Chapter 42 6. Build roads and plant trees to dredge the lifeline of traffic

With the continuous expansion of the Mongol Empire, its territory also continued to expand, especially after the Western Expedition conquered Central and Eastern Europe, and its territory stretched across Eurasia.In such a vast country, how can they communicate with each other and deliver information as quickly as possible? Since the founding of Genghis Khan, he has imitated the post system of the Central Plains and restored or built a number of post stations in the territory for the use of envoys. After Kublai Khan came to the throne, especially after the unification of the whole country, post stations were set up all over the country, and the station red system was further developed, forming a densely populated area centered on Dadu. The transportation network, like the nerves and blood, stretches in all directions and controls the territory of thousands of miles.

Italian traveler Marco Polo once gave a vivid description of Zhanchi system in his book "Marco Polo's Travel Notes".He wrote in a very envious tone: "This is a very wonderful and strange system, which is hard to describe in words. From Hanbali (Dadu) City, there are roads leading to all provinces. The roads are very spacious. Every big On the road, every 40 or 50 kilometers, there will be post stations and hotels built to receive past business travellers. These are called post stations. These buildings are magnificent, with gorgeously furnished rooms, hung with silk curtains and door curtains, It is for the use of dignitaries. Even princes and princes would not be disgraceful to stay in such a post, because everything needed can be obtained from nearby towns and fortresses."

He also recorded: "Each post station always has 400 horses for the messengers of the Great Khan. The postmen deliver urgent documents and can fly 320 kilometers a day, or 640 Huali. The whole country is used for this business. There are more than 200,000 horses... Between the various post stations, there is a small village every five kilometers, with a red gatehouse, a plaque, and a wheel at twelve o'clock. There are people who walk here Messenger. When they deliver goods, they all wear leather belts, hang bells, carry guns, carry raincoats, carry (carry) documents, and carry torches at night. The roads are narrow, and those who carry horses and loads will hear the bells and avoid them. The night also frightens tigers and wolves.... They tie a small bell around their waists so that when they are still far away, when they hear the bell ringing, people will know that the postmen are coming. Because they only run about five kilometers...a walk The messenger stands at another station, and the bell rings to announce their arrival. Therefore, the messenger at the other station is prepared, and as soon as the person arrives at the station, he takes his postal package and starts immediately. In this way, the station is passed on one by one, and the efficiency is extremely fast In just two days and two nights, His Majesty the Emperor can receive news from far away places that would take ten days at the usual speed. During the fruit picking season, the fruits picked in Dadu in the morning can be transported the next night To Shangdu. This is a mileage of ten days on weekdays." (Volume 2 of "Marco Polo's Travels")

Marco Polo's narrative is basically in line with the operation of the Zhanchi system in the Yuan Dynasty. It not only describes the post station, but also describes the transmission of the courier shop, but the number of horses and the number of schedules are inaccurate.In fact, there were more than 40,000 horses in post stations across the country at that time, and the fastest postmen had a schedule of 500 miles, not more than 600 miles.In the mid-Yuan Dynasty, foot-passing was gradually replaced by horse-passing. It is through this red station system that the messengers at the post station run on the post road day and night, regardless of whether it is raining, frost, snow and cold waves, or whether it is scorching red sun or dark and windy. From all over the empire, news from all over the country was continuously presented to the Great Khan through this communication network.

Zhanchi, the name of the post in Mongolia and Yuan Dynasty.The transliteration of Mongolian originates from the ancient Altaic language, which means the person in charge of the station.In Yuan Dynasty literature, it usually refers to post station or station official.After Yuan Shizu established the capital of Dadu, the scale of Zhanchi system became larger and larger. He ordered the construction of post roads extending in all directions with Dadu as the center. These post roads vary according to their locations. The tree is as tall as ten feet, and the outside is thickly built, hidden by golden cones. Most of the trees are green pine and poplar.One step is 5 feet, 50 steps is 25 feet (about 80 meters), and a green pine or poplar is planted at about 10 meters.Along the way, the green shadows are whirling, very beautiful; and some places can only be walked by one person.

On the transportation lines extending in all directions, the government of the Yuan Dynasty set up tens of thousands of red stations in order to "understand border conditions and issue orders".At that time, the post stations in the Mongolian region were under the jurisdiction of the Tongzhengyuan; the post stations in the Central Plains were under the control of the Ministry of War.Station Akaben land station and water station.Land stations use horses, oxen, donkeys or carts, and in some places in Liaodong, dogs are used for transportation on mud and snow, so there are dog stations.The water station uses boats.According to records, there are a total of 1,400 post stations across the country, and this figure does not include post stations in remote areas and among the four major Khanates.

As station households of Zhanchi, their household registration was separated from ordinary civilian households. Among Mongolian ministries, those with more livestock were generally selected for service;Once issued as a station household, after registration and naturalization, it will be passed down from generation to generation and cannot be changed.In addition to providing transportation according to the regulations, the station households are responsible for repairing roads and erecting bridges on time, and planting fir, pine, holly, poplar, willow and other trees on both sides of the road that may be planted for shade. Protect passers-by from the sun.Some station households also provided meat, noodles, rice, wine, etc. to the envoys in the past.The number of station households led by each station varies from two to three thousand households, and only a few dozen households, usually more than a hundred to several hundred households.

