I'm in the Red Mansion

Huh?
Introduction to commander ability?

Seeing this, Jia Cong couldn't help but be overjoyed!
Next, he was preparing to join the army and gain military power.

During this period, he has been working hard to brush up on his military tactics and horse riding and archery skills, and has made great progress recently.

I didn't expect that even the commander's ability would be refreshed at this time.

This ability is really a great help in his plan to join the army.

If you can perfect this ability and get full experience -

Tsk tsk, when I get to the battlefield, I really don’t know how I will lose!

Next, Jia Cong could not help but start training the fifty-one people in front of him according to the military formations in the art of war.

I have to say that Jiao Da is still very capable.

In just a few days, these fifty-one people were trained so well.

Of course, it is just superficial. After all, the time is too short and it is impossible to make amazing progress.

But at least, it is enough to practice some basic military formations.

Little did he know that Jiao Da next to him was even more surprised at this moment.

The Third Master was the top scholar who won six first prizes in a row, and he was the incarnation of the God of Literature.

The reason why Jiao Da asked the Third Master to give these newbies a lecture was actually just to let the Third Master win over their hearts.

He never expected that the Third Master actually had the ability to command troops.

Although the deployment of troops was still a bit immature, it actually looked quite good.

With a little experience, he will be able to become a qualified commander!

As expected, he is a descendant of a military family. The Duke has someone to succeed him!

If the Duke could see this scene, he would surely be able to smile in his grave!

Jia Cong, on the other hand, was completely immersed in the joy of gaining experience.

Commander experience +1
Commander experience +1
Commander experience +1
After spending an entire afternoon, he actually earned more than a dozen experience points.

【Commander (entry level): 16/100】

Well, that’s good. According to this progress, it will only take seven days for me to improve my command ability to the minor success level.

However, after returning to the study, Jia Cong came to his senses.

He secretly thought that he was too reckless today.

Some young men were selected from the family and sent to the military camp.

It is a very normal thing in itself.

The Jia family is descended from a military family, and so far, they still have certain connections in the military.

It’s just that there is no one capable person among the children of the Jia family.

There isn't even anyone willing to join the army, and a lot of military connections have been wasted over the years.

However, as the top scholar, it seemed a little abnormal for him to personally train the children of his clan.

After all, he is a civil servant now.

Personally training the clan members, what? Do you want to rebel or something?

Well, if I want to gain commander experience in the future, I can’t be so reckless. I have to do it slowly!

……

As for Lin Ruhai, he started writing memorials after Jia Cong left.

Finally, he submitted a memorial to Emperor Yonglong requesting the reform of the post stations.

After reading it, Emperor Yonglong also attached great importance to this matter.

Because Lin Ruhai's reform proposal was very clever.

If handled properly, not only can it save the annual expenses of the post station, but at least it can save hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver is not a small sum for the national treasury.

By saving these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, we can do more things in other places.

Therefore, Emperor Yonglong personally called Lin Ruhai into the imperial study.

After some discussion between the king and his ministers.

In the end, Emperor Yonglong issued an edict, giving full authority to Lin Ruhai to be responsible for the reform of the post stations.

The post station was originally managed by the Ministry of War's Chariot and Imperial Household Affairs Division, and Emperor Yonglong's imperial edict aroused the dissatisfaction of the Ministry of War.

Isn't this the emperor's move to deprive the Ministry of War of its power and hand it over to the Ministry of Revenue?
The Minister of War even went to Emperor Yonglong to ask for an explanation.

The explanation given by Emperor Yonglong was that the post stations were still under the management of the Ministry of War.

Lin Ruhai was only responsible for the reform of the post station, and let the post station be responsible for its own profits and losses in the future.

If the Ministry of War is not satisfied, Emperor Yonglong is willing to leave the reform to the Ministry of War as long as the post stations can be responsible for their own profits and losses.

However, it is only for one year. After one year, the court will no longer allocate funds to the post station.

In the end, the Minister of War had no choice but to accept it.

Because they simply don't have the ability to make the post station self-sufficient.

The Minister of War also knew very well that although the post stations were still nominally under the management of the Ministry of War.

But it is hard to say whether it will be the same in the future.

Next, Lin Ruhai formulated a detailed reform system and distributed it to all the post stations.

The heads of post stations at all levels felt mixed emotions after seeing these reforms.

The good news was that the imperial court began to pay more attention to the post stations and formulated a reform system for them.

This is also what I am worried about.

In recent years, the national treasury has become increasingly empty, and their post stations are often in arrears with even military pay.

I have to say that that month, I really couldn’t post anything at all.

But at least there is hope.

But now after the reform, if they can't make money, I'm afraid they will really have no military pay in the future.

Now, they can only pray that Lord Lin is a reliable person who can lead them to prosperity.

