When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

This area is the outskirts of the ry Court Barracks, not far from the platform of the spring machine vehicles.

On a mound about ten meters high stands a brick-wood structured tower.

It stands on the green hill, the lower layer is red brick with gray-white mortar filling the gaps.

The brick structure one and two floors are about more than five meters high, above which there are wooden structured third and fourth floors.

From the windows on the fourth floor, you can see telescopes ranging from 30 to 65 times magnification extending from both front and rear.

Above the third and fourth floors, there is a wooden frame made of fir, on which pulleys are installed.

Horn roughly estimated it to be about 10 to 15 meters high.

Just as Horn hadn’t thoroughly examined it, he heard a voice: "Oh, I said it was cloudy in the morning, how did it suddenly clear up in the afternoon? It turns out His Majesty has arrived!"

Horn turned his head, and sure enough, Brandon was rushing over with a bunch of shareholders.

As the saying goes, location changes personality, Brandon no longer has the bulkiness of a gambling house manager and instead has a bit of the gentleness of a priest.

"Is this Brandon’s signal machine?" Horn casually confirmed with Brandon.

Brandon didn’t understand why Horn suddenly became interested in this, but he enthusiastically introduced: "Yes, this is the great signal machine developed under the leadership of the great Saint’s Grandson by our Holy Alliance’s state lottery company, conforming to the saving Holy Path and the five major tenets, under the brilliant guidance of our Holy Alliance’s great Holy Path..."

Brandon’s buzzing, Horn had long been accustomed to.

He just squinted, observed the signal machine thoroughly from top to bottom, and then lowered his head to read the explanation in the signal machine documents.

Actually, speaking of Brandon’s signal machine, basically, it is the same type as the Napoleon-era optical Pu Xin signal machine.

They are both optical signal transmission systems.

That is, relying on telescopes and human eyes to identify signals, then transmit to the next station.

To really speak of it, it’s not much different from a beacon tower, essentially just multiple telescopes.

But to say Brandon’s signal machine is no different from the Pu Xin signal machine is still incorrect.

The Pu Xin signal machine transmits information through the shape of arms, while Brandon’s signal machine relies on fluorite.

Fluorite is a special mineral found across the Empire that can be discovered everywhere.

Low-grade fluorite can only emit blurred light.

While many fluorite crystals from refining workshops in Long Embankment City, covered with glass lampshades, emit light like electric lamps.

On Brandon’s signal tower, a row of seven fluorites of different colors is embedded on the upright wooden frame.

Behind each fluorite hangs a small hammer made from slime core powder; when hammered against the fluorite, it can trigger it to emit light.

This way, through light and dark, 128 characters can be expressed, covering the Empire’s general alphabet, numbers, and symbols completely.

A signal tower is operated by two people:

The front operator records the light and dark patterns from the previous station with the telescope, the rear operator uses the signal machine to transmit to the next station.

"...This way, in weather like today, it takes 30 seconds to transmit a character.

From Joan of Arc Castle to Rapids City, 15 stations, from sending to receiving, the total time is just seven or eight minutes."

Brandon introduced with a full smile, but his recitation was obvious, evidently memorized temporarily.

He is the general manager of the lottery company, not the chief engineer of the signal machine company.

It’s just to show off in front of the Saint’s Grandson, that he specially memorized it.

"How long does it take to completely transmit a sentence composed of 10 characters?"

"5 minutes." Brandon raised five fingers, "Your Majesty, this is very fast, a regular horse would take two to three days."

"Wouldn’t His Majesty know the time it takes for horseback transmission?" Petier snorted coldly, and sweat immediately broke out on Brandon’s forehead.

"You just said in weather like today, right? Then what about foggy days? Can the light penetrate?"

The sweat on Brandon’s forehead became even denser: "Sometimes it can, sometimes it can’t..."

"When can it? When can’t it? What’s the remedy when it can’t?" Horn’s eyebrows slowly rose; he most hated ambiguity.

Brandon hurriedly remedied: "During rain, fog, and snow weather it doesn’t work, if reception fails, we let the previous station report manually by horseback to the next station."

