In fact, if Marin likes these loyal young soldiers, he would not give them maple syrup compressed biscuits. The main reason is that these days, Marin often arranges them for long-distance training.
Specifically, learning and adapting to long-distance raids on horseback, that is, marching quickly, and even reaching the strength of forcing marching. In this case, soldiers consume a lot of physical strength, which is also a test of willpower. Their strength is no less than that in wartime. In addition, Marin needs the loyalty of these young soldiers who have the secret of one-headed bullets to put them in horse-drawn biscuits. If they were ordinary spearmen, Marin would not be so polite.
But the problem is that in the future, when the teenagers of Beihai Kingdom grow up, the main body of the army will definitely be these children who have received military education in schools since childhood. They are not the mountain people who are willing to endure hardships recruited from the southern mountainous areas, and have high material requirements.
Perhaps for a while, there will be no objection to the young guards who can enjoy sugar-added biscuits during training. But over time, there will inevitably be complaints, which will affect morale.
Therefore, there is no hurry at the moment, but in the long run, it is necessary to improve the treatment of ordinary troops. Especially when war breaks out, morale determines victory or defeat, and there is no sloppy at all.
Now, Malin can live a good life of technology to suppress his opponents by relying on confidentiality. But other countries are not fools. Once they see the brilliant achievements of Beihai State's technology suppression, they will definitely find ways to steal technology. At that time, the difference in weapon generation between the two sides will be very small. Then, everyone still has to fight for morale.
If the Beihai Army had sugar supply every time during the war, the opponent could only eat black baguettes with soil, stones and wood chips every time, then the morale would be very different...
It is said that Napoleon was invincible in Europe, and the food given to the soldiers was enough to make other countries ashamed. Marin spent some Western history in his previous life and knew that Napoleon's army had a high meal treatment. According to regulations, the daily food treatment of French soldiers in Napoleon's army was - 1 pound of bread, 4 ounces of meat (1 ounce = 28.35 grams, 4 ounces is 113.4 grams of meat), 2 ounces of dried vegetables, 2 ounces of vinegar, and 1 ounce of brandy wine.
This standard was also a good meal in the 19th century. At least, the people could not eat so well. Only in this way could the morale of the Napoleon army be guaranteed.
This is the standard in the 19th century, and it was even higher in the 20th century. During World War II, the US military had as many as 23 types of food, and each meal could be eaten with meat. There were also chocolate, Coca-Cola and chewing gum. It is said that US soldiers carried chocolate and chewing gum, as well as Coca-Cola. Not to mention the US military, even the strongest Japanese in the power of the country at that time, soldiers also carried candies with them. Therefore, when we watched the Anti-Japanese War movies, the Japanese often took out candies as if they were hypocritical and said, "Children Miximixi"...
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, although China's economy was in difficulty before the 1980s, it also had a lot of military supplies. For example, the 761 compressed dry food used in the counterattack war, in addition to wheat flour and sugar, also contained vegetable oil, whole milk powder (that was the good thing that contained fat at that time), glucose and refined salt.
From this we can see that in military rations, rice, flour, sugar, oil and salt are indispensable. As for milk powder, it depends on the production capacity. In this era, it is still a bit luxurious...
In fact, the military ration configuration currently planned by Marin can make soldiers in Europe feel jealous. For example, sugar-filled biscuits are sweet foods that little nobles rarely eat, and soldiers don’t have to think about. Grilled dried salted fish is also meaty at least! As for bagged dehydrated vegetables, this thing depends on the time of the European mercenaries in this era. In spring and summer, they can get fresh vegetables to eat. In autumn and winter, they want to eat vegetables is a luxury.
Not to mention ordinary mercenaries, even those officers, except those who are from great nobles and ordinary low-level nobles, cannot eat candy every time during war...
As for the supply of sugar, Marin thought about it and decided to supply sugar instead of maple syrup. Maple syrup seems easy to obtain, but it is based on sprinkling a large number of people and drawing them from the sugar maple trees in March and April every year. But at that time of year, the number of people who can be sent out to absorb maple syrup sap is limited. Therefore, the production capacity of maple syrup will definitely be affected in the future.
In this way, if you really want to supply a lot of sugar, you have to rely on the sugar cane to stabilize and manage.
To this end, Marin specially ordered the colonial army that captured the Taino people on Haiti Island, captured the locals, and completed quarantine observation. After confirming that there was no syphilis, he would send the sugarcane on Cuba Island first. 300,000 people who were originally intended to be transported to the east coast of the North American continent, and first distributed 100,000 to Cuba Island. In this way, the sugarcane production on Cuba Island can be guaranteed. In the future, soldiers of the North Sea can carry candy with them like the Japanese, and say "Misi Misi" when they see the child... Ah, it is to win people's hearts. At the same time, show off...
...
However, when soliciting opinions from the generals, Marin's proposal was opposed by the officers. It was similar to what Marin thought, and the officers felt that the treatment was too amazing.
Bag-in grilled dried salted fish is nothing. Salted fish is not a rare thing, and ordinary people can eat it. Although dehydrated vegetables are fresh things, they are just vegetables after all, not rare things.
Sugar-added biscuits are so cool...
You know, for now, the officers in the barracks have not been able to supply sugar stably. The current market price of sugar is 1 shilling and 6 fenny per pound. This is still the price of the North Sea country. In other countries, the price of sugar is at least 2 shillings per pound, which is even more expensive in Eastern Europe. And 2 shillings equals 24 fenny, which is the 8-day salary of the soldiers...
If this were to be put in later generations, the low wage standard of 100 yuan per day would be equivalent to 800 per catty, which is dozens of times more expensive than pork ribs...
In time, each soldier consumes 1 pound of sugar and 10,000 soldiers in one month. The market price of sugar consumed every month can reach 20,000 shillings, which is 4,000 gold coins. The cost is too high...
You know, the Beihai Kingdom has an army of 60,000 to 70,000. Moreover, the generals here vaguely know that Malin may expand its army to 100,000 in the future. With such a large scale, if you spend 40,000 gold coins per month just eating candy, how can the logistics be supplied?
Even though Marin explained that after arresting 100,000 indigenous people on Hispaniola Island to help plant sugarcane, everyone still felt that it was too luxurious. After all, they were all standard indigenous people of this era, not a wealthy era like Marin who was used to later generations, where urea and urea can produce sweet taste. In their eyes, soldiers eating sugar every meal is so luxurious!
Besides, it is indeed a bit extravagant to grow sugarcane by 100,000 indigenous serfs. It’s good to plant something else, such as sisal, tea, etc., and grain. Why produce so much sugarcane? Do you really treat sugarcane as cabbage?
Chapter completed!