According to Li Yuanying's virtue in the early years, he would not go out again if he was killed in winter. This year is different. This year he feels endless energy all over his body. He doesn't feel cold even in winter. He is outside all day long. As the weather gets colder, there are gradually fewer people outside who can't afford thick winter clothes.
After the winter, Li Yuanying personally met with the heads of various charcoal companies by name, and asked them to raise the price of fine charcoal vigorously, it doesn't matter, ordinary charcoal is not allowed to raise the price, and the common people must be able to afford it. After balancing the charcoal price and making sure that no one was intentionally driving up the price, Li Yuanying asked people to send the rosters of widows, widows, and military officers according to the practice of the previous two years, and organized people to send charcoal and winter clothes door-to-door, so that they could not survive the winter. He doesn't know about other places, he only knows that no one is allowed to freeze to death in Tengzhou.
I don't want to send back a batch of things that were sent out this year.
Tang Sui was in charge of implementing the matter, and he immediately went to explain to Li Yuanying what was going on: "They took the charcoal, but they didn't want the winter clothes. They said they gave them away last year and the year before the year before, and the winter clothes are still new, so you can continue to wear them. They don't want this year's new winter clothes, and give them to those who need them more."
The winter clothes of ordinary people are worn year after year. Even if they are torn or leaked, they can continue to be worn by sewing and mending. They even pass on from brother to brother, father to son, and several people take turns to wear a winter coat. It's enough to wear it!
If the item is sent by someone else, many people must think "Don't give up something for nothing", and will never return it. But the things were sent by Li Yuanying. For more than two years, Li Yuanying had people break up every decree and tell the people. They were fine, and indeed they were getting better.
People can't be white-eyed wolves. Li Yuanying asked people to send carbon and winter clothes to keep them from freezing. How could they continue to accept it against their conscience? Anyone who sneaks down will be looked down upon by others!
Therefore, many people returned their winter clothes, and only those who had grown up at home kept the newly sent winter clothes.
Li Yuanying grew up in a wealthy nest, so he didn't know much about these things. He understood after listening to Tang Sui. It seems that winter clothes really don't need to be given every year.
Well-made winter clothes will never be useless. Among other things, there are so many soldiers in Tengzhou, and more winter clothes are not enough.
Li Yuanying asked someone to send the returned winter clothes to the army.
Tang Sui naturally led people to publicize it. First, he said that Li Yuanying sent clothes and charcoal to the soldiers' families. I am grateful, otherwise a winter coat can be sold for a lot of rice, who would take the initiative to return it
Li Yuanying didn't do these things to win the hearts of the people and stabilize the morale of the army, but since he had done all of these things, Tang Su felt that people should know about them. He praised Li Yuanying's benevolence and his family's conscientiousness and gratitude. The soldiers felt warm when they were given winter clothes. They felt that the Tengzhou military camp was as warm as home, and they were all excited. They said in unison that they would definitely Defend Tengzhou loyally and responsibly.
Tang Yan, a white-faced scholar who was not as young as a weak crown, did not appear weak in his speech before the army. Li Dejian looked a little surprised in his eyes. After asking, he found out that Tang Xuan's ancestors also had great generals, and they had a lot of family background. These generations have passed on poems and books to the family, and there has been no general talent.
Li Dejian felt that Li Yuanying's luck was really extraordinary, and even Tang Sui, who looked weak and gentle, was really extraordinary in his actions. A few words helped Li Yuanying tie the army's heart firmly.
After another half a month, Dong Xiaoyi came to report that after the autumn harvest, there would be enough manpower, and laborers from all over the country would be freed up to build roads, and the straight road leading to Chang'an would soon be fully connected.
There are many states and counties involved in this road, and it was not all built by Fengtai Building. The names of people who participated in the construction of the road are recorded on the monuments along the way. Li Yuanying asked people to write down all the states and counties along the way, and led Yan Lide to design a set of stamps to celebrate the completion of the Straight Road. Starting from Chang'an, the stamp price was set in units of six stations, and one penny was added for each additional six stations.
Chang'an is about 1,800 miles away from Mount Tai, and the normal courier station travels six courier stations a day, each post station is 30 miles apart, that is, it travels 180 miles a day. So normally, as long as it costs ten Wen, the letter can be sent to the end of the straight road in ten days, and the letter can be sent from Mount Tai to Chang'an!
