Daming: I, Yang Xian, really govern Yang!

After receiving Yang Xian's affirmation, Zhu Di was also very happy and said: "With the words of the commander, I feel relieved. Originally, I was still a little uneasy about the Western Expedition. After all, in the past dynasties, only in the North Yuan did this.”

Yang Xian smiled and said: "In this era, Your Majesty, you are establishing your unparalleled achievements. We can also do what the Mongols can do."

Mongolia's great Western Expedition lasted for 30 years in three generations.

Who would have thought that the beginning of this incident was just because a Mongolian caravan was robbed.

The conscience of heaven and earth, Genghis Khan really did not think about the Western Expedition at the beginning, all his thoughts were on Jin.

The reason is very simple, because they had a grudge, and they had oppressed Mongolia when they were Taurus. Now that Mongolia is strong, it is necessary to fight back. This is the simple value of the grassland people. At that time, he just wanted to hit the golden man hard with the riding crop in his hand.

When Genghis Khan wanted to make money, he had to improve relations with surrounding areas and send envoys and caravans to Khwarazm to establish relationships. At that time, Khwarezm was the largest country in Central Asia (Uzbekistan plus Turkmenistan), with a land area of ​​360 million square kilometers, a population of 3000 million, and an army of 60.

It is also quite wealthy, located on the Silk Road, and trade between the East and the West passes through it. The Hua Kingdom got greedy and robbed the Mongolian caravan and killed all the people. This was to force Genghis Khan to embark on the Western Expedition.

Genghis Khan's first western expedition. The Flower Kingdom was destroyed in one go, and 40 troops were eliminated. Sultan Zalandin fled to India with only 4000 people. However, the Mongols did something immoral and massacred 120 million people in Yulongjiecheng (Urgench, Turkmenistan). In the Islamic world, the Mongols were notorious.

The second Western Expedition was caused by the Flower Kingdom. The last time the Mongols retreated, Zalandin brought back 4000 people, and also borrowed troops from Arabia to return to restore the country. The Mongols felt that this was not possible and that they had to turn all the areas in the west into foreign vassals to be safe. But I was too busy at this time, so I could only kill Zalandin casually, and then get down to business and eliminate the gold.

After the destruction of the Jin Dynasty, Mongolia finally freed up its hands. While conquering the Southern Song Dynasty, it launched the second Western Expedition. This Western Expedition was also called the "Eldest Son's Western Expedition" in history. It was led by the eldest sons of the Golden Family: Jochi's eldest son Batu was the commander, Chagatai's eldest son Baytar, Ogedai's eldest son Guiyu, and Tolei's eldest son Meng Ge controlled each department. The second generation was very ambitious. This time the Western Expedition went far, directly reaching Central Europe, including Poland and Hungary.

During the third Western Expedition, Meng Ge was already in power, and the coach of the Western Expedition was Meng Ge's younger brother Hulagu. Brother Meng died when the battle was about to reach Egypt, and Hulagu hurried back to seize power. Since then, the Mongols' Western Expedition has completely ended, and all the "whips of God" have been whipped out.

During the Ming Dynasty's Western Expedition, Yang Xian did not ask for more. He only hoped that Zhu Di could see the pyramids of Egypt.

Yang Xian said: "Then the prince returned to Beijing this time to report this matter to His Majesty."

Zhu Di nodded and said: "Father has agreed to this matter, but..."

Yang Xian looked at Zhu Di who was hesitant to speak, and smiled softly: "If you have any difficulties, just tell me."

With Yang Xian's words, Zhu Di finally felt relieved. He said, "There is a problem with military rations. When I returned to Beijing this time, I originally wanted to ask the court to help solve this problem. But now the situation in the court. Marshal, you also know that the Ministry of Finance really can’t allocate any money.”

Seeing Yang Xian lowering his head and thinking, Zhu Di thought that Yang Xian was in trouble, so he quickly said: "Our fiefdom will try our best to get a share, Marshal, you can help as much as you can."

Hearing this, Yang Xian raised his head and looked at Zhu Di. Knowing that the other party had misunderstood, he smiled and said: "Your Majesty, you have already called me handsome. Can I refuse this small problem? I just thought of a new kind of food. I was fascinated by replacing the current grain and rice as military ration. Because your journey to the west is far away, the transportation of grain and rice is also a problem. "

"New military rations?" Zhu Di asked.

