The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 146: Settle the Account After the Killing

After the sons and in-laws of the three major wealthy families in Puzhou were all executed, the matter seemed to have come to an end.

Although the people of the capital were a little reluctant to leave, they had no choice but to disperse.

However, Wanli was very clear that this matter was not over.

The relatives of the three major families in Puzhou who are in hiding will definitely not let him go.

Those civil servants with ulterior motives would also take the opportunity to keep arguing with him.

Sure enough, after the killing, it happened to snow, and many young people came out again, and the memorials flew towards the palace like snowflakes.

It’s snowing, what a great injustice!

Your Majesty cannot listen to slander and kill loyal and good people!
These guys are really sick in the brain.

You can believe anything.

It's almost December now, and it's snowing in other places. The snow in Beijing is still relatively late.

Isn’t it normal to snow in winter?

Snow in June is a great injustice.

Wanli was a little impatient to deal with these mentally ill young people.

These guys are actually the ones that the civil officials rely on to cause trouble.

It is impossible for those civil servants with ulterior motives to jump out and make trouble on their own. They are just trying to fool these brain-sick young people into making trouble.

For example, this time, Shen Shixing and his gang didn't say a word at all. They just sat on duty in the yamen all day, as if this matter had nothing to do with them.

They just fooled these brain-sick young people.

These brain-sick youngsters just jumped into action without caring about the consequences.

Of course, this kind of thing usually has no consequences. The law does not punish everyone, and the emperor usually does not dare to deal with so many civil servants who are causing trouble under the pretext of giving advice at one time.

This admonition itself is not a crime, because if the civil servants are punished for admonishing, more people will cause trouble.

However, this time Wanli was a little impatient to deal with these guys.

Early in the morning at about 1 a.m., when the sky was just getting light, he walked on the snow to the Yangxin Palace.

Li Tingji had arrived a long time ago because today was the day when the second issue of the Wanli Palace Gazette was published.

There was also a busy scene in the west side hall of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, with hundreds of craftsmen busy packing the official reports.

Because most of the official reports had to be sent to various parts of the Ming Dynasty at an express speed of 800 miles, and the express horses at the post stations could only carry a limited amount of things. Anything that had to be delivered by express horses at an express speed of 800 miles could not be too big or too heavy. If it was too big, it would be difficult to carry, and if it was too heavy, the horses would not be able to run.

Therefore, they would fold a stack of 100 official bulletins in half, stuff them into a brown paper bag, seal the opening with glue, and then stick a pre-printed seal on it. The seal would be printed with the specific place where the official bulletin was to be sent, including the name of the prefecture, city, and county.

There are more than a thousand counties in the Ming Dynasty. If one hundred copies are distributed to each county, that would be more than one hundred thousand copies.

This guy has to pack more than a thousand packages just to distribute to each county. You can imagine how many packages they have to pack.

When Wanli walked in and saw the busy scene, he immediately pulled Li Tingji, who was about to bow, aside and asked solemnly, "Er Zhang, how many copies of the second issue have been printed?"

Li Tingji said with some embarrassment, "Your Majesty, I am ashamed. Because there were so many things to prepare, I was unable to print 300,000 copies. In total, I only printed 250,000 copies."

Two hundred and fifty thousand copies seems like a lot.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "How much has been distributed to the local governments this time?"

Li Tingji explained carefully, "Your Majesty, you said that counties should receive 100 copies, prefectures 200 copies, prefectures 300 copies, and the provincial government 500 copies. The Ming Dynasty has two capitals and thirteen provinces, 140 prefectures, 193 prefectures, and 1,138 counties. That adds up to 200,000 and 900 copies."

This means that there are less than 50,000 copies left.

With so many government offices in the two capitals, it seems that even 20,000 copies of clerk records are not enough for officials.

Wanli pondered and said, "How about this: keep 30,000 copies in the capital and send the rest to Nanjing."

Li Tingji nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

Wanli pondered again and said, "Er Zhang, we still have the Dusi, Wei Suo and Tusi that we haven't distributed yet. Calculate how many copies it would take to give each Tusi and each Qianhu Suo a hundred copies."

what?
Li Tingji thought back, "Your Majesty, the Ming Dynasty has sixteen Tusi, five Xing Tusi, and two Liushousi, totaling 493 guards, 2,593 Qianhu Suo, and 315 Shouyu Qianhu Suo. If all of these Qianhu Suo were to issue 100 copies, that would be nearly 300,000 copies. Furthermore, the Ming Dynasty has nineteen Tusi Prefectures, forty-seven Tusi Prefectures, and six Tusi Counties, totaling eleven Xuanwei Si, ten Xuanfu Si, twenty-two Anfu Si, one Zhaotao Si, one hundred and sixty-nine Changguan Si, and five Manyi Changguan Si. Together, there are over two hundred Tusi at all levels, which would be over twenty thousand copies again."

