Short video spoiler history: The beginning of modern warfare

Chapter 126 Vegetable Basket Project

Jinling City.

In this era, sugar was not very rare, but it was also relatively precious. It was not cheap enough to be eaten casually. Families with better financial conditions would have a small amount of it as a condiment.

Judging from the various crops, the harvests of later countries were much greater than today, just like the sugar-making crop - sugarcane.

Manager Wan had never grown sugarcane before, and did not understand its planting methods or habits, but he knew that increasing grain production was not an easy task.

Take rice for example. Last year he made some special inquiries and found out that the output of many rice crops that used the soil-based fertilizers mentioned by Tianmu increased by 2-3%. Some of the exaggerated harvests were less than 4%. There may be some exaggerated numbers reported here. The actual situation is that the average increase should be a little more than 2%.

This improvement is already exaggerated. It is equivalent to a bumper harvest.

He really couldn't imagine how industrial fertilizers, agricultural mechanization, etc. in the future could increase the amount of food to the point where there would be "more than enough to eat", especially when the population of Country M was several times larger than it is today.

Others, on the other hand, are very envious of the food prices of the people in Country M. Fruits and vegetables are expensive while meat and eggs are cheap. This is simply a wonderful life. Vegetables can be grown anywhere. You can just pick up a pile of soil and put it in the yard or at the doorstep.

However, from the comments, we learned that they do not cook for themselves, and usually eat hamburgers and cola, etc. It is convenient, but they will inevitably fall into the so-called "high sugar" trap in their diet.

[The Ming and Qing dynasties were a period of high development of Chinese food culture. Imperial court dining was the culmination of thousands of years of development and was sumptuous and luxurious. However, the luxury was mainly reflected in two aspects:]

[First, the luxurious tableware. During the reign of Emperor Yingzong of Ming, the royal family used more than 377000 pieces of tableware. Emperor Qianlong of Qing had 12 copper-based gold-plated enamel bowls, four yellow plates, two gold bowls, one small gold bowl, two gold saucers, a gold spoon, and a pair of green jade incense gold chopsticks for breakfast.]

[Another luxury is the royal pomp. The Qing emperor's imperial kitchen had 370 cooks and the imperial teahouse had 120 cooks. Empress Dowager Cixi had 48 dishes for each of her two meals, and 108 dishes for New Year and other festivals. It is truly amazing.]

[In terms of food, Emperor Xuande of the Ming Dynasty could already eat some imported fresh food. What good food was it? Kimchi tributed from North Korea]

[Emperor Tianqi liked seafood and often ate grilled clams, fried shrimps, and sweet chicken legs. He also liked fresh lotus seed soup and fried watermelon seeds. Emperor Longqing liked snacks, so the palace created a unique "silk nest tiger eye candy"]

[At that time, it was particularly popular outside the palace. The production method and utensils were kept secret. They were all made by the experts in the palace dessert shop and were never allowed to be seen by outsiders.]

[Ordinary people have never even heard of it in their lifetime, so what exactly is this silk nest and tiger eye candy? It is actually dragon beard crisps made of malt sugar, and they are rolled up in circles like small bird's nests, so they are called silk nests. As for the tiger eye, it is made with red wine yeast, and a dot is made in the middle of the nest, forming an overall appearance similar to an eye.]

[Let’s take a look at the seasonal dishes that the emperors ate. In the spring, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty ate dumplings, winter bamboo shoots, whitebait, pigeon eggs, various citrus fruits, date cakes, and glutinous rice cakes. In the summer, they ate boiled pork dumplings, lotus pods, and watermelons. In the fall, they ate jackfruit, fish, fat crabs, and spicy rabbit. In the winter, they ate stir-fried lamb tripe, goose feet, roasted lamb, and vinegar-fried crucian carp.]

In front of Fengtian Hall.

Zhu Yuanzhang's expression changed a little. On the one hand, this life was not much different from his current life. When he saw people talking about their daily life in the sky, it still felt a little weird.

On the other hand, he was helpless about the grand ceremony of future generations mentioned by Tianmu.

He thought that he had lived a frugal life. Apart from eating more meat in his daily diet, there was nothing else out of the ordinary. He even tried to cut down on palace expenses, not to mention how a small Guanglu Temple could support so many idle people!
Even in terms of diet, the meat he ate on a daily basis was poultry and livestock such as chicken, duck, sheep, and pigs, and he did not require the local government to waste manpower and material resources to pay tribute to local specialties.

He set an example by issuing orders many times, prohibiting local specialties and delicacies from being offered as tribute, such as fragrant rice, wine, bamboo mats, ginseng, etc.

The decoration of the palace was mainly simple musical notation, without any carvings. He ordered Xiong Ding and others to collect stories of the ancients and write them on the walls.

