The others were also full of praise for Lin Yuan, Lin Yuan motioned for everyone to be quiet, and then said: "I don't know if you have thought about it, only by placing cultural relics in our China can you truly protect your cultural relics." ”

The curator stood up and said, "Since your skills are so skillful, I will hand over our collection of paper and silk artifacts to you for disposal, and when the processing is complete, you will return our collection." ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "If the things arrive in our country, do you think you can still ask for them back?" However, Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Very good, then send everything to our China." ”

There are also several museum directors who have offered to send cultural relics to China for processing, but some people are unwilling, and Lin Yuan does not care about them, because those cultural relics are not Chinese in the first place, and their value is not high.

After Lin Yuan dealt with this matter, he was about to go back, when Elena whispered to Lin Yuan: "I want to go to China, I don't know if it will work?" ”

Lin Yuan asked, "Are you going to China?" What are you doing in China? ”

"I want to learn those advanced techniques, but more importantly, I don't want to stay at home anymore, it's so uncomfortable to stay here," Elena said. ”

Lin Yuan said: "Yes, if you can convince your parents, I will promise to take you to China." ”

Elena nodded again and again and said, "Don't worry, I already have a way." Saying that, he left happily, Lin Yuan returned to the post house, did not stop, and went to find President Faure, President Faure has now regarded the reception of Lin Yuan as the most important thing in France, and when he heard that Lin Yuan was coming, he immediately put down the work at hand to receive Lin Yuan.

As soon as Lin Yuan entered the door, he said bluntly: "You tell me, will our cultural relics be returned or not?" ”

Fore said, "I have already discussed with them, and we will return your relics." ”

Lin Yuan smiled and said, "That's good, since you agree to return our cultural relics, then I will sell you the techniques you are interested in." ”

"Wouldn't you have to wait until you return to China to discuss the details of the transaction with domestic companies? However, the distance between our two countries is too far for direct communication. ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "This is indeed a problem, now the communication between China and Europe mainly relies on the telegraph line laid by the British, this line enters China through the Russian territory in Central Asia, and is mainly used by major Western news agencies in China, if we want to use it, not only is it a problem to keep it secret, but the most important thing is that they will not let us use it!" And even if they let me use it, it won't be a long-term solution, because using other people's things is always subject to others! ”

Lin Yuan thought for a while and said, "Then let's lay a communication line between China and France." ”

"It's hard, there are so many countries separated by us, and there are so many countries that need to be coordinated to do this!" ”

Lin Yuan said: "Who said we have to connect the lines on land? We could have laid communication lines in the ocean! ”

As early as 1858, Britain laid a submarine communication cable between Europe and North America, and in 1868, a submarine cable was laid between Britain and France, but Faure was still surprised and said: "What do you say? Submarine cables? ”

Lin Yuan said: "That's right, we will lay a communication line on the bottom of the sea. ”

"But we are too far away to China, and if we want to lay cables between us, we have to take the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean, these places are different from the ocean, the submarine environment is more complicated, and it will be difficult to lay communication cables here!" ”

Lin Yuan said: "You don't have to worry about this, from the selection of laying lines to laying construction, just leave it to us, you don't need to worry about it." ”

Fore said, "Well, I'll leave this matter to you!" ”

Lin Yuan came back from Fuer, and began to think about the matter of submarine communication equipment, first of all, whether to use optical cable or cable, in Lin Yuan's era, this kind of long-distance communication line is made of optical cable, optical cable uses laser to transmit information, and the capacity is much larger than that of cable, but optical cable reception requires special equipment, these equipment are not available in Western countries, and they can make equipment to transport it over, but doing so will let the West understand laser technology, Lin Yuan doesn't want them to see such advanced technology.

So Lin Yuan decided that the use of communication cables, receiving equipment in Western countries will be less difficult, then the next is the problem of cable laying ship, it is not difficult for him to build such a ship, the real difficult thing is: from which route to lay cables?

From France to China, there are two sea routes, one is to take the Atlantic Ocean, bypass the African continent, and turn north from the Cape of Good Hope; One is to go through the Mediterranean Sea and then through the Suez Canal, but both roads are too far to reach more than 10,000 nautical miles to Guangzhou, China, not to mention the more distant northeast.

Although these two routes are very long, they both pass through the coast of Africa, which is an excellent opportunity to pre-deploy forces in Africa, Lin Yuan was thinking, and his eyes were on another route, which was much closer than the previous two, that is, from France to the north, along the Arctic Circle north of Russian territory, all the way to Vladivostok.

The biggest advantage of this cable is that the starting point of the cable in China can be set in Vladivostok, the far north, so that the distance is closer, Lin Yuan found out the latitude and longitude of Paris and Vladivostok, and simply calculated the distance, which only takes less than 7,000 nautical miles!

In this way, the laying time will be greatly reduced, but this line is close to the Arctic Circle, and there will often be ice floes on the sea surface, and the volume of the ice floes on the sea surface will sometimes be hundreds of thousands of cubic meters. However, if you strengthen observation and lookout while sailing, the probability of hitting the ice is actually very small, so this route is feasible!

The advantage of one route is the proximity, and the other is the deployment of potential forces into Africa, how to choose? Just when he hesitated, a flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in his mind, and he thought, "I can actually lay cables on both lines!" One line in Russia meets the requirements for communications, while one line in Africa meets the requirements for pre-deployment of potential forces.

Lin Yuan made up his mind, so he wrote a letter about this matter and asked people to send it to Fuer, who would definitely go to negotiate with the Russian side after seeing this letter, and as for the content of the negotiations, Fuer would definitely say that laying communication cables was a good thing for the benefit of the people, so that the Russians had to agree.

Lin Yuan sent the letter, thought about it carefully, and felt that there was nothing to do in France, just waiting for a few documents to be signed, finalize the specific details of the return of cultural relics, and then be able to go to Britain to negotiate.

Lin Yuan was taken aback by the reply given by China, the main force of the Russian fleet in Vladivostok had already gone north, and because Vladivostok had too many large shore defense guns, they entered the Petropaplovsk military port on the Kamchatka Peninsula, and the military port there had begun to train a large number of local peasants, and it seemed that they were ready to counterattack Vladivostok at any time.