Chapter 195: Duplicating an Entire Courier Station System

Although Mao Yujian was a newly promoted Censor — transferred into the capital from a County Magistrate post in the provinces, which counted as a major promotion — that did not mean he had no idea what it meant to be "companions with Huang Liji."

Officials great and small throughout the capital had been spreading the word in private: when you were fed up with so-and-so, the most vicious curse was "sooner or later you'll end up companions with Huang Liji."

When Mao Yujian first arrived in the capital, he knew that Huang Liji was a former Chief Grand Secretary who had been done to death by the Chongzhen Emperor — but was it not just death? Could that frighten scholars of our generation?

But when Mao Yujian saw those straw men at the Meridian Gate — stitched and patched back together countless times — he understood completely in his heart just what "companions with Huang Liji" really meant. It was too damn vicious.

No matter the season, they hung there above the Meridian Gate. It was enough to make a man's balls ache, all right?

He had heard that only during the New Year's holiday were those straw men taken down, to avoid spoiling the scenery. Once the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth of the first month was over, they would be hung right back up.

Now, hearing the Chongzhen Emperor say he intended to hang him up there too, a surge of urine he could no longer control shot straight for his crotch. In an instant, a stench of piss spread outward with Mao Yujian at its center, making the other officials around him cover their noses and recoil.

The Chongzhen Emperor waved a hand in disgust. At once, the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Palace Guard Commanders on duty came forward and, ignoring Mao Yujian's pleas for mercy, simply dragged him away.

Mao Yujian had been taken off to be made into a straw man, but the Chongzhen Emperor looked at the assembled ministers in the hall and spoke again: "My beloved ministers, who among you can tell Us just how many people have treated the Courier Travel Regulations set down in the third year of Wanli as a joke?

Hm?!

Drawing the dynasty's salary while still scheming to take advantage of the dynasty — put your hands on your consciences and ask yourselves, do they not ache? Assuming you still have consciences!"

Having delivered this speech, Chongzhen looked down at the court ministers, who had knelt to beg forgiveness and now lay prostrate and silent on the floor, and felt another surge of loathing in his heart.

"All of you, rise."

After ordering the court officials to their feet, Chongzhen continued: "The Courier Travel Regulations must be strictly enforced. But what is to be done about everyone else?

If express courier travel is forbidden, speed will inevitably suffer, and the north-south intercourse of the Great Ming will suffer as well.

Therefore, do any of my beloved ministers have a good solution?"

Wen Tiren pondered for a long moment, then stepped out of his rank, bowed, and memorialized: "Reporting to Your Majesty, this minister believes that an entirely separate set of courier stations could be established, dedicated to ordinary use by the common people and the government.

As for the private letter offices that already exist among the people, they can serve as a supplement. That is, neither encourage them nor suppress them — simply let them develop on their own."

Chongzhen grunted an acknowledgment. This was what a man who actually got things done ought to say. Never mind whether the idea was workable or not — at least the man had offered a solution.

As for what to do if it proved unworkable, that was simple enough. The Great Ming had no shortage of people; everyone could put their heads together.

As long as you kept these lords of the court constantly thinking — no food and no going home until they came up with something — then solutions would be plentiful.

Besides, how could the Chongzhen Emperor not recognize what Wen Tiren was proposing? Was it not just the postal system of later ages?

As for whatever the hell those "private letter offices" were, the Chongzhen Emperor admitted he had no idea. But not knowing was no problem — he could simply have it looked into.

Having made up his mind, the Chongzhen Emperor grunted again and continued: "If we were to build an entirely separate courier station system, how long would it take? How many personnel would need to be recruited? And how much would it cost?"

Motherfucker!

Wen Tiren truly had no damn clue about any of the questions the Chongzhen Emperor had just asked. And it was not just Wen Tiren — no one in the entire court had any idea of the approximate time, manpower, and expense required to completely duplicate a courier station system.

The courier stations were neither a big thing nor a small thing; this whole apparatus had been under construction ever since the time of Zhu Yuanzhang.

After the Yuan dynasty destroyed the Song, because the territory was too vast and administration inconvenient, in order to transmit military intelligence and transport supplies rapidly, they converted the courier posts of the Song and earlier into jamchi.

Take Shaanxi as an example: within the entire territory of Shaanxi there were eighty horse stations and one water station. Each station had a Courier Prefect, a Courier Deputy, a Transport Overseer, and a Centurion, dividing responsibility for the various affairs.

The Courier Prefect was the head of the station; the Courier Deputy assisted with station affairs; the Transport Overseer was specifically in charge of carts and horses; the Centurion was the "chief of a hundred men," selected from among the station households, and served as the station's storehouse officer.

Those who guarded the warehouses were called storehouse keepers, under the Centurion's command. A Provisioning Officer was also appointed to manage the supply of food and drink.

Courier officials served three-year terms and were rotated upon completion.

Civilians conscripted for labor service at the courier stations were called station households.

Once a station household was registered in the household rolls, the service was for life; as long as the household line did not die out, a son succeeded his deceased father, and a younger brother succeeded his elder brother.

