Zhuge Liang led the army to Hanzhong, and Liu Chan knew that he had to take action.
Because no matter official history, unofficial history, Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or the comments of later generations.
Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms.
It is not that there is no chance to turn things around. Even after Guan Yu lost Jingzhou, there was still a chance to make a comeback or break the situation.
This opportunity was Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition. If Ma Di hadn't lost the street pavilion, perhaps history would have developed in another direction.
Because of the first Northern Expedition, Cao Wei had basically no preparations or precautions. They seemed not to have thought at all that without Liu Bei in the Shu Han regime, someone would still launch a war against the powerful Wei State.
As a result, Zhuge Liang came, and he led tens of thousands of troops out of Qishan. Soon Nan'an, Tianshui, and Anding among the five counties of Longyou surrendered to Zhuge Liang because they were unable to resist.
With three counties captured so quickly, it was only a matter of time before the remaining two counties surrendered in Kaicheng.
Just when the first Northern Expedition was about to achieve a staged victory, an accident happened at this time.
In the end, Ma Su lost the street pavilion.
Soon Zhuge Liang withdrew his troops and returned to Hanzhong, and the first Northern Expedition failed.
This is something that has happened in history.
This is also something Liu Chan knows. The key factor in the failure of the first Northern Expedition was Ma Di's loss of the street pavilion.
Is it okay not to let Ma Su go to the front line?
No way——
Anyone who is familiar with this period of history should know one thing, that is, there are really not many useful people around Zhuge Liang at this time.
In terms of generals, there are Wei Yan, Zhao Yun, Wang Ping, Ma Dai and others, but in terms of counselors, apart from Zhuge Liang himself, there are not many others who can be of great use.
Ma Di is the younger brother of Ma Liang, the servant. He is very talented and good at discussing military strategies. He has won the trust of Zhuge Liang. It is said that every time Zhuge Liang talks to him, he will talk for a long time, often talking from day to night.
The Northern Expedition is so important.
Zhuge Liang will definitely take it with him.
Even though the late emperor said before his death that this man was exaggerating and could not be used for much, Zhuge Liang finally gave him a chance to express himself.
It's just that he didn't seize this opportunity.
Liu Chan also thought about finding a reason to keep Ma Di in Chengdu, but after thinking for a long time, he could not come up with a suitable reason.
In the end, Ma Di was allowed to follow Zhuge Liang to Hanzhong; Ma Di went with the army, which left a potential safety hazard.
However, there are still several months before Zhuge Liang sends troops to Qishan, and Liu Chan feels that he still has many opportunities.
Moreover, he has already prepared a trump card.
After practicing his marksmanship for an hour, Liu Chan went to the small dilapidated courtyard.
Until you get out the maltose.
Liu Chan no longer has to be sneaky or hide when he comes in and out here. He can walk in and out without attracting anyone's attention.
Because now this courtyard is no longer a secret in the Han Dynasty. Everyone knows that their emperor loves to toss, and every once in a while, he will toss out good things.
This dilapidated courtyard was where he struggled.
As soon as Liu Chan walked into the yard, he smelled the fragrant smell of shortbread. Now a large number of shortbreads are baked here every day, because Zhang Shao has secretly sent people to open six shortbread shops in Chengdu and surrounding counties.
The business of the six pastry shops is good. In addition to covering operating costs and grain purchase, the income also has some surplus. This can be regarded as a source of private income for Liu Chan.
Liu Chan came over early in the morning, of course not to watch the baking of shortbread. He had important things to arrange today.
He went directly to the underground workshop.
"Your Majesty!"
Zhang Shao saw Liu Chan coming in and greeted him with a smile. Liu Chan looked around.
Twelve ovens are baking shortbread.
In a newly opened room next to it, several workers were mashing shortbread, then mixing the shortbread crumbs with lard and putting them into a special mold to compact them.
Compressed biscuits, after improvements by Zhuge Qiao and Zhang Shao, are no longer beaten with a small wooden hammer like Liu Chan did before.
They hired a carpenter to make a wooden table that was two meters long and one meter wide. However, the top of this wooden table was divided into two layers. On the lower layer of the table, there were eighty grids the size of playing cards.
The upper layer is made of eighty protrusions. When the upper layer is pressed down, it can be perfectly integrated with the lower grid.
The shortbread crumbs in the grid will soon be pressed firmly, which is stronger than Liu Chan's hammer.
Pour the shortbread crumbs into the grid, then close the tabletop, repeat this several times, and eighty compressed biscuits are made.
Eighty yuan is produced at a time.
This is much higher than Liu Chan's previous knocking one by one. The compressed biscuits are put into the oven again for a quarter of an hour.
Compress biscuits that are dry and hard like bricks, wrap them in straw paper, put them in a jar and seal them, and the whole process is completed.
Mass production started three months ago. After three months, more than 200 jars of compressed biscuits have been sealed in the warehouse.
Each jar can hold more than 800 pieces.
Liu Chan casually took out a piece of compressed biscuit from an open jar and took a bite.
Extremely hard.
It's like biting on a brick, but after taking a bite and chewing slowly, the taste is still very sweet.
The shortbread with maltose added tastes more appetizing than the salty one, and it can also supplement some sugar that the human body needs.
This is the first batch of compressed biscuits produced three months ago, and Liu Chan is more concerned about their shelf life.
After all, in this era, there is no plastic packaging to seal, so we can only rely on jars to seal.
However, the compressed biscuits are very dry.
It was produced three months ago, and now it tastes good. In terms of taste, it seems to be quite good, and there is no sign of deterioration.
I think if I keep it for a year and a half, there should be no problem.
Liu Chan ate half a piece of compressed biscuit, and his early hunger disappeared. He drank a bowl of cold water and felt a little satisfied.
Then Liu Chan said to Zhang Shao: "Ask Bosong to arrange for people to transport all these to Hanzhong, and first find a place to keep them secretly."
"No!"
Zhang Shao responded, thinking that this warehouse would finally be freed up. If these were not vacated, there would be no way to continue production.
"Starting from today, we will increase our efforts in production. The Prime Minister has already gone to Hanzhong. Our Dahan compressed cakes will be put to use soon."
Liu Chan said that this was a generous gift from him to Zhuge Liang. According to the historical process, the prime minister will go north to Qishan in the coming year.
This was the first time that the Han Dynasty sent troops to the Northern Expedition. With the arrival of Liu Chan, the change of history was inevitable.
As the saying goes, before the soldiers and horses are moved, food and grass go first. In history, Zhuge Liang made several Northern Expeditions, but because of the lack of food support, he finally had to withdraw his troops and return to Shu.
Now Liu Chan is here.
He wants to change the course of the Han Dynasty and change the fate of Adou and Zhuge Liang.
He must pay attention to the first Northern Expedition.
……
……
This chapter has been completed!