Chapter 223: The Kitchen Carriage and Military Rations

When the finally completed carriage appeared in front of George, he looked quite satisfied. The whole carriage looked compact and small, and the two independent small single-axle flatbeds at the front and back could be connected in series at any time. And when it was time to set up a pot to cook, they could immediately separate into two independent individuals. At the same time, this flexible connection method became what was known as “a small cart turns around easily.”

Two ponies were fixed in position on their backs through accessories such as pack saddles, breast collars, and girths. Plus the shoulder harness draped on the front, connected to the shaft and the crossbeam or hooks on the carriage body via cowhide ropes; this used the pack saddle on the back as a fulcrum and the shoulder harness as the force-bearing point for pulling the cart. This was called the “Collar and Shaft Harnessing Method.” For animal-drawn vehicles, it was the most reasonable harnessing method.

Because the “Collar and Shaft Harnessing Method” completely avoided the abrasions caused by the wooden shaft, lowered the fulcrum, and flattened the shaft. Moreover, it could fully utilize both sides of the horse’s shoulder blades, expand the force area, enhance the ability to pull the cart, and adapt to the characteristics of the horse’s body.

Then by controlling the horses through reins, it could be said that maneuvering was much simpler compared to previous carriages. That was to say, if necessary, the carriage driver could get the hang of it within a short time.

The front carriage body was fixed together with the two shaft poles, but it was connected to the chassis through a rotating pivot, so it was easy to turn. This formed the result of the pivot acting as a bogie. The overall Teak structure was sturdy without losing toughness. After the key parts were reinforced with iron strips, they could even withstand the bumps in the wild.

As for shock absorption devices, George did not install them on this carriage. The price of elastic steel sheets and springs in this era was so high that it wasn’t much different from ordinary swords. Moreover, the craftsmanship was only in the hands of specialized craftsmen, and at least Bolerum Territory couldn’t produce them itself. Although George wasn’t extravagant enough to install such expensive consumables on the kitchen carriage yet.

The small section of the carriage in front, besides having a seat for the carriage driver, contained several well-fixed iron boxes. They were used to store ingredients with small volume and long shelf life, such as flour, salt, spices, dried meat, and fish.

All cooking equipment and auxiliary equipment were installed on the chassis of the rear carriage. The cooking equipment included one vertical boiler with a vegetable pot and two steamers; the auxiliary equipment included one hand-operated suction pump, one hand-operated blower, a set of soup buckets, a coal box, and two toolboxes.

According to the estimates of George, the craftsmen, and the Cooking Troops, it would generally take about 1 hour to make soup for 150 people; it would take 2 hours to make 150 steamed buns and clear soup side dishes.

The former was used for periods when Black Bread and long loaves were relatively sufficient. The latter was to cope with situations where supplies could not keep up in time. In any case, the steamed buns of Bolerum Territory were quite popular. Even when supplies were sufficient in normal times, that steamer could still be used to disinfect bandages and other items, as well as to give the soldiers a change of taste.

Stroking the smoothly polished carriage body, George turned around, patted the shoulders of the two Cooking Troops members, and said: “Next, it’s up to you! In the coming time, you need to conduct a comprehensive test on these two carriages. I don’t want any big problems to arise when we get to the battlefield in the future. That would be irresponsible to the soldiers fighting hard on the front line.”

“Yes, my Lord!” The two specialized Cooking Troops members responded to George with full energy. Looking at their high spirits, it seemed as if being selected to carry out this task was a kind of honor.

Using this kitchen carriage required two Cooking Troops members. One was responsible for burning fire and acting as a porter; the other was responsible for cutting vegetables and making soup. Of course, when making steamed buns, both Cooking Troops members had to work together.

In George’s view, the characteristics of the horse-drawn carriage were: first, the cart was light and pulled by horses, so it could travel on ordinary rural dirt roads and plains. Second, it used a boiler and steamer to cook, and burning coal could reduce fuel consumption. Overall, it was quite suitable for Bolerum Territory, which was dominated by field troops. Of course, there was also a market for it in the entire Nohan Republic.

