Daqin Fusu: It is difficult to start the battle

Chapter 107 Sugar Press Workshop
"If that's the case, then please!" Ziying clasped her hands together and saluted the craftsman and Qianshou standing in the workshop.

Everyone hurriedly returned the gift, and then started to get busy. Li Shang also volunteered to join in.

"Don't move around! You broke the gear, and the whole production line is useless!" Gong Shupan stopped the curious Li Shang.

"Didn't you ask me to help?" Li Shang was a little puzzled.

When he was in the sawmill that day, he operated the saw table by himself and finished the work of sawing wood, but today he was not even allowed to touch it?

Gong Shupan explained with a smile: "Different from the sawmill that needs to be operated by manpower, the sugar press machine newly made by His Majesty is a semi-automatic machine powered by water power, composed of hundreds of gears and bearings!"

"Gears? Bearings? Semi-automatic machines?" Li Shang opened his eyes wide and scratched his head.

"Don't look at me, I don't know what this is!" Ziying smiled and waved his hand.

Seeing the two people looking at him in unison, Gong Shupan recalled the instruction manual written by Fusu, and explained with confidence:
"Please look, my lord, this is what His Majesty calls a conveyor belt. The whole is made of strong burlap, and there are strips of rectangular sticks sewn under the burlap. The sticks and gears just snap together. Once the gears are in motion, the drive belt can then send the washed cane to the juicer in front of it.”

Gong Shupan pointed to the waterwheel outside and said, "The waterwheel will bring the clean water in the canal to a higher place, and then flow into the pool along the laid water tank, which is just used to clean the sugar cane!"

"Wonderful!" Li Shang was amazed: "Then what do I need to do?"

"Eh..." Gong Shupan was silent for a while, pointed to the bucket under the juicer and said, "Later, carry the squeezed sugarcane juice to the sugar boiling area..."

"That is to say, in this sugar mill, the only places that require a lot of manpower are cleaning sugar cane and boiling sugar?"

"Exactly, the young master is really smart!"

Ziying accepted Gong Shupan's rainbow fart with a smile on his face, and then nodded: "Let's start!"

After Gong Shupan checked again, he asked the craftsman standing outside to connect the water wheel to the juice extractor, and then the gears turned one by one, making a rattling sound.

At the same time, the conveyor belt is also driven by the gears, and the cleaned sugar cane is slowly conveyed from one end to the other. With the rotation of the juicer, the sugar cane is squeezed out and flows into the wooden barrel below through the sink .

"Good, amazing!" Li Shang praised.

Ziying looked at the bagasse that had been swept out and shook his head slightly.

According to Fusu, bagasse could have been used as fodder, but because some pages were missing from the farm books in the palace, the method of making fodder also disappeared.

What a pity... such a beautiful thing can only be used as firewood!

Soon, with the rattling of the gears, the sugar cane turned into buckets of bagasse and was sent to the sugar boiling area that had been prepared long ago.

In order to keep it secret, all the sugar cookers here are from Qin people.

Fusu is not worried that the sugar making process will be mastered by the Qin people. In his opinion, in this state-run economy, the private sector will eventually become the raw material supplier of the entire industrial chain if they get involved in the sugar industry.

This is because the two parties have unequal resources. In other words, the larger the scale, the lower the cost.

So he can easily use price wars to eliminate domestic competitors.

In Fusu's view, sugar, like salt and iron, are highly profitable industries that are related to the lifeline of the country. At least in this era, they cannot be held in private hands!

Therefore, the sugar making process, like the salt and iron process, should not be mastered by the surrounding barbarians.

They just need to be the place where products are dumped and where raw materials are supplied.

When Li Shang walked into the sugar boiling area carrying hundreds of catties of sugarcane juice, what he saw were rows of burning earthen stoves and huge iron pots.

"Huh? Since when are there briquettes here?" Li Shang poured the sugar cane juice into the iron pot, and inadvertently saw a mountain of briquettes piled up beside him: "Is this also brought from Xianyang?"

Gong Shupan smiled and said nothing, Ziying walked up to him and said, "No, these are all dug out from near Yangshan Pass (now Qingyuan, Guangdong)."

"Yangshan Pass?" Li Shang mused, "It's the southernmost point of Changsha County, the place where the Fortress of Nine Doubts is strangled? Coal is also produced there?"

"Exactly!" Gong Shupan nodded and said, "Your Majesty saw from an ancient book said to be from the Shang and Zhou dynasties that there are many Jinshi hot springs near Yangshan Pass. Therefore, the county captain sent people to investigate, and not only found coal, Iron ore and gold were also discovered!"

"Nanhai County is indeed the lifeline of the country. Your majesty has a far-sighted vision, and we are beyond our reach!" Ziying said, clasping his hands in the direction of Xianyang, with a look of admiration on his face.

While the few people were talking, the steam in the iron pot in the sugar cooking area was steaming, and the sweet aroma of sucrose began to fill the air, making people want to eat it.

This means that the water in the sugarcane juice is rapidly disappearing, and the sucrose is about to be boiled out.

After Gong Shupan confessed to the two, he stepped forward quickly and said loudly, "Everyone, don't forget to keep stirring, and be careful not to let it get mushy!"

The heads of Guizhou, who kept turning their wooden shovels, shouted in unison: "Don't worry, engineer, we understand!"

This is not only about their wages, but more importantly, Gong Shupan has told them long ago that they need to bear the losses caused by the spoiled sugar...

Not long after, when the sugar water at the bottom of the pot was almost solidified, they poured out the sugar water, filtered out the waste honey, and continued to stir the syrup with the residual heat.

On the other side, buckets of sugarcane juice were poured into the iron pot again, and another batch of Qianshou began to repeat the previous work.

Li Shang picked up a touch of brown sugar and put it in his mouth while it was hot, closed his eyes and thought about it repeatedly: "Sweet but not greasy, not inferior to honey!"

Ziying also stepped forward to take a sip, and nodded with a smile on his face.

With these achievements, he can also straighten his waist and return to Xianyang. Although the Yue girl is beautiful, the old wife at home is more caring...

Old wife...Ziying's lips were raised. If Yu Nu heard that she was called so, she would probably give her two slaps immediately. After all, although she gave birth to two sons, she is only thirty-two this year.

When Ziying was immersed in longing, Li Shang clicked his lips, pointed at the waste honey that was carried away, and said, "Don't boil these anymore? Isn't it too wasteful to just dump them like this!"

Gong Shupan sneered: "Where is it wasted? Waste honey can be used to make wine, but don't even think about it. According to His Majesty's edict, part of the brewed wine will be used to trade with the surrounding Yue people, and the rest will be sent to Xianyang. To trade with the northern barbarians!"

Li Shang shook his head: "I'm not a good drinker..."

Gong Shupan ruthlessly pointed it out: "Yes, you are not only not good at drinking, you are also not good at sex! It's just that you are urging your sisters..."

ps: Thanks for the tip of 'The direction of dreams is called Chuang'!Thank you for the monthly tickets of 'The Halberd of Dionysus', 'Book Friends 2017...1760', 'Thunder, Ting'! ()

(End of this chapter)