Infrastructure masters in the red building

Jia Fang has actually thought about private soldiers.

The terrain in the south is changeable and the roads are impassable. Every village and every village often has its own defense forces, and they are quite vigilant against outsiders.It is very difficult for a small group of rogues to take advantage of the various villages and villages, unless it is like the Seven Caves and Thirteen Villages in the past, entangled forces and rose up to resist, so as to form a force that can shock the officers and soldiers in this area.

But from what Village Chief Tao said, these bandits have excellent weapons, their personnel are young and strong, they come and go in a very orderly manner, and when considering which village to plunder, they even have to consider the ratio of input to output.

In Jia Fang's view, this is no longer a simple banditry, but more like a mercenary in the future, taking money from others to eliminate disasters.

But there are ways to deal with these bandits.Previously, Xiang Fengyi had already given Jia Fang a hint: strengthen communication between villages and townships, communicate with each other, and jointly prevent and control.

Jia felt relieved: He needs a convenient communication mechanism, and the townships can communicate with each other in a short period of time, so it is time to build a post office; at the same time, he also needs an efficient intelligence agency, responsible for collecting and analyzing information from all townships. information between.

So it was decided——Jia Fang made the decision immediately, he wanted to build a post office, and then build an intelligence analysis bureau.

He is currently serving as the Pingnan Jiedu Envoy, and has placed the Jiedu Envoy's office in Wuyuan County, and his own fief is only less than an hour away from Wuyuan County.Therefore, Jia Fang decided to establish a postal system belonging to southern states and counties with Wuyuan County as the center. A postal system close to the modern postal system came out.

So he and Zheng Boyi spread out a map of post offices belonging to ten states and counties in the south in the office of the Jiedu envoy in Wuyuan.

In this time and space, the post office inherited the old system and was affiliated to the Ministry of War. It was specially used to deliver emergency documents from the government, so it was called "urgent post".Wuyuan County, where Jia Fang is located, has a moderate geographical location. It will not take a day at most for the urgent mail to be delivered here from the capitals of ten southern states - as long as ten special "urgent posts" are built between the capitals of each state and Wuyuan The line is fine.

In addition, there are post stations in all counties and townships below the prefectures.Once the counties and townships found banditry, they would theoretically report it one by one. Such urgent reports to Wu Yuanlai would take no more than two days at most.

But Jia Fang immediately saw a problem: if bandits avoid these counties and townships with post posts and go to villages and villages to plunder, then the local officials sitting at the state and county level will be completely ignorant of this.They wouldn't even know that bandits sneaked close to them.

In Jia Fang's view, the main problem with this postal post system: the design of this system is purely for the one-way transmission of emergency military information.Military information can be sent from the local area to the Jiedu Envoy's office very quickly, and any decision Jia Fang can make (if he can make it) can also be sent to the local area quickly.

But these post posts are completely non-civilian.Ordinary people still need someone to bring the letter to deliver the letter, and sometimes it takes ten and a half months for a letter to be sent.

The same is true for the transmission of public information. Take Taoyuan Village as an example. In the early days, the village held its own fair, relying on the villagers to go to the nearby towns to spread the news. After several times, people gradually came. Later, word of mouth was established, and finally there were more people on the first and fifteenth day of the new year.

Later, the episodes of Taoyuanzhai were changed from the first and fifteenth day of the lunar new year to one episode every five days.At the beginning, on the fifth and tenth day of the lunar new year, the village was still empty. If I asked someone to bring it, if the other party had a bad memory, they would forget about it when they returned home.It always takes three or five times like this before the other party can remember that there is a meeting in Taoyuan Village today.

It can be said that the postal post system has been initially established in the military aspect, but the civilian aspect has no foundation at all.

So Jia Fang asked Zheng Boyi: "Does Mr. Zheng have any good ideas?"

Zheng Boyi smiled and said: "This post station has always been fast, convenient and trustworthy. After all, it is not its job. What is lacking is beneficial. The people have something to ask for in the post post. What is lacking is trust."

Jia Fang immediately nodded and said with a smile: "What Mr. Zheng said fits my heart very well."

