Afterwards, Tang Shaoyi came to Li Yu and said: "It's really interesting. The commander-in-chief will definitely want this thing very much." Li Yu said: "Instruments are just instruments. What is really important is the need for communication talents." Tang Shaoyi said: "Last year you gave me a Shuai suggested setting up a telecommunications and telegraph school in Beiyang. It seems that he has already considered it." Li Yu said: "That's it. We are too backward in this aspect. In fact, Japan has been intercepting our telegrams." Tang Shaoyi said in surprise: " Interception?" Li Yu said: "To be more accurate, it should be called monitoring." Tang Shaoyi couldn't believe it: "They are all encrypted, how is it possible!" Li Yu said: "The communication is not reliable, and the password used before was obviously too simple." Tang Shaoyi felt his body tremble: "You mean, we were fighting the Japanese openly?" Li Yu said: "Not only during the war, but also during the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, we were completely Monitoring status." Tang Shaoyi instantly felt that the cigar in his hand was no longer fragrant.
"Back then, Li Zhongtang communicated with the emperor by telegraph in Shimonoseki, Japan. Did the Japanese always know our trump card at that time?" This has become a historical fact in later generations. Li Yu nodded: "It is true." Tang Shaoyi said bitterly: "They said at the time that they wanted us to make independent decisions, and Li Zhongtang also contacted the capital secretly." Li Yu sighed: "It's impossible even if you think about it." Japan actually had mastered the code of the Qing telegram before the Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1894, but Due to the limited domestic knowledge at the time, Qing court officials still believed that telegraph communications were reliable, or they did not know that there was any decryption or monitoring of telegraph communications. As a result, the already unfavorable negotiations for the Treaty of Shimonoseki were even more disadvantaged.
Before signing the contract, Li Hongzhang's shooting caused Japan to make concessions at the negotiating table. So Li Hongzhang reported the situation to Emperor Guangxu via telegram after his initial meeting with the Japanese side, hoping to obtain the emperor's opinion.
Guangxu told Li Hongzhang in the telegram: "I originally hoped to win a point, and it would be beneficial. If there is no way to negotiate changes, I will make an agreement with him in compliance with the previous decree. I admire this."
The Japanese side immediately knew the Qing Emperor's trump card, and naturally they would not make any more concessions at the negotiation table. This is a top secret in diplomacy. If you let others know it easily, you will definitely be fooled.
Tang Shaoyi said helplessly: "It has passed. Who told us that we didn't understand at that time, but it would be great to have you now, and the wireless telegraph machine you made." Li Yu said: "The Japanese side is pressed for time before purchasing directly. Telegraph machine, if you free up your hands later and gradually master the radio encryption method, you still need to decrypt and monitor it." Tang Shaoyi asked: "Can the encryption really be decrypted?"
"Naturally," Li Yu said,
"Cryptography is a university subject, and the strength of passwords naturally varies. If you want to make communications secure, you need professionals in this field." Tang Shaoyi said: "Brother Shucai is right. If even communications are known, then If you are still giving orders, wouldn’t it mean that you can win a hundred battles if you know yourself and the enemy?" Li Yu said: "That's the situation." Tang Shaoyi asked again: "You just said that time is urgent, isn't it?" Li Yu said: "The situation between Japan and Russia is getting more and more serious now." Anxious, once there is a war, the wireless telegraph machine will be more suitable for battlefield use. After all, the two countries are far away from the country." Tang Shaoyi was not in the mood to smoke a cigar and threw it on the ground: "Brother Shucai, I will tell you about this technology immediately Marshal, wait for me to come back." Yuan Shikai was really interested in radio. Even without Li Yu, historically he would have set up a radio training class around 1905.
However, due to backward technology, it only trains some people to use radio equipment, which is far behind the Western powers.
After Yuan Shikai learned of the situation, he immediately asked Tang Shaoyi to take Li Yu to Beiyang. Tianjin, Beiyang. Yuan Shikai looked at the radio equipment in front of him and couldn't help but marveled: "Emperor Master, you are really a genius!" Li Yu said: "It's not enough." Yuan Shikai said: "I understand, I have asked Zhiquan to start a new The name of the school will be the Telecommunications and Signal School that you proposed." Li Yu said: "The commander is wise." Yuan Shikai asked again: "I am still curious, why is the encrypted information not safe and can be known to others? Encrypted text content." Yuan Shikai often came into contact with high-level secrets and had to maintain communication with his subordinates or the capital. Of course, he was very concerned about this kind of issue. After all, no one wanted to be seen naked and without any privacy.
