The fast pace of modern life has led many foods to evolve into more portable and delicious versions - convenience foods.

Every morning, quick-frozen steamed buns can be put into the bag as soon as they are steamed. At noon, a refrigerated bento from the convenience store downstairs can be heated and eaten. In the middle of the night, a bowl of instant noodles that can be enjoyed in a few minutes can keep those who stay up late from working hard.

People are full of energy.

Convenience food has unsurprisingly entered every aspect of life.

When it comes to convenience food, it must be instant noodles from Japan.

However, when it comes to the earliest instant noodles, people in the Eastern Han Dynasty were already able to make them.

1. Chess pieces, a "black technology" in line with the social economy of the time (1) An inevitable product of social development. In ancient times, the high-intensity labor of society also made the ancients begin to think about how to spend very little time in their free time.

You can have a full meal.

Although the ancient small-scale peasant economy put food in the hands of every farmer, the process of turning food into delicious food was not simple.

The preparation of pasta is time-consuming and labor-intensive. It is difficult for this kind of food to become people's staple food in fast-paced cities where the commercial economy is gradually developed.

Just imagine, if it takes nearly half an hour to make a serving of noodles at a roadside noodle shop, few people would be willing to eat it.

In addition, the military rations for the march were not well solved at that time.

Due to the backward production technology of the ancient army, it took a long time to prepare a meal for all the officers and soldiers.

This cannot be tolerated, especially when the army needs to move quickly, such as chasing enemy troops.

Therefore, soldiers usually carry easy-to-eat items as their own dry food.

However, there is a common problem of nutritional deficiencies in these foods.

The contradiction between nutritional needs and convenience has not been resolved for a long time.

In ancient times, especially in the northern region, people's love for pasta led to the emergence of various pastas.

But delicious and rich flavors cannot solve the problem of cumbersome and long production process.

In addition, once the noodles are made, it is difficult to store them for a long time.

Since the pre-production time is too long, wouldn’t it be enough to concentrate this time and make them in batches, then take them out and cook them when you want to eat them?

This may be the birth of chess pieces.

(2) Convenient food As early as in "Qi Min Yao Shu", some convenience foods such as "cut noodle porridge" and "Qiqu porridge" have appeared.

Just looking at the name of this food may be misleading.

In fact, cut noodle porridge is just chess piece noodles.

According to historical records, the method of making this kind of chess noodle is to knead the dough into long and thin noodles, about the same thickness as chopsticks.

Then cut it into go-like dough cubes.

After steaming, place it on a mat to dry in the shade.

If you want to eat chess piece noodles, you only need to boil the chess piece noodles in water, add the ingredients, and you're done.

Compared with modern instant noodles, the biggest difference between chess noodles is that it is not dehydrated by frying the noodles to extend the storage time, but sun-dried.

This can also be regarded as an ancient "health food".

Chess noodle is easy to make and takes a short time, but it can come in a variety of flavors and patterns.

The principle is the same as the current instant noodles. The noodles are exactly the same, but the seasonings added inside are different.

It can be sour or spicy, sweet or salty, and you can even add some Chinese medicine for dietary therapy, or add expensive ingredients or mark it on the surface to show its nobility.

2. The gorgeous transformation of the chess pieces (1) The "main force" of military logistics If the chess pieces make the greatest contribution to ancient Chinese history, they must become an important supply for the army.

As mentioned before, the biggest advantage of chess noodles is that the on-site production time is short, and the taste can be selected according to your own preferences. In difficult conditions, any condiments can become the partner of chess noodles.

It is easy to eat, can provide a large amount of supplies to the army, and must be easy to store.

These requirements can be met by the chess pieces.

For thousands of years, chess pieces have followed the armies of China to fight in all directions.

Countless soldiers survived because of it, and countless wars were won because of it.

Due to the great role of chess pieces in military wars, the country even established a special agency to be responsible for the supply of chess pieces to the army.

The "Old Book of Tang" records that when the Southern Barbarians captured Jiaozhi County, the imperial court not only immediately mobilized the army to prepare to fight the invaders, but also ordered Jiangxi to make a large amount of chess noodles to serve as food for the army.

The importance of chess pieces in the army can be fully demonstrated with an example.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, in order to provide logistical supplies for a large army, Wang Zhiwang once ordered the production of millions of kilograms of chess pieces.

It is estimated that such a huge reserve can be maintained for several months even if the army eats chess pieces every day.