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For Highway No. 1, Li Yaoyang's biggest advantage is probably that he has foresight, he is very aware of the situation on Highway No. 1, and with this foundation, he can prepare accordingly.

As mentioned earlier, the country of Chou is a country on wheels with a very developed road network.

The soon-to-be-born national highway system and its subordinate roads connect almost every important town in the 48 states of the country, with a total length of more than 250,000 kilometers, and play an irreplaceable role in the transportation of the country.

Highway 1 is one of the most important members of the national highway system.

The road runs from Fort Kent on the U.S.-Canada border in Maine to Key West Island, the southernmost point of Florida, and the Atlantic coast for about 3,850 kilometers.

Along the way, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Miami and other important cities are strung together.

This highway has been awarded the No.1 number due to its geographical location, and its contribution to the history of the country is fully worthy of this name.

And its predecessor was the Boston Post Road.

The Boston Post Road refers to a series of roads that connected the cities of Boston and New York, as well as many small towns in New England during the colonial period.

Among them, it has two more important branches: one is the southern route from New York, along the coastline to the east, through New Haven and Providence, and north to Boston;

The other is the northern route from New York, which reaches New Haven and turns inland through Hartford to Boston.

After the Puritan Mayflower docked in Plymouth in 1620, several British colonies in New England began to develop, and important towns were formed along the coast.

In the interior of New England, however, development has been slow.

New England was originally the traditional territory of the Native Pecots people.

There were no coherent roads, only staccato trails trodden by Pecots, which had a great negative impact on communication between the various parts of New England.

In 1638, King Charles I of England petitioned King Charles I of England to allow and finance the establishment of a government-run postal system in New England.

This seemingly reasonable request was rejected by Charles I.

In fact, Charles I was not unreasonable, and the establishment of a postal system required the establishment of postal routes connecting inland towns, which was not easy for Britain in the early colonial era.

What's more, along the Hudson River, which is close to New England, there are also the Dutch who are eyeing the Dutch, posing a threat to New England.

If roads had been built, wouldn't it have facilitated the invasion of the Dutch?

Therefore, Charles I did not accede to the request of New England.

Some people in New England did not give up, after all, the exchange of letters between towns and cities was necessary.

In 1639, a Bostonian named Richard Fairbanks took over the job and ran his own postal service.

Since people in Britain were accustomed to dropping off letters in pubs or cafes, Fairbanks converted his home into a pub named "Fairbanks Bistro" for people to deliver letters.

Thus, the first post office in the true sense of the word was born.

However, a person's strength is very weak after all, and Fairbanks can only be responsible for short-distance letter delivery, and he can't do anything about long-distance letters.

The postal service still needs the support of an official background to run successfully.

A key figure in the development of the official postal service was named Winstrup Jr. His father was John Winterstrup, who had served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony.

Winstrup Jr. inherited his father's career, serving as an official throughout New England and eventually as governor of the Connecticut colony.

Of course, he is remembered more for his telescope, which later became Harvard's first scientific instrument.

In the winter of 1645, Winstrup Jr., who had not yet become governor, left Connecticut on an errand for Boston.

Due to the bad road conditions and the various traps set by the Pecots along the way, little Winstrup suffered a lot, and even almost lost his life.

It was a journey that lasted more than a month and was unforgettable.

At the same time, he also found that in the section of the road with slightly better road conditions, there will be more towns along the way, and the economy will be more developed.

This is because where the roads are in slightly better condition are more likely to form bazaars or churches, which in turn will lead to more settlements.

When Winstrup Jr. became governor of Connecticut, he decided to build a road to Boston for Connecticut, both to provide convenience for travelers and to revitalize Connecticut's economy.

In 1664, the British defeated the Dutch, captured the Hudson River, and established the colony of New York.

When Francis Louleth, an official in New York, heard that Winstrup Jr. had a plan to build a road, he sent someone to contact him and ask for a joint road repair.

Lovelace also had his own considerations: he wanted to strengthen the connection between New York and Boston by building roads.

In this way, not only will the economy of the two places and along the route be developed, but more importantly, it will be better able to cope with the counterattack of the Dutch at any time.

In 1673, Wintrup Jr. and Le Freis began planning the route.

Le Frais personally inspected the route twice, in the spring and in the summer.

For the first time, he planned to spend two weeks walking from New York to Boston, surveying the terrain along the way.

However, he underestimated the difficulty of the journey, and two weeks passed before he reached Hartford, Connecticut, and had to abandon his plans.

Exhausted, he wrote a letter to Winstrup Jr., suggesting that Wintrup Jr. gather the best local lumberjacks to discuss the route.

In the end, he wrote hopefully:

"Once this road is built, it will be the best of all the roads owned by the king."

In the summer, Lovelace went out again to study the route and meet with Winstrup Jr. in Hartford.

But at this time, a shocking news came from New York: the Dutch launched a sudden counterattack on New York, and the fleet had reached the outskirts of Manhattan!

Le Flaisse rushed back to New York as fast as he could, but he was still too late, and the Dutch reoccupied New York City.

Seeing that the city was lost, Leverlace hurriedly sent a cavalryman to report to Winthrup Jr. and prepare Connecticut for battle.

The cavalryman set out overnight and arrived at Hartford a few days later, telling Wintrup Jr. of the state of the battle in New York.

Afterwards, Winstrup Jr. sent the cavalryman on his way to Boston to convey the early warning of the war.

