Ming Dynasty Postal Relay Station System

Timeline

1. 1451–1453Post road from Juyong Pass to Datong · Northern ZhiliThe Tumu Crisis of 1449 dealt a severe blow to the Ming court, and the northern border defense relay system subsequently entered wartime mode. In the early Jingtai era, the Ministry of War urgently increased horse allocations at relay stations along the route from Juyong Pass to Datong, and raised the dispatch frequency of express courier posts, to ensure that border military intelligence and troop deployment orders from the various garrisons reached the capital in the shortest possible time.
2. 1454–1460Ming dynasty nationwide post road network · ChinaDuring the Jingtai to Tianshun period, the Ministry of War promulgated a revised edition of the Regulations on Postal Relay Affairs, uniformly stipulating the number of horses, standards for provisions, and rules for the use of travel tallies at relay stations of all levels. It explicitly prohibited the abuse of borrowing relay horses without a tally and punished offending officials. The relay station network was systematically overhauled, with over a thousand stations registered empire-wide, and the efficiency of daily document transmission improved markedly.