In truth, Xia Xi had felt a little uncertain about radio at first.
After all, just how far had technology progressed in this era?
He really had no idea.
This was a complete blind spot in the Dawn Hashira's knowledge.
But one person was different.
That was Igarashi Usen.
As an upper-class gentleman who had studied abroad, Igarashi knew quite a bit about many of the latest technologies.
As a hobby, he also frequently read new books purchased overseas.
Whether it was the Spark-Gap Transmitter, which had long since entered commercial use abroad,
or the more advanced Arc Transmitter, which had only emerged in the past two years,
he knew a little about both.
The former, in particular, had even won a top Science Prize recently.
Scientists over in the New World had already achieved transoceanic communication using this sort of telegraph equipment.
That distance...
was far greater than the span of the entire Far Eastern archipelago.
Under normal circumstances, such cutting-edge equipment was difficult to obtain somewhere like the Far East.
But neither the Igarashi Family nor the Ubuyashiki Family...
fell within the bounds of "normal."
Igarashi picked up the explanation.
"We'll purchase a batch of advanced small- and medium-sized Spark-Gap Radios from overseas."
"Their power will be roughly a kilowatt or less, and each unit will have a communication range of around fifty kilometers."
Although they were considerably inferior to the large installations currently used by the Far Eastern authorities,
they were already sufficient for their needs.
"Xia Xi and I have worked it out carefully."
"About thirty units will be enough to cover all of Honshu."
"After that, we'll gradually expand into Kyushu, Hokkaido, and the Four Kingdoms."
The former Mist Pillar smiled gently.
Then he looked at everyone. "But we'll face one particularly troublesome problem along