Don't think that only now there is express delivery, you are in Jiangsu, buying one thing from Zhejiang, taking ordinary express delivery, it takes two to three days. However, in ancient times, this distance overtime can be done in one day, which is the legendary eight-hundred-mile expedited.
In fact, ancient transportation was not so developed at all, and now it is completely incomparable to the current airplane high-speed rail. At that time, the most cattle means of transportation was naturally horses.
In order to realize the heavy responsibility of quickly delivering messages and goods, successive dynasties have set up post stations. The so-called caravanserai is a place dedicated to the official courier to rest, change horses, and change people. The distance between the stations varied from dynasty to dynasty.
For example, the Tang Dynasty set up a post station every 50 miles, generally speaking, it was sleepless all day, constantly changing people to relay running, and could run about 600 miles a day, which was already the ultimate level at that time. During the Han Dynasty, you could only run 400 miles a day. As for the eight-hundred-mile expedited, in fact, it was not realized until the Qing Dynasty.
First, during the Xianfeng period, there were eight hundred miles of expedited.
Before the Qing Dynasty, the eight-hundred-mile rush was technically unsure. After all, in the feudal era, horses were always used as the main means of transportation, and this thing did not accompany the passage of time, and it ran faster and faster.
The only way to increase speed may be the speed of the intermediate transfer. Because the station can eat, stay, change horses, change cars, change people, etc., every time you do something, it will consume a lot of time.
In general, it is impossible to transport goods up to eight hundred miles of expedited. Unless it is the delivery of holy decrees, folds, letters, and other light and small things, it is still possible.
The courier arrived at the station, and the things in his hand were immediately handed over to another courier who was already waiting at the station, just like this relay, except for the time of passing things in the middle, there was nothing, it was possible to travel eight hundred miles a day.
During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Army was too happy, and the military situation was 100,000 urgent, so if the war situation in the south wanted to be transmitted to the capital at the fastest speed, it was necessary to use eight hundred miles to hurry.
Before that, the Qing Dynasty did not have so many battles to fight. Even if there are many battles in the northwest, but the northwestern stations are not only far away, but also pitifully small, and the speed naturally cannot be compared with the Central Plains, which is like many shops in Xinjiang now do not include shipping, which is the same reason.
It is not at all true that war is a catalyst for technological innovation. It was precisely because of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that it made the eight hundred miles urgent and became a reality.
Two or six hundred miles of urgency is the normal peak of the feudal era.
As I said just now, in the Tang Dynasty, six hundred miles a day was the limit. At the peak of the Tang Dynasty, there were 1639 stations, and more than 20,000 people served the stations.
This data seems to be very ordinary in modern times, after all, there are more than 20,000 employees in any company. But that was in the Tang Dynasty, and at that time, the express delivery business only served the official government, and the people could not use it at all. This figure is quite amazing, which shows the importance of the logistics business in history.
In the Tang Dynasty, each station was spaced 50 miles apart, and the courier could reach the next station every hour. 12 hours a day, you can run 12 stations, that is, 600 miles, which is theoretical data, eliminating all the troubles encountered on the road.
Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, the peak data that once appeared, that is, when the Anshi Rebellion occurred, the front line and the Huaqing Palace where Tang Xuanzong was located were about 3,000 miles apart, and the intelligence officers spent 6 days to spread the news to Tang Xuanzong's ears.
It can be seen that walking 500 miles a day is already the limit of couriers. After all, what else could be more important than the Anshi Chaos? Could it be that Yang Guifei wants to eat lychees?
Three, eight hundred miles urgent, delay what should be done?
In modern transportation, the plane and high-speed rail are delayed, and the staff will only say such a paragraph kindly: Dear passengers and friends, we are sorry to inform you that the so-and-so flight or so-and-so train you are taking is delayed due to weather reasons, please be patient.
Then there's no then, unless you buy delay insurance.
Modern express delivery business, if there is a delay, in general, you only dare to smile, not to end. After all, if you dare to give a bad review, someone will come to you.
But in ancient times, if you dared to delay eight hundred miles, you were really sorry, unless your head didn't want it.
As I said just now, eight hundred miles of urgency will only be used in the event of war. It is likely to directly exhaust the courier or the horse. It's like working overtime to deliver couriers during the Double Eleven period, which is extremely difficult.
But on the way, if you delay the time, resulting in the delay of the war, then all that awaits you is the killing of the head. So how do you check if you're lazy?
In fact, it is very simple, because the war report is a very important thing, if only one person is sent to send it, in case it is intercepted on the way, it will be troublesome.
Therefore, the Qing army often chose to send several people and horses at the same time to send intelligence together, so that everyone could arrive in a reasonable time. But anyone who has seriously delayed the time can be seen at a glance.
Fourth, the ancient express delivery basically did not accept private orders, but could receive private work.
Obviously, the post station was set up by the imperial court, mainly for the convenience of the office of the court personnel. The pawns in the station can actually be regarded as members of public institutions with organization.
For example, Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, who we are very familiar with, was once a pawn of the Ming Dynasty. However, later, when the Chongzhen Emperor laid off the staff, Li Zicheng was unfortunately laid off, and in desperation, he embarked on the road of raising troops. Therefore, all bosses, when laying off employees, please be careful.
The station was only responsible for the affairs of the imperial court, such as conveying a holy will, passing on a message, escorting the goods of the government, and so on. That being the case, what about letters and objects transmitted by the people?
In fact, in terms of letters, the station can completely take over private work. Eight hundred miles of urgent is not always available, normal daily running 300 miles is already very remarkable, so it is said that more time, you can completely take a tailwind order, with one or two letters without any problems.
And people who like to travel, those who have a relationship can also use the station. For example, the famous traveler Mr. Xu Xiake has repeatedly relied on his relationship and the power of the station to eat and drink for a long time along the way, completely with the posture of public tourism.
Summary: The quality of the horses also directly determines the feasibility of the eight-hundred-mile rush.
Many people think that eight hundred miles is basically impossible, mainly because they evaluate the matter with ordinary horses. In fact, in the grasslands of northwest and north China, there are many Maxima.
This is why the Qing Dynasty was able to achieve an eight-hundred-mile rush. Before the Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, although there were also many places to raise horses, but the Thousand Mile Horse was very rare, even if there were a few horses, they were also occupied by wangsun Gongzi, and few of them were used on the station.
However, in the Qing Dynasty, the vast northern grasslands and The Grasslands of Xinjiang became natural gathering places for Maxima. They can inexhaustiblely search for Maxima here, and the speed of the horses increases, and the speed of the courier naturally increases.