Chongzhen Chat Group

There was silence for a while in the Wenhua Palace. What Emperor Chongzhen didn't expect was that Min Hongxue, the assistant minister, broke the silence: "Your Majesty, it is said that I have also built roads in Yunnan and Guizhou. At that time , just to build a road for the army to pass, it consumes a lot of manpower and material resources. Building roads is not easy!"

During this feudal dynasty, the court required labor to build roads and other matters. Ordinary people had to bring their own dry food and tools to serve. Therefore, sometimes, this kind of labor is far more feared by the people than land tax. Especially for some serious and long-term labor, sometimes the people who were expropriated had to say goodbye to their families. Because once you leave, you will most likely never come back.

And according to what the emperor said now, the road construction is definitely the largest project. It will be longer and more massive than the previous construction of the Great Wall and the opening of canals.

Therefore, after Min Hongxue finished speaking, his second assistant, Sun Chengzong, also followed suit and said: "Your Majesty, the country is now in peace and is showing signs of prosperity. If we build too many roads, we may waste the people and money, cause resentment among the people, and repeat the disaster of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty! "

What he said was a bit harsh. Among the courtiers, he was the only one who still had the qualifications or the courage to say this.

In history, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty had a project that would benefit future generations for thousands of years, which was to build the Grand Canal. But as a result, the country's power was exhausted, people's resentment boiled, and eventually the whole world rebelled. The powerful Sui Dynasty, like the Qin Dynasty, was wiped out for two generations. It has to be said that it was a huge regret.

Of course, it would be an exaggeration to say that the demise of the Sui Dynasty was attributed to the construction of the Grand Canal. The demise of the Sui Dynasty was also related to a series of his policies, such as the three conquests of Goguryeo, the promotion of imperial examinations, and the interests of aristocratic families, etc.

When the topic came back, he said that Emperor Chongzhen was slightly angry after reading Sun Chengzong's speech, but it quickly dissipated and patiently replied: "What you said actually proves what I said, that the post station will be independent." , became a necessity for the Department of Transportation.”

"Building roads is not a one-time thing, but a matter for thousands of generations! Act according to your ability, gradually build the world's roads, and repair the world's roads. Have a plan, and continue to build roads within the scope of the Ming Dynasty. In this way, build roads The adverse effects will be minimized. And this is what the Ministry of Transport should do well!"

Emperor Chongzhen had already talked about the benefits of building roads before, and now he also learned from the lessons of history, acted within his ability, and did it with a plan. As a result, many ministers were silent for a while.

Whether it was Min Hongxue's words or Sun Chengzong's alarmism, as Emperor Chongzhen said, it just proved the necessity of establishing the Ministry of Communications.

As in previous discussions, Cao Huachun, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, was the first to express his support. But his statement doesn't mean anything. After all, the Chief of Ceremonies is the inner court, so it would be strange for him to oppose the emperor's will.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Communications belongs to the outer court, and its affairs mainly rely on the outer court. Therefore, the stance of the civilian officials is also important. Emperor Chongzhen has been waiting for the opinions of the civilian officials. To establish an additional department properly, it is not enough for the emperor to issue an imperial edict. Even the West Factory in history was built just as the emperor said, because it belonged to the inner court and had nothing to do with the outer court.

Although he can now rely on his own prestige to force the establishment, he does not like this one-word style. If possible, he certainly hopes to get the support of the outer court.

Therefore, when it comes to major government affairs, the first step is to try to convince his ministers and make them understand, so that there will be no double-handedness and back-handedness. Unless this first step is useless and he has to implement it, then It's time to use the emperor's power, just use the emperor's power, just like it was when he first crossed over.

After waiting for a while, Chief Assistant Wen Tiren expressed his position: "I think the Ministry of Communications should be established!"

Anyway, what the emperor said makes sense, and there is one more minister, who is also under the cabinet, and has no impact on him. But there was one thing he couldn't understand. The emperor had previously asked him to experiment with the main chat group, but what does this have to do with the establishment of the Ministry of Communications?

"Your Majesty, I also agree that for the sake of our great Ming Dynasty, we should establish a Ministry of Communications!" Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Household Affairs, followed closely.

