Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 175 The Post Station Opens
Emperor Hongzhi had just finished his imperial lecture today and was taking a nap in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Zhu Houzhao came over and woke up the Emperor Hongzhi who had just fallen asleep. He was not angry about being interrupted for his lunch break. He waved at Zhu Houzhao and said, "Are you here to vent your anger on me, father?"

"I'm doing this for your own good."

Emperor Hongzhi thought that Zhu Houzhao came to him angrily because he had scolded him today.

"Your two uncles are greedy, how can you agree to exchange salt permits for them?"

"Do you know how many merchants, generations of grandparents and grandchildren, have been unable to redeem their salt permits?"

However, Emperor Hongzhi later found out the truth. Zhu Houzhao gave his two uncles the right to exchange ten yin, but it was the Zhang brothers who abused their power in the name of the prince and exchanged one thousand yin.

If these two bastards weren’t Empress Zhang’s brothers, there would be grass all over their graves by now.

Zhu Houzhao asked Emperor Hongzhi: "Father, is the salt permit so rampant in the Ming Dynasty now? We can't even redeem the salt permits we have?"

Emperor Hongzhi squinted his eyes, sat up straight, took two sips of tea, and then said to Zhu Houzhao: "It's an old account, and it's another confusing account."

"It has been like this since the Chenghua period. The country has no money, so the rewards for meritorious officials are either land or salt permits."

"As more and more land is awarded, it will become increasingly difficult for farmers to survive, and in the end they will have no choice but to issue salt permits as rewards."

"So far, too many salt permits have been awarded. The rich and powerful have many salt permits in their hands, and the merchants also have many."

"Salt is mined at such a fast speed, and everyone is waiting to redeem salt permits, which results in a group of people being unable to redeem and having to wait for a backlog."

Emperor Hongzhi was afraid that Zhu Houzhao might not understand, so he explained it in great detail.

However, his explanation was basically the same as Chen Ce's, so Zhu Houzhao naturally understood it a long time ago.

He asked Emperor Hongzhi: "If merchants cannot exchange salt permits, then Emperor Taizu's Kaizhong system will also be in jeopardy, right?"

Emperor Hongzhi was stunned. He really didn't expect that Zhu Houzhao could associate the proliferation of salt permits with the collapse of the Kaizhong system.

He smiled with relief and said, "My son is smart, that's right. With the difficulty of exchanging salt permits, merchants began to slack off in transporting grain to the Nine Borders, and the Kaizhong system was also in danger."

"The imperial court has been trying to find a way to get rid of the salt that is piled up in the hands of merchants."

"But there are too many salt permits piled up in the hands of merchants. It is not something that can be solved overnight. But don't worry, your father will definitely solve this problem for you during his lifetime."

"Okay, you don't have to worry about this."

Zhu Houzhao nodded. What the little brother said was right. It turned out that the court really had so many problems. Looking at the look on his father's face, it seemed that the collapse of Kaizhong and the beginning of the salt permit had troubled him for a long time.

But my father has already said that solving these two difficult problems will take time, not overnight. Even my father would have to spend his entire life to solve them, and from his tone, he might not be able to solve them.

Do you have any idea, little brother?
"Then Father, is it possible to quickly resolve these two problems?"

Emperor Hongzhi smiled and said to Zhu Houzhao: "You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry. Governing a country is a gradual process. You can't eat a fat man in one bite."

"You must remember that when you become the emperor, you must not rush into any problem. If someone tells you that something can be solved in a short time, that person must have ulterior motives."

"For example, the problem of the Kaizhong system and the proliferation of salt permits. So many of the court's most trusted officials are working hard, but they still can't deal with it. Do you think it can be solved in a short time?"

"If someone tells you this, they definitely have bad intentions."

Zhu Houzhao said "oh" absentmindedly, thinking to himself, is it possible that the ministers under you are just too rubbish?

"understood."

Looking at Zhu Houzhao's departing back, Emperor Hongzhi smiled with satisfaction. It was enough to make Emperor Hongzhi happy that his own son could see these profound things from the salt permits of the Zhang brothers.

Zhu Houzhao was in the East Palace these days, and he occasionally asked Jiao Fang, Fei Hong, Yang Tinghe and others about the Kaizhong system and salt permits.

Jiao Fang and his colleagues were very knowledgeable and explained the benefits of the Kaizhong system in great detail. However, when Zhu Houzhao asked, if the Kaizhong system was so good, why no businessmen were implementing it now?

This left Jiao Fang, Fei Hong and others speechless, and in the end they could only make far-fetched claims that the businessmen were treacherous and had no sympathy for the country.

From their point of view, businessmen should sacrifice for the country.

Their answers were different from Chen Ce's and Emperor Hongzhi's.

……

Today's newspaper headlines were about the opening of Shuntian Express, which immediately sparked widespread discussion.

When the people figured out what express delivery was, they suddenly realized that this was just a post station escort agency. They thought there was some new business.

However, they soon discovered that this seemed to be different from the model of the escort agency post station.

If there is one thing that is different, it is that it is cheap, absolutely cheap.

It’s much cheaper than the post station escort agency.

Moreover, the price of express delivery is estimated based on the distance and weight of the object. The prices vary, but there are clear standards.

For example, if the goods are lost or the service attitude is bad, there will be a full refund mechanism.

In the past, a letter from home was worth thousands of pieces of gold, but now a letter from home all the way from the north to the south may only cost a few coins.

In the past, escort agencies and post stations would not send this kind of low-value mail, as it was time-consuming and laborious and no money could be made, so the mail could only be delivered by porters traveling back and forth from north to south.

Express delivery can achieve precise delivery.

Ordinary people cannot understand the business logic of express delivery, but there are many educated people. When they have nothing to do, they will explain it to the people to show off their sense of superiority of being educated.

In this way, the people of the Ming Dynasty finally understood the express delivery industry, and the people of Shuntian Prefecture were extremely excited.

Now everyone is working hard, waiting for March 28th, the day when the post station opens.

They have prepared various gifts, goods and letters for delivery.

Many post station network points have been opened in Shuntian Prefecture and even the entire Gyeonggi region, and all of them can be mailed.

The cost this time was very high, beyond imagination. The total cost of the newspaper was only five or six hundred taels of silver.

But the initial cost investment for the post station alone is already as high as three or four thousand taels of silver, and it will continue to burn money in the early stages!
Whether in later generations or in ancient times, the express delivery industry has always been a money-burning industry.

Tang Yin and Liu Hong felt sorry for the money they spent every day.

In this way, the post station network in the mountains, rivers, capitals and other places will be opened up. There are also Jiangnan and other places to be built later. I don’t know how much money will be invested.

Fortunately, the newspaper has a considerable income, which can be fed back to the post station.

As for the establishment of post stations in Jiangnan and other places, we can only do it slowly later.

……

Time quickly came to March 28th, and the much anticipated Shuntian Station finally opened on this day!

(End of this chapter)