Shu Jin and Duan Peng walked into the hall excitedly and said, "Sir, there is a reply from Yangzhou."
"Oh! Is that right? I'm finally here." Shang Yi was very happy when he heard Cheng Jin say this, and hurriedly stood up to greet him. Li Yan, who was reporting on his work, also followed him. He saw that Zai Cheng Jin
There were several people around, and each of them was holding a gray-white pigeon in their hands, making "cuckoo" sounds from time to time. Shang Yi was not waiting for any news from Yangzhou, but actually this pigeon was waiting for it.
return.
Cheng Jin said: "Ten pigeons were released from Yangzhou, and now seven of them have come back."
Shang Yi nodded and said, "It's very good. This is the first time I've tried the long-distance return of a pigeon. It would be great if I could get this result."
Duan Peng also said: "Yes, as long as we train well, it will be much more convenient for us to pass messages on the battlefield in the future, so we don't have to let the brothers take risks anymore."
In fact, China has a long history of training pigeons to convey information. The earliest written records began in the Tang Dynasty, but there are also legends that when Zhang Qian and Ban Chao were sent to the Western Regions, they began to use pigeons to convey information.
By the 189th century, European countries were widely using pigeons. Even after the emergence of radio technology, pigeons still played an important role and had outstanding performances in World War I and World War II. Of course, in Shangyi
Before coming to this time and space, the pigeon had already withdrawn from the historical stage of conveying information. Instead, he turned to another battlefield, which was the pigeon racing competition.
In this era, it is basically impossible to develop radios, so using pigeons to deliver messages on the battlefield is the only way. Before the Battle of Jianghuai, Shang Yi had already begun to find professionals to train carrier pigeons.
However, raising pigeons is a very complicated task. In the late Ming Dynasty, the technology of cultivating and training pigeons has developed effectively and greatly, and it must be roughly divided into breeding, pigeon selection, breeding, training and other steps. And in each step,
It has divided a lot of details. Although it is not as detailed as later generations, it has also formed a certain theoretical system. It will take at least half a year for a carrier pigeon to be able to deliver messages in a relatively prepared manner. The result is until
Now, the first batch of carrier pigeons have been cultivated and long-distance message transmission tests have begun.
The breeds of carrier pigeons are generally divided into two types: medium and short distances and long distances. According to the competition distance in later generations, it is generally short distances between about 300 kilometers and medium distances between 500 and 700 kilometers. Different types and training methods are not
Similarly, generally speaking, medium and short-range carrier pigeons have strong explosive power and fast flight, but lack durability; while long-range carrier pigeons require strong durability and also have the ability to feed in the wild and stay at night. Of course, long-range carrier pigeons train
The time of the pigeon is much greater than that of the medium and short distances, so the pigeons currently raised by merchants are all medium and short distances.
Under normal circumstances, the flying speed of a pigeon is generally between one thousand and one thousand five hundred meters per minute. It can fly for about four to six hours in a row, and a distance of about five hundred kilometers usually takes eight to ten hours.
.But this can basically meet the current battlefield communication needs, while communications from Shandong to Hangzhou can also meet the needs through Yangzhou transit.
Li Yan said: "Sir, although it is convenient to use pigeons to convey messages, pigeons are birds and cannot be trusted. Ten were sent from Yangzhou, and only seven were flying back. The other directions were unknown, and the news on the battlefield was of great importance.
, there is no need to make any mistakes. Therefore, please think twice about whether it can be entirely up to the pigeon."
Shang Yi nodded. What Li Yan was worried about was indeed reasonable. Because the pigeon itself also has great instability. The pigeon that was trained well also had the possibility of getting lost or losing its appearance. It was impossible to achieve 100% successful delivery of the message.
And you will also encounter raptor attacks. Unpredictable factors such as hunters, generally reaching 70%, which is very good. Once you encounter rainy weather during flight, you will be extremely chewy and you can only leave your life to the sky.
Therefore, at the beginning of the establishment of the merchant army, I had never considered using carrier pigeons.
Cheng Jin was a little puzzled and said, "This should be a good solution. Every time we send messages, we can send a few more pigeons. Even if one or two pigeons have an accident, other pigeons can still send the messages back."
Shang Yi said: "This is just one problem. What I am most troubled about is that pigeons don't know how to find their own way, they can only fly back to the place where they set off." As he said that, he picked up two pieces of paper from the table and pinched it into
The paper ball is placed around a foot away: "Therefore, the pigeon must pass messages between two fixed locations, as long as one of them changes." Move a piece of paper ball a little away, "Then the pigeon cannot find the accurate one.
Got it."
