The history of Guangbing begins with Qi Jiguang’s fight against the Japanese.
One origin theory is that the people in southeastern Fujian prepared dry food for Qi Jiguang's army. But regarding this statement, a little-known legend in Cixi, Zhejiang can provide some support.
It is said that Qi Jiguang led his soldiers to hunt down and suppress Japanese pirates. The most important thing was the speed of his troops. However, during the march, setting up pots and cooking took a lot of time, and Qi Jiguang could not think of other good ways. Once, when they were marching to the east gate of Longshan Mountain in Cixi, an old farmer offered many salty cakes with small holes in the middle and sesame seeds on the outside as a token of comfort for Qi Jiguang's army. He said to Qi Jiguang, "This cake is bare." , put it on with a rope
and keep it by your side to satisfy your hunger when you are hungry. After the news spread, people from all over the coast rushed to make cakes for the army. The name of the light cake has been spread since then. It is said that Emperor Jiajing of Ming Dynasty named it "Jiguang Cake" because of his contribution to helping the Qi family's army quell the Japanese. Because the cake has a slightly salty taste, it is also called salty cake. The reporter found a local workshop that has a good reputation and is said to be "the best in making Jiguang cakes." The owner is Huang Yiling, 57 years old. Master Huang, who has been ill since childhood, has been engaged in the production of Jiguang cakes for more than 30 years, but none of his children (two boys and one girl) have inherited his legacy.
Master Huang said in very non-standard Mandarin that when he was young, due to physical reasons, he was unable to engage in heavy physical labor, so he often watched others working in some local Jiguang cake workshops, and later he simply I did voluntary work for others, "eating my own food and doing other people's work." I gradually mastered some skills, and then I started to spread my business.
His workshop is located on a small street in Yangxia Village, Yangtou Office, the city. It is a shack and is run by a couple. Apart from a dough kneading machine, there are no modern machines in the store and it is purely manual operation.
Among the 20 or 30 workshops scattered throughout the local streets and alleys, local people have spoken highly of Huang Yiling’s Jiguang cake: the upper surface of the cake is plump and smooth, with a bronze color; the inner layer of the cake is as soft as the sea. Cotton; the bottom layer is as hard as iron but not burnt.
According to the reporter’s observation, between 8:30 and 8:45 a.m. on March 11, nearly a hundred Jiguang cakes were sold out, and among the door-to-door buyers were men, women, old and young. , two of them came in a high-end car. According to Huang Yiling, some local government officials in Fu'an City will also come to buy cakes; people from as far north as Beijing and south as far as Xiamen and other places come here to buy cakes. Mrs. Huang Yiling's words are even more interesting. She said that when people come to buy cakes, they always ask, "Your Jiguang cake has no legs, how can it be run around?" The local eating method of Jiguang cake can be said to be very popular. Ultimate: Local people will soak the Jiguang cake in water until it swells, then cut it into pieces, and then fry it in a pot with mustard stems, meat slices, etc. It is said that this is also a famous local dish. This way of eating is still going on today. Interestingly, locals also claim that long-term consumption of this slightly salty cake has certain curative effects on stomach problems. Although it is a bit exaggerated, it still makes sense - for people with stomach problems, eating less and more meals is also a kind of therapy, and Jiguang cake is the perfect "eat less and more meals". Big and ready to eat.
Different from the seasonal production of Xianguang cakes in Pucheng, the production of Jiguang cakes in Fu'an never stops year-round and reaches its peak before Qingming Festival. During that period, Master Huang was busy all night, and his apprentices would also come to help, because when the locals paid homage to their ancestors and swept their tombs during the Qingming Festival, almost every family would bring one or two hundred Jiguang cakes with them. Distribute it to children or adults who come to ask for tomb cakes. This custom continues to this day. According to a local old man surnamed Huang, when he was a child, he would go to the grave with his grandmother and give out this kind of cake every year. The old gentleman said that he was 76 years old this year. Jinxiang, Pucheng and other places in southern Zhejiang were also the frontiers of the anti-Japanese war in the Ming Dynasty. But in these places, this kind of cake is now called differently, some are called navel cake, and some are called salty light cake, while Fu'an is closer to the historical original, called Jiguang cake.