Li Yuanying was the main investor, so of course he secretly turned the straight road to the door of Tengzhou's house and then turned to Mount Tai.
At present, the mailboxes outside the post stations along the way are all set up, and the specially trained postmen and good horses are also ready to go. If there are many letters, they can also ask someone to collect them and use a carriage to pull them! There is an old servant next to each mailbox. They don’t need to do heavy work. They just need to explain to the sender how to operate it and unlock it regularly so that the postman can pick up the daily letters.
Li Yuanying rode his horse for a lap on the spacious and flat straight road. He was in a very good mood, and went back to call his little friends to ride the horse together in the harsh wind. He didn't stop until he was almost out of Tengzhou. Everyone was covered in hot sweat, and they didn't feel cold at all.
Li Yuanying turned his horse's head and looked at the straight and spacious official road in front of him, which could accommodate several carriages in parallel. He felt a strange feeling in his heart. He had seen some pictures of the future in the Wanjie Library. The road at that time was wider and flatter than the one in front of him. At that time, the cars running on the road were no longer horse-drawn carts. At that time, people could not only walk on the ground , travel on water, fly to the sky, and even explore the vast universe, board the moon that illuminates the night sky every night to see its dim and uneven surface.
All that was still far away from the Tang Dynasty, and Li Yuanying never told anyone about those grotesque scenes. But when his horse's hooves stepped on this brand-new straight official road, he felt that he was a little closer to all of that. As long as the sons and daughters of Datang can unswervingly walk in that direction, one day they will go to that future, and they will arrive far ahead.
Li Yuanying turned to greet his friends: "Let's go back." He clamped his horse's belly and galloped ahead.
Seeing that Li Yuanying was in a good mood, the others also smiled and rode forward, and they all caught up with Li Yuanying.
Along the way, many common people also deliberately came to walk the newly expanded official road. When they saw Li Yuanying and his party riding by, they all stopped and watched them go away before continuing.
Not long after Li Yuanying returned to the city, Gao Yang and Lu Zhaolin's group appeared on the official road again. Not only did they bring many people, but they also brought a lot of things. A long group of people galloped towards Tengzhou City neatly and orderly.
Li Yuanying originally wanted to follow up on the pre-printing progress of the stamps, but when he heard that Gao Yang and the others had arrived, he immediately turned around to meet them. The newlyweds' faces were radiant, and every strand of hair exuded a sweet smell. Although Li Yuanying was bubbling with sourness, he still happily called for a banquet to celebrate the return of the two little friends.
Knowing that His Majesty Li Er had generously assigned fifty people to him, Li Yuanying was very happy, and did not look at the list, the grades and backgrounds of these fifty people, and warmly greeted them to have a welcome feast first. .
Not all of the fifty seconded people came here willingly, but they didn't want to slap the smiling faces. Li Yuanying was so enthusiastic about them, and they couldn't put on a cold face.
Li Yuanying recognized them one by one, and found that there were some acquaintances among them, including Wei Shu's brother Wei Ying and former classmate Zhang Jianzhi. Although they were older than him, they didn't take the exam with him. They passed the exam relatively late. They just got a job that was not very important this year, but they were packed to Tengzhou before their work was done!
Li Yuanying is familiar with strangers when he meets strangers, and of course he doesn't know anyone when he meets Wei Ying. He took Wei Ying's hand eagerly and said, "Brother, you can count yourself here. You should let your sister-in-law come and talk to sister Shu more often." Talk." Wei Ying is a few years older than Wei Shu, and got married years ago, but they couldn't go back to have a drink in Tengzhou.
Wei Ying had already persuaded himself not to compete with Li Yuanying. He heard that Li Yuanying opened his mouth to be his uncle and sister-in-law, although his face twitched, he still complied.
Li Yuanying was also used to Wei Ying's bad temper, so he turned around and continued to greet Zhang Jianzhi, and asked Zhang Jianzhi a lot of questions, such as whether the old hole and hemorrhoids had happened again. Let him move around more and don't sit all day. Zhang Jianzhi felt that if Kong Yingda knew that Li Yuanying missed him so much, he would be moved or would be so angry that he wanted to chase him over and beat him up. Besides, everyone knew that Kong Jijiu had a hemorrhoid!
