Seven people, seven horses, from Suiyang City all the way along the road to the northeast, it was late August, the sun's rays were still very hot, everyone rode horses and ran for an hour into the territory of Mengxian County, and came to Mengxian Station.

This post station is located next to a three-way intersection, leading to Mengxian County and Bo County to the north, and leading to Yu County to the east, a yard, covering an area of quite large, and the surrounding land full of barren grass also belongs to this Mengxian Station.

Seven people rode to the gate of the post station, the gate was open, but the yard of the post station was empty, everyone led the horse into the yard, so many people plus horses, there was a lot of noise.

An old man with a dirty apron and an axe and a piece of wood in his hand ran out of the backyard of the inn.

"Ah······ It's all the officials who are here, hurry up, please come into the lobby to rest and serve tea! The old man dropped his axe and wood, and spoke in a panic, his hands rubbing his hands on his apron, looking very helpless.

The scribe who was specially responsible for serving Zhao Junsheng shouted: "Chief Meng, why don't you know etiquette? This is the new Zhao of the Facao Agency, why don't you come and see him? ”

The old man hurriedly stepped forward and bowed to the ground, "Mengxian County Post Chief Mengfu pays a visit to Zhao to join the army!" ”

Zhao Junsheng knew that the post chief was the manager of this post station, and in the later Tang Dynasty, it was renamed the post general or catch the post, and the Ming Dynasty began to call it the post cheng.

Zhao Junsheng asked, "You are the head of Mengxian Station?" Get up first, why are you the only one here? ”

Meng Fu replied bitterly: "So that the army can learn that the expenses issued by the bureau and the maintenance of the posts are too small, and the post guards are all recruited from the nearby villagers, in order to make a living, the post guards almost have to go home to work in the farm to earn some money to supplement the family when there is no official correspondence at the post station, and the subordinates and subordinates can't stop it, who makes the salary too small!" ”

Since Zhao Junsheng took office, he also had an understanding of the post system of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which not only could not make money for the government and the imperial court, but also had to fill in a large amount of financial resources every year to barely maintain.

The function of the post station is not only responsible for delivering official documents, but also providing food and accommodation for business travelers and officials passing by, and the business travelers have to pay for food and accommodation.

According to the regulations, officials also have to pay money for accommodation and food at the post station, but how can the post station take the initiative to ask the officials for money? If the officials don't give it, the post station can't do anything, and in the long run, the post station's losses will naturally get bigger and bigger.

In order to reduce losses, some local governments directly assign local rich households to manage post stations and pass on such losses to the rich households, while some rich households can only grit their teeth and lose money in order not to offend the government, while some rich households with backstage covers simply do not care about the post stations and let them be abandoned.

"Don't drink the tea first, the official goes around, where is the stable!" Zhao Junsheng asked.

"Oh, to the west, please join the army and come down!" After saying that, Meng Fu immediately led the way in front.

They followed Blessed to the stables, and saw that the stables were empty, not not a single horse, nor a mule, nor a horse, nor a donkey.

Zhao Junsheng asked: "Chief Meng, do you have an official document to send today?" ”

"There were a few official documents yesterday, but not today!" Blessed replied.

Zhao Junsheng pointed to the empty stables and asked, "What about the horses?" ”

Meng Fu's face was quite embarrassed, and Ai Ai said: "The horse was pulled back to work by the post guards, but once there is an official document to be delivered, it will be ridden back immediately to deliver the official document!" ”

Zhao Junsheng instructed the scribe beside him: "Write it down!" The jailers ran back to work and wrote down the work! ”

"Yes!" The scribe agreed, and wrote down these two things at once.

The few Lingshi who accompanied him could even feel the anger in the hearts of the new recruiter, everyone didn't dare to say anything, and Meng Fu was even more trembling, and his heart was up and down.

Zhao Junsheng inspected the guest rooms and warehouses in the post chief again. Although the guest room house is relatively old, it is very clean; The warehouse was almost empty, and according to the regulations, some grain was to be stored, but I basically didn't see it, and Zhao Junsheng asked the scribe to write it down, and every time he wrote it down, Meng Fu's face turned white.

Zhao Junsheng asked: "Chief Meng, how many soldiers do you have in this post?" ”

Meng Fu was about to speak, but found that Liu Guang was winking at him and secretly extending a slap.

Where could Liu Guang and Mengfu's small actions be hidden from Zhao Junsheng, he immediately shouted to Mengfu when he saw this: "Mengyichang, where do you look? Come, you face this official, how much is there a pawn? ”

Zhao Junsheng walked behind Meng Fu, Meng Fu turned around and couldn't see Liu Guang's expression, but Zhao Junsheng stared at him with two hot eyes in front of him.

"Chief Meng, you'd better tell the truth to the official, it's not difficult for the official to investigate, if you fool the official, once you find out, the official will kill you as easily as crushing an ant! If you report honestly and truthfully, the official can also open the net, after all, eating empty wages is already the norm, not your own post doing this! ”

Zhao Junsheng's words made Meng Fu break out in a cold sweat on his forehead, he remembered Liu Guang's background, but he was afraid that the Zhao Senjun in front of him was definitely not easy to fool, if he wanted to seriously investigate, he would definitely not be able to eat and walk around, not only might he lose this insignificant little official position, but he might also face prison.

Thinking that he would be in prison after the incident, Meng Fu didn't care about Liu Guang anymore, raised his sleeve and wiped it, knelt down and said: "Join the army and forgive the sin, according to the regulations, there should be a total of five people in this post plus the subordinates, but in fact there are only three people!" ”

Zhao Junsheng asked with a calm face: "How many days does the post guard practice?" ”

"Three days······ No, five days, ······ No, a month ······" Blessed's voice grew quieter and quieter.

"That's no practice!" Zhao Junsheng said and looked at Liu Guang, Liu Guang lowered his head at this time, and he couldn't see his expression clearly.

The scribe wrote it down faithfully.

It stands to reason that as a post officer, you only need to welcome and send official documents, entertain the business travelers and officials who pass along the way, and do not need to practice like the army, but it is inevitable that thieves will be encountered on the way to and from official documents, and there is a lot of food stored in the post station and the silver earned by the officials of the merchant travel, if there are thieves who kill and rob, it is not possible to do without a little force, so the post guard takes an hour out of practice every day and it has become a rule.

Zhao Junsheng's mood is actually very heavy, just from the actual situation of such a post station, you can see to what extent the post system has been eroded.

"Blessed, give you two quarters of an hour, and you go and call the other two post men back!" Zhao Junsheng commanded and walked to the lobby of the post station.

"Yes, yes, subordinates go immediately!"

In less than a quarter of an hour, Munfu and the two remaining postmen returned, along with a horse, and there was only one horse in such a large station.

Zhao Junsheng stood in front of Meng Fu and the other two post guards, and asked with a calm face: "Tell me yourself, is your fortune high or low?" How does it compare to the income of ordinary people? ”

The three looked at each other, and one of the postmen replied cautiously; "Back in the army, the villains and others are higher than ordinary people, which is still very good, but it's just ······ It's just that I can't get the full amount every time! ”

Zhao Junsheng felt a coldness in his heart, not only did he eat empty salaries, but he also did not even pay enough money, no wonder the post system was eroded to this point, the problem here is very big!