I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 280 Military Products Promotion Conference

"The main ingredients of energy bars are a large amount of sugar, as well as nuts such as peanuts, walnuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds," Wu Liangshan introduced.

The people in the audience were stunned after hearing this.
"Now please try it!" said Wu Liangshan.

A man in a Royal Group uniform came in with a tray filled with rectangular strips wrapped tightly in oil paper.

Everyone present took one, and Jiang Bin tried to open it, and found that the rectangular strip was wrapped in several layers of oil paper.
After he opened it, he smelled a sweet aroma and saw that what was wrapped in the oil paper was a piece of dessert. The main ingredient of the dessert was nuts, and a large amount of sugar served as the binder of the nuts.

Jiang Bin pinched it and found that the dessert was very hard and not soft at all, as if it had been deliberately compacted.
He took a careful bite and tasted the sweetness mixed with the aroma of nuts and oil. It was very delicious. He couldn't help but take another bite, but he couldn't eat it halfway because it was too sweet. He felt a little sick of it. After all, he had lived a wealthy life in recent years and could eat sugar as he pleased.

He looked at Zhu Houzhao who was sitting in front of him. Zhu Houzhao only took a small bite and put it down. It seemed that he was choked by the sweetness.
The other thousand households devoured the energy bars ravenously.
"Is this an energy bar? Why does it have so much sugar? It's much sweeter than any snack I've ever eaten." Zhu Houzhao asked.

"More sugar is good! Sugar can be quickly absorbed and stored by the body. High sugar and high oil content are the most important features of this energy bar. Because of this, an energy bar can allow a hungry soldier to quickly restore his strength and combat effectiveness, which is very important in certain circumstances. It can even turn the tide of the battle," Wu Liangshan explained quickly.

"But do we really need to equip the most ordinary soldiers with such luxurious things?" Zhang Yong, who attended the meeting, asked in surprise.

In this era, everything related to sweetness is very expensive. Sugar was a kind of auxiliary currency in ancient times. Even if the lowest-paid people here are 1,000 households, they still cannot afford to eat sugar freely.
Sweetness is what many people dream of in this era, and many farmers who work in the fields have never eaten sugar in their entire lives.

How many girls only eat candy at their wedding banquet.
Being able to eat candy represents a kind of power in this era.

Sweetness is mankind’s eternal pursuit.

In later times, Americans overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom for sugar.

For the sake of sugar, the British expanded their colonies in South Asia.

For the sake of sugar, the French exhausted all the resources in Africa.

Everyone's eyes turned to Zhu Houzhao and Zhu Houxun who were sitting in the front row. Only they two could make the final decision on this matter.

You have to know that the only ready-to-eat military rations in this era were flatbreads or steamed buns. The emergence of energy bars is simply a dimensionality reduction attack. The officers present felt the energy bars in their stomachs constantly releasing heat. Everyone understands the benefits of energy bars.
"Although this energy bar uses a lot of sugar, the price we give to the new army is the cost price. One tael of silver can buy 400 kilograms, and kilograms can buy energy bars." Wu Liangshan continued.

This price is very low, 40% to 50% lower than the price of sugar on the market, not to mention that there are so many nuts in each energy bar. You should know that some nuts are not much cheaper than sugar.
"Why is your sugar so cheap?" Zhu Houzhao finally couldn't help but ask Zhu Houxuan beside him.

"I talked to my brother about sugar before. How come you forgot about it so quickly?" Zhu Houxuan said with a smile.

"You talked to me?" Zhu Houzhao was even more surprised, but he quickly figured it out, "Are you talking about Dongfan Island?"

"Yes, didn't my brother allow the Royal Group to organize immigrants to reclaim wasteland on Dongfan Island? Now there are 100,000 immigrants on the island, and 2 million acres of fertile land have been reclaimed, one-third of which are planted with sugarcane. Recently, Dongfan Island has had a bumper harvest of sugarcane, and a lot of sugar has been squeezed out," Zhu Houxuan explained with a smile.

At that time, the yield of sugarcane per mu was not high, only about 800 catties per mu, unlike the later generations where the yield per mu could reach 11 catties. The sugar yield rate was also low, only about 80%. One mu of land could finally produce more than 2 catties of sugar, and selling it to the Royal Group could earn taels of silver, which was much more cost-effective than farming. However, sugarcane is a tropical crop, and there are not many places in the Ming Dynasty where sugarcane can be grown.
After mentioning this to Zhu Houzhao, the fleet of the Royal Group began to immigrate to Taiwan crazily. In two years, the number of immigrants on Taiwan Island reached more than 100,000. The Royal Group also spared no effort in developing Taiwan Island, and various livestock and agricultural tools were given priority supply.
Zhu Houxuan planned to develop Taiwan Island first and make it a springboard for immigration to Southeast Asia.
Taiwan Island will become a rest stop and supply point, allowing some immigrants who are not adapted to the tropical climate to adapt to the tropical climate here first. The most important thing is that there is no interference from the government, which can maximize the organizational strength of the Royal Group.
"Let's buy 10,000 taels of silver!" Zhu Houzhao made the decision, "and give a few to each of the soldiers who go out to suppress the bandits."

Zhu Houzhao also knew that this stuff could not be supplied in normal times. The current price of sugar is about 20 times the price of rice. It is enough to supply some in wartime, so he bought some as a token of his appreciation. With the frequency of the new army's deployment, these kilograms of energy bars can be used for a while.
"The Royal Group must have made a lot of money from reclaiming Dongfan Island, right?" Zhu Houzhao asked in a low voice.

"Yes, we made a lot of money. It's a good piece of land." Zhu Houxun also said in a low voice.

"Then send more people up." Zhu Houzhao said.

"Okay!" Zhu Houxuan said happily.

After the energy bar, Wu Liangshan on the stage took out another piece of silk clothing..
This made the officers below look surprised, and they couldn't figure out what this had to do with military supplies.
"The next thing I'm going to introduce is the arrow-proof silk clothes made by the Qizhou Textile Factory," Wu Liangshan introduced.

"Next is the demonstration session," Wu Liangshan said, pointing outside the house.

Outside the house, there was a wooden man wearing plate armor, and twenty steps away, a soldier was holding a Mongolian bow and shooting an arrow at the wooden man.
There was only a sound of metal clashing, and the arrow broke through the defense of the plate armor and was nailed into it.
The soldiers outside the house quickly brought the wooden man inside.
Wu Liangshan untied the plate armor and saw that Mu Tou was still wearing a silk underwear. He then pulled out the arrow nailed to Mu Tou and found that the silk underwear was not penetrated by the arrow.
"The General Armament Department has been looking for ways to reduce casualties among soldiers. Our enemies are the Mongols. We once thought of equipping each soldier with a piece of chain mail under the plate armor, but we gave up considering the added weight of the chain mail. So we came up with the current plan."

(End of this chapter)