"Selling newspapers, selling newspapers "Times" makes today's headlines, the general Zhu Inspector has left Lushun, and will enter Beijing from Tianjin in the near future! Sell newspapers, sell newspapers, two copper yuan and one newspaper in hand, and know the records of the war of the Duke of Chu against Liao"

The crisp children's voices shouted along the streets of Jingshi, spreading far away.

Zhou Yanru was sitting in the carriage, heard the shout, and said outside the curtain, "Go buy a copy of the Times!" ”

"Yes." The family outside answered, quickly bought a copy of the Times, and respectfully handed it into the car.

Two copper dollars a copy, now one silver dollar is worth two hundred copper dollars, at this time these two copper dollars are equivalent to half a cent of silver. If you were in the countryside, you would be able to cut half a catty of pork. However, in the land of the capital master, half a cent of silver is really worth nothing. There are not only many officials in Beijing, but also many scholars, and there are many literate people, and many housekeepers and servants of large families and even maids and maids, even the shopkeepers in those shops, are literate and grasp a handful.

When Times was first founded, it was a new thing in Daming, but now Times is not new in Beijing. Although the headquarters of the Times is in Hubei, several other branches are also in the vicinity of Hubei, and there is no branch in Beijing. However, the Times would issue an issue every five days, and after each issue of the Dengzhou branch closest to the Beijing Division printed the current issue of the newspaper, it would arrive in Tianjin by sea by fast sailing boat, and then quickly transported to the capital by horse-drawn carriage.

The price of the Times is not expensive, as long as the people of Jingshi are willing to buy, most people can afford to buy it, and there are many people who are literate in Beijing, after more than a year, the sales of each issue of the Times in Beijing have exceeded 5,000 copies. Nowadays, almost every household in Beijing has subscribed to the Times, and even the restaurants and teahouses and even the Qinglou Music Workshop have also subscribed to the Times.

Several teahouses and restaurants not only subscribed to the Times, but even specially invited newspaper readers to read the newspaper. It's like storytelling, and it's a way to attract customers. The effect is better than storytelling, after all, storytelling always sounds like a few paragraphs, but this newspaper is published every five days. The content is also rich, current affairs news, all kinds of fresh affairs from all over the world, etc., all-inclusive, all kinds of things.

Everyone drinks and eats tea, listens to the news, and friends comment on current affairs together, talk about the present and the past, and by the way, talk about prices and geography in various places, which is very good.

Zhou Yanru knew that The Times was a newspaper run by Liu Jun. The Zhou government also has a Times, and even the Times also delivers it to the Beijing Division and the Yamen for free, but today is not the day when the Times is issued.

When I got the newspaper, Zhou Yanru took a look at it, it was not an old newspaper from the past, but a new issue, and two words were added next to the masthead, supplement.

The newspaper still exuded the scent of ink, and the headline on the front page was the news that Liu Jun was about to enter Beijing.

Under the bold title of Lishu, there is also a picture. Liu Jun, dressed in military uniform, was leaving the dock to board a galleon moored in the harbor.

The content of the Times is very rich, with 32 editions in four editions, and a newspaper is equivalent to the content of a small book. There are many layouts and rich content. And it is also full of pictures and texts, and the front page is usually published with recent major events. Since its inception, the front page of the Times has not published the decrees and regulations of the imperial court, and basically every issue does not publish a report on Liu Jun's battle with the Chu army. It is some of the plans led by Liu Jun.

Pages 1 to 8 are news editions, and 9 to 16 editions are current affairs editions. Editions 17 to 24 are the economic edition, and editions 25 to 32 are the people's livelihood edition.

The slogan of the Times is to aggregate important court and local government policy news, pay attention to emergencies, understand real-time information on people's livelihood, and provide the most timely and close to life newspaper content for the people of Daming.

Although this newspaper is run by Liu Jun, Zhou Yanru must read almost every issue. He even likes this newspaper very much in his heart, and many times, the news in the newspaper can understand the world dynamics faster and more accurately than he, the first assistant, from the official, I have to say that this is an ironic phenomenon.

And although this newspaper is funded by Liu Jun, it is very fair and serious, and the content is true. Although they publish news and current affairs, they are very objective and fair, and rarely discuss current affairs with personal tendencies, they only report on news and current affairs, but do not comment.

Although Zhou Yanru can also see that in fact, as a non-government-run newspaper, the content of news and current affairs they choose to report is already an attitude in itself. But this approach is much better than publicly commenting on politics. In fact, since the official opening of the Times, after the popularity of the Times, in the past year, Daming has opened many newspapers.

But more than a year has passed, except for the times, which can exceed 10,000 sales per issue, and the highest sales volume has exceeded 50,000 copies, and the rest of the newspapers have not broken 10,000 at the highest. The average sales volume can't even break three thousand, and most of the actual sales are around a thousand copies, or even less.