"What is the operator’s salary?"

"Monthly salary of 30 Dinars, hired from nearby villages, requiring good eyesight, no need for literacy, just need to fill in grids."

When Brandon mentioned filling in grids, he meant giving the observer a printed sheet with grids.

When the light is dim, shade it black, when it’s bright, leave it white.

"What’s the construction cost per hundred kilometers?"

"Depends on the situation." Brandon swallowed, "Generally, if along the way there are old Imperial Era outposts and it’s close to main roads, it’s cheap, otherwise it’s expensive."

The biggest reason Brandon can quickly lay out these signal machines is because he received a lot of heritage from the old Imperial Era.

Back then, the Empire, the church, and local aristocrats left a lot of outpost towers to prevent the Thousand River Valley People’s rebellion.

Now Brandon and his people only need to modify the outpost towers slightly to massively cover the signal machine network.

"I see." Horn didn’t say much, just walked straight toward the signal tower.

Everyone quickly followed, entered the tower and ascended to the operation room, where two standing youths were present.

Horn didn’t say much, just looked up, down, left, and right.

The structure inside the signal tower is actually quite simple, seven levers correspond to seven hammers.

Pulling the lever up lifts the hammer, turning the fluorite light off, whereas lowering causes the hammer to fall and turn the fluorite light on.

Next to the lever is a handle, specifically for pulling down the hammer to replace it.

After a round, Horn gained a general understanding of this signal machine.

He pulled over a chair and sat down: "Call over the chief engineer of this signal machine."

After a short while, a man with disheveled hair and messy beard arrived.

"Are you the inventor of the signal machine? What is your name?"

"Hmm." The engineer from Falan replied in imperfect Leia language, "My name is Sharpcha."

"I have a few suggestions." Horn got straight to the point, and everyone around instantly pulled out their small notebooks, "See if they are feasible."

However, the engineer was apparently new, judging by the dislike evident on his face, he didn’t like such scenarios.

For any formidable engineer, they are surely proud in their own field.

Professionals might not mind, but a non-professional accountant Saint’s Grandson wanting to interfere in such advanced mechanical designs?

Thinking of Brandon forcibly naming the signal machine with his name was repulsive to Sharpcha, who secretly smirked.

However, he wouldn’t show it, the only resistance he could make was not taking out a notebook to record.

"Change the seven fluorites to two on each side, use binary to represent characters." Horn raised a finger, "For example, left bright and right dim followed by left dim and right bright represent the alphabet..."

The suggestion Horn made was simple, just changing the seven fluorites to Morse code format.

Simply converting the time differential in binary into spatial differential.

For instance, left bright right dim is a dot, and reverse is a dash, double dim signifies character end, double bright signifies word end and space.

Light and dim last for two seconds, this way transmitting a letter takes, at most, 10 seconds including confirmation time.

Ten characters can be transmitted in about one and a half minutes.

"Secondly, change the lever to a pedal, stepping down lights it, lifting it dims, change the two people to one..."

This requirement means no need for one to record and one to operate, instead, the two roles combine into one.

Since only two fluorites’ brightness is needed, reception and sending can be fully managed simultaneously.

For the operator, feet on pedals, eyes on the telescope, press the left pedal for left light, right for right light.

Just copy accordingly.

By reducing the interval transmission inside the signal tower, 15 stations will only require 3 minutes to transmit.

"Then what if it is misreported or stepped wrong?" Sharpcha instinctively asked, instantly drawing sharp gazes around.

Horn pressed his hand down, looking at him appreciatively: "We can assign priorities to messages.

For example, military messages are prioritized, requiring four transmissions for confirmation, stock prices lotteries transmit twice is enough.

If the receiving end missees, or the sending end realizes a mistake, double flashing can indicate retransmitting.

Lastly, a hole-punch recorder can be installed on the signal machine.

Each evening, the previous station must hand the punched card to the next station for comparison.

If anyone errs, during the night shift, they must correct the incorrect message.

Let me say, seven fluorites also have error reporting possibilities, but its error correction would not be so quick and convenient."