Ang Lee listened quietly and listened to the ministers' conversation. He was very happy. Tonight's main character was Ang Lee. Everyone would revolve around Ang Lee.
"This telegraph machine still needs to be connected by wires. It's fine if it's short-distance, but it's too wasteful if it's too far away. It's better to have a wireless one. I wonder how long it'll take to develop it?"
"What's the big deal about wires? The railroad tracks are so long, but they're still laid. As long as it's of great use to the imperial court, it doesn't matter if the investment is bigger. When Assistant Minister Li develops a wireless one, it'll be fine."
"That's right, that's right. The wired one has already been developed. How far can the wireless one be? When the time comes, no matter where in the Tang dynasty, we'll be able to contact each other in time. It's so convenient. "
"The telegraph machine is ticking. Only trained people can use it. Ordinary people can't play with it at all. It's more convenient to talk directly. I heard Assistant Minister Li say that a machine that can directly communicate with people thousands of miles away can also be developed. I'm really looking forward to that day!"
"Yes! Yes! If we can really communicate with people thousands of miles away, it'll be so convenient. I'm excited just thinking about it! "
"However, such a powerful machine must be very expensive. Ordinary people don't have this opportunity. Only the important government offices of the imperial court have the opportunity to use such a machine."
"That's right, that's right. Only the imperial court can afford such a national treasure. Only the imperial court has the financial resources to use it."
The ministers continued to discuss.
These discussions naturally reached Ang Lee's ears. Listening to these people's discussion, Ang Lee was expressionless, but he shook his head repeatedly in his heart. In the eyes of these ministers, the telegraph machine was very powerful and very advanced equipment. In fact, as long as it was popularized, it would be nothing. Ordinary people could also use it.
Of course, the telegraph machine was not a telephone. Not everyone could operate it. If ordinary people wanted to use it, they could only spend money to send a telegram. In this way, the message to be transmitted would be delivered to the designated person in the shortest time. This was much faster than the previous method of sending letters. It could make communication between ordinary people more convenient and faster. In addition, in terms of cost, it was definitely much cheaper than the traditional method of sending letters. There was still a market for it when it was popularized.
Before the telephone was popularized in the future, people either wrote letters or sent telegrams to each other. If the matter was not urgent, they would naturally send letters. If the matter was urgent, they would usually send telegrams. The telegram was slightly more expensive, but it was faster. The message could be received very quickly. If they sent a letter, it might take more than half a month to receive it. It would be very troublesome.
In fact, the reason why the cost of sending letters was lower was that a large number of letters were transported together. Moreover, the imperial court would bear the losses. If a letter was specially sent thousands of miles away, the cost would be too high. It would be far more than the cost of sending a telegram.
The letter delivery agencies in the Tang dynasty were not developed, and there were not many people who wrote letters. Therefore, the cost of sending letters was high and it was very time-consuming. At the moment when the telegraph machine had been invented, it was obviously not appropriate to use the primitive method of sending letters. It was the right way to popularize the use of telegrams on a large scale.
Of course, the telegraph machine at this time was not mature enough. It had to be perfected before it could be deployed on a large scale. At that time, every county in the Tang dynasty would be equipped with a certain number of telegraph machines. All kinds of news could be directly transmitted to each county. It would take a day for the county to transmit the news to each village, unless it was in remote areas with inconvenient transportation. Therefore, it would take some time.
Another point was that the wireless telegraph machine had to be developed as soon as possible. The territory of the Tang dynasty was too vast. If wires were pulled everywhere, not only would it be a huge waste of wire materials, but it would also put a lot of pressure on security. If someone cut off the wires, then the communication would be completely paralyzed. This was something that the imperial court could not tolerate. However, the land of the Tang dynasty was so big that it was impossible to set up defenses everywhere along the way. It was very difficult to cure the theft of wires. As long as such a situation occurred, the communication would be interrupted. Therefore, in order to stabilize the communication, the premise of popularizing the telegraph machine on a large scale was to invent a telegraph machine that could transmit long distances.
