of Chongzhen's twenty-three years has ended, and Zhongqing will go home for the New Year!"

Seeing this sentence, the officials of Jinan Mansion were stunned for a long time.

Is this a message from Tianjin?

Is it really a complete sentence, this telegraph line really transmitted the words of Tianjin to Jinan?

This is too godly, isn't it? This telegram said that it was now noon on the 30th day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, and it was time for a holiday, which was obviously a message that had just been sent. Jinan's clock tower has just passed twelve o'clock at noon, and in the blink of an eye, the news has crossed six hundred miles from Tianjin to Jinan?

In the end, it was Shandong Governor Zheng Hui who reacted quickly, he knelt on the ground with a thud, and shouted: "Lord Shengming, we have received the edict!" Start your holiday now! ”

After Li Zhi's popularization over the years, the modern word "holiday" has already been used in one town and nine provinces.

Only then did everyone realize that this telegram was the dictation of the prince. All the officials are subordinate officials of the prince, just like receiving a holy decree, it is time to kneel!

Everyone knelt down in front of the telegraph machine, and while suppressing their stomachs full of surprise, they prostrated their heads to the telegraph machine and shouted: "I will wait for my life!" ”

"I'll find out!"

"Lord Wangming!"

Everyone suddenly received Li Zhi's edict from the telegraph machine, and they were obviously frightened, and seemed to feel that Li Zhi was in Jinan. Everyone lay on the ground and did not dare to get up for a long time.

In the end, the little guy in charge of the telegraph also knelt down and kowtowed to the telegraph with the hundred officials.

The prefect of Jinan and the director of the police department knelt on the ground and looked at each other for a while, their eyes were full of surprise and inexplicability when they saw the ghosts and gods casting spells, and for a while it seemed that the worldview and outlook on life had been impacted, and they were speechless.

Zheng Hui pulled the corner of the telegrapher's coat and said, "Don't kneel! You don't have to kneel! You send a telegram back to the prince, and say that the prince is kind, Shandong has received an edict, and the holiday will start immediately! ”

The little guy in charge of the telegraph got up, opened the signal text comparison table, and began to send Zheng Hui's reply to Tianjin.

...

On the right side of the main hall of the palace of Tianjin County, in the telegraph room, the officials of Tianjin gathered around the telegraph machine, waiting for the reply of the provinces.

The telegraph has just sent the telegraph signal to the provinces, and now it is only necessary to wait for a reply.

After a while, Shandong's reply was the first to be typed out of the telegraph machine.

The telegraph operator in charge of the telegraph checked the code table and sang loudly: "Lord Wang, Shandong has received an edict, and the holiday will start immediately!" ”

It was also the first time that the officials in Tianjin witnessed the magic of the telegraph, and they shook their heads in admiration.

"God! It's amazing! ”

"Thousands of miles of sound, the true immortal means also!"

"No matter how big or small Shandong's affairs are, you can ask Tianjin for decision-making."

After a while, the telegram sent to Liaodong just now also received a reply, and Zheng Yuan, the governor of Liaodong, replied: "There are many problems on the way to transfer grain in Liaodong Province, and there is no holiday yet, so it can only be closed at 6 o'clock this afternoon." ”

After a while, Li Xing sent back a message from Yangzhou: "Jianghuai Province has a holiday at ten o'clock this morning!" Brother Wang, don't read it! ”

In just a few minutes, all the situation in each province was reported to Tianjin.

The officials gathered around the telegraph, as if they had seen a treasure, and they were amazed one by one.

Li Zhi thought for a while and said, "Li Laosi led an army of 150,000 to conquer the Indochina Peninsula, and spent countless amounts of food and salary every day. Now the Ministry of Finance is short of money. After the Lantern Festival, let Liaodong, Shandong, Henan and Jianghuai quickly transport this year's Tianfu to Tianjin without delay! ”

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