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Chapter 127 Military rations

"Your Highness, we can use rice balls. Rice balls are easy to carry and are convenient to eat. They can be eaten by holding them, and they are not easy to get bad. Making rice balls is also very simple, just use your hands to make rice balls and repeatedly compact them in your palms." After Zhengliang raised the issue of military rations, Daxi Guozhi immediately suggested.

Rice balls? Zhengliang immediately remembered the records of rice balls in later generations. First, the production of rice balls is carried out before the war. Rice balls, which are carried with dry food, are usually made by women in soldiers or warriors. After they are prepared, they are wrapped in long dry food cloth, and according to the standard of one rice ball to control a meal and two rice balls to control a day, then tie a knot outside the dry food bag with a rope, and finally tied it to the shoulders of soldiers or warriors. Such dry foods are usually carried for at most no more than ten days. When it is necessary to eat, just pull the knot to remove the rice that is enough for a meal.

The lord, this is really a convenient design. This kind of cloth bag carrying military food is called "小水". In addition to the dry food carried by individuals, the lord also had to make a large amount of rice balls as public food. This work was often done by the lord's wife, with the maids in the city and the women of the warrior's family, and collectively voluntarily. In fact, the lord's wife in the Warring States Period was not an easy job. She not only had to take care of her husband's life, but also often had to lead the maids and women of the samurai family to dig wild vegetables up the mountain, tie the arrow shafts and even clean and put on makeup for the heads of the cut enemies. It was not only hard and bold, but also had considerable organizational skills.

After these rice balls as public grains are prepared, they must be swept up with clean grass, transported by human-powered trucks, and distributed to soldiers at any time. In addition to making good food, they also need to prepare a lot of raw rice for consumption as military rations for extended wars. After the general ordered a rest, the soldiers would find a clean lawn to sit on the ground, set a fire, burn some hot water, take out a portion of the meal and roast it on the fire and eat it. Some people like to bake the rice balls in the fire.

The burnt aroma also tastes unique. The sour plum juice penetrates into the rice, making the rice ball more delicious. The seaweed, which has a salty sea salt flavor, also allows people who eat rice balls to eat it as a side dish. In addition, the seaweed wrapped outside the rice balls also serves as a wrapping paper, so that the eaters do not need to directly contact the sticky rice and dirty their hands. The plums have a certain anticorrosion effect and can kill E. coli and Streptococcus staphylococci in the rice balls that are gradually deteriorating.

At this time, people had a very small appetite. They usually only 80% full meals, and only 2 meals a day. Two rice balls were enough for a soldier to ensure a day's physical strength. The range of combat was not large at that time. Most of the time, it was only within a few kilometers, and the farthest was only 100 kilometers. When the Kansai overlord Maorimoto fought with the tyrant Takeda family in the future, the two main cities were less than two kilometers, and the time it would actually take was not very long. Therefore, those small-scale wars often ended when the rice balls carried by soldiers were finished. Later, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's two large-scale marches in his life, the first was to wipe out Akechi Mitsuhide's Great Swing, and the second was to wipe out the Shibata Katsuya's Quegee's Great March. He did not carry forward in order to lightly carry the two battles.

How much military ration was brought? At that time, Hideyoshi took out gold and silver at ten times the price of rice as a price, ordered the merchants on the roadside to open their own warehouses, and took out all the rice at home to cook, wrapped them with straw bags with salt water on the inside, and carried them with cattle and horses to follow the army. If the army trotted along the way, they would reach into the rice bag and pick up a handful of salt water soaked rice and start eating. The purpose of pouring salt water was to ensure that the rice did not rot. The hot rice that penetrated the salt water tasted particularly delicious for the hungry soldiers. However, in that era when there was no appendix removal surgery, I don’t know how many soldiers had acute appendicitis while running and eating. Of course, rice balls were just to facilitate the carrying of temporary food, after all, there was no freshly cooked food.

"Not right, rice balls can only be used as food for stakes and samurai in the short term. If you need to carry a lot of food, you need to carry it in a cart. In order to prevent the rice balls from rotting, you also need to prepare some plums. Whether it is a cart or a plum, I don't seem to be equipped with a large number of them. Moreover, the roads in other powerful territories are generally narrow, which is not conducive to the travel of the carts, which will drag down the speed of the army. Finally, it is the problem of rice. I have so much rice from my family." Before Masayoro could speak, Muzao Chongtaka raised objections, "The suggestion of my subordinates is to go to Hakata to purchase a large amount of steak noodles, and make some pickles by themselves if you can. During the battle break, the soldiers just need to pull out their knives, peel the dough into the pot and cook them, and mix them with pickles to eat."

The squid? Pickle? Isn't this the exclusive military ration for the Takeda family? The fourth battle between the two Warring States period Takeda family and the Uesugi family had no result. The total number of troops was over 30,000. In a Warring States period, when there were hundreds of people, it was definitely a strategic decisive battle worthy of writing. In this battle, the Takeda army adopted the woodpecker tactic and divided the army into two teams. A large number of Uesugi army's main formation that sneaked into the wife and daughter mountain. The eight thousand troops set up a formation in Hachimanhara to prepare dumplings for Uesugi. As a result, Uesugi Kenshin, who saw through Takeda Shingen's plan, went down the mountain early to attack Takeda's main formation with only 8,000 people, almost stolen Shingen's head. Fortunately, the eight thousand people fought hard until reinforcements appeared, and then they turned defeat into victory.

The battle time was from 7:30 in the morning to afternoon, and neither side had time to have lunch. The eight thousand Takeda army, which had a disadvantage in the army, had never been defeated by the Uesugi army, which had an absolute advantage. Analyzing the reason, in addition to the usual training and the good command of Takeda Shingen, there is another thing that is not very noticeable that although they are all troops of war, Takeda's army may be better than the Uesugi army in terms of physical strength, so they can still persist even if they don't have lunch. The secret is that Takeda Shingen usually lives in the army.

The team vigorously promoted the consumption of easy-to-digest cut noodles and ate noodles all year round. In fact, Japan had no real noodles at that time, and that thing was brought to Japan after Zhu Shunshui, a great scholar in the Ming Dynasty, passed away from the Ming Dynasty. What they ate at that time was actually said to have been the knife cut noodles from Japan that were passed down from the Tang Dynasty, which was called turquoise noodles, and some were also said to be udon noodles. This thing was also very convenient. During the battle and rest, the soldiers just pulled out their knives, cut the dough into the pot and cooked them, and then mixed with pickles to eat.

Speaking of pickles, it is said that it was also highly promoted by Takeda Shingen. At that time, the main pickles were pickled with radish and wild vegetables. The pickles were very salty and could be eaten with a small piece. They were easy to carry and were not easy to deteriorate. They also ensure that soldiers could take vitamins. They were really necessary for marching, fighting and killing people and plundering land. Eating knife-cut noodles with pickled vegetables for a long time has made the Takeda army much stronger than the Uesugi army who only ate rice. After fighting in one day, the Uesugi army who was hungry had long been exhausted. It is estimated that there were also people who fainted due to hypoglycemia. The Takeda army, who did not have the advantage in the number of people, could persist with the bowl of noodles they ate in the morning.

"My Lord Muzao, my family doesn't seem to have many coins. How can I buy a large amount of ginger noodles? As for pickles, can they be marinated in just a few days?" As soon as he talked about money, Heiji Dongxiang stopped doing it and immediately refuted it. The two most stingy retainers in the Luo family ranked first with Yukisuke, nicknamed "Iron Rooster", and Heiji Dongxiang ranked second. Every time he spent money and food with big hands, he would feel heartbroken.

"Okay, let's be quiet." Seeing that the topics of the retainers were getting off topic, Zhengliang had to come forward to stop them.

In fact, Masara is more inclined to another military ration, which is miso. As far as Masara knows, Takeda Army also uses miso as another military ration. Takeda Army consumes "field miso" made of soybean, koji, salt, and soybean soup fermentation, also known as "white miso". "Field Miso" is said to not only taste delicious with rice, but also relieve fatigue and treat stomach problems. Takeda Army's "field miso" is particularly strong after eating it, which is probably one of the reasons why Takeda Army surpasses Uesugi Army in physical strength. Another person who uses miso as military ration is Masamune Ida, who uses "Sendai Miso". The most powerful thing about this miso is that it has a long shelf life. Later, when invading North Korea, almost all the miso brought by military generals were bad.

After it fell, only the "Sendai Miso" of the Ida Army was still very fresh. "Sendai Miso" became the traditional military miso of the Ida family during the Edo period, and it was shipped from the Sendai Miso to Edo every year. However, there were as many as 3,000 Sendai Miso vassals stationed in Edo, and transported them was time-consuming and laborious. Later, after everyone discussed it, Edo simply used local materials and made "Sendai Miso" in Beppu in Oi. The smell of miso was emitted all day long, so the Edo people called the Ida Mansion in Edo a "miso mansion". In addition, the delicious Ida Masamune, who has been in his life, has vigorously developed a variety of military food, such as frozen tofu and natto, which are included in the military food. It is really good to serve the Ida family in the army. You can eat military food in a different way.

Although the miso idea is good, the Luo family has not had enough financial resources to make it. What’s more important is that time is too late. The suggestions put forward by the retainers lack one or another, and Zhengliang fell into deep thought for a moment.

"Oh, isn't it just a meal? Just beating a rabbit in the mountains can solve it." Tsuda Hirozo muttered in a low voice below.

Zhengliang glared at him fiercely when he heard this. This guy knew that he was fighting and killing, and he didn't use his brain. Are rabbits so easy to catch? And when they fight, when they come, they hunt? He really thought it was going to hunt in autumn?

Seeing Masayoro's eyes, Tsuda Hirozo immediately shrank his neck. If he was punished by the head of the family again to learn etiquette, he would be worse than death.

"Take out all the rice in the territory, mix a small amount of other grains, and make them all into rice balls," Masayoro finally decided, "These rice balls are probably enough for us to support about eight days. Everyone, this means that we must defeat or even destroy the powerful forces such as the Akasaka family, the Higashiyama family, the Hanoi family and the Guanmu family within eight days, and connect their territory with Yunoo Castle, so that we can continue to provide food."

"Hiss" the retainers took a breath. The head of the family really made a big fuss this time. He used up all the rice comparable to shark fin and bear's paw. He had to complete the strategic goal of the Western Power Strategy within eight days. Everyone suddenly felt a lot of pressure, especially the few retainers who directly participated in the guide, their faces were particularly solemn.

"Everyone, are you confident of completing this strategy goal? This will be the first step for the prosperity of the Luo family's martial arts. Everyone's achievements will not be forgotten," Zhengliang said solemnly.

"Please rest assured that your superiors will do their best to die until they die." The retainers expressed their opinions one after another.

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Chapter completed!
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