There are three post stations in Chang'an, one in the east, west and south in addition to the north. The south post station is more responsible for handling letters, official documents and other items from various places, and some are closer to the post offices of later generations.
Chang'an is a big city. There are not only many residents in the city, but also many people in the tombs. Of course, these people also need to contact relatives and friends far away, so letters, bamboo slips, wooden slips, etc. are sent out and in every day.
Very much.
At present, most of the "people" who write letters are still descendants of the gentry.
Although Feiqian has developed paper with lower price and better quality, these two "comparisons" are only relative to the previous paper. For most common people, even for the children of the gentry,
It is said that bamboo slips and wooden slips are still "free" text carriers that are simple and can be used anywhere, and do not even cost money, so a large number of people are still using them.
Because most of the people in the feudal dynasty were illiterate, even if you wanted to send a letter, it was not an easy task. You needed to find a scholar who could write, spend a sum of money first, and then find the right way.
People or institutions. At the same time, because of the illiteracy of the people, the officials rarely talk about opening special places for people to send letters to remote areas. Institutions such as post stations must be in cities, or even larger cities.
have.
If you want to send a letter, you must first pay someone to write the letter, then pay someone to bring it from the countryside to the city, then spend money to send it from a certain city to a certain city, and finally spend a sum of money to have it sent from the inn.
To deliver it to someone's home, each process requires expenses. Although the price is not too high, it is not cheap either.
Ordinary businessmen will be willing to carry letters along the way, which range from tens to hundreds of pennies.
Large-scale queues such as water transport also carry letters, and the charges are usually hundreds of dollars.
And because most people in the feudal dynasty never leave their hometown, finding the right person is actually a very accidental thing. Maybe even if you spend money to write a letter, you can only do it at home.
I left it there until the ink on the letter smudged and the paper turned yellow, but I still couldn't send it.
It is precisely because of these problems that in ancient times, ordinary people hardly sent letters. When they really missed someone very much, they might just stand in the wind and murmur a few words.
Even if you entrust your heart to the east wind.
The letters currently processed by the Chang'an City South Post Station are also basically letters exchanged between the gentry children. The postmen at the post station also prefer to deliver the letters of these gentry children, because as long as the letter is delivered, there will be some errands.
As a thank you, it can range from a few dozen to a hundred coins, and you may even get some extra wine and meat, which is really a pleasure.
"It's from Li! It's from Li! It's from Maoling!" The clerk in charge of distributing letters came out with a lot of letters, put them on the table, picked up one, and shouted.
"Hey! Give it to me! I just want to go to Maoling!" The soldiers surrounding him listened with their ears pricked up. When they met those who were passing by, they hurriedly raised their hands to signal, and then stepped forward to receive the letter that needed to be delivered.
"Webster, Webster's letter! Who is going? Hey, weren't you all rushing to deliver this before?" The clerk picked up another letter and called for a long time but no one answered.
He couldn't help but frown and said, "Forget it, let's just put it here first... The next letter is from the Zhang family, the Zhang family from the south of the city..."
"Ah! The Zhang family in the south of the city is right next door to my house! I'll go, I'll go!" An older postman came up. The other two postmen who originally wanted to step forward saw it and shrank back.
go back.
"Old Zhangtou, aren't you too lazy to send these letters on weekdays?" The clerk also smiled and joked, "Register it yourself!"
The old postman Lao Zhang smiled and said, "That's because my legs and feet are not good on weekdays, so I can't compete with you young people from a distance. I'm afraid of delaying things for others... But Zhang's family is from the same neighborhood and the same street as mine."
I just took it with me when I got home...Last time, Zhang's people asked me if I had any letters. Now there is a letter. If I don't bring it to them, wouldn't it make me a little embarrassed when we meet..."
The clerk nodded and made a favor, "That's right... next time there is a letter from the Zhang family in the south of the city, I can leave it to you."
"That's a good feeling!" Lao Zhangtou smiled and took the letter, which was a piece of wood.
Lao Zhangtou touched the tail of the wooden tablet with his fingers, then his eyes moved, but he quickly put the wooden tablet into his arms as if nothing was wrong.
