The inability to effectively communicate was not only a problem with the Daning battlefield and the Liaonan battlefield. With only controlling areas beyond the two provinces, Zhu Youjian felt that he had no control over the situation, and the efficiency of information transmission was really low.
It's outrageous. Not to mention compared with later generations of mobile phones and the Internet. Even if there was a telegraph machine, the situation would be more acceptable than it is now.
Things like telegraph machines and telephones are definitely things that you don’t have to think about. What we can do now is to use existing technical means to achieve the highest efficiency.
Currently, the most accurate and effective way to accurately transmit information is the eight-hundred-mile express. The eight-hundred-mile express refers to the rapid delivery of letters by changing horses without changing people. It is said that it travels eight hundred miles a day, but in actual operation
, which is about five or six hundred miles.
In addition to the 800-mile express, the method currently in use is to use pyrotechnic signals to transmit information. However, although this thing is fast, the load capacity is limited, and the transmission distance is not very far.
Zhu Youjian even wanted to use carrier pigeons to send messages and establish a nationwide carrier pigeon message network. After letting the palace keep some pigeons for a year of experiments, he wisely gave up the idea. Because this thing was simply unreliable, and
I don’t know who said that carrier pigeons could be used to send messages in ancient times, but they expected that day lilies would be cold.
Homing pigeons are unreliable, so we have to find another way.
Asking people to find Lao Zhou, Zhu Youjian said straight to the point: "Grand Master, I am ready to officially abolish the inn!"
Abolish the post station? Zhou Yanru was so shocked by these words that his eyes widened. "Long live, the inn station is the lifeblood of the country, how can it be abolished? The abolition of the inn station a few years ago caused a lot of trouble and caused a lot of trouble. Why now?
Where is the sudden abolition going to happen?”
Zhou Yanru said it lightly, and later generations commented even more excessively on the layoffs of post stations in the second year of Chongzhen, because one of the unemployed people was a man named Li Zicheng, so some people said that the layoffs wiped out the Ming Dynasty.
"Abolition of the post station does not mean that we no longer need the lifeline of the country. It means that I am preparing to completely restructure the Ming Dynasty's communication system. The accommodation of officials in the future will be solved by the provincial, prefecture, county and other yamen to improve the guesthouse facilities. The guesthouse will be a first-class one.
Some second-level and third-level yamen can also set up guest houses. Guest houses are operated on a self-financing basis. In addition to providing accommodation for officials, businessmen who come and go can also stay. The accommodation expenses of officials are borne by the serving yamen.
When an official goes on a business trip, travel expenses must be specially approved based on the number of people, and there may be appropriate differences for different levels and regions. When new officials take office, the travel expenses will be provided by the personnel department at the superior level."
"Your Majesty, will this increase the expenses of all levels of government offices?"
"Anything that is useful will definitely cost money. The only difference is that the unit and nature of the expenditure are different. The money spent is the same when calculated from the general ledger. We need to calculate the big accounts instead of just looking at the small accounts."
"Based on this calculation, it seems that the general ledger is almost balanced. So how to solve the problem of delivering official documents?"
"Establish a Communications Bureau to be responsible for all official information and communication matters. The Communications Bureau is jointly managed by the Cabinet and the Fifth Military Governor's Office. It is a deputy ministerial level unit. Its branches in various places are not under the jurisdiction of local governments. The Communications Bureau's business mainly includes the following contents
, the first is the receipt and delivery of official documents and letters, the second is the receipt and delivery of private letters, the third is the transmission of encrypted military information, and the fourth is the receipt and delivery of official and civilian emergency materials. There are three main ways of transmitting letters, one is the fast horse transmission,
The second is to transport letters and parcels in large quantities by vehicles and ships, and the third is to set up a fireworks and flag signaling network to transmit extremely important messages. Among them, fast horse and vehicle and ship delivery must be graded, and different levels correspond to different speeds."
"Both public letters and official letters must be sent and received?"
"Yes! Except for emergency messages and the 800-mile Express Express, which are not open to the public, all other services of the Communications Bureau can also be used by ordinary people for money. Except for these two, other services must be priced according to the distance and stipulated.
Shipping time. When governments at all levels use these services, they also need to pay and settle."
"Your Majesty, there are so many documents sent and received by the government. Is this a huge expense? There may even be cases where some government offices issue as few official documents as possible in order to save money."
"The Cabinet and the Communications Bureau jointly supervise the printing of official stamps of different currency values. How much are the official stamps worth printed every year? How much does the court pay to the Communications Bureau! The Cabinet distributes these official stamps to governments at all levels as needed and sends official documents
When doing so, official stamps can be affixed according to the charges. Stamps can only be used for sending official letters and official documents, which are regarded as communication subsidies from the court to local government offices. If there are not enough stamps, government offices at all levels need to bear the postage themselves. Of course, the cabinet
When making budgets with the Ministry of Household Affairs, it is also necessary to make statistics on self-expenses for postage at all levels of yamen. In the coming year, the number of stamps printed and issued will be appropriately adjusted according to the situation, and the number of stamps distributed by different yamen will be adjusted."
Another purpose of printing official stamps to uniformly pay the Communications Bureau is to use this method to allocate the basic operating expenses of the Communications Bureau. After all, this organization is a semi-official, semi-profit organization, and how to solve the budget is very difficult.
Troublesome thing. Zhu Youjian's idea is that the imperial court will pay for infrastructure, military communications, and the eight-hundred-mile express, and other operating expenses will be earned by themselves.
"How should we build a firework and flag communication network? Can we just add or modify it on the basis of the previous beacon tower?"
"My idea is to use the existing and planned railway network as the main backbone, while taking care of nearby border passes and prefectures, to build an emergency communication network covering the whole country. Build a fireworks pier about 20 miles away on the main line, with three
There are five staff members and three or four horses. They are responsible for the emergency transmission of fireworks messages and delivering letters to nearby villages and towns. They are also responsible for the daily maintenance of horses and piers. The Communications Bureau hires more horses in various prefectures, counties and provincial governments.
The staff is responsible for daily letter delivery and mailing services. The cost of military intelligence and urgent reports must also be discounted and settled every six months! In short, the communication system is an independent settlement institution that is responsible for its own profits and losses, with the court funding the infrastructure and reimbursing part of the operating expenses."
Relatively speaking, the sending and receiving of letters along the railway line will be faster, so the communication network must also be built based on the railway, so that the operating efficiency will be much faster. In terms of absolute speed, this restructuring will not produce a qualitative improvement. But in reality
If this system is put into operation, the communication efficiency will be greatly improved compared to before. The load capacity of ordinary communication will be several times higher than before, and short emergency messages can even be communicated within one day. It only relies on fireworks relay transmission.
, the information transmitted will be very limited, and communication secrets must be specially compiled. Military information may also require two or three levels of encryption to maintain confidentiality.
The existing conditions can only be like this. Apart from these methods, Zhu Youjian really can't think of a more reliable way to solve the communication dilemma.
