Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1597: Great Ming United Station (Part [-])
For the emperor's golden words to urge him personally, Gao Butang is still very face-saving.In the early morning of the next day, the "In order to comply with the holy will to relieve the people's hardship and save money, please reform the post station and discuss the postal transmission" was sent to the cabinet, led by Gao Wushi, the Minister of the Ministry of household affairs, and Zhou Yong, the minister of the military department. It is referred to as "Innovation Station Shu".

The main writer of the cabinet that day happened to be Shen Shixing, the chief assistant. When he saw that the "Great Station Book" had written more than [-] words, he immediately knew that something was going on.Shen Yuanfu quickly read the essay by himself first, took a deep breath after reading it, closed his eyes and thought for a while, and immediately sent someone to bring Wang Xijue to discuss the matter.

That's right, the previous turmoil of "abolishing the grain chief system" was proposed by Wang Xijue, made by Shen Shixing, and then secretly promoted by the cooperation of the two.Of course, there is no doubt that the purpose is aimed at high pragmatism.

The other people in Shen Yuanfu's room had already been invited out, and he was the only one in the whole room, sitting still in a graceful and peaceful manner, which is really the air of a prime minister.

Wang Xijue came in and glanced left and right, with a smile on his face, he said, "Looking at Yuanfu's posture, I think Gao Rixin is finally willing to fight?"

"En." Shen Shixing nodded, stretched out his hand to make a virtual invitation, and said, "Brother Yuan Yu, please sit down."

Wang Xijue thanked him, took his seat, and asked, "I don't know which strategy Gao Rixin chose out of the three strategies I expected?"

"As I expected, Gao Rixin chose the best strategy." Shen Shixing smiled slightly: "Brother Yuanyu, I remember that when you just returned to Beijing to join the cabinet, I told you that although Gao Rixin is young, He has acted like an old fox more than ten years ago, if you only see him as a little fox, you will really miss him."

Wang Xijue was not too surprised when he heard Shen Shixing's words, he nodded and said: "Yuan Fu said it is true. This time he was able to give up the low and medium strategies, which shows that this son is not only intelligent, but also extremely determined.

To be honest with Yuansuke, I used this strategy to ask Quanzi, and let Quanzi stand in Gao Rixin's position to think about how to deal with the situation I designed.At that time, Quanzi thought for a while, and answered that it was the worst policy.I pointed out a few more words, and Quanzi thought about it again and again, before he came up with the middle strategy. "

Wang Xijue sighed: "It's not that Xijue is boasting, Gouzi is good at reading, but it's a pity that compared with Gao Rixin in these things, the difference between the two can't be justified."

Wang Heng, the son of Wang Xijue, was awarded the No. 1 Jieyuan in the Shuntian Township Examination. Because some people were jealous and slandered the exam for cheating, Wang Xijue was furious and publicly stated that his son would not take the exam until he retired.So in history, Wang Heng took the imperial examination again in the 29th year of Wanli, and he was No. 2 in the first test.

At this moment, Wang Xijue said that he "studied well", that is really not boastful, and even a little too modest.However, Wang Xijue commented that his political level is not good, since he only thinks of the worst of the "three predetermined strategies", and even after being pointed out, he only thinks of the middle strategy, it seems that... he is not underestimating himself, it is basically a fact.

However, Shen Shixing still advised him to take it easy, and said with a wry smile: "Your son has not yet become an official, and he doesn't know the dangers of the officialdom, so it's good to think of a bad plan. Dog son has been an official for many years, and I also used this plan to test him. He thought about it all night , I just thought of the middle policy."

Wang Xijue shook his head and said: "The strategy I expected is to use Jinghua's strong financial resources to forcibly receive the food tax and the relief of gold, flowers and silver from various places. The considerations and trade-offs included in this strategy are whether Jinghua can Able to accept this matter, and the impact it will cause after accepting this matter.

Quanzi reported a few numbers at the time, which probably means that Jinghua only needs to invest in Tianjin, Shanghai, Ningbo, or at most the annual income of the four major ports including Guangzhou Port to take over the matter.In his opinion, to be able to take over such an important task is really to share the worries for the court and the emperor, and it will definitely make the emperor look up to him, and he will rely on him even more from now on.

Then I reminded him that if Jinghua controls the transfer of wealth in the world with all his strength, and the imperial court relies on his power in every move, then who is the power in the world? "

"The dog was stunned by my question, and it took a long time to come back to his senses." Wangge Lao sighed, and said: "Then he said, since this is the case, then he can't accept this job. It's better to start a speech, and the ancestors can't do it." easily and evade.

