Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 266

But it seems that the color of this sugar is very dark, darker than the usual brown sugar, almost the so-called "brown sugar".

The thing that flowed down from the crock was black in color, and Wen Tong knew it was "molasses" - during the refining process, the cane juice crystallized out with the continuous crystallization of sugar, and the dark mother liquor was left at the end. The mother liquor still contains a lot of sugar, but it cannot be separated by economical means, and the sugar in it cannot be recycled until after the 20s.Earlier, molasses, as a waste material, could only take the road of comprehensive utilization.One of the most promising uses is in winemaking -- rum is made from molasses.

The workers said that what they leaked was called "slug sugar", and it could be boiled into a kind of black granulated sugar, which could also be used to make food, but it could not be exported.

Wen Tong shook his head. It doesn't matter if we don't make this kind of brown sugar. The economic value is too low. It's really not as good as making wine.he asks:

"Is there any white sugar or rock sugar here?"

Several workers just shook their heads when they heard this. Liao Dahua translated and said that no one in Xuwen, Haikang and other places made white sugar and rock sugar. The cooking method of granulated sugar Boil the cane juice until it becomes a paste, then take it out and pour it into a large iron basin, stir it frequently with a wooden stick, until it crystallizes, pour it into a grid sugar box, and cut it into blocks with a knife to make brick sugar .Brick sugar is packed in big bamboo baskets with dry cane leaves, and each basket is 50 yuan.

Wen Tong remembers that the real sugar production method appeared in the late Ming Dynasty, using the method of pouring yellow muddy water. This method is not technically difficult, so why is no one in the local area using it?

Wen Tong calculated the entire sugar production process, and calculated that the daily output of brown sugar in this sugar house is about 100 kilograms.The scale is really pitifully small, and judging from the entire process just now, although the leading fire master is very familiar with the entire process, he obviously has no experience in specific operations, whether it is the size of the firepower, the timing of sugar production, or the addition of lime. How much, they seem very hesitant, the quality of the sugar produced is obviously not high.Moreover, due to the poor structure of the stove, it was difficult to adjust the firepower, and the sugar solution had scorched several pots.After adding lime, the precipitate is poured out before being filtered, and a lot of sugar is lost.There are still many places that can be improved here.

While meditating, someone brought several sugarcane farmers nearby.Wen Tong asked about their situation one by one. The planting area of ​​these sugarcane farmers is very small, as small as a dozen mu, and as large as [-] to [-] mu.According to them, about three stones of sugar can be produced per mu. They planted sugar cane, and after harvesting, they sent it here for sugar processing.This sugar house adopts a split method for the processing of incoming materials: [-]% for the sugar house and [-]% for the sugarcane farmers.

According to the sugarcane farmers, whether it is self-produced by Tangliao or commissioned by the sugarcane farmers for processing, most of the processed sugar is finally transported to Hai'an Street in Haikang and purchased by sugar companies.Most of these sugar shops were opened by Chaozhou and Cantonese people, specializing in the export of local sugar.A bag of sugar is shipped out from Hai'an Port.

"How much money can you get from growing sugar cane like this?" Wen Tong was curious.

"One mu can net six to seven thousand renminbi," said a sugarcane farmer among them. "Although the tax is heavier, the income is not bad, but the interest is high. If you pay back the principal and interest, you won't be able to leave a few dollars behind."

"Interest?" Wen Tong felt strange. Can you still borrow money to grow sugar cane?

"That's why the masters don't know the difficulty of our farmers." The sugarcane farmer smiled wryly, "Although sugarcane planting is not small, it consumes too much water and fertilizer. Just buying fertilizer is a big expense. When it doesn't rain, you have to Hiring people to carry water, and hiring laborers when harvesting sugarcane, the cost of an acre of land is at least four to five thousand renminbi. Rural people have no cash, so they have to find someone to borrow."

The interest on the loan is 15.00% to [-]%, which seems not high, but after the sugar is processed, it must be shared equally with the creditor.In this way, the income was reduced by half out of thin air. Both Wen Tong and Chang Shide felt that the usury was really black enough.

"Understood." Wen Tong nodded and said, "I'm a new buyer here, so I still want to give you some benefits. This season, anyone who comes to me to make sugar will charge you [-]%."

"Thank you shopkeeper for your kindness!" Several sugarcane farmers almost knelt down and kowtowed in gratitude.