But it is easy to go from frugality to extravagance. After all, hundreds of years have passed. It is inevitable that the emperor will gradually go from frugality to extravagance. He has no way to intervene.
Hu Weiyong, Liu Ji and others remained silent. According to what Tianmu said, the emperor's diet was not really luxurious, but the pomp and circumstance was a bit too exaggerated. The emperor kept so many idle people just for his own selfish desires. Not only did he have to take care of their eating, drinking, defecating and urinating, but he also had to pay them a monthly salary. This was a considerable burden on the national treasury.

However, throughout history, as the court enjoyed peace for a long time, the number of palace eunuchs and court officials would inevitably expand, and the number of people would be several times or even dozens of times more than at the beginning of the founding of the country.

The huge expenditure will drag the court's finances into a quagmire until the court can no longer bear it and begins to cut redundant officials and streamline the population.

This is mainly due to the emperor. If you meet a good emperor, he may be willing to lay off unnecessary personnel.
[From the above examples, we can see that the food that the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties ate was really ordinary. If we open a takeaway app, we will find more abundant food than this. In addition to the scarcity of food caused by low productivity, another reason is the traffic problem.]

[In ancient times, transportation was not well developed. It took more than ten days to travel from Nanjing to Beijing (two hours by plane). It is conceivable that even if various places wanted to pay tribute to some oysters, lobsters, king crabs, or seasonal vegetables and fruits, they could not be delivered fresh on time.]

[Although the emperors’ diet was considered very luxurious at the time, it was even more monotonous than our takeout.]

[In ancient times, productivity was low, not only were ingredients limited, but seasonings were also scarce. Salt, sugar, sauce and vinegar were relatively precious, not to mention MSG, chicken essence and other seasonings. So if you really wanted to eat well, you had to rely on technology.]

[Today, we consume 70% of the world's goose meat, 67% of watermelons, 50% of pork, 40% of aquatic fish, 30% of mutton, and 11% of beef in a year]

[Chinese people can eat anything that can grow on the earth. Looking back at history, we must sincerely thank our motherland for its modern agriculture, breeding industry and vegetable basket project]

[We have spent decades trying to bring the world's delicacies to every ordinary family, so that ordinary people like you and me can also enjoy the food of the ancient emperors]

Hexing Tea and Snack Shop.

A group of people looked at the sky happily, with curiosity and a little envy in their minds.

This is what the emperor's life was like. Of course, I envy the life of later generations more. In terms of diet, it is almost the same as that of the emperor.
This can be known from the food street videos that I have watched before. What is more important is the quantity. Looking at the data mentioned by Tianmu, it is exaggerated to an unimaginable degree. The proportion of cattle, sheep, pigs, geese, aquatic products and fish in a country are all among the top. What about the other five billion people?

Manager Wan and others all knew that Tianmu's logic was correct. Fresh vegetables and fruits must be fresh. With today's transportation efficiency, it is basically troublesome to eat seasonal vegetables and fruits produced in Guangzhou, for example.

The same is true for fish and seafood along the coast.

From this perspective, the exaggerated transportation efficiency in later generations has indeed greatly reduced travel time, so large-scale breeding and sales have become possible when grain production is sufficient.

"The flight distance from Jinling to Beijing only takes 2 hours, which is one hour?" Everyone thought that flying would be much faster than riding a horse-drawn carriage on the ground, but they had no concrete concept.

"More than 900 miles per hour. This is too exaggerated." Mr. Su also sighed. This sounds like bragging. But they all know that anyone can be bragging, only Tianmu's words are generally true. Anyone who has traveled a long way knows how incredible this speed is.

Of course, most people didn’t know where Peking was, so they had to ask other guys. However, after listening to a lot of what others said, they still didn’t understand where it was. They only knew that it was more than a thousand kilometers away.

Considering the distance from Jinling to the countryside, it only takes a day to walk a few dozen miles. Once you convert it, you will understand the value of it!

Their mouths opened wide enough to fit an egg.

Shopkeeper Wan looked at everyone with their mouths opened in surprise, and felt a little amused in his heart. If he did not compare the present with the future, there would not be so many troubles.

Airplanes and the like are things that the imperial court has to consider. He is already old and has long understood that as a small person, the most important thing is for his family to be safe and sound.

But sometimes I wonder if I will be able to see an airplane with my own eyes or take a ride on one in my lifetime.

In front of Fengtian Hall.

"Isn't this right?" Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and counted again with his fingers. The data was still the same.
"How much did you calculate?" Hu Weiyong asked the others, with a look of disbelief in his eyes.
"."

"Speak!" Hu Weiyong was a little impatient.

"More than 900 miles per hour"

"One hour is two hours."