Because the words on the wooden tablets are written directly on the wooden tablets, what is written can be seen by everyone who handles them. Therefore, the letters on the wooden tablets are actually very simple, but the simpler things are, there may be hidden things underneath.
The more complicated the information.
Lao Zhang got off duty and went home with the wooden slip in his arms. He greeted people he knew along the way, but there was nothing unusual at all. It wasn't until he arrived at Zhang's courtyard in the south of the city that he showed a little smile.
Be serious.
Lao Zhangtou opened the courtyard door and took out the wooden tablet.
The wooden tablet was taken into the hands of another person, and then he reached out and touched the tail of the wooden tablet, with the same serious expression...
Immediately, the wooden tablet did not stay at Zhang's small courtyard in the south of the city. Those who came in from the front door went directly from the back, turned around a few alleys, and entered the back corner door of a shop, and then handed over.
It's in the hands of the person in charge.
The person in charge also touched the tail of the wooden tablet, then took the wooden tablet into the darkroom. According to the instructions in advance, he prepared hot water to dissolve the isinglass and immersed the wooden tablet in the water.
Isinglass is rich in protein, so using some special methods, you can brew a glue with greater viscosity, even comparable to 502 in later generations. However, the sticky items of this fish glue are afraid of water and heat, so when encountered
Hot water will lose its viscosity.
Because there are words written on the wooden tablets, normally, ordinary people will keep the wooden tablets away from water. If the wooden tablets get wet and the words are smudged, then who can see clearly what is written? And isinglass
This thing is not something that ordinary people can use, so people in the Youwen Division use this simple wooden slip to convey some non-urgent information.
The glue on the wooden slip soon separated, revealing the real letter sealed with wax inside.
Soon, the original wooden slip and the letter inside were quickly put into a new box, and then sent directly to the back door of Youwen Division, and were delivered to Kan Ze by the clerk.
Kan Ze looked at the information in his hand and couldn't help but reach out and rub his eyebrows.
The manpower of the Youwen Division is now gradually being deployed, and more and more information has been collected. Moreover, because Pang Tong left Chang'an, some relevant information has naturally been gathered here in Kanze, which has made Kanze...
It is very busy. From morning to night every day, almost all of it is spent in officialdom.
This is a letter sent by Zhang An, the Supervisor of the Western Regions. It talks about the issue of official administration in the Western Regions. It mentions that Counselor Wang, the Supervisor of the Western Regions, was forced to die...
This is a big problem.
Counselor Wang himself is not that important, but the issues reflected by this incident are important.
This is like the feudal dynasty of later generations sending people to a place to investigate, but they fell off a cliff and died halfway, or the boat capsized while taking a boat...
Is it such a coincidence?
Kan Ze doesn't believe there are any pure coincidences in this world.
Combining some of the things reported before, he could almost deduce that Counselor Wang from the Zhiyin Supervisor must have known something before he was killed.
At a small scale, this matter is called murder, but at a serious scale...
That's hard to say.
Kan Ze was silent for a while, and then he first called the old manager in charge of filing the information, and then hurried to the Chancellor's desk with the information. Of course, filing didn't mean this piece of information.
It is necessary to copy it for the senior manager, but to record some basic information of the information, such as where it came from, who handled it, etc. As for the main content of the information, it is generally not recorded.
, but wait until the information is out of date before registering its contents.
Because Kan Ze was still affiliated with the Chancellor, he found Xun You first.
Xun You was also very busy during this period. Although there were the most officials in the Chancery, there were also the most things in the Chancery. This was because Feiqian gave each region relatively high autonomy.
Under any circumstances, there are so many events that need to be dealt with. After all, we are still a big man at the moment, and the degree of centralization is not very high.
If there was such a high degree of centralization as in later feudal dynasties, and all local matters, big and small, had to be reported for instructions, you can imagine the matters that the central court had to deal with every day. And with so many things, the emperor would never be able to approve them by himself.
So many memorials naturally gave birth to the institution of the cabinet, and then the ministers in power.
Good ruling ministers can indeed reduce the emperor's burden, but bad ruling ministers...
Any policy is actually like a sword, it has two edges. If it accidentally draws blood, can all the blame be placed on the sword?
