"All of you here have gone through the primary selection and entered the second selection stage presided over by His Highness, as long as the food you invented is approved by Your Highness, you can get the military food order from the Ministry of War, and what this order means, I think you all know very well." Yan Bei stood in the hall and said to the dozen or so businessmen sitting in a row below.

Li Su seemed to sit on the main seat very majestically, but he was thinking about his heart: although the war on the Goguryeo side was temporarily over, the army was still stationed on the front line, and the consumption of various materials was still huge, especially for the consumption of various foods, which was very amazing, but with the help of the abilities of these merchants.

"Okay, now I would like to invite the first one, Mr. Huang, a big merchant from Penglai." Yan Bei continued. This is the Dengzhou Thorn Mansion, which is where Li Su usually handles official affairs, and in addition to him and Li Su, there are only these businessmen who come to participate in the selection.

Hearing Yan Changshi call himself, the white-haired old gentleman sitting in the first place stood up tremblingly, and then slowly moved to the hall step by step, I don't know if it was excitement or because of his age, his whole body was trembling.

Li Su looked at the old man's old appearance, and was really worried that he would have a heart attack or cerebral thrombosis on the spot, and when he saw that the other party seemed to want to salute, he was so frightened that he hurriedly stopped it. Let the old man get straight to the point.

"Enlightenment...... Your Majesty, after seeing the list posted by His Royal Highness. Our Huang family organized competent people to conduct research and found that in order to do what is required in the list. Not only is the mix reasonable, but the food produced should be small in size and lighter in weight, so that the amount of supplies that can be transported by a ship can be increased, so as to reduce the number of requisitioned ships, which is indeed not a simple matter...... "This old Mr. Huang is young. Although he was a little nervous, he still spoke with the unique verbose voice of the elderly, and he talked for a long time, but he didn't remember to take out the things he had prepared.

"Mr. Huang. Let's get straight to the point! Li Su didn't want to listen to an old man's ramblings, so he hurriedly interrupted. In the process of transporting military rations, Li Su found that the military rations transported by the Tang Dynasty were still very primitive, except for some canned food made of meat, other flour, rice, vegetables, oil and salt, etc., which were used as staple foods, were generally not processed, but directly transported to the barracks for processing.

If you are stationed in the territory in normal times, it is not a good thing to do this. And there is a certain guarantee for freshly prepared food, both in taste and safety. But if it is placed in wartime, it will be very inappropriate, at least in the eyes of Li Su, a later generation, after all, the processing of these foods is time-consuming, and it is extremely inconvenient in the process of transportation.

These different types of ingredients have different preservation methods, and some unprocessed ingredients are also very large, such as vegetables, rice, flour, etc., to preserve and transport these ingredients. Not only does it take up a lot of manpower, but it also takes up a lot of valuable space whether it is sea or land transportation, so that the utilization rate of the same volume of food is not high.

For example, in order to transport food and various supplies to the 40,000 troops on the front line, most of the ships in Dengzhou are now occupied, but if the same number of ships are used to transport the same volume of high-energy food, even if the number of people on the front line is more than half, these foods will be enough for them to eat.

It was with this purpose in mind that Li Su came up with a method, to post an article in Dengzhou to solicit methods for the production of military food, and the requirements for other things were not high for the time being, as long as the finished product was smaller than the volume of various raw materials combined, and if the invented military food was adopted, it would immediately get a large number of orders from the military department.

As soon as this news came out, it immediately attracted countless businessmen, and no fool who can be a businessman knows what the order of the Ministry of War means, not only a huge windfall, but also with this relationship, the family can be regarded as having a certain military background, and can no longer be regarded as a simple businessman.

"Uh~, yes!" Hearing Li Su's words, the old gentleman who was holding the foundation for the future of the family reacted, and now he is participating in the selection in the Thorn History Mansion, instead of educating his children and grandchildren at home, so he hurriedly changed his words and said, "Your Highness, what the grass people make in their homes is a kind of food called thousand-jin cakes. When Mr. Huang said this, he returned to his seat tremblingly, took out a wooden box and opened it, handed it to Yanbei, and then handed it to Li Su.

Li Su looked at the box curiously, and found that it was a rectangular oiled paper bag, and when he opened the oiled paper package, there was a brick-like thing inside, the color was yellow and burnt, Li Su sniffed it lightly, and found that the smell was very strange, as if several flavors were mixed together, the most obvious of which was with a fishy smell. Reaching out and checking it, I found that this thing was worthy of being called a jack cake, it looked about the same size as a brick, only a little thinner, but this amount was no worse than a real brick.