Perhaps by providence, the lucky cavalryman found a good way for horses to travel in the forests and valleys, and made it to Boston.

As a result, the fast track from New York to Boston was unexpectedly passed through in such an embarrassing situation.

Le Flace could not experience any joy.

In 1674, the British repelled the Dutch again and recaptured New York.

However, Le Flaisse was found guilty of deserting and causing the city to fall.

He was sent back to England and imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he died soon after.

Winstrup Jr. was pleased to see the road open.

He responded to the wishes of many residents and used this road to develop the postal system of New England and New York, so the road became known as the Boston Post Road.

This is not only the first postal route in the history of North America, but also the first fast road in North America that connects two major cities and can run all the way.

Winstrup Jr. appointed the first long-distance postman in the history of the Ugly Nation.

The name of this postman is not clearly recorded in history.

From some scattered historical sources, it is speculated that his name was probably Edward.

From then on, Edward traveled back and forth between New York, Hartford, and Boston.

Although a postman, Edward's mission was much more than just delivering letters.

Since the Boston Post Road was rushed out by the lucky cavalryman, what Edward had to do was to mark the way according to the cavalryman's description, so as not to lose the road.

At the same time, he is also responsible for finding places to build inns along the way.

Later, Edward and other early postmen added two tasks to the task of rescuing passengers along the route and reporting suspicious people found along the way.

The opening of the Boston Post Road led to the economic development of New England.

Cities in the interior of New England are becoming more numerous and more prosperous.

The number of travelers between cities also increased, trade became unimpeded, military defenses were united, and the Pecorts and Dutch were no longer a threat to New England.

Later, the Southern Route and its branches were opened, and New England began to flourish.

After Edward, more and more people worked on the Boston Post Road to earn a living.

Among them, there is perhaps the most famous "postman" in the history of the world - Benjamin Franklin.

Different people have different first impressions of the name:

a mad scientist flying a kite on a thunderstorm;

educators who founded the University of Pennsylvania;

The Ugly Father of Nations, who participated in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, the diplomat based in France, the thinker who pointed out Thomas Paine, the old man printed on the $100 bill, and so on.

Anyway, it's this Franklin, and his career as a young man was closely related to the Boston Post Road.

Franklin had an indissoluble bond with the Boston Post Road, and the house he was born in was located on the side of the Boston Post Road.

His life's work in the postal system was not remarkable, but it was because of his accomplishments as postmaster that the Boston Post Road's role in the history of the Ugly Country was raised a notch.

Before Franklin, while the postal system had grown well along the Boston Post Road, its prospects were not promising.

Due to the high cost of long-distance mail delivery, the postal system also charges a lot of money for the postman and the horses to eat and live along the route.

At the end of the 17th century, a letter from Boston to Providence, less than 100 kilometres away, cost 6pence, a high price for the common people of the colony at the time.

For comparison: a letter sent back to Europe costs only 2pence!

In addition, it is the recipient who is responsible for the payment and not the sender.

As a result, the letter arrives but the recipient cannot afford to pay or denies not paying, and the post office runs a growing deficit, with fewer employees and worse service.

As a result, fewer and fewer people use the postal system, which leads to higher and higher costs and a vicious circle.

Franklin changed all that, saving the New England postal system and the Boston Post Road.

In 1753, Franklin was appointed postmaster.

After taking office, he went to Boston to inspect the postal route.

He found that the post offices along the route were very unevenly distributed.

For example, the area of more than 100 kilometers from New York to New Haven, and the area of dozens of kilometers from Warren to Leicester, has a large population, but there is not even a post office.

He also found that letters on the northern route were more likely to be delayed than on the southern route, because most postmen preferred to take the southern route, which followed the coastline, rather than the northern route, which was more uphill and downhill.

As a result, Franklin initiated reforms within the postal system.

He eliminated lazy and incompetent postmen, saved money, and used the money he saved to build a number of new post offices along the route, making the postal service accessible to more people.

He reformulated the price list, more detailed the distance range of price changes, and the charges for sending letters closer to home were significantly reduced.

As a result, more people are willing to use the postal system.

The more letters there are, the lower the average cost, and the lower the cost of long-distance deliveries, attracting more people to use the post office, forming a virtuous circle.

At the same time, he invented a system for sorting mail according to the recipient's name and address, which was later the prototype of the American zip code, which greatly improved the efficiency of the postal system.

To further increase the income of the postal system, he opened a door-to-door delivery service.

Customers can pick up their letters at their doorstep with an extra half-penny instead of going to the post office. He also launched a night delivery service, reducing the delivery time from New York to Boston from about two weeks to four days, forming the original "express" business.

Franklin also brought two more important reforms—the milestone and the newspaper.

On a long-distance journey, there will inevitably be accidents. When encountering unexpected travelers or postmen, they will ask their fellow travelers to go to the next town for help.

However, it is often difficult for fellow travelers to pinpoint the exact location of the accident, resulting in unnecessary delays and financial losses.

Franklin came up with a trick by setting up a stone monument on the side of the Boston Post Road every mile with the words "xx miles from Boston" engraved on it.

As a result, people can position themselves more accurately, which is not only convenient for rescue, but also convenient for pedestrians to plan their journey.

This was the milestone that was later applied to highways in the United States. There are more people traveling long distances, and the economy along the way has grown considerably.

Since then, New England has become the most economically developed region in North America.

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