Qiming 1158

Chapter 729 Xin Qiji's Second Mission to the Southern Song Dynasty
The rebuilding of the army is still quite professional. Zhao Tan doesn't know much about it, and Shi Hao doesn't have any military expertise, so the rebuilding of the army in all three departments will be entrusted to Zhang Jun, a member of the Privy Council.

Next, there are sailors.

The direct consequence of this Ming-Song war was the annihilation of the main naval forces, which led to the loss of the Jiang-Huai defense and the loss of the coastal defense, which further led to the landing of the Ming army on foot and cavalry, destroying the Jianghuai theater of the Song army in one fell swoop.

In Zhao Tan's view, such a situation must never happen again, so while training the army, Zhao Tan must also train the navy.

In this battle, the Southern Song Dynasty lost three local navy divisions and one main navy division.

But fortunately, they have nearly [-] ships. It is not difficult to transform them into warships. It is not difficult to recruit sailors. It is easier than the army to quickly pull up reliable sailors.

Therefore, Zhao Tan handed over the task of rebuilding the Navy to Hu Quan, a member of the Privy Council of Tongzhi, and placed high hopes on him.

Funds for rebuilding the army and navy are all earmarked and implemented as far as possible.

Zhao Tan squeezed money out of his teeth to rebuild the army, and it was a struggle.

At the same time, some messes in the post-war area of ​​the Southern Song Dynasty had to be cleaned up by the imperial court. Of course, those officials who panicked and fled after hearing the arrival of the Ming army could not use it. They had to choose new people.

Zhao Tan also took this opportunity to select a group of young officials from the main battle faction to go to these places to take up posts, clean up the mess, rebuild the administration, repair the city wall, and stabilize the defense.

One after another, there are things that cost money everywhere, that is, Zhao Tan copied some officials' homes so he had some money in his hands, and these things were considered to be carried out smoothly.

But this is the first time to use money, and there will be more time to use money in the future.

When the post-war reconstruction work was in full swing in the Southern Song Dynasty, on June [-], Xin Qiji, an envoy of the Ming Dynasty, arrived in Lin'an City for the second time on his second mission to the Southern Song Dynasty.

Because Ming Guo was no longer a friend this time, but a father, so despite the unpleasantness of the Southern Song Dynasty, they still bit their teeth and gave Xin Qiji top treatment.

Not only eat well and drink well, but also have special treatment no less than that of royal relatives.

Because of the hot weather in the south, Xin Qiji was not used to it, so the court of the Southern Song Dynasty specially approved ice cubes for Xin Qiji.

They used the summer ice cubes specially provided by the palace to cool Xin Qiji's frame. Xin Qiji sat in the car, and there was a tank of crystal clear ice cubes in the car.

As a result, the interior of the car is not only very cool, but also has a faint fragrance, which is very comfortable in hot summer days.

Not only that, these ice cubes can be directly knocked down to make a cold drink, paired with milk, honey, and fruit, to provide Xin Qiji with high-end desserts that only senior officials of the Southern Song Dynasty can enjoy, which is comparable to modern ice cube fruit fishing.

So Xin Qiji happily enjoyed cold drinks and ice cubes, all the way south to Lin'an.

To be honest, Xin Qiji's second trip south to the Southern Song Dynasty still felt a completely different level of treatment from that in Daming.

After returning to the Central Capital last time, Xin Qiji felt the unsatisfactory situation of the post station, so he told Su Yonglin about the Daming post station system on the table, which got Su Yonglin's attention.

So Su Yonglin ordered all the unqualified cooks who were suspected of insulting the ingredients to be taken to the nearby Huotoujun for further education, and let them practice their skills with the Huotoujun chefs who were cooking for the army soldiers.

Until a meal that can satisfy the soldiers of the army is made, and then return to the original post.

After three months of training, the cooks returned to their original jobs.

Afterwards, according to the feedback of the officials who traveled frequently, the overall food level of the Daming Station system has been greatly improved.

As a result, the phenomenon of self-carrying cakes and going out for tooth festivals has become much less.

When Xin Qiji went south this time, he also felt the appearance of the post station system after the change. The food in the three thundering post stations that he remembered deeply made him taste the taste of the big pot of rice in the army.

Although it is not so refined, the dishes look rough, but it is very fragrant, and it has the urge to eat rice noodles, and even the vegetable soup wants to wipe clean with steamed buns.

This feeling is exactly in line with the needs of the officials who are hungry and tired of traveling.

With three dishes and one soup, Xin Qiji was still very satisfied.

However, the food standard of this improved version of Daming's business trip version is still many times worse than the treatment of senior officials and dignitaries in the Southern Song Dynasty.

Just for ice cubes and ice cubes and fruit fishing is not something the Ming Dynasty would provide officials.

However, simple cold drinks were not so rare in the Ming Dynasty, and it could even be said that it became a more conventional means of cooling off in the hot season for officials and even the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Xin Qiji inquired about the price of cold drinks in Lin'an of the Southern Song Dynasty, and made a comparison, and found that the price of cold drinks in the Ming Dynasty was lower than the price of cold drinks in Lin'an of the Southern Song Dynasty.

The price of cold drinks has generally been reduced and even flowed into the people, and the reason is the advent of the age of gunpowder.

Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, the army's demand for gunpowder has soared, and with the development of gunpowder manufacturing technology, artisans have gradually discovered that saltpeter will absorb a lot of heat when dissolved in water, which can cool the surrounding water until it freezes, which is very surprising.

Over time, some skilled craftsmen began to use saltpeter to make ice. They put water in a jar, took a larger container, put water in the container, then put the jar in the container, and kept adding saltpeter to the container. The water inside froze.

After the saltpeter was dissolved in water, the craftsmen gradually developed the cooling crystallization method or evaporation crystallization method to be used to extract the saltpeter for repeated use.

With this technology, the expensive attributes of cold drinks are greatly reduced, and it is possible for cold drinks to further enter the public.

The Ming army under Su Yonglin had a particularly huge demand for gunpowder. Skilled gunpowder artisans produced a large amount of ice as a by-product while making granular gunpowder.

This by-product has two uses. One is that Su Yonglin put it into the official summer welfare, providing cold drinks to the officials who still need to work hard in the hot summer, which is warmly welcomed by the officials.

And officials can't consume so much ice production, so the second use is to invest in the private sector.

Su Yonglin has set up the Water Ice Department under the Ministry of Finance, which is specially responsible for undertaking by-products of gunpowder manufacturing. Except for the welfare ice cubes required by the government, all other ice cubes are included in the Water Ice Department.

The Water Ice Company is specially responsible for the development of cold beverage products, and invests in the establishment of factories to produce cold beverages in batches, and then invests in private sales to earn additional funds.

(End of this chapter)