Villager of Daming

Chapter 10, The Tenth Change, The Ice Vendor (Monthly Ticket Recommendation)
In Xiaqiu Village, when the fourth new well was dug, the time entered the twelfth lunar month.

Everyone put on thick clothes. At this time, the temperature sometimes drops to zero degrees Celsius at night, and it is only about ten degrees Celsius during the day.

The fish was gone, and the loach was eaten up, and the faces of the villagers became rosy.

The remaining pigs are not allowed to be killed, and they want to keep them until the New Year to eat New Year's pigs.

Zhu Wentian saw that the fat and protein were gone, this is not good, it is not cold in cold weather.

"Sell rock candy?" Zhu Wentian thought of a way.

Today's local sugar in Daming is mostly brown sugar, and white sugar is called foreign sugar. At present, it is imported through the Shibo Division at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and it is called Chaogong.

Officials trade with foreigners, but ordinary people will not allow it until next year.

Then he said that the Shibo Division was too close to the capital, so it was moved to Zhejiang.

The foreigners who came to trade were bad, they didn't give Daming the technology of how to make white sugar and rock sugar.

After several decades, Daming himself developed sugar decolorization technology, began to grow sugarcane frantically, and became a powerful exporter of white sugar.

Anyway, in history, Zhu Yuanzhang could not see that day, it was too far away.

Zhu Wentian thought about it, and began to worry about how to sell the sugar. The red granulated sugar in Xuancheng was 22 Wen a catty for brown sugar, and 390 Wen a catty for rock sugar.

The little girl only bought a few small pieces, otherwise why would she cry after she knew how to make rock candy?
She regretted that she spent too much money and was ignorant.

Thinking of the little girl crying miserably at that time, Zhu Wentian laughed heartlessly.

He turned around and went to look for the head of the village. He couldn't help himself, so he asked someone else.

Asking along the way, I met the head of the village at the bamboo strip maker's house. The head of the house led a group of people to make buckets out of bamboo, buckets for carrying water.

To prepare for the drought in the coming year, some places cannot be flushed with water directly, so they have to carry water, or the cattle will help to carry it to the side.

"Hanhan is here, wait, I'll cook an egg for you." Seeing Hanhan, the mother-in-law of the strip craftsman's house got up to cook an egg.

"No, don't eat, hehe!" Zhu Wentian waved his hands and shook his head.

The other party ignored it and continued to cook.

Zhu Wentian squatted beside the chief: "Candy, sell it, eat meat, hehehe!"

The head of the village looked at him and frowned: "Bingtang! This... how do you sell it?"

The head of the village was also worried. He bought a lot of brown sugar first, and turned it into rock sugar when he returned to the village.

Commercial tax is nothing, thirty tax one, just pay as usual.

The people who made the barrels looked over one after another. They all knew that the price difference between brown sugar and rock sugar was more than ten times.

It means that countless people are thinking about it and want to know the method.

If you hand it over, the people in your own village will not bear it, if you don't hand it over...

"Li Chang." A villager who was helping suddenly said, "We buy brown sugar in Xuancheng and sell it in Taiping Mansion. We say that it comes from the seaside along the Yangtze River and buys it from the Shibo Department."

"Yes, chief, let's sell it once." Another person followed up.

Li Chang patted his thigh: "Okay! Every family will take out the money, add the money from the village minister, and do it once."

"Yeah! Hehehe!" Zhu Wentian expressed his support, ten times the price!
When the head of the village gave an order, the villagers paid out money one after another, and took as much as they had, and wrote it down. When the candy was sold out, they would share the money with the envoy according to the previous method.

Someone handed in the family heirloom jewelry and went to Xuancheng pawn shop to make money and redeem it.

The next day, four vehicles were dispatched from the village, with more people to protect them.

The ox also needs to pull the cart, walk slowly, there is no need to run wildly.

The jewelry was pawned first, and with the raised money, the village head had fifty-five thousand two hundred cash in his hands. He bargained with others and bought two thousand six hundred catties of brown sugar.

This was the hope of the whole village, and Zhu Wentian asked him to buy alum with a little money left over.