The function of the post station system is closely related to the communication and processing of important military and political affairs. Therefore, in order to accept the service of the post station, it is necessary to have a certificate from the government or an order from the emperor.Official certificates are divided into three types: Puma Imperial Decree (also known as Puma Zhazi, Yubao Imperial Decree, Puma is another way of saying Zhanchi), gold-character round symbols (made of iron, also known as round cards), and silver-character round symbols. "The imperial court sent envoys for important military affairs, and they wore gold-character round talismans to the post. For other minor matters, only imperial treasures were used. The kings, princesses, and sons-in-law also sent envoys for urgent military affairs, and they wore silver-character round talismans to the post, and the rest only used imperial treasures. Imperial decree." "Yuan History · Criminal Law Chronicle 2") standing red test talisman, decree to supply wine and food to the post, because of the different status and grade, the Yuan Dynasty stipulated that the standards for "envoys" on the post road were also different.For example, for horses, it is stipulated that officials of the third rank will be given five horses, officials of the fourth and fifth ranks will be given four horses, officials of the sixth and seventh ranks will be given three horses, and officials of the eighth and lower ranks will be given two horses.The food and lodging standards on the road are also treated differently according to their grades. For example, some envoys give flour, rice, oil, wine, meat, etc.; For a liter of rice, the holder of the round talisman generally has the priority. In addition, "don't be good at laying horses."

Along with the post station, there is an agency dedicated to delivering emergency documents called the express delivery shop.Set up a shop every ten, fifteen, or twenty-five miles, and there are five people in each shop.Pu Ding traveled four hundred miles a day and night, delivering military and political confidential documents.All official documents of Zhongshu Province, Privy Council, Yushitai, and urgent and important official documents from various places should be sealed in wooden boxes, marked with numbers, dates, etc., and handed over to express delivery shops for delivery.All shops have to check and sign the package to ensure the safety and transmission speed of the delivery.Like the Zhanchi system, the express delivery shop will soon face the situation of "there are many government offices and cumbersome writing, and the method of express delivery is not as good as it was at the beginning".Later, it was stipulated that 79 kinds of government documents such as Zhongshu Province, Privy Council, Yushitai, Xuanzhengyuan, etc. could be sent through the express delivery shop, and documents of 20 kinds of official government offices such as the General Manager’s Office were not allowed to be sent through the express delivery shop. To reduce the burden on express delivery shops.

At the beginning of the Zhanchi system, it worked well, but as the ruling class of the Yuan Dynasty became more and more corrupt, the tax and labor borne by Zhanchi households became heavier and heavier.Most of these station households were former ordinary farmers and herdsmen, and they had to provide meals for the officials coming and going at various post stations, which was not a small burden.Especially in the later period, the Mongolian bureaucrats and nobles, and even some senior monks tried their best to obtain the imperial decree and round talisman for paving the horses, and enjoyed the free supply of standing horses, wine and food.The slightest unsatisfactory, they will show their coercion, ranging from insults to hanging and beating; secondly, the supply of transportation.At that time, it was mainly horses, and in some places it was cattle, donkeys, dogs, plus vehicles, boats, etc. Raising dozens of horses and livestock required a lot of feed, plus the maintenance and maintenance of various tools, the expenses were not small For example, on June 23rd in the first year of Yuanyou (1314), Gansu Province alone reported the death of 199 shop horses and 24 post camels; Acting as a guide, coachman, boatman, porter, repairing roads, erecting bridges, planting trees and protecting forests, etc., not only free of charge, but also provide their own food.

These burdens made the station users breathless.Some really couldn't hold on, so they had to leave their homes and become refugees. "There is no end to the fur in the winter, and there is not enough food in the prosperous year. The post is occupied by the people, and the bones of the horse are like my bones. The bundle of grass and the bucket of beans are all from blood and sweat..." ("Zhizheng Ji") Xu Youren, a poet of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote in the form of poems It describes their miserable life, and shouts for their sufferings, "I would rather be a slave if I give birth to a son, and I would like to feed millet if I raise a horse." Are we willing to be cows and horses for generations, as cheap as slaves? Under such heavy oppression and exploitation, the station households went bankrupt one after another. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty's Zhanchi system based on the blood and sweat of the station households could not be maintained.According to the "Yongle Dadian": "Standing red to eliminate fatigue, the accumulation is not a day."By the beginning of the 14th century, according to the statistics of the Ganquan Post Station in Gansu Province: 60 years ago, there were 348 station households in this station, and only 176 households remained after 60 years.Station households fled or became monks one after another. The prosperity of the Zhanchi system in the Yuan Dynasty is rare in the history of our country. Especially during the period of Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, roads were built, trees were planted, and traffic arteries were dredged. This was very important for maintaining the rule of the empire in the whole country, especially in the border areas, and strengthening the central government's control over the localities. Control plays a huge role.It is like "the nerve and blood of the Yuan Dynasty government", transmitting the government's government orders to every corner of the empire, and it has positive significance for promoting economic exchanges and development and national integration.