After a welcome feast, the long-lost strangers disappeared, and all the strangers they met for the first time disappeared. Everyone had a very good impression of Li Yuanying. Whether it was real or pretending, at least Li Yuanying was very enthusiastic about them, and he also described a bright future for them, patted his chest and said that as long as they worked hard, he would write a recommendation letter for them in person in the future.
Newcomers to the officialdom like them are not afraid of having too many things to do, but they are afraid of having nothing to do. Tell them clearly that they have nothing to hesitate, roll up your sleeves and just do it!
Li Yuanying looked at the extremely young and energetic faces, and was very excited. At the banquet, he toasted the seconded talents with a lot of wine, and made himself dizzy from drinking.
Wei Shu entertained the female relatives on the other side, and checked to see if there were any good seedlings among them who were willing to come out to do something. It was only after the banquet was over that someone said that Li Yuanying was drunk.
Li Yuanying is actually not very good at drinking, but he doesn't have a clue in his heart, and every time he is happy, he can't help booing.
Some people will go crazy when drunk, but Li Yuanying is different. He is very obedient after drunk, and falls asleep. You can only tell from his red face that he is drunk.
Wei Shu wiped his face with a hot towel, sat on the edge and poked his flushed face with her finger.
The two are not married yet, so she shouldn't enter Li Yuanying's room, sit on Li Yuanying's couch, let alone touch Li Yuanying, but they are free in Tengzhou, they can do whatever they want, and they can do whatever they want Do. Wei Shu poked the other side of Li Yuanying's face as well, causing Li Yuanying to rub his head against the pillow with an unhappy expression. She withdrew her hand and coaxed: "Sleep, sleep well, or you will have a headache tomorrow."
The drunk Li Yuanying was obviously easy to coax, so he obediently stopped moving immediately, and soon fell into a deep sleep.
When Li Yuanying woke up the next day, his head really hurt, and he felt better after eating a bowl of tea. Thinking of how generously his imperial brother had called someone for him, Li Yuanying immediately asked someone to grind ink and lay out paper. He wanted to write a letter to His Majesty Li Er. This time he wanted to boast 10,000 words, the kind that never repeats a sentence! This is not flattery, it should be his imperial brother's birthday when the letter is sent back, so what's wrong with being a younger brother and saying something nice to congratulate him on his birthday
He has also prepared this year's birthday gift, a set of special stamps inlaid with gold thread, painted by Yan Lide, inscribed by Chu Suiliang, the collection value is extremely high, if you want to send letters, of course you can, but you have to beware of others Pull it down and go. Although he had someone make a thousand sets, but this is the first set to be sent out, Brother Huang is the first person to get it, full of sincerity! If you want to buy it after reading it, you can buy a commemorative set; if you think it is too expensive, you can also buy a set of ordinary stamps. Although there is no gold thread, it is also painted by Yan Lide and inscribed by Chu Suiliang. The paintings are beautiful and the characters are beautiful. It can also be used to send letters!
Of course, the gold stamp is not the point, the real point is that the road has been repaired!
Li Yuanying was full of creative inspiration. He closed his doors and created for a whole day, and he actually wrote a 10,000-word long letter. He enthusiastically asked Wei Shu to check him for any typos, and he was only allowed to correct the typos without moving a single word, otherwise his sincere emotions would not be reflected!
Wei Shu still remembered that Li Yuanying sent the wrong letter, so she would not refuse to help, but after she read a thousand words, she began to regret it.
Li Yuanying's literary talent is getting better and better now, but the core of the content has not changed at all, and it still closely revolves around "brother emperor, you are so wise and mighty like a god coming down from the sky", "brother emperor, with you like a heavenly Khan is the world The theme of "lucky people who have cultivated for hundreds of generations" will start.
Wei Shu struggled to read the 3,000 characters, and was finally defeated. She quietly said to Li Yuanying, "I'm a little tired from reading, why don't you ask Mei Niang to read it tomorrow."
Li Yuanying knew that Wei Shu was very busy recently, so he nodded to show that there was no problem, and he would ask Wu Mei tomorrow to ask her to help correct the typo.
Wu Mei's acceptance ability is much stronger than Wei Shu's. The next day she received the letter and read it without changing her expression, saying that there was no typo, and she could send it directly to Chang'an.
Satisfied, Li Yuanying happily sealed it and sent it to Chang'an along with the set of gold silk stamps.