Li Yu said: "The matter of deciphering may be different from what the commander imagined." Yuan Shikai said: "Please tell me, Master." Li Yu said: "The commander-in-chief is a member of the army, so he naturally understands that everyone will interpret the information. A certain degree of encryption, but any encryption uses a certain pattern, so the key lies in how difficult it is for people to discover this pattern. If it is just a simple correspondence or a change in the sequence, it will definitely be easy to decipher." Yuan Shikai Ning Eyebrow said: "That's it. In the war a few years ago, we mostly used the foreign telegraph system, so they must know everything about us. It's like he took off his clothes, bare his buttocks, and used knives and guns in front of people's eyes. !" Li Yu said: "That's true, but the machine is dead. We can also use the machines given by foreigners to encrypt, but we did not have qualified cryptography and communications talents at that time." Duan Qirui asked: "Is it very troublesome?" Li Yu said: "It is a bit troublesome. The code is a very complicated thing, because it must be difficult for the enemy to decipher, and at the same time it must meet our own needs for rapid translation." Duan Qirui touched his head: "Let's fight now. It’s getting more and more mind-numbing.” At the beginning of the 20th century, most people did not have a strong understanding of the principles of radio. Except for a few, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, encryption was not common.
Even for encryption, there was no follow-up such as Germany’s terrifying Enigma cipher machine during World War II. But by the time of World War I, most countries began to encrypt radio communications in the military field.
Yuan Shikai asked: "Is it possible for us to know the content of foreigners' communications in the future?" Li Yu said: "It depends on whether it can be deciphered. At present, Japan and Russia use the equipment I gave them and cannot set passwords for a short time. Even if they can use the equipment I gave them, It will be difficult for them to quickly set up a reliable password system without using a coding system to perform encryption operations. However, it will not be long before complex military-grade passwords appear." Tang Shaoyi often handles international affairs for Yuan Shikai, and is more sensitive to this matter. Being taller than a professional soldier like Duan Qirui, he continued to ask: "What will we do then?"
"Of course it's continuous monitoring and decryption," Li Yu said.
"This is why we need to set up relevant telecommunications and telegraph schools. I will also set up schools to train a group of mathematics talents."
"Mathematics?" Duan Qirui asked,
"Isn't it a password?" Li Yu had to explain to him: "The password is the content of mathematics, and of course it also involves linguistics and other content. But the most important thing is that it requires long-term monitoring, so that you can obtain other people's encryption rules. ." Yuan Shikai asked: "So, you can't know the cipher text all at once." Li Yu said: "Of course not, there must be a special telegraph team to monitor for a long time when they are not too nervous to obtain enough information. ciphertext, and then gradually understand the enemy's encryption rules and decrypt it." Decryption during World War II and after was much more complicated than this, and RSA asymmetric encryption that appeared after that was even more difficult to break.
In the Internet era, perhaps more people should have heard of the concept of blockchain or Bitcoin. The encryption methods it uses are elliptic curves and hash functions, which are more complex.
But in the early 20th century, there were not even complex cipher machines. Decryption was indeed much simpler. The key was to master communication technology and be as upstream as possible.
Yuan Shikai suddenly understood: "Although I don't understand the mathematics you are talking about, after listening to the emperor's explanation, I kind of understand it. This Telecommunications and Signal School seems to be an extremely urgent matter." Li Yu said: "It is indeed very urgent, otherwise in the future we will In front of the enemy, we are still blind and deaf, how can we possibly defeat him?" Yuan Shikai said to Duan Qirui: "Zhiquan, you have heard that the matter of the Telecommunications and Signal School will be taken care of immediately!" Duan Qirui said solemnly: " I understand!" Then he said to Li Yu: "I hope the emperor will give me more advice in the future. We are all soldiers. To be honest, we don't know anything about cryptography and telecommunications. Let alone listen to the emperor's wishes. This involves When it comes to advanced mathematics and physics. The brothers are all rough and can't even read a few big characters. Who would have thought that you would need to know this to fight in the past." Duan Qirui himself graduated from the Beiyang Armed Forces Academy founded by Li Hongzhang. , and also studied in Germany, but mostly in military schools, and the modern science involved was relatively shallow.
Li Yu also knew that he couldn't rely entirely on them. This kind of communication-related thing was really high-tech. It is said that even a hundred years from now, radio communications will still be a cutting-edge technology, and the world's major powers are still fighting fiercely for technologies such as 5G.
Beiyang's Armed Forces Accelerated School is generally a military academy and does not involve too much science. In the future, highly technical subjects such as communications and cryptography will have to be run by their own schools.
Li Yu said: "In the future, more scientific and technological content will be used in wars, or in other words, science and technology will support national strength, and national strength naturally includes military strength. The strength of a country is all-round development. It is not enough to just develop a new type of army. There are many hidden Things are also very important." Yuan Shikai finally understood why the West was so powerful, and sighed: "The emperor's vision is broad, and he is indeed a hero of the world. From now on, I will pay attention to education and develop more talents in all fields." During the Republic of China, although domestic universities began to It has developed, but it is basically liberal arts, and science and engineering have not developed. The familiar masters of the Republic of China are basically in the liberal arts, and there are not many outstanding people in science and engineering.
