Zhao Ji Teahouse in Jingshi is a long-established shop that has been opened in Beijing for more than 30 years, after two generations of father and son, it is the best teahouse in the whole Xuanwumen vicinity. Zhao Ji teahouse is open in the west of Dashi Yongfang, its south is the elephant house, the north is Yanshan Zuowei Yamen and Hanfan Temple, the northwest is Dali Temple, the southwest is Wang Gongchang, it can be described as an excellent location.

This day was the day after Gao Shishi officially returned to Beijing.

Liu Xian, father and son, who lived in Cheng'en Temple on the side of Wang Gongchang, had breakfast that day, and then went to Zhao Ji Teahouse to "listen to the newspaper" under the introduction of the monk in the temple.

The so-called listening to the newspaper, "listening" refers to the tea guests listening to the tea doctor reading the newspaper, and "newspaper" refers to the newspaper of the imperial court. "Listening to the newspaper" is a unique feature project of Zhao Ji Teahouse in the capital, which began to be launched on a trial basis in the last year of Jiajing, and its reputation was greatly boosted by the incident of Hai Rui scolding the emperor.

The people of the capital, probably because they live at the feet of the Son of Heaven, have always liked to talk about the government, and even in later generations.

The Ming court seems to be very open to all kinds of folk discussions, no matter how absurd and bizarre it is, as long as it does not reach the level of "deliberately inciting the people and attempting to rebel", the court is completely laissez-faire.

Di Bao has existed in ancient times, is a kind of official newspaper in ancient times, belongs to the news media in the original sense, it is said that it began in the Han Dynasty, indiscriminately in the Tang Dynasty, developed in the Song Dynasty, and prospered in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The Ming Dynasty Dibao was the main carrier for the imperial court to issue decrees and release political information, and it was also an important channel for officials from all sides to understand the trends of the imperial court. Through the Di Bao, not only can the government be informed and the central and local information can be communicated, but the Ming court can also control the publication and dissemination of official public opinion.

The Di Bao of the Ming Dynasty was edited and distributed mainly through the three institutions of the General Administration Department, the Six Departments and the Titang.

Among them, the General Administration Department is a central administrative body that communicates the inner court and the outer court, the emperor and his subjects, and is mainly in charge of the affairs of rules and regulations. Except for a very small number of eunuchs and officials of Honglu Temple, most of them were collected by the General Administration. "All six subjects receive inscriptions from various yamen every day, copy them one by one, and send them to the cabinet every five days for compilation."

The six departments are the abbreviations of the six departments of officials, households, rites, pong, criminal and engineering. Each of the six departments was set up to assist the emperor in handling government affairs and supervising the operation of various ministries, which was slightly similar to the discipline inspection departments within the ministries and commissions in later generations, but because they theoretically belonged directly to the emperor, they had more power. An important duty of the officials of the six departments is to go to the gate of the meeting every day to receive the imperial approval of the chapter or edict, and the cabinet sends it to the six departments for each department to copy and edit into a book day by day, called the "six branch Lunyin booklet", for the reference of various departments, which is also the blueprint of the newspaper.

The Titang official is an official sent by the governors and commanders of various provinces to Beijing to deal with documents and copy and distribute newspapers. After they copied the newspapers from the six sections, they were screened and copied, and the post stations sent post guards every five days to relay them to the governors and political secretaries to take turns to circulate them. Then, the officials stationed in the provincial capital of each prefecture, prefecture, and county hired scribes to "take what they need", excerpt the relevant contents of the newspaper, and then pass it on to the local government at all levels through the post station.

In the process of copying and publishing the newspaper. The Beijing officials sent scribes to the General Administration Department every day to copy the transmissions, so they could know the political affairs of the world earlier; Local officials, on the other hand, had to use post stations to hire post guards to report their residences to the governors, political secretaries, prefectures, prefectures, and county yamen. Because the Di Bao is passed down layer by layer, and it takes time to pass it to the post station, the local officials cannot have a sneak peek like the Beijing officials, and the time of receiving the Di Bao is also in order. Those who are close to the capital and provincial capital receive the report early, and vice versa, and in remote places such as Sichuan, Shaanxi, Liaodong, Yunnan, and Guizhou, officials often take months to learn of the new policies of the imperial court.

In fact, if in the early years, a mere teahouse could not get the report of the imperial court, that is, because in the last years of Jiajing, the emperor was superstitious about Taoism, only wanted to live forever, and allowed Yan Song's father and son to do nonsense, which led to many systems in the imperial court becoming loose and collapsed.

In the early years, the Ming court recognized that "the Di Bao is related to state affairs", so in addition to the time limit on the transmission time of the Di Bao, there are also strict restrictions on the transcription of the Di Bao, "Di Bao is not allowed to be copied unless it is ordered to do so".

Especially before Chenghua, the control of the copy of the Di newspaper was still very strict, and then it became looser, after a toss in the last years of Jiajing, and then to Longqing, although it was mentioned several times to "ban the copy of the newspaper", but the copy of the Di newspaper has actually shown an uncontrollable situation. There was even a situation where "copying and passing on the Di Bao and burning it was prevalent", and even some information had been disseminated in the newspaper room before it was seen in the Di Bao, "if you read the Di Bao closely, there are those who broadcast it before entering the newspaper", "Recently, they have all gone to the Di Bao, and there are those who have already issued money before they are left in the middle of the house".

In addition, some literati and celebrities of high status can also circulate the Di Bao at will, but it has little to do with this book, so I will not give many examples here.

Liu Xian's father and son have to find something to do for themselves in this unaccompanied Beijing teacher, and they can't just stay in the temple to raise their fat, anyway, in the final analysis, they have to wait for Gao Pragmatic to implement it before deciding to act, so today I listened to the recommendation of the monk and came to Zhao Ji Teahouse to listen to the newspaper, after all, it is always good to know more about the dynamics of the imperial court.

Liu Xian is not as good as Qi Jiguang, the two of them actually often try to make money, but Qi Jiguang invested in the army after making money, and although Liu Xian also invested a lot of money in his army, he still remembered to leave a small part for himself, so compared to Qi Jiguang, he can be regarded as a eunuch.

Liu Xian, who is not very short of money, ordered a small private room on the second floor of Zhao Ji Teahouse, waiting to listen to Dr. Tea read the Di newspaper. Originally, if it was just a dry reading, it was actually not interesting, but Zhao Ji Teahouse wanted to think about what the guests thought, in addition to reading, it would also analyze and comment a little, which attracted many idlers in Beijing.

Of course, there may be some trouble in recklessly tasting the newspaper, which is what the teahouse needs to control by itself. Fortunately, Emperor Longqing was a benevolent gentleman, so at least so far, there is no record of the proprietor of the Zhao Ji Teahouse being invited to any yamen for tea, which is compared to the Manchu era "Mo talks about state affairs" - well, there is nothing to compare it to.

Not long after Liu Xian's father and son sat down, they just picked up the teacup, and before they started to drink it, they heard the tea doctor in the lobby, who was sitting behind a long red cloth table like a storyteller, patted the hall and said loudly: "Yesterday, the first thing in the palace was reported: the governor of Shuntian reported to the cabinet, saying that Liu Xian, the former chief military officer of Wolf Mountain, borrowed hundreds of Gao's family members to suppress the Baili Gorge group of bandits, and the Baili Gorge bandits were taken in Tianwei and raised their hands to surrender!" ”