Fengyue Division supports nearly 90,000 people, and the number of people under the Propaganda Supervision Bureau is also quite large, more than 30,000.
Almost all counties in the South have propaganda supervisor branches. Although each county has only one to three official members, they cooperate with storytellers and buskers in restaurants and tea shops.
It is precisely because of these storytellers and buskers that ordinary people who are illiterate and traffickers can understand the contents of each issue of the royal newspaper in real time.
Moreover, if there were any major military and political events, such as the imperial court issuing a political order or edict, the storytellers would have to go to various towns and villages with newspapers to explain the contents of the newspapers to the local villagers, which would undoubtedly be a huge expense.
Not only that, in order to quickly send each issue of the royal newspaper from Nanjing to various provinces, prefectures and counties in a short period of time, the Propaganda Supervisor had to establish a transportation network covering the entire south. Fortunately, all the newspapers were transported.
, one person and one horse can travel a hundred miles a day.
Although you can also ask the postal inspector to help deliver newspapers, unless it is an urgent matter of 800 miles or 600 miles, it will take at least more than half a month to get from Nanjing to a county in Guangzhou.
Such a slow speed is obviously not conducive to the promotion of newspapers, so Dong Xiaowan and Li Xiangjun had to establish a separate transportation network to deliver newspapers.
This is also the reason why the propaganda and supervision expenses have been huge in the past two years, because most of the money was spent on opening branches and establishing a transportation network.
As for the printing plant, the initial investment was relatively large, but as the scale increased, the expenses dropped sharply.
It can be said that apart from wages, current publicity supervisors have very little other costs.
But it was still difficult to make ends meet. The hundreds of thousands of newspapers that were issued every three days could only be sold for a few thousand taels at most, and ten issues a month were only tens of thousands of taels. This amount of money was simply a drop in the bucket.
In addition to selling newspapers, the Propaganda Supervisor has almost no additional income, and Fengyuesi has to subsidize a large amount of money every month in order to operate normally.
For this reason, Li Xiangjun and Dong Xiaowan also racked their brains and racked their brains, trying to balance their income and expenses, but they could never think of a good way to make money.
The key is that this is only the south. If it continues to cover the north, northwest, and southwest regions, the propaganda supervisor will have to spend at least several million taels more.
So after Dong Xiaowan finished his report, the two women lowered their heads and waited uneasily for Emperor Xiao Zhu's instructions. They were very worried that he would remove the Propaganda Supervisor.
But the worries of the two people were obviously unnecessary. Zhang Yan had this intention, but Zhu Cixi knew the importance of publicity supervision. It was the control of public opinion. Not to mention a mere three million yuan, no matter how much money was spent, it was worth it.
of.
"The cost of publicity supervision is indeed high, and it is necessary to build its own transportation network. However, it seems a bit wasteful to invest such a large amount of manpower, material and financial resources, and only sell hundreds of thousands of newspapers per issue."
After Zhu Cixiang said this, he pondered for a moment and said: "That's good. The content of the current royal newspapers is too complicated. I occasionally read them, including military and national affairs, essays and interesting stories, business, and agricultural affairs, all in one newspaper.
, some of them are inappropriate, you can separate them.
For example, it is divided into five types of newspapers: Ming Dynasty Royal Government Daily, Military Daily, Commercial Daily, Fengyue Daily and Literary Daily. Which kind of newspaper is easy to sell, print more, and which kind of newspaper is not easy to sell, print less.
It can be every three days, every seven days or every half month..."
After Zhu Cixiang finished speaking, Li Xiangjun immediately replied: "Your Majesty, in fact, Sister Xiaowan and I have had this idea for a long time, but we are not as meticulous as your Majesty. We originally planned to separate the Fengyue chapter into each chapter.
The price of a newspaper has risen sharply, and it specializes in publishing some essays, interesting stories and novels. Moreover, because the novel is too long, it cannot be published in one issue. This is very attractive to many literati who like the novels in the previous issue. In order to
If I can read the second half of the novel, I am willing to spend dozens or even hundreds of dollars to buy the next issue of the newspaper."
The two women apparently also discovered the huge business opportunity of serializing novels in newspapers and did some research.
When she heard that the novel was published in the newspaper, Zhang Yan looked slightly unnatural, but she recovered after only a moment.
"Well, your idea is right, and it coincides with mine. From now on, each newspaper can publish a few more novels, and each issue can have ten or twenty thousand words. As long as you are willing to publish your novels in the newspaper,
Yes, you can pay some royalties, and you can decide the specific price yourself!"
Zhu Cixiang was not surprised that the two women could think of this. After all, the newspapers had come out, and it was only a matter of time before they thought of serialized novels, so he simply completed and supplemented their thoughts.
The two of them were overjoyed to see that His Majesty not only had no objection, but was more thoughtful than them, and wished they could go back immediately to prepare for the issuance of a new newspaper to sell money.
"The price of military newspapers and political newspapers can be raised to seven cents per copy. The prices of other newspapers can be higher. You guys can figure it out. In the next two years, we will strive to cover every county in the country with newspapers."
Zhu Cixiang added another sentence.
"It's your Majesty!"
The two women immediately replied excitedly.
Secretly, the little emperor was indeed very courageous and did not even blink an eyelid as he spent millions of taels of silver every year.
Zhu Cixi then waved his hand and asked the two women to leave first, but he did not let them leave the palace directly.
After the two girls left, Zhu Cixiang looked at Zhang Yan again and saw that she was looking through the memorials to herself. It was obvious that she did not intend to give him a chance to be alone with Chen Yuanyuan, so he gave a helpless smile.
So he asked ambiguously: "Yuanyuan, how did that matter go?"
"Your Majesty, there are already three thousand of them, and they are being trained. In a year or two, the older ones will be ready to go out."
Chen Yuanyuan obviously understood what Zhu Cixiang was asking, and after thinking about the wording for a moment, she answered.
"Well, that's right, but three thousand is far from enough. We need to recruit more quickly. Moreover, our Ming Dynasty has established a transportation business with the Xiyi people, so our sights cannot be completely limited to the surrounding areas of our Ming Dynasty. Things are rare and valuable. You
Do you understand what I mean?"
"I understand!"
Chen Yuanyuan thought for a moment and nodded, understanding that Zhu Cixiang wanted her to recruit some Western girls to come to the Ming Dynasty for training.
"Haha, girls can be taught, but they don't need to be large, just a small amount can be imported. The main focus should be on the areas around the Ming Dynasty. A dozen or two hundred thousand is not too much. Don't be afraid of spending money, just go ahead and do it." Zhu Cixiang smiled.
Laughter reminded me again.
"I obey the order, oh no, I didn't hear anything, it was all my own idea."
Seeing the two of them playing riddles, Zhang Yan's eyebrows furrowed. Although she couldn't understand a word of it, looking at Xinger's covert expression and Chen Yuanyuan's careful look, she could guess that it must be something bad.
Although he was curious, he still resisted asking.
