The daily life of the science master's book-wearing group

Chapter 527 Telegraph Fees and Employees’ Federation

It was getting late, Brother Xiao walked from the outside of the city to the inn inside the city rather distraught.

The gates of the current capital city will still be locked at night, but the time of locking is postponed until the end of the night. Converted to the current 24-hour system, it is about nine o'clock in the evening.

The sun has just set now, and the area near the city wall is the most lively.

One of them had the longest queue in front of a shop with a "Pearl Milk Tea" trolley.He has heard of this kind of milk tea, and it is brewed with a kind of inferior black tea brought from Shendu. Drinking it alone is bitter and astringent, and it is almost unbearable. You must drink it with milk and sugar. The advantage is that The price is cheap, and it smells very good. It is very popular with porters and coolies.

Originally it first became popular in Guangdong and Fujian, and was later transported to the north by merchants from the north and south. It was especially loved by Mongolia and Jurchens. Gradually, northerners also began to fall in love with the sweet milk tea made from Shendu black tea.

As the future leader of the Xiao family, Brother Xiao will naturally not drink the kind of low-quality black tea that only "low-class people" drink.
Ask your own boy to look at the price, and the boy to look at the price, the small bowl of two, Chinese three, and the big bowl of four, if you need to add cassava balls, add another penny.

Brother Xiao was a little hungry now. Smelling the fragrant and sweet smell, he couldn't help it, so he asked for two bowls with small meatballs.

Taking advantage of the time when the boy was queuing up, he looked around again, and suddenly found another telegraph shop.

He had also heard about the telegraph from his younger brother. It was said that messages were sent through a special copper wire.It is said that in the past two years, the emperor spent a lot of money to build a line from Yingtian Mansion to the capital, and the message could be delivered on the same day.

At that time, he also went to participate in the bidding meeting for manufacturing cement piles. Unfortunately, the Xiao family did not know how to make cement, so he just went to watch the excitement.

Now the officials of Yingtianfu Yamen are communicating with the six departments of the capital through this so-called "telegram". This was told to him by his sister who married an official of Yingtianfu as a concubine.

It's a pity that the folks can't enjoy it for the time being. It's unbelievable that a telegraph line for civilian use has been built here in the capital!
With strong curiosity, Brother Xiao walked into the "telegram shop".

Unexpectedly, the sun has gone down and there are still so many people inside.

The telegraph shop was quite large, with four rows of long tables inside. There were charcoal pens and cardboard in the pen holders on the tables.

The price list is written in chalk on the big blackboard at the door:
"Telegram sending fee is charged by word: two words for one text.

Site fee:
Send to the first-level telegraph station and add ten texts;
Send to the second-level telegraph station, add [-] texts;

Send to the third-level telegraph station, add thirty text.

Letter delivery fee:

Send ten coins in the city;
Forty wen within ten miles out of the city;
More than ten miles, add five Wen for every additional mile;

Free delivery for self-pickup.

Help write five letters. "

Then there is a big map attached below, with all the stations marked on it. At present, there are only two routes from Jingshi to Shanxi and Jingshi to Tianjin.

Standing beside the blackboard were three girls in uniform, with a brass plate pinned to their chests, engraved with their names and a number.They were all helping first-time customers figure out the cost of delivery.

One of the customers was a not-so-well-off scholar at first glance. He was obviously a little uncomfortable in the face of the beautiful girl in the shop. He just faltered and said that his hometown was in Lingshou County under the jurisdiction of Zhending Mansion. The fiancée and mother in my hometown sent two letters respectively.

"Do they all live in the county?" the girl asked.

The scholar shook his head: "My mother lives outside the city."

The girl immediately said: "In this way, why don't you send the letter to your mother to your fiancée, and then ask her to give her the letter from your mother, it will save money."

The scholar hesitated for a moment and asked, "How much will it cost to send them separately?"

The girl immediately used a charcoal pen to write on a small piece of paper the size of tofu: "There is no station in Lingshou County. The nearest one is the first-level station, Zhendingfu, which is ninety miles away. The cost of sending it to Lingshou County is ten." The article site fee, plus the 440 article delivery fee, add up to a total of 450 articles. If you send them separately, you will have to add another 450 articles.”

"This... so much." The scholar was stunned, and finally thought about it with his fingers, and said, "That's still a piece of hair."

The girl immediately pointed to the four rows of tables and chairs and said: "Please come here, write it down and hand it over to counter No. [-]." After saying that, she did not forget to remind: "In addition to the delivery fee just now, there is also a telegram The shipping fee is one penny for every two words, so be sure to write carefully!"