Xun You looked at the information brought by Kan Ze and sighed slightly. Then he said to Kan Ze to stop for a moment, then he speeded up the speed of reviewing and processing the documents. Then he stood up and followed him before the next batch of documents was delivered.
Kan Ze went to the festival hall of Huqi Mansion together.
In the feudal dynasty, officials often worked based on their conscience.
This is not only true in the central court, but also in local areas.
Because it is difficult to have a fixed indicator.
Even now Fei Qian has proposed the idea of performance appraisal for officials, but how to implement it, how to clearly guide the direction of local officials, and how to establish a code of conduct at the grassroots level and make every official abide by it, Xun You cannot do it.
, Fei Qian couldn't do it, and even a thousand years later, it was still difficult to do it.
When Xun You and Kan Ze arrived at the festival hall, not only Fei Qian but also Fei Zhen were in the festival hall.
There is a saying that the children of the poor will be in charge of the family early, but there is also a similar saying that the children of the rich will be in charge of money early and the children of officials will be officials early.
When Feizhen saw Xun You and Kan Ze coming, she subconsciously stood up, saluted Xun You and Kan Ze first, and then retreated to the inner hall.
Xun You and Kan Ze returned the courtesy and sat down at Fei Qian's signal.
Fei Qian looked at Xun You and Kan Ze and asked, "What's the matter?"
Of course, what Fei Qian asked was nonsense. If nothing had happened, Xun You and Kan Ze would not have come together, but Fei Qian still wanted to say such a thing, just like what he said most of the time.
Xun You nodded towards Kan Ze.
Kan Ze took out the information from his pocket and delivered it to Fei Qian's desk, "This is the information record sent by the Western Regions Division of the Department of Information..."
Fei Qian was silent for a moment, his eyes resting on the message. He hesitated slightly, but he quickly picked it up, read it once, and then put it down gently. "What do you two think about this matter?"
See?"
Xun You tilted his head slightly, signaling Kan Ze to speak first.
This is not because Xun You is evasive, but because this matter was discovered and reported by Kan Ze, so naturally Kan Ze needs to talk about it first.
"Lord, in the Western Region, the administration of officials has been defeated, the law is not followed, and the laws are not observed. Although there is no civil unrest for the time being, the resentment is hidden underneath. It looks like it is calm. If there is a slight disturbance, anger will flow out.
Ye!" Kanze did not include Hu. He said, "This matter cannot be ignored. You should ask the leader of the Western Regions! You should choose capable officials and change it! The Protector of the Western Regions is also a Han country. Han laws should be followed and should be used.
The method of Longyou is practiced in the Western Regions!"
What Kan Ze said went straight to the point.
He believes that major problems have arisen in the official evaluation system in the Western Regions, so that corruption among officials has become common. This matter is not only related to daily administrative efficiency, but may also affect the public support of the Western Regions and have a negative impact on the future of the Han Dynasty.
In terms of the development of the Western Region, it has also come to a time when governance is necessary.
Xun You said from the side, "Han Feizi once said, "The ruler of the Ming Dynasty governs the officials but does not govern the people." The ruler of the Western Regions is responsible for the chaos among officials."
Xun You's words were also very direct. Not only did he point out Lu Bu's problem, but he also said that it was Fei Qian's problem. After all, Fei Qian was Lu Bu's "master" to a certain extent.
Does it sound good to speak bluntly? Most of them don't sound good, but both Xun You and Kan Ze know that they say it directly, and Fei Qian will not be angry when his ministers speak out, so they dare to speak out.
Fei Qian pinched his beard and smiled bitterly.
He knew that there would be problems in the Western Regions, but he did not expect that problems would occur so early. Lu Fengxian, didn’t you read the Zuo Zhuan I gave you? You have to read the beginning no matter what? You need to know the beginning of Zuo Zhuan.
It's "Zheng Burke Duan"!
"In the past, when Li Wenyou was still here, Xiliang established the laws of the Western Regions..." Fei Qian sighed and said slowly, "The way of the Western Regions is Wenyou's last wish..."
As the person in charge of the actual affairs of the Han Dynasty, Li Ru also imagined how to set up a political system and official regulations that he thought was suitable. The Western Regions came to the Western Regions after Li Ru was unable to implement his ideas in the Han Dynasty.