Ideals were plump, but reality was skinny. In less than three days, two relatively big problems were placed in front of George: 1. The cooking time was too long, and preliminary observation showed it was because the fire power was insufficient. After repeated investigation and verification by George and the craftsmen, it was found that this was mainly caused by some unreasonable structures. After adding an iron sheet chimney, the situation improved significantly. However, the consumption became somewhat larger.

2. The lower part of the steamer easily accumulated water, and some dough crumbs were not easy to clean out after using the steamer, leading to rot and a bad smell. As a result, George and others had to redesign the structure of the steamer, spending quite a few days back and forth.

As for the problems that horse-drawn carriages couldn’t climb mountains or go through forests, making mobility unable to adapt to the needs of infantry mountain warfare. George didn’t intend to achieve this when he first designed it. If one really had to go into caves, it would be better to honestly set up a pot to cook.

Just when George finally thought he could breathe a sigh of relief, the Cooking Troops member responsible for driving the carriage started reporting again: “My Lord! I found this carriage saves much more horse power than the previous ones!”

“You mean it’s easier for the horses to pull, right?” Saying this, George lowered his head and started pondering.

Originally, when that Cooking Troops member said the three words “I found,” George felt his head was going to hurt for a while. He didn’t expect it to be a good thing!

Quickly, with the help of the craftsmen, George, who had studied basic mechanics principles, figured out the reason. It was the superiority of the harnessing method that caused this change. The carriages in this world had a “Yoke Pad” added between the horse’s neck and shoulders. The upper part of the yoke pad protruded to block the yoke and bear the force.

Although it had been improved, it still belonged to the “Breast Strap Harnessing Method.” It formed almost a generational gap with the “Collar and Shaft Harnessing Method” used by George. Of course, George didn’t understand the specific evolution and difference between the “Collar and Shaft Harnessing Method” and the “Breast Strap Harnessing Method.” He might not have even heard of their names. After all, in an era where cars were used, who would be idle enough to care about that kind of knowledge!

And this time, it was a revolutionary innovation for the entire carriage transport industry. It was just something George copied from his memory.

George, born in the Great Foodie Empire, had a strong interest in eating. He once delved into army food for a period of time. Although he was poisoned enough by those self-heating foods, it wasn’t without some gains. The taste of military chocolate was not bad, and today’s kitchen carriage was also remembered from that time.

George, who inadvertently triggered a technological revolution in transportation, immediately ordered all carriages in the Territory to be improved. Since this kind of technology had already appeared, as long as that kitchen carriage was still in use, someone would probably start imitating it soon.

There were no patent protection restrictions in this world, and it was too easy for others to copy it. Of course, this was also related to the fact that once this technology was used, it would inevitably be exposed to the world, and the difficulty of copying it was not great. Otherwise, if it was hidden well, like the distilled liquor technology, it had been monopolized for a full three years!

“Finally, this part is solved! The food during the army’s expedition in the future should be easier to handle than before! I just don’t know what the final taste will be like, but being able to eat a mouthful of hot soup and hot rice will definitely be good for morale! Back then, those teeth-breaking compressed biscuits, didn’t I still chew them with relish when I was hungry?” George looked at the kitchen carriage in front of him that could be put into use and naturally revealed a smile.

‘Speaking of compressed biscuits, I seem to have another good idea. After all, the volume of travel dry food is not small, so it’s better to make some convenient emergency food. Moreover, if moving in mountains or the battle situation is tense, it’s best to need something convenient to use and easy to digest.’ George, who found a new topic for himself, nodded his head repeatedly. Unfortunately, for some reason, as soon as he thought of convenience food, a sanitary pad would pop up in George’s head—could it be because instant noodles were invented by the Japanese?