Why? Just because most of those newspapers are run by members of the Fusha Society, the most important thing for them is to discuss current affairs, and there are very few other contents, and often some of the contents are not true, and there are a few people who are really willing to read such newspapers.

There are also some newspapers run by businessmen, but because they lack enough authoritative news and rich content, their sales are not high.

There are a few newspapers that run every five days, with thirty-two editions, and sometimes forty-eight and sixty-four large editions at the beginning of the month, all of which are very true.

Zhou Yanru had little interest in those newspapers, and he had never even been interested in the news and current affairs section of the Times. As the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty, he has too many important news about the world's major events that he sees every day.

When he reads the Times, he prefers to read the section of economy and people's livelihood, especially the literature section, which has a selection of poems and operas, as well as essays, etc., of course, what he likes to read the most is the serialization of long novels. Generally, after reading a novel, he will go to the economic and livelihood section.

But today he has been staring at the front page and has not flipped back for a long time.

The portrait of Liu Jun on the front page is as annoying to Zhou Yanru as the ubiquitous advertisements in The Times. The advertising layout of the Times is also very unique, and there are various forms for merchants to choose from. There are banner ads, semi-banner ads, quarter page ads, vertical quarter page ads, horizontal one-third page ads, vertical one-third page ads, small half page ads, horizontal half page ads, vertical half page ads, full page ads, spread half page ads, spread page full page ads, newspaper ads, newspaper ads, newspaper flower ads. Bottom isolated island newspaper, central isolated island newspaper, guide newspaper and column flower advertising, middle seam advertising, classified advertising, sandwich advertising and advertorial advertising, etc.

Bit by bit, if you really count it carefully, these 32 editions of the Times must have hundreds of advertisements in each issue.

It is said that the Times will not only be able to recoup the cost of the newspaper per issue by selling these advertisements alone. You can make a lot of money.

If you run a newspaper, you can not only raise your eyes and tongue for yourself, but also change your way to make money, and Liu Jun is the only one.

Now, this Liu Jun is about to enter the court.

In the palace.

Chongzhen is also looking at this new issue of the Times, in fact, since the Times was published in Beijing, after Chongzhen learned about it from Dongchang, he asked Dongchang to send each issue of the Times to the palace as soon as possible. Later, several more newspapers came out. Chongzhen also asked the East Factory to send in all of them in each issue.

Chongzhen is also a senior reader of The Times.

In fact, some officials have long been on the stage, saying that they will ban the Times. Chongzhen knows that although the Times does not discuss current affairs, after all, its influence is getting bigger and bigger. Even if they don't openly discuss politics, they can report the world's affairs to the people of the world, which still makes those high-ranking officials unhappy.

In some ways, the Times appeared. It is equivalent to more public opinion supervision officials. Chongzhen thinks that this is actually a good thing, but on the other hand, not all newspapers are as fair as the Times. Just like a few other newspapers. is a little unscrupulous, they say anything, and anyone dares to comment, and their comments do have a great impact on the prestige of the imperial court.

But in general, Chongzhen still likes the Times. Not only is the news of current affairs in the world reported in it very fast and true, but also many things that officials are hiding, such as local disasters, they will report in a timely manner.

And on the other hand, Chongzhen lives deep in the palace, and it is difficult to know the real scene of the people below for the things outside, and many people's livelihood and economy in the Times have many people's livelihood things on it, even the advertisements on the corners of those cracks, there are also many rental prices of houses and shops, the purchase and sale prices of bulk goods, and for example, the information on recruitment, it is very clear how much the salary of various craftsmen and workers is recruited, so that he has a clearer impression of the living conditions of the people.

And these are often vague and unclear places that officials rarely tell him and report a lot.

"Your Majesty is reading the newspaper again, and there is a new newspaper in Beijing?" Empress Zhou came slowly, and when she saw that the emperor was reading the newspaper, she asked.

Chongzhen raised the newspaper, "It's the Times, today's supplement." At the end, he added, "The Duke of Chu finally left Liaodong and stepped on the ship back to Beijing." ”

"Your Majesty, Jiye fought for the country, worked hard and made great achievements, don't let him down."

"What does the queen mean by that?" Chongzhen looked at Zhou Hou in surprise.

Empress Zhou hesitated for a while, but finally said, "The concubine has also heard some rumors recently, bad rumors. ”

"What rumors?"