"Understood! Thank you!" The scholar thanked him and walked to the table and chairs. After not walking more than two steps, he turned back, scratched his head and asked: "Girl, if my fiancée goes to Fucheng to pick up the letter, doesn't it cost more?" That 450 texts?"

The girl nodded and smiled: "Of course! You can make an agreement with her in the letter to send her a letter every month and let her pick it up by herself."

"After that, I will save money!" The scholar laughed happily. It only cost 45 Wen from Lingshou County to Fucheng by public carriage, and it was only [-] Wen for a round trip. Why not let her pick it up by herself!Thank you! "

After the girl served the scholar, she immediately noticed Brother Xiao who was still standing in front of the notice board studying the site and the route map. Her eyes lit up, and she immediately greeted her with a smile on her face, and asked, "Is this your first time here?" ?”

Brother Xiao nodded a little cautiously: "Yes."

The girl said: "Look at your wealth, you must be a businessman, right? If your family has a semi-colon along the line and needs to be in touch frequently, we also have a monthly subscription service here. Would you like to see our package?"

"Set...set meal?" Brother Xiao was a little confused.

The girl led him to another tea table, poured him a cup of light tea, and said, "If your family needs to deliver letters frequently, we have a discount here."

As she said that, she took out a pamphlet that was painted with flowers and painted gold and showed it to Brother Xiao: "Look, sir, the package one is [-] letters per month, and each letter does not exceed [-] words. As for the normal self-pickup price, it costs six taels to deliver to the first-level site, but as long as you order this package, you will pay five taels a month. The contract is for one year, and you pay for one year at a time After that, we will give you an annual card."

She took out an aluminum card with a beautiful pattern printed on it. There was a space for writing the name on the top, and nine digits were engraved on the bottom.

The girl said: "The annual card is also very convenient to use. At that time, we will agree on a password or a riddle. When you come, report the number on this card, and you can use it when you match the riddle."

Brother Xiao raised his eyebrows. Thinking about it, if his own business uses telegrams to send news, thirty letters a month may not be enough.

His eyes moved to the package of two hundred letters per month. According to the first-level site calculation, if you buy it alone, it will cost 40 taels per month, but if you buy the package, it will only cost 32 taels per month. He is currently communicating with them Compared with the cost, it is indeed too tempting!

The girl saw Brother Xiao's heart moved, and the smile on her face became more genuine: "Master, you see, the price of this package is not the same, and we started selling this package in the first month. Our telegram station Limited, we will only sell [-] sets of this package, and it will be gone when sold out! If you need it, hurry up!"

Only then did Big Brother Xiao say in embarrassment: "My family's business is in the south of the Yangtze River..."

There was a hint of disappointment on the girl's face, but she quickly laughed again and said, "It doesn't matter, Your Majesty is already building the civil line leading to the south of the Yangtze River. You will definitely be able to use it soon!"

Brother Xiao sighed, "I hope so."

He stood up with his hands behind his back, shook his head and sighed, the girl sent him to the door, and said politely: "Master, go slowly, if you can, please give me a good review!" Brother Xiao turned his head , Only then did I notice that there was a smaller sign at the door, with the names of the employees and their job numbers written on it. There were two small seals under the sign, one in the shape of an indigo triangle and the other in the shape of a red flower.

There is a sentence written in big characters on the sign: Good reviews are the best!

If you look carefully, you can see that there is a line of small words below: "If you are not satisfied with our service, please stamp the blue seal, we will improve!"

Brother Xiao's eyes suddenly lit up!
This thing can be used in your own restaurant!

He was overjoyed, and covered the girl named Ayu with a small red flower.

He suddenly remembered something, turned around and asked, "Girl, how much is your monthly money?"

Speaking of this, the girl rolled her eyes with a smile, and said proudly, "Two taels and five dollars!"

hiss!
Brother Xiao gasped.

This monthly salary is really not low!
A first-class maid from a wealthy family in the south of the Yangtze River can only get more than one tael of silver per month.

So he asked again: "Do you need someone to recommend or recommend you to work here?"

The girl shook her head: "I don't need to be recommended or recommended, but I have to have a graduation certificate from Zhaoyue Primary School. There are quite a lot of people who apply for the job, and they select the best ones, so when you graduate, you have to have excellent grades."

"No wonder they are all women..." Brother Xiao muttered, he had just glanced at it, out of the eight counters, only three of them had little brothers sitting in them, and the rest were all young girls.

Although Zhaoyue Elementary School also has coeducational schools, generally speaking, there are more girls' schools.