In addition, he also said that since the implementation of the one-whip law in Jiangnan and other places, the tax on grain transportation has changed to that of gold, flower and silver, which has saved many troubles and costs for grain chiefs in various places.Therefore, we can continue to promote the one-whip method to the whole country. When the two capitals and the thirteen provinces only need the food chiefs to transport gold, flowers and silver, the cost will naturally come down, and the system of food chiefs can barely continue... Ha ha, really naive. "

Shen Shixing said helplessly: "It's still hard for the younger generation to take on important responsibilities. What can we do besides teaching carefully?"

After saying this, Shen Yuanfu shook his head like a self-deprecating, and said: "But having said that, although this strategy has the problem of treating headaches and feet, if it is considered to avoid turmoil in the court, it is actually a bad idea." It can be regarded as a Tai Chi pushing hands. Although this strategy does not cure the root cause, at least it can cure the symptoms. It is not wrong to make plans when the situation changes in the future, and it is considered a prudent strategy."

"A prudent strategy?" Wang Xijue let out a sneer from his nostrils, and said calmly: "If Gao Rixin is as capable as a dog, Man said he chose the wrong strategy, even if he chose the middle strategy, I have at least three kinds The way to discredit him will not only make him look like an incompetent minister in the eyes of the emperor, but Xu Weizhen and Shen Zhonghua will also seize the opportunity within the Real School and deal him a severe blow.

Maybe at that time, Gao Rixin will lose his false reputation of "the courage of the world", and will no longer be the status of "the hope of the three generations of chief assistants"!If this is the case, I will have at least a few years of respite within my mental studies, select the juniors, focus on training, and compete with practical studies in the future, and I will not worry about no one being able to succeed. "

Shen Shixing smiled wryly, and sighed: "But he is Gao Rixin after all. Brother Yuanyu, he was the prince's companion since he was eight years old, and he has been in office for almost 20 years now. He regards them as those new scholars who are not in their thirties?"

Wang Xijue frowned, and asked: "Then how does this 'veteran minister' plan to deal with this time? But as I expected, use the post station to replace Jinghua's current use in various matters of liberation?"

"He...well." Shen Shixing nodded.

Wang Xijue finally laughed this time, and said: "Okay, okay, okay. Although he escaped the biggest trap by doing this, but replacing Jinghua's fleet with a post station, Jinghua still has to lose some income. Second, the matter at the post station involves a lot, and it is not easy to coordinate well. We have plenty of ways to continue to cause trouble for him.

As long as there is a lot of trouble, even if he has a seven-apertured exquisite heart like Bigan, he will inevitably make mistakes in his busy schedule. When the time comes... Humph! "

Shen Shixing seemed not as optimistic as Wang Xijue, he frowned, raised the memorial in his hand and said: "Of course the matter of the post station involves a lot, but judging from his memorial today...he doesn't seem to be Not afraid to involve too much, and even a little afraid of not being involved enough."

As Shen Yuanfu said, he handed the memorial to Wang Xijue.

"Oh?" Wang Xijue's expression seemed a bit surprised, he frowned slightly and took the memorial, and said, "Let me take a look." Shen Shixing nodded and said, "Brother Yuan Yu, please do what you want."

Wang Xijue read this memorial very carefully, not only did not miss a single word, but also groaned for a while from time to time, and even went back to read the above text again.

Shen Shixing's patience was extremely good, and he was completely worthy of the word "shoufu qidu". He didn't say a word from the beginning to the end, let alone urging him, and he didn't even make any extra movements or voices.

After finally waiting for Wang Xijue to read the memorial, Shen Shixing still didn't take the initiative to ask, but just watched Wang Xijue put the memorial aside thoughtfully.Shen Shixing looked at him with a normal expression, waiting for him to speak first.

Who knew that this time Wang Xijue was uncharacteristically, he didn't talk about his own countermeasures as soon as he came up, but Nian Xu praised: "If you don't ask about the position, Gao Rixin can be called an incomparable Wang Zuo in terms of his courage and ability." As he spoke, he pointed at the memorabilia that he put on the case, and praised again: "As clear as ice, as clean as jade, lawful but not powerful, harmonious but not obscene."

Shen Shixing was silent for a while, and said softly: "It's a pity that we are not in the same way."

Wang Xijue's expression froze, he sighed quietly, and said: "Yes, it's a pity that we are not in the same way."

The highly pragmatic words he praised just now, "clear as ice, clean as jade, law but not powerful, harmonious but not obscene" came from Cao Zhi, who praised Xun Yu from his "Guanglu Dafu Xunhou Yi".

Cao Zhi's original sentence at that time was "as clear as ice, as clean as jade, the law is not powerful, and the harmony is not profane. A hundred Liao Shishu, 歔欷 stained with tassels, prostitutes cast 杼, farmers stop farming, and take turns Noir does not turn, and the horse screams while leaning on the balance." - Obviously this was written by Cao Zhi after Xun Yu's death to commemorate and praise him, and it is a final conclusion in nature.

