Due to the needs of business development, the number of people responsible for managing post offices has increased in recent years, and the organization has gradually become more complex. Since last year, the horse delivery department under Sanya has been complaining, saying that it was originally placed under the control of the Privy Council. The affine near the cabinet was not enough for use. Soon after, the imperial court simply ordered that the Tiju Ma Di Department be moved from the Hening Gate in the south, and merged with the Supervisory Department under the Ministry of War to work near Tianshui Yuanqiao.
This place is surrounded by water on three sides. The west side is close to the forage yard and Chunyou Million Granary and other grain and grass warehouses. Daily road maintenance is very careful, which is very convenient for fast horses to gallop and send messages.
The scale of the postal system managed by them has also grown rapidly. Especially from the port Qingyuan Prefecture to the central Lin'an Prefecture, because it is related to whether the big shots in the court can keep abreast of the entry and exit of bulk materials and transaction prices, and the number of stores set up every year The number of troops increased by more than 20, and the number of soldiers increased by more than 500.
In Kuaiji alone, which is an important transit place, there are now 43 stalls and 481 stalls.
In comparison, the scale of the west-facing shop system has not changed much. After all, facing the sea to the east and south, any news is related to money. Even if the court does not care, many big shots will fill the shop with people. The west-facing shop system The inheritance documents are all serious military and political matters. It doesn't matter if it is done sooner or later.
Having said that, a rising tide lifts all boats. Due to the increasing number of horses in the imperial court, the speed of transmitting military information in Huguang, Sichuan and other places has been much faster than before. Originally, even envoys holding red lacquer gold medals or female yellow and green medals could transmit at most 350 messages per day. Now, thanks to frequent changes of horses, it has returned to the speed of five hundred miles a day in the early days of the Republic of China.
However, the news that reaches the fastest speed usually goes to the residence of the Prime Minister or a certain official first. The Tianshui Yuanqiao side can only receive documents and file them afterwards, and the main job seems to be raising horses. .
In the past few days, dozens of emergency documents have been sent from Sichuan at the fastest speed of 800 miles. They all went directly to the Prime Minister's private door without any additional news.
The outside world has only heard that because of this news, many elite knights with outstanding equestrian skills were exhausted, and dozens of horses died of exhaustion. What exactly happened in Sichuan, others did not dare to ask.
It’s the fourth watch of the day.
Shi Miyuan didn't even sleep, and even asked someone to open the internal and external doors. He was leaning on a brocade couch, chatting with everyone. Judging from his expression, it was not only the old man who was happy or unhappy.
It was the coldest time of the day. The servants set up several large fire pits inside and outside the door for warmth.
The night wind blew by, causing the flames in the brazier to shape into strange shapes, reflecting the light and shadow on the surrounding walls, as if a group of demons were dancing wildly. As soon as the attendants entered the courtyard, the guards felt a chill to their bones, and they would stomp their feet from time to time to activate their blood vessels.
The young and strong guards were like this, and the old Xuan Zhen couldn't bear it. He looked at Shi Miyuan from time to time, and wanted to ask him several times to go back to the house, close the door, and have a good rest. He only had to leave a few people to wait for the military report. But see Looking at Shi Miyuan's expressionless face, the words came to his lips several times and he swallowed them back.
The sound of horse hooves like thunder suddenly came, passing through multiple doors without stopping until they reached the inner courtyard. The leader of the guard at the courtyard gate asked a few questions in a low voice, came back quickly, and presented the document with both hands.
Shi Miyuan's eyes flashed coldly.
Through the flickering firelight, Xuan Zhen vaguely saw that his elegant face turned ferocious in an instant, and the veins on his forehead popped out. But this must be an illusion. In the blink of an eye, Shi Miyuan stood up safely and calmly took the document. Take a look.
The document was an urgent document issued by Sichuan envoy Nie Zishu, saying that a large Mongolian army suddenly broke into Shukou and burned, killed and looted wantonly. Because the mutiny of the troops stationed at Shukou had not subsided, the locals were unable to resist, and one hundred and forty cities had been lost one after another. Extra seats.
In Shi Miyuan's eyes, this document had another meaning. He looked at it carefully twice and noticed that there were several words in the document, which were written in slightly thicker and larger fonts than normal.
Before Nie Zishu went to Sichuan to take office, he used a small order written by Shi Miyuan in private to agree on a method of name transfer that only two people knew. At this moment, these few words caught his eye, and Shi Miyuan immediately understood the expression in the document. the true content.
"Tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry marched eastward as promised. They have already crossed Raofeng Pass and massacred many cities along the way. The momentum is fierce. Very good. Calculate the time. They will soon break into the Tang and Deng areas and threaten Bianliang. .”
Shi Miyuan sighed with satisfaction.
This was the thing that had troubled him the most in recent months. Now that it was progressing smoothly, the barriers in his heart seemed to have disappeared a lot.