It is understood that the cake oven for making this kind of cake is made of a vat. This vat is not much different from the water vat used daily, except that the mouth of the water vat is much larger, while the cake oven is made of a vat. The diameter of the vat used seems smaller; secondly, the water vat has a bottom, while the vat of the cake oven is bottomless.
The cylinder of the cake oven is placed in a bottomless wooden barrel, and then filled with loess and salt, so that the cylinder will not crack after it is heated. After the flour is fermented, cut it into pieces and knead it evenly, then roll it into strips, then cut it into small pieces of dough, and use a grenade-like tool called a "cake hammer" to flatten and round it, and then use the handle of the "cake hammer" Press a hole into the center of the cake dough. After being made, these cake bases are waiting for the appropriate heat of the cake oven to be baked.
In the salty cake workshop behind the house, Chen Limao first heated the cake oven to a certain temperature, then sent the cake blanks into the furnace, quickly arranged them on the wall of the cylinder, and then sprinkled some water on them. , and quickly close the lid. It is said that the cake base is steamed first. Five minutes later, he put a basket of lit pine charcoal into the furnace, shook it with a cattail leaf fan, and baked it. This kind of fan is in the shape of an inverted dustpan, made of paper strips and paper. After more than 10 minutes, Chen Limao used a small basin with a handle on the side and a shovel in one hand to shovel the salted cakes from the furnace wall. At this point, a batch of salty cakes is ready. Chen Limao said that a general special-purpose cake oven can bake about 80 salty cakes in one oven.
In Fu'an, Huang Yiling's methods and tools were basically consistent with this.
But where did this method of making pancakes originate? Was it really introduced to southern Zhejiang from Fu'an? In Fu'an, some old people who are familiar with local history said that the making of Jiguang cake was spread from Fu'an.
Mr. Huang Guijin, chairman of the Chayang Jiangxia Huang Clan Ancestral Hall (a cultural protection unit of Fujian Province) who holds this view, explained this: During the Ming Dynasty, during the Japanese invasion, Huang Chuan, a native of Yangtou, Fu'an, died in the 16th year of Jiajing ( 1537), he was appointed Tongzhi of Wenzhou Prefecture (in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, he was designated as the prefect and the assistant officer of the prefecture, and was in charge of grain, arrests, coastal defense, river defense, water conservancy, etc., and was stationed at designated locations - according to "Cihai"), This person "tended to be lofty and knowledgeable... he would be invaded by Japanese pirates and would urgently lead the people to fight against them." Later, he "had worked hard to defeat the thieves and died with little help" (according to "Fu'an County Chronicle") . Based on this, Huang Guijin inferred that the light cake making technology in southern Zhejiang was spread by Huang Chuan. Moreover, he also said that until liberation, Yangtou, Fu'an was a material distribution center for Shouning, Xiapu and other places in Fujian Province and Taishun, our city. It was very prosperous at that time, and local bakery chefs were often invited to go out to teach their skills.
However, in the "Fu'an County Chronicle" compiled during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, no chapters and sentences related to Jiguang cake were found to support this statement.
According to the "Puzhuang City Cultural Relics Protection Plan" (formulated in June 1999), there is the following description: In the 17th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Tang He, the Duke of Xin, was ordered to be responsible for building the nationwide Japanese-defense city walls. In the 19th year of Jiajing's reign in the Ming Dynasty (1540), Li Junchun, the commander of Zhejiang Province, ordered his troops to station in Puzhuangsuo City for several months. It is said that in the 41st year of Jiajing reign (1562), the anti-Japanese hero Qi Jiguang led thousands of Qi's troops to enter Fujian via Pumen to pursue the Japanese pirates. According to relevant historical records of our city, in March and April of the 42nd year of Jiajing (1563), Zhejiang governor Zhao Bingran, commander-in-chief Yan Jifang, and commander-in-chief Hu Zhen led their warships to cooperate with Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang to suppress more than 70 Japanese pirate ships in Fujian. , beheaded hundreds of people, rescued more than 100 captive women, and the Japanese invasion has subsided since then. Moreover, there are relevant records in Fuzhou Prefectural Annals, which are enough to prove that Qi Jiguang entered Fujian far after Huang Chuan came to Wen.
The true face of this period of history seems to have to be left to the archaeological or historical circles to resolve.