The consequences of most of the post stations that Emperor Chongzhen abolished were quite serious. Before, the Ming Dynasty had a well-connected transportation, and the court had strong control over local governments. Transportation was the lifeblood of the country. At the same time, post stations were also the most likely place to breed corruption.

Some important personnel in the capital were deported and would make a big splash when inspecting the places. The stations were not just as simple as delivering letters, but sometimes they had to be responsible for reception.

Responsible for reception, and it is no problem to eat and get the card. These expenses are a considerable amount.

The court also thought about letting the local government raise their own funds. But this place is different from the place. Some prefectures and counties are rich, while others are poor.

It is easy to say that the operation of the self-paid stations in wealthy prefectures and counties is not happy to let the poor prefectures and counties be responsible for the operation of the post stations.

Also, some are stations located on major transportation roads, and maintaining stations every year is a huge expense. In addition, some are stations located at the junction of the two counties. This one doesn’t want to care about that one, and it ends up becoming a hot potato.

The imperial court took charge of the post station, which was even more huge expense for the national treasury. Years of war, coupled with natural disasters and man-made disasters, the country was really unable to bear it, and Chongzhen began to find ways to lay off the post station.

The most direct consequence of the layoffs was that a large number of postmen were unemployed. Among them, the most famous one was Li Zicheng. As a result, because of the layoffs of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng traversed the Central Plains, causing immeasurable huge damage to the Ming Dynasty.

The reform of the post station system crushed the last straw that crushed the Ming Dynasty.

In order to save hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, Chongzhen lost all the world and became a laughing stock.

But the historical process has never been that simple. Because Chongzhen was actually not the first to take the lead. Before him, the Ming Dynasty had sacked the post station system at least twice, and the Jiajing Emperor and Wanli had both worked before. But they all laid off surplus grain, but only Chongzhen laid off Li Zicheng.

The post station is equivalent to the expressway of the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, the real post station was actually a luxurious official guesthouse. In addition to the purpose of postal and military intelligence transmission that we usually know, it also undertakes many other functions. According to the regulations at that time, most post stations had two or even three-in-one courtyards. On the main transportation routes, the court often had post stations serving officials, and their living conditions were not worse than those of local officials.

A Ming Dynasty post station has at least a main gate, a drum tower, a middle gate, a front and a back hall, a left and right wing rooms, a kitchen, a warehouse, a horse house, a Yicheng House and other facilities. Most standard post stations have 10 upper rooms for officials to live in, and 20 ear rooms or wing rooms for traveling and intercom. They can accommodate dozens of guests at the same time.

At the same time, these inns also have their own inn houses and offices. Of course, there must be supporting kitchens and stables, and they must also be equipped with management and service personnel such as grooms, donkey husbands, buses, hall husbands, kuffs, Douqiu, housekeepers, kitchen servants and other management and service personnel. There must be large-scale shops for them to live in, and even spare warehouses and temporary prisons for various types of officials.

Therefore, the stations in the Ming Dynasty were like today's expressway service areas, spread across the country on traffic routes. They provided free services to the "system personnel" across the country! Their service items were more comprehensive than today's expressway service areas.

Not only did officials stay at the post station without spending money, they could also take money from the post station. At that time, many officials had to stay at the post station and asked for money in various names when leaving. After all, the post station could not cover all areas, and the service of people to eat, drink, defecate, urinate, and sleep for a moment. If they were not given, it would be very normal for the post guards or even the post chief to be beaten.

These star-studded stations are not only operated in a market-oriented manner, nor are they supported by state funding. Each station is mainly entrusted directly to the people by local governments and supported by additional tribute from local people.

In other words, the daily operation and maintenance of the post station is carried out between grassroots officials and grassroots people. There is neither supervision from superiors and subordinates, nor the conventional market norms. Therefore, in fact, to collect more and less from the people, the post station officials have the final say.

In fact, Emperor Chongzhen's layoff of the post station was a helpless move. The horses at the post station in the Ming Dynasty increased by more than 5 times in 150 years.

As for the horses that each post station needs to be equipped, the horses at the post station eat not grass, but grain. As early as the Zhu Yuanzhang period, each horse at the post station needed 80 stones of grain per year. However, 150 years later, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, a horse in Huazhou, Shaanxi actually needed 422 stones of grain per year! At that time, a hectare of arable land in Shaanxi could only produce 7 stones of grain. Therefore, every time raising an post horse required more than ten farmers' blood and sweat income throughout the year.

Given the poor breeding technology of the Ming Dynasty, it was impossible to cultivate horses into African elephants, so the amount of food intake was even more than 5 times more than 150 years. These excessive grains were actually eaten by the "system personnel" and the inn staff who came and went to the post station.

Zhang Juzheng, the protractor of the Ming Dynasty, effectively curbed the bad development of the post station. Zhang Juzheng did not stipulate a hard indicator for reducing funds, but instead seized the key point of "official privileges". He also directly included the reform of post station government in the assessment content of provincial leaders in various places.

Finally, Zhang Juzheng successfully reduced the national post office expenditure by more than 30%. He saved nearly one million taels of silver and reduced the huge economic burden for the people. It can be said that officials' privileges were damaged, while the national finance and the people benefited.

Emperor Chongzhen also began the reform of the post office government, but Chongzhen was eager for quick success and instant benefits, but he did not have the patience of Zhang Juzheng and others. He only hoped to solve the problem with a package of drastic moves and immediate results. Therefore, his methods are two major differences from Zhang Juzheng:

Zhang Juzheng's post-government reform focused on reducing the burden on the people, saving millions of taels of silver was just an accompanying benefit.

As the emperor, Chongzhen only focused on the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver obtained from the reform of the post office. Therefore, he acquiesced to the officials' levy on the people, but asked the officials to pay a large portion of the funds for military expenses.

This is the biggest flaw of Emperor Chongzhen's character. He is eager for quick success and instant benefits, and he wishes to succeed in a sudden success. Jiajing and Zhang Juzheng cut off the post station and abolished the post station and carried out slowly to avoid problems. It took several years to cut off the post station.

But Chongzhen wanted to get it done at once and cut off 60% of the country's inaugural stations. As a result, a few months later, a guy named Li Zicheng lost his job at Yinchuan Station in Shaanxi Province. Later, he became the culprit of the Ming Dynasty.
Chapter completed!