Of course, there was another point, probably because Japan was quite effective in promoting its own culture! Even a former angry youth like George would think of “Soldier Provisions Pills” in the first place. This had to be said to be a problem of the spread of ninja games or comics. Anyone who saw those small pills supporting an ordinary person’s daily consumption would have a fresh memory of them.

George later specifically looked up the production process of “Soldier Provisions Pills,” and his reputation as a big foodie could be completely settled. According to George’s understanding, “Soldier Provisions Pills” should be food used by soldiers when defending cities during war. However, it was said that this was also one of the main foods for ninjas. This thing made by cooking grains, drying them, and then making them was said to be extremely durable for storage—the Japanese samurai back then fought wars gnawing on this stuff every day.

In fact, Soldier Provisions Pills were divided into two types. One was made from radishes, buckwheat flour, wheat flour, yam, licorice, coix seed, and glutinous rice flour, all ground into powder, soaked in wine for three years. After the wine evaporated, they were kneaded into the size of a peach pit. It was said that eating only three pills a day would save one from worrying about physical exertion. However, the cycle of this method was too long, so George immediately gave it up.

There was another kind of Soldier Provisions Pills, made from radishes, wheat flour, glutinous rice flour, honey, and wine, simmered over a slow fire until dry, then kneaded into small pills and dried in the sun. Taking thirty pills a day could supplement necessary vitamins while replenishing physical energy.

The latter one seemed high-end and classy just in terms of ingredients. However, after producing the finished product, it was found that the taste of this thing was truly terrifying. George’s conclusion after tasting it was that only Japanese people could eat this stuff. Ninja, ninja, it’s all about endurance, stuffing this kind of thing into one’s mouth every day!

With the first failed attempt, George felt it was better to be more realistic. He decided to try making all the portable foods he knew from various parts of China and even the world one by one. However, reality hit him again, because most of what he knew were foods made with rice as the raw material. And here, rice was a luxury item.

Through full cooperation with the chefs in the Territory, they finally produced mature portable dry rations as trial products, such as dry pancakes, fried noodles, naan, and dry steamed buns. One of their characteristics was that the sources were widespread and processing was easy.

Like the extremely durable dry pancakes, a dry food often brought by Shandong commoners when traveling far in the past. However, the main ingredients of Shandong pancakes were originally sweet potatoes or corn, but Bolerum Territory faced the embarrassment of not having this kind of crop. Later, they had to use buckwheat and barley as substitutes. However, this also solved the problem of the low nutritional value of sweet potatoes.

After a long time, the pancakes had excellent toughness and tasted good when wrapped with pickled vegetables. It was indeed a classic snack that had been passed down for a long time! However, George had some doubts about this—what if those soldiers treated this thing as a snack? Don’t let the quantity be insufficient when it’s really needed.

This wasn’t George worrying blindly. White Eagle had this kind of thing happen back in the day. Later, their individual rations were made to taste extremely poor. So the pancakes completely became snacks, and at the same time, the fried noodles here were completely different from the delicacies of later generations. It was made by stir-frying grain raw materials until cooked and then grinding them into powder, which was fried noodles that could be eaten at any time. The volunteer soldiers won against the so-called UN forces eating just this.

However, the texture of this thing was really a bit too poor. Although it could be drunk by flushing it with hot water, or eaten directly. But no matter what, it was very dry, giving people a feeling of sticking to the throat.

George didn’t think it was necessary to be so harsh on his own soldiers. After all, the situation in the Territory hadn’t reached that level of hardship yet. Of course, there was another point, which was that the protein content of this thing, like pancakes, would probably be somewhat insufficient. Of course, the most important reason was that this kind of powdery substance was really not conducive to carrying.

Dry steamed buns and naan didn’t have any obvious advantages compared to the previous unleavened flatbreads, so there was no necessity to replace them!

“Really, why am I making it so fancy! The most important thing about military rations is nutrition. I’ll make it into compressed biscuits mixed from carbohydrates and protein residue. That way, the taste is considered passable, and it won’t be treated as a snack because it’s delicious.” George patted his head and said.

