Actually, the "800 miles expedited" that everyone said doesn't really mean that you ran a full 800 miles!
This is the same as our usual jokes, which is an exaggeration, in fact, there are 500 miles and 300 miles and so on.
And, what, what I want to tell you is that the 800-mile rush is not just a horse running out, even if it is a treasure horse known as a thousand-mile horse, it can run 300 to 500 miles a day at most.
One foot in the Tang Dynasty was about 0.303 meters now, one mile road in the Tang Dynasty was equivalent to 454.2 meters now, and the 800 miles in the Tang Dynasty was about 726 kilometers now.
In other words, even if the Tang people's Maxima can easily run 500 miles a day, it is only the current 454 kilometers, so well, there will not be any horse that can run 800 miles in one go, let alone a thousand miles, even a speeding sports car is difficult!
This so-called 800-mile rush is mainly done through the network of post stations in various parts of the country in ancient times, similar to a relay race, that is, let the horses take turns to run, in one go, in order to deliver the letter to the destination in just a few hours.
This practice really can't hurt the horses, because if they are galloping with all their might, the physical exertion is very large, not to mention those horses who participate in the 800-mile rush, which are the best horses left in the whole station!
Once the horses are to be included in the 800-mile expedited, it basically means that their lives are coming to an end.
In order to ensure efficiency, they will desperately whip the horses to urge them to run, and when they reach the end of the line, the horses are basically exhausted, and the post men who are driving the horses or riding the horses are also tired and dizzy, and their breath is dying.
In ancient times, the eight-hundred-mile rush was easy to use, after all, it was only when it came to particularly tense and life-and-death events.
For example, during the Anshi Rebellion, An Lushan was waging war in Fanyang (now Beijing), and Tang Xuanzong was in the Huaqing Palace in Chang'an (now Xi'an on the Shaanxi side), and these two places were far away, more than 3,000 miles away.
As a result, the officials of the Tang Dynasty immediately told Tang Xuanzong about An Lushan's army in such a fast way as an eight-hundred-mile expeditious, and Tang Xuanzong knew about it six days after learning the news.
So, how do you do that? Let's take a look.
First of all, the most important thing is to have a perfect post station system. In fact, as early as a long time ago, the post station began to exist in our country, at that time it was not called a post station, but called a post, a pavilion, a post, a post and other names, which can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period!
Among them, the post is a special person who goes out step by step to deliver official documents, and the kiosk is a simple residence prepared for the postman who delivers the official document and the officials and envoys who go back and forth;
In addition to delivering papers, it can also provide accommodation and even transport supplies, and there are special stagecoaches and stagecoaches for delivering urgent documents and military information.
After Qin Shi Huang unified the Central Plains, he began to build straight roads and galloping roads from Xianyang to all parts of the country, isn't this the prototype of our modern highways? Of course, the original intention of the Qin Dynasty to build these roads was to better disseminate information and transport materials!
Then let's talk about the Wei and Jin dynasties, which were officially called post stations at this time, and also promulgated the "Post Post Order", which used legal provisions to strictly manage post stations, requiring post stations to never go wrong when transmitting official documents, and must be delivered to the destination on time and accurately.
And the horses under the post house management must not be disabled or die for no reason, otherwise they will be severely punished (I guess this "post order" should be regarded as the first traffic law in the history of the mainland).
Do you know, when we were in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the imperial court began to build post stations, which is not a small matter!
You can see one about 20 to 30 miles apart, and there are special staff and officials nearby.
According to the historical data "Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty", there were 1,639 post stations in the Tang Dynasty alone, not to mention the staff, more than 20,000 people, and 17,000 post soldiers. In addition to the post stations on the land that we are familiar with, there are also water stations specially located on the water transport channel!
This matter also involved a figure in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, his name was Li Zicheng, and he served as a post guard in Yinchuan for a period of time.
It's a pity that Chongzhen carried out a reform later, and many people were eliminated, including Li Zicheng who was unemployed. He really couldn't find a way out, so he had to choose to rebel against the Ming Dynasty, which directly led to the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
But then again, each dynasty's post station was its own independent system, and in the final analysis, it was mainly used to: convey government documents and important information, transport supplies, and provide rest for those officials who were on business, and each post station had its own number of men and horses.
For example, the documents or messages of the "800-mile expedited" are transmitted back and forth through the post station network spread out in this way.
Do you know Du Fu's "Three Quatrains of the Huaqing Palace", right?
The "riding the red dust concubine laughs, no one knows that it is a lychee" mentioned in it is about this matter:
In order to satisfy his beloved Yang Guifei's desire to eat Lingnan lychees, Tang Xuanzong actually used an expedited method of 800 miles to transport lychees.
Lychee is produced in the Liangguang region, which is a full 3,500 miles away from Chang'an, and the ripening season of lychee happens to be from June to July in summer, so even if it is 800 miles expedited, it will take at least half a month on the way, and if the time drags on for a long time, the taste of lychee will definitely become very bad.
Tang Xuanzong did this both costly and hurtful to the people, but he was still willing to spend money to buy stagecoaches and post guards.
But you may not know that the 800-mile rush is not something that can be used casually, and it comes at a very high price.
When a post station receives an urgent message of 800 miles, it is necessary to immediately arrange for the post guard to train the horses, and gallop desperately to the next post station, and a series of post stations will relay the information according to this law until the message is finally conveyed to the end point.
Let's talk about the regulations of the Tang Dynasty, ordinary horses can only run up to 180 kilometers per day, which is equivalent to the speed of ordinary document transmission, while slightly faster horses can run 300 kilometers, which is close to the level of 300 miles of expedited;
The best horses run up to 500 kilometers a day, which is the standard of 500 miles! As for those super urgent "800 miles" documents and information, it is impossible to take into account the safety of the post guards and horses.
In wartime, when they encounter particularly important secret information, people will not foolishly send only one post guard to deliver it, but will release several post guards to deliver the same urgent information at the same time.
Even if a postman is really caught on the way, it will not affect the entire transmission effect. Every feudal dynasty relied on these post station systems scattered throughout the country to transmit official documents and information, including various edicts and orders issued by the emperor, and different documents naturally had to use different transmission systems.
These post stations all over the country are simply the best weapon for the feudal dynasty to transmit official documents!
Some people have also wondered if those postmen who deliver urgent documents are not easily robbed.
Because these urgent documents are of no use to ordinary robbers, they not only do not get the slightest benefit from obtaining this information, but are also likely to attract officers and soldiers to hunt them down. After all, it is only in the midst of great social chaos that anyone would dare to take a huge risk to rob these postmen.