He didn't know that it was now difficult to enter Zhaoyue Elementary School in the capital.From the very beginning, the school begged everyone to send their children to school, and now it has opened five branches in the entire capital. During the enrollment every year, everyone has to fight for a spot.

Now the common people know the benefits of studying. With a graduation certificate from Zhaoyue Primary School, there are various good opportunities.

Like working in a telegraph shop, isn't it more nourishing than working as a maid in a wealthy family?
Although there is no food or housing included here, it is free!Not only will he maintain his status as a good citizen, but he will not be humiliated and scolded by his master at will, and even his life will be lost.

What Brother Xiao doesn't know is that now the monthly money of the maids and servants of the big families in the capital has to rise with the tide, and fewer and fewer people are willing to sign the death contract. The host family is not allowed to beat and scold at will, or use lynching.

Just say that in the second half of last year, in just six months, the Shuntian Mansion Yamen received more than 70 cases of servants accusing their masters of abuse. In more than a dozen cases, several servants joined together to report!

This was unimaginable in the past.

It is said that the capital has set up a "employee federation" to help those servants file lawsuits with their masters.

Moreover, this workers' association is presided over by Princess Pingyang's only son Huang Huaide, the only son of Princess Pingyang, and the famous playboy Seventh Master of Menghou's Mansion.

No matter which dignitary or dignitary they faced, these two were so generous that they really weren't afraid of anyone.

This employee union was actually established earlier by Niu Hesheng.

It wasn't called the Employees' Union at that time. That is, he convened a few scholars who failed in the imperial examinations and had no talent in mathematics, but had a sense of justice and were extremely poor to serve as voluntary lawyers for the common people and poor people in the capital. .

After getting Song Qingyue's approval, he used a small amount of money from the school's budget to give monthly payments to several poor litigators.

He used to love to help people with lawsuits. If he wasn't busy with the principal's affairs now, there were several bad abuse cases, he really wanted to help people in person.

About July last year, they received a case of a servant girl being beaten and disabled by the master's family, and won the lawsuit. Since then, they have become famous in the servant circle in the capital. After being abused by the master's family, I begged them to come forward to help with the lawsuit.

As more and more lawsuits are filed, more litigants are involved.

Song Qingyue simply asked him to help set up a "employee union", and invited the dental workers in the capital to have a dinner, and asked them to leave a lot of comments on this matter, to help when they should help, and to hint at them. It's what the princess wants.

She also knew that Niu Hesheng's strength was not enough to compete with those dignitaries, and he had too many things to do, and he was too busy. This federation must hire someone with a strong enough background to preside over the overall situation.

The first thing Li Zhao thought of was Meng Xiaoqi.

The Queen Mother was nagging in his ear all day long, asking him to find a job for Xiao Qi.

Isn't this just right?

Xiao Qi didn't need to do anything, as long as he chubbyly sat in the office of the Employed Labor Union, he would be able to frighten those Xiao Xiao who wanted to come here to make trouble.

But when the Queen Mother heard that her Xiaoqi was going to help a group of slaves in a lawsuit, she immediately turned down her face and expressed her strong opposition!
Just in time, Huang Huaide was brought to Li Zhao by his mother, Princess Pingyang, hoping that Li Zhao would give his useless son a job.

Didn't someone hand you a pillow when you fell asleep?

Huang Huaide successfully got the job, and for this reason, Princess Pingyang got several opportunities to have lunch with the emperor's brother.

Not long after, Princess Pingyang was promoted to a title!Became the eldest princess!

Although Princess Juelu is very likely to be owed or withheld by the old man of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the actual distribution process, but her status as the eldest princess in Beijing will immediately rise with the tide!

Now she became the only eldest princess among the sisters!

Empress Dowager Meng saw that Pingyang and the Emperor were brothers and sisters, loving each other, and with an old face, she asked Xiao Qi to work in that hired workers' union.

There is no way, the Meng family is too unpopular with the emperor now, so they have to bow their heads to the emperor.

How many times did she mention to the emperor that she wanted to promote Baoding Hou's mansion to a duke's mansion, and to find a good job for the son, but the emperor always agreed face to face, and there was no news after he left, obviously unwilling to fulfill her mother's wish !

Now that she watched Ping Yang's promotion to the title, the old queen suddenly had hope again.

For the emperor and Li Zhao, it was a perfect fit for Huang Huaide and Xiao Qi to entrust this task to them!It is simply an excellent example of waste utilization!

If the emperor doesn't like anyone, he can use the hand of this "employee union" to find fault with those ministers. It's really wonderful, hehehe!

(End of this chapter)