"Mr. Huang, what is this cake mainly made of, how should it be eaten, and what is the taste?" Li Su frowned, turned the brick in his hand a few times and looked at it, but he didn't dare to taste it, after all, with the weight and feel of this thing, it is estimated that it is harder than the green bricks of the city, and he asked himself if it is not so good.

"His Royal Highness, the jack cake is mainly made of flour and fish meal, mixed in a certain proportion, in addition to adding a certain amount of dried vegetables, salt and tea powder, mixed with water and compacted, and then dried and baked, it can be said that the collocation is very reasonable, when eating, as long as you knock down a fist-sized piece, and then put it in boiling water to boil, it is enough for an adult to eat a full meal, such a whole piece of jack cake, enough for a person to eat for two days, as for the taste, in fact, it is not bad, it may feel a little strange at first, But after eating a few times, you get used to it. Although he is old but ambitious, Mr. Huang introduced, but when it comes to taste, he is a little eager to cover up.

Li Su listened to the other party's obvious boastful words, but he pouted, although the combination of this thing is really good, it is very reasonable to have meat and vegetarian, and in addition to tea, the other things are very ordinary, and the price is also very cheap, and the reason why some tea leaves that ordinary people can't afford to drink now is probably to cover up the fishy smell of fishmeal. But when these things are paired together, the taste is definitely not much better.

Military food is such an important matter, naturally we can't just listen to the other party's words, so Li Su asked people to set up a pot to boil water, and then according to what Mr. Huang just said, knocked down a piece and threw it into the pot, and the result was a small pot of white and yellow thick soup, with a few vegetable leaves and tea leaves floating on it.

Li Su smelled the strange smell in the soup, called the guards outside to let them taste it, and when he heard that the taste was okay, he mustered up the courage to taste a small bite, and found that the soup was not as bad as he imagined, because of the fish meal, the soup tasted a bit like fish porridge, but the smell of the tea covered up some of the fishy smell, so the overall feeling was okay, at least not to vomit unpleasantly.

"Well, that's good!" Li Su nodded, waved his hand to let Old Man Huang go down, and Yan Bei immediately called the second merchant up.

"Your Highness, the military rations made by the grass people are canned, and the canned food is mainly made of flour, and a lot of vegetables and meat are added to the flour, which are mixed with water and fried with fish oil, and then compacted in canned food, one bottle is enough for an adult man to eat, and the taste is also very good......"

As soon as the second middle-aged businessman came up, he immediately introduced his products impatiently. Then came the third, the fourth......

Among these dozen businessmen, the military rations developed can pass the primary selection, and naturally have their own advantages, such as Mr. Huang, although the jack cake tastes poor, but it is the prototype of compressed biscuits in later generations, and it is also very nutritious. The second canned food is also good, although the cost of the canned food is a little higher, and it is also afraid of collisions during transportation, but the calories contained are high enough, and the taste is also good.

Other people make things in these two forms, either the same as jack cakes, all kinds of ingredients are dried and mixed, or eaten dry or scalded with boiling water, or made into canned food, the difference is only the selection of materials, and the form and taste of the finished product.

For these foods, Li Su tasted them with his own mouth, and found that although they have their own advantages, but there are a lot of disadvantages, compared to others, the top two are still the best among them, so Li Su finally discussed with Yanbei, and temporarily decided to purchase some of the jack cakes and the best canned staple food first, and then send them to the army, so that the soldiers can taste them and see the reaction.

As soon as Old Man Huang heard that his product was selected, he was so excited that he turned his back on his breath all of a sudden, fortunately Li Su knew a little first aid knowledge, and he pressed and pounded on his chest, and finally saved the person. And the middle-aged businessman who made the cans also giggled happily.

Although the other unsuccessful businessmen were a little discouraged, they quickly adjusted their mentality, divided into two factions and surrounded the old man Huang and the middle-aged businessman, first congratulated a few words, and then immediately discussed with the other party about the purchase of patents, after all, the amount of procurement by the army is very amazing, and it is difficult to support it with the strength of one family. Old man Huang and middle-aged businessmen were also very willing to cooperate with others, and at the same time they were very grateful to the patent law proposed by His Royal Highness King Qi, with this law, they were not afraid of others stealing the new products they had worked hard to create.

Just when Li Su was racking his brains for the Goguryeo front, Li Shimin, who was far away in Chang'an, also worked hard and hard for this matter. (Site. Your support is my biggest motivation. )