Chapter 19, Twenty-seven moments in the fourth year of Chongzhen (19)
The Nineteenth Moment: Radio Waves Flying Over the Ocean
On a cliff facing Golden Bay on the seaside of Zhongnan City (Derby Port), the "Australian National Cemetery", which was just completed less than half a year ago, is about to welcome a new guest - a strange species among the Polish knights of Eastern Europe. , left the manor land in his hometown, and catered to the fashionable Andrew who changed his career to go sailing and explore the New World. Scaffani. Baron Skarbek was buried here and rested in a foreign country thousands of miles away from his homeland.
Although there are no relatives of Baron Andrew here, the Poles and Germans who came to the East with the Baron still spontaneously wore a white flower on their chests and came to attend the funeral in an endless stream. The Australian Crossing Decision-making Group also mobilized as many people as possible who were not on duty, and also invited people from the East Coast Country Expedition Team to boost the momentum, so that the funeral of this "old friend of the Australian people" could be more grand.
——Accompanied by the sound of mournful music reproduced and played by a certain electric speaker, eight sailors from the East Coast country lifted the heavy coffin, walked in a fairly neat goose step, and slowly walked to the cemetery, followed by twelve more The gun-toting soldiers of the East Coast Country Expedition Team advanced slowly in two columns. Then followed the group of Poles and Australian travelers - in terms of funeral arrangements, the East Coast countries, which have experienced many wars since the founding of the country, are more professional.
The funeral procession entered the cemetery. The soldiers carefully placed the coffin into the grave that had been dug. Then they retreated and dispersed, picked up their bayonets and muskets, and formed a neat row. Its majesty is so strict that people can't help but admire it.
At the same time, a priest among the Australian travelers walked up with a speech and wearing a stuffy black robe. Although this guy was a Protestant, it felt strange to have a Protestant priest preside over a funeral for a Polish Catholic. Seems a little strange. But unfortunately, the country on the east coast of South America is not a Christian country and has no military chaplains. The genuine missionary on the Polish expedition ship had been stung to death by the "Black Widow" poisonous spider before.
Therefore, this twenty-first-century Protestant Baptist pastor had no choice but to preside over the funeral of a seventeenth-century Catholic. He took a deep breath, stepped forward, unfolded the speech in his hand, and said It was read to the crowd watching the ceremony.
"...O great and merciful Lord! You have never been far away from each of your children. Now please pay attention to this person who is far away from us, Andrew Skafani. Baron Skarbek from Silesia, who has just been unfortunate. Sacrificed in the exploration of the unknown world, Andrew Scafani. Mr. Baron Skarbek is a good man. He has followed your teachings throughout his life and has never exceeded his standards. Please forgive his sins OK, send an angel to be with him on his way, to be his guardian, so that his trust in you will never change. Please give him wisdom and the ability to resist temptation, and do everything he does well. ; Make him happy to do his will , do not let the distance affect our unity; so that we can watch each other, be loyal to the end, fulfill our respective responsibilities and duties, and glorify the Father in heaven together. Amen. ”
The European Christians who were watching the ceremony prayed collectively, while the pilgrims and non-Christians experienced the solemn and sad atmosphere, and the scene was somewhat silent for a while. A moment later, Captain Li Yi, the commander of the East Bank expedition team, waved his hand, and the soldiers with guns immediately stood in solemn silence. Amidst the shouts of orders, they fired blank ammunition into the sky and fired a collective salute. Then the Poles who followed Baron Andrew Say the last farewell - because there are no family members of Baron Andrew here, they can only be replaced...The next step is to fill the grave and erect the tombstone, and the funeral ends like this.
Although the whole funeral looks decent and extremely honorable, it is really dumbfounding to think about the cause of death of this Polish baron... because this fool was actually struck to death by thunder - it was not his evil deeds that attracted divine punishment. , but this guy is seeking death by lightning!
Looking back at the huge kite floating hundreds of meters above the ground, Levi couldn't help but smile bitterly.
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According to the introduction of Captain Li Yi, the commander of the East Coast Country expedition team, more than a hundred Australian travelers were shocked to learn that they were not the only intruders in this time and space. There were two other even larger teams of modern travelers. As early as ten years ago, they had come to this world almost at the same time, arriving in eastern Uruguay in South America and Manhattan Island in North America, respectively, establishing the "Eastern Republic" and the "Chinese American Republic" respectively.
