weaving

Chapter 790 General Fish

One of the most important reasons why the Xuanfu army horses under Zhang Cheng's command have strong combat effectiveness is that they often have meat to eat, and if they eat well, they will be strong enough, so they are naturally brave.

In today's Ming Dynasty, if we only talk about the treatment of the sergeants, the Xuanfu army should be the top of all the armies of the Ming Dynasty. Even the subordinates of the generals from all over the country can hardly compare with the meals of the Xuanfu sergeants.

After all, all the systems in Zhang Cheng's army are very complete, and there are clear rules for marching, camping, woodcutters, etc., especially the meals of the soldiers, and the system is complete, and there must be meat and meat every three days.

However, now that they have traveled thousands of miles to Liaodong to participate in the war, the pressure of logistics transportation is a big problem.

In this era, even the best bacon can only be stored for about seven or eight days in such a hot weather, and at most it will not exceed ten days.

There is another way, that is to transport fresh pigs and sheep to the front line of Liaodong. However, the mainland of Ming Dynasty has suffered from the ravages of bandits and the pain of the Tartars' invasion and looting, and has not fully recovered.

What's more, the populations in Henan, Shandong, Jinan, etc. are now declining, natural disasters continue to occur, and plagues are rampant again. Where can we find those many pigs and sheep to transport to the front line?

Another one is a new product developed by Xuanbei Yunzhou Workshop-Meat Porcelain Can!
These meat porcelain jars are actually fired porcelain jars filled with fresh meat. Each meat porcelain jar can hold about five catties of fresh meat, and it can be preserved for a long time after being sealed.

In this era, canned food has long been available, and it is not a high-tech.

There is a record in "Qi Min Yao Shu": "Cut the livestock meat into pieces, add salt and wheat flour, mix well, and finish, and seal the head with dense mud in the inner porcelain."

This is actually the ancient canned food, which can also preserve food for a long time, so there is no technical threshold at all, and the main problem is marketing.

Porcelain meat jars are expensive, not only ordinary families can afford them, but those wealthy families rarely buy porcelain jars for meat. If they want to eat meat, they can kill pigs and sheep by themselves, and they can eat Fresh.

But ordinary people prefer to keep some bacon or cured meat at home, which can also be stored for a long time, and it is relatively cheaper.

Therefore, although there is technology for making meat porcelain cans, due to market problems, there are few workshops to make and sell them.

And Zhang Cheng only learned that the Yunzhou workshop had begun to trial-produce meat porcelain cans after returning from aiding Henan. According to the several batches of test products produced here, the longest one has been stored for three months. There is still no deterioration, but it is a little salty.

Because he was about to march into Liaodong, Zhang Cheng did not wait for the final test conclusion to come out. He directly asked the military ration preparation workshop in Yunzhou to immediately start production according to the original plan of the longest-preservation canned meat formula in order to prepare for Liaodong. needed for war.

Although it is said that under the emergency start, it is possible to work overtime and produce a batch of meat porcelain cans, but after all, there is no reserve, and the temporary production quantity is always limited.

When Zhang Cheng led his army to leave Xuanfu, there were only more than [-] meat porcelain cans, which were transported to Liaodong along with the army's luggage.

A few days ago, the colleagues of the Xuanbei Business Gang organized another long-distance transportation. In addition to some medicinal materials, gunpowder, and lead, more than [-] newly produced meat porcelain cans were also shipped to Liaodong.

Compared with some dried meat and meat floss in Zhang Chengjun's previous collection, these meat porcelain jars are more popular, but due to insufficient quantity, they are not open for supply.

Only on the first and fifteenth day of every month, some meat porcelain cans are opened to improve the food for the soldiers, but usually the dried meat and cured meat that have been stored before are still used as meat.

This is already considered sympathetic to the subordinates. After all, the other armies in Liaodong cannot even guarantee meat.

That is to say, after Zhang Cheng’s meat porcelain pots appeared, did you see that many servants of other armies pooled money in private, and then begged their superiors to come forward to ask for help in the Xuanfu army, privately bought some meat porcelain pots, and went back to secretly improve it.嚒!

However, Zhang Cheng’s army did not have a sufficient supply of meat porcelain pots, so the number put into the market was even rarer, because Zhang Cheng still had to honor Hong Chengchou, Zhang Ruoqi, Qiu Minyang and other officials.

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And even if the colleagues of the Xuanbei Business Gang vigorously mobilized their forces in various places to participate in the transportation of luggage, although they can also use this to lay their own business network in Gyeonggi and Liaodong.

