For the soldiers of the 17th Guards Division, today is their lucky day.
With the arrival of Lord Count for inspection, they received a rather sumptuous dinner. Additionally, having received new uniforms in preparation for the Count’s arrival, the 17th Guards Division now looks like a truly elite force, both in terms of morale and appearance.
In this era, limited by logistical supply constraints, what soldiers can typically eat each day mainly includes salt-cured pork (usually a whole barrel cured, with a taste beyond words), potatoes (made into mashed potatoes with milk if possible) or chickpeas (choices vary by region, with corn more common in the New Continent), and a bowl of vegetable soup (what’s available depends on what the quartermaster purchased from local farms).
Bread and hardtack are not altogether absent, though the bread and hardtack of this era are certainly vastly different from the understanding of them in Perfikot’s original world before the crossover.
First of all, the bread certainly isn’t made with industrial yeast, high-quality wheat flour, premium white sugar, or includes eggs, milk, and nuts, not to mention spread with butter and stuffed with bacon for deliciousness.
Instead, the color is dark or greenish, mixed with sawdust, grass roots, or even stones or more sordid things like human tissue.
Fresh bread might still be edible and swallowable, but those left for a while... the French armor-piercing round was initially just a joke or a punchline, but in this world, or rather this era, bread smashing someone to death is actually not news.
At least Perfikot has truly seen someone unlucky enough to have their head cracked by a flying piece of bread.
As for sweet and soft white bread, they do exist, but in this era, white bread is a luxury that only nobles and wealthy families can afford.
Before the development process brought by industrialization impacts agriculture, the agricultural production capacity of countries, whether in the original world or this one, is only so much, making it difficult to eat more.
The Victor Empire is already doing reasonably well, at least able to import grain from overseas colonies to feed its growing domestic population.
Countries like Roshar, where agriculture has inherent issues, continue to struggle to feed their massive populations even after entering industrialization, severely impacting and restricting national development. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel✦fire.net
Of course, this also has much to do with Roshar still using the serf system, and isn’t simply an issue of agricultural production.
Thinking about the agricultural production problems, Perfikot suddenly remembered that when the doomsday winter comes, this problem also poses a huge challenge for the Northern Territory.
In such sub-zero tens of degrees environment, no crops would sprout.
Even if Perfikot can establish a greenhouse underground, the productivity of the greenhouse is limited.
So should I first research high-yield crops? Perfikot thought to himself, rubbing his chin while walking through the barracks, inspecting this military camp.
One must say, knowing in advance of my arrival and making preparations, even the military camp of the industrial revolution era can be presentable.
At least the soldiers have kept their personal affairs quite tidy, and various items are placed in neat alignment. The barracks are clean and orderly, and aside from a lingering odor in the air, there seems to be nothing amiss.
Perfikot, of course, could tell at a glance that this cleanup was done as a superficial gesture for her inspection. Such last-minute preparation to pass inspection is a curiously universal concept, regardless of the world or era.
"Is your regular housekeeping usually ?" Perfikot asked, looking at a soldier.
At this time, the soldier was holding a wooden plate, seemingly getting ready to eat.
In this era, aluminum is still undeniably a luxury, and even a behemoth like the Victor Empire only sees aluminum tableware with the Royal Family. As for porcelain, it is not something that can be popularized among lower-ranked soldiers.
Moreover, porcelain is impractical for soldiers, who need lightweight, easily portable, and durable tableware.
According to some notes from old Baron Brandelis, Perfikot remembered that in earlier times, countries had tried using iron plates, but later found such use consumed too much iron, leaving none for weapon manufacture, so how could there be surplus output for making plates?
Therefore, the common practice among countries was to use wood, as it is cheap, durable, and easy to obtain and process.
Over the past few hundred years, wooden plates and other wooden utensils once dominated the daily lives of people in the old world, from nobility to common folks.
However, with industrial development and the increase in steel production, metal utensils have once again been mentioned.
For instance, the Empire’s military had considered re-equipping its forces with new types of tableware a couple of years ago, but this plan stalled because the proposes failed to receive Military Department approval. Compounded by the issue of doomsday winter, the Empire now needs to concentrate resources on this problem, leaving the military unable to focus on restocking its soldiers with new tableware for the time being.
"Reporting to Lord Count, our daily housekeeping is at this level, we have not tidied up specifically for your visit!" The soldier loudly lied while maintaining eye contact, even causing Colonel Richard, who was accompanying Perfikot, to feel somewhat awkward.
In response to this, Perfikot merely cast a wry glance at Colonel Richard and said nothing more.
She only praised these soldiers a few times before heading to the mess hall with Colonel Richard and others.
Though called a mess hall, regular soldiers lack the privilege of sitting down to eat; they typically just get some food with their own utensils and sit aside to eat.
To sit down and eat in the mess hall, one needs at least to be an officer.
Perhaps due to Perfikot’s inspection, soldiers were preparing and collecting their food in company units rather than having the entire division eating in one mess hall.
While not impossible, making meals for thousands of people in the division poses a daunting challenge for the cooks and the logistical capabilities of this era.
In a sense, this mess hall is a formality to fulfill duties.
In relative terms, the mess hall is not a newly established format but not "always been this way" either.