So many?

It seems that we have to wait and see. It is already difficult to print out 300,000 copies now. If we add another 300,000 copies, I don’t know how much material we have to prepare. Li Tingji will probably be too busy to write articles.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then nodded slightly and said, "Well, we'll talk about the Dusi, Weisuo and Tusi next year. Er Zhang, what do you say we take 10,000 copies and sell them on the street?"

Li Tingji nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I have long wanted to have someone sell it. This way, we can at least make back some of the money we put in. Our prints are much more pleasant to look at than those who copied the manuscripts in the palace. Those who copied the manuscripts in order to make as many copies as possible, the handwriting is simply unsightly."

You thought of this too.

Not bad.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "How much does a copy of the imperial copy usually cost?"

Li Tingji explained carefully: "Your Majesty, this depends mainly on the number of words. In the past, a court report was only about two to three thousand words. If you copy it, you will need more paper. You will need several sheets of 16-page bookmark paper. The cost of writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone is more than one penny. Therefore, in the past, a court report would cost about three to four pennies.

"Now, our court reports contain over ten or twenty articles, totaling twenty to thirty thousand words. Even if we use folio paper to copy them, it would take more than ten sheets. The cost of the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone is seven or eight wen. Add to that the number of words, and one person can only copy a few copies a day. Therefore, a full copy now costs at least twenty wen."

There is huge profit here!

Because the font size of movable type printing is small and can be clearly seen even when printed densely, it is different when copied. The characters must be at least several times larger and cannot be written too densely, otherwise they will be difficult to see clearly.

This will waste a lot more ink, paper and inkstone.

In later generations, people did not actually make money by selling newspapers, but it seems to be different now. It seems that you can make a lot of money just by selling newspapers.

This is also the reason why things are valuable because they are rare.

There are so many ways to obtain information in later generations that few people are willing to read newspapers.

Things are different now. Apart from word of mouth, the only way to obtain information from the court seems to be this official report.

In other words, the official gazette was the only current affairs reading material, and at that time it was still manually typeset and printed. The printing cost itself was high, and the cost of handcopying was even higher.

Therefore, it makes sense that the court report is expensive.

In fact, he thought of selling the official newspaper not only to make back some money, but also to create a legitimate business for the secret guards to roam around the streets.

These days, apart from peddlers, there seemed to be no other trades on the streets. He couldn't have all his secret guards disguise themselves as peddlers, as that would not only steal the merchants' business but also look unnatural.

The streets cannot be filled with traveling merchants, and ordinary people will not talk to traveling merchants about anything.

If it is a sale of official gazettes, it is different. It is normal for some illiterate people to ask questions out of curiosity, and they can get a lot of useful information by chatting.

He thought about it carefully and asked, "How much would it cost us to print one copy?"

Li Tingji estimated, "If we only count the cost of ink and paper, each copy would cost less than two wen. If we include labor and other material losses, each copy would cost about four or five wen."

The profit is really high.

Wanli said decisively, "Then sell them at 20 wen each. We will distribute about 240,000 copies free of charge to government offices at all levels. You can give all the extra copies to Sigong's men to sell, paying them 10% of their wages, and they will charge 2 wen each for each copy."

As a result, a new profession appeared in the streets and alleys of the capital, that is, people carrying bags and selling official newspapers everywhere.

After the second issue of the Wanli Palace Gazette was sent out, the capital was immediately filled with shouts and curses.

Of course, everyone was not scolding the person who sold the court newspaper, but scolding the three major wealthy families in Puzhou.

These guys not only collaborated with the enemy and sold out their country, but also plotted rebellion. Moreover, after doing so many bad things, they used all kinds of methods to brag about themselves as loyal and good people.

Originally, Wanli was thinking of releasing the second issue before starting the killing.

As a result, there was no time left, so he could only kill and release the second issue.

However, there is an advantage to killing him and then sending him back, which is that it can be used as an excuse to deal with those young people who are causing trouble.

You guys were having a lot of fun when you started killing.

I will settle the score with you after I kill you all!

You're still shouting that it's a huge injustice because it's snowing, right?
Okay, I'll let you know what it means to snow in winter.

(End of this chapter)