The first batch of postmen trained in Tengzhou were very excited when they learned that the first letter they sent was to the palace. That is the palace, they have never seen it before, but now they can send the letter to the palace, it will be worth it no matter how many times they have to go back and forth in the future!
Wearing uniforms and riding horses with the same saddles, the postmen marched in a long line to Chang'an. People who didn't know the truth thought they were soldiers who were going to go to war, but they stopped to see that they were not, and after inquiring, they found out that they could spend a few cents to send the letter to Chang'an in the future!
Most people in Tengzhou already know what postage stamps mean, and they are gearing up to experience it. Anyway, stamps are not expensive, and you can send them several times without eating a bite of meat.
This is a new thing from Tengzhou. They have to write letters to show off to their relatives and friends!
Some people regret that the letter only goes to the direction of Chang'an. You must know that transportation is inconvenient these days. Road, such a convenient and cheap way of sending letters, even if they can’t see anyone, they can always communicate with each other to express their long-awaited love!
As the end of the year approached, everyone had saved money for a year. As stamps began to be sold to the outside world, those from poorer families only bought ones worth a penny to join in the fun, while those from richer families bought a set of stamps. If it wasn't for Li Yuanying not selling the gold thread stamps yet, they would have chosen the gold thread stamps. After all, a full set of common stamps is only fifty-five cents, so what's the point of spending them
Compared with letters from home, another target group of stamps is naturally scholars. They love to share their works with their friends. Having this delivery channel is a great convenience for them. As the literati spread word of mouth, a group of scholars had to buy a set of stamps even if they were going to copy books in exchange for money. Otherwise, how dare they say that they are scholars? When it's time to send letters, they have to send their friends a new song as soon as possible!
As a result, post offices around the world have not officially opened the delivery business, and stamps have jumped to the top of the list of best-selling commodities in Tengzhou.
Tengzhou is welcoming the new year with excitement, waiting for the official mail delivery day on the first day of the new year, and Chang'an also welcomes the special messenger team sent by Li Yuanying.
The postman who was in charge of delivering Li Yuanying's letter delivered the letter to the Imperial City Post Office excitedly, and his excitement had not yet calmed down.
Many people were unwilling to do this kind of drudgery of running back and forth, but now the roads are smooth and the postman is paid very well. Their wives can also be trained to work in the post office, sitting behind the counter to sell and sell stamps, and guide those who want to send letters. People, both decent and profitable! After these few years of work, they will definitely be able to save a large sum of money to marry their sons, add dowry to their daughters, and live a prosperous life!
Just thinking about such a future made them feel hot in their hearts, and they didn't even find it hard to drive back and forth every day, and even felt that the scenery along the way was extremely beautiful.
The letter arrived on time, and the next day happened to be His Majesty Li Er's birthday.
The person in charge of the Huangcheng Post Office entered the palace as an envoy from Tengzhou to celebrate his birthday. He got up early in the morning and checked his clothes nervously several times before going out nervously.
Outside the place of the palace banquet, the envoy from Tengzhou was placed in the pile of envoys from other vassal kings without discrimination. Compared with the birthday gifts piled up behind the others, what he brought was really shabby: a thick letter, a set of thin Gold silk stamps, a map of Chang'an Straight Road marked with the locations of 60 post stations along the way.
Li Tai and Li Yuanying didn't quite deal with each other, and Li Tai's envoy also saw that Li Yuanying's uneasy envoy was not pleasing to the eye, so he sneered: "I heard that His Royal Highness King Teng is the richest among so many vassal kings. Your Majesty offered such a little thing? A few thin sheets of paper were used as a birthday gift, what do you think of Your Majesty?"
The envoy of King Teng was a little rich, and he looked like a fat man with a good temper. He was not angry when he heard the words, but expressed his trust in Li Yuanying with a firm face: "Your Highness must have a reason for choosing such a birthday gift." Their trust in Li Yuanying It is almost blind, not only because Li Yuanying is the prince of the Tang Dynasty, but also because Li Yuanying is Li Yuanying—the Li Yuanying who can always make good results even if he messes around.
Thinking of this, the envoy of King Teng's apprehension and tension disappeared, replaced by a straight waist and a proud face.
At this time, it was finally their turn to enter the tribute envoys.
The author has something to say:
Fourth nephew: Why do you pull me out every time
Little Prince: Maybe you look more like a villain