"I heard that there is a saying from top to bottom of the Jingshi now, 'The cunning rabbit dies, and the good dog cooks; The high bird is exhausted, and the good bow is hidden; The enemy country is broken, and the ministers are killed. Liaodong has been decided, and Chu Gong should cook. ”

"Who is spreading rumors?" Chongzhen said angrily with a dark face, "How can I be the kind of person who hides the bow and crosses the river and bridge?" ”

The queen asked again, "The concubine heard that His Majesty is going to be crowned king for Jiye!" ”

Chongzhen nodded, not hiding it from Zhou Hou.

"I do have this plan, I will make immortal contributions to the Ming Dynasty, of course I have to reward my merits, and not being crowned a king is not enough to reward his merits."

Of course, this is superficial speaking. In fact, Chongzhen's real intention was to take the opportunity of being crowned king to completely deprive Liu Jun of his military power. During this time, he has been thinking about how to deal with Liu Jun, who has made immortal achievements.

He didn't want to kill Liu Jun, Liu Jun has always expressed his loyalty, especially Liu Jun and a group of subordinates who were also loyal and personally brought out. If you kill Liu Jun, you will have to force his subordinates to rebel if you don't get it right. When he arrested Yuan Chonghuan, Zu Dashou immediately led his troops to evacuate the Beijing Division, broke through the Shanhai Pass and withdrew to Liaoxi.

This kind of thing is no longer possible.

But Chongzhen is also difficult to rest assured that Liu Jun will continue to be in charge of the army, just from Hubei back to the news, the thief Li Zicheng led tens of thousands of bandits out of Shaanxi to attack Yunyang, Hubei, as a result, Liu Jun's henchman Zhang Shan, who was recuperating in his hometown in Hubei, was the former Zhenjiang general Zhang Shan, at this time, gathered the regimental training of various prefectures in Hubei, and Li Zicheng fought in Yunyang, broke the thieves, and beheaded thousands of levels.

Hearing this news, Chongzhen could not calm down.

Not only Liu Jun can fight, but Liu Jun's subordinates can also fight like this. In just a few years, Liu Jun now has no less than 100,000 elite Chu troops under his command, although he bothered to divide these soldiers and horses into three different places: Lianghu, the Navy and Liaodong, and also transferred Liu Jun to Beijing.

But Chongzhen is still difficult to rest assured, the defeat of Songjin, the imperial court suffered heavy losses, but Liu Jun's command did not lose at all, and after Liu Jun incorporated Kong Youde and other rebels to surrender, his strength increased greatly.

Chongzhen didn't want to kill Liu Jun, and he couldn't. Even if Liu Jun was recruited into Beijing to be the governor of Zhili, Chongzhen was very uneasy. In the end, Chongzhen planned to simply pick up Liu Jun, hold it high, and crown Liu Jun as a king, and then he could be raised high from now on.

In the past, there were no kings of the opposite sex in the Ming Dynasty, and Xu Da and other kings were only posthumously gifted. Even if it is the king of the Ming Dynasty, the queen can be crowned with the king, and he can only stay in the fiefdom and wait for death for the rest of his life.

Chongzhen plans to crown Liu Jun as a county king, make an exception and add a seal, and then let him stay in Beijing for the rest of his life as an idle county king, and go to the court every day. I can't let him take the soldiers with him, so let him be in charge of the financial plan in Beijing in the future. Chongzhen planned to take Sihai Bank back to the imperial court, and then let Liu Jun personally take charge of the money bags for the imperial court.

"I know that throughout the ages, those who have achieved great merit will inevitably be suspicious of kings, and often end up with a bad death. I am very grateful for all that Jiye has done for me and for the Ming Dynasty, and I don't want us to end up with that result. I want to give Jiye the title of king and achieve a good story of the king and the ministers know each other. ”

Later that day, Chongzhen summoned the officials of the Ministry of Rites and explained to them, asking them to prepare the grandest welcome ceremony for Liu Jun, who was about to enter Beijing. At that time, the cabinet scholars of the DPRK and the Central People's Republic of China, the six ministries and nine secretaries, and other officials, all of them will go out of the city to greet them.

At the same time, Chongzhen also officially announced his decision to canonize Liu Jun as the king to the officials of the Ministry of Rites, and asked the Ministry of Rites to start planning for the crown.

But in the afternoon of the next day, I rode a fast horse into Beijing.

The fast horse sent back a shocking news, Chu Guogong arrived at Tianjin Port that morning, and hundreds of people on the dock went to wait to greet him.

Just when Liu Jun got off the boat and boarded the dock, he was warmly greeted by countless waiting people, and suddenly someone in the crowd stabbed Chu Guogong. The assassin mingled with the welcoming crowd and took the opportunity to shoot the Duke of Chu with his crossbow.

Hearing the news, Chongzhen jumped up in shock, "How is the situation of the Duke of Chu?" ”

"Shot in the chest, seriously injured, still unconscious!" (To be continued.) )