Short video spoiler history: The beginning of modern warfare

Chapter 141 History of Edible Oil

《Peanuts, melon seeds, mineral water, beer, drinks, and eight-treasure porridge. Come on, close your legs.》

"The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway started construction in 14. The most famous railway was the Tanzania-Zambia Railway in 1970. We were poorer than Africa at that time, so why couldn't they build it themselves?"

"Aid to Africa uses foreign exchange reserves (US dollars), which cannot be used domestically and will cause inflation. This is the unique logic of marketing accounts."

"This logic is actually not wrong. When the foreign exchange earned by enterprises is converted into RMB at the central bank, this part of the currency is printed. In other words, this part of the US dollar actually already has an equal amount in the country. Issuing it again will indeed cause inflation."

Jinling City.

Zhu Yuanzhang and others understood this clearly, and this part was mentioned when talking about currency issuance.

Discussions in the comment section mostly focused on whether or not to provide aid, not seeing the benefits after providing aid, and how the beautiful things you thought were beautiful turned out to be cruel in reality.

Logically speaking, the direction should be correct, but the questions raised in the comments section are also very sharp.

Those who are not of my race must have different hearts. Simply showing kindness is not a good solution. The correct approach is to use both kindness and severity.

Needless to say, what many people are interested in is that they can make money in this way, including the power transmission mentioned by Tianmu before. It can be seen that even if the principle is extremely simple. These things that seem extremely simple in later generations are as difficult as climbing to the sky in other countries.

It can be seen that the gap between countries is the same as that between people.

The reasons are nothing more than the lack of industrial foundation, poor technology, or problems with raw materials and national quality. In short, this job is not something that everyone can do. Even if you can do it, you can't beat other people's low costs.

"Principles. Technology." Zhu Yuanzhang murmured. The principles are simple, such as the principle of thermal power generation, but how to use various means to improve the combustion efficiency of coal ore, improve energy conversion efficiency, reduce costs and other technical work are the most valuable.

For example, the Annan region was forced to introduce some electricity in later generations because of its own power shortage.

Another example is the purification of uranium, which is as unpretentious as ever, but only a few countries can do it.

It is not realistic to rely on the Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Industry, etc. for all this. The best way is to utilize the power of the people. Businessmen are profit-driven, and only with the drive of interests will they have the motivation to improve these things.

But the quality of the people does not support it.
[Recently, I saw that a country on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean collectively purchased ancient Chinese military books: the Seven Military Classics, which is a series of military books issued by the Northern Song Dynasty court as an official book and is the first military textbook collection in ancient China.]

[Compiled from seven famous military books: The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Art of War by Wu Zi, Six Secret Teachings, The Art of War by Sima, The Three Strategies of Shi Gong, Wei Liao Zi, and Questions and Answers of Li Wei Gong.]

[This is the first military textbook in ancient China. It is a masterpiece that has had a profound impact on the military thinking, war practice, strategy and tactics of later generations.]

[My friends, I think it is very difficult for foreigners to understand the original meaning of this kind of masterpiece through a copy. If you don’t read the original text, you can’t understand its true meaning, just like when we read foreign masterpieces. And because of the time span, even if we read it, we can’t fully understand the meaning, let alone foreigners.]

[We all know that the United States has always attached great importance to studying my country's military theories and strategic thinking. There are courses at the West Point Military Academy that specifically study "The Art of War". "The Art of War" is one of the three major military books in the world, the other two being "On War" and "The Book of Five Rings"]

[What is the purpose of this big purchase of military books? According to the media in China, the Alabama Air Force Base bought them to train pilots. This is a bit ridiculous. You just need to fly your plane. The real reason may be to make a fuss about military spending.]

[For example, their notorious history of 9 screws per pack, 600 million air freight (for nine goats), 12.8 trolleys, 17000 small refrigerators, 1 toilet seats, 1400 plastic milk feeders, 400 wrenches, thousands of coffee cups, all of the above units are Daole]

[Although only 600 copies were purchased this time, given the previous false reports, we don’t know if there are other inside stories.]

In front of Fengtian Hall.

"The 9 screws were thought to be made with high-precision technology. The air freight for these 9 goats is just greed."

If this is converted into the currency of later generations, it would be more than 3000 million. Based on the rice price of 3 yuan, can it buy 1000 million kilograms?

"Wow!" All the generals' eyes widened. If there were enough food, they might have taken over Yunnan, Guizhou, and Jianzhou Jurchen by now.

"From where to where? This doesn't make sense at all." If they were to be used as meat, nine heads would obviously not be enough. Besides, there was no difference between the dead and the alive. If they were not food, were they to be used as pets? And most armies have logistics units to supply them.
Zhu Yuanzhang hated corrupt officials the most in his life, and he usually wanted to skin and pull out the tendons of these parasites and beasts. However, when he thought about the fact that this was a matter of the United States, he opened his mouth and finally exclaimed ".6".

