Xuande

Chapter 734 A Beautiful Landscape

In the collective farms dominated by the government, there are basically professional craftsmen who master castration skills to be responsible for the treatment of pigs other than breeding pigs.

After the tricks, the domestic pigs will become gentle and lazy in temperament, but lack the irritable and fierceness before the tricks, the speed of meat growth will be faster, and they will not lose their temper very much.

And generally in collective farms, a special area will be designated to raise pigs, and they will not be raised next to the toilets, so the growth environment of domestic pigs will be relatively clean and refreshing.

This is very meaningful for the improvement of pork quality.

In terms of rearing methods, people at this time also have a relatively simple concept of selection, that is, to select pigs that grow faster and have a more docile temperament as breeding pigs, while pigs that grow slower and have a more violent temperament are slaughtered as meat pigs.

This simple method was clearly issued by Liu Bei to the county governments, so that the county governments could convey the news to the collective farms and let them gather to improve the breeding methods.

After such selection from generation to generation, it will not take decades for the quality of the Central Plains pork pigs to have a relatively obvious change.

These domestic pigs grow very fast, and when they grow up, they will be purchased from collective farms by the person in charge of army logistics, along with poultry such as chickens, ducks, and geese, and then provided to soldiers in the army.

If there is a war mission, it will temporarily initiate a large-scale purchase, buying a considerable part of the poultry produced by the collective farms in the surrounding area, and providing all of them to the expedition troops to ensure that the soldiers on the expedition can eat enough meat.

This time Guan Yu led the army to go to the south of the Yangtze River, and a considerable part of the poultry in the collective farms in the Sanhe area was bought.

In addition, a lot of grassland cattle and sheep were transported from Bingzhou and Youzhou and provided to Guan Yu's army in large quantities, so they have never been short of meat.

The New Year's Day has always been a festival that the Han people attach great importance to. Even when Liu Bei did not have enough supplies, he would do his best to provide the army with enough meat and drinks on the New Year's Day for them to have a good festival.

Now that Liu Bei is more powerful and has more abundant supplies, he is more willing in this regard.

The Huotou army in the army received the order early and started preparations early, digging earthen stoves in the open space, bringing out all the iron pots, mobilizing all the people to kill pigs and sheep, chop wild vegetables, and cut meat.

And because it is in a place with many southern waters, southern soldiers who are familiar with water are also allowed to fish by boat.

It was mid-winter, even in Jiangnan, the river surface was frozen, but the ice surface was relatively thin and could be broken with a single poke. As long as there were fish in the river, a large number of fish would come frantically.

The soldiers were overjoyed, and started fishing directly, fishing out the fat fish in the river one by one, bringing them back to the barracks and handing them over to the old firemen, which enriched the menu for the New Year's Eve.

The Huotou army in Liu Bei's army has always been a welcome group of people. Everyone knows that they have the final say on whether the food is good or not, so no matter who it is, even the generals, they are polite to the old Huotou.

And they are basically very capable.

In Liu Bei's army, even the Huotou army has requirements. Not everyone can be a Huotou army.

Even the cooks in Liu Bei's own house were selected from the veterans in the army.

Because Liu Bei masters cutting-edge kitchen knowledge, these veteran chefs are often the gourmet pioneers of this era. Following Liu Bei, they are the first to grasp the essence of fried food, the first to master the essence of hot pot, and the first to master the essence of stir-fried dishes.

Soldiers in the army thus became the initial beneficiaries of the progress of the times brought about by the development of cooking technology.

Logically speaking, military rations are the type of food that pays the least attention to taste in the world. As long as you can eat enough, as long as you can supply enough, nothing else matters, and even the basic point of being full is often not satisfied.

However, in Liu Bei's army, the basic point of being full was satisfied very early on. Liu Bei also wanted to improve the mood of the soldiers, so he put a lot of effort into the military rations, and provided the troops with richer and more delicious meals as much as possible so that they could eat comfortably.

Of course, this is not an easy task, so eating full is the main theme in normal times, and try to be satisfied as much as possible in terms of eating well. Only during the holidays or before the war, there will be many styles of dishes.

The New Year's Eve is the time when the army most cares about the cost of making delicacies, and it is also the time when the soldiers are the happiest and the happiest.

Three days before the New Year's Eve, the soldiers discovered that "construction" had begun at the Huotou Army's camp.

Many kitchen utensils that are not usually used have been moved out for use, and meat that is not usually seen has been moved out and piled up into hills.

The severe cold weather has become the best way to keep meat fresh, and nature has become a big refrigerator. Fresh meat that was not easy to eat in the past can be enjoyed happily during the New Year.

There was a lot of laughter in the army. Everyone seemed to not care that this was still a battlefield. The enemy might come to sneak attack at any time. They just cared about their own joy and prepared for the festival.

From this day on, the Huotou army camp was brightly lit and steaming day and night, and it never stopped from morning to night. In order to better prepare for the New Year's dinner, the Huotou army took out all their housekeeping skills and vowed to make this banquet a lively one.

Guan Yu has always been solemn, but he is also a person who likes food. He follows Liu Bei and usually does not pay attention to his appetite, but when he has the opportunity, he also pursues a person who "never tires of fine food and fine food".

There is an old Huotou in the Tianwei Army Huotou camp. Ever since frying pans were popularized in the military camps, he practiced the technique of stir-frying hard, and quickly mastered the technique of stir-frying with high fire. People in the army say that he can go all over the world with an iron pan, and he is not afraid of going anywhere.

He cooks good dishes, and his best stewed mutton is famous throughout the army. Because it is so delicious, Guan Yu even ordered not to cook braised mutton. Generally, only those who have made great achievements can eat it, so as to encourage soldiers to do more.

In order to set an example and take the lead, even Guan Yu was embarrassed to ask him to cook for himself often, so he was also greedy.

This time, at Guan Yu's request, he took out his housekeeping skills and led the whole battalion of Huotou troops to specialize in a stewed mutton, so that the soldiers in the army could eat it well and enjoy it.

In other military camps, there are also old fire heads who are good at cooking fish. This time, seeing so many fresh fish, they took out their housekeeping skills, fried the fish, and then boiled them in a large pot on high heat, making a thick white and thick white soup, which is delicious and attractive.

Or cut the fish into pieces and throw it directly into the pot to simmer. You can put all kinds of spices that you are reluctant to put in on weekdays, as if you don’t need money.

The bones left over from making meat dishes are good things, no matter whether they are pork bones, sheep bones or fish bones, they cannot be let go.

So there was also the old fire head and his men who specially used these bones to cook big bone soup, boiled it in a big vat, boiled it from morning to night, and the aroma of the stew was overflowing.

When the wind blows, the whole barracks can smell the fragrance.

The past few days are undoubtedly the happiest days for the soldiers of the Han army. Although they can't eat big dishes yet, some meat-based appetizers have become the main part of the meals in these few days.

Bibimbap in broth has become the biggest enjoyment for the soldiers these days.

The rich big bone broth with enough salt mixed with fragrant rice and barley rice became everyone's favorite delicacy. Many soldiers couldn't stop their mouths even after three or five bowls.

After the daily training, everyone gathers around the fire to keep warm while throwing off their arms to cook food is the happiest thing.

And this scene has also become a rare and beautiful landscape on the battlefield.

(End of this chapter)