At noon, Yu Wenwen, who worked overtime to handle government affairs at the Sanchao, returned to the palace. It happened to be lunch time. Today's lunch is very simple, with three meats and one vegetable to takeout and one soup. All the meat dishes are seafood, which is "aballoon".

Abalone, in this era, refers to salted fish, that is, fish that are pickled (salted) in the later generations, was called "abalone" at this time.

Of course, phish are not cheap, and abalone was not affordable to anyone.

Yuwen Wen looked at the three plates of abalone with fun, and was reluctant to move his chopsticks. Chen Jae, who was accompanying him, first reacted that he thought he didn't like it, second reacted that he thought he was going to do "salted fish fu". He was about to prepare paper and pen, but Yuwen Wen pulled him.

"Tell me, is this abalone delicious?"

Chen Ying nodded: "It's delicious. The fish with salt is delicious. Although Chang'an is far away from the sea, thanks to the salt method, everyone can eat sea fish."

After saying that, seeing Yuwen Wen still looking at the abalone, he quickly said, "Erlang, have a meal quickly, the food will be cold in a while."

"Ah, know, know..."

In order to make up stories and refute rumors some time ago, Yuwen Wen used his brain too much, so his thinking was very divergent. Looking at the three plates of abalone in front of him, his thoughts naturally flew to another place.

The three plates of abalone are pickled sea fish (yellow croaker), the second is pickled hairtail, and the third is pickled squid. According to Chen Jae, they are all produced from the Qingxu coastal fishing ground. They are now very common seafood on the Chang'an market, and are not "special abalone" specially supplied to the palace.

Looking at these three plates of abalone, Yuwen Wen was full of thoughts and thought of the national economy and people's livelihood.

Maybe others may find it strange: Is it too much to be associated with the national economy and people's livelihood even after a meal?

Yuwen Wen felt that it would not be, because a small abalone can indeed reflect the changes of the times and serve as a microcosm of the changes in people's lives during the Mingde period.

The distance from the Qingxu coastal area to Chang'an is more than 2,000 miles. According to the previous transportation costs, even if the abalone produced on the Qingxu coastal area is cheaper, the sales price will soar after being shipped to Chang'an.

The transportation cost alone is many times higher than the original price of abalone, so even the abalone that is very common in coastal areas is not affordable to ordinary people in inland countries.

Not only can ordinary people not afford to consume abalone shipped from coastal areas, but also locally produced river fish.

The reason is very simple. Cooking river fish is expensive and it is not cost-effective to eat.

When cooking with fish, you need to use oil, seasonings, and salt. This is a great cost for ordinary people to eat. Moreover, more firewood is used to burn the fire during the cooking process. Only in this way can the fish be cooked in the mouth.

Therefore, for ordinary people, even if there are river fish in their hometown, they are expensive to eat. In order to save money, they would rather cook wild vegetable soup to fill their stomachs.

Even the river fish that can be caught at your doorstep can’t afford it. Where can I afford the high-priced abalone shipped from other places?

But now it is different. With the opening of Tongji Canal and the emergence of shipping on take-out steamships, coastal seafood (grape products or dry goods) are shipped to Guanzhong, and the transportation cost is greatly reduced and the supply is sufficient.

Therefore, in the Chang'an market, seafood such as abalone and kombu are cheap (relative to the past).

In addition to the popularity of steamship shipping in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, even major cities in the Hetao area have abalone and kombu sales.

Such a change illustrates one thing from one aspect, that is, since the first year of Mingde, the imperial court has launched a large-scale construction project, which has effectively facilitated the circulation of materials in various places.

Although many civilians still cannot eat a few bites of meat in a month, at least the sources of meat and salt are abundant: abalone is meat and also the source of salt.

If you don’t buy or buy less salt, buy a few more abalone, and you can eat two meals a day for a family, you can also have meat and a salty flavor.

This is not the fact that Yu Wen Wen boasted, but he had statistics on hand to support it. For example, in the coolies who carried bags and loaded and unloaded in various water and land transport terminals in Guanzhong, abalone is a common meat dish in the food and accommodation of the owner.

It’s not that the owner is very conscientious, but because abalone is cheap and easy to buy, it is indeed very suitable to use it to “feed” coolies.

Because abalone itself is very salty, there is no need to add salt and seasonings when cooking, which is very convenient for cooking. What's more, this is a meat dish. It is very attractive when recruiting workers: food and accommodation, and meat is eaten every day.

Those coolies who work hard labor every day directly use abalone to deliver rice, which not only allows you to eat enough, but also replenish salt and can restore your physical strength well.

This is true in Guanzhong, and the water and land transport terminals with convenient transportation are the same. Because the small abalone is a pickled food, it is resistant to storage and is carried by steamships. It is transported to inland areas through the Tongji Canal, Yongji Canal, Yellow River, and Yangtze River, and appears on the food tables of more and more families.

For people who are in short supply, abalone is salty and tastes good. There is no need to add extra seasonings and salt, or even oil to cook. You can eat it by cooking the abalone pieces and porridge and soup together. It has both a salty taste and can also replenish salt, which is even more convenient.

Therefore, large-scale dumping of abalone (salted fish) with high quality and low price into inland areas is one of the ways for Yuwen Wen to improve people's livelihood and increase the source of meat for the people. Relying on marine fishing to provide a large amount of meat (fish) has a great cost, output and even time advantage over inland breeding.

Raising pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese requires a lot of feed and pastures. For example, in this era when there is no efficient growth-promoting feed, a pig usually needs to be fed for two years from a cub to an adult, but fishing in the sea is different.

In this era, coastal seafood is abundant, and sea boats do not need to enter the deep sea. It is easy to return with full load when fishing in offshore fisheries. After processing sea fish, the products are relatively resistant to storage and can be imported into the mainland.

As long as the scale of the fishing fleet is increased, a large amount of fish products can be imported into the inland areas every year, which is much less difficult than increasing the size of the farm.

Therefore, Yu Wenwen, who was eager to improve people's livelihood, began to vigorously support the marine fishing industry after the launch of the steamship, and let scientific and technological progress drive the development of society. Such a policy is called "What I want."

Vigorously develop the marine fishing industry, improve fishing efficiency and output, and then process seafood on a large scale, dump abalone into the inland with small profits and quick turnover, that is, promote "employment" and economic development in coastal areas, and gradually improve the living standards of the people.

But the premise of this grand plan is to break through several technical difficulties.

Technical difficulties, including key technical issues such as fishing, pickling (salting), food storage and transportation, are indispensable. The reason why Yuwen Wen sighed at the three-disc abalone is that the realization of this "small goal" is hard-won.

As the emperor, it is not difficult for him to eat phignon (as later generations called abalone), not to mention abalone (salted fish), but for ordinary people in the market, this is a difficult problem: first, there must be relatively cheap abalone on the market, and secondly, you have the extra money to buy it.

The previous problem was finally solved initially, so Yuwen Wen was quite moved when he looked at the three plates of abalone, and the next problem...

The latter question is a long way to go for him.
Chapter completed!