, a new attempt that was re-planned based on the new ideas given by Fei Qian.
In Li Ru's concept, it is also a very important point in the laws of the Western Regions, that is, the appointment of Hu people, whether it is a mercenary army of Hu people, or a commission from a local state in the Western Regions, the attitude towards the Hu people is far better than that of the Han people.
The Central Plains is much broader. This is the influence of life in Xiliang on Li Ru, and it is also the influence of Li Ru on the Western Regions.
The early Han Dynasty's rejection of the Hu people and its discrimination against the Han people living on the border left a deep imprint on Li Ru's growth and learning process. Therefore, when Li Ru got a stage to display his talents, he continued to
Looking for a way, he persuaded Dong Zhuo to accept Hu soldiers and even Lu Bu. He hoped to establish a more tolerant and harmonious Han Dynasty where Hu and Han blended together. Even in the later stages of his life, he was trying to realize his youthful ideals in the Western Regions.
, until the last moment of life.
The reason why Fei Qian respected Li Ru was not entirely because Li Ru was kind to Fei Qian, but also largely because Fei Qian saw in Li Ru the spirit of having the courage to reform, try, break through, and change.
This kind of spirit is rarely seen among the Shandong gentry. Perhaps it was this spirit that made Li Ru incompatible with the old-fashioned and conservative nature of the Shandong gentry.
Times will change, and the Han Dynasty needs to innovate. If a dynasty is strictly blocked by classes and cannot circulate up and down, it means that it has come to an end.
"The matter of official administration is the most important thing of the country." Fei Qian paused for a moment and continued, "In the ancient Shun canon, there was a saying about performance appraisal for three years. After three appraisals, you were deposed, and youming was deposed, and you were Xianxi. Therefore, the chaos in the Western Regions,
This is the reason for the administration of officials, and the assessment of official administration should be carried out. Use the six strategies of listening and the eight methods of examination."
The "Six Strategies" mentioned by Fei Qian refer to the six aspects of "Integrity, Integrity, Integrity, Respect, Integrity, Integrity, and Integrity", while the "Eight Methods" are the assessment of administrative agencies and departments, mainly
Examine whether the affiliations between departments are clear, whether the department's scope of responsibilities is strictly adhered to, whether the communication between departments abides by relevant regulations, whether the department's routine affairs are handled appropriately, whether each department operates in accordance with the rules, etc...
These "Six Strategies" and "Eight Strategies" were not created by Fei Qianzhi, but had already existed during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It is said to have been created by the King of Zhou. Of course, this King of Zhou created it along with most of the works created by the King of Zhou.
The creation is the same, there may be slight differences, but at least during the Warring States Period, relatively complete laws and regulations have been formed.
Even in the Qin State, a code of conduct for officials such as an employee handbook and a code of conduct for public servants was issued, which was called "The Way of Being an Official". It stipulated that officials should have "five virtues", that is, "Sincerely trust me,
"Be honest and honest, judge things properly, be happy to do good deeds, and give in to others". If "the five are completed, there will be a big reward"; there are also "five mistakes", that is, "praising one's ability, respecting one's greatness, and being good at it"
Cutting, it is not wise to do harm, it is a cheap man but a valuable product."
At the same time, he also emphasized to the officials repeatedly and sincerely, "If you are careful, you will not be able to return your talents; if you are careful, you will not forget your plans; if you are cautious, you will not be able to follow up on your words; if you are careful, you will not be rewarded with food"! When you see
When these rules and regulations were introduced, Fei Qian felt that even China was leading the entire world at that time!
At such an early age, China had already thought about official governance, and had even proposed relevant regulations and formulated relevant laws, but...
"We should take care of the evils in the Western Regions..." Fei Qian said with certainty, "However, you two, in the early days of the Han Dynasty, there was chaos among the feudal vassals, and now in the Western Regions, there is also chaos. This bloodline, poisoned, will harm the skin."
, one should be a good doctor even if the disease cannot be cured, but in the end it is better to eliminate it without form. Those who are good at fighting should stand in an invincible position without losing the enemy. The Western Region belongs to the battlefield,
If we take the two as generals, how can we fight?"