Cheng Jin scratched his head and said, "Yes, this is really a troublesome thing. After the troops were sent out, they can't stay still. It seems that pigeons are still useless, so why do we raise so many pigeons?"
Shang Yi smiled and said, "Who said it is useless? If there are any problems, you have to find a way to solve them. If the pigeon is good, others would have used it long ago."
Li Yan said: "I believe I have a good idea."
Shang Yi said: "I thought of a solution. Everyone thinks about it and try to improve it as much as possible." After that, he pinched a large piece of paper, put it on the table, and put the other two small pieces of paper on the table.
The big paper ball said, "Every battlefield will have a command center. The position of the command center will not move until it is forced. Therefore, we took advantage of this condition and all the pigeons will start from the command center and be assigned.
Go to various troops, and after setting off, each unit can use pigeons to report its position to the command center at any time. "He moved the two small pieces of paper away, and gestured back and forth between the big pieces of paper."
If you need to ask the command center for orders, you must indicate the reply in the letter, the time to stay and wait in place, etc., so that the command center can use the pigeon to send the letter back. This will enable the contact between the command center and the troops.
.”
Li Yan, Cheng Jin, and Duan Peng nodded repeatedly after hearing this. Duan Peng said, "This method of sir is very good. Although it is a little troublesome, it is much more convenient than hiring people to deliver letters." Therefore, in the Battle of Jianghuai, he served as the sender.
The mission was basically all the scouts under his command, and he lost a lot of people to deliver the letter, so he was most eager to have a better way to deliver the message.
Shang Yi then said: "Every time a message is delivered, three carrier pigeons must be used to deliver it at the same time, while five carrier pigeons must be used to ensure the success rate of message delivery."
Cheng Jin nodded and said, "I think this should work. We can try it first and see how the result will be."
At this time, Li Yan said again: "What the lord said just now is not counting. It should be able to ensure the transmission of information on the battlefield, but there is another heart. If the disbanded pigeon is shot and killed by the enemy, then
Didn’t our army’s secrets leak? And to ensure that the news can be delivered, you have to use multiple pigeons every time, but the more pigeons you use, the more likely the news will be leaked."
Hearing Li Yan's words, Cheng Jin and Duan Peng also frowned. Li Yan's heart was indeed very reasonable. If the Qing army knew that the merchant army used flying pigeons to convey messages in large quantities, they would definitely organize special personnel.
Shooting and killing Fei Ge, with the Qing army's shooting skills, Xu's power is still very high, and it is secondly if you can't send news. Guan Jian's military aircraft was leaked.
Shang Yi smiled again. He had thought of this a long time ago, so he said: "From the future, all our confidential information will be written in passwords."
The three of them were stunned at the same time and said in unison: "Password?"
Li Yan reacted the fastest and said, "Does sir refer to code words? I'm afraid it may not be useful." Because he has been in the peasant army and has a certain understanding of code words in the world, but at the same time, code words can not express much.
There are many peasant army that have surrendered to Qing now, and there should be many people in the Qing army who understand the code of the rivers and lakes. Therefore, the code of the rivers and lakes is not a secret to the Qing army, unless Shang Yi can re-compile a set of codes.
Shang Yi certainly understood what he meant and said, "It should be almost the same, but it is more hidden than code words. If you don't understand, you won't understand what you are saying at all. It's just that you understand the password. If you don't have a mother's book, it's impossible.
It can be deciphered."
"Mother's book? Deciphering?" Three people were confused by these new words at one time.
Shang Yi smiled and explained: "It is to use numbers to number each word, four numbers represent a word, and compile the book, this is called the mother book, and all the messages sent are replaced by these numbers.
It is called a password. After the password is passed to us, it will be replaced with Chinese characters. This is called deciphering. Therefore, even if the message is lost to the enemy, it is just a string of numbers, it is impossible for them to understand what it means."
As he said that, Shang Yi picked up a book from the table, handed it over, and said, "Look, this book is the mother book that has just been printed."
The three of them took it and saw that there was a four-digit number behind each Chinese character. The three of them understood it completely. Li Yan couldn't help but exclaimed: "Sir, this method is really wonderful, I really admire it."
So, if Fei Ge sends a message and encrypts the password, they can be foolproof. Even if it falls into the hands of the Qing barbarians, they will never see what it is. I think it is not just Fei Ge sends a message, but from Beijing in the future.
It is best to write the information and secret news from Nanjing with such a password, so that even if some secret letters were searched by the Qing court, we should not know our secrets."
Shang Yi nodded and laughed: "Heroes have similar views, and I have the same intention. However, the cryptographer and mother's head must be strictly protected. The fewer people know, the better. In fact, the sender must not