Finally, Xue Chengdao said: "After resting for three days in Yuanqu, we will cross the river and attack the Wushu Army's retreat. The target is Qianqiu Store!"
Li Songchen said: "There are continuous mountains between the north of Mianchi and the Yellow River, and the road is difficult to walk. If Wushu sends troops to guard the main road, it will not be easy for us to advance. Furthermore, tens of thousands of troops will cross the river, and it will be difficult to supply food and grass."
Xue Cheng waved his hand: "How is it possible that tens of thousands of troops have crossed the river and it is difficult to fill their stomachs? I have two thousand people under my command, and you will send out three thousand more elite soldiers. A total of five thousand people will go to the mountains north of Mianchi and wait for the opportunity. Don't worry, this The remaining people in the area have built strongholds in the mountains to protect themselves. If Wu Shu sends fewer troops, the sheep will fall into the tiger's mouth. If he sends more troops, there will be no food. Until now, the Jin army does not dare to enter the mountains. Otherwise, Yuanqu would not be able to leave Mianchi. Far away, the Jin Army has already come to attack us. The mountains between the Yellow River and the Mianchi Valley are our natural barrier. With the help of this barrier, we can fight the Jin Army!"
After hearing this, all the leaders said yes. In the past few years, I had been living in the mountain stronghold and was forced to do so by the Jin army. It was a rare occasion to vent my frustration.
Xue Chengdao: "Except for those who cross the river and enter the mountains, you'd better send in more people to work with our troops to transport grain from the rear to Yuanqu. We have tens of thousands of people and need a lot of grain and grass. The governor of Dengzhou is here. We have concentrated our manpower to transport grain to Guozhou, and we will transport it to Yuanqu."
One of the important reasons why so many troops came to Yuanqu this time was the lack of food in winter. Soldiers from each village came, and Xue Cheng couldn't let them go hungry. In fact, the number of troops that can actually fight is only five or six thousand at most, and the rest are just here to make a living. Xue Cheng can take care of the food, but he can't let these people idle and go to the rear to transport food.
The grain and grass that Wang Xiaolie could use were not only shipped from Dengzhou, but also captured from the Jin army after this victory. During the Battle of Fuping, Zhang Jun concentrated several years of savings in Guanzhong and Sichuan, and the Jin army captured a lot. After capturing Jingzhao Mansion, most of them fell into the hands of Wang Xiaolie.
After giving the instructions, Xue Cheng said: "It's rare for all the leaders to gather together today. I killed two sheep and prepared some food and wine for you all to drink together."
The leaders were extremely excited after hearing this.
Hedong is a place where sheep are born. To be honest, sheep are not uncommon. However, these rebels only brought their families with them, and most of the villages were located deep in the mountains, making it inconvenient to farm. Although they raise sheep, it is not easy to eat mutton.
In most people’s minds, grasslands are definitely suitable for raising livestock such as cattle and sheep. Not really. The most suitable areas for raising cattle and sheep are areas that combine agriculture and animal husbandry. Even purely agricultural areas have more cattle than grassland areas. Simply put, as long as the feeding methods are appropriate, the Central Plains is much more productive than the grasslands. For example, the country that raises the most cattle is India, the country that raises the most sheep is China, and the second largest country is India. Although the number of sheep raised in various provinces and regions in China is largest in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, this is due to their large territory. The places where most sheep are raised are Shandong, Henan and Hebei.
The most important meat in the Song Dynasty was mutton, followed by pork. Mutton is not mainly imported from the north, but raised in the Central Plains. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the breeds and raising methods of sheep were basically finalized, and the cost was relatively low among livestock. The breeds and raising methods of pigs are not as complete as raising sheep. Moreover, China’s native pig breeds are smaller, grow slower, and cost more. Even in Wang Xiaolie's previous life, the price of mutton was cheaper than traditional breed pork raised by traditional methods, let alone before.
Industrialization has caused changes in meat prices. One is pork, but the more obvious one is chicken. For example, in the Song Dynasty, under normal circumstances, pork was slightly more expensive than mutton, while whole chickens were about the same price as mutton. After industrialization, this kind of price is unimaginable. This impression arises when people compare industrially raised pigs and chickens to mutton. In fact, not only is traditionally raised pork more expensive than mutton, but also traditional breeds of native chickens raised using traditional methods are more expensive than mutton. If you don’t believe it, just ask how much a real traditional native chicken costs during the Chinese New Year.
This taken-for-granted misunderstanding will lead to many jokes. For example, some people say that the heroes in "Water Margin" like to eat beef, which shows that they have a spirit of resistance. In fact, because the government prohibits the slaughter of farm cattle, the legally sold beef comes from sick and dead cattle, which is of course cheaper. Moreover, the Song Dynasty government limited the price of beef, which could not exceed 20 cents per pound, which was much cheaper than mutton at 100 cents per pound. Heroes like to eat beef, not because they have a spirit of rebellion, but because they come from poor backgrounds and are generally poor.
Others say that in the Song Dynasty, pig meat was regarded as cheap meat, and eating pork was looked down upon. Some people will use the sentence "The rich refuse to eat, the poor don't know how to cook" in "Ode to Pork" written by Su Dongpo in Huangzhou as proof. In fact, in an era when transportation was underdeveloped, each place had its own customs, and it was normal for eating habits to be different from other places. "Huangzhou's good pork is as cheap as dirt," Su Dongpo was also surprised. Others say that the meat purchased in the palace of the Song Dynasty was mainly mutton and very little pork, which shows that the feudal landowners and nobles were extremely extravagant. In fact, in terms of price, mutton is not more expensive than pork. There was a lot of mutton used in the palace, which just shows that people at that time liked to eat mutton.
