'Stepping on ......'

The sound of a galloping horse gradually came, from far to near.

Compared with the sound of the war horse galloping in the past, today's movement is a little soft, and it doesn't look like the movement made by the war horse at all.

Yazhou Station.

One of the hundreds of post stations on the border of the Tang Dynasty, this post station is not famous, the scale is not large, and even the use is not particularly large.

Because there is a large army stationed here, the general information is sent directly by the army, and it is rarely sent through the post system.

But the post stations are not just the post stations of the army, many times, for the sake of secrecy, the army will rarely use these post stations, and even if they enter the post station, they will only replenish some food and water, and then change to a fast horse to continue the journey.

The post station is also a post station of the government, and many official documents and other things need to be transmitted through the post station system.

And the biggest advantage of the post station is that its speed is unmatched.

If the former post station was just a chicken rib-like existence, then now tens of thousands of post stations in various townships across the country have formed a huge scale in just one year.

Strict management system, household management mode, and high standard requirements, coupled with a series of means such as government inspections, random spot checks by supervisors, etc., make people dare not be lazy in this.

Even if the number of fast horses has not reached the required number, the entire post station system has already matured.

The post station, Li Yuanji positioned him as all-weather, no matter when, he must send the letter to the next post station at the first time.

In addition, on the basis of the early distribution of horses to the township, some other requirements were added, such as the recruitment of professional post officers.

These postmen are all professionally trained to ensure that the time it takes to deliver the letter to the next station is minimized as much as possible while ensuring the safety of the letter.

The specific requirements are that each post station is equipped with three post staff as standard, two day post workers and one night post man.

For every five post stations, there is a post station, equipped with four post men, two day post men and two night post men.

The duties of the post office are different from those of the post station, and the location of the post office does not need to have any requirements, just a place to work, most of which are in the county seat of a nearby county.

The post office is responsible for the management of the following five post stations, and carries out dispatching and command, task arrangement, personnel training, normal business training, spot check supervision, etc.

The four post men equipped with it are used as rotational rest and temporary replacement for those who have something to ask for.

Under such a configuration, it can already be guaranteed that all post stations in the country can be guaranteed to be open at any time.

The night post man is the most comfortable, because most of the time, the night post man has nothing to do, and at the same time, in order to prevent things that suddenly pop up, so the night post man is on duty, there is only one task, rest in the rest room of the post station, you can sleep, you can do anything, no one will care about you, but when you receive the task, you must show the best state.

Huang Xing came to the post station today, ate some dry food made a few days ago, and then lay down in the lounge to rest without incident.

The post station is in charge of eating, but the food is not good, each post station must store a certain amount of dry food every day, and after the storage period, these dry food will be used to the post station personnel to eat, and then make some new filling, generally speaking, the storage period is three days, can not guarantee the best taste, but it will not be bad to eat.

But Huang Xing, who was lying in the lounge, was tossing and turning today, always feeling as if something big was going to happen tonight.

Every time he was a little sleepy just now, but as soon as he closed his eyes, the whole person instantly became energetic, and repeated back and forth several times, Huang Xing was not sleepy.

Faintly, hearing the sound of horses' hooves outside, Huang Xing felt a little evil, but he still got dressed, prepared the guys, and planned to go out to see what the situation was.

The officials on duty at night were drowsy, and the lanterns in front of the post house flickered and flashed, pointing out the direction for the visitors in the night.

As the sound of horses' hooves got closer and closer, Huang Xing couldn't help but walk out.

This is Yazhou, the first stop of the border station, there are few war horses from the west, and the main task here is to serve those from the east, and they want to go to the east.

A war horse gasped for breath, and its four hooves were a little difficult to lift, but it still walked strongly.

On the war horse, with the help of the bright light, you can see that there seems to be a person lying on it, obviously tired, faintly, and you can see a few flags planted behind it.

Seeing this, Huang Xing didn't dare to be careless, and hurriedly yelled at the post station, and then hurriedly stepped forward to lead the war horse into the post station, and helped the people on the war horse down.

However, after pulling twice, Huang Xing found that he couldn't pull it, and after a closer look, he found that the other party had tied himself tightly to the war horse with a rope.

Seeing this, Huang Xing was shocked in his heart, and at the same time, he also saw clearly the flag behind the other party.

A dark night with no fingers visible?

There is no light pollution, no air pollution, now the night, as long as you can see the moon, the night will not be particularly dark, today happens to be a good day, catch up with the sixteenth, so the whole land is still very bright, for those of them who specialize in running at night, the night of the sixteenth is no different from the day.