Although these two emerging powers are 9,000 kilometers apart, due to different foreign policies - China and the United States, located in remote North America, insist on forming an alliance with Spain to open up the European market, while the East Coast countries continue to provoke the Spanish colonial authorities in South America. Open up territory and expand territory. Coupled with the intervention of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and other countries in the Americas, the huge whirlpool of the Thirty Years' War in Europe, and the conflicts in the market for modern "high-tech" goods, the "Eastern Republic" and the "Chinese-American Republic" There has always been cooperation and conflict between the two parties, and there is no special relationship. Different harmony: China and the United States always accuse the East Coast countries of engaging in militarism and fascism, while the East Coast countries believe that China and the United States are yellow-skinned and white-hearted "cent parties"... However, the American continent is vast enough after all, and can accommodate both countries at the same time. It is an emerging republic, so there is no sign of a complete breakup yet.
Of course, for the "Australians" who have just arrived, the intrigues and alliance disputes between China, the United States and the East Coast countries in the past ten years are not their focus. What really made their hearts beat was a little piece of news that Captain Li Yi inadvertently leaked - the East Coast country, which only brought an inland river ferry across, had never been able to cross the country due to a lack of necessary electronic components and technical information. Even the steam engine ship has only just been successfully developed to advance the technological level to the electrical age. As for the original radio equipment on the ship, it is already broken beyond repair. However, the United States, which traveled through China with countless containers of cargo and five large ships, used the collected parts to piece together a long-range radio system. Able to maintain real-time radio communication between them!
——On the "Cosco Star" modern sailing ship of the "Australian People", there is also a set of intact shortwave radio stations, although the power is not too high... In this way, it seems that they can send telegrams from Australia. , get in touch with China and the United States in North America? !
But this is only a theoretical possibility - just look at the globe and you will know that the western part of Australia where they are located, and the east coast of North America where China and the United States are located, are almost exactly at the opposite ends of the earth, separated by the vast Australian continent and the Pacific Ocean. The straight-line distance from the American continent is nearly 20,000 kilometers... With such a long distance and many mountains blocking it, the radio signal has long been attenuated.
The radio station on the ship is just an ordinary thing with a power of more than 100 watts. Even with a clean radio environment like the 17th century, it cannot transmit the signal to half the world - in the 21st century, such a distance Ultra-long-distance communications generally pass through satellite relay stations.
In short, in the past half year, the radio station of "Coscosat" has never captured any identifiable signal.
In order to solve the above problems, the first thing that the "Australian public" thought of was to build a tall radio transmission tower... Unfortunately, the construction materials on hand were limited, and the manpower was even scarce, so it was impossible to carry out such a huge project. The second step is to use a balloon to pull the antenna up, but they do not have the equipment to produce hydrogen, and hot air balloons are not safe enough: even in the modern world, hot air balloons have an accident every fifty times they take off.
In the end, they replaced the radio tower with a very old invention: the kite!
——Someone among the "Australians", based on the content of Jules Verne's science fiction novel "Fifteen Boys Drifting", in which fifteen young people in trouble build large kites on a desert island and let people ride on them to detect the enemy's situation. A suggestion was made: Since a kite can be hoisted by a person as long as it is made strong and large enough, it seems that it should also be possible if a radio antenna is dragged up to the sky to serve as a temporary transmission tower, right?
It happened that among this group of Australian travelers, there was one who was making kites in Weifang, Shandong. So, everyone started working together. Under the guidance of the professional kite maker, they made two long kites using canvas, iron wire and wooden frames. A large triangular kite about four meters wide (one kite for testing and the other for backup), and then find a way to fix the amplifier antenna on the kite Then the wires and cables were twisted together - because the kite was too big and the pulling force was too strong, they had to use cables instead of kite strings. Finally, a winch was fixed on a towering cliff where the wind blows all day long. Fixing the kite, releasing the rope... After several tests, they finally successfully placed the "antenna kite" in the sky.
However, although the antenna was ready, there was a problem with the radio - because it had not been used for a long time, the shortwave radio station on the ship seemed to have some glitches and could not work properly... So a group of time travelers carried the The radio station went back for repairs and threw the kite hanging in the air to an idle man, Baron Andrew, and asked him to help look after it. If the radio has not been repaired by evening, ask the Baron to put the kite away.
At the beginning, Baron Andrew naturally agreed wholeheartedly, saying that this small matter would not be a problem.
But after everyone else left, the Baron sat on the empty top of the mountain for a while. Feeling bored, he put the matter behind him, grabbed his two personal servants, and carried the crossbow and shotgun. Went to the forest behind the mountain to hunt birds.
Unexpectedly, there would be unforeseen circumstances. Just as Baron Andrew was happily hunting, there was a sudden change in the sky. Suddenly, strong winds rose, dark clouds gathered, and it was about to rain. The baron was startled and rushed back to the top of the mountain as quickly as possible, but by then the sky was already filled with raindrops... What was even more unfortunate was that the wind was stronger on the eve of the rain, making it more difficult to retrieve the kite. , Baron Andrew and his two servants tried their best to turn the winch for half an hour, but they could not get the kite back much. The light rain above my head has turned into a heavy rain, and then into a thunderstorm...