Fortunately, they still have a year of buffer time.

……

Soon, the fourth issue of Daxia Monthly was released as scheduled.

This time, Jia Cong directly ordered people to print 50,000 copies.

Of course, out of these 50,000 copies, he only left 5,000 copies in the capital.

The other 45,000 copies were distributed by Jia Cong to areas around the capital through post stations.

Of course, at the beginning, Jia Cong did not have a nationwide layout.

This is not the future, with fast and convenient transportation capabilities.

The promotion of the Daxia Monthly Newsletter still needs to be carried out step by step.

Fortunately, the Daxia Monthly Report itself began to spread around with the capital as its center.

As for the people in the capital, the first two supplements of the Daxia Monthly were given away on the street.

Therefore, they subconsciously believed that the fourth issue of the newspaper would still be given away for free.

However, unexpectedly, the fourth phase was no longer given away for free, but was sold like the third phase.

But this time, the people of Beijing bought even less.

Because they have experienced this kind of thing before!
As long as they don't buy, these newspapers can't be sold and they can only give them away for free.

Therefore, in the capital, almost no one bought it on the first day.

This situation shocked Xue Baoqin, but Jia Cong told her to just wait patiently.

In the ten pilot sites outside the capital, sales of the Daxia Monthly Report were extremely hot.

It turned out that these ten pilot projects had been circulated in the Daxia Monthly Report before.

In these ten places, the story of The Legend of the Condor Heroes has long been known to every household.

When the Daxia Monthly Report was circulated earlier, it was sold at a high price, with the highest selling price reaching as much as two taels of silver.

Nowadays, each copy of the Daxia Monthly Newspaper circulated from the post station only costs ten copper coins!
Ten copper coins! That's really cheap!

Therefore, in these ten pilot sites, the Daxia Monthly Report was snapped up as soon as it was launched.

Some people buy the Daxia Monthly because of the story of The Legend of the Condor Heroes, some because of the current affairs, and some because of the poetry section.

Some are even made for the purpose of selling.

Now these ten pilot areas have the Daxia Monthly Report for sale, but it is not available in more distant places.

Now you can buy a copy for ten copper coins, and then as long as you go to a place where the Daxia Monthly Report is not sold, you can easily sell it at a high price of at least one hundred coins per copy, or even higher.

This is definitely a lucrative business!

Moreover, there are quite a few people who have this idea!

Therefore, the 4,500 copies of the Daxia Monthly Report allocated to each of the ten pilot sites were all sold out within just three days.

The ten pilot stations immediately reaped the benefits.

Because for every copy of the Daxia Monthly Newspaper they sold, they would get a penny in share.

Now, if they sell 4,500 copies of the Great Xia Monthly, they can get 4,500 coins, which is 4.5 taels of silver.

Although this amount of silver was not much, it was not enough to cover the salary expenses of all of them.

But this is only the sales volume of Daxia Monthly for three days. What if there are more Daxia Monthly?

In the future, they will also be able to deliver letters or small items to the public, but they have not yet started this business.

Once the business is fully launched, their income will be even greater.

Maybe it can really be self-sufficient.

Thinking of this, they couldn't help but become full of energy.

They immediately reported the matter to their superiors one level at a time, requesting that they be allocated more copies of the Daxia Monthly Report, the more the better.

Xue Baoqin is in charge of the sales of the Daxia Monthly.

When she heard the news, she was overjoyed.

At the same time, the 5,000 copies of the Daxia Monthly Report left in the capital - three or four days later, there were still more than 4,300 copies left - were simply sent directly to the pilot sites below.

At the same time, we are preparing to increase production capacity and focus on printing.

However, Jia Cong stopped him in time.

Jia Cong couldn't help but say, "Sister Qin, they may not be able to sell that much."

"In my opinion, we should just print 30,000 or 20,000 copies for now. We should also keep some in the capital."

In fact, Beijing is still the largest market, which cannot be compared with other pilot projects.

The markets of those ten pilot projects combined may not be as big as the Beijing market.

The ten pilot projects had hot sales in the first three days, which gave the persons in charge of these ten pilot projects a false impression.

It is not true that no matter how many newspapers there are, they can be sold quickly.

Those ten pilot sites have limited potential customers, and Jia Cong estimates that they are almost saturated now.

There are still some scalpers who will buy some, but the market is not that big anymore.

On the other hand, in Beijing, after some operations, some markets can be opened up.

Because his Daxia Monthly Report is not just for profit.

The main purpose is to guide public opinion. Therefore, the Beijing market cannot be abandoned.

Xue Baoqin readily followed Jia Cong's advice and immediately made the distribution according to Jia Cong's instructions.

