In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 198 Expenditure Reduction and Tailwind Express

In the future, the Express Post Division will only be responsible for the delivery of court letters and documents, and will not be responsible for the entertainment of officials.

Whether an official takes office or stays in the future, he will go to a local inn by himself. Except for taking office and being ordered to go to Beijing, the imperial court will subsidize the travel expenses, and the rest of the non-official business will be paid by himself.

After the emperor finished speaking, there was a sigh of relief.

Don't underestimate this small restructuring, which can save the court a lot of money.

Whether officials in the Southern Song and Ming dynasties took office or traveled, the imperial court provided relevant subsidies, and they could live in post stations for free. The post stations needed huge expenses and manpower for entertainment, cooking, and accommodation.

Look at Chongzhen, in order to reduce expenses, he destroyed the country.

So Zhao Yurui directly cut the entertainment function here. Firstly, officials will take care of themselves when traveling, and secondly, only official travel will be subsidized.

Your mother-in-law travels around the mountains and rivers, but also lives in a post station and is subsidized by the court. Do you want to eat farts?

If this reform was replaced by Shi Miyuan in power, there would be treacherous ministers in power, and many people would rise up to oppose it.

Now there are so many upright ministers in the court. When the emperor said this, everyone applauded immediately. The emperor is wise and can save a lot of expenses.

Even treacherous ministers like Liang Chengda and Zhao Rushu have to stand up and respond, otherwise they will appear to be traitors.

At this moment, Du Fan, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, stood up and said, "Your Majesty, please tell me, who will pass on the letters from the people?"

The emperor's express post company only delivered official documents and letters from the court, who sent private and private letters?Officials also sometimes send private letters.

The emperor said that the rich private businessmen set up a courier company. I have already thought up the name for them. Whoever is the first to come out to do things will be approved by me in my own hand, called Shunfeng.

According to the emperor's intention, rich private businessmen are invited to set up Shunfeng Express, which specializes in sending private letters.

A minister asked, is anyone willing to do this?
Yes, if there is money to be made, someone will do it, the Qin family will do it, the emperor said with a smile, this is an open recruitment in advance, if no other businessmen come out, Qin Zhong will do it.

Qin Zhong is a member of Qin Zhuo, which means that the Qin family is here to do Shunfeng Express.

The emperor finally meant that this kind of commercial behavior should not be monopolized by one family, but by two or three companies. It can compete fairly and the price will not be too expensive. All the ministers expressed their agreement.

Moreover, Zhao Yurui said that before Shunfeng built a logistics network across the country, the imperial court still used it. When Shunfeng quickly built it, the imperial court would no longer send private letters.

The first thing the emperor decided to do was to reset the Dujin Zouyuan when discussing the state affairs that day. After confirming the submission of memorials and the transmission of orders from top to bottom, after kicking off the functions of private correspondence and officials' residence, the efficiency of the courier department will definitely be improved. promote.

The first Duyuan of Dujinzuoyuan was concurrently held by Wei Liaoweng, Minister of the Ministry of War, and Qin Zhuo was temporarily appointed as the deputy capital courtyard.

Everyone immediately understood that Qin Zhuo might do this in the future.

Qin Zhuo, a businessman, climbed up so fast because he supported the emperor, and everyone was still quite speechless.

But Jia Sidao in history was originally a little ruffian on the street, because his sister was Jia Yuhua, and later he also lived in the prime minister.

No way, this is very Southern Song Dynasty.

If it was changed to the Ming Dynasty, you can see if a businessman can enter the center of the court.

Next, everyone saw the efficiency and seriousness of the new emperor.

On the same day, it was agreed to reorganize the Dujin Zouyuan, and it was unanimously approved.

The emperor then approved the personnel and salary with the ministers.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were more than 400 post stations, one thousand and one land stations, and more than 300 water stations.

According to the emperor's request, each station in the Luyi station should be equipped with ten people and ten horses, with one corps leader, each station in the water station should have 20 people, and three boats (both fast boats and small boats, which only transport letters, not people and goods). About ten thousand people.