Tied with a rope, it means that the other party has reached the limit, and the trained Huang Xing naturally knows some basic skills of the post man and the messenger, so he already knows that this sergeant is from Tubo in the west.

And behind it, instead of a small red pennant representing a hundred miles, there are three flags, red, yellow, and black.

Red represents a hundred miles a day, which belongs to the type that is not in a hurry, and yellow represents four hundred miles a day, which is passed on by the day post man, if he is afraid that it will be too late, the night post man can send the letter to the next post station before dawn, so as to save a distance of twenty miles.

Black, representing letters that require night postmen.

A red flag, a yellow flag, means that the letter needs to be rushed for 500 miles, and if you hurry up, it can be completed in one day.

Under the system of the modern post station system, 500 miles in a day is not too far, because each post man only needs to gallop 20 miles with all his strength, whether it is a man or a horse, it is within the acceptable range, and he will not feel too tired.

According to past experience, it only takes more than half a quarter of an hour for a postman to run twenty miles each way during the day, and a little more at night, but not more than half an hour at most.

And a red flag, a yellow flag, and a black flag, do you think this means that it means that it is urgent to five hundred miles and needs to be dispatched at night?

Wrong, when three flags appear at the same time, it means that there is no limit to the distance.

There is no limit, no matter how many miles you can run in a day, there is only one requirement, and after receiving the letter at the post station along the way, you need to quickly check and confirm it, and after it is correct, send the letter to the next post station as quickly as possible.

"Long ...... Changan...... ......Hurry up," said the sergeant who was helped off the horse by Huang Xing panting, and the whole person couldn't even stand on his feet.

Saying that, Huang Xing didn't dare to be careless, and hurriedly put the sergeant on the ground steadily, and at the same time took down the iron box behind him and handed it to the night officer, while he himself quickly took out the war horse.

After a few breaths, Huang Xing brought the war horse, and the officials on duty were checking the boxes under the light.

There are three openings in the box, one large and two small.

The big mouth has been locked, and there is a mud seal or something on it, through the small opening on the left, you can clearly see the fixed letter in the box, it is a bamboo tube, and it is also fully closed, this small mouth can only be seen, which can ensure that the letter will not run out.

On the other hand, there was a piece of paper inside, on which the origin, destination, sender, time and requirements were written, and the night officer quickly wrote down this information on the land, and then directly took out the seal and stamped it on it, and asked Huang Xing to confirm it, and then handed the box to Huang Xing.

It seems troublesome, but the whole process is down, and its practical time is not even a minute, and in order to save time, the officials on duty at night did not record the information on the file as required, but first copied it on the ground, and then copied it on the file, which can save a lot of time.

With the iron box on his back, Huang Xing slammed his crotch hard, and galloped towards the next post station with a familiar car.

Not to mention that the sixteenth night is as bright as day, even if it is a night without moonlight, Huang Xing can also ensure that the task is completed on time, although the night post is easy, but not everyone can do it, about the road between the two post stations, Huang Xing can complete this journey with his eyes closed, there is something on the way, where there are mountains and where there is water, no one knows better than Huang Xing.

Looking at Huang Xingyuan's figure far away, the official on duty hurriedly brought the file and copied it, and then helped the sergeant lying on the ground up, sent it into the house with difficulty, and waited carefully.

He poured water into it drop by drop, but before he could take a sip, the sergeant coughed violently, his eyes were tightly closed, his brows were furrowed, and his mental state was extremely poor.

You can't even get water, let alone food.

After taking care of it in a hurry, the night officer felt that he couldn't go on like this, so he hurriedly left the post station and rode a horse quickly towards the nearby village, where there was a Tulangzhong, although the skills were not good, but at this time there was no one available except him, and if he entered the city, the distance was farther, and he didn't know if he could be in time.

When the messenger is exhausted to death, as early as in the past, almost every long-distance transmission will have a great chance of this kind of thing happening, sometimes even if he does not die, a strong man after the trip, the whole person will be useless, not only can not continue to stay in the army, but also can not even do heavy work, moreover, it is difficult to live in the future.

The establishment of the post station system is to facilitate the transmission of letters and government decrees, and the second is to avoid the occurrence of long-distance tasks that will exhaust people to death and be exhausted.

However, from Luoqi to Yazhou, thousands of miles away, there is no post station to rest at all.

When the officer on duty hurriedly returned to the post station with Tulangzhong, the whole time had only passed for about half an hour, but the sergeant had lost his breath at some point, and even his body was already cold.