Chapter 061
The large canteen of Hot Spring Town is not only the large canteen of Ning Junjun, but also the large canteen of all military households in Hot Spring Town.
This is the landmark building of Hot Spring Town. It is also a new canteen that has just been built and has been put into use for less than a month and a half. The appearance of the entire canteen is very ugly, and it is very different from ordinary buildings in the late Ming Dynasty.
From the appearance point of view, it looks like a large rectangular box with a triangular roof on it. There are neither carved beams nor painted buildings, nor are there any varying numbers of immortals and animals at the ends of the vertical ridges and ridges of the roof. In fact, it is more like A huge wooden shed. When it was first built, the canteen didn't even have four walls, only a huge thatched shed.
As the weather got colder, four red brick walls were added to the original wooden shed. The top of this straw shed was about two feet high, which was higher than the city wall of the town fort. However, it was really inconvenient. The dignity of the government.
This is mainly because Cheng Shijie wants to be an excellent craftsman in carving beams and paintings in order to save money. The labor is very expensive and he also needs high-quality wood. What Cheng Shijie pursues is simplicity and practicality. Although the traditional craftsmanship and architectural style are very grand, beautiful and high-end, but The thing is, it all costs money.
Under the constraints of the two principles of saving money and being practical, we can only make do with it. As the saying goes, good steel needs to be used on the blade.
It is very spacious and can accommodate more than 600 military households in Hot Spring Town and their families at the same time, a total of more than 2,500 people dining.
Looking at the huge canteen, these new recruits of the Ning Navy were stunned. The huge canteen has twelve straw mats made of wheat straw and straw. The straw mats can block the cold wind outside.
After lifting up these straw mats and entering the cafeteria, one could see a total of five or six hundred long tables. On both sides of the tables were long stools that could seat three people at the same time. When they arrived, there were thousands of people queuing up, waiting to have their meal.
Cheng Shijie originally thought that he could save a certain amount of sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn seeds in the spring of next year. However, it was not until he came to the hot spring town cafeteria that he discovered that the porridge in the cafeteria was actually made of sweet potatoes, old rice, pumpkin, and broad beans. It is made from various grains such as , peas, and soybeans.
Cheng Shijie pointed to the sweet potatoes in the vat and said, "Why are there sweet potatoes here?"
"Isn't this a sweet potato?"
Zhou An asked with some confusion.
"Never mind what the name is, where did it come from?"
"Some of them are bought and grown by military households themselves!"
"Planted?"
In Cheng Shijie's impression, he remembered that sweet potatoes and corn were only grown on a large scale in the Qing Dynasty. The so-called prosperous period of Kangxi and Qianlong was the biggest contribution to the introduction of high-yielding crops such as sweet potatoes, corn and potatoes into China.
After Zhou An's explanation, Cheng Shijie discovered that potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn had already been grown in Shandong more than ten years ago. The first person to plant these crops was actually forced by Ma Zheng of the Ming Dynasty.
Shandong was one of the areas where horse households concentrated in the Ming Dynasty. Many farmers were forced to raise horses. However, horses needed a lot of food. They had to eat twelve to fifteen pounds of hay every day and a certain amount of concentrate. However, as Shandong A large number of fields were developed, and it was very difficult to support the tasks assigned to Mahu by the court.
Later, these people discovered that corn stalks and sweet potato seedlings are good feeds, especially sweet potato leaves. If you cut off one stubble, just like leeks, another one will grow quickly. Moreover, these sweet potatoes do not pick the ground and are poor quality. Fields and dry fields can be planted, and they do not require a lot of effort to maintain.
However, the yield of these sweet potatoes was amazing. From late May of the 21st year of Wanli (1582), sweet potatoes began to be introduced to Fujian and soon spread to the north.
Some refugees and runaways secretly plant sweet potatoes in mountains, forests, riverbanks, and even landlords' fields. The weather was cold in the late Ming Dynasty, and crops could only be planted in spring and harvested in autumn. Landowners all knew common wheat, soybeans, peas, broad beans, sorghum, millet, and rice, but sweet potato landowners did not know them and thought they were weeds.
Even if the tenants were found cutting sweet potato seedlings to eat, they would not care. When the crops in the fields were harvested and the fields were empty, the tenants would secretly dig out the sweet potatoes at night. Although some people know the stewards of the farm, they will turn a blind eye or close an eye if they are dealt with by the tenants.
Those who know this will know, but those who don’t know have been kept in the dark. Sweet potatoes are the food of untouchables and tenant farmers, and rich people will not eat them at all, and they don’t even bother to eat them.
Cheng Shijie finally understood and had to admire the peasant's cunning.
The food for Ning Haijun's soldiers was not rich, because Cheng Shijie knew clearly that these soldiers had been hungry for a long time and their gastrointestinal function had deteriorated. If they were given large amounts of fish and meat, they would suffer from bad stomachs.
Of course, Cheng Shijie doesn't have that much meat for the soldiers now. Even for the Ninghai Navy Infantry Unit, their meals are mainly flour cakes, steamed buns, and multigrain porridge. Salted fish is considered as an extra meal. Only soldiers with outstanding training or meritorious service can eat it. Only those soldiers will be rewarded with meat.