The basic monthly fee for each person is [-] Wen, including board and lodging, running and sending additional military information is billed according to the mile, and the amount of Wen is paid for each mile traveled.

This is not as much as you want to say. Every time you add a military and civil affairs letter, the court has records, so this is fixed and can be checked.

Suppose you ran from Sichuan to the capital once, and it was a thousand miles. You can calculate the number of post stations along the way and the number of relays.

This is to encourage everyone to run more urgent documents.

This method of monthly billing was never practiced before the Southern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. When the emperor said this, all the ministers secretly praised it. In this way, the people in the post station will definitely not be passive and sabotage, but will work hard to make money.

Before the Southern Song Dynasty, the army was only [-] Wen a month, because it included food and housing, and it was still possible to recruit people.

So the basic monthly fee is [-] Wen, including food and lodging, and there are rewards for running. The post staff must be able to stay.

The emperor finally said: "I have already calculated with the Vice Capital of Qin that the entire staff of the Express Post Division plus officials at all levels will cost about 15 guan a year."

"Maintenance of horses, ships and food is estimated to cost 15 yuan throughout the country."

"The expedited rewards and others (including station maintenance, etc.) are about 15 guan."

The annual expenditure is about 45 guan.

In order to strictly prevent corruption by the captains of each post station, there will be official documents posted to each post station, how much each post station pays a year, and where it is spent, it will be written clearly, and all the post staff will be called to watch and listen.

Every year, the local Imperial City Secretary will go down to investigate whether there is any special funds for special use, and whether there are people who have been corrupted and embezzled.

The quality of the horses and the mental state of the personnel are the easiest to see.

When the emperor said the same thing, the officials at the court were a little shocked, because before the Southern Song Dynasty, there was no such thing as special funds for special use, and there was no such budget and then distributed to various places. Therefore, after a lot of appropriation was deducted by the capital, it went to the lowest level. do not have much left.

Interested people also heard the emperor talk about the local imperial city department, which means that the imperial city department may be set up at the county level in the future.

On the same day, the emperor and the ministers decided that the whole would enter the Zouyuan, how many officials there were in total, how many people were there in each department below, and the annual expenditure was about 60 guan.

That is to say, in the future, under the premise of keeping the number of people unchanged, all of them will enter the Zouyuan with an annual budget of 60 guan. If it is not used up, it can be accumulated for the next year. If it is not enough, it will be discussed by the emperor and courtiers. The first year may be insufficient. Basically, after two years, the emperor will be able to determine how much money can be operated and put into the Zouyuan.

Some people also asked questions at the court meeting, so what if there are not so many postmen?
Because in the past postmen were treated poorly, there were no urgent rewards, and there were many things to do, but now there are fewer things to do, and the monthly money seems to be more, so we must recruit people.

The emperor said that in this national recruitment of soldiers and horses, some of the previous soldiers and horses will be eliminated, and one will be selected as a postman.

After the dynasty was dispersed, the officials got together in twos and threes and discussed a lot.

Today is the first time for the emperor to reorganize new departments after ascension to the throne. Even the budget staff and funds are all fixed and unified.

If everything is done according to the emperor, the budget and expenditure of the entire court should be able to save a lot.

Within a few days, Peng Yibin, the deputy commander of the Shandong capital and the actual military leader in Shandong in the Southern Song Dynasty, arrived in Lin'an.

The whole of Shandong is watching Peng Yibin's arrival in An'an.

This is the first time someone from the Shandong army has dared to come to Lin'an.

Because the imperial court had done this kind of thing before, the Loyalty Army was also called the Red Coat Army before it was reorganized. At that time, Ji Xian, the leader who defected to the Song court, was killed by Jia She in an ambush on the road in the name of discussing affairs, and then divided his soldiers and horses. .

With this lesson learned from the past, Shi Qing, Xia Quan, and Li Quan who are behind will not dare to go to the official site of the Southern Song Dynasty without authorization. Even if they go to Chuzhou to discuss affairs, they will bring a large number of soldiers and horses, let alone Lin'an .

