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On January 1, 1856, the "Xinhua Daily" officially raised the issue of the "solar calendar" and the "lunar calendar." The article was completely in accordance with the propaganda tradition of the military office. After explaining the formation of the summer solstice and winter solstice, it combined the solar calendar from abroad with the lunar calendar of China. In the end, the military office announced that the official calendar would be based on the solar calendar and implement a seven-day week system. The lunar calendar was mainly used to determine traditional holidays and temporarily withdrew from the official calendar of the military office.
This news could not be said to be shocking, because the military office set up bulletin boards in every city and began to sell large quantities of calendars at low prices. It was not a desk calendar, but a piece of paper with a festive picture of the New Year printed on the top and the calendar of that year below. When Luo Dagang, the commander of the Wuzhou garrison and commander of the Pearl River Fleet, was ordered to go to Guangdong to see Vézé on January 7, he saw Vézé meeting a few people. Vézé asked them, "Are you sure you can make the type smaller?"
The leader of the group spoke with a northern Suzhou accent. "Governor! The exam notes we printed back then were even smaller than this character. The set you took out has even fewer strokes. As long as your letter-making factory can send more people, this will not be a problem. "
The more Luo Dagang listened, the more he felt that something was wrong. How could they talk about cheating in the exam? After the people left, he couldn't help but ask this question. After listening, Vézé first gave Luo Dagang a booklet. This was a real "booklet." It was about an inch and a half long and an inch wide. The size of the characters was at most two sesame seeds. The paper was excellent, and each character was clear and clean. The cheating booklet was printed with the contents of the Analects of Confucius, the Four Books, and other books used in the exam. After Luo Dagang roughly flipped through it, he couldn't help but exclaim, "So detailed!"
"This is still traditional characters. If simplified characters were used, it would be clearer. I was worried that there wouldn't be enough lead and lead printing talents, but now it seems like I was worrying too much! "Vézé said happily to Luo Dagang after getting the cheat booklet back.
Luo Dagang did not understand these things related to culture, but because Vézé was actually discussing work with a few people who printed the cheat pamphlets, he was a little interested in watching the fun. Hearing Vézé say this, he knew that Vézé had settled the matter. He then changed the topic to the purpose of this trip. "Commander-in-chief, you told me to start begging at sea when I came back. What's going on? Is there going to be war? "
Vézé did not answer directly. Instead, he asked another question, "How many brothers in the navy are willing to become fishermen?"
"Be a fisherman?" Luo Dagang was stunned. "Where?"
Vézé smiled, "We don't have enough food to eat right now, and it's impossible for the fields to produce so much all of a sudden. If we can fish up more food from the sea, we can naturally make up for it. Therefore, to be a fisherman is to be a fisherman at sea. Of course, we can go up the mountains, but not into the sea. Making a living at sea is hard and dangerous. Therefore, I'm working with the British to build a ship that can catch fish. It's still a steam ship. But without a reliable team of sailors, it's useless to have a ship. Our brothers in the navy make a living on the water, but I don't know how many of them are willing to beg at sea. "
As a hero of Guangdong and Guangxi, Luo Dagang had stayed in Guangzhou for a long time, so he was no stranger to fishing at sea. He smiled and said, "Commander-in-chief, that's a good idea, but it's far from that. There's actually a lot of fish lost. If you've been to the place where fish are dried, you'll know that the fish have to be dried in order to be kept for a few more days. Even so, it won't be kept for long. "
Just as Luo Dagang was explaining the problems of the fishing industry to Vézé, he saw Vézé waving to the outside. He stopped talking and turned his head to look, only to see the back of Vézé's bodyguard leaving.
Vézé smiled and said, "This problem has been discussed at the meeting. Many of our comrades along the coast know about this."
"Is there a way to solve it?" Luo Dagang asked.
Vézé's bodyguard soon returned. He carried a plate with some straight cylinders on it. Luo Dagang was attracted by these barrels. It was not a bamboo tube, nor was it a porcelain barrel, but something that looked translucent. It looked like glass, but the texture was really not good. It was not crystal clear and could be said to be quite turbid. Holding it in his hand, Luo Dagang confirmed that it was a glass barrel with a wax lid on it.
"This is a glass barrel that was made two months ago. There are fish in it, and it has been sterilized. Let's try and see if there's a problem with the fish. If there's no problem, it means that the fish can be stored for two months. We can grow chili peppers in Guangxi, and we can also grow pepper. After processing the dried fish with chili, pepper, and oil, I think it's edible. " As Vézé spoke, he removed the lid, and a pungent smell of dried fish immediately wafted out.
