Text | Canned green oranges
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Nowadays, we live in the era of information and big data, and people communicate through more advanced communication methods, such as mobile phones and computers, although they are thousands of miles apart, they can also communicate face-to-face anytime and anywhere.
It is very easy for us in modern society to achieve all this, but it can be extremely difficult for people in ancient times.
So, in ancient times, when technology was not developed, what kind of communication did people use?
When it comes to the transmission of information from the ancients, we have to mention the post system.
This method of sending letters can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, when the princes, in order to make it easier to transmit military reports, set up post stations at important transportation hubs.
It's just that this kind of post station is equivalent to the current state-owned assets, and it is only used for the court and princes to transmit military reports.
Letters are delivered by postmen on horseback, and they can be rested or changed horses at the post station at the transportation hub.
If there is an emergency, the post man can be changed every time he passes through a station, just like a relay race, and the information will be transmitted to the destination one stop at a time.
In Du Mu's poem, "A ride on the red dust concubine laughs, no one knows that it is a lychee", it is mentioned that the post system.
At that time, it was through the perfect and very efficient post system that Yang Guifei, who was far away in Xi'an, could eat fresh lychees from the south.
Of course, in addition to the post system, the ancients also had other ways.
In addition to the post station, the ancients would also use flying pigeons to pass books, using the characteristics of pigeons to distinguish their positions in the air, and training pigeons into carrier pigeons.
The letter is then tied to the pigeon's leg and passed on through the pigeon.
In the historical records of the mainland, there was a precedent for flying pigeons to pass on books, and it was not until the Sui and Tang dynasties that this method of transmission began to be popularized.
The army of the Southern Song Dynasty used the way of flying pigeons to deliver military newspapers, and the famous poet Zhang Jiuling of the Tang Dynasty once raised many carrier pigeons, and the daily way of letter transmission was also flying pigeons.
Although the speed of the flying pigeon to convey information seems to be relatively fast, it also has disadvantages that cannot be ignored.
That is, the security of information is not effectively guaranteed, and if someone intercepts it in the middle, it is likely to lead to information tampering or loss.
Therefore, this method of transmission is only applicable to family letters or contact with friends, and is not applicable to the transmission of confidential letters such as military intelligence.
There is another way to transmit military intelligence -- beacon fire.
The allusions of the princes of the Beacon Opera are believed to be familiar to everyone.
King Zhou You smiled for the Pomeranians, ignored the minister's obstruction, and lit the beacon tower many times to play with the princes, and finally led to the ignition of the beacon when the real enemy army was coming, and no one believed it.
This method of communication began in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and was only used to warn and transmit information about enemy attacks.
At that time, ethnic minorities often invaded the ancient border of the mainland, so the army stationed in the border fortress at that time would build a beacon tower at intervals.
Whenever the sentry spotted an enemy attack, it would immediately ignite wolf smoke, and the adjacent beacon tower would also light the beacon to pass on the information after seeing the wolf smoke wafting up.
On the one hand, it can warn the troops stationed in the border fortress to be vigilant, and on the other hand, it can also use the number of beacons to indicate the number of enemies.
It has to be said that in ancient times, when the information transmission method was very backward, this information transmission method was fast and accurate, and it could transmit a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers a day at most.
But at the same time, it also has a disadvantage that cannot be ignored, that is, it has a single message, except for warning and indicating the number of enemies, other information cannot be transmitted.
And in case there is a mole or accident in the middle of a beacon, and the wolf smoke is not lit, the transmission of information will be interrupted because of this.
In addition to this long-distance way of transmitting messages, beating drums to convey orders was also one of the methods of the ancients.
The drum herald was widely used in ancient times, mainly for the speech of the main commander before the battle.
The soldier places the drum on a raised platform, and the drummer will relay the command by beating the drum according to the commander's command.
This method originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when princes came from all over the world, and many languages and even scripts were different, which also led to communication barriers.
So people invented this way of beating the drum to give orders, so that everyone could understand the commander's orders.
Secondly, beating drums on the battlefield can also be used to improve morale and boost the morale of the army.
But this can also easily allow the enemy to steal the military deployment of our army, leading to the failure of the military operation.
It is mentioned in "Zuo Chuan: Cao Di's Polemic" that Cao Di used the enemy's drums to judge the enemy's deployment and war situation in the war.
Of course, there are those that are suitable for the battlefield, and there are sound information transmission methods that are suitable for the people, and the way for the people to transmit information derived from the drumming and the order is to beat the gong.
In ancient times, there were no clocks, and if you wanted to keep time, you had to rely on observing the sky.
At night, striking a gong in the street every other hour can remind people of the passage of time.
Moreover, when encountering dangers such as thieves and thieves, the watchman will remind people of danger by beating the gong quickly and protect their lives and property.
This method of transmission is very fast and agile, and can quickly make the receiver of the message receive the meaning that the transmitter wants to express.
However, the only drawback is that the sound has a limited transmission area, which is not suitable for long-distance information transmission.
On the battlefield, in addition to using the sound of drumming to convey information, there is also a visual way to convey information, that is, the flag language that is still used today.
Originally, the flag only served as a symbol, and was used to mark the ownership of the clan or country.
Later, it was discovered that brightly colored and eye-catching flags could serve as a warning to their own troops.
Flags, as a visual communication tool, first appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period.
On the battlefield, there are special signalmen who convey information to the battlefield through different flag waving methods to change the marching array.
Later, this method of transmitting information was applied to navigation, and it was very difficult to transmit information by sound on the vast sea, so people applied flag language to the exchange of information between ships.
This method is the fastest and most rapid, and the direct visual transmission will also avoid many errors in the transmission of information.
So until now, this type of signal transmission still occupies an important position in the maritime industry of countries around the world.
In our mind, kites are a kind of entertainment tool, and we usually use them to fly kites to experience the sense of freedom of chasing the wind.
But in fact, the kite was an important communication tool for emergency response in ancient times, and its main role was to reconnoiter the enemy situation and transmit military reports.
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, a craftsman in the Lu Kingdom made a flying "wooden magpie" in the shape of a bird, which is the earliest kite in historical records.
According to historical records, at the time of the struggle between Chu and Han, Xiang Yu was besieged by Liu Bang.
In order to grasp the real-time situation of Xiang Yu's army, Han Xin proposed to use a large kite to reconnoiter in Chu Jun's air.
At the same time, a bamboo whistle can be installed on the kite, and there will be a burst of mournful roar in the sky above the Chu army at night, causing homesickness and negative emotions of the Chu army, and psychologically disintegrating the morale of the Chu army.
In the Sui and Tang dynasties, the paper industry rose rapidly, and folk craftsmen tried to use paper to paste kites.
As a result, kites have slowly become an after-dinner entertainment facility.
In fact, in addition to some of the methods mentioned above, the ancients conveyed information in a variety of ways, including the use of fish, water currents, and so on.
Human beings are social animals, and as long as they are not separated from human society, they cannot do without communication and communication.
These various communication methods in ancient times, whether reliable or not, have provided a non-negligible guiding role for the development of modern communication.