Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 269 South China Sugar Factory

"It should be true. Many sugar industry books say so." Wen Tong was also very nervous, not to mention himself, even the elders of the family who have always been engaged in the sugar industry have only worked in modern sugar factories and have never seen this soil. French sugar.

However, the effect that appeared next was indeed like magic. After pouring the yellow muddy water and waiting for a while to look at the sugar in Waliuli, it really turned white—of course, this whiteness is relative, compared to the sugar in another time and space. Refined white sugar, its color is slightly dark and yellow.It can't reach the level of "abnormal whiteness" mentioned in the book.

The top of the tile is the whitest sugar, and the bottom is slightly yellowish brown.Both of these can be regarded as white sugar, but the price of the former is higher.

Wen Tong shook his head. He knew very well why the sugar drenched in yellow muddy water was not particularly white: the sugar solution had not been processed by a centrifuge, and there was still a lot of molasses residue.I don't know if the machinery factory can manufacture a centrifuge.

The output efficiency of this process is not high. The sugar in Waliuli is actually layered. The top is the whitest, and the color becomes darker as it goes down.The color of the sugar at the bottom of the tile is quite dark.He weighed it and found that out of the ten kilograms of sugar produced by a tile, only about [-]% can be regarded as "white sugar", and the rest is brown sugar and brown sugar.The process is cumbersome and the yield is low.That is to say, in ancient times, such a craft could still make money. As soon as modern sugar-making enterprises appeared, Tutangliao closed down one after another because of the cost.

What is produced in this way is only large pieces of loose sugar. To really make white sugar as fine powder as "icing sugar", a "recrystallization" process must be added.Melt the white sugar again, then boil it slowly over a low heat, and the fine powdered sugar will condense layer by layer on the surface of the pan. At this time, scrape it with a scraper made of bamboo in time to avoid being burnt Discoloration.The process is similar to boiling salt.It is manufactured in a special evaporation-crystallization tank in the factory.Wen Tong had no choice but to test it himself.Chang Shide helped to light the fire, Wenxiu and Wenqing helped.In order not to hinder the normal production of Tang Liao.Wen Tong asked people to build a small sugar house in the sugar cane farm as a sugar laboratory.Four people squeezed into this temporary building in Zhuangzi, and it was smoky. Wen Tong looked at the fire and the pot for a while, feeling dizzy for a while, and almost fell into the sugar pot, causing tragedy.

Facts have proved that people who are brilliant in theory may not be good at actual operation, especially in such a primitive and crude environment, the stove burning sugarcane leaves and bagasse, the heat is not too good to control the firepower by the manual knob of the gas stove As far as anyone can grasp, after adding fuel once, the flames will flourish, and the sugar on the surface of the pot will burn and change color immediately.

"No, this stove can't control the temperature. It's too difficult to adjust the heat." Wen Tong said dejectedly.The salary of the fire master in the Tutang Liao is second only to that of the sugar cook, and he does not get the money for nothing.

If you want to adjust the heat evenly, you can’t use this kind of dry wood stove. You must use materials with stable fire and uniform heating. All kinds of gas, charcoal, and briquettes can achieve this effect, or use steam to heat as in factories, but Xu Wen doesn't have any here.

Wen Tong thought hard for a long time, and finally thought of a water bath.The vessel holding the sugar liquid is heated through water, so that the heating temperature becomes balanced and there is no problem of burning and discoloration.After several days of experimentation, the first batch of 5 kg of fine white sugar was finally harvested.

With white sugar, it is easy to make rock sugar.The traditional rock sugar process requires boiling white sugar and then adding chicken and duck egg whites for clarification. Wen Tong feels that the cost is too high. The so-called chicken and duck egg whites are actually just protein.He decided to use soy milk instead.Wen Tong simply built a mill in Zhuangzi, and asked those immigrants who used to be able to make tofu to make tofu every day, which not only met the needs of the workers in the village, but also could take soy milk at any time.

After adding soymilk to clarify, the freshly felled bamboo is broken into bamboo slices of different sizes, and placed in the sugar solution. The sugar solution will take the bamboo slices as the condensation core, and slowly condense large pieces of rock sugar. When collecting, you only need to smash the rock sugar and remove the bamboo slices.This method was first introduced in the Song Dynasty.

