No war in the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 78 Technology is a life of hydrochloric acid soy sauce (more, please read it later)
In Peach Blossom Land, Su Ze was at the [Chef's Soy Sauce Shop], watching the Chef God Chu Yun Tongzi making soy sauce.

When he saw the chef fiddling with the bottles and jars, the first thing that came to his mind was technology and hard work.

"Master Taoyuan, this is gallstones, collected by Mineral Boy in the mountains."

Su Ze looked at the beautiful ore with blue crystals, and saw the God of Cooking crush the ore with a stone pestle, and then put it into a jar.

"Heat it under the jar until the medicinal vapor inside the stone pill rises, then cool it down to get alum oil."

Su Ze saw the God of Cooking put a large stone pot on the jar and poured cold water into the pot to create condensation.

In order to save time, the chef took out a jar of alum oil he had prepared.

Su Ze smelled a strong sour smell, and just as he was about to touch it with his hand, the kitchen god boy stopped him.

"Be careful! This vitriol oil is dangerous. It rots flesh and melts iron!"

Su Ze shrank his hand in fear. Wait, isn't this sulfuric acid?

Su Ze was a little confused. Aren't you making soy sauce? How did you make sulfuric acid?
Then the God of Cooking took out some bottles and jars and said:
"By mixing alum oil and salt, then heating and condensing it, you can get salt-strength water."

Su Ze was confused. Based on his limited knowledge of chemistry, adding sulfuric acid to salt should be the way to prepare hydrochloric acid, right?

Is this soy sauce?
Su Ze didn't know that industrial soy sauce in later generations was actually made in this way.

In essence, soy sauce converts protein into various amino acids and starch into glucose.

The traditional brewing method is to use various microorganisms for transformation. It is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also very unstable, and sometimes the impurities produced are toxic.

Directly using dilute hydrochloric acid instead of microorganisms to hydrolyze and convert proteins can greatly shorten the preparation time and ensure a stable product.

Even with this brewing method, soybeans can be saved and it can be made with protein-containing agricultural product residues such as soybean meal and rice bran.

Next, the chef demonstrated to Su Ze how to make soy sauce. After watching it, Su Ze could only sigh that a chef who doesn’t know chemistry is not a good chef. This requires a lot of technology and hard work!

Su Ze finally asked a question:

"This, this soy sauce made with salt and water, is it edible?"

The chef said disapprovingly:
"Of course! But there's still one more step. You have to mix wood ash with water and then neutralize it, and then it will be fine!"

Wait, isn't this alkali making?

Acid-base neutralization, reasonable!
The God of Cooking added, "Actually, if you want to enhance the flavor, just add some traditionally brewed soy sauce."

Su Ze looked at the God of Cooking and said, "How can this be called the God of Cooking? I would be sorry if I didn't give you a Nobel Prize."

Wait, doesn’t this mean that I can already prepare acids and alkalis in Peach Blossom Land?

Su Ze's heart suddenly became hot. Acids and alkalis! Gunpowder! All kinds of explosives with amazing explosive power require acids and alkalis as raw materials, right?
Su Ze temporarily suppressed this idea. After all, he didn't want to blow up Peach Blossom Spring.

After a while, I will build a laboratory on the edge of Peach Blossom Spring and conduct experiments slowly.

Su Ze had already noted down the preparation process. He asked the Kitchen God Boy:

"Could you please give me the salt water you prepared? And also write down the amount of wood ash water for neutralization."

"okay!"

The process of manufacturing sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid is too unsafe and not suitable for the semi-illiterate people in the soy sauce and vinegar industry. If they get injured during the preparation, it will affect the city's promotion of new soy sauce.

Su Ze simply distributed the prepared dilute hydrochloric acid to the people as a raw material, thus monopolizing the key raw material for making soy sauce. "You continue to prepare this, and find a safe place to store it with alum oil and salt water."

"understand!"

The soy sauce, which was originally produced only once a year, can now be completed in just seven days, and its quality is even more stable than most traditional soy sauces.

Su Ze sighed, is this the power of technology?

Now Su Ze is more confident.

The next step is promotion. Even good wine needs no bush, so the soy sauce must be sold out in one go. For this, Su Ze has already prepared a draft.

For anything to be worth selling, it needs to have substance, which means telling a story.

Especially those delicacies that have been passed down through the ages, which one doesn’t have a little story behind it?

In later generations, there were at least ten thousand delicacies in the Jiangnan region that were certified by Emperor Qianlong during his visit to the region. This number is probably even more than the number of poems he wrote.

There is also the famous Dongpo pork in later generations. Mr. Dongpo should still be studying hard, right?

Su Ze, who is well versed in future marketing techniques, has already figured out a solution.

That is to make up a story about the soy sauce in the vinegar in the upcoming tabloid.

Counting the days, the first issue of the tabloid edited by Zeng Gong will be delivered soon, which is just right for promoting the first batch of soy sauce.

In addition to the story, a delicious dish is also needed to promote the soy sauce.

Su Ze looked at the God of Cooking again and asked:
"Is there any delicious food made with soy sauce that's particularly fragrant and reflects the characteristics of soy sauce? It's also easy to make and only requires soy sauce?"

The God of Cooking thought for a moment and said:
"This is easy, just make some pork belly!"

Stewed Meat?
Su Ze thought of this popular delicacy in the Qilu region, which is made by stewing pork with skin and fat and lean parts in a jar seasoned with soy sauce. The stewed pork is neither greasy nor lean, and has a bright color. It is indeed a good way to promote soy sauce.

"Once the pigs are ready, I'll make pork belly for everyone!"
-
In the Peach Blossom Spring, there was a happy scene, but in the Hua'e Tower in the palace, the atmosphere at the banquet to welcome the Liao envoys became tense.

The first was Xiao Ying, the Liao envoy, who, citing a foot disease, proposed not to kneel before the Song emperor at the banquet.

The accompanying envoy Fu Bi argued that during the Treaty of Chanyuan, Song and Liao had agreed to be brotherly countries, and that Fu Bi himself had been an envoy to the Liao Kingdom and had paid homage to the Liao ruler even when he was sick.

Xiao Ying also knew that he was in the wrong, so he found a way to come down and, with the help of his attendants, he paid homage to Emperor Renzong of Song.

However, at the banquet, Deputy Envoy Liu Liufu talked about the land south of the Guan Pass again, saying that these lands were originally presented to the Liao Lord by Shi Jingtang, but were "stolen" by Zhou Shizong. Now that Song and Liao are brother countries, the ten counties south of the Guan Pass should belong to the Han Dynasty.

None of the ministers expected that Liu Liufu would actually start a disturbance at the banquet. Even the emperor, who was always kind, looked unhappy.

It was Fu Bi who stood up and refuted Liu Liufu's statement, saying that the land south of the Guan River had been Han territory since ancient times, and Shi Jingtang was just a pseudo-regime that stole the country.

When it comes to quoting classics, Liu Liufu naturally couldn't win over the literati of the Song Dynasty, so he had to give up.

However, the Liao envoys were coming with great force, and the Song Dynasty's rulers and ministers were all worried.

Of course, the most important task was to welcome the accompanying envoy Fu Bi.

The duty of the accompanying envoy was not just to bring the Liao envoy to Bian Jing. Fu Bi also had to accompany the Liao envoy to live in the Sifang Pavilion, protect their safety, meet their needs, and not let the Liao envoy find a reason to start a war.

(End of this chapter)