The emperor has just said that the benefits of road construction are obvious. For him, the Minister of Household Affairs, it is of great help. Of course he agrees. But he also had a question, and he was doubtful, and he was going to ask it later if the emperor didn't tell him.

After hearing this, other courtiers also expressed their agreement one after another. Seeing this, Shen Yongmao was a little helpless, but he had no choice but to agree.

Then the matter was settled, and Emperor Chongzhen was also happy. He had also chosen the candidate. Liu Mao, who is currently in charge of roads and bridges from the Ministry of War, will be the first Minister of Communications.

In this regard, firstly, the appointment of these high-ranking officials is not under the control of the Ministry of Personnel, but comes directly from the emperor's orders; secondly, Liu Mao has been in charge of Daming Road and Bridge Affairs in recent years. Therefore, he was promoted to Minister of Communications, all in these imperial courts. That was expected of senior officials.

After a while, Liu Mao, who was hit by a pie falling from the sky, was pulled into the group in the Wenhua Hall in a daze. Now, he has the qualification.

After learning that he had become the second-rank minister of the newly established Ministry of Communications, Liu Mao was overjoyed. No, he almost cried with joy. Fortunately, it was not a voice communication, but his excitement could be seen from his continuous thanks.

Emperor Chongzhen comforted him, and then continued: "Trains and steamships will also be assigned to the Ministry of Transportation in the future. As a result, Liu Qing's task will be very heavy. He must make good plans and build cement roads. , railway construction, water and land transportation must be comprehensively planned and considered, and the construction of each road must be controlled within the affordability of the court, and support the economic construction of the Ming Dynasty to the greatest extent!"

"I will obey the Holy Will!" Liu Mao responded immediately.

At this time, the courtiers in the Wenhua Palace group were suddenly shocked. Could it be that the emperor had already had a plan, which was closely linked, starting from the invention of cement, even until the train came out, the ultimate goal of these was For Daming transportation? No, it should be to eventually make everyone in the Ming Dynasty rich?

Thinking this way, they were surprised again. You must know that when cement was first invented, it was still a time when construction was strong. At that time, everyone in the court was worried about Jianlu, and they were thinking about how to deal with Jianlu. But the emperor has already thought further and has thought of today's step!

Thinking of this, they all suddenly thought of one word in their minds: foresight!

However, Bi Ziyan still had doubts. When he saw that Emperor Chongzhen had not said what he wanted to say, he finally couldn't help but asked: "Your Majesty, the expenses of the Ministry of Communications are not a small expense. Now , Money is being used everywhere. Although building roads is a good thing, we can’t squeeze out too much money.”

In the past, if the treasury revenue was so much every year, he would probably wake up from his dreams laughing. But who knew that the revenue of the national treasury was increasing year by year, but he felt that the money was not enough every year. Thinking about it carefully, he found that although he had more income, he also spent more!

In the past, soldiers in the world were paid half of their salary and never paid more than half. They delayed it as long as they could. But now, these salaries are distributed through the Ming Construction Bank system, and they are all real.

In the past, the salaries of officials all over the world were only a little, and they would think of using some unused physical objects, or even the old Ming Dynasty treasure notes, to reduce part of the salary. But now, not only have the salaries of officials all over the world been increased, but even officials who did not need to receive salaries from the court have become officials and receive monthly salaries. The salary expenditures of the officials all over the world plus the former officials are definitely a large amount of money, but they are all paid out through the Ming Construction Bank system every month.

…

At this moment, Bi Ziyan was thinking a lot in his mind, and the more he thought about it, the more his heart ached, so he quickly added: "Although the various incomes of the imperial court at the end of this year will be more than last year, Wei Chen has already After calculation, there will be more places to spend money in the coming year, and the Ministry of Transportation..."

When he complained here, Liu Mao saw that his enthusiasm was like a bucket of cold water being poured on him. Although he has been building cement roads in the past two years, he has tried his best to use various methods of raising funds. However, others are not stupid. In a prosperous area with a lot of people, there will be people taking shares. This is no problem.

However, if the matter of road construction is raised to the level of the Ministry of Transport, then it will not just be a matter of selectively building only prosperous areas. For the sake of the Ming Dynasty, even if it is not a prosperous place, it must be repaired. As the emperor said, only when the roads are repaired will there be more prosperous places. And the roads in these places actually cost the court money.