"It looks pretty good—" Although this kind of rock candy is not as good as the single crystal rock sugar of later generations, its purity is also very good, and it should be a commodity that is in short supply.

The next step is to expand the production scale of white sugar.Wen Tong asked people to order pots and utensils for water baths, and at the same time hired craftsmen to build a new sugar workshop by the river, which was specially used to boil white sugar.In order to ensure the cleanliness of sugar and improve the quality, high standards were implemented when building the factory.

The sugar workshop is built according to the model of a modern factory building. Although wooden beams and columns are used, the whole house is made of bricks and tiles, and the roof is not covered with thatch or sugarcane leaves.The windows are large for light-in order to avoid too much sensation, the windows are just pasted with window paper instead of the planned glass.The floor of the workshop is paved with square bricks, and there are drainage ditches covered with grilles to facilitate the washing of the floor.Fifteen stoves for boiling sugar are lined up, which saves space and is easy to operate.The fire and vents are all located under the open corridor outside the house, which can be operated in rainy days and avoids the air and ground pollution caused by opening the vents inside the house.

All the equipment is newly made, and Wen Tong also asked people to dig several wells by the river, so as not to directly use the polluted river water.It also spent a lot of money to build a warehouse with the same full brick and tile structure, which is specially used to stack sugar products.In addition to white sugar, brown sugar, and a lot of molasses, Liao Dahua ordered many large vats in the local pottery workshop to store these things--I don't know what the shopkeeper is planning to use.

The workers in the new sugar factory were all selected from among immigrants. Wen Tong personally trained them on various operating procedures and formulated a set of production rules and regulations.

"Wen Qing!" Wen Tong said, "From now on, all the management of the South China Sugar Factory will be yours!"

In fact, both Wen Tong and Chang Shide were worried about entrusting such a job to child servants, but they had to do so. Except for these two child servants, there were very few people who could read among the immigrants.

"Yes, thank you, master, for cultivating!" Wen Qing continued to fight, "You should try your best!"

"I have a complete set of production rules and procedures here, and you have to supervise them to follow the rules completely. You are not allowed to change things in private. If the workers have any ideas, you can tell them on your behalf, and I will naturally consider them."

"Yes, sir!"

"Even if I walk into the workshop and see a little sugar scattered on the ground, you are the only one to ask me!" Wen Tong put on the airs of a master.

Wen Qing glanced at him uneasily, why did this usual gentle master suddenly become so strict?

"Yes, little one understands. Don't dare to break the rules."

"Go ahead. Take your workers to learn the rules, and recite them for me within three days. If you can't recite them, you won't be given meat on weekends."

"Then they will recite it even if they try their best." Wen Qing said with a smile.

"Hmph," Wen Tong finally showed a smile on his face. Among the two boy servants, he still likes Wen Qing better. Study, have you ever read the book I gave you every day?"

The book that Wen Tong gave him was "Training Materials for Indigenous Business Administration Cadres" jointly compiled by Wu De's Civil Affairs Committee and the Information and Documentation Committee. made up.It introduces the basic management model, how to calculate the workload, calculation methods of salary and benefits, welfare standards, guidelines for handling accidents and emergencies, etc.This book, like the Handbook of Home Affairs Management and Organization, is part of the Indigenous Works Series, which is currently in the Consultation Edition stage.

"The little one is studying hard every night. If there are some things I don't understand, I have to ask the master for advice."

"If you don't understand something, you can come and ask at any time at night." Wen Tongyu said earnestly, "You are a child servant. Although you know a few words, how can those workers accept you easily? You have to be skilled to have prestige, not blindly. Rely on the power of the master to subdue."

"Yes! My little one, thank you for teaching me, Master."

After sending Wenqing away, Wenxiu came over with a tea tray and brought tea:

"Master, thank you for your hard work. Please use tea." Since knowing that the two shopkeepers are not interested in "masculinity", Wen Qing, who seems to be relatively honest, has been favored recently. He stood up, looking more dignified.

"Well, where is Master Chang?"

"Go to Hai'an Street."