Peng Yibin was the first local military leader who dared to come to Lin'an, which attracted the attention of all parties. Not to mention the military leaders in Shandong, even other local military leaders in Mongolia and Jin Kingdom were watching Song Ting's reaction.

Xia Quan and others even thought that Peng Yibin would be arrested and beheaded when he arrived in Lin'an.

On the morning of the fifth day of August, Peng Yibin led several subordinates to Lizhengmen, led by relevant officials.

Peng Yibin was wearing new Zhajia, all of which had just been issued by the court, and he wore them extremely mighty, and several of his subordinates were also newly issued Zhajia by the court.

After checking people at the gate, they will be released quickly.

It was the first time for several of them to enter the imperial city, so they were very curious and watched from left to right.

Zhu Rong, his confidant, kept looking at the armor of the two of them.

The levels of the two are different, but Zhajia is about the same. Peng Yibin's has more than a dozen pieces, more defensive places, and is heavier.

"Brother Peng seems to have more nails than us?"

"Don't touch." Peng Yibin laughed, and patted Zhu Rong's hand away.

The other three were a little flustered, still scared.

"Look how cowardly you are, His Majesty wants to kill us, so he will do it as soon as he enters the city, and now?" Peng Yibin said loudly.

The corner of the servant's mouth twitched slightly, with a strange expression.

At this time, he brought into the imperial city with his confidantes Zhu Rong, Chen Ben, and He Dahai. They were all from Shandong and had fought with him for many years.

After a while, several people came to the Daqing Hall, and there were two rows of maids in front of the Daqing Hall, and the servants were standing there, as if welcoming them, which was quite impressive.

When they saw the crowd approaching, someone sang loudly.

"Deputy Envoy of Shandong Zhizhi, Deputy Commander of Shandong Capital Division, Jinan Marquis Peng Yibin went to the hall to have an audience—"

There are many civil and military ministers in the hall, and the Song Dynasty officials did not call it Shandong. Everyone looked at each other, but the new emperor reformed everywhere, had departments, and new places. It is normal for Shandong to come out, and most people know what this place is. .

Several people went up to the hall cautiously, and seeing the young emperor, Peng Yibin took the lead and knelt down, and his cronies knelt down one after another.

"The Marquis of Jinan is free of courtesy, get flat quickly." The emperor waved his hand across the air, and Yao Dingzhang immediately stepped forward to help Peng Yibin and others.

Peng Yibin and others showed gratitude on their faces.

Everyone looked at the emperor of the Song Dynasty, surrounded by civil and military, all very novel and excited.

"Xuanzhi, the Marquis of Jinan and the generals can receive the order standing up." Hu Song sang loudly at this time.

Then there was a little servant reading the imperial decree.

Peng Yibin has already taken over once in Shandong, and he will come again this time.

The imperial decree commended Peng Yibin for serving the imperial court, and gave Peng Yibin a mansion in the capital, rewarding him with a thousand taels of silver, ten thousand taels of copper coins, and some silk.

Zhu Rong, Chen Ben, and He Dahai were all under the command of the army, and the capital gave them a house, each rewarded with a hundred taels of silver, a total of three thousand guan of copper coins, and some silk and silk.

The four were overjoyed and knelt down one after another, shouting long live three times.

The emperor gave Peng Yibin a lot of face, and gave him another wave of rewards in the Daqing Palace. He also praised Peng Yibin as a righteous man of the Song Dynasty in front of the officials, and recovered his homeland for the Song Dynasty. He said that he would let the historian record these four soldiers in the future History books, handed down green history.

The four of them were so excited that they kowtowed to death.

Originally, these people led troops to fight outside all the year round, and they didn't see the majesty of the Southern Song Dynasty court in their eyes, but they were still intimidated by the aura of the Daqing Palace and the emperor's throne for the first time today, and with the emperor's reward, everyone would say good things, I just kowtowed.

After going through the procedure, the emperor announced his next court and invited Peng Yibin to meet alone.

(End of this chapter)