Zhao Hao and his party got back into the car, and the convoy drove along a cement road in the mountains and forests, heading deep into the valley.
After walking three or five miles along this road, you will see a Taoist temple surrounded by green bamboos appearing before your eyes.
Zhao Hao looked at the four characters "Taoism follows nature" on the mountain gate and couldn't help laughing: "Did they really build a Taoist temple?"
"Isn't it the Institute of Taoism?" Zhang Jian said awkwardly, "It would be more reasonable to do the research in a Taoist temple."
"Fortunately it's not called the Buddhist Research Institute." Zhao Hao laughed and said, "Otherwise, you, the host, would have to shave your head and lighten the scars."
There is a sentry post outside the Taoist temple's mountain gate, and there are sentry boxes and mobile sentries around it. There are trenches dug on the ground, barbed wire in front of the trenches, and many dogs are raised.
In fact, this is still within the scope of Institute 00, which is already heavily guarded. Could it be that the things being researched inside are more confidential than new guns and cannons?
“Inside the research center, only those at the director level know about the existence of Institute 11.” Zhang Jian said softly.
"Have they guessed what's being researched here?" Zhao Hao asked with a smile.
"This..." Zhang Jian said with a strange look on his face: "It's better not to say it."
"Tell me about it." Zhao Hao walked up the stairs towards the Taoist temple built on the mountain.
"Everyone says that the Daoist way of practicing Qigong and refining elixirs is nothing more than the goal of achieving immortality and an unstoppable force..." Zhao Shizhen said in a lower and lower voice, "They also say that it seems that the pursuits of small people are varied, while the interests of big people are surprisingly consistent."
"Good fellow, what a set of tricks." Zhao Hao touched his nose and said, "Tell them that Institute 11 is not for this!"
"That's right, let Institute 08 take care of this kind of thing..." Zhao Shizhen nodded vigorously.
"No need to worry about the 08th Institute!" Zhao Hao's nose was crooked with anger, and he kicked him on the butt and said, "I don't need to take drugs!"
~~
Only after entering the Taoist temple did I see that there was something else going on inside.
There was no bronze incense burner in the courtyard. Instead, there was a large spherical cage with a copper bar frame and fine copper wire mesh.
The Three Pure Ones were not enshrined in the main hall, but instead three large characters were written on it - electricity, magnetism and light!
This so-called Taoism and Law Research Institute is actually an electromagnetic research institute that specializes in the study of electricity, magnetism, and light!
Electromagnetism is a major branch of physics. my country has had some understanding and research on electricity and magnetism very early on.
Ancient books describe the phenomenon of static electricity, such as "amber picking mustard" and "tortoise attracting sound", as well as records of magnets attracting needles and magnets attracting iron. The compass was invented. The understanding of lightning was earlier and more comprehensive, with the knowledge that conductors attract lightning and insulators avoid lightning. There was also research on tip discharge and atmospheric electricity.
Zhao Hao also has a chapter on electricity and magnetism in his important book "A Brief Introduction to Physics". In the popular science exhibition halls of the science department, a large proportion of small experiments are also related to electricity and magnetism.
But let alone the general public, even students in the field of science and even researchers in research centers only regard electricity and magnetism as two small gadgets with limited uses and only for entertainment.
However, Institute 04 is an exception. After Zhao Hao used electrolysis of water to produce oxygen and saved Lin Run, the entire electrolysis device was transferred to the Institute of Chemistry. Over the years, they have electrolyzed various acids, bases and salts and discovered many new elements, such as alkali metals such as sodium and potassium. Their achievements are extraordinary.
But even the 04 Institute couldn't figure it out. Electricity and magnetism are obviously unrelated, so why are they studied together? And why is it so secretive? Even Zhao Shizhen, the second in command of the research center, didn't know what this Taoism Institute was specifically doing.
"Electromagnetic Research Institute?" Seeing that there was really no alchemy furnace here, but only various experimental devices such as coils and magnets, Zhao Shizhen couldn't understand and said, "What does this have to do with Taoism?"
"Of course it does matter." Zhao Hao said to Zhang Jian with a smile, "You can tell him now."
"Yes, Master." Zhang Jian nodded and said to Zhao Shizhen seriously, "Master has assigned two major projects to Institute 11, namely, sound transmission over a thousand miles and the wick facing downwards."
"A thousand-mile sound transmission, with the lamp facing downwards?" Zhao Shizhen opened his mouth wide and said, "You are really studying Taoism."
There is a good nursery rhyme in Jiangsu and Zhejiang: "Coptis mixed with pig's gallbladder, poor people have the worst fate. Poor people can also turn over a new leaf, unless the sound can be transmitted over a thousand miles, and the wick burns downwards..."
Transmitting sound over thousands of miles, with the lamp facing downwards, if that isn’t Taoism, then what is it?
"That copper wire cage outside," Zhao Shizhen asked again, "is it used to study what?"
"Oh, you mean the lightning cage?" Zhang Jian said, "It is used to protect the test personnel when catching lightning in the sky during thunderstorms. Even if a person is struck by lightning inside, he will be safe."
"It's very interesting. Brother, why don't you try it some other time?" Wang Zheng said with a smile.
