Chapter 762: Intelligence

"Landmine, this name is good; it truly is a thunder from within the earth." Xu Ke looked at the blueprints and clapped in approval.

Yan Wang explained it to him once, and he immediately understood how terrifying this landmine was.

As the saying goes, it is easy to dodge a spear in the open, but hard to guard against an arrow in the dark.

This landmine being buried in the soil is simply insidious.

However, he liked it.

The corners of Zhao Xu's mouth tilted upward, carrying a trace of a cold sneer.

The Northern Di thought that by grasping the straw of the Ross country, they could turn defeat into victory.

But he was clearly overthinking it; not only the Northern Di, but even the Ross country, he could clean up together.

After all, he had the home-field advantage; the strength the Ross country had in the Dongtu was not even enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.

Setting aside the matter of the landmine, Zhao Xu thought of something and said, "By the way, how is the Gaoli branch of the Supervision Four Courts doing?"

"Replying to Your Highness, this subject sent twenty people over to help Chai Wu recruit and train the Gaoli people. Within half a year, this Gaoli branch will begin to show results," Xu Ke said. "To ensure the loyalty of these Gaoli members, Chai Wu is also recruiting orphans abandoned by the Gaoli."

Zhao Xu nodded. This time, the invasion of Gaoli by the Eastern Land Alliance had indeed caused no small amount of harm to the common people.

Especially the Dongying soldiers, who were extremely brutal, burning, killing, and raping along the way, causing many Gaoli commoners to die miserably and leaving behind orphans whose parents were both dead.

"Do not forget to teach them the Dongying language. These orphans have a bone-deep hatred for Dongying, and in the future, they can be sent to Dongying to be responsible for monitoring it."

Rising and walking to the world map, Zhao Xu added, "Also, from now on, your focus cannot be limited only to the Great Song; regions like Gaoli, Dongying, Luzon, Jiaozhi, Piaoman, Yajia, Tianzhu, and so on must all be covered."

Zhao Xu's finger drew an arc on the map; these were basically the nations surrounding the Great Song.

Xu Ke looked at these nations and nodded slowly, having a preliminary plan in his heart.

He would replicate the Gaoli model in these nations.

Dispatching some personnel over to recruit local orphans for training.

Then, his gaze turned toward the Western Lands, and he frowned, "Your Highness, these nations surrounding the Great Song are relatively easy, but gathering intelligence within the Western Lands themselves is likely quite difficult; it is very hard to send people to gather intelligence in the Western Lands."

Zhao Xu was noncommittal; Xu Ke had hit the point.

At present, the Western Lands were in a period where white supremacy was most prevalent.

In the eyes of many Westerners, the indigenous people outside the Western Lands were nothing more than animals that could walk upright.

This was also the reason why Westerners felt no moral pressure when they carried out massacres.

In the southern plantations of the Sam Country, the indigenous people from Africa lived lives as slaves, no different from cattle or sheep.

The treatment of the Easterners was much the same.

During Dong An's recent trip to Nanyang, he discovered that many commoners from the Great Song were living in the colonies of the Western nations.

These commoners were people from the southeastern coast who had gone there to make a living and settle down during the Great Song or even the previous dynasty.

According to Dong An's account, whether in the Folangji colonies,

or in the Stedan colonies, the Great Song commoners were all called "piglets" by the colonists.

They also labored in the colonists' plantations, and their circumstances were tragic.

But according to what Dong An learned, before the arrival of the colonists, the Central Plains commoners in the nations near Nanyang had lived quite affluent lives.

They were more industrious than the local indigenous people, so they had accumulated quite a bit of wealth.

Yet, it was because of this wealth that they brought upon themselves a murderous disaster.

A hundred years ago, whether it was the Stedan people or the Folangji people, they almost simultaneously raised their butcher knives against them, carrying out inhumane massacres, seizing their wealth, and letting them fall into slavery—which is what we call "piglets" today.

Although history is not identical, human nature is the same.