Of course, the wireless telegraph machine also had its limitations. Even the most powerful wireless telegraph machine could not transmit tens of thousands of miles away. At most, it could only transmit a few thousand miles away. However, this was enough. As long as there was a relay, the news could be transmitted to the place where it was needed.
Imagine, when every county in the Tang dynasty had an institution full of telegraph machines, the transmission of news in the Tang dynasty would be so convenient. The lives of the people would be improved to a new level.
While Ang Lee was still looking forward to it, many ministers gathered around. They carried small stools and sat next to Ang Lee. Anyway, the Emperor had not arrived yet. They came to ask about some things that they were interested in. It was also a kind of pastime.
"Assistant Minister Li, when will the machine that can communicate directly be developed?"
Yang Guozhong was the first to ask. The other ministers also looked at Ang Lee curiously with a little expectation.
"Well, it should be soon! I'm not sure about the specific time. In short, it won't be long. It will definitely be useful to you. "
Ang Lee replied.
Ang Lee was very confident about the development of the telephone because the telegraph machine had been developed. Naturally, the telephone was not far away. He estimated that it would not be long before it was developed. As long as the telephone was developed, the communication in the Tang dynasty would be further improved and more convenient.
It would be even more awesome to mix the two together and make a wireless telephone. He wanted to gradually miniaturize it. Wouldn't it be a simplified version of a mobile phone? Just thinking about it made him excited!
"If the telephone can be developed soon, then there is no need to popularize the telegraph machine! Moreover, it is wired and can be easily destroyed. It should be better to develop a wireless machine as soon as possible and then popularize it. "
Chen Xilie said.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "Prime Minister Zuo, you think too much. The output of the telegraph machine is limited. When the first batch of telegraph machines is popularized in the cities near the capital, the wireless one will be successful. Then, it will continue to be popularized and develop better machines. This is the right way to go. If we just wait, it will never be popularized. After all, the research and development is always in progress. There will be more and more advanced machines in the future, but there will never be the best one because there will be better ones in the future."
"Assistant Minister Li is right. While developing better machines, we can also properly produce the ones that have been developed. This way, we won't delay the use of the machines or the research and development. It's really a balance between the two!"
"How much is the cost of this machine? Is it very expensive? "
"That goes without saying. It must be very expensive."
Several ministers said.
Ang Lee replied, "A lot of manpower and material resources were spent on this machine. The research and development cost alone is hundreds of thousands of strings of cash. It's really not cheap!"
"Hundreds of thousands of strings of cash? That's too expensive!"
"It is a little expensive, but this machine can send messages thousands of miles away. This is worth it. It's worth it no matter how much money is spent."
"This is just the research and development cost. The manufacturing cost must be even more expensive!"
Ang Lee smiled and said, "The manufacturing cost is not cheap either. One machine costs five thousand strings of cash. However, this is because many of the parts needed in the machine are newly developed and the production is too low. If it is mass-produced, the cost of these small parts will be shared and the cost will be greatly reduced. In this way, the cost of the whole machine will be reduced."
"The manufacturing cost of one machine is five thousand strings of cash. If a hundred of them are manufactured and the research and development cost of hundreds of thousands of strings of cash is shared, the total cost of each machine is about ten thousand strings of cash. This is not a small number. In this way, the development of a direct communication machine will definitely be more expensive."
"Yes! This kind of machine is too expensive, but it is also very practical. In this way, no matter how expensive it is, it must be developed and mass-produced, especially in the border areas. In case of an emergency, it will take many days to travel by horse or carriage. It will even take half a month to receive the news at the furthest. With this kind of machine, we can get the news at any time and send the imperial court's orders at any time. It can save time going back and forth. In this way, we can avoid greater losses. "
All the ministers could see that the telegraph machine was of great practical significance in all aspects. In terms of military affairs, it could transmit enemy intelligence to the imperial court in a timely manner. In terms of political affairs, it could transmit the latest decrees of the imperial court to remote counties. In terms of disaster relief, it could allow the imperial court to quickly grasp the situation of disasters in various places. In terms of commercial applications, it was even more significant.