The post office system has never been obliged to deliver letters for the people, and the people feel frightened when they hear the word "Military Department", so naturally they dare not entrust the post post at will.

However, when the common people entrust others to transmit letters, they often cannot control the whereabouts of the letters. Either the letters are lost, or important information is privately disassembled by others, and the content is leaked, causing countless disputes.

There are needs and abilities on the one hand, but they don't match up at all.

Jia Fang said: "It's simple, let the post office deliver letters on behalf of the people, and charge a certain amount of postage at the same time, isn't that all right?"

Zheng Boyi followed Jia Fang's words and thought: "The post office transmits military information between counties and prefectures, but now it does not transmit military information, and transmits letters from the people. It is indeed feasible. However, when the people send letters, they go to the post office by themselves. Then , After the letter is delivered to the post office of the other party, how will it be delivered to the people?"

Jia Fang was confident: "Naturally, the post office in each county will hire a local postman to be responsible for delivering the letters received by the post office to the residences of the people. Or they don't need to send them to the residences at all, just go to the homes of the village chiefs. , Once the letter is placed at home in every mile, there will be a way to deliver the letter to the recipient." Solving this last mile problem is not difficult at all.

"If I were a commoner, how would I know how much I should give to the post office?"

Jia Fang laughed and said, "One price within the county, one price within the prefecture, and another price outside the prefecture. The difference between the prices is exactly the cost of postal delivery in various places. What do you think, sir?"

Zheng Boyi nodded, and continued to ask: "But if you go out of this county, how will the post office know that the sender has paid the postage after receiving these letters?"

Jia Fang laughed and said, "That's even simpler. Assuming that the postage for sending letters in this county is two pennies, then we will stick a coupon worth two pennies on the envelope..."

Zheng Boyi was surprised: "Stick the circulation coupon on the envelope?"

Jia Fang shook his hand quickly: "No, no, no, I'm not talking about sticking the circulation coupon on the envelope—I mean, just like printing the circulation coupon, specially printing a certificate representing the postage. People pay money at the post office. Buy it, stick it on the envelope, and the post office will put a stamp on it after receiving it, indicating that the postage has been received.”

Zheng Boyi heard Jia Fang's complicated words, but he still didn't get around it for a long time: "...But isn't that the same as sticking the circulation coupons on the cover?"

Jia Fang explained a few words, then simply patted the table and said, "Then give this kind of certificate a name and call it-'stamp'!"

This post office experiment, which has not yet been approved, will be carried out immediately in the entire territory of the ten southern states.

The Ministry of War agreed to build ten "urgent posts" from the capitals of ten prefectures to the territory of Wuyuan (in fact, there are only nine, and there are already express routes between Wuyuan and Yong'an Prefecture), but the postal stations are only from the counties to Yongan Prefecture. , and between Yongan Prefecture and the counties, the frequency of letter delivery is twice a day. Regardless of the number of letters delivered, the post office charges a fixed amount of money as labor income for delivering letters for the people.

And Jia Fang set up a "postal company" in Wuyuan County.He felt that he had taken a huge step, turning the postal service from a state monopoly to a private operation.And the journey from the counties to Yong'an Prefecture was actually outsourced to the Ministry of War——

What an advanced postal company structure!Jia Fang didn't think of it himself.

This "postal company" was undertaken by Zheng Boyi who was very surprised and interested in it. Now Zhizhou of Yong'an Prefecture happened to be his old classmate, and agreed to handle some affairs for him in Yong'an Prefecture.

After Zheng Boyi decided on the basic structure and model of this "postal company", he immediately began to look for candidates for postmen in various counties.

The requirements for a postman are not high, but they must be familiar with the road from the county seat to each township, village, and village, and have a good character. It is best to be a local from each village and village, and have certain social connections in the township. , someone can guarantee him.

Soon the candidates for the postman were decided.Taking Wuyuan County as an example, ten postmen are employed in the county, and each postman is in charge of one or two townships and the villages under each township.