To save costs, George directly used the fried noodles made before, added some sesame and salt, mixed in some dried vegetables. Then mixed in a large amount of crushed powder made from Salted Fish—these chunks of fish meat could supplement protein while improving the texture of the rations.

The specifications set by George were similar to those of later generations. Each portion was a biscuit brick ration of about 125 grams. Unfortunately, there was only one flavor.

The relief rations made from this could be said to be sufficient in nutritional balance, where two standard bricks were enough to meet the energy supplement for an adult with low labor intensity. It was excellent for wilderness survival.

The most important thing was, with the attitude of not doing to others what you don’t want done to yourself, George made these biscuits relatively crispy and easy to eat, at least they wouldn’t hang on the throat. Of course, if the user added some vegetables or even leaves and wild grass and then boiled them directly in a pot to make porridge, it would be a kind of delicacy even when starving!

With the initial finished product, the next step was comprehensive inspection. In the subsequent training, the performance of this compressed dry food could be said to be remarkable. Some people even said it was good enough to be sold as a commodity. The next step was naturally to build a new factory for mass processing.

Just as George completed his set plan, of the four adventurers who had been fooled by the Adventurer’s Guild to investigate in the dense forest, only three returned in the end.

On their way back to the city, they met a female cavalryman of the Security Squad riding a black steed, Georgiana Biles. After seeing the letter captured by the adventurers, she led them to the security station.

After entering the security station, an old man received them: “Are you the adventurers who discovered something in that forest?”

Rania Anslant answered quite appropriately: “Yes, sir, that’s correct.”

The old man carefully observed the adventurers in front of him, then signaled that they could sit anywhere. Then he sat in a chair behind a table himself, and said to the person waiting on the side: “Start the anti-detection ritual.”

Then he saw that person cast a Warning Eye that had been prepared long ago, and then walked around the whole room, guarding against anyone using Magic to monitor the situation inside.

The elder said: “I’ll explain to you first, the letter you brought is very valuable. For this, we will pay you a reward of 100 Gold Coins. But the matter you are involved in this time is very dangerous. If you want to quit, it’s still in time.”

The few people stared at the old man and patiently listened to every word he said. Rania Anslant immediately thought of something: “You mean it will be too late later?”

The old man nodded: “That’s right. Once you get involved in this matter, you are either our friend or our enemy. It is impossible to stay out of it anymore. Have you decided?”

After some noisy discussion among those people, the few adventurers who hoped to make a name for themselves quickly reached a conclusion. They held quite a lot of interest in this, completely ignoring that they had just touched the edge and one of their teammates died.

Rania Anslant turned his head and asked left and right: “If you think it’s okay, then start introducing the situation.”

Arsenic Jing Rata scratched his head and said: “I think we have all decided to join this operation, right?”

Joyce Poetic Wind went straight to the point and asked: “I want to ask, how much is the reward for this time?”

The old man took out a document, wrote something in the blank space, and handed it to the adventurers in front of him: “If successful, the reward you get will be at least 500 Gold Coins or more, and honor that is difficult to measure with money.”

Seeing the reward, Joyce Poetic Wind frowned instead: “But you also saw that with our current strength, wouldn’t we be sending ourselves to death?”

The old man shrugged and said: “What we need now is not powerful assistance, but newcomers like you who have no fame but are honest and reliable. This mission is very difficult and must be carried out secretly because too many people are involved. No one can let their hands and feet loose.”

Seeing the adventurers breathe a sigh of relief, the old man began to remind them seriously: “But this doesn’t mean you won’t be in danger of losing your lives. On the contrary, you could say you are in danger of losing your lives at any time.”

Seeing that the few people in front of him were not shaken by what was just said, the old man struck while the iron was hot: “Are you willing to bear such a risk and contribute to your country that is being harmed by Evil forces?”

Rania Anslant thought for a while and then gave his answer: “Instead of considering whether we can complete the task, it’s better to accept the task first and then think about how to complete it.”