"The system of Country M is quite different from that of Ming Dynasty," Zhu Biao thought to himself. Judging from what Tianmu had mentioned in the past, Country M also had no emperor, and only a few political parties came to power through elections. It was truly miraculous that it could function without any civil unrest.

"Isn't the court responsible for purchasing and supplying military supplies, food, etc.? And even if the military funds are allocated directly, the expenditure list must be reviewed by someone. How can such an outrageous price be accepted?" Questions flashed through the minds of Hu Weiyong and others. They were all old foxes and figured out the key immediately.

What is certain is that this was not just an individual act, but a case of concealment and false reporting from top to bottom, involving a series of officials including those in charge of procurement. All of them were skinned and stuffed with straw, and Hu Weiyong dared to guarantee that few of them were innocent.

This is what has been revealed, and the unrevealed means and past expenses are unknown. Compared with the traditional practice of eating empty salaries, although the nature is not as bad, the impact on finances is also great.

But they were only confused for a moment, and then everyone smiled again, just watching the show.

[A netizen asked, was cooking oil very rare in ancient times? Why have people been able to afford fried dough sticks since the Southern Song Dynasty? ]

[One netizen said: I don’t know about ancient times, but I know that when I was a child, fried dough sticks were a rare thing and I didn’t eat them very often. As far as I can remember, fried food only appeared during the Chinese New Year. We only had so little oil at home that we couldn’t afford to fry dough sticks.]

[In fact, we have only had enough food and drink and abundant material life for a few years, only about 20 years. I don’t believe that life in our area in ancient times was better than when I was a child.]

[To use salary as an analogy, my mother's salary was just over 200 yuan at the time, and 500ml of melon seed oil cost about 10 yuan. I asked my mother and she said it should be 5 yuan, which means that she would have to work for half a day to a whole day to make a bottle of oil.]

[Now, for the same 500ml of purer oil, I found it on JD.com with a little rice and a gift box, and the price is usually less than 20 yuan. According to the price of screwing in, you can earn it in 1 hours at most. 5L (5000ml) of peanut oil is generally used by a family of three for more than 2 months. In addition, in recent years, the diet of residents has tended to be heavy in oil and salt, so the national dietary guidelines call on everyone to eat healthy.]

[In fact, if you look up ancient literature and books, you will know that people in the pre-Qin period ate animal oil, which was divided into fat and cream according to whether there were horns on the head. The so-called people's fat and cream refers to oil.]

[Until Zhang Qian brought back sesame from the Western Regions, sesame oil became the mainstream. In addition to sesame, radish seeds, soybeans, cabbage seeds (Chinese cabbage, Chinese cabbage), perilla (perilla), rapeseed seeds (rapeseed), tea seeds, etc. can also be pressed for oil. ]

Tang, Chang'an City. Li Shimin and others watched with great interest. No one had ever conducted archaeological tracing of these events, so everyone heard about these events for the first time and could not help but feel fresh.

“It takes 2 months to finish such a big bucket!!!”

"This is an oil drum, right?!" All the civil and military officials could not help but say. They certainly knew that the diet in later generations was very different from that of today. The most distinctive feature was that later generations mainly focused on frying and stir-frying. The common eating habits today such as steaming, stewing, braising and roasting were only seen in snacks.

Kitchen utensils like iron pans are not available in ordinary families, because cooking requires a lot of oil. If you are reluctant to add oil and fail to control the heat well, the meat and vegetables will be black after cooking. If you are willing to add oil and control the heat well, the dishes will indeed be much more fragrant.

The main point is that it consumes a lot of fuel. Ordinary people cannot afford such a hassle.

Many ministers have this kind of iron pot at home, but they are used relatively rarely. There are usually dozens to hundreds of people in the mansion, and even if they are rich, they would not use it like this.

From a visual point of view, the 5L of oil is more than half a bucket of water.

"Just talk, can you please stop showing the cooking videos?" The crowd couldn't stand the various barbecues, stews and fryings on the skylight. They looked like golden fried beef and mutton, with fat oozing out of them, and sprinkled with various seasonings such as pepper and salt.

"How extravagant!" The speaker swallowed again. Li Shimin held his forehead helplessly. How can this be so shameless? If people tell others about this, they will think that I treat my subjects unfairly, saying that my Tang officials are so poor that they can't even afford meat.
So he ordered people to prepare wine and meat.

"With the current production of sesame oil, if a family of three uses this much oil every two months..." Fang Xuanling and other important officials looked at each other, knowing that there would definitely not be enough supply.

It’s a very simple truth, because there is not enough land to grow crops.

