Chapter 481 Dessert War

"This Yongzheng is troublesome. Liu Bei's tone is quite indignant.

Kong Ming and others immediately smiled.

But seriously speaking, it is not incomprehensible - just as Emperor Wu made the lunar calendar to mark the old and welcome the new day, returning from all over the world to share the same customs is the common pursuit of the descendants of the Yan Han Dynasty.

As a result, due to the trouble-free work of Yongzheng, the customs of the north and the south in later generations have changed.

It's not a big deal, but it's annoying enough to look at.

But among the others, only Lu Su still cares:

"Why does this future generation claim to be the best for five thousand years?"

Then all the hesitation on Liu Bei's face disappeared, and a bit of sadness appeared on Kong Ming's indifferent face, and he raised an unrelated question:

"Zijing believes that two pages of agricultural science are the most valuable. There is a method of retting that can increase the yield per mu by half a stone, and there is a century-old experience in raising and selecting seedlings. How much will it be worth in future generations?"

This question was a bit abrupt, but Lu Su still thought about it carefully and said cautiously:

"Even if the wealth of future generations is far beyond our imagination, do you still think it's worth a hundred coins?"

Lu Su felt that his estimate was quite bold, but he still saw Kong Ming shake his head, stretched out his palm and said without hesitation:

"The entire book called "Tiangong Kaiwu" was only sold for five cents in later generations."

Then Kong Ming and Lu Su explained in detail that the equivalent cause and effect of the "Yuan" in later generations was calculated based on the donated gold objects.

Lu Su was silent, then he immediately said:

"Then...the price of the unpalatable porridge that I just...mentioned..."

Kong Ming has always observed carefully, and just now he also caught sight of a box of Laba porridge flashing across the screen. It seemed to be sealed in a can and put in a box. The weight and price were clearly written on the package. One can was 280 grams, twelve The price of the jar was thirty-four yuan. They also found out at the earliest the relationship between the so-called weight of later generations and the current kilogram, so the calculation was even simpler:

"The porridge made from dozens of kinds of grains and fruits costs three cents for more than seven kilograms."

So Lu Su could no longer suppress the various expressions on his face, and in the end, all that was left was envy.

What he saw along the way was clear about how people lived in these troubled times.

In the Song Dynasty, there were strong enemies outside and heavy taxes and miscellaneous taxes inside. I had just seen him cry when he couldn't get a piece of porridge.

Even the overflowing scene in Taicang during the reign of Emperor Xiaojing recorded by Tai Shigong pales in comparison to the wealth of grain production in later generations.

Now thinking about the New Year celebrations that the younger generations were talking about, Lu Su sighed:

"We celebrate the festival with great feasts, and our descendants are so rich. I wonder how magnificent the celebration can be?"

[The changes in customs in Xiaonian are relatively simple, but through the records of stove candies used in sacrifices to stoves in various eras, we can clearly see the changes in ancient sweets.

In terms of sugar source, ancient sweets can be roughly divided into three categories: honey, maltose, and sucrose.

In the "Biography of Gao Shi" written by Huangfu Mi, the great-grandson of Huangfu Song during the Three Kingdoms period, it is recorded that a man named Jiang Qi "livestocked bees" to produce honey and wax, which officially opened the prelude to the domestication of bees.

Let me tell you more about Huang Fumi's ability. He wrote the first acupuncture book in China, such as "Acupuncture and Moxibustion Classics A and B", as well as other books such as Biography of Yishi, Biography of Women, and Century of Emperors. He is regarded as a standard writer. A master of both medicine and medicine.

Because honey is sweet and durable, it has always been favored by the powerful in ancient times. Therefore, beekeeping has been perfected from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Ming Dynasty. Song Yingxing, in "Tiangong Kaiwu", has a lot of knowledge about the mature artificial beekeeping in the Ming Dynasty. Complete description.

However, until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the ancient method of beekeeping was still used in China. They used hollow wooden barrels, hollow wood and other objects to forcibly move bees for breeding, and eventually destroyed the barrels to extract honey. The efficiency was extremely low and cannot be duplicated in modern times. The living frame beehives and honey shakers used to extract honey are completely incomparable.

Therefore, in ancient times, honey was always reserved for the rich and powerful, and was not considered the mainstream among sweets.

In addition to honey, there was also a small sweet war between maltose and sucrose in history.

Maltose is a modern name. In ancient times, a well-known name was maltose. The consumption of this thing has a long history, which can be traced back to the time when the Book of Songs was written from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period.

From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Wu Zhou Dynasty, it was considered the golden age of glutinous rice flour. The technology of making maltose with sorghum and millet, and the method of frying glutinous rice flour with higher yields all came from this period. However, after the Wu Zhou Dynasty, the consumption of glutinous rice flour in ancient times began to decline. There are fewer and fewer of them, and the fate of maltose in ancient times has turned from prosperity to decline.

What led to this change was the rise of sucrose, which we are not unfamiliar with.

With a roar, Wang Xuance brought back the sugar cane sugar making technology to Li Erfeng, and this technology took root in China.

In the subsequent Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, sugar cane sugar production methods continued to improve, and the quantity and quality of sucrose steadily increased year by year. It also successfully defeated honey and candy on the dining table, becoming the top choice for ancient people to taste sweets.

Also matching this little sweet war is the sudden decline of Paleo beer.

According to modern research, ancient records indicate that the manufacturing process of a drink called "Li" included steps such as germination, saccharification, and alcoholization. It can basically be confirmed that it is beer in its original state.

According to records, Li, the original beer, originated in the Shang Dynasty, flourished in the Han Dynasty, and was lost in the Tang Dynasty. This coincides with the decline of Yixing in time. After all, Yixing is essentially maltose and is technically the same as beer. Calculation techniques are derived from each other.

Another reason is that in the 14th year of Zhenguan, the two phoenixes destroyed Gaochang. In addition to achieving the strategic goal in the Western Regions, they successfully obtained the complete winemaking technology and the precious mare's milk grapes from Gaochang.

The front and back attacks made sugarcane a great victory and also made great progress in sugarcane technology.

Relying on high-quality sugarcane, from the Song and Yuan Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Chinese merchants who went to sea also successfully monopolized the entire Southeast Asian sugarcane market and gained a huge amount of wealth. 】

"In terms of sweetness, maltose is indeed far inferior to sugarcane."

Li Shimin licked his lips subconsciously and gave a self-consciously fair evaluation, and then glanced at Sun Simiao with a little resentment.

He could understand the ban on fattening cattle and sheep, but why did he order the imperial kitchen to reduce the number of sweet and sour fish to once a month? I am not Cao Pi who has diabetes!

But under the insistence of Dr. Sun, and thinking about the name of diabetes in later generations, Li Shimin finally had to accept Dr. Sun's request.

As a result, whenever Li Shimin talked about these delicious things, he could not help but criticize Sun Simiao in his heart.

Sun Simiao remained unmoved, and did not even return a glance to the Tang emperor.

Li Shimin did not mind, and saw that his interest turned into great joy:

"This Gaochang Kingdom actually has such a treasure!?"

His heart moved: since fat cattle, fat sheep and sugar cane are not allowed to eat, it is not bad to drink wine.

This Gaochang Kingdom has both brewing methods and things for brewing, isn't it a gift from heaven?

Li Shimin was very interested.