Seeing Xuan Zhen beside him, his face full of surprise and confusion, he handed over the document and lay back on the brocade couch.
The nearby guards and maids immediately began to close the doors one after another, and someone else came up to lift up the brocade couch and place it firmly back into the warm curtains.
The door closed, the cold wind was blocked out, and the curtains stopped fluttering. The surrounding environment suddenly became quiet, but Xuan Zhen followed behind, and the footsteps were a bit heavy.
"Zong Yu, are you scared? Do you want to drink some soup to calm yourself down?" Shi Miyuan asked half-jokingly.
Xuan Zhen didn't know what to say for a moment.
He has a close relationship with Shi Miyuan and has always been regarded as a close confidant. However, because he is responsible for trade affairs with the north, he often travels across the country and rarely returns to Lin'an. Therefore, he does not know some things and only vaguely understands them. I heard some rumors.
In recent years, the Zhou Dynasty has continued to expand its influence along the coast of the Song Dynasty through maritime trade. They even abused force in many places under the banner of pirates, disturbed local peace, and attracted local urgent documents to fly like snowflakes, which greatly affected the The political stability of the Song Dynasty also led some people to criticize Prime Minister Shi for his ineffective governance.
Xuan Zhen heard that Shi was extremely dissatisfied with this.
In fact, the maritime power of the Zhou people was originally insignificant, but they continued to lure Song craftsmen and boatmen to seek refuge northward with large sums of money. It is said that they built large-scale shipyards in Shandong and Liaodong. As a result, their fleets It has expanded rapidly, and its scope of activities has reached Guangzhou in the south, and is now competing with the maritime merchants of the Song Dynasty for profits.
Xuan Zhen heard that the wealthy merchants on the sea who were close to Shi were extremely dissatisfied with this.
In addition to this, there are many other odds and ends. The business dealings with the Zhou State brought great benefits to Shi Xiang, but the negative consequences gradually appeared. In the final analysis, the power of the Zhou State was too strong.
Their active actions and strong enterprising spirit exceeded previous expectations. For the Song Dynasty, which had always been a backwater, the disturbance they brought was too intense.
Naturally, Shi Miyuan would not remain indifferent to this situation.
The two families are not blood-based partners. They are tied together by their interests, and they can fall out at any time because of their interests. As for cooperating and confronting each other at the same time, that is a piece of cake, and there is no scruple at all.
It's just that most of the Zhou people were born recklessly, relied on strong force, and acted in a violent and rough style. In the eyes of a political veteran like Shi Xiang, it was necessary to suppress their momentum of profit-seeking and give the Zhou people a little punishment.
There are so many ways available.
But Xuan Zhen really didn't expect that the Prime Minister would move so much once he took action? He actually commanded the Tatar army in the north at the palm of his hand, and let the Tatars use tens of thousands of people to fight against the Zhou people?
No wonder Dong Juyi and Nie Zishu were sent to Sichuan one after another. No wonder Dong Juyi’s whereabouts are unknown after he was dismissed from office. It turns out that the prime minister had already made a plan, and he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of the imperial court to sort out the Shu region...
This, how can this be done casually?
Xuan Zhen was really frightened.
His mind suddenly recalled the old story of the time when Emperor Daojun made an agreement with the Jurchens to conquer the Liao Dynasty.
During that Maritime Alliance, the Song Dynasty also thought that it could use the Jurchens for its own purposes. As a result, half of the country changed hands, the two emperors went on a hunt in the north, and the country's power became uncontrollable. What agreement did the Prime Minister make with the Mongols?
What will be the result? Isn't it possible that Shi was not afraid of the tragedy during the Jingkang period? Even if he was not afraid, he should understand that the government and the opposition were afraid of it, right?
No, no, let’s not talk about the result. Just introducing the Mongols to cross the Shukou is no different than introducing a wolf into the house.
From the moment he heard the news, Xuan Zhen felt his head was buzzing and his brain ached severely. Although he followed Shi Xiang in, he had no idea what he was doing.
When Shi Miyuan asked, he woke up with horror.
With the wisdom of the historian, it is impossible to imagine the consequences of such actions, but he still drove the Mongols to confront the Zhou Dynasty... What is the reason?
Xuan Zhen didn't want to ask too directly, so he took a roundabout way and said, "I just said that the Mongols massacred the cities in Sichuan? I wonder how much local damage was done? Since the prime minister used them, he couldn't have failed to provide food and fodder, right?
, why are they still behaving like this?”
"The border states at the entrance of Shu are exhausted and cannot produce much food for a while. The Mongols are no different from wild beasts, so it is natural for them to plunder."
Shi Miyuan raised his hand to comb his plump beard and continued: "Let's use its strengths and don't worry about some vulgarities... Even if there is a loss, it is worth it."