The station households were responsible for furnishing the station with horses, mules, carts, and boats, and for providing all necessary equipment and expenses out of their own pockets.

The number of station households at each station varied, ranging from as many as two or three thousand to as few as several dozen or one or two hundred.

Station households were organized on a decimal system: ten households formed one jia, with a placard head, i. e., the chief of the ten households, who managed the supply of station horses. Ten jia constituted one Centurion.

Besides supplying transport equipment and performing miscellaneous labor, station households were also required to supply food and drink to passing envoys.

Because of the greed and cruelty of the officials, the burdens on the station households had no fixed limit, and they often lost their entire fortunes, abandoned their homes and fled — a most pitiable state.

By the time the cowherd boy had beaten the Mongol Yuan to death, this entire courier station system fell cheaply into the lap of the Great Ming. Not only that, but Old Zhu at the time also continuously strengthened the construction of the courier station system in remote regions.

Ming courier stations were each headed by one Courier Station Master, unranked, mostly recruited from among hereditary minor functionaries, and responsible for the station's reception and send-off affairs.

After serving three years, they could proceed to the Ministry of Personnel to await reassignment.

Courier Station Masters were selected from well-to-do households among the common people, choosing those whose talent and appearance were serviceable.

The county nominated them to the prefecture, the prefecture to the province, and the province to the Provincial Administration Commission before they could be accepted into service. There were also court officials demoted to serve as Courier Station Masters.

In remote areas where no Courier Station Master was appointed, a Centurion from the guard post served as the courier official.

Although the Courier Station Master's post was lowly and his authority slight, his responsibilities were important, for those he received and sent off were mostly eminent officials and high-ranking officers.

Besides the Courier Station Master, there was usually one clerical assistant to aid him in his work. Courier clerks were required to serve nine years before their term was complete.

Apart from the administrative personnel, Ming courier stations also had labor conscripts. The labor conscripts, also called courier runners, were enormous in number and diverse in origin.

There were professional courier runners who served at the stations year-round; impoverished peasants who provided their own rations and took turns serving at the stations; frontier garrison soldiers seconded for the duty; and convicts banished to remote border courier stations.

The division of labor among the conscripts was even more meticulous than that of the Mongol Yuan station households: there were horse grooms and donkey grooms, horse heads and donkey heads.

The horse grooms and donkey grooms were responsible for raising the horses and donkeys and answering dispatches. The horse heads and donkey heads were responsible for purchasing horses, donkeys, and miscellaneous supplies.

Cart drivers and cooks each had their specialized duties. Storehouse keepers were divided into grain-store keepers, equipment-store keepers, and fodder-store keepers.

Measurers and security guards were responsible for the safety of the station and its warehouses. Prisoner-watch conscripts were responsible for guarding passing convicts.

Sedan-chair bearers and pole bearers performed the most backbreaking labor.

Wen Tiren had a rough knowledge of some of this information; the Chongzhen Emperor had absolutely none.

And in addition to all the personnel listed above, there were also undercover agents whom the Embroidered Uniform Guard stationed at each courier station — only their posts were on the Embroidered Uniform Guard's rolls, not the courier stations'.

Besides this courier station system, the Great Ming also had Transport Offices set up along certain main courier routes, specifically responsible for the transport of official goods. A Transport Office generally had around two hundred oxen for pulling carts.

Each large cart, carrying fifteen shi of grain, was assigned three carters, three oxen, and ten cloth sacks. Each small cart, carrying three shi of grain, was assigned one carter and one ox.

The large carts were comparatively more economical in manpower and oxen.

For instance, when the Chongzhen Emperor dumped Lord Zhang at a courier station to handle those grain transport problems, the matter would ultimately have fallen to the Transport Offices.

It was just that the Chongzhen Emperor was so clueless he did not understand this and assumed everything went through the courier stations, which was why he had gone to a courier station to rest in the first place — and precisely because of that, he had run into Mao Yujian's bizarre wife.

Wen Tiren turned the matter over and over in his mind and concluded that he could not shoulder this alone.

If he did not drag a few other people into the water on this, even if he worked himself to death, it would probably still be nearly impossible to pull off: "Reporting to Your Majesty, this matter is indeed a benevolent policy.

However, the related affairs are far too numerous, and this minister alone cannot be clear on all the intricacies involved.

This minister requests that Your Majesty order the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue each to assign personnel to take joint responsibility for this matter."

The clueless Chongzhen Emperor thought it over, then nodded and said: "Approved. Ministers Guo and Cui shall select personnel and follow Minister Wen's direction. Sort this matter out as quickly as possible and then submit it to Us for review."

What drove the grandees at court to despair, however, was that the Emperor remained exactly the same as he had always been, and would not change in the slightest just because he was taking action against the courier stations this time.

For early the next morning, word was sent out from the palace: having arranged matters, the Chongzhen Emperor had once again fled, destination unknown.

Moreover, the Grand Secretariat confirmed the news — he had simply dumped the whole thing on Wen Tiren, Cui Chengxiu, and Guo Yunhou, leaving the three of them staring at each other in utter stupefaction.

(End of chapter)