Chapter 2725 The Simplest Wooden Tablet

In July of the seventh year of Taixing.

Chang'an.

Chengnan Station.

There are three Chang'an Post Stations, one in the east, west and south in addition to the north. The Chengnan Post Station is more responsible for handling letters, official documents and other items from various places, and some are closer to the post offices of later generations.

Chang'an is a big city. There are not only many residents in the city, but also many people in the tombs. Of course, these people also need to contact relatives and friends far away, so letters, bamboo slips, wooden slips, etc. are sent out and in every day. Very much.

as far as I can tell. Most of the "people" who wrote letters were still descendants of the gentry.

Although Feiqian has developed paper with lower price and better quality, these two "comparisons" are only relative to the previous paper. For most common people, even for the children of the gentry, It is said that bamboo slips and wooden tablets are still simple and "free" text carriers that can be used anywhere and do not even cost money, so a large number of people are still using them.

Because most of the people in the feudal dynasty were illiterate, even if you wanted to send a letter, it was not an easy task. You needed to find a scholar who could write, spend a sum of money first, and then find the right way. People or institutions, and because of the illiteracy of the people, the officials rarely talk about opening special places for people to send letters in remote areas. Institutions such as inns can only be found in cities, even larger cities.

If you want to send a letter, you have to first pay someone to write the letter, then pay someone to bring it from the countryside to the city, then spend money to send it from a certain city to a certain city, and finally spend a sum of money to have someone send it from the inn. To deliver it to someone's home, each process requires expenses. Although the price is not too high, it is not cheap either.

Ordinary businessmen will be willing to carry letters along the way, which range from tens to hundreds of coins.

Large-scale queues such as water transport also carry letters, and the charges are usually hundreds of dollars.

And because most people in the feudal dynasty never leave their hometown, finding the right person is actually a very accidental thing. Maybe even if you spend money to write a letter, you can only do it at home. I left it there until the ink on the letter smudged and the paper turned yellow, but I still couldn't send it.

It is precisely because of these problems that in ancient times, ordinary people hardly sent letters. When they really missed someone, they might just stand in the wind and murmur a few words. Even if you entrust your heart to the east wind.

The letters currently processed by the Chang'an City South Station are also basically letters exchanged between the sons of the gentry. The postmen at the post station also prefer to deliver letters from the children of these noble families, because as long as the letters are delivered, they will be thanked by some errands, which can range from a few to a dozen coins to hundreds of coins, and they may even give some extra wine and meat. What a pleasure.

"Li's!" Li's letter! Maoling's! ” The clerk in charge of distributing letters came out with a lot of letters, then put them on the table, picked up one, and shouted.

"Why! Give it to me! I just happened to be going to Maoling! ” The soldiers surrounding him listened with their ears pricked up. When they saw someone passing by, they hurriedly raised their hands to signal, and then stepped forward to receive the letter that needed to be delivered.

"Webster, Webster's letter!" Who's going? Hey, weren't you all rushing to give this away before? "The clerk picked up another letter. After calling for a long time, no one answered. He couldn't help but frown and said, "Forget it, let's just put it here for now... The next one is from Zhang family, Zhang family from the south of the city..."

"ah! The Zhang family in the south of the city is right next door to my house! I'm going, I'm going! "An older postman came up, and the other two postmen who originally wanted to step forward shrank back after seeing it.

"Old Zhangtou, aren't you too lazy to send these letters on weekdays? ” The clerk also laughed and joked, “Register yourself! 』

The old postman Lao Zhang smiled and said, "That's because my legs and feet are not good on weekdays, so I can't compete with you young people from a distance. I'm afraid of delaying things for others... But Zhang's family belongs to the same neighborhood and the same street as my family." I just took it with me when I got home...Last time, Zhang's people asked me if I had any letters. Now there is a letter. If I don't bring it to them, wouldn't it make me a little embarrassed when we meet..."

The clerk nodded and made a favor, "That's right... next time there is a letter from the Zhang family in the south of the city, I can leave it to you." 』

"That's a good feeling!" ” Lao Zhangtou smiled and took the letter, which was a piece of wood.