As a result, with a rumble of lightning and thunder, Lord Andrew, who has always been curious, experienced the experience of Franklin, the pioneer of the founding of the United States, more than a hundred years in advance. He was struck by the lightning caused by the kite - the two men spinning the winch. The servant was only slightly injured and fell into a coma; but Baron Andrew, who was holding the rope, was struck by lightning and was scorched on the outside and tender on the inside. He died on the spot... It seemed that he died in the line of duty.
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Although a baron died yesterday because of flying a kite, since the wind is sunny today and the radio equipment has been repaired, the kites that need to be flown still have to be flown, and the telegrams that need to be sent still have to be sent... So, in this regard Li Wei, who was very concerned but couldn't get involved, just Being able to stand while watching several sailors on the "COSCOSTAR" playing with the radio station and constantly dialing out SOS signals (in fact, the international rescue signal has been changed in the 21st century, but most people are more familiar with SOS after all) Whistling in boredom at the top of the mountain.
At this moment, I saw the captain Wang Tiechui holding a lunch box and bringing it up like a treasure, "...Brother Li, I just got some fresh food here. It's just baked. You can try it while it's hot." ”
"...What is this? Can it be eaten?"
Levi looked at the white discs with burnt marks in the lunch box, hesitantly picked up one and put it into his mouth, chewing slowly, "...well, it's a little sour, but it's still quite sweet, not bad, not bad, but …Is there too much starch in your bread?”
"...This is not bread!" the captain said with some pride, "...but you really got one thing right. The name of this thing really has the word "bread" in it - bread. Fruit! ”
"...Breadfruit?" Levi blinked in a daze.
"...Yes, the fruit of the bread tree, breadfruit." Wang Tiechui said as he picked up a large green fruit from behind. If it weren't for the pits on the peel, it would look like a grapefruit. I saw the captain placing the breadfruit on a stone, picking up a dagger and cutting one into two, immediately revealing the white flesh inside, "...How about it! It's a good thing!"
"...It's indeed a good thing! Where did you find it? Is there a lot of it?"
Levi suddenly became a little excited. During this year of going through all kinds of hardships in Australia, he really didn't eat anything good. Li Wei himself is fine. The problem is that his wife Zhao Na is still breastfeeding and is in urgent need of nutritional supplements. Seeing his wife eating stinky kangaroo meat every day, causing nausea and vomiting over and over again, and losing weight, Levi felt his heart really twitching.
Even after the East Coast expedition team arrived, the "Australians" got a batch of flour from them, but because there were too many mouths to eat, there was still no guarantee of a meal before the newly sown grains and potatoes were harvested. For pasta, you still have to hold your nose and eat kangaroo meat from time to time. As for pastries and snacks, there is nowhere to get them - now that I have this breadfruit to change my taste, I think my wife can be happy too!
"...In the woods behind the mountain opposite, a total of more than a dozen breadfruit trees were found. I haven't had time to explore the places further away, so I guess they are inevitable..." Wang Tiechui replied casually, but his words had not yet been spoken. Before they could finish speaking, they heard a burst of cheers coming from the small tent where the radio equipment was placed. Li Wei and Wang Tiechui looked at each other, immediately turned around and ran towards the radio tent.
"...How's it going? Is there any movement on the other side?" Levi asked loudly as soon as he lifted the curtain.
"...There is a response! There is a response! Look!" A little fat man wearing round glasses jumped excitedly and pulled Li Wei to the table. He saw a computer with a transcoding program installed and acting as a receiver. On the laptop screen at the end, a line of eye-catching information was displayed:
"...Who are you? Please inform your unit and location?"
The following is the reply from the radio operator of the "COSCO":
"...We are from China in the 21st century! We are in Australia!"
Seeing that after sacrificing a human life, Levi finally received the radio signal from "Hua Mei", Levi couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief.
However, after waiting patiently for another quarter of an hour, an unexpected line of reply appeared on the computer screen:
"...This is the Supreme Senate of Lingao County, Hainan Island. Welcome to the earth in the seventeenth century..."
As a result, everyone in the tent became messy in the wind - Hainan Island? Lingao County? senate? What do these words mean when combined? ! As everyone knows, those people on the other end of the radio waves are also in a state of chaos at this time:
"...Oh God! Why did a group of "Australians" really come across? If I had known this, I shouldn't have called myself "Australians"! This is great. I don't know if they have had contact with Europeans. These guys wouldn't think of helping us cover up our lies! If the information is not correct, or if the Australian side refuses to cooperate, our previous rhetoric of "Australia and Song Dynasty" will be turned into a joke... Oops! What did I say? We should inform the Executive Committee and Chairman Wen immediately!”