[Some people ask why there are no peanuts. This is because peanuts are native to South America - Brazil. They were introduced to my country during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty. It is estimated that they were not yet popular when Song Yingxing wrote "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature"]

[According to the records of "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature" in the late Ming Dynasty, sesame, radish seeds, soybeans, and Chinese cabbage are the best edible oils, followed by perilla and rapeseed oil, and then tea seed oil. ]

[For lighting lamps, the water and oil in Chinese tallow seeds are the best, followed by rapeseed, flax seeds, cotton seeds, and sesame. ]

【从如今的出油率来看，芝麻的出油率一般为45%-55%。其它作物比如花生的出油率为40%-50%、大豆的出油率为13%-17%、菜籽的出油率为30%-45%、油葵的出油率为32%-42%等。】

[The ancient oil pressing method recorded in "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature" is inferior to today's oil refining technology, and the oil yield is about 5%-10% less. For pressing, the wood must be large enough to be embraced, and hollow in the middle. Camphor is the best, followed by sandalwood and wolfberry. Wolfberry wood will rot quickly if it is affected by moisture in the ground]

[Although the difference in oil yield is not that big, the productivity is really poor. People can't even get enough to eat, so where is the spare land to grow sesame? Moreover, the common people's land is often annexed by local gentry bullies, aristocratic families, royal family eunuchs, etc., so the planting of these cash crops is not enough, and oil is naturally scarce.]

[As for why youtiao has existed since the Southern Song Dynasty, it is actually very simple. No matter how poor ordinary people are, there are always people in the city who can afford youtiao. Besides, you only use one pot of oil for 1-2 months, so the cost is spread very thin no matter how much.]

[The shiny red fried dough sticks mentioned in Guo Degang's crosstalk are because the oil has been used for too long and turned red. Otherwise, normal fried dough sticks are golden yellow.]

Jinling City.

The owners and managers of many workshops that either press oil or not were all dazzled by the sight of the equipment and houses used for pressing oil more than 200 years later.

Although the oil rate may be a little bit different, at least it can be completely replicated and there is no technological gap.

Hexing Tea and Snack Shop.

Shopkeeper Wan also copied down the method recorded in "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature". He was not in this line of work, so he didn't know how much of an improvement this method would have over the current one, but he believed there would be some improvements.

However, the key point is that if crops such as sesame are not planted more, improving the oil extraction method will not have much effect. From a national perspective, the additional share extracted will be a drop in the bucket.

As a consumer, I think we can get some benefits.
In front of Fengtian Hall.

"Peanuts... counting potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn, this is the fourth crop. America is really a chosen place by God." Zhu Yuanzhang said softly. This is really... too exaggerated.

He knew that the crops that Tianmu specifically mentioned were not simple, and the example used was peanut oil, which showed that this edible oil was very popular.

"How does the yield per mu compare to sesame?" Hu Weiyong also asked. The video did not mention it, so he placed his hopes in the comments section.

"Judging from the production of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn, I guess the production of peanuts won't be bad either, right?"

"It's hard to say," everyone said one after another. Judging from the frequency with which Tianmu mentioned it, it seems that peanut oil is used more in later generations. Logically speaking, if the oil yield of the two is similar, the output of peanuts should be more than that of sesame.

"The picture at the beginning is peanuts." Everyone looked at the strange shape, the fruit with red skin in the white shell, wondering if it was peanuts.

"America is really weird. There are so many high-yield crops, it seems like they were placed there on purpose." Someone couldn't help but say.

"Actually, to be precise, it's South America," Liu Ji couldn't help but say, "What I want to know more is, in addition to these four crops, are there any other crops that are also important?"

It seems more like it was placed there intentionally.
Zhu Yuanzhang was also jealous. He thought to himself that he had to arrange to cross the sea and land in America as soon as possible. After almost a year of preparation and training, there was already a naval team composed of thousands of elite soldiers who could adapt to life at sea and ship operations.

In addition, envoys had been sent to Southeast Asia before, promising seeds such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn, which led to the provision of food, fresh water, coal, and other supplies by Southeast Asian countries along the way, which also meant that the preliminary preparations were almost done.

As for high-yield crops, they have spread to all the countries in Southeast Asia and are well known. Even if they are brought back, they will not be able to be blocked sooner or later, otherwise Zhu Yuanzhang would not have agreed so readily. As long as the Ming Dynasty maintains its lead in population and technology, they will not be able to make any waves.

"It would be great if we had the internal combustion engine technology," Zhu Yuanzhang thought to himself. The power of the Ming Dynasty could only reach the countries in Southeast Asia. After this period, it was really out of reach. He was not worried about the trouble from the countries along the way, because Tianmu had mentioned before that Zheng He's voyage to the West was actually to enhance my country's national prestige.

Today's artillery and ship technology are more luxurious than Zheng He's fleet in history. If history had not changed on a large scale, the small countries in Southeast Asia would not be able to threaten these elite forces, and they would not dare to do so even if they had ten times the courage.

The only threat comes from the sea. The fear is that the fuel will run out halfway across the sea, and then we can only wait for death. If there are ships made with internal combustion engine technology, their efficiency is much higher than that of steam engines, and the probability of crossing the sea and landing in America will be much higher.

(End of this chapter)