Lao Zhangtou touched the tail of the wooden tablet with his fingers, and then his eyes moved, but he quickly put the wooden tablet into his arms as if nothing was wrong.

Because the words on the wooden tablets are written directly on the wooden tablets, what is written can be seen by everyone who handles it. Therefore, wooden letters are actually very simple, but the simpler things are, the more complicated information may be hidden beneath them.

Lao Zhang felt his head down and went home with the wooden slip in his arms. I greeted people I knew along the way, and there was nothing out of the ordinary. It wasn't until I arrived at Zhang's courtyard in the south of the city that a little seriousness appeared on my face.

Lao Zhangtou opened the courtyard door and took out the wooden tablet.

The wooden tablet was taken into the hands of another person, and then he reached out and touched the tail of the wooden tablet, with the same serious expression...

Immediately, the wooden tablet did not stay at Zhang's small courtyard in the south of the city. Those who came in from the front door went directly from the back, turned around a few alleys, and entered the back corner door of a shop, and then handed over. It's in the hands of the person in charge.

The person in charge also touched the tail of the wooden tablet, then took the wooden tablet into the darkroom. According to the previous instructions, he prepared hot water to dissolve the isinglass and immersed the wooden tablet in the water.

Isinglass is rich in protein, so using some special methods, you can brew a glue with greater viscosity, even comparable to 502 in later generations. However, the sticky items of this fish glue are afraid of water and heat, so when encountered Hot water will lose its viscosity.

Because there are words written on the wooden tablets, normally ordinary people would keep the wooden tablets away from water. If the wooden tablets get wet and the words are smudged, then who can still see clearly what is written? Moreover, isinglass is not something that ordinary people can use, so people in the Youwen Division use this simple wooden slip to convey some non-urgent information.

The glue between the wooden tablets soon came apart, revealing the real letter sealed with wax inside.

Soon, the original wooden slip and the letter inside were quickly put into a new box, and then sent directly to the back door of Youwen Division, and were delivered to Kan Ze by the clerk.

Kan Ze looked at the information in his hand and couldn't help but reach out and rub his eyebrows.

The manpower of the Youwen Division is now gradually being deployed, and more and more information has been collected. Moreover, because Pang Tong left Chang'an, some relevant information has naturally been gathered here in Kanze, making Kanze It is very busy. From morning to night every day, almost all of it is spent in official houses.

This is a letter sent by Zhang An, the Supervisor of the Western Regions. It talks about the issue of official administration in the Western Regions. It mentions that Counselor Wang, the Supervisor of the Western Regions, was forced to die...

This is a big problem.

Counselor Wang himself is not that important, but the issues reflected by this matter are important.

This is like the feudal dynasty of later generations sending people to a place to investigate, but they fell off a cliff and died halfway, or the boat capsized while taking a boat...

Is it such a coincidence?

Kan Ze doesn't believe that there are any pure coincidences in this world.

Combining some of the things reported before, he could almost deduce that Counselor Wang from the Zhiyin Supervisor must have known something before he was killed.

At a small scale, this matter is called murder, but at a serious scale...

That's hard to say.

Kan Ze was silent for a while, and then he first called the old clerk in charge of the archives to prepare the information, and then hurried to the Chancellor's desk with the information. Of course, the purpose of filing does not mean that this piece of information should be copied by the senior manager, but that some basic information of this information, such as where it comes from, who is handling it, etc., is just recorded. As for the intelligence What is the main content of the information is generally not recorded, but the content must be registered after the information is out of date.

Because Kan Ze was still affiliated with the Chancellor, he found Xun You first.

Xun You was also very busy during this period. Although there were the most officials in the Shangshutai, there were also the most things in the Shangshutai. This was because Feiqian gave each region relatively high autonomy. There are so many events that need to be processed. After all, it is still a big man at the moment, and the degree of centralization is not very high.

If there was such a high degree of centralization as in the feudal dynasties of later generations, and all local matters, big and small, had to be reported for instructions, you can imagine the matters that the central court had to deal with every day. With so many things going on, the emperor would never be able to approve so many memorials by himself, so the institution of the cabinet was naturally born, and then there were the ruling ministers.

Good ruling ministers can indeed reduce the emperor's burden, but bad ruling ministers...