"That's right." Yang Xian nodded and asked. "I dare to ask my lord, what do you think is the most important food as military ration, and what is the least important?"

Zhu Di said without thinking: "The long shelf life is the most important."

Zhu Di is right. In ancient times, the long shelf life was the most important aspect of military rations. As for the least important aspect, in Zhu Di's opinion, there is no dispute that it is the taste.

Food with a long shelf life is also very suitable for ancient times when transportation was very backward.

Many times, for logistical supplies, the army needs to set up supply warehouses on battlefields and marching routes. Food can be stored for a long time, so there is no need to worry about expiration and damage, so it needs to be updated frequently.

"Storability is indeed the most important point, but truly excellent military rations must also possess the following points." Yang Xian said.

Yang Xian looked at Zhu Di's attentive and serious look, and did not hesitate any longer. He said directly: "In addition to the long shelf life, it is also easy to store and easy to eat."

The earliest method of preparing military rations in our country was actually cooking porridge. Generally, the cooking utensils were pottery, and iron pots were rarely used. Earthenware is best for cooking porridge, not for stir-frying. During the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, people cooked millet porridge instead of vegetable porridge. It is necessary to add various wild vegetables, wild fruits, beans and even meat porridge to the porridge. As soon as it was time for the army to eat, they would set up iron pots to cook porridge. It’s just that the porridge at that time was very thick, so it was called thick.

At the back, there is a pot for cooking.

From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the most important military food was millet, also known as millet.

The method of distributing military rations at that time was very simple. Millet was distributed directly to soldiers. When it was time to eat, the soldiers would put their own portion of millet into the big pot. This is mainly because in military operations, it is unrealistic for soldiers to cook individually, and they cannot find enough fuel. In ancient times, it was not easy to have a metal pot.

But whether it is cooking porridge or cooking in a pot, in Yang Xian's opinion, convenience is not enough.

Because there is no time for making porridge or cooking when marching in a hurry or at a critical moment in the war, truly excellent military rations must be eaten by people even when eating conditions cannot be guaranteed.

Zhu Di on the side nodded repeatedly after hearing Yang Xian's words.

Yang Xian looked at Zhu Di, and then said: "My lord, you just said that the most important thing about military rations is the taste. In fact, that is not necessarily the case. Military rations may not taste good, but they must not be so unpalatable that they cannot be swallowed."

During the Southern Song Dynasty, the Northern Expeditionary Army crossed the Yangtze River and Huaihe River to fight in the north. The southern soldiers of the Song Army were not afraid of fighting the Jin soldiers, but they were extremely worried about military rations. Because of the protracted war, the army's rice supply was insufficient and millet had to be collected from the local area as military rations. The Song army hated millet so much, especially old millet, that some troops even refused to eat. This greatly affected combat effectiveness and was one of the reasons for the failure of the Northern Expedition.

This is also the reason why millet, with such a long shelf life, would later be replaced by rice and wheat in military rations.

In addition to the low yield of millet, another most important point is the taste.

The taste of rice is much better than that of millet. People who are used to eating rice will not want to eat millet.

It’s not that all the soldiers in the Southern Song Dynasty did not eat millet, it just happened that the army led by General Cheng Min, most of his subordinates were from Zhejiang. They had been accustomed to eating rice since childhood and did not eat millet, so many people starved to death.

In the last years of Shaoxing, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, the Jin army failed in its southward campaign and "abandoned the corn mountains." The Song army came in pursuit and lacked military rations, so they could only eat the millet left by the Jin army. Because of their eating habits, soldiers in the Southern Song Dynasty were very uncomfortable eating millet: "Many people were from Fujian, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang and could not eat millet, so no less than two to three hundred people died per day."

You can probably understand why aged millet tastes so unpalatable. Just give me a few examples.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, aged millet was even used as a food for punishment and torture. This kind of punishment is called "Su Guan", which is to boil millet into porridge and then forcefully pour it into the prisoner's mouth and nose, causing him to suffocate to death. This kind of punishment was widely used in the Southern Song Dynasty, not only to execute enemies or criminals, but also to punish own people or soldiers.

Zhu Di nodded, but of course he still didn't agree with it.

In his opinion, being a soldier means being able to endure hardships. Those soldiers in the Song Dynasty were so pretentious that they would rather starve to death than eat millet. No wonder they would eventually perish.

If Zhu Di knew that those strawberry soldiers in the later world were not even willing to bask in the sun, I don't know how shocked he would be.

