The capital in October was already quite cold, with a cool breeze everywhere. Although it was not cold and harsh, it could still make people feel cold all over.

The weather is so cold, but many people are in a hot heart. Not to mention that the owners of paper and printing workshops are like epilepsy attacks, buying everywhere and recruiting people crazy. Just talking about the minor officials in various departments is like crazy heads, and they lie on the table and write quickly when they are fine. At that time, it is not popular to write novels yet. Are these mentally ill patients ready to write books?

Of course this is impossible.

In ancient times, writing books was usually an honor that only great writers and poets could have. Even if you think of a essay, you must at least be a Hanlin or a Zhejishi from a first-class family. For example, the minor officials in various departments were usually from a juren, and at most they were from a third-class family and a Jinshi. Are you afraid to write books and not be afraid of laughing at the front teeth of a person?

Of course, they were not writing books, but writing reports to Xindibao. In the past few days, the Tongzheng Envoy Department has actually been crazy and posted the Xindibao's request notices all over the various yamen in the capital. What's strange is that the senior officials in each yamen pretended that they had not seen it and ignored it! It's not that they really didn't see it, but they just didn't dare to care. The emperor spoke at the court meeting, and whoever dared to stop the Tongzheng Envoy Department would have a good look.

The senior officials of each yamen were also happy to turn a blind eye. Anyway, they were not here to ask for money, but to give money to their subordinates, so let them give it to them.

At first, people from all government offices didn’t believe it. A thousand-word article cost ten taels of silver. What a joke, everyone is a scholar. If you really want to be ruthless, it is not impossible to write tens of thousands of words a day. It is simply a fantasy to earn one hundred taels a day!

I was always a little bored and I sat there and had nothing to do. I wrote a few related articles and threw them into the receipt box at the Tongzheng Envoy Office at the various yamen. I just used it as a pastime. Even if I didn't adopt it, I would be given a hundred laboratories fee, one hundred yuan a day, and a month would be three taels of silver. The family's food rations were enough. Of course, the premise was that the Tongzheng Envoy Office was not a scam, and they had to really give it money.

The Tongzheng Envoy Department is naturally not a scam. The next day, all the people who contributed the article received the money. Of course, most of them were paid for the work fee, but a very small number of people received the manuscript fee of ten taels of silver.

Now all the yamen in the capital are in a mess. It turns out that there are really ten taels of silver and one thousand words. Whoever doesn’t write is a fool. Even if there are not ten taels, a hundred documents are enough to buy some wine to drink. How big a piece of article is to be written in one hour at most. Their yamen work only for one or two hours a day, and some are time.

So, officials under the sixth rank in the various yamen in the capital began to bury their heads when they were idle. Those who didn’t want to write were forced to write. There was no way, if you didn’t write, your colleagues would call you a fool!

Wu Meicun suffered a lot. The day before, it was a little better. Only dozens of people contributed their articles, and their writing skills were OK. People who were not confident would not dare to lose this ugly thing. He picked a few of the best articles and asked his subordinates to send all the manuscript fees to others the next day.

This was awesome. The next day he received hundreds of copies, and his eyes were almost swollen before he finished reading it. On the third day, he had to summon his subordinates, talk about the screening conditions, and then asked them to check the ones who could be beaten up and then hand them over to him for his reading. He had read it all day long before he finished reading it. On the fourth day, he was still more than a thousand copies. He was buried in the pile of manuscripts all day, and even with several manuscripts in his hand when he was eating and going to the toilet, he almost vomited.

However, this also has an advantage. Even if many manuscripts do not meet the published standards, the descriptions have many advantages. Just a little more comprehensive and polish a qualified article will come out. Now if he is asked to write again, he will definitely write ten articles a day. Of course, this is a bit of a plagiarism and he disdained it. Therefore, he decided that he would not write articles again until he really couldn't get the manuscript together, because when he thought of the title, the wonderful clips in various unacceptable manuscripts would automatically appear in his mind, and he didn't need to conceive them at all. He just excerpted a few paragraphs. What's the difference between this and copying!

In this way, the first, second, third, and fourth issues of the Beijing News are delivered to Zhu Cijiong in a steady stream, at least once a day, sometimes two or three issues per day. Anyway, except for the contents of the first three issues, the rest can be adjusted appropriately according to the submission situation. If you have collected ten articles in one issue, you can do it first.

At this time, there is no TV or Internet. It is impossible to report the news on the same day. The time deviation is no more than one month, so it is news. Of course, if you can receive the news on the same day when you encounter a major event, it is OK to insert it into the newspaper on the same day.

Zhu Cijiu looked at it carefully one issue after another. After all, Wu Meicun is the top scorer in the new subject, and his literary talent is beyond words. The articles he edited are basically vivid and concise, but some articles are not in line with what he wants to promote and cannot achieve the desired effect.

