Chapter 1577 You are holding the golden rice bowl and begging for food
The Qin Dynasty only existed for fifteen years, but it created countless brilliant achievements and established its almost insurmountable historical status in one fell swoop.
One of the most important achievements is the amazing effort to complete the nationwide transportation and communication network...
"Yan Qi is poor in the east, Wu and Chu are in the south, above the rivers and lakes, with a view of the coast." This is the "road" of the Qin Dynasty throughout the world! "The road is fifty paces wide, with trees growing three feet tall. The outside is thickly built, hidden by golden cones, and the trees are covered with green pines." What a magnificent feat and what a magnificent scenery.
Even in later generations, it has always been an achievement that has attracted worldwide attention!
Strictly speaking, the construction and maintenance difficulty of such avenues crisscrossing the country is not much lower than that of the Great Wall...
The unified "Postal Station System" of the Qin Dynasty was built on this magnificent road transportation network.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, various countries had different names for postal communications, such as "sudden", "ri", "zhi", etc. The Qin Dynasty unified the names of these different names and created postal posts throughout the country. System, even if the empire suddenly collapsed, the post office system has been used for future generations.
Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the number of post stations across the country has increased sharply, continuing and developing the system of integrating post and transmission in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. "Yi" replaced all the previous "post", "ting" and "zhuan".
Post stations during the Tang Dynasty had all-encompassing tasks. They were responsible for delivering official state documents and urgent military intelligence. They were also responsible for transporting officials and Huairou ethnic minorities, quelling civil unrest, hunting down criminals, comforting and escorting prisoners in disaster areas, etc. affairs, and sometimes managed the transportation of tributes and other small items...
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Liu Shi looked astonished: "Yes, all the post stations in the world are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War. Otherwise, who would the minister think they would be in charge of?"
How does Fang Jun know who is in charge?
The ancient government offices had unclear functions and powers, and there was no specialized agency to manage the world's post offices. There was not even a dedicated official in charge...
"Very good!"
Fang Jun was very excited. He really didn't expect that the Ministry of War was not a poor government office. Although the situation was a bit messy, it had a good foundation!
"Very good?"
Liu Shi was puzzled and said: "What's so good? You probably don't know, right? There are 260 water stations and 1,300 land stations in the country. There are more than 20,000 employees specializing in station services. Although these stations Most of the soldiers are doing labor service and do not need to pay any salary. However, just The daily food consumption is almost going to make the Ministry of War very poor! These mud-legged people are really hungry... However, when the British Minister became Minister of the Ministry of War, he began to gradually reduce the supply of the inn, which made the life of the Ministry of War easier. Some.”
Thanks to the Fubing system, the post soldiers were also served by local strong men in turns.
Compared with the army that often participates in wars, the post is much superior in terms of safety and freedom, and it seems to be a good place.
This is not the case.
The postal system at this time was very strict. The laws of the Tang Dynasty stipulated the penalties for various errors in the postal process in very detail. The slightest mistake would be severely punished.
For example, the postmaster should have several responsibilities. First of all, he must report the death, loss, and infertility of the posthorses every year, and report the expenditure status. If a post horse is killed or damaged, the postmaster is responsible for compensation; if the post staff and horses are subtracted without permission, "a hundred rods"... What kind of heavy penalty is this? Basically dead.
This is true for the postmaster, but the punishment for the postmaster is even more severe.
The postman must change his horse when he arrives at the post station. If he does not change his horse, he will be charged with eighty sticks. Anyone who delays his journey on the way and should be sent but is not sent will be given one hundred sticks. If the document arrives late, his staff will be eighty for one day and doubled for two days... By analogy, the most serious crime is two years in prison.
If the delay is urgent military documents, the crime will be increased to three levels.
If the war is defeated due to delayed correspondence, the sentence will be hanged...
Because of the unprecedented unification of the country, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, a large number of official documents were sent from the central government to various regions and from various regions to the central government. The statistical materials sent to the central government from various states alone amounted to more than 500,000 documents each year. "New Book of Tang" records that the famous poet Yuan Jie of the Mid-Tang Dynasty served as the governor of Daozhou for less than fifty days, and he received as many as two hundred letters from various places...
The extremely harsh living environment and the pressure from superior authorities show how severe the current situation of the postal system was at this time.