"Go away, I'm not interested." Zhao Shizhen's face turned pale. He would rather deal with gunpowder all his life than stand in a metal cage and be struck by lightning. Are you sure you are not making barbecue?
But now he really felt that the name of the Dao Fa Research Institute was too appropriate. They were catching lightning, studying the sound transmission over a thousand miles, and the lamp was pointing downwards. What else could they be but studying Dao Fa?
"So did you manage to transmit sound over a thousand miles today, or did you turn the lamp upside down?" Zhao Shizhen asked again.
"What do you guess?" Wang Zheng asked back.
"If I were to guess... the lamp head facing downwards is magical, but it can't be so airtight." Zhao Shizhen said in shock: "Could it be that you can transmit sound over a thousand miles?!"
"Brother, you are so smart!" As he spoke, Wang Zheng walked to the door of a laboratory, turned around, cleared his throat, and said in a pretentious tone:
"It is the second day of July in the fifteenth year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty. It is an ordinary day, but it is an epoch-making day in human history!"
As he spoke, he slowly pushed open the door of the laboratory, turned sideways and made an inviting gesture, saying: "In Master's words, the next moment is the moment to witness a miracle!"
~~
In the laboratory, on a large wooden table, there are a bunch of bottles, jars, coils, copper balls and other instruments.
A short, fair-faced young man, together with two assistants, was conducting the final inspection of a table full of instruments.
He turned around when he heard the door open, and quickly put down the experimental record book in his hand, walked over quickly and said, "Master, please forgive me for not coming to meet you from afar!"
"It's okay, Zixian." Zhao Hao waved his hand and asked with a smile: "The success of the experiment is more important than anything else!"
"Yes, Master." The young man nodded solemnly, trying his best to remain calm.
Don’t look at him like this, he is the character that appears in the introduction of this book, the former of the Southern Xu and Northern King - Xu Guangqi!
There is no need to introduce this person. In the third year of the Longqing reign of Emperor Zhao Hao, he asked Jin Xuezeng to accept him as a disciple. He was only seven years old at that time, and now he has been a disciple of Zhao Hao for nineteen years. In the science sect, only Senior Brother Yangyang ranks higher than him, and most of his fellow disciples call him Senior Brother.
Zhao Hao sent Nan Xu Bei Wang to work on a project, which shows how much he values Thousand Miles Sound Transmission!
How could it not be important? Although Jiangnan Group’s current territory is not too large, its business is extremely large, stretching 80,000 miles from east to west, with fortresses and bases spread across four continents and three oceans!
In the face of such a terrifying distance, all existing means of communication are completely ineffective. Even the pigeon system he has built over the years at all costs is also helpless, and he must rely on ships to complete the cross-ocean transmission of information.
Currently, it takes two months for the group to send a message from Lisbon to Shanghai using the fastest speed - a clipper ship equipped with a carrier pigeon system.
Although it was so fast that ordinary people could not imagine it, it was still unbearably slow for Zhao Hao.
For example, if something big happened in Europe, the expeditionary fleet would report it to the country immediately. Even if I replied immediately after receiving the letter in Shanghai, it would be four months later when the expeditionary fleet headquarters received the order!
And that is the ideal state that can be achieved just in time for the monsoon change. More often than not, it takes two months with the wind, and one more month to return against the wind. If it is delayed a little longer, it will take half a year. If the expeditionary command waits for domestic decisions, it will be too late.
This problem has been encountered in every dynasty. According to the saying, "rites, music, conquest and war are decided by the emperor", everything on the front line should be decided by the emperor. But if the king holds on to the decision-making power, the army fighting on the distant front will become extremely slow to react, which may lead to a disastrous defeat that the empire cannot afford.
But if the general is away from the emperor and does not obey his orders, the emperor would worry that the general would become independent and plot evil.
Under the contradictory mentality caused by such objective difficulties, even if the founding emperor personally led the army to conquer the country and build a great empire for his descendants, when the greenhouse flowers of later generations took over, they could only reluctantly give up the frontier territories that were beyond the reach of the post horse whip. As a result, in the middle period of each dynasty, the territories actually ruled were almost the same.
In the book "Military Science" written by Zhao Hao, it is clearly pointed out that the scope of a regime's rule, or the effectiveness of the regime's power projection, is directly proportional to the efficiency of information transmission.
When the efficiency of information transmission is low to a certain extent, the effect of the regime's power projection will be unacceptably poor. When the investment in maintaining its rule in the region becomes too great to bear, the regime will either be dragged to death or have to make drastic measures and actively shrink its own rule.
If we use his theory to examine the current situation of Jiangnan Group, it can be said that it is extremely bad. If he does not want the group to be dragged to death, he must either actively shrink it or find a way to significantly improve the efficiency of the group's information transmission!
Zhao Hao didn't want to give up even an inch of the 80,000-mile coastline that he had worked so hard for many years, so he made up his mind many years ago to invent the telegraph!
What’s more, telegraph technology—whether it’s wired telegraph or radio, doesn’t require too much pre-technical support. If humans want to achieve this great leap comparable to the steam engine, what they need is mainly revolutionary theories and concepts!
What's even more rare is that these revolutionary theories are so simple and easy to understand, not more than the middle school level of later generations. Zhao Hao himself has the confidence to come up with it...
This is what he thought and did. As a result, he wasted several years...