These postmen receive letters delivered to various townships from the post post in Wuyuan County every day. These letters will be wrapped in a paper, sealed with wax, and the name of the village where they are written.The postman is responsible for delivering these mail packages to the village chiefs and village chiefs in each village-these people have their own way to find the corresponding recipients.

At the same time, the postman will take back the mail that needs to be delivered in the village and bring it to the post post.Each of them will receive a certain number of "stamps" every month, and sell the stamps to the people in various villages who need to mail letters.People put stamps on letters before handing them over to the postman.

If the postage is not posted or if the postage is insufficient, these letters will be returned, which is very delayed. Therefore, the common people generally try to send as many letters as possible. Some people send letters to their own county, and they directly paste enough to send Postage in Beijing.

And the appearance of "stamps" has really caused a lot of discussion - villagers like Taoyuan and Wu Yuan, who are used to seeing circulation coupons, when they saw the "stamps" pasted on the envelopes, they thought it was real If you can stick circulation coupons on envelopes and use them, then you really have circulation coupons.

This made Jia Fang want to cry, because after all, if the circulation coupon was pasted on the envelope and could not be removed, it would lose its function of "circulation".He could only repeatedly publicize the functions of "stamps" in Taoyuanzhai and Wuyuan County, and gradually made the villagers no longer post circulation coupons directly, but instead took the initiative to buy stamps.

In addition to daily letters, the "postal company" has also launched a "advertisement delivery" business, which is a special service developed specifically for entrepreneurial centers like Taoyuanzhai.

With this service, Taoyuanzhai can distribute notices to neighboring villages two days before each market, informing them of the products that Taoyuanzhai can provide in the upcoming market, and Taoyuanzhai hopes to get more from surrounding villages. What urgently needed raw materials were obtained——

"Honey, honey, sweet and mellow, nourishing and healthy." This is the advertisement of the bee farm. In order to take care of the cultural differences in different places, a honey pot and a small bee are drawn beside it.

"There is an urgent need for raw hemp and cotton. Both lint and seed cotton are available, and the quantity is good!" - The textile factory seems to be short of raw materials again.

"Buy tomatoes and peppers with sincerity, give away tomato and pepper seeds for free, and teach them how to plant them. Don't miss it." I don't know whether this is a merchant in the food street or a local producer of sour soup and spicy peppers.

"Sincerely want to buy pyrethrum flowers, please do not get wet. The active ingredients of pyrethrum are soluble in water, and the flowers will be useless if they get wet. We will not accept them!" This is Tian Xiaomei who is the most forthright.

"..."

These advertisements will be sent directly to Lizheng, the head of each village, and because these are closely related to the livelihood of the local people, Lizheng, the village head, will pass on the news to the villagers in a timely manner.

"Listen, those who produce these at home, hurry up and send them to the collection in Taoyuan Village tomorrow."

"..."

And Zheng Boyi presided over the "postal company", tried to run it for a few days, and soon discovered that the greatest demand for postal services was not the communication between counties and states, nor the communication between counties, but the communication within the county. communication.

After all, there are only a small number of girls who marry far away to the state capital, so they usually go to the market that can be reached within half a day.

Therefore, the "postal company" has a prosperous postal business in various counties, and the income after selling stamps everywhere, after deducting the postman's salary, is still a small part, which is hardly enough to pay the post office of the Ministry of War.Zheng Boyi still needs to pay some supplements out of his own pocket.

This made Jia Fang's chief aide feel very embarrassed-you know, Jia Fang is a well-known master of "turning stones into gold" in this Taoyuan village.But as the chief staff member, the "postal company" run by Zheng Boyi actually lost money after a small test.

Zheng Boyi did the math, and felt that postal delivery from county to state, and between counties, was really not profitable—he really wanted to cut off all these lines.

Jia Fang laughed and said, "You can't cut it. Your postal company has to promise that you can deliver it anywhere in your own state, and you will receive letters everywhere. In some extremely remote places, there is no one even for ten and a half months." If someone sends a word or a piece of paper, you have to send the postman to the village over there every day to make an appointment.”

