"Sir, the general Han sent a message to the post guard in front, please stay at the Zhaicheng Horse Post tonight. Pen %Fun %Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Xu Guangqi lifted the curtain of the car, and saw that it was Sun Yuanhua, a student who followed him to learn firearms and arithmetic, who was riding a horse outside the car, so he squeezed out a smile and said to him, "Chuyang, how far is it from the post station?" Ahem......"

Sun Yuanhua wore a big hat and a straight collar, sitting on a thin horse with white smoke in his nose. He was born in the ninth year of Wanli, 39 years old this year, with triangular thick eyebrows and square face, a round and full nose bridge, and his burly body, with the majesty of a child's night cry.

"Are you alright, sir? Why don't you let Dr. Wu show you? "The Tao is a person who cannot be disguised, but Sun Yuanhua is not a martial artist of Ma Daha, but a frustrated person in Songjiang Mansion who has repeatedly tried and failed, knowing that his teacher's body is sick, and his concern is overflowing. When he saw his mentor wave his hand to stop him, he leaned over and replied, "There are still five miles of land." ”

Xu Guangqi, who is nearly sixty years old, nodded after hearing this, since he started training at the beginning of the year, and inspected the border passes, he finally became ill after working day and night, and he coughed incessantly for many days. He once used this as an excuse to resign and ask someone else to supervise the military administration of Henan, but the Son of Heaven insisted on refusing, and also sent a medical officer named Wu Youxing to take care of him, which flattered Xu Guangqi and had to go to his post with illness.

Xu Guangqi held on to the edge of the car, looking at the sergeants guarding on both sides, training these soldiers made him work hard, and when he saw that the queue was neat now, the corners of his mouth naturally rose.

Xu Guangqizun Temple aimed to train troops in Tongzhou, and after several simplifications, there were finally 27,000 people left. Previously, 20,000 had been selected from these 30,000 people to aid Liao, and the remaining militia had once again eliminated 3,000 old, weak and dull people, and it was the officers and soldiers he led to the south.

According to the system, 20,000 people can be divided into four battalions, with one general soldier, and four staff generals to command each battalion, but now these 4,000 people have sent a deputy general soldier -- Xie Hongyi.

These people only had 500 cavalry, led by Xie Hongyi as outposts, and the rest were infantry. They are not only strong, but also well-equipped, the weapons come from the Imperial City E Library, and the armor and crown clothes come from the B Library, all of which are specially approved by the Son of Heaven.

Sergeants wore turbans with scarf rings on their heads; The upper body wears a narrow-sleeved shirt, a round-necked placket with purple cloth armor, and a waist belt; He wears black pants on his lower body, wraps white cloth around his shins, and wears bast shoes. The sergeant's weapon is either a bird's gun, or a crossbow, or a single-hook gun, or a wheat ear gun.

Xu Guangqi asked Sun Yuanhua before he was about to lower the curtain, "How far is the rear baggage from here?" ”

Sun Yuanhua knew that there were 500 people escorting the silk cloth and military rations that the emperor had given to the kings of Henan, so he led the horse to the cart and said respectfully, "According to the footsteps, they should be stationed at the Jintai Horse Post tonight." ”

The post station is located in the key points of the world, with intervals ranging from 40 to 70 miles, and is mainly responsible for delivering envoys, flying military information, transporting military supplies, etc., which is equivalent to the combination of guest houses, post offices and high-speed rest areas in later generations. Wherever the post station arrives, that is, the imperial decree and the army, it can be reached.

Each post station prepares five to eighty horses, and the horses are divided into upper, middle and lower three classes, and each hangs a small sign indicating the grade, and it is dealt with by the symbol. The stagecoach placed a brass bell, and in case of an emergency official businessman, he would be slinged on the horse, and the postcoach on the road ahead was specially designed to listen to the bell and supply it immediately.

There are 1,036 water horse post stations in the country (excluding the abolition and addition of Wanli fifteen years later), and there are 9 post stations in Baoding Prefecture. The Jintai Horse Post was in Baoding, and the Zhaicheng Horse Post where the former army composed of 500 cavalry led by Xie Hongyi was located in Qingdu, with a Shanyang Post in between, and the two places were one hundred and forty miles apart.