Hai'an Street is Leizhou's sugar export port.Although it is not a county seat, it is even more prosperous than Haikang in the first county.There are more than 30 Guangtang stores on the street. When Wen Tong went there for the first time, he was really shocked by its aura——I had seen enough dilapidated and poor scenes in Lingao, and it was the first time I came to such a prosperous commercial place in Ming Dynasty. , the impact is not inferior to the feeling of Lingao villagers coming to Dongmen City.

The small Hai'an Street is so bustling and prosperous. If it is a major trading base like Suzhou, Yangzhou, and Guangzhou, the level of prosperity will have to go up a few steps.

Wen Tong was a little surprised.Although Hai'an Street is only ten kilometers away from here, they have to inform each other in advance whenever they go out.Going out secretly, isn't it to find a woman?Wen Tong immediately thought of it: Hai'an Street, where merchants gather and the market is prosperous, has always been a good place for brothels to do business.

"Sure enough, I went to find wild food!" Wen Tong gritted his teeth: Chang Chang, you are really not enough brothers.If you want to go to this kind of good thing, tell me, how good it is to go HAPPY together.Now that he and Liao Dahua are leaving, he dare not go out casually.I had no choice but to sulk and go to the worker training class: teach them [-] basic simplified characters, simple mathematics and statistics.In the future, when the scale of the sugar factory expands, all these workers can be promoted to managers.

While Wen Tong was gnashing his teeth because of the disappointment of being abandoned, and scolding a clumsy worker student, Chang Shide, accompanied by Liao Dahua, was strolling on Hai'an Street, with the goal of entering the market.

Chang Shide originally wanted to go directly to the brothel to solve the problem.As for the threat of venereal disease, he had already prepared for it - several boxes of Durex were stuffed in his carry-on luggage.However, he was not happy after being recommended by Liao Dahua to several so-called high-end brothels and inquiring about the market.The facilities in these brothels are good, and the women look so-so even by modern standards, but there are too many procedures for pretending to be fake, and they have to make tea rounds, listen to music and drink alcohol, and they can't immediately finish the procedures. To start work, you have to come two or three times in a row to touch the bedside - this is too troublesome, even a "high-end club" in another time and space does not have such a cumbersome process.

Chang Shide didn't know that high-end brothels also function as social places in this time and space. The main purpose of dignitaries, wealthy businessmen and tycoons coming here is to socialize and meet the needs of cultural life.The more advanced prostitutes are, the more they sit and talk with people, rather than go to bed to do tricks.

Seeing that Master Chang was not very interested in this, Liao Dahua guessed his thoughts. These sea merchants had been wandering in sea merchants for a long time, so naturally they couldn't wait to make these adjustments, so they led him to the back alleys - there are some more practical ones there. "Private head".

However, after observing the make-up and the smell of the women attracting customers at the door, Chang Shide once again felt that if he wanted to be a woman in this world, he had better cultivate himself.Although Liao Dahua specially recommended several companies that are said to be especially good at women, Chang Shide still refused, saying that it is better to keep a few by himself.

Liao Dahua knew that these women were not in his eyes, and thought that Australians seemed to have cleanliness, probably because they thought prostitutes were unclean. He heard that he wanted to keep them by himself, so he led him to the market.

The so-called people's market is just an open space, a few people are sitting in the nearby grass shed drinking tea and chatting, these are the most high-end goods, if someone is interested, lead customers to the next room to see people—— Most of them are young women, and there are also teenagers who can be used as **, so the price is naturally not small.There are also some people who really put a straw mark on their heads to sell themselves at a low price.

Chang Shide went around and looked at a lot of human teeth or self-sold goods, and felt that none of them were to his liking.Human tooth products are naturally well-groomed and look decent, but the asking price is a bit too high, 50 taels for an eleven or twelve-year-old girl.Chang Shide doesn't want to raise Loli himself, nor is he interested in Loli herself.Besides, he didn't have that much money - he had accumulated tens of thousands of coupons.

Liao Dahua saw Master Chang's expression of reluctance, knowing that he didn't like it.He couldn't understand his thoughts, so he had to continue to follow.

Turned around again, and suddenly saw an extra booth.There were also a few yamen servants standing, and five or six women of different ages were kneeling or sitting on the ground.The older ones are in their thirties, while the younger ones are only twelve or thirteen years old.Although he was unkempt and dark-skinned, he seemed to be in good nutritