Datang Welcome Hotel

A group of people who returned to the sill were like old men. When they were full, they sat on the windowsill and watched the people who were back and forth on the road. The food here was really good. You should know that in the storm, the best thing these storm eats is roast lamb.

But in the Tang Dynasty, there were so many delicious foods, which made all this group of people talk about the food.

"Yesterday's dried fruit was really delicious. I never dreamed that I could turn the fruit into such dried fruits...!"

"Yes... lychees, peaches, pears, apricots, and dates are all there, and I also ate a cherry!"

"Oh, then you are really lucky. You must know that these fruits are royal tributes and ordinary people have no blessing to enjoy."

"I also prefer mutton with water basin, which is very comfortable to eat with Hupan."

"I'm... I really don't know why this Tang Dynasty mutton can be made so delicious?"

Just as these people were sitting by the window talking about the Tang Dynasty food, a mailman who welcomed the hotel came over with a smile. Seeing these mailman mailman mailman rushing to say, "Hello, all messengers...!"

The few people who were talking happily looked back at the servants. Although they didn't know each other, they still nodded.

Seeing these replyers greeting him, the servant hurriedly walked forward with a smile and said, "Everyone, are you doing well today?"

"What do you think..." One of the bearded sluts looked at the servant and said with a smile: "The Tang Dynasty is good, but there is no place to have fun...!"

"A place to have fun..." The servant smiled: "Dear messengers, don't you know that there is the most fun place in Chang'an in our area...?"

"The most fun place?" Several people immediately stuck their ears out.

"Where is it..." the bearded man asked with some anticipation.

"Of course it's Pingkangfang..."

"Pingkangfang?" The people who replied were stunned at the same time.

At this time, the servant smiled and vividly introduced the Pingkangfang of the Tang Dynasty to the group of people. When did these people hear such a fun thing? They were all attracted by the servant for a while.

Seeing the man looking back at Pingkangfang, the man's mouth also showed a proud smile.

"Can you take us to Pingkangfang for fun..." The bearded man hurriedly threw a piece of gold to the servant.

"Oh..." After taking the gold, the servant quickly said excitedly: "Yes, yes, I will take all the envoys to Pingkangfang tonight for a good time, so that you will definitely make all the envoys happy..."

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"Not bad...not bad..."

In Dunhua Square, Li You stood in front of a row of houses being built, with a faint smile on his lips. This is the first group of communities built by Li You, with a total of ten buildings, all of which are four-story communities.

Originally, I was going to build sixth floors, but Li You was still worried about the quality of cement, so I tried to build four floors first.

"Young Master, you are here..."

Zhou Zhou...Li You is the manager of the community. This is Zhou Zhou. This Zhou Zhou is not simple. Li You spent a lot of money to dig from other places.

"How is it...is it still going well?" Li You asked looking at Zhou Zhou.

"It went very smoothly. Our Building 1 has completed the third floor. We can complete the fourth floor in a few days...!" Zhou Zhou replied confidently.

"There are no problems with walls or something, right?" Li You was still worried about the quality of the cement.

"Please rest assured, we will pay attention to their hardness while building... At least now, according to my experience, the cement made by the young master is the best thing to build houses, many times better than glutinous rice liquid.

It’s much stronger than a wooden house…!”

"Ah...that's right...!" After hearing the experts' praise, Li You finally felt a clear idea.

"By the way..." Li You looked at Zhou Zhou and said, "The food is fine... The weather is getting hot, I'm going to prepare some ice drinks for you...!"

"Ice Drink..." Zhou Zhou asked curiously: "Young Master, the ice drink you mentioned is not ice water, right?"

"What's wrong..." Li You nodded with a smile.

"Oh..." Zhou Zhou quickly sighed: "Young Master, you are good to us. You have four guan a month. You have eaten meat from the morning and you can eat as much as you can. This is a great kindness. The ice is really too expensive. You can tolerate it. You can drink some well water like...!"

Zhou Zhou said this because Zhou Zhou knew that ice was very expensive and the nobles in the feudal period of China were very happy. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, in order to ensure that ice cubes were used in summer, the Zhou royal family specially established corresponding institutions to manage the "ice politics", and the person in charge called it "lingren".

This department has a large staffing, with a total of 80 "employees". Generally, from December every winter, workers start to store natural ice cubes.

How did the ancients do it when there was no refrigerator?

Answer: Ice

Of course, the conditions for hiding ice in ancient times were not as good as those of modern people, and the method was relatively simple.

In the coldest season every year, the ancients began to chisel ice storage because the ice was the hardest and difficult to melt. The officials who managed ice storage affairs supervised slaves, and farmers went to places with good water quality to pick and hid them in pre-prepared ice cellars.

The ice cellars are built in a cool place and go deep into the ground. Paint the mat with fresh straw and reed mats. After putting the ice on it, it will cover the temperature insulation materials such as rice bran and leaves, and then seal the cellar mouth for enjoyment in the coming year.

Because of this storage, about two-thirds of the stored ice will melt every year, so the ancients often increased the stored ice to three times the amount of ice required to be used.

When it comes to the scale of ice storage, it is the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty Huidian said that there were 5 cellars in the Forbidden City at that time, 25,000 pieces of ice storage; 6 cellars in the west gate of Jingshan, 54,000 pieces of ice storage; 3 cellars outside Desheng Gate, 26,700 pieces of ice storage. Based on these records, the volume of 5,000 pieces of ice storage is equivalent to the current volume of a five-story and four-unit residential building.

Ice production was around the end of the Tang Dynasty. Craftsmen mined a large amount of saltpeter when producing gunpowder. Occasionally, they found that saltpeter absorbed a lot of heat when dissolved in water, which could make the surrounding water warm until it freezes.

So some skilled craftsmen began to use saltpeter to make ice.

The craftsmen put the water into the tank, took a larger container, put water in the container, then placed the jar in the container, and continuously added saltpeter to the container, resulting in the water in the tank forming ice.

Saltpeter is a white, bitter crystal with a color like frost. The chemical name of saltpeter is calcium nitrate. When dissolved in water, it absorbs a large amount of heat, causing the surrounding temperature to decrease and form ice.

After saltpeter is dissolved into water, it can be re-proposed by cooling and crystallization or evaporation of crystallization. With this technology, it greatly promoted the prosperity of the ancient refrigeration market.

Of course, there is no saltpeter ice making yet. Nowadays, the ice is dug in the mountains in winter. The price is so expensive. It is also because of this that Zhou Zhou doesn’t want Li You to make any ice drinks.

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Chapter completed!