Xu Guangqi was a little surprised when he heard this, and the cattle and horses used to transport heavy goods were all in the back, but they were only more than a hundred miles apart. After thinking about it again, it suddenly dawned on me that this time the southward journey was different from the previous escort by the servants, all of them were soldiers, and the distance was not much different.

……

Before sunset, Xu Guangqi led thousands of sergeants arrived at the Zhaicheng Post Station in the north of Qingdu County.

When Sun Yuanhua helped his mentor who was wearing a regular suit to make up the badger [zhì] from the carriage, a few people came down from the carriage one after another.

Xu Guangqi happened to be dressed after getting out of the car, so he rushed to an old man, made a guide gesture, and said respectfully, "Father-in-law Liu, please first." ”

Liu Gonggong is Liu Kejing, who chose the concubine of the Son of Heaven, in addition to Wei Jinzhong, who went to Henan to 'purchase' tobacco leaves, Wang Zong, who was ordered to supervise the army and send the imperial book to the Fuwang Mansion.

Liu Kejing was outside his sixties, wearing a red python robe with a collar, his hands behind his back, looking around, and seeing that he was the oldest, he took the lead unceremoniously. Liu Kejing's celebrant is almost equivalent to the cabinet, and the courtiers are all polite when they see it, so everyone doesn't feel the slightest inappropriateness.

Zhaicheng Horse Post is a courtyard, there are two rows of horse stakes on the left side of the door, and the roof to cover the rain has been opened skylight; There is a 100-foot-high watchtower on the right side of the door, and the watchtower opens the windows on all sides like a bucket, and there are soldiers shaking on it. Because the post station was very small, thousands of sergeants set up camp in the wide area outside the gate under the leadership of their own thousands, and made fires and cooked food, without mentioning it.

"Where is Mr. Xie? Why don't you see it? Xu Guangqi walked to the door and didn't see Xie Hongyi come out to greet him, so he asked the guard standing with a knife at the door.

The guards were trained by Xu Guangqi, knelt down on one knee and gave a military salute before replying, "If you return to the army, General Rong went to Qingdu County to transport grain and did not return. ”

"Transporting grain? The heirloom came to see him. ”

According to the system, the post station set up a post to pass on the post and send it off, and it does not enter the stream. All boats, chariots, horses, scumbags, delicacies, and accounts shall be supplied according to the quality of the envoys and the number of servants; Its money, food, expenses and post guards are provided by their localities.

"My lord, the little ones haven't seen the post keepers and post guards when they arrived, and even the post officers were repaired by the little ones."

"What's going on?"

"According to the nearby farmers, the local Mahu servants fled to Shuntianfu, and Yicheng was arrested and imprisoned by Zhu Wanling, the prefect of Baoding, for dereliction of duty."

Xu Guangqi knew the disadvantages of the post delivery, and the edict of the Son of Heaven two months ago mentioned that the post "should not be given to the post delivery of fatigue and poverty", and ordered "its past officials and others are not allowed to extort it".

Nowadays, the disadvantages of post delivery include the embezzlement of post horse material silver by post delivery officials and the deduction of food silver by servants; Officials abused and forged talismans to take the post without permission (see the "Seal Letter" related to the work); Tribute envoys were rampant, passing officials extorting horses from post men and whipping servants; The post station Xieji Bank has been in arrears over the years, etc.

People of insight can see that Hai Rui and Zhang Juzheng in Jiajing and Zhang Juzheng in Wanli have made efforts to cut reform. Its main thing is to strictly prohibit unrelated personnel from using the post without permission; Cutting redundant fees and merging redundant stations; Resolutely punish offenders, order posters, and so on. However, they cannot jump out of the limitations of history, and various reforms have only played a role in a short period of time, and relying on the rule of man is doomed to the death of the people.