Chen Ermao saw that the porridge in the vat was about to bottom out, and he suddenly became anxious. In the Dongjiang Army, if they had to eat, they would actually grab it. There was no way, there was too little food.
Chen Ermao has rich experience in how to grab food. He said behind him: "Brother, the food is almost gone!"
More than 500 people from Ning Haijun Navy rushed towards the window where they were cooking.
"Don't crowd, don't crowd!"
Seeing the chaos in the team, the experienced veterans picked up their pointers and hit the navy officers and soldiers on their heads and bodies. They were wearing thick cotton clothes, so they were not injured.
After a rough beating, order was restored.
"You guys are just grabbing it. There is enough food for you. Our garrison master has stipulated that the officers and soldiers of Ning Navy are provided with unlimited meals every day. Even if you can eat five kilograms of food in one meal, it is enough!"
Along with dozens of steaming buckets of multigrain porridge, steamed buns, basins of noodles, and rice were served. Seeing that there was still so much rice, the navy soldiers became quiet.
It was finally Chen Ermao's turn to eat. When instructor Ning Haijun was maintaining order, his lunch box was knocked off and stepped on several times. Fortunately, these wooden lunch boxes were of excellent quality and were used by dozens or hundreds of people. I only stepped on it with my big feet, but it was not broken.
Chen Ermao didn't mind it being dirty, so he wiped the lunch box with his hand and handed it over quickly: "Fill it!"
"Stop wasting food. If you don't finish it, you'll be beaten!"
Chen Ermao smiled slightly: "Don't worry, I can finish eating!"
Chen Ermao's lunch box contained four spoons of thick multigrain porridge, as well as cabbage and pickles.
Suddenly, Chen Ermao saw the steamed buns and asked, "Can I still have steamed buns?"
"Of course, if you want to eat steamed buns, there are steamed buns, if you want to eat noodles, there are noodles, and there is also rice. There is no limit to the supply!"
Chen Ermao didn't believe what the cook said. He inserted three steamed buns with chopsticks and took several bites of each. When he sat down at the table, he had finished one steamed bun.
In order to eat more rice, Chen Ermao was not afraid of burning it. The multi-grain porridge was so hot that he grinned, but he still ate quickly.
Ning Haijun's naval soldiers began to eat, and the movement was simply earth-shattering, as if hundreds or even thousands of pigs were eating crazily.
Chen Ermao made three portions of rice in a row, which made him roll his eyes. In the end, he used a steamed bun to wipe the pickle water cleanly, and he didn't even need to clean the lunch box.
The instructors did not dine with the navy soldiers. Fifty instructors held pointers very conscientiously and patrolled back and forth in the dining hall.
Chen Ermao thought that these instructors were unnecessary. What kind of world is it now? They dare to waste food. When they were in the Dongjiang Army, if they could have such a full meal, even if they were forced to fight against the slaves, they would definitely not hesitate.
As for wasting food, that is even more impossible. In the Dongjiang Army, they could not eat such a meal in a year.
Cheng Shijie did not promote equality between officers and soldiers. Officers above the rank of sentry commander had much better food conditions than ordinary soldiers. In this era, neither the common people nor the soldiers have any intention of being equal. Officers are treated better than ordinary soldiers. They think it is natural. Making them equal will dissipate their enthusiasm.
This is like a company. If there is no performance appraisal standard and if everyone is paid equally, who is willing to improve technology and who is willing to work hard to improve production efficiency? I don’t even have the intention to be a manager. The greater the power, the greater the responsibility and the higher the risk.
A general manager of a company will suffer from more than a hundred kinds of negligence, but a cleaner will be fired even if he doesn't work for ten days. This is the difference.
Officers receive good military pay, good treatment, good housing and good food.
There are good white rice, white flour steamed buns, and noodles. There are two kinds of soup. They have three dishes, namely stewed pork with cabbage, stir-fried pork with radish, and a bowl of sweet and sour lotus root and haggis soup.
"Just because of this meal, I have decided that I will sell my life to the guard!"
Li Fang was sweating profusely after eating. Their current treatment was better than that of the generals of the Dongjiang Army.
Li Zhixiang glanced at Li Fang and said, "You don't want to defect to General Shang Shen anymore?"
"Hey, isn't this little brother short-sighted?"
Li Fang looked at Li Zhixiang and said, "Third brother, I heard that we can get five taels of silver every month. That's... sixty taels a year?"
"This is worth ten taels of silver a month!"
Li Zhixiang said earnestly and thoughtfully: "Remember your heart and put it to the right place. If Ning Haijun is beheaded, he will be rewarded with ten taels of silver at the first level. We strive to make meritorious service as soon as possible, earn hundreds of dollars and eighty acres, and take over Xun Niang!"
Li Fang lowered his voice and said: "Third brother, I know there is a group of pirates' stronghold. They have been operating it for several years and they must have a lot of money. Do you want to report it to the garrison master, let's fight against each other..."
"It's a shame, we officers and soldiers must report this matter to the garrison master immediately!"
When Cheng Shijie heard the reports from Li Fang and Li Zhixiang, he sighed in his heart, and the centripetal force of the organization was formed.
PS: Thank you very much to book friend lindaapex for the five yuan reward.