After all, the frequency of its use in the other aspects was not high. In the economic field, as long as the imperial court was willing to open up, the frequency of its use would be extremely high. In particular, for many big businessmen who did national business, information was the most valuable thing. Only by grasping the commercial information of various cities in a timely manner could they make timely adjustments and earn more money.
Ang Lee looked at the ministers beside him and said, "You are all right. The telegraph machine is extremely important to the imperial court of the Tang dynasty. No matter how much money is spent, it must be popularized. Moreover, although the investment in the telegraph machine is high, it can be earned back, and a lot of money at that. It won't be a problem to earn back the money in three to five years."
"Oh, Assistant Minister Li, what's your plan? How do you think we can earn back the money? "
Chen Xilie asked. The other ministers also opened their eyes wide and looked curiously at Ang Lee.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "Have you all forgotten about the railway? How much did the imperial court spend to lay the railway and how much did it cost to build the train? But now the railway is making money! If it weren't for the corruption of the railway bureau, the railway would make more money. "
When the ministers heard this, they seemed to have understood. Smiles appeared on their faces, and they looked quite happy.
"Assistant Minister Li's idea is to let the merchants and ordinary people of the Tang dynasty use the telegraph machine and then charge them a certain fee, just like buying a train ticket."
Chen Xilie said.
Ang Lee nodded in agreement.
The other ministers were surprised for a moment, then nodded in agreement. In their view, if the telegraph machine wanted to earn back its cost, it must be popularized and made the people of the Tang dynasty pay for the development of the telegraph machine.
Among them, the ministers were most optimistic about the merchants because they were very rich. Moreover, the merchants did business all over the country and indeed needed timely information. In the past, the merchants could only rely on manpower to communicate with each other. They sent their confidants to check the accounts and even went to the markets of each city in person to understand the situation of each place and the demand for goods.
If they found that a region was in urgent need of a certain product, they would immediately rush to the place where the product was produced, buy a lot of goods, and then transport them to the city where the product was needed, making a lot of money.
However, there might not be only one merchant who found a business opportunity. If someone else found it first and transported the goods to the city where the product was needed, then by the time the merchant transported the goods to the target city, the city that was originally in urgent need of the product might no longer be in need of the product. It might even be in excess, causing the price to continue to plummet and causing the merchant who was one step behind to suffer heavy losses.
However, if the merchant found that a city was in urgent need of a certain product, instead of going to the place of production to buy it himself, he could send a telegram and ask his subordinates far away to buy it. Then, he could save a lot of time and possibly transport the goods to the city where the product was produced. Even his subordinates at the place of production could communicate with the merchant in time when they received the order and tell the merchant that the price of the product in the place of production had also risen and that a lot of the stock had been swept away and transported to the city where the product was in urgent need. In this way, the merchant would immediately realize that his competitor had made a move first. If he continued to buy this product, he would not be able to make any money. Only by giving up this business could he reduce his losses.
This was the huge role of the telegraph to the merchant. With the telegraph to transmit information in a timely manner, the merchant could react more flexibly to the market, thus avoiding major economic losses and making it easier for him to earn more money.
Because an important piece of information could play a big role and even allow the merchant to avoid losing tens of thousands of strings of cash, the merchant would not care too much about the cost of sending a telegram. They would not even frown if they spent tens of thousands of strings of cash. There were so many merchants in the Tang dynasty. If all the merchants used the telegraph frequently, then the cost of research and development could be quickly recovered. In other words, the participation of merchants was the key factor in whether the cost of the telegraph could be recovered. Only when a large number of merchants were willing to use the telegraph could the research and development and manufacturing cost of the telegraph be quickly recovered.
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