It's really impossible to walk without one leg. Of course, the difficulty of developing science and engineering subjects is also there. But don’t stop doing it just because it’s difficult.
Everything is difficult at the beginning, just take it step by step. Li Yu said: "The commander-in-chief is right. The school I plan to build focuses on the cultivation of scientific talents. I have also purchased a piece of land in Tianjin. I hope the commander-in-chief will take care of it in the future."
"Oh? A school run by the Imperial Master himself?" Yuan Shikai said,
"Don't worry, Imperial Master. In Tianjin, you only need to run the school. If you encounter any difficulties, I, Yuan, will definitely help you!" This is what Li Yu wants. There will be many turbulent times in the future.
Yuan Shikai made the final decision to order several sets of radio equipment, some of which were used for teaching in schools, and some of which were used for military testing.
Now the Qing government does not know much about the management of radio. In the past, Li Hongzhang only approved the establishment of telegraph lines after submitting letters many times.
Therefore, if you want to continue to build base stations and improve domestic radio communications, you can only rely on Yuan Shikai from Beiyang.
Now let him see its broad applications before he can continue to invest money. Duan Qirui took Li Yu to the Beiyang Armed Forces Crash Course to visit the students who admired him even more.
"Hey! It's Teacher Li Yu!" Li Jinglin pointed to the distance.
"You have to call yourself Imperial Master or Academician," Wu Peifu on the side corrected,
"I didn't hear that sir has become a foreign academician of the Royal Society." Li Jinglin touched his forehead: "I know, one day is like three years apart." Wu Peifu corrected again: "One day is like three years apart. Sanqiu." Li Jinglin said: "Isn't that just the same thing! I like to say three years, and you can tell how long it is as soon as you hear it." Several people went up to greet Li Yu: "Emperor Master!" Li Yu said with a smile: "Hello everyone ." Every time I see these young warlords, I don't know how to get along with them.
Wu Peifu said: "We have heard about sir, and everyone is looking forward to you coming to take a few more classes." Li Yu took out the introductory chemistry lecture notes in the set of textbooks and said: "You can also use this book Learn about it. Chemistry is also indispensable in basic science." Li Jinglin asked: "I have heard that you can make elixirs." Sun Chuanfang said: "You have heard too little." Li Yu said: "What chemistry can do There are many things, and the great powers may use them in military affairs in the future. It is necessary for you to learn some basic contents, otherwise you will suffer a loss when the time comes." Li Jinglin said in surprise: "Alchemy can still be used in war? Everyone is immortal. Why are we still fighting?" Li Yu said: "It is not something that can make people live longer, but it is poisonous gas that can make entire armies fall instantly." Sun Chuanfang was stunned: "There are such weapons?" Li Yu said: "That's why I hope You should study more science-related content, it will be useful in the future." Wu Peifu, who was once a scholar, said: "Sir, you are right, you will regret the books when they are used. You must read more while you have time now." Li Jinglin was most afraid of studying, and said melancholy: "I became a soldier but I didn't want to study, but I didn't expect that I still couldn't escape." Li Yu said with a smile: "What you have learned is some basic content, focusing on application, it is not difficult." Li Jinglin said bitterly He said: "It's not difficult to say. It took me a long time to understand the general outline of Mr. Mathematics lectures." Cai Yubiao also smiled and said: "I told you, if you have nothing to do, practice your sword less and practice your pen more." Li Jinglin, as a martial artist Crazy, also known as
"Wudang Sword Immortal", martial arts is as important as his lifeblood. Li Jinglin thought for a long time and said: "Then I will practice more brushwork." It can be seen that he has made a little determination.
Chemistry is a very experimental subject in modern times. There are no instruments now. Even if Li Yu wants to teach them, there is no condition. He can only give them a brief lecture on the importance of chemistry.
Compared with the basic courses in surveying and mapping, ballistics, and mathematics and physics that were given to them before, the introduction to chemistry is relatively simple.
Before leaving, Duan Qirui actually took out a Browning M1900 pistol and several boxes of ammunition and gave them to Li Yu.
"This is a gift entrusted by the marshal to my husband. Just treat it as a small gift from Beiyang." Li Yu had used this pistol when he practiced marksmanship in Beiyang before, so Li Yu recognized it at a glance.
Li Yu asked: "Is it appropriate to carry a gun with you?" Duan Qirui said: "You have a badge given by the commander-in-chief, no problem. The commander-in-chief said that you are a great talent in the country, and you must protect your own safety. Mr. used this gun to practice Yes, I should be able to master it." Li Yu clasped his fists and said gratefully, "Thank you so much, general." Duan Qirui said, "You're welcome, Master. Beiyang has always been grateful to you." Li Yu looked at the gun in his hand, I hope it doesn't come in handy.