This is normal. Wu Meicun has never seen the overwhelming publicity technique of later generations, so it is understandable that he cannot grasp the key points. Therefore, after reading it once, Zhu Cijiu would call Wu Meicun to come in front of him and provide patient guidance.

After a few issues, Wu Meicun finally fully understood what Zhu Cijiu meant, and gradually became accurate in grasping the points. Zhu Cijiu was relieved at this point and finally didn't have to study newspapers all day long. That thing was really not the job that the emperor should do.

After the newspaper is finalized, it will be sent to type and print. The bosses of the printing workshop are so active. They specially customized a batch of outer frames that are about the size of a newspaper to ensure that each side can be printed in one go. They also changed the printing workbench to the size of a newspaper, which makes it more efficient to work. As for the personnel, they have doubled the number, and each table has two sets of people taking turns to print them, and they have printed crazily for twelve hours a day.

The printed newspapers were delivered to the Tongzheng Envoy Office in a truckload. Their small warehouses were filled in one day, and the office spaces were filled with all over the place, almost everywhere.

Wu Meicun was worried when he saw the newspapers that were growing piled up. How could he distribute them to his personal hands? This question seems simple, but it is difficult to think about it carefully. The thirteen provinces in the Ming Dynasty were so vast that even if it was rushing, it would take two or three days to cross a province and send it to the most remote province. It would be fast enough to get there in half a month! And not only did it be delivered, but you also had to distribute it. Who would distribute it?

This question has exceeded Wu Meicun's authority, and he has to ask the emperor for help again.

Zhu Cijing was also heartbroken when he heard this problem. He found that he had overlooked a very important point. The Ming Dynasty had no Internet or fax machine at this moment. How did this newspaper be delivered? He began to think about it and he vaguely remembered that there was a newspaper when there was no Internet or fax machine in his previous life. How did this newspaper be published? Post office, yes, it was issued by the post office, and there was no post office in the Ming Dynasty!

What should I do if I don’t have a post office? If I don’t have one, let him have it. This is the best thing to be an emperor. It is impossible to accomplish in the eyes of others. But in his opinion, it is quite simple. As long as I know what kind of institution it is, are you still afraid that it will not be built?

He immediately gathered a group of his confidants and directly proposed the idea of ​​building a post office. He explained the general role of the post office and asked them to analyze how long it took to build the post office, how much money it would cost, and how many personnel it would need to be added.

But he never thought that as soon as he finished speaking, Sun Yuanhua looked at him with a strange expression, looking like he wanted to speak but stopped.

Zhu Cijing asked curiously: "Chuyang, what's wrong? Is there anything wrong?"

Sun Yuanhua said hesitantly: "The post office that the emperor said is a bit similar to the post office. Weichen thought, can we simply transform the post office into a post office. The number of postmen in this post has always been a big burden for the Ministry of War. If... Weichen said, if, if Lord Wu can share some profits and be the monthly salary of the postmen, it is not impossible to transmit and sell newspapers on the post station multiple times."

Zhu Cijing was impressed by the post station. Historical books seem to say that Li Zicheng was a postman. It was because Chongzhen believed in the minister's suggestion and abolished the post station, causing Li Zicheng to lose his job, so he rebelled.

So, a few years ago, a minister submitted a memorial to propose the abolition of the post station. Regent Zhu Youjian could not make the decision. When he came to ask Zhu Cijiu, Zhu Cijiu was so angry that he snatched the brush from Chongzhen and drew a big cross on the memorial. Damn, do you want to force Li Zicheng to rebel? Do you want to kill me!

As a result, Li Zicheng still rebelled, which made him very embarrassed. Therefore, Zhu Cijing had a deep impression of the post station. He didn't know at that time that Li Zicheng was actually a wandering murderer, and he might be exposed at any time. If you cut or withdraw the post station, he would rebel!

Thinking about it now, this inn is similar to a post office. Fortunately, it was not cut off at that time, otherwise it would be a big deal now.

Zhu Cijing made the decision on the spot. The Ministry of War thought it was heavy, right? He simply changed the post station to the post office and assigned it to the Tongzheng Envoy Office. Apart from the original function of picking up and dropping off officials, the function of sending official documents is retained, and the function of sending and selling newspapers is added. For each newspaper sold, they will be allocated by the Ministry of Food and Payroll. As for the future, the officials will be charged for their own expenses by their subordinate yamen, and the post office will no longer provide food and accommodation for free.

The world-famous Ming Post was born like this. After being affiliated with the Tongzheng Envoy Office, the postmen at post stations in various places gradually became divorced from military registration. The post office gradually developed from a military-oriented official document transfer station to a service department integrating communications, mailing items, and issuing newspapers and magazines.

With the post office, it is much more convenient to issue newspapers. After Wu Meicun put bundles of newspapers on seals, he began to distribute them to various places in the Ming Dynasty through the post office. Within ten days, the first three issues of the Beijing News were printed on time and sent to various places. When the day arrived, the seals were opened and distributed to scholars from all over the country for free.
Chapter completed!