Everyone looked at each other, trembled a little, but no one said anything.

You have to know that if you rush the 600-mile journey, regardless of the cost and by changing people and horses, and considering the actual road conditions, you can only run 800- miles a day.

Before this, people didn’t know the flying speed of airplanes, and always thought that even if it could fly, it would only be faster than a horse. It was not until this time that they realized that the efficiency was completely different and there was no comparison.

"What kind of monster is this internal combustion engine?" Zhu Biao was also impressed. This could be considered a national treasure.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were bright as he glanced at all the ministers, and finally looked at the people in the Science Department, and said earnestly: "The internal combustion engine, airplanes and other important equipment depend on you."

Sun Chuanshi and others were a little at a loss, but at the same time they felt excited and quickly expressed their willingness to die for His Majesty and the Ming Dynasty.

[When mentioning the vegetable basket project, we have to mention its specific content. It has made my country's vegetable production, consumption, and per capita consumption the first in the world]

[According to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the output of fresh vegetables in our country accounts for 52.3% of the global output. The second largest country is India, which accounts for 11% of the global output. The third largest country is the United States, which accounts for 2.7% of the global vegetable output.]

[In 2020, our vegetable field output is 7.7 million tons, the per capita field vegetable output is half a ton, and the commercial vegetable output is 5.5 million tons. Our per capita daily vegetable consumption is 0.68 kilograms, which is far higher than the world average and exceeds the daily vegetable consumption recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Residents.]

[Since 1988, the first phase of the vegetable basket project has been under construction. Central and local meat, egg, milk and vegetable production bases and a service system for breeding of fine varieties and feed processing have been established to ensure that residents have fresh vegetables to eat all year round.]

[From 1995 to 1999, during the second phase of the vegetable basket project, the country began to promote large-scale centralized production and build vegetable production bases in the most suitable areas]

The third stage was from 2000 to 2009. During this decade, we actually started to promote safe and green vegetables. Not only did our vegetable production increase significantly, but the quality also improved greatly.

[From 2010 to now, we have focused on the entire industry chain, how to further improve production, and how to reduce waste in consumption, including cold storage at the place of production, cold chain transportation, and refrigeration at the place of sale to directly enter supermarkets, to ensure that you get very fresh vegetables, especially leafy vegetables]

[This is actually the result of our country's vegetable basket project construction for more than 30 years. The investment of the state, enterprises and scientific researchers in it is actually very large, so as to ensure that there are no mistakes in the process of production, transportation and storage. Everyone can buy fresh seasonal vegetables and fruits from all over the country at any time in the vegetable market or supermarket.]

Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City.

Li Shimin admired the style of "concentrating resources to get things done" in later generations, such as the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the West-to-East Gas Transmission Project, the Yellow River Harness, the Three Norths Shelterbelt Project, etc., all of which were good policies that benefited the local people.

However, when Tianmu mentioned these projects, the details were insufficient, so he could only spend some time thinking about them.

When I heard about the vegetable basket project at this time, I couldn't help but laugh and cry. The name is really down-to-earth, not as domineering as "South-to-North Water Diversion Project, Three North Shelterbelt Project" and other names and contents. It sounds like a woman who is content to take care of food and clothing for her family.

But just as you cannot judge a person by his appearance, this food basket is related to people's livelihood and has a significant impact.

"It turns out that the imperial court also cares about the people's eating, drinking, defecating and urinating," someone said with a smile. This kind of special attention to people's needs and the establishment of multi-phase projects to coordinate production and construction are very similar to their style of vigorous production and construction in the 1950s and 1960s.

"What would it feel like to be able to eat shrimps and crabs from the seaside in the hot summer in Chang'an City?" Many people were fantasizing about it. What Tianmu said aroused their appetite, but Chang'an City was located inland and it was really difficult to find such food.

If it was really transported from the seaside, it would probably become smelly before it got halfway. The efficiency of transportation and cold chain transportation in later generations are really eye-opening.

What is ice? It is a rare thing that is rarely seen in Chang'an City. It is really a luxury that people in later generations use it for transportation.

Fang Xuanling watched with a smile. The vegetable basket project was not something that could be done casually. With today's transportation conditions, the efficiency of grain production was really like a cook without rice.

How can we talk about fresh vegetables and seasonal fruits when we can’t even get enough to eat?

Even if the food problem was solved and more land was freed up to grow vegetables, transportation would still be extremely troublesome. It was extremely difficult to transport grain from Luoyang to Chang'an, let alone fruits and vegetables that could not be touched.

Fortunately, Your Majesty is also a reasonable person, knowing which policies can be implemented and which need to be improved. Otherwise, the previous emperor's temperament of seeking glory and success would have been replaced.
(End of this chapter)