In fact, any policy is like a sword, it has two edges. If blood is accidentally drawn, can all the blame be placed on the sword?

Xun You read the information that Kan Ze brought, sighed slightly, and then said to Kan Ze to stop for a moment, then speeded up his review and processing of the papers, and then got up and followed him before the next batch of papers was delivered. Kan Ze went to the festival hall of Huqi Mansion together.

In the feudal dynasty, officials often worked based on their conscience.

This is not only true at the central court, but also at the local level.

Because it is difficult to have a fixed indicator.

Even now Fei Qian has proposed the idea of ​​performance appraisal for officials, but how to implement it, how to clearly guide the direction of local officials, and how to establish a code of conduct at the grassroots level and make every official abide by it, Xun You cannot do it. , Fei Qian couldn't do it, and even a thousand years later, it was still difficult to do it.

When Xun You and Kan Ze arrived at the festival hall, not only Fei Qian but also Fei Zhen was in the festival hall.

There is a saying that the children of the poor will be in charge of the family early, but there is also a similar saying that the children of the rich will be in charge of money early and the children of officials will be officials early.

When Feizhen saw Xun You and Kan Ze coming, she subconsciously stood up, saluted Xun You and Kan Ze first, and then retreated to the inner hall.

Xun You and Kan Ze returned the courtesy and sat down at Fei Qian's signal.

Fei Qian looked at Xun You and Kan Ze and asked, "What's the matter?" 』

Of course, what Fei Qian asked was nonsense. If nothing had happened, Xun You and Kan Ze would not have come together, but Fei Qian still wanted to say this, just like what he said most of the time.

Xun You nodded towards Kan Ze.

Kan Ze took out the information from his pocket and delivered it to Fei Qian's desk, "This is the information record sent by the Western Regions Division of the Department of Information..."

Fei Qian was silent for a moment, his eyes resting on the message. He hesitated slightly, but he quickly picked it up, read it once, and then put it down gently. "What do you two think about this matter?" 』

Xun You tilted his head slightly, signaling Kan Ze to speak first.

This was not because Xun You was evading, but because Kan Ze discovered and reported this matter, so naturally Kan Ze needed to talk about it first.

"My lord, in the Western Region, the officialdom has been defeated. The law is not followed and the laws are not observed. Although there is no civil unrest for the time being, the resentment is hidden underneath. It looks like it is calm. If there is a slight disturbance, anger will flow out. also! ” Kan Ze did not include Hu. He said, “This matter must be investigated. You should ask the chief of the Western Regions!” Choose capable officials and change it! The Protector of the Western Regions is also a Han Dynasty. He should abide by Han laws and should use the laws of Longyou in the Western Regions! 』

What Kan Ze said went straight to the point.

He believes that major problems have arisen in the official evaluation system in the Western Regions, so that corruption among officials has become common. This matter is not only related to daily administrative efficiency, but may also affect the public support of the Western Regions and have a negative impact on the future of the Han Dynasty. In terms of the development of the Western Region, it has also come to a time when governance is necessary.

Xun You said from the side, "Han Feizi once said, "The master of the Ming Dynasty governs the officials but not the people." The master is responsible for the chaos among the officials in the Western Regions. 』

Xun You's words were also very direct. Not only did he point out Lu Bu's problem, but he also said that it was Fei Qian's problem. After all, Fei Qian was Lu Bu's "master" to a certain extent.

Is it nice to speak bluntly? Most of the people who speak bluntly don't sound good, but both Xun You and Kan Ze know that they say it directly, and Fei Qian will not be angry when his ministers speak out, so they dare to speak out.

Fei Qian pinched his beard and smiled bitterly.

He knew that there would be problems in the Western Region, but he did not expect that problems would occur so early. Lu Fengxian, have you not read the Zuo Zhuan I gave you? No matter what, we have to see the beginning? You must know that the beginning of Zuo Zhuan is "Zheng Burke Duan"!

"In the past, when Li Wenyou was still here, Xiliang established the laws of the Western Regions..." Fei Qian sighed and said slowly, "The way of the Western Regions is Wenyou's last wish..."

