1880, 16 In September, Li Hongzhang sent a telegram, asking for help in national defense and facilitating communication, and asking for the erection of a wire from Tianjin to Shanghai to communicate with the north and the south. Li Hongzhang said in the memorial that speed is the most important way to use troops. In western Thailand, besides guns, there are also clippers by water and steamboats on land, which allow soldiers to fly and disappear for tens of thousands of miles. If the ocean wants to communicate with the military, it has a telegraph method. So peace is a blind date, war is a war, and the sea country is like a family. Recently, Russia and Japan have done this, so all countries and even Shanghai have set up telegrams, and they can ask and answer each other in an instant. China's documents alone still rely on postal delivery. Although the daily journey of 600 miles has been stepped up, there is also a disparity in speed. ..... if there is a fight. Their foreign troops are faster than China, and their interests are totally different. Moreover, its armor and other warships, which travel more than 1000 miles on the ocean every day, are bound to be a diversion, which is immeasurable, thanks to the rapid military reports and the assistance of cameras. This is a telegram. It is really a necessity for national defense. In the thirteenth year of Tongzhi, Taiwan Province and Japanese spy Shen Baozhen talked about their interests many times and carried out orders, but nothing was achieved. Last year, I tried to send a telegram to Tianjin at Haikou Fort in Dagu Beitang, and the battalions responded immediately. ..... Now from Beiyang to Nanyang, it is very important to adjust the soldiers' salaries, and it is urgent to set up a telegraph ventilation pulse.

At this time, the Qing government had a considerable understanding of the role of telegrams, so two days later Li Hongzhang's memorial was approved. 1880 10, Li Hongzhang established the General Administration of Telegraph in Tianjin and appointed Sheng Xuanhuai as the general manager. At the same time, a telegraph school was established in Tianjin, and Danes borson and Klitsyn were hired as teachers to study electricity and the technology of sending and receiving telegrams. 1881March, Shanghai telegraph office was established, and Li Hongzhang appointed Zheng as the general manager. In the summer of the same year, the telegraph line started from Tianjin and Shanghai at the same time. The project was commissioned by Shanghai Danish Dabei Telegraph Company, which ordered telecom equipment from abroad. 1October 28th, 10, the north-south line project meets in Shandong. The whole line is 3075 miles long. Besides Tianjin, there are eight telegraph offices in Zizhulin, Dagu, Linqing, Jining, Qingjiangpu, Zhenjiang, Suzhou and Shanghai, all of which are equipped with Morse telegraph machines. In order to manage the circuit, the telegraph office stipulates that a patrol armory should be set up every forty or fifty miles along the way to station soldiers during the flood season. Each system number of Tianjin and Shanghai Bureau has 75 brand bamboo sticks, and one is issued every day. Flood fighters patrol the pole line every day and relay bamboo sticks to the two bureaus one by one, with a period of 150 days to check the patrol duty of flood fighters along the line. In addition, the telegraph office will send people to check the line twice indefinitely, and the two bureaus will measure the line every day. If obstacles are found, they will immediately notify the foreman to cooperate with the flood control soldiers to carry out emergency repairs to ensure the smooth flow of the whole line.