The story goes that during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the town of Linjiang in Kaixian County was an essential route for north-south transportation, so economic trade was very prosperous. An old man named Wang opened a cake store in the town, and his business was booming and famous far and wide. In order to attract customers, the owner deliberately posted a pair of boastful couplets on the door: "Good to do the north and south of the noodle, skillful to do the east Sichuan delicacies."
On this day, two people came to the door of the small restaurant, they were dressed in ordinary clothes, but their temperament was extraordinary. These two people looked at the couplet written by Mr. Zhang and dawdled for half a day before entering the store and sitting down.
Originally, the eight kings, Zhang Xianzhong, led the volunteer army to the vicinity of Linjiang Town in Kaixian County, and prepared to capture the town and then fight their way to Chengdu. I know, the town officials and soldiers guarded tightly, a moment can not be attacked. So, Zhang Xianzhong took his son, Zhang Dingguo, into the town in disguise to find out what was going on. Zhang Xianzhong and his son went into the Wang family store and asked for a plate of moon cakes. The mooncakes were so sweet and flavorful that the two of them ate them all in a short while.
Zhang Xianzhong wiped his mouth and praised, "Good cakes, good cakes!" Then he wanted to pay for it. "Please go ahead, sir, no money for the mooncake today." Boss Wang explained, "My daughter Xiuzhu got married, and that welcoming sedan chair has just been lifted away, so it's free to entertain all the guests." "Hahaha," Zhang Xianzhong laughed aloud, "Since this is a happy event for the house, you should be congratulated, so please accept a little gift from this foreign guest!" With that, he took out a large silver ingot from his pocket, put it on the table, and pulled Zhang Dingguo away. After clarifying the situation of the officials and soldiers in the town, father and son quickly walked back to the camp, and halfway there, they came across several officials and soldiers who were robbing a sedan chair on the road.
Zhang Xianzhong was so angry that he killed the soldiers and rescued the bride in the sedan chair. Coincidentally, the bride was the daughter of Mr. Wang, the owner of the moon cake store. After learning of this, Mr. Wang hated the officials and soldiers, and was particularly cordial and attentive to Zhang Xianzhong and the volunteers, saying that he would contribute to the attack on the town by the volunteers.
Again, Zhang Xianzhong returned to the barracks, set the battle plan, and decided to do it on the moonlit night of the Mid-Autumn Festival. In order to make sure that the volunteers can eat mooncakes and have a happy Mid-Autumn Festival, he sent Zhang Dingguo to find Boss Wang to discuss the matter. Zhang Dingguo mentioned to Boss Wang about making mooncakes, worrying about the inconvenience of transportation, and looking worried. Boss Wang reassured him, "No hurry, no hurry, I specialize in making ice-thin mooncakes for you, with thin skin and lots of filling, and easy to transport, as long as so and so ......" Zhang Dingguo heard, and immediately smiled.
The next day, the small store in front of the door posted "inventory" of the note, began to close the door to think of countermeasures. As the saying goes, "Three heads of the same class are better than one". They really came up with a solution. Daughter Xiuzhu said: "cake to do very thin, the icing sugar is not big, you can smash the icing sugar, put inside the cake is not on the line?"
Boss Wang said, "Too much lard will become too greasy, use clear oil instead. Too much sugar is too sweet, we can put walnut kernel, melon seed kernel and orange red in the sugar, then it will become nice and tasty ah. The top of the cake is covered with sesame seeds, it tastes better."
When the day was just getting dark, they only saw the town's residents coming down to the river in twos and threes to pick up water, all of them poor people contacted by Boss Wang, and the water bucket sandwich was filled with ice-thin mooncakes. Everyone sent the mooncakes into a hidden cave, and it was only after dark that Zhang Dingguo sent his men to pick them back to the barracks.
On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon was shining in the sky. The volunteers ate the ice-thin mooncakes, which were really sweet and crispy, and their whole body was energized, and they took Linjiang Town before dawn. From then on, Wang Ji mooncake store is famous for making thin ice mooncakes. This delicate production process has been passed down from generation to generation, and has become a famous delicacy in Yudong.