Zheng Boyi immediately understood, and bowed his hands to Jia Fang: "Thank you for your guidance, my lord."

This Zheng Boyi was arranged by Jia Daishan to come to Jia Fang. Originally, he didn't expect to learn anything from Jia Fang, but he just fulfilled his duty of assistant.Unexpectedly, when he came to Wu Yuan, it was actually Jia Fang who taught him a lot, which opened his eyes.

"You are still small now. In the future, if you can grow bigger and reach ten states in the south, or even the whole country, then you will know that people all over the world can't send letters or things without looking for you. By then You really don’t have to think about the income.”

Jia Fang encouraged Zheng Boyi with a smile, but then changed the topic: "But we don't run this postal company for money."

"In Wuyuan County, the Liu family and the Zhao family, are there any changes now? Are they willing to use our post office to send letters?"

When Jia Fang asked this question, Zheng Boyi immediately understood—this post office has other functions, and whether it makes money or not is not necessarily the top priority.

"Returning to the third master, the Liu family and the Zhao family have been getting very close recently. I even heard that the Liu family is going to marry a girl from a side branch to the youngest son of the direct branch of the Zhao family. It seems that since you told the Liu family Zhang Tian, ​​Liu The family and the Zhao family will be fine soon."

"But our postal service... neither of them looks like they can use outsiders to deliver letters."

Privacy is also very important when sending letters in ancient times, otherwise the postal company would not deliberately let the postman deliver the package sealed with wax.And for a big family like the Liu family and the Zhao family in Wuyuan County, if there is a confidential matter, it must be delivered by letter, and they will often not give it to others. — After all, don’t worry.

But Jia Fang waved his hand and said "Nothing", "Mr. Zheng, there is no need to do anything special. But you can pay attention to the people who are close to the housekeepers of the Liu family and the Zhao family. Explain clearly the benefits of our postal service, it may come in handy in the future."

Zheng Boyi immediately took orders.Jia Fang remembered something again, and he asked Zheng Boyi: "I remember that Liu Lixing seems to have a younger sister, and Liu Lixing is also a side branch. If the Liu family wants to marry a daughter, I wonder if it will be Liu Lixing's younger sister..."

Zheng Boyi immediately said: "I will send someone to inquire about it."

Jia Fang suddenly laughed when he heard this, lowered his head and said: "Actually, there is no need to inquire...just tell Liu Lixing that the Liu family wants to marry his sister, and that's enough."

What kind of person Zheng Boyi is, he immediately realized, and continued: "I'll send someone to pass on the message."

Regardless of whether the daughter of the Liu family to marry into the Zhao family is Liu Xiaomei or not, as long as Liu Lixing hears that it is Liu Xiaomei, Liu Lixing will feel great fear of his family.Even if it turns out that it was a misunderstanding afterwards, Liu Lixing's suspicion could not be completely dispelled. He would think that the Liu family arranged for Liu Xiaomei at first, and then they changed other people after his backlash.

Only in this way can Liu Lixing wake up and know that these clan elders standing behind him are only using him as a tool for the family's benefit, and they don't treat him as a human being.

"Mr. Zheng, do you think it's not good for me to do this?" Jia asked with his head down.He was not such a person who would calculate people's hearts. It's like the post office shouldn't open other people's letters privately.For the sake of Zhangtian and Yulinchu, he was allowed to do this.

But Zheng Boyi said: "Third Lord, my subordinates have always believed that as long as the purpose is right, using some means will not hinder you." The chief of staff was muttering in his heart at this moment: If this is going to be put before him, he will plan for those dignitaries in Beijing Sometimes, it doesn't matter at all.

Compared with others, Jia Fang is still a clean boy.

So Jia Fang stood up, stretched his waist, and said: "Wu Yuan, Mr. Zheng is here. I'm going back to Taoyuan Village."

He was in a hurry to go back to Taoyuanzhai to find the inspection team—for intelligence collection, while paying attention to the outside, we must also start from the inside.

The next day, Zheng Boyi sent conclusive news that the girl from the Liu family who was going to marry the Zhao family was indeed Liu Xiaomei.