Of course, Wang Xijue, who was a top student at the top of the Three Tripods back then, knew this, but he just used this sentence of "conclusive conclusion" about Xun Yu to apply to the young Gao Yushi.

Considering that the context in which he said this sentence does not seem to be ironic, it can only show that he was really shocked by the highly pragmatic actions after watching "Renewal Station Shu", which is why he has such excessive praise.

In later generations, even Zhuge Liang was questioned, but for Xun Yu in Cao Cao's camp, almost everyone praised him as Wang Zuo's talent, which shows his high talent and righteous conduct.Since the Ming Dynasty, apart from the first Prime Minister of the Red Dynasty, it may be difficult to find such a flawless jade.

However, in order to explain the reason why Wang Xijue suddenly had such a high opinion of Gao Yushi, it is necessary to talk about the root cause of the "extensive involvement" of the post station incident he mentioned earlier.

The establishment of the Daming post station, the usual system, and the problems that occurred have already been mentioned in the previous article of this book [Note: See Volume 045 of this book, Guan Jinghua, Chapter [-], Yu Deshangshu], so I will not repeat them here, and say A few points not yet mentioned.

As early as the Yuan Dynasty, the post station was called "Zhanchi", and there were horses, carts, cows, donkeys, boats, dogs, sedan chairs, etc. Horses were the most important, and there were also many cattle, carts, and boats.

If there are too many types, it will be very troublesome to manage.Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang simplified and classified the tedious classification of post stations in the Yuan Dynasty, combined the horse station and boat station into a water horse station, separated the large animals such as cattle, mules, donkeys, and camels, and transported them separately and set them as delivery stations. Together with the express delivery shop inherited from the Yuan Dynasty, these three constitute the three major parts of the Daming Station.

So, which government office did the post station in the Ming Dynasty belong to?This is about to talk about a very cruel reality.There was no transshipment department for "senior officials" in Ming Dynasty, and the transshipment department of Song and Jin did not exist in Ming Dynasty.

The result is that the Ming Dynasty liberated and transported materials based on prefectures and counties.This is an aspect of the financial system of the Ming Dynasty. I won’t explain too much here, but just say one thing: the existence of this reality led to the fact that the three major systems of post stations in the Ming Dynasty were directly subordinate to the center, and specifically, they belonged to the Ministry of War.

The Ming Dynasty abolished the Zhongshu Province and put power under the six ministries. In theory, the Ministry of War was under the direct leadership of the emperor.That is to manage the emperor's ceremonial guards, vehicles, and the station system at the same time.

In the local post stations, the person in charge is called Yicheng, and the yamen is hung in the county government office, so the post station is often counted among the officials of the state and county. The office funds of the post station are allocated from the state and county finances. Ruozhou and county, and their entry and exit" is also true.

However, the regular tax of Ming Dynasty does not include this item, so the funds for post stations have to be collected separately. There is a special term for this in later generations called "apportionment".For example, a total of 1000 taels of silver was spent on the post station this year, and there are [-] households in the county, so each family will be apportioned [-] taels of silver.

The above is the overall situation of the post station, but the complexity of the problem cannot be penetrated by talking about the whole, and we have to talk about the three systems separately.

As mentioned earlier, the water horse station is divided into water station and horse station. The water horse station often follows a principle that the distance between the two places is exactly one day. This was mentioned when Gao Yushi first served as the censor of Guangxi.

That is to say, if you set off from this post station early this morning and walk for a day, you will definitely be able to reach the next post station in the afternoon.The distance between these two places is 120 to [-] miles in Mayi, and [-] to [-] miles in Shuiyi.In this era, cavalry units generally travel at a speed of [-] miles per day (regardless of special circumstances, such as elite cavalry running away from the baggage, etc.).

On the premise of not changing the main means of transportation, this speed remained the same until the later Anti-Japanese War, and the station also followed this principle.

The express store originated in the Song Dynasty and was called "Express Delivery" in the Song Dynasty.Jin and Yuan followed this system, carried it forward in the Yuan Dynasty, and officially became a system.The Ming Dynasty also inherited the Yuan Dynasty’s urgent delivery shop system and carried it forward again.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the distance between express shops was not fixed, "every ten miles, fifteen miles, or twenty miles, there will be one shop", while in the Ming Dynasty, regulations were issued when the country was founded in the first lunar month of the first year of Hongwu: "The express shop , Every ten miles set up a shop."

In actual operation, limited to terrain factors, of course, it is not really so uniform, but most of them still follow this regulation.Many places in later generations have some place names, such as Balipu, Shilipu, Shibalipu, Shishilipu, etc. Most of them are historical relics of this kind of express shop.

The delivery station was first created by the Ming Dynasty. In fact, it was established separately from the stations of cattle, mules, donkeys, and camels in Chizhong in the Yuan Dynasty.As mentioned earlier, there is no provincial-level delivery department in Ming Dynasty, and all liberation transportation is delivered separately by prefecture and county.

This was the case in the early Ming Dynasty, when the garrisons of the guards in various places were used to transport them. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that this would easily affect the combat effectiveness of the local garrisons, so he set up a separate system called the delivery station, one for each city.

Usually, the so-called post station usually refers to the horse station alone, or at most the water station, but in fact it is not the case.The first thing to explain is that the station system belongs to the country and the imperial court. The original intention of its establishment is to serve the imperial court, but not to provide convenience for the society. Therefore, the post station itself is not allowed to be used by individuals at this time.

The main function of the water horse post in the Ming Dynasty was to receive and receive court officials, officials, and soldiers (not soldiers fighting wars, they were considered communication soldiers), and these public officials needed to take a post token, which was a token issued by the court on demand.

For example, if you are a pedestrian in the Department of Pedestrians, this is an official position in the Ming Dynasty, and the rank is not high, and you are generally responsible for delivering edicts—I said before that eunuchs were not responsible for delivering edicts in Ming Dynasty—now you are a pedestrian in the Department of Pedestrians, You set off from Beijing to the capital of Yunnan Province, and proclaimed the decree to Duke Qian, who guards the local area, and told him that the emperor thought of Lord Mu and your hard work in the frontier for a long time, and deliberately promoted him to a higher level.

Then before you set off, you need to go to the Ministry of Military Vehicles to get a Post Talisman, which will write who you are, where you are going, what you are doing, and which yamen you belong to.After writing these things clearly, you can take them and leave, and the stations along the way will serve you.

Specifically, the format is generally like this, which reads: "Emperor's imperial decree: Tolerance personnel pass through the post station and hold this talisman to verify that they are allowed to deal with horses. If there is no such talisman, they will be given to the post without permission. The post officials will not enforce the law. , all punished with serious crimes, it is advisable to allow this. A certain year, a certain month and a certain day." There is also a horse drawn in the middle of this post talisman.

Then you will have to walk the 5000-mile journey from Beijing to Kunming for about two months, during which you will change horses, boats, including board and lodging expenses, all of which are fully contracted by various post stations, and you don’t have to worry about everything.

What if you don't have this post symbol?I'm sorry, but you can't use the station.

Of course, as I said before, many systems in the middle and late Ming Dynasty were destroyed in name only, and post symbols were no exception.It's not that this thing is gone, but it is often turned into a gift, and it has become a must-have for home travel and visiting relatives and friends.

For example, Xu Xiake needed to travel all over the world to write his travel notes, and he used this a lot during the process-but he has no official position, so theoretically he should not be able to use this thing at all.

As a result, the expenses of local post stations increased year by year, and the financial pressure increased year by year. Finally, Chongzhen said that part of the post stations should be cancelled.

In fact, Chongzhen only abolished [-]% of the post stations, but did not abandon the entire post station system.But everyone knows what happened later. A postman in Yinchuan Mayi, Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province lost his job, and within a few days he started a good business of rebellion—his name was Li Zicheng.

However, this problem has been greatly improved in the years between the end of Longqing and the beginning of Wanli.On the second day of June in the fifth year of Longqing, Gao Wushi, who was the accompanying student of the prince at that time, a bachelor of the fake Hanlin Academy, and Zuo Yude of Zhan Shifu Zuochunfang, made a memorial called "In order to follow the original intention of the ancestors, please clean up the post station to relieve the post station." Lu Shu".

After a series of struggles and operations, the main measures proposed in this essay were basically implemented during the tenures of Gao Gong and Guo Pu.

Among these measures, there are two most critical points: first, the post station’s power to collect taxes and corvee from the local government will be abolished, and the local government will collect a post tax on its behalf. The number of people depends on the number of people; secondly, the supervision of the actual situation of the post station, first, the commissioner appointed by the imperial court conducts at least one unscheduled surprise inspection every year, and second, the local government actually supervises and inspects.

The two highly pragmatic measures at that time led to a change at the central level most directly. Since then, the Ministry of Accounting has also been involved in the management system of the post station. It is all kinds of supervision including auditing.
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Thank you book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi", "Chi Yu Jing Feng Chen", "keyNg" for their monthly support, thank you!
PS: I will do nucleic acid test tomorrow, and I will go back to Changsha after confirming that I am negative, otherwise the little guy will not be able to go to school if he is dissatisfied with the home quarantine time... I hope the queue time will not be too long.

(End of this chapter)