The price changes of pigs, cattle and mutton are in sync with China's industrialization. Around the late 1970s and early 1980s, the price of pork dropped rapidly, widening the gap with beef and mutton.
Similar to this situation, there is Chinese liquor. For a long time, some people insisted that Chinese liquor was introduced from abroad, and for a while it even became mainstream. Their main evidence is that the alembic was invented by the Arabs. It was not until the Arabs invented the distiller and introduced it to China that Chinese liquor was produced. In fact, Chinese liquor has nothing to do with distillers, but more to do with traditional Chinese steamers for steaming food.
The characteristics of Chinese liquor are solid fermentation and solid distillation. To put it bluntly, these researchers have no idea what the production process of Chinese liquor is like, so they take it for granted. When solid distillation produces stable wine, it is in a special state in which neither alcohol is soluble in water nor water is soluble in alcohol. At this time, the density is maximum, about fifty-three degrees. The alcohol content of high-strength liquor is generally between 50 and 56 degrees. This is the reason. The low-alcohol liquor on the market was obtained through scientific and technological research after the founding of New China. In addition to low-alcohol liquor research, there are also bran koji and aroma stringing methods. The fermentation speed of bran koji is faster and the cost is lower. The aroma-stringing method is to use low-cost liquid alcohol through solid fermented lees to obtain the characteristics of Chinese liquor. The purpose of these two scientific and technological research projects is to save food.
Chuanxiang liquor is what people in later generations often call blending liquor. Therefore, people who understand wine say that blending is a normal process of liquor production and is the core technology of many large manufacturers. Those who do not understand wine do not know what to say. According to the new national standard, Chuanxiang liquor is no longer allowed to be called liquor and must be clearly marked. Many people say that if it is not grain wine, it is not liquor. In fact, it is not. It's because Chuanxiang liquor lacks solid fermentation, the fundamental feature of Chinese liquor. Coupled with economic development, the demand for low-priced liquor and food conservation is not as urgent as before.
The Gu Hedong Rebels are in many similar situations to the heroes in "Water Margin". When they go out and arrive at the hotel, they will ask the waiter to bring them a large plate of beef. After all, it tastes like meat and is cheap. If there is white wine, they will never drink the more expensive rice wine. These two groups lived in similar eras and had similar styles. Some people even say that the prototypes of the heroes in "Water Margin" are the Hedong Rebels, and Liang Xing is Yan Qing. Because the pronunciations of Xing and Qing are similar, and due to the influence of dialect, Liang Xing is often called Liang Qing.
When they arrived at the drinking area of Houya, they saw two soldiers busy slaughtering sheep. There was obviously more meat on the bones than normal, and they were arranged neatly together. Even the sheep's internal organs were cleaned and placed in categories.
Seeing the confusion on the faces of Li Songchen and Liang Xing, Xue Cheng said: "Zhenfuji attaches great importance to these bones. When we slaughter sheep in the army, the bones and waste must be sorted out, and the mutton soup is boiled in a big pot. I have a bowl of mutton soup to drink. I went to Ruzhou a few months ago and passed by Baisha Town. The mutton soup there is particularly delicious. The governor specially recruited a few people with good skills from the town to join the army and teach them how to cook mutton soup."
Liang Xing nodded: "I see. This is a good method."
Xue Chengdao: "Yes. No matter how wealthy we are, we cannot allow everyone in the army to eat meat. Drinking a bowl of mutton soup regularly is also a good thing."
On the other side, the soldiers were busy grinding millet and wheat into flour and brushing it carefully. There was so much brushed bran that it piled up into a hill.
Liang Xing pointed and asked Xue Cheng: "Zhizong, what are those people going to do for food? It takes a lot of effort."
Xue Chengdao: "What they want to do is the military ration tested by our army. The millet is ground and then spread into pancakes. It is easy to carry, not easy to spoil, and easy to eat. The wheat is ground into white flour, and lard is added. Grains are fried into fried noodles. When you get to the front line, hot water will make them delicious. And pancakes can be soaked in fried noodles, which is most convenient and quick."
Liang stopped listening and opened his mouth in shock. After a while, he said: "Isn't this a waste of food?"
Xue Chengdao: "It's a waste of nature. But when fighting on the front line, the most important thing is convenience. You can't eat as usual. In ordinary days, we in the army don't eat this either. In a few days we will cross the river, and there are mountains in front of us, so Be more prepared.”
Liang Xing looked at Li Songchen. Neither of them could recover. How could they dare to think of such a thing when they stayed in the mountains for many years, hungry and full? Most of the time, wheat is eaten as wheat porridge, and white flour is rarely eaten a few times a year. Not to mention millet, I have never thought of grinding it into flour.
After a while, Liang Xing said: "Commander, what should I do with the bran after grinding it?"
Liang Xing said: "In Dengzhou, millet bran is used to cook porridge, and wheat bran is mostly used to feed pigs. There is no way here, so it is given to the local people. We are stationed here, and the people help a lot. "
Liang Xing thought for a while. Said: "Controller, I have an unkind request."
Xue Chengdao: "But it doesn't matter. As a family, why should we hesitate."
Liang Xingdao: "The people in our village have a difficult life. In winter like this, many people have no food to eat. If it is convenient, let us take the bran back. It can be used as winter food and save many lives."
Xue Cheng couldn't help being stunned after hearing this. I have forgotten that most of these cottages are not easy to live in, and they have no food and clothing. After thinking about it, he said: "There is no need for bran. In a few days, I will prepare some more rice and noodles for you to take back. As long as the contact with Dengzhou remains constant, you don't have to worry about food and clothing in the future."