The people present listened to the solemn expression, Liu Kejing sighed, arched his hands upwards and said to Xu Guangqi, "Today, the heart of the world is concerned, and there are many strange schemes, and the Governor can make this matter a reality." ”

Xu Guangqi understood the trick, and at this time, it was more appropriate for the foreign minister to play it than for the celebrant to come forward, so he handed it over, "The minister will plan to go back, I don't know if Gonggong Liu and your father-in-law can sign together." ”

Liu Kejing shook his head, and said as he entered the courtyard, "There is no need for joint names, it is better to separate the inside and outside." ”

※

When Xu Guangqi was halfway through his writing in his humble room, Xie Hongyi asked to see him outside.

Xie Hongyi is just over forty, the word is simple, the membership, this is Wanli Jiyouke (1610) Shuntianfu Wuju Xie Yuan, the following year Gengxu Branch will try to meet the Yuan, successively served as the secretary of the Beijing Cao Division, Shanxi Palm Seal Division, Xuanfu Shangxi Road Left Staff General, before the deputy commander of the seventh battalion of Shenshu.

Xie Hongyi got up after entering the house and gave a military salute, and replied to Xu Guangqi, "The end will be too late, please forgive me." ”

Xu Guangqi got up from behind the table, and saw that Xie Hongyi, who was in the prime of life, was wearing a red tasseled black helmet, silver light armor, a green sheath sword hanging from his waist, and soap shoes on his feet, looking capable, so he smiled and asked his subordinates of the same grade as himself, "How much grain and grass have you collected?" ”

"Forty stones of old rice, one pig and one sheep, one hundred catties of dried vegetables, ten catties of sesame oil, and twenty bunches of horse grass, which can be used for a day." Xie Hongyi saw that Xu Guangqi's face turned from sunny to cloudy, so he went on to explain, "The circumference of Qingdu County is 4 li, it is a small city, and the household is only 8 li. ”

One stone is about 57kg, the price of rice varies in various places, nowadays in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang and other grain-producing areas one tael of silver can be purchased from two to nine stones, to the northwest border of Gansu and other places is about one tael per stone, in Liaodong is higher, each stone must be four taels of silver.

After listening to Xie Hongyi's explanation, Xu Guangqi knew that the county seat of Qingdu was as big as the Forbidden City, and there were only more than 800 households that paid the land tax for eight miles, and the population was less than 10,000 according to the national average of five to six people per household. Of course, due to the fact that the actual population is much higher than this due to the fact that contributions and minors are not counted.

Xu Guangqi thought that although everyone on this trip had their own responsibilities, they were all tolerances, and the nuisance to the post station along the way was naturally inevitable, so in order to avoid the lack of control in the rear, he instructed Xie Hongyi, "Then set up camp here, and then set off when the baggage arrives." ”

The main drawback of the post station is that the number of people taking the post is increasing day by day. Those who do not enter the law will be eight or nine out of ten', 'from the Beijing officials to the county officials of Sidaozhou, all of them borrow from Kanhe, and all the husbands and servants are begging for fire cards, and they have private cards and private tickets'.

Passing officials regardless of whether they were on duty or private, they all ate and took cards, and all kinds of extortion methods emerged one after another, causing the servants to flee and the post delivery system unable to operate normally.

So can the post station be abolished? The answer is no.

The first thing to use was to "go to the places near each post first, and if it is not enough, it is allowed to be in the neighboring prefectures and counties", and "it must be filled with more grain", which not only exempts part of the field, but also gives rations. Later, there were more and more private posts, and the employment method was adopted, that is, the nearby government allocated rations and salaries, and hired the unemployed.

After Chongzhen cut off the post delivery, people of insight said, 'The post delivery is set up, the poor are not allowed to eat themselves, and if the cut is too much, they will take risks', for example, Li Zicheng is the horseman of Yinchuan Station.

Xu Guangqi naturally will not write to ask for the abolition of the post station because of all kinds of drawbacks, and what he thinks of now is the same as Hai Rui, Zhang Juzheng and others: lead by example, do not take the post privately; Reaffirm the law, and reorganize the post; Please reduce the military department and fire card seven out of ten; Solve the grain supply of the chief treasurer......