These ministers, having given their word about the delivery service, naturally had to recruit personnel.
Their first choice was to recruit soldiers.
However, because Lin Tian did not allow them to recruit soldiers, they ultimately chose to recruit commoners.
The commoners they recruited were selected from various prefectures, counties, and townships.
Only those from each prefecture, county, and township would know the roads within their own areas.
And only these people could ensure that the letters would be delivered to the intended recipients without fail.
Because of this, they immediately posted many recruitment notices.
When these notices were posted, many commoners were bewildered.
Many of them did not understand what these ministers wanted to do.
"Recruiting people from this area to deliver letters to every household, what are they trying to do? Are they going to write to every single commoner??"
"That can't be right, we're all at home, who's going to write to us! It can't be that the Crown Prince is writing to us and they're delivering it, can it!!"
"Stop joking, although the Crown Prince cares about the people, he's also extremely busy. Under such circumstances, how could he write letters to us commoners!!"
"Since the Crown Prince isn't writing to us, why do they need so many people to deliver letters??"
It was clear that the commoners did not yet understand why so many delivery personnel were needed.
Because of this, even though the notices mentioned the compensation, not many commoners were willing to take on the job.
In their estimation, the number of letters in a prefecture or county would be very small.
Therefore, this task was only suitable for a few people.
Even if they went for it, they would just be competing with others.
And this position, though not an official rank, was still an official position.
Such official positions were not something that ordinary commoners like them could obtain.
Therefore, in their minds, they had no expectation of getting this job opportunity.
Because of this mindset, the number of people who actually signed up to become delivery personnel in each prefecture and county was very few.
There were less than ten in even a single prefecture.
With just a few people, they intended to deliver letters to every household, which was clearly impossible.
This meant that if things continued at this rate, the ministers would not be able to complete the task assigned to them by Lin Tian.
As this thought arose, the ministers instantly became anxious.
"No, we must complete the task assigned by the Crown Prince this time. We cannot afford any mistakes!!"
"That's right! The Crown Prince has given a strict order this time. If we don't complete it, none of us will get away with it!!"
"Then what should we do? The commoners don't seem to believe our notices easily. If things continue like this, we really won't be able to meet the Crown Prince's requirements!!"
Before, they hadn't realized the difficulty of this matter.
But now, they had realized that this task was incredibly difficult.
This difficulty also made them frantically rack their brains for solutions.
"The commoners are unwilling to believe the authenticity of this position, it must be because they are unsure how many people are actually needed for this job!"
"Therefore, we should give a clear regulation on how many people are needed for this position!"
"How many people are needed? This... we really need to think about it!!"
If the number of people was too small, they would definitely not be able to achieve the goal set by Lin Tian.
Therefore, they had to consider how many people were truly appropriate.
Finally, after much deliberation, they realized that each prefecture and county would need at least five thousand people.
In other words, each prefecture and county would need to recruit at least five thousand people for this position.
This scale of recruitment would greatly alleviate the commoners' concerns and make them more enthusiastic about this position.
Of course, to further increase the commoners' enthusiasm, they made another decision.
That was to increase the compensation.
They believed that with substantial rewards, very few people could resist the temptation.
As long as they increased the compensation, more commoners would be willing to try this job.
Although increasing the compensation went against their original intention and required them to spend more money on the delivery service, they had no other choice at the moment.
Therefore, even if they increased the compensation, they accepted it.
Because of this decision, the compensation for delivery personnel was directly increased threefold, surpassing that of most other positions.
As a result, after the notices were posted, a large number of commoners eagerly vied for this position.
At a rough estimate, over ten thousand people applied.
This made the ministers very satisfied.
"Remember, we only recruit from the local areas of each prefecture and county. Only these people will not get lost in their own territory and can deliver every letter to every household!"
"This point must be strictly controlled and implemented. No mistakes can be made!"
"Yes! We understand!!"
The ministers were willing to take action, and they were also willing to spend money to get this done, which made the matter proceed very smoothly.
Of course, this smoothness was only within the territory of Great Qin and did not include the soldiers of Great Qin in the west.
The letters for those soldiers were truly a headache for the ministers.
"Can our military letters be handled by personnel within the army?"
"Yes! The military letters might involve confidential matters, so it's safer for the soldiers to handle them!"
"I also think that military affairs are different from civilian affairs, and the handling methods should not be entirely the same. Therefore, letting the military handle them themselves is undoubtedly the best choice!"
They thought that military letters should be escorted by military personnel.
However, Lin Tian had previously explicitly stated that the army could not be easily mobilized.
Therefore, although their words were reasonable, they could not be implemented.
Because the soldiers could not be considered as logistics support personnel for deliveries, they could not abandon their duties to deliver letters to every soldier.
If they were to do so, it was hard to imagine how many soldiers would be needed to form a complete system for delivering letters.
Thinking of this, the ministers' heads spun.
...