As the person in charge of the actual affairs of the Han Dynasty, Li Ru also imagined how to set up a political system and official regulations that he thought was suitable. The Western Regions came to the Western Regions after Li Ru was unable to implement his ideas in the Han Dynasty. , a new attempt that was re-planned based on the new ideas given by Fei Qian.

In Li Ru's concept, it is also a very important point in the laws of the Western Regions, that is, the appointment of Hu people, whether it is a mercenary army of Hu people, or an appointment by a local state in the Western Regions, the attitude towards the Hu people is far higher than that of the Han people. The Central Plains is much broader. This is the influence of life in Xiliang on Li Ru, and it is also the influence of Li Ru on the Western Regions.

The early Han Dynasty's rejection of the Hu people and its discrimination against the Han people living on the border left a deep imprint on Li Ru's growth and learning process. Therefore, when Li Ru got a stage to display his talents, he continued to Looking for a way, he advised Dong Zhuo to accept Hu soldiers and even Lu Bu. He hoped to establish a more tolerant and harmonious Han Dynasty where Hu and Han blended together. Even in the later stages of his life, he was trying to realize his youthful ideals in the Western Regions. , until the last moment of life.

The reason why Fei Qian respected Li Ru was not entirely because Li Ru was kind to Fei Qian, but also largely because Fei Qian saw in Li Ru the spirit of having the courage to reform, try, break through, and change. This kind of spirit is rarely found among the Shandong gentry, and perhaps it is this spirit that makes Li Ru incompatible with the old-fashioned and conservative Shandong gentry.

Times will change, and Dahan needs to innovate. If a dynasty is strictly blocked by classes and cannot circulate up and down, then it means that it has come to an end.

"The matter of official administration is the most important thing for the country." Fei Qian paused for a moment and continued, "In the ancient Shun Canon, there was a saying about three years of performance evaluation. After three tests, Youming was deposed, and Xianxi was awarded the title of concubine." Therefore, the chaotic laws in the Western Regions are caused by the administration of officials, and the assessment of official administration should be carried out. Listen to the six strategies and examine the eight methods. 』

The "Six Strategies" mentioned by Fei Qian refer to the six aspects of "Integrity, Integrity, Integrity, Respect, Integrity, Integrity, and Integrity", while the "Eight Methods" are the assessment of administrative agencies and departments, mainly Examine whether the affiliations between departments are clear, whether the department's scope of responsibilities is strictly adhered to, whether the communication between departments abides by relevant regulations, whether the department's routine affairs are handled appropriately, whether each department operates in accordance with the rules, etc...

These "Six Strategies" and "Eight Strategies" were not created by Fei Qianzhi, but existed during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It is said to have been created by the King of Zhou. Of course, this King of Zhou created it and most of the other kings of Zhou created it. The creation is the same, there may be slight differences, but at least during the Warring States Period, relatively complete laws and regulations have been formed.

Even in the Qin State, there were specially promulgated codes of conduct for officials such as employee handbooks and official codes of conduct, which were called "The Way of Being an Official". It stipulates that there are "five virtues" for officials, namely "honesty and respect for superiors, honesty and integrity, careful handling of affairs, joy in doing good deeds, and respect and courtesy". If "five are completed, there will be a big reward"; there is also " "Five losses", namely "praising one's height, valuing one's size, being good at cutting, being inferior to one's wisdom, being a lowly person but valuing goods".

At the same time, he also emphasized to the officials repeatedly and sincerely, "If you are careful, you will not be able to return your talents; if you are careful, you will not forget your plans; if you are cautious, you will not be able to pursue your words; if you are careful, you will not be rewarded with food"! When seeing these rules and regulations, Fei Qian felt that even China was leading the entire world at that time!

At such an early age, China had already thought about official governance, and had even put forward relevant regulations and formulated relevant laws, but...

"If there is a problem in the Western Region, we should take care of it ourselves..." Fei Qian said firmly, "However, you two, at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, there was chaos among the vassals. Now in the Western Region, there is also chaos." This kind of blood can poison the skin and cannot cure diseases. It should be regarded as a good doctor, but it is better to eliminate it without a tangible form. Those who are good at fighting should be in an invincible position without losing the enemy. The Western Region belongs to the battlefield. If we use two generals, how can we fight it? 』