After sending everyone away, Wen Tong returned to the hall, and Liao Dahua and others followed suit.

"Shopkeeper Liao, you are the shopkeeper of the semicolon here, and you have been delayed for several days, Haikang's semicolon—" Wen Tong felt sorry.

"It's okay, it's okay," Liao Dahua said hastily, "Isn't Haikang's semicolon opened just for Dongzhu Guo? The little ones will naturally go all out for the things that his old man has taken care of." The shopkeeper of Wei Branch is not actually a martial arts bodyguard, but a bankrupt small businessman. Qi Wei's branch in Leizhou is not intended to be a bodyguard, but to cooperate with Guo Dongzhu in doing business. It is suitable for someone like him to preside over it.

"His old man".Wen Tong thinks that Guo Yi is really awesome now.Immediately said: "There is no one here right now, we need to ask for help, we need to find a long-term foreman, and we need to hire a sugar cooker. These are the top priorities. We are not familiar with the place here, so we will work on you."

Although I have seen a lot of disadvantages in the process just now, technical transformation is not something that can be done in a day or two. Not only equipment, but also basic facilities must be improved. I don't have the time at all right now. In the near future, for the time being, Xiao Gui and Cao Sui's old method of distributing sugar as soon as possible is serious.

"It's easy to say, easy to say." Liao Dahua nodded again and again, "It's all on the little one. It will be done within three days."

"Don't worry too much about the wages. Right now is the time to employ people. By the way, if you can recruit permanent workers or someone who sells themselves, you should choose honest and reliable people."

"Yes." He took a step forward and lowered his voice, "If there are suitable girls, do you want to buy some of them to take care of the daily life of Shopkeeper Wen and Master Chang? Now Guangzhou has only sent two rough girls. I'm a woman with thick hands and big feet, I'm afraid she won't be able to serve you well."

"Okay." Chang Shide said quickly, "Don't be too young, and don't be thin."

Wen Tong glanced at him in embarrassment, this guy was a little too impatient.It's not that he didn't have this idea, the executive committee also granted them the right to recruit locals for use, but now that they are eager to find a woman just after settling down, it's not good to pass it back.

"I think this matter is still slow," Wen Tong said, "We just came to Leizhou, and we have to go to various places to have a look. I'm afraid it will take a few weeks, and it will be troublesome to buy a maid on the road. It will be more convenient for the pair of boy servants to follow." The pair of boy servants standing next to him blushed when they heard this, and bowed their heads in silence.

Liao Dahua was stunned, his eyes scanned, and a "suddenly enlightened" expression suddenly appeared on his face:

"Yes, yes, the little one is abrupt."

The two of them didn't understand what he "suddenly realized" at all, but there were too many things to do now, so they didn't delve into it.It was getting late at this time, and Liao Dahua and others all left and left. The bodyguards he brought were all living in Zhuangzi to guard. Liao Dahua did not dare to take it lightly——Xuwen is the most chaotic place in the entire Leizhou Prefecture. This kind of bandit strongman is rampant.Sugar cane farms and sugar houses with more property were the targets of their robbery.Zhou Shizhai took Li Biao to live in the room outside their house, taking care of them at any time.

In the evening, two servants sent from Guangzhou came to say hello. Although these two servants were not strong women with big arms and round waists, they looked thin and shriveled, but they were very strong. First, they brought a new deep and large bidet , Then there was a steady stream of hot water and a lot of saponins brought in barrel by barrel.The two of them traveled back and forth for two days, full of wind and dust, and taking a bath like this was just what they needed. Wen Tong immediately took off his clothes, soaked in hot water for a long time before crawling out, sat on a bamboo stool and daubed it with saponin beans. On the body, although the soap locust feels a little hard to apply, but the place where it is applied is slippery and greasy, and it also has a delicate fragrance, which is much better than the soap distributed in the Lingao office.

"Old Chang, help me apply soap." Wen Tong said to Chang Shide who was soaking in hot water with his eyes closed.

"Your name is Wenxiu, you two, aren't you our boy, you just do this, please allow me to enjoy it again." Chang Shide soaked in hot water with an expression of wanting to die.

Wen Tong was right, he could rub his back or something by the way.He straightened his throat and shouted just once.Wenxiu responded and came in from the next door.He had changed into shorts and trousers, and was barefoot.

