Chapter 52 Section 6 Merger of "post" and "post" in Qing Dynasty

In 1644, Li Zicheng's uprising army overthrew the rule of the Ming Dynasty.In the same year, Qing soldiers entered the pass and established the Qing Dynasty.The post system in the Qing Dynasty has undergone important reforms, and its biggest feature is the merger of "post" and "post". Before the Qing Dynasty, although "post post" was often referred to collectively in some documents, in fact post and post were two organizations with different functions.Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, it has always been: "post" is responsible for delivering official documents, which is a communication organization, also known as "delivery", or "transmission"; while "post" is actually only responsible for providing various transportation and It is a communication tool and has the nature of a guest house.The two complement each other, but after all, they are two organizational systems.During the Qing Dynasty, these two organizations merged into one.The post station has changed from indirectly serving the communication messengers to an institution that directly handles communication affairs.In this way, the communication system is substantially simplified than before, and the work efficiency is greatly improved.

In the Qing Dynasty, the management of post services was assigned to the Central Military Department, which set up a special car driving department and appointed seven officials to be in charge of post stations across the country.At the same time, two special agencies were set up near the Donghua Gate of the Imperial Palace. The two ministers of the Manchu and Han Dynasties jointly managed the capital and the post offices in various places. intelligence. According to records, the time limit for communication in the Qing Dynasty reached the fastest speed in history.In the past, a maximum of 400 or 500 miles could be traveled a day and night. In the Qing Dynasty, horses delivered official documents at the fastest speed of 600 to 800 miles a day and night.During the reign of Kangxi, Wu Sangui and the San Francisco rebellion were put down, and military information was sent from the southwest to the capital. The distance was more than 5,000 miles, and it only took nine days to arrive by fast horse communication.At the same time, Kangxi sent Shi Lang to recover Taiwan, traveling more than 4,800 miles from Fujian Baojie to the capital, and the news could be delivered within nine days.

Post stations in the Qing Dynasty were more common than in the Ming Dynasty, especially in some remote county-level areas, and "county delivery" was newly established.This kind of mail communicates between counties, making up for the shortage of main line post stations.The county courier was not a formal post station, but there were correspondence horses called "delivery horses", which played the role of a post station. Because of the supplement of the county courier, the national post post business in the Qing Dynasty was much more convenient than before.By the time of Guangxu, there were 139 formal and informal large and small post stations, including county ones, in Shandong province alone.

After the Yongzheng Dynasty established the Military Aircraft Office, the post office business in the Qing Dynasty made new developments.The Military Aircraft Department can directly issue the emperor's edict or imperial edict.Sometimes, these edicts may not be handled by the foreign court cabinet, and the Military Aircraft Department will directly hand them over to the Ministry of War's Success Information Office to send them to the post station and send them down.These important documents often have the words "Delivery Immediately" written on them, indicating that they are urgent documents.Some asked for a tighter time limit, directly writing "six hundred miles to speed up", and some even asked for "flying eight hundred miles for post delivery", that is, they requested to arrive at a speed of 600 miles or 800 miles per day.This method is both confidential and efficient, which shows that the post office has taken another step forward.

The emperors in the early Qing Dynasty generally worked hard to govern.They paid close attention to the development of the frontier war, and were also very concerned about the efficiency of the post post.Sometimes, the emperor often stayed up all night waiting for the post report.Zhao Yi, a historian of the Qing Dynasty, described Qianlong's diligent administration in his "Pingding Junggar Attachment".Said that he had to wait for the military report from the front every night, and no matter when he came, he ordered the people around him to wake him up immediately.When the relevant ministers notified came by order, he had already read the official document and was ready to draft an edict.Sometimes in order to write an official document to be delivered to the front, I worked for several hours.If there is no military report for a day or two ahead, Qianlong will be restless and sleepless at night.From Beijing to the front line of Junggar, it was thousands of miles away, and it took more than a month to exchange documents. Qianlong often had to foresee the situation several months later and make a decision.

To be sure, if there were no well-developed postal facilities at that time, it would have been almost impossible for the emperors of the Qing Dynasty to keep abreast of the military situation ahead, make timely decisions, and implement effective remote control of the battle situation ahead.