But after all, it was a long distance, and it took them three to five months to organize such a long-distance transportation, which was simply unable to meet the needs of the huge number of soldiers of the Xuanfu Army.

Therefore, Zhang Cheng set his mind on the sea fish here!
The ocean is the world's largest treasure house of resources, but in this era, the efficiency of people's use of the ocean is really too low.

Take the sea fish at this time as an example, no matter how many sea fish the coastal fishermen catch, because there is no such fresh-keeping technology and means as later generations.

Especially in summer, it would stink and spoil after going to sea for a day or two, and it could not be used for trading and selling, nor could it be stored as food.

Therefore, most of the fishermen along the coast are very poor. It can be said that they are guarding the golden mountain and begging for food!
In the inland area, fresh fish is very expensive, so one is expensive and the other is cheap, which really forms a sharp contrast.

It was in view of this that Zhang Cheng suddenly had an idea, recalled some materials about dried fish that he had read by accident in later generations, and proposed a production method.

That is to remove the internal organs of the fresh fish, boil them in a large pot, and then dry them in the sun. The dried fish after treatment in this way is easy to preserve, even in the hot summer, it can be preserved for at least one or two months.

This is a bit similar to the canned food of later generations, or the processing method of meat porcelain jars at this time, only local materials are used, and the production is much simpler and more convenient.

As soon as this method came out, it immediately caused a great commotion in the area around the mouth of the river.

You should know that although there are some dried fish production in the coastal areas at this time, they are all fresh fish that are caught and dried directly on fishing boats. There is no large-scale fish drying place and a fixed output.

Moreover, after such dried fish is made, it can't be stored for a long time in the hot summer, and its color is not good, and it is prone to insects and other problems.

To preserve dried fish for a long time, a large amount of salt is required.

And in this era, salt is very expensive, how can those poor fishermen be willing to use it on a large scale?
Even if some merchants have the financial resources, if there is salt dried fish, the common people who buy it can also eat salt while eating meat, which not only conflicts with the government's salt policy, but also offends the huge salt merchant interest group.

If someone dares to do it, I am afraid that in the end, they will not even know how they died!

Therefore, for thousands of years, although coastal fishermen have been guarding Baoshan, they have been struggling on the edge of poverty, and the huge and rich marine resources have not been fully utilized.

Although the method proposed by Zhang Cheng is simple to say, it also has the same risk, but he has surrounded the governor, the chief army, the governor of Liaodong, and the generals of the towns in Liaodong.

In this way, with Hong Chengchou, Zhang Ruoqi, Qiu Minyang and other officials, and the protection of Wu Sangui, Wang Pu, Chen Jiugao and other general forces, even if they touch some interest groups, they have to think about it.

After all, the top ten generals gathered in Liaodong are the last and strongest force in Ming Dynasty. What kind of interest groups dare to attack them at this time?
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Just imagine, if the method of making dried fish proposed by Zhang Cheng can be vigorously promoted.

Not only has large-scale coastal aquatic products been able to enter the inland, countless fishermen here have been able to earn a living and have enough food, and there are also countless living people. At least the people along the coast, in times of famine, eating fish is better than eating bark and grass roots. okay?

Of course, this kind of great historical significance is beyond the imagination of many people at this time.

In fact, at the earliest time, Zhang Cheng just wanted to use this to alleviate the demand for meat in his army, but he never thought that the merchants in Xuanbei would have such a keen sense of smell, and immediately saw the huge business opportunities contained in it.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was very difficult to raise pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, and cattle. After all, limited by technology, there was nothing that could be done about the diseases of livestock and poultry.

Now except for Zhang Cheng's implementation of collective farms in Xuanbei, large-scale centralized feeding, the rest of the places are still free-range by farmers, and the number is very limited.

However, the sea fish resources in this era can be described as inexhaustible. Although there is also a theory of fish seasons, it is obvious that there will be no shortage of huge and rich fish resources.

Think about it, what is the profit in the production of huge dried fish every year?

Not to mention anything else, in Liaodong alone, the hundreds of thousands of Ming troops stationed today require an astronomical amount of dried fish.

Yang Wanjin, the owner of Baoanwei Shunlongchang Niuma Co., Ltd., and Xu Qingyi, the owner of Dushikou Sihai Car Co., Ltd., are in Songshan at this time. They are representing the Xuanbei Merchant Gang to transport supplies to the front line of Jinzhou.