Luo Dagang saw that there were not only canned food on the tray, but also chopsticks, a pot of wine, and two small bowls of rice. He smiled and said, "You're treating me to dinner."
"Try it!" Vézé picked up the chopsticks and picked up a piece of dried fish in chili oil from the glass bottle.
Luo Dagang also picked up a piece. After tasting it, he put down the one he had just bitten and picked up another one to take a bite. Then Luo Dagang asked in a doubtful tone, "Commander in Chief, was this really made two months ago?"
Vézé said happily, "I want to make money from this. Why would I lie to you?"
Luo Dagang opened the three bottles of dried fish in chili oil in front of him and took a small bite of almost every fish. Then he said, "A few of the fish weren't dried well. They're a bit smelly! "
Vézé listened calmly to Luo Dagang's comments. He did not seem unhappy because of the failure.
Luo Dagang continued, "But when I ate it, I felt that the dried fish was almost the same as when it was just dried. You said that it was stored for two months, so I felt a little bit. If you didn't say it, I really couldn't taste it. "
"So you're saying that it can be done?" Vézé asked.
"The problem is, how many fish can be processed in a day? There must be a lot of people who need it, right? "Luo Dagang asked.
Vézé replied, "It's not as many as you think. After using the steam engine, we don't have to worry about other problems. These things are all made by a production line. One person can process hundreds of kilograms of fish a day. "
"One person can process hundreds of kilograms a day?" Luo Dagang was completely dizzy. "Commander in Chief, you can't do it even if you tire people to death!"
"We'll know when we see!" Vézé stood up.
Luo Dagang followed Vézé to the food processing plant. Entering the plant, Luo Dagang immediately smelled a familiar smell not long ago. It was the smell of dried fish in chili oil.
The two of them were not idle on the way. They exchanged information about the situation in Wuzhou and the situation of the Wuzhou navy. There was a worker leading the way in front. The two of them first arrived at the fish classification plant. There were large piles of dried fish, and some workers were sorting the good and bad fish.
"We've recently shortened the drying time and increased the amount of salt. The problem of fish becoming smelly has been greatly reduced," the worker explained.
Luo Dagang picked up a few fish and sniffed them. As expected, the salty smell was stronger and the fishy smell was strong, but there was basically no rotten smell. The fish that had become smelly had also been selected by the workers and divided into several categories according to quality.
They entered the dried fish processing plant. There were some huge iron furnaces with coal burning below. Every worker wore a mask. The entire plant emitted the smell of fish being heated and roasted.
After these roasted fish cooled, they were selected again and sent to the chili oil plant. There was nothing special outside. After entering the plant, Luo Dagang, who did not wear a mask, was stimulated by the strong spicy smell and sneezed a few times. The workers cut the dried fish, weighed them, and soaked them in the hot chili oil. After soaking for a certain time, they were taken out again, controlled the oil, let cool, and finally put into batches of glass bottles. They were sealed.
This visit shocked even the experienced and knowledgeable Luo Dagang. At the very least, he was quite shaken. Cooking had always been a very interesting thing. The chefs freely used kitchen utensils, added all kinds of seasonings according to their experience and skills, and processed the ingredients. There were also tools in the food processing plant, but they were not light kitchen knives and spatulas. Most of the processing tools were shovels and forks that could be used as heavy weapons.
In the workshop that could almost choke a person to death, the workers were fully equipped as if they were facing a formidable enemy. They had bitter expressions on their faces as they carried all kinds of huge tools to do food processing.
Even though the sorting of fish was a relatively common job, the workers looked insignificant in contrast to the mountains of fish. What should have been a happy harvest had now turned into a bitter expression due to heavy labor.
Luo Dagang had seen ordinary fish processing before, and his evaluation of the canned fish that Vézé took out was not bad. However, when he saw the way the workers worked, he immediately felt that the smell of the fish had become strange. He finally believed what Vézé had said, that each worker had to process hundreds of kilograms of fish a day. The heavy work undoubtedly made it hard for these people to breathe.
After leaving the factory, Luo Dagang said, "Commander-in-chief, this … How many people do you think we need to fish?"
Vézé said slowly, "This is not just a problem of fishing. You will soon lead the troops to attack Qiongzhou. Once we take Qiongzhou, this huge place will become our fishing ground. Similarly, it will also be an important food source for us in the short term. I don't think a hundred thousand people is a lot. But Chief of Staff Luo, it's not that I'm looking down on you, I'm just worried that we don't have the ability to manage a hundred thousand people. "
"Even I don't think I can manage a hundred thousand people!" Luo Dagang readily admitted.
"That's why! We will first send ten thousand people, and I will arrange as many people as possible for you. I hope that everyone can establish a new social system. "Vézé said calmly.
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