"Finally, as military food, it must have sufficient natural nutrition and high energy. The feeling of satiety is extremely important, so that the soldiers are full."

The original intention of being a soldier in ancient times was basically to "eat food." If all the soldiers were left with little water and the three armies were not full, then it would be hard to predict who would be beaten.

"I know that. Having enough food makes it easier to fight." Zhu Di said with a smile.

I heard Yang Xian talk so much.

Zhu Di became more and more curious about what the new military rations Yang Xian was talking about.

What kind of perfect military ration can meet all the above conditions at the same time.

Seeing that Zhu Di was impatient to know the answer, Yang Xian did not hide it and said with a smile: "The new military ration, I named it compressed biscuits."

"Compressed biscuits?"

A brand new term that Zhu Di had never heard of before.

Zhu Di frowned. If taken literally, it sounded like a kind of cake.

Is it something similar to Guokui cake?
Does compression mean making the pancake smaller?
Or is it some other unknown special craft?

Yang Xian smiled and said: "My lord, you can think of it as a kind of pastry."

If the soldiers and horses are not moving, the grain and grass will go first.

The most important thing in war is logistical reserves. Specifically, it is food reserves. In the final analysis, war is all about logistics - the amount of talent, food, and weapons and equipment basically determines the direction of the war. But among the three items of talent, food, and weapons and equipment, the most important thing should be the reserve of military rations. With food, this war is possible. Without food, this war cannot be waged, let alone mentioned.

Once the compressed biscuits are released, combined with various cans, the combination of the two will be unprecedented in improving the comprehensive combat power of the Ming army.

We must know that at the beginning of the founding of our country in later generations, the soldiers used these two things as military rations.

Of course, with the subsequent development, our country's individual soldier rations are getting better and better. In addition to replenishing energy, there has also been a qualitative leap in taste, with ready-to-eat foods and self-heating foods appearing.

Before traveling through time, Yang Xian liked to read reviews of military rations from various countries on the Internet for a while. After looking around, he found that our flower grower’s military rations were the best.

Compressed biscuits are not complicated to make. The production principle mainly involves the preparation of dough and then the compression process.

Yang Xian began to briefly introduce the production process to Zhu Di.

The first step is to prepare the dough. Mix flour, sugar, shortening, egg liquid, starter and other raw materials together, and stir evenly to form a dough. The ingredient ratio and formula of the dough are different for different flavors of compressed biscuits.

The next step is to moderately adjust the prepared dough. The purpose is to make the stickiness and plasticity of the dough suitable for the subsequent compression process. Adjustment methods include resting, placing, kneading, etc.

The dough is pressed into thin sheets, sliced ​​and shaped, then left to cool and dry for a day before being baked in the oven to make finished biscuits.

The next step is to crush the finished biscuits into biscuit powder using a crusher.

The powder that is produced should be fine with a little grain, and the grain should be a little fine. In short, it should be a little bit, that is, not too fine.

Because the main plant of Mingji Food Processing Factory is located in Mongolia.

As the pillar industry of Zhu Di's fiefdom, Zhu Di went there many times, and he also understood some of the techniques of food processing, so he was not completely ignorant.

So he listened very carefully at this time.

Yang Xian looked at Zhu Di and said: "The last step is the next step, which is the most critical step, the pressing process. Put all the biscuit powder into the prepared mold, and then press it with a press. In this way, the compression The biscuits are finished.”

A good compressed biscuit should have a complete block shape and no serious missing corners or edges. The color is valley yellow, deep valley yellow or the color that the variety should have. The taste and texture are unique to the variety, no peculiar smell, and non-sticky to the teeth. Compressed biscuits have the characteristic of not absorbing water and becoming soft. At the same time, due to high temperature and high pressure sterilization and detoxification, it is suitable for long-term storage and transportation. It is hygienic and convenient, and is very suitable for military use. At the same time, its texture is tight, making it easier to feel full after eating.

As long as you eat two pieces, you can often last a whole day.

Now that we have caught up with the industrial revolution, we can use steam engines to make mixers, pulverizers, and presses, and then we can achieve batch and large-scale production.

When Yang Xian finished speaking, Zhu Di was still slowly thinking about it.

After a while.

Zhu Di came back to his senses and was overjoyed.

The process methods Yang Xian just talked about are very specific and can be learned quickly by anyone with experience.

And the most important thing is that with the presence of food processing plants, compressed biscuits can be put into mass production soon. (End of chapter)