As for the people in the capital, they had been waiting for three days in a row, fully believing that this time the Daxia Monthly Report would definitely move forward twice.

Since no one bought them, they had to give them away for free again.

However, four days later, not only was the Daxia Monthly Newsletter not distributed for free, but even the sales outlets were closed one after another.

This gave them a bad feeling in their hearts.

They don’t even know the sequel to The Legend of the Condor Heroes!
Is it true that this newspaper will not be distributed for free?
Even if it's not distributed for free, why aren't they even selling it?

How can they find out the subsequent story of The Legend of the Condor Heroes in the future?

They looked at the few sales outlets that were still open and rushed over to buy, asking why.

It was only then that I learned that no one in the capital bought the Daxia Monthly.

But outside of the capital, it was selling extremely well. It was snapped up as soon as it was launched and there were simply not enough to sell.

Therefore, they had to transfer newspapers in the capital to sell outside the capital.

There are not many newspapers left in the capital now, only a few hundred copies.

After it’s sold, it’s gone completely.

Upon hearing the news, the people of the capital were panicked and at the same time extremely angry.

This is clearly our Beijing newspaper, why should we sell it outside?
They had long forgotten the fact that no one had bought their newspapers before.

Soon, the few remaining newspapers in the capital were all sold out.

Next, they couldn’t buy it even if they really wanted to.

Because all the newspapers have been sold out.

This made the people of the capital very angry. They haven't even seen the subsequent plot of The Legend of the Condor Heroes, so why can't they buy it?
Why should the newspaper that belongs to the people of Beijing be sold to other places?
However, no matter how angry they are, it is an indisputable fact that the newspapers have been sold out.

A few days later, people were selling second-hand Daxia Monthly on the streets.

The price of this newspaper starts at 20 wen per copy, and goes up to 30 or 40 wen per copy.

The selling price is at least twice the original price, and sometimes even three or four times.

The reason why it is so expensive is that these newspapers are purchased at high prices from outside the capital, so the price is naturally expensive.

And the quantity is limited. If you don’t buy it in time, you will miss it.

As a result, these high-priced Daxia monthly newspapers were snatched up in the capital.

And the number of these newspapers is definitely not as small as they say.

It took several days to sell out.

If we count them, at least 20,000 to 30,000 copies have been sold in the past few days.

In Ningguo Mansion, Xue Baoqin chuckled and said, "Brother Cong, you are so bad. You deliberately sold more than 30,000 copies at a high price, earning hundreds of silver coins more."

"The people in the capital are also strange. They won't buy a newspaper that costs ten cents, but when it costs twenty, thirty, or even forty or fifty cents, they rush to buy it."

"I think even if we print another 10,000 or 20,000 copies, we'll still be able to sell them."

Jia Cong laughed and said, "Most people are cheap bones. The more you raise the price, the more they will rush to buy it."

"The market in Beijing is already saturated. If we print 10,000 more copies, I'm afraid they won't be able to sell."

The capital city has a large population, numbering in the millions.

The literacy rate in the capital is also the highest in the entire Daxia, reaching about ten to one.

In other words, there are only a few hundred thousand people in the capital who can read and write.

They have now sold 30,000 newspapers.

Jia Cong felt that this number had reached the limit.

After this incident, the people of Beijing are afraid that there will never be a situation where no one buys newspapers again.

In this issue of the Daxia Monthly, the reform of the post stations was also publicized.

If you want to send letters or small items in the future, you can go to the post office to mail them.

Postal delivery is not only cheap but also fast.

The newspaper also marked the price based on mileage and even the latest arrival time.

For example, a journey of one hundred miles would cost thirty coins and would take at least one month to deliver.

Well, if this charging standard and this efficiency were put into later generations, they would definitely be criticized by everyone and drowned in spit.

However, in this era, this price is really very cheap.

And it is extremely efficient.

Because if you want to send a letter or small item through the escort agency, it depends on when the escort agency will send the goods.

Sometimes it may take three or four months for the escort company to send the escort on that route, so you have to wait for three or four months.

However, the fastest time given by the post station is one month.

If you are lucky, it may arrive in three to four days or five days.

In this era, this speed can be said to be incredible.

And there is another benefit to sending mail through the post station.

That is, they charge based on mileage. No matter how far the distance is, as long as it is within the territory of Daxia, they can deliver it to you.

No matter how far away, there is no place that cannot be delivered by the post station.

As for the escort agencies, very few of them can do this.

The post station itself is of a national nature, with large and small branches across the country.

In the whole of Daxia, at present, it is probably only the post station that can do this.

Therefore, the publicity was published in the Daxia Monthly.

Many people who had the need to send parcels were excited.

He hurried to the post station to inquire.

The result I finally found out was indeed true.

As a result, within just a few days, the business of the post station suddenly became booming.

They did their own estimation.

According to the reform rules issued by Lord Lin, they can receive corresponding benefits when sending and delivering parcels, even if they are just doing some turnover in between.

After calculations by many outlets, it was found that their current income was definitely enough to guarantee that they could earn enough to pay their salaries, and even have some surplus.

This made them look forward to it even more, and for a moment, they were full of motivation.

Soon, the news was fed back to Lin Ruhai.

After receiving the news, Lin Ruhai was amazed.

Although he was very optimistic about the reform measures proposed by Jia Cong, he did not expect that it would be effective so quickly.

At this rate, it would probably take half a year to complete the reform of the post stations.

For him, this was a pleasant surprise!

……

In the Qing Imperial Palace, Emperor Kang Mazi was in the imperial study, summoning ministers from the Grand Council and several flag owners.

The Grand Council (according to official history, it was founded by Emperor Yongzheng) was created by Kangxi in imitation of the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the Grand Council is more capable than the Cabinet.

Those who work in the Grand Council have the same rights as those of the Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet.

Their duty is to summarize all the memorials submitted and all matters that require the emperor's handling.

They will classify the matters that need to be handled by the emperor according to their importance and urgency.

This will greatly reduce the emperor's workload.

Those who work in the Grand Council have low ranks but great powers.

They can only exercise the power in their hands by relying on the emperor.

If the emperor is not comfortable using it, he can change the Military Affairs Office at any time.

In this way, it avoids the situation like in Daxia, where the chief minister of the cabinet has the de facto prime minister and the cabinet can undermine the emperor.

This time, Kang Mazi summoned these people to prepare for the southern invasion of Daxia.

Well, over the years, they have been preparing for the invasion to the south and have never given up.

But this time, they really made plans for a large-scale invasion to the south.

Kang Mazi picked up the gold-lidded agate bowl on the imperial table and took a sip of the hot, fishy-smelling deer milk.

He said, "Princess Gulun, you are responsible for finding out the news about Daxia. What has Daxia done recently? Please tell us all."

Princess Gulun was the most honorable title for a princess in the Qing Dynasty, and was usually bestowed upon princesses born to the empress.

However, this Princess Gulun was not the Queen's biological daughter. Her mother was the legitimate daughter of the leader of the Plain White Banner, which was one of the top three banners and was quite powerful.

This Princess Gulun has been deeply loved by the old emperor since she was a child.

After the old emperor passed away, this Princess Gulun continued to protect Kang Mazi's growth.

Without the protection of the eldest princess, it is still unknown whether Kang Mazi can grow up successfully.

This eldest princess is three years older than Kang Mazi and is already nineteen years old this year.

Whether in Daxia or in the Qing Dynasty, a girl at the age of nineteen was considered a grown-up girl - or even an old girl.

However, the eldest princess has very high standards and has never met a man she likes, so she has not chosen a prince consort yet.

What this Princess Gulun always dreamed of was leading the Qing Dynasty to march south and rule the Central Plains.

She set up an intelligence department specifically responsible for gathering intelligence on Daxia.

This time, the Qing Dynasty was going to invade Daxia on a large scale, so they naturally needed the intelligence support of the eldest princess.

After Kang Mazi finished speaking, Princess Gulun stood up and said, "My Lords and Generals, I will now tell you about the situation in Daxia."

"The rulers and ministers of Daxia had long been on guard against us, but they could not have predicted the exact time of our invasion of Daxia, nor could they have guessed from which direction we would invade."

"We can choose to invade Daxia from any of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, but Daxia cannot stockpile so many troops on the border to guard against us."

"Therefore, I took the initiative, and this is the victory!"

"Secondly, the two provinces of Daxia have suffered a flood disaster that hasn't happened in a hundred years. Now, Daxia is full of victims and the people are living in misery."

"They need to spend a lot of energy on disaster relief. This is their second win!"

"Third, we have already agreed with the Three Feudatories that they will be in the south to tie up some of Daxia's forces, so that Daxia will not dare to defend against us with all its strength. This is the third victory!"

"My Manchu army is strong and powerful, while the Great Xia is indifferent and lax in military discipline. This is the fourth victory!"

"..."

"We, the Manchus, are united in our efforts, and Daxia fears us like a tiger. This is the tenth victory!"

"My Qing dynasty has ten victories, and Daxia has ten defeats!"

"This time, the Qing Dynasty will lead its troops southward and will surely be invincible and victorious!"

If Jia Cong were here, he would definitely call him a great guy.

This princess of the Qing Dynasty was probably an avid reader of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Now even Guo Jia's theory of ten wins and ten losses was used.

However, the ministers and generals of the Qing Dynasty were very fond of her tricks.

After hearing what she said, everyone's blood boiled. (End of this chapter)