The things that happened here had also played out in the contemporary era.

During the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, Spain massacred over twenty thousand Chinese in the Philippines.

In 1740, during the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, the Netherlands massacred over ten thousand Chinese in Java.

One can see their tragic circumstances.

Therefore, under these circumstances, it is still quite easy for the Four Courts to recruit personnel in these nations.

Even if they do not recruit from the indigenous people, they can recruit from the local Central Plains people.

But the Westerners, whether toward the colonial indigenous people or the Central Plains people, are like water and oil, having a complete divide.

They are high and mighty, not living in the same areas as the indigenous people.

Especially in the native society of the Western Lands, non-whites are very conspicuous, their movements are restricted, and training them to be eyes and ears is simply impractical.

In the contemporary era, there was even a Western merchant who specifically opened a zoo; this zoo did not contain animals, but indigenous residents from outside the West.

During the Opium War, a captured Qing Dynasty official was once locked in a zoo in India for people to visit.

Thinking of all these things, Zhao Xu felt a surge of indignation.

Since he had come, he would thoroughly trample the dignity of the Westerners under his feet and let them understand why the flowers are so red.

"There is nothing difficult about it; to deal with scoundrels, one must use the methods of a scoundrel. Gather the orphans of Westerners left in the Dongtu, bribe Western pirates and those who loathe their own countries; at the very worst, you can go to Australia to capture the descendants of criminals for training. Be bold, do not fear failure, and be brave in trying," Zhao Xu narrowed his eyes.

At present, Australia was still a penal colony for Britain.

Many criminals exiled there must surely hate Britain; finding suitable candidates is not impossible.

Upon hearing this, Xu Ke felt as if the clouds had parted to reveal the sun, and he nodded slowly.

As the two were talking, someone sent news from the Research Institute.

It was Wang Chong who had created the Wired Telegraph Machine.

Zhao Xu was delighted and said to Xu Ke, "Come with this King to the Research Institute. You all must also learn how to use this thing that Wang Chong has created, so as to facilitate the transmission of intelligence."

Xu Ke was confused, not knowing what kind of thing it was, but he just followed Yan Wang to the Research Institute.

"Your Highness, the Laboratory's wired telegraph is a success."

Upon arriving at the Research Institute, Wang Chong led Zhao Xu directly to a Laboratory and showed him the Wired Telegraph Machine.

This Wired Telegraph Machine was composed of three parts: one part was the Transmitter, one part was the Receiver, and one part was the Paper Wheel.

The Transmitter is very simple, just an imitation of an ancient switch, like a miniature version of an ancient tiger-head guillotine used for executions.

The Receiver is only slightly more complex, with its main structure being a coil wrapped in copper wire.

This coil is fixed onto a copper plate, and on one side of the coil is a T-shaped metal bracket.

The left side of the T-shaped bracket is connected to a base spring, while the right side holds a pencil.

The Paper Wheel is simple; it is just a matter of making a small metal wheel, wrapping paper around it, and designing a handle so that it can be hand-cranked like a spinning wheel to wind the paper from one wheel to another.

Finally, one only needs two copper wires coming out from a battery to connect the Transmitter and the Receiver, forming a closed electrical circuit.

Afterwards, one only needs to open and close the guillotine switch to turn the power on and off, and the coil will generate magnetic force to make the pencil move up and down, drawing dots and lines based on the duration of the current.

This is just like the binary 0 and 1 of a computer, which can simulate signals.

"Demonstrate it," Zhao Xu said to Wang Chong at this moment.

Nodding, Wang Chong called over a student to assist, and sat down in front of the transmitter to press the guillotine switch.

At this moment, the pencil of the receiver began to move up and down, and the student responsible for receiving turned the Paper Wheel to let the paper pass in front of the pencil.

"Excellent," Zhao Xu laughed softly.

Next, he would give Wang Chong a reference table.

Letting different combinations of dots and lines represent different character radicals.

In this way, it could be translated into Great Song characters, just like Wubi typing.