There is a loss when brown sugar turns into rock sugar. If you make a little less and eat it yourself, without adding alum, the loss is unbearable if you make too much.

It's not good for alumni to eat too much, but Zhu Wentian doesn't worry about others eating too much, it's money.

In the past, it was used when frying fried dough sticks, but later it was said that it was banned and not completely banned.

Everyone cheered up and rushed home.

It was not until the second quarter of the ugly first day that they arrived at the village, and all the people in the village ran out to help carry it.

Those who went went to bed quickly, and someone was in charge of standing guard at night, but they couldn't be gone. The whole village depended on these candies to survive.

In the morning of the next day, everyone had a full meal and began to work according to Hanhan's instructions.

Nine days were spent in a tense atmosphere, and two thousand catties of rock sugar and some leftovers were produced.

"Li Chang, the rock candies are bigger than those sold in Xuancheng, and those rock candies don't have threads."

A villager who went to Xuancheng to look at Bingtang deliberately found a problem, and his eyes brightened.

Zhu Wentian looked at it and didn't say anything, God knows how people make rock candy these days.

"Tiangong Kaiwu" records that bamboo slices are put in to help crystallize.

The rock sugar that comes out is divided into five grades, which are: Shishan, Tuanzhi, Urnjian, Xiaoge, and Shajiao.

These five grades are from best to second, as you can tell from the name, the bigger the better.

"The rock candy in our village has to be paid more." The eldest son of Li thought it was not worthwhile to sell it at the same price as Xuancheng.

"Go to the place to check the local situation and price of rock candy, sleep today, get up early tomorrow and hurry." Li Zhang took a deep breath.

When Zhu Wentian saw it, he hurriedly said, "Many, many carts, many, shovels, shovels, sacks, umm!"

"There are cattle in the village, but no cars. I haven't had time to build them. I have to borrow empty cars. I will send the leftovers from boiling sugar to other villages. I will drive the cattle to the local area to get a car back."

The head of the village continued to trust the village guards, and Han asked to bring a lot of carts, shovels, and sacks.

The villagers took the cattle and spread them out to borrow a car. This does not require money, and it is not renting cattle.

***
On November 22, there will be another eight days into the twelfth lunar month.

Xiaqiu Village dispatched 100 vehicles, and [-] people set off with tools and headed north.

It should have gone west, directly to Wuhu.

If there is a boat, the transportation volume of the Huangchi River is greater by boat.

Just go west, close to the village, afraid that others will know, go north and turn west, it is Dangtu County, the seat of Taiping Prefecture.

There are many cars now, and it happens to be loaded with everyone's food and drink, as well as fodder for mules and cattle.

After driving for an hour and a half, Zhu Wentian yelled, "Ah! Here, stop, ehhhhh!"

"What's wrong with Hanhan?" The chief turned his head and looked over.

Zhu Wentian jumped out of the car with a shovel, dug and dug on the ground, dug a few times and squatted down to grab a handful, and then smelled: "Hey hey! Dirt."

He smiled happily and finally found it.

At that time, this place was called Zanghan Village, a small village.

He asked to bring a cart and shovel sacks, for the current soil, this soil is called peat, also called peat.

Peat can be burned, but he is not prepared to burn it. Another use is to cultivate seedlings, which are rich in nutrients.

He wanted to use the peat to cultivate seedlings, and this time he came here to pull some first, to see that the distance was not very far, and then sent more cars to load them.

The head of the village followed, knelt down and grabbed a handful: "The soil is good! We can't find it in our village. Let's go first and come back."

"Hmm! Alright, hehehe!" Zhu Wentian was already used to role-playing, and became more and more proficient.

Others followed suit to confirm, good soil.

The team went back on the road and arrived at Dangtu County, the seat of Taiping Prefecture, at [-]:[-] noon.

Everyone couldn't take care of the meal, and they were thinking about the rock sugar, so they went to ask the price.

When we came back to look at each other, someone whispered: "420 Wen a catty, the bigger one is 450 Wen, the biggest one is not as good as ours."

(End of this chapter)