Now that the Minister of Household Affairs is crying about poverty, what should the Ministry of Communications do? Will it eventually become a sinecure yamen, a yamen that makes people laugh?

Unexpectedly, Emperor Chongzhen smiled in his heart after hearing this. He had actually been prepared for it a long time ago, and immediately replied: "Bi Qing, don't worry about this, I will just open it for you again."

As the saying goes, if you want to make money, you can only increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

The so-called increasing revenue and reducing expenditure actually means finding new ways to make money and saving money. This sounds simple, but if you really do it, it would be too difficult. Compared with cutting costs, open source is more difficult!

There are always smart people in the world, and there are always people who will think of ways to make money and do them. Therefore, it is actually very difficult to do open source.

When these people in the Wenhua Palace heard this, everyone immediately became energetic. The emperor actually has another way to make money? Why do you feel like making money is so easy here in the Emperor?

If others say that he has open source methods, many people may be suspicious. However, when Emperor Chongzhen said this, no one among these high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty would doubt it. In fact, Emperor Chongzhen's past has proven that he has this ability!

Bi Ziyan was a little surprised and immediately replied in the group: "Your Majesty, how can I open it up?"

Everyone else was staring at the chat area of ​​the temporary group, waiting to see the emperor's reply. They wanted to know what wonderful ideas the emperor had this time to create a new way of making money for the court!

Emperor Chongzhen saw the question and said in the group: "You should all understand the benefits of this chat group, instant messaging! Therefore, I decided to launch an upgraded version of letters in Ming Dynasty, which is to charge for instant messaging!"

If you are from later generations, you may immediately understand what Emperor Chongzhen wanted to do. But these people in the Wenhua Palace Group still don't quite understand, the upgraded version of the letter? What's the meaning?

Emperor Chongzhen probably knew that they didn't understand very well, so he explained in detail: "Let me give you an example. For example, in Yingtian Mansion, the court announced that if the people of Yingtian Mansion have anything, they want to tell the people in the capital If they have relatives, friends, or business partners, the court can help them bring the message immediately, or send the message to the corresponding person in half a day. Qing and others thought that although there was a fee for this matter, how willing would the people of the Ming Dynasty be? Pay?"

"As for the specific operation, I will set up a new yamen, which can be under the Ministry of Communications or the Ministry of Household Affairs. This is to be determined. The core of the people in this yamen are the people in the chat group. They are responsible for sending and receiving messages from the two places, and then the local Others sent the news to the local people. This matter is impossible for others, but for me, it is extremely simple, how about it? "

To put it bluntly, this is actually an idea that Emperor Chongzhen had thought of before, which is similar to the telegraph of later generations. Going one step further, it is equivalent to a telephone.

After hearing this, no one in the Wenhua Palace group spoke. For future generations, this should not be too normal. But for people at this time, using a chat group to set up an instant messaging yamen is simply unimaginable. It's a good thing that they are all in the chat group, otherwise, if I tell them, they won't believe it even to death.

Seeing that everyone in the group was shocked, Emperor Chongzhen didn't care, and continued to say in the group: "As for how to charge, we can discuss it and make a rule. What I want is to benefit the people, not to be arrogant! When the time comes, , I will set up such yamen all over the world, so that the people of Ming Dynasty can benefit from it, and can also increase their knowledge, and no longer be complacent!"

Compared with the telegraphs of later generations, Emperor Chongzhen's can be said to be completely cost-free. No, there is also some cost, that is, the people who deliver the news at the local government office also need to be paid. There are also government offices and so on, but these costs are low.

After a while, the courtiers in the group immediately began to praise him one after another. Words such as the emperor's wisdom and wisdom were like refreshing the screen.

You know, this chat group belongs to the emperor, and now he uses it to benefit the people, which actually benefits these officials. They also have remote communication needs, especially instant messaging.

It was only then that Wen Tiren understood why the emperor asked him to do that before the meeting. Because in fact, all members in the chat group can do this. But now, only the people designated by the emperor can do this, and it has become a separate business!

In addition, this approach has many benefits!

Thanks to Yiye Zhiqiu111 for the tip! Thanks to Mortal Lu Buping for the 500 starting coin reward!