And all the able-bodied men in the village who have some connections go to serve in the army. Although it is a little more dangerous, at least they will be well fed and clothed. If they are lucky, they can also earn military merits, which will benefit their families, provide for future generations, and at least they will pay taxes to the family. All in all, who wants to be a postman in Kuhaha's post station?
Fang Jun was shocked when he heard this: "Cutting supply? Absolutely not!"
Mother!
You guys are really ignorant and fearless!
If I remember correctly, the first riot among postmen in history happened in the Tang Dynasty, right?
It's just an ordinary riot. As a chief official, you have to bear the main responsibility. It is inevitable to be demoted and reduced in rank. But what if one or two powerful people appear among the rioting postmen?
Fang Jun clearly remembers that it is easy for heroes to emerge among the postmen, especially in Shaanxi...
Liu Shi didn't understand why Fang Jun had such a reaction, and said doubtfully: "But if we don't cut the supply, such a huge team of postmen will be too wasteful. The most important thing is that our yamen has no money now. If the minister of the house is If we don’t get some money back, not only the construction site of the Foundry Bureau will have to stop work next month, but the supply of the inn can only be reduced by half on the basis of the reduction..."
The Ministry of War was originally a poor yamen, but after Fang Jun’s troubles, rats were running out of the warehouse...
It's a bit unbelievable, but that's how it is.
Fang Jun held the tea bowl and crossed his legs and said: "You guys are all stubborn. You just think about cutting down on expenditure all day long. How much money can you save? If you want to live a good life, then Open source! Money is earned, not saved!”
Liu Shi said nonchalantly: "Well... we have no choice. How can we make money guarding an unpopular yamen like the Ministry of War? We don't even have much oil and water. If we are plucking hair in Yanguo... those censors and officials can't do it. You are not a vegetarian. Once they get their hands on you, no one can resist you.”
As he said that, he raised his eyebrows again, stared at Fang Jun and asked: "How can you get money, Mr. Fang? Whether it's His Majesty's internal funds or the Treasury of the Ministry of Revenue, if you don't do it, we will The yamen really can’t open the pot!”
At the beginning, Fang Jun boasted that he would invest heavily in the construction of the foundry bureau in Haikou. Now the time is not short. The little money the Ministry of War has is almost spent. It is time for you to get money, right?
Although the Ministry of War is now in a desperate situation, Liu Shi really isn't too worried.
Who is this person in front of me?
This is the man known as the "God of Wealth" in the Tang Dynasty! The emperor's internal funds and the treasury of the Ministry of Revenue were extremely rich due to large purchases such as glass and salt works. They were full as never before. And wasn't the source of all this because of Fang Jun?
As long as he is willing, it is not difficult at all to get some money to support the Ministry of War...
Fang Jun was angry that he didn't argue: "Is this how much you can achieve? When something goes wrong, you just want to ask for help. Why don't you ask for help yourself?"
Liu Shi smiled bitterly and said: "It's not because we like to ask for help. You don't know how unwelcome our military department is. Without power, how can we have money?"
Throughout the ages, every yamen has been like this. If you want to do things, you have to win people's hearts first. If you want to win people's hearts, you have to give everyone good treatment. Without sufficient protection, who will charge into battle with you in the wind and fire?
In essence, yamen and enterprises are the same. They must first generate revenue before they can achieve results...
Fang Jun sighed and said: "You guys...are really holding a golden rice bowl and begging for food. You deserve to be hungry!"
Liu Shi asked curiously: "What does the minister of the house mean by this?"
Fang Jun said: "If you don't want to talk about anything else, let's just say that you are just sending money to this post station year after year, using your own pitiful public funds to fill this hole for the court, but why do you never stop it? Why don’t you go and think of something at the inn?”
Liu Shi was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly realized: "Does the Minister of Fang want to abolish all the stations in the world, so as to save a large amount of subsidies every year?"
Fang Jun almost fell to the ground...
After talking about it for a long time, you just came up with the idea of abolition?
Not to mention that this is equivalent to killing the goose that lays the egg, aren't you afraid that His Majesty Li Er will chop off your head?
Where is the inn? Those are the people responsible for delivering government documents and military intelligence, or the people who provide food, accommodation, and horses on the way to and from officials. You abolished the post station, do you want to paralyze the Tang Dynasty?
If you really dare to tell His Majesty Li Er like this, your head will definitely be light, and it is possible to destroy the nine tribes... (End of this chapter)