At this time, the two of them visited Zhang Cheng in person, and expressed their wishes on behalf of the Xuanbei Merchant Gang. They were willing to cooperate with Zhang Cheng in the dried fish business.

In addition to giving priority to supplying the dried fish of the Xuanfu army and the Ming armies stationed in the Songjin area, they also planned to traffic this dried fish to various places in the interior of the Ming Dynasty for sale.

And they even thought of the name of the dried fish in advance.

"General Fish", that's what they intend to call the dried fish made by Zhang Cheng's method, which is naturally included.

Not only Xuanbei merchants, but under the temptation of such huge benefits, many officials and generals in Liaodong are ready to move.

It's not that Zhang Cheng doesn't know how to behave, what's more, he has a large number of products in various workshops in Xuanbei, which are very popular in all parts of Ming Dynasty, and there is no shortage of ways to make money.

Therefore, he took the initiative to find Hong Chengchou, governor of Jiliao, Zhang Ruoqi, governor of the army, Qiu Minyang, governor of Liaodong, and others, and said that he was willing to cooperate with them in the dried fish business.

Of course, the big head still had to stay with Zhang Cheng, and the Xuanbei Merchant Gang had to lead the commercial operations.

In this war, in addition to the official transportation team organized by the Ming Dynasty, there were also a large number of merchants who transported or provided food and grass for the army. make money.

Liaodong officials such as Hong Chengchou paid more attention to the significance of dried fish as a substitute for part of the food, especially as a supplement for soldiers.

Right now, Daming's supply of grain and grass to the frontline is extremely urgent. If they really fish locally and make a lot of dried fish, not only can they supplement the lack of meat, but they can also save a lot of grain and grass.

After all, the cost of fishing in Liaodong is much lower than transporting grain from thousands of miles away. In the past, it was not easy to preserve fresh fish. Now that there are such good methods and new methods, there is no reason not to use them. ?

At this moment, all the merchants gathered in Ningyuan and Songshan are eager to make profits.

Just imagine, if Zhang Cheng is still a cavalry commander in Xuanfu Town at this time, with such a good way to make money, they will collude with all officials and commanders, and they will steal if they want to copy it. .

Zhang Cheng's status is low, so what can he do with them?

However, at this time, Zhang Chengyi became the general officer of Xuanfu Town, and he has tens of thousands of brave and powerful troops under his command. Who would dare to take it by force without knowing the depth!
The military power of Xuanfu Town has already shaken the world. When Zhang Cheng was in Chongzhen for 11 years, he was granted the title of "Brave Champion of the Three Armies" by Jinkou, the current sage.

After he left the town of Xuanbei, Xue Liangqing and other rebels were punished. Even Zhang Guowei, the deputy commander, died at the hands of the rebels for no apparent reason, and his whole family was slaughtered.

Now if you offend Zhang Cheng and let you meet a Tartar thief in a fit of anger, what should you do?
Although each merchant has its own background, many of them are closely related to Governor Hong Chengchou, Chief Army Zhang Ruoqi, Governor Qiu Minyang and other officials.

However, it is not necessarily true that their backers will show up and protect them at the risk of falling out with Zhang Cheng for their own benefit.

Therefore, choosing to cooperate with Zhang Cheng and everyone earning a part of the profit share has become an inevitable choice.

And behind the commander-in-chief of each town in the Ming Dynasty, there are also densely packed merchants from all walks of life. They are the umbrellas or partners of many merchant forces in the area under their jurisdiction. Most of the industries in their respective territories have their shares involved. .

For example, the previous generals of Datong Town were actually one of the spokespersons of the Shanxi Merchants, such as Wang Pu, the current general of Datong, who was elected by the forces of the Shanxi Merchants behind his back.

Nowadays, most of the garrisons in the border towns of Ming Dynasty secretly communicated with outside the Great Wall, and this has been a long-standing thing.

Before the rise of Manchuria, the Mongolian northern captives were powerful. At that time, the generals of the border towns had secretly smuggled and transported commercial goods, and sold all kinds of in-demand and prohibited materials, and made a fortune from this.

But for such a prohibited matter, of course they don't want to do it in person and show their faces, so the big and small businessmen in various towns and cities have become their partners and their spokespersons outside.

These commanders-in-chief, of course, had to speak for the businessmen behind them, and by the way, they could also make a small fortune themselves. For a while, there was an endless stream of people talking about visiting Zhang Cheng.

(End of this chapter)