"Master's body is really strong." Wenxiu said while rubbing her back vigorously.

"Hmph, he's so thin, but he's still strong?" Chang Shide made a splashing sound, "Look at my chest muscles—the Ghost Head Sword is not for nothing."

Wenxiu didn't dare to speak anymore.Tong Wen said, "Who did you learn Mandarin from?"

"I learned it from Steward Sun."

Before Wen Tong and Chang Shide set off, they already knew that Steward Sun was actually Sun Chang, who was the main aboriginal worker at Guangzhou Station.

"Xiao Guo raised a lot of people there."

Wenxiu hesitated for a moment, not daring to confirm that the "Xiao Guo" the master was talking about was the Dongzhu Guo whom they regarded as a god, so she hesitated for a moment before answering:

"Yes, there are no fewer than a few dozen people." Wenxiu was very attentive and thoughtful, "They all learned Mandarin from Butler Sun. Dongzhu Guo said that this is all for the gentlemen who will come in the future—"

Chang Shide chuckled a few times: "Xiao Guo really knows how to do things. As soon as we arrived in Leizhou, the servants were all ready. Otherwise, there would be no one who can talk around." He yawned, "Today It’s really boring, it reminds me of watching a folk performance. By the way, is there any improvement plan for the sugar industry?”

"There are improvements, but it will be too late for a while, so let's deal with them first." Wen Tong gestured, and Wenxiu scooped up clean water from the bucket next to him to rinse him, and the warm water washed his body, very comfortable. Cozy, "I'll go to the fields tomorrow to have a look, and then I'll go to other Zhuangzi and sugar mills to check the situation."

"Come on, rub my back too!" Chang Shide climbed out, his body was much stronger than Wen Tong's, although he was fat, he usually exercised a lot, and he did a lot of physical work after D-day. There are lumps of muscles on the chest, abdomen, and thighs.Wenxiu glanced at his body in awe and envy, and said with a charming smile:

"The master really has a good physique." He rubbed his back while talking.

"I think there are too many sugar houses, so they should be merged and cancelled, and a general factory for intensive production will be brought in for unified processing. It is easy to scale up, and it is easy to use bagasse."

"I think so too, but farmers like to process nearby. Who wants to go to the mountains to sell sugar cane? The trouble is dead. The road here is not easy." Wen Tong said, "Look at the distribution of these sugar cane farms. If they are scattered It’s very open, the sugar industry in Leizhou is like a tea table.”

The problem he thought of was actually much more complicated.Today he has a general idea of ​​the sugar industry in Leizhou, and what to do next remains to be investigated.As for the improvement, it is far from just a problem of processing equipment and production technology. In the sugar house, he has checked the sugar cane used to squeeze the juice, and it turned out to be bamboo cane.This is a kind of sugarcane native to China. Although it is a special variety for sugar extraction, its sugar content is not as good as "Kunlun cane"-although the latter is actually fruit cane.Even in Leizhou, where sugarcane is uniquely endowed, the sugar content of bamboo cane is only 9%, which is far lower than the common standard of 14% in modern sugar varieties. From this point of view, there is great potential for the improvement of sugarcane varieties .There are many seedlings of sugarcane varieties preserved in the agricultural department, and you can try to plant them here.As for field management, let alone, there should be more improvements.

"It's also -- alas, oh, it's so comfortable. Is your massage skill good?" Chang Shide was very comfortable being served, and he couldn't help moaning.

"The little ones have all learned the art of serving people." Wen Tong massaged his back hard as if to flatter him.

"Could it be that the brown sugar is shipped here for rough processing and processed into white sugar?"

"I think so too, but we have to look at the situation in various places."

After the two of them took a bath, the servants came to clean up the house again by pouring out the dirty water, and took the clothes they had changed to wash.After a while, dinner was served again.The wine was also served, which was "Xu Wenye" ​​produced locally in Xu Wen, a local wine made from jackfruit. Liao Dahua and Zhou Shizhai were accompanied at the banquet, and they both had a symbolic drink.Wen Tong didn't drink much at first, and Chang Shide basically drank all the wine in the end.Although not drunk, but also a little tipsy.Wen Tong had no choice but to ask Wen Xiu to help this guy back. Originally, he wanted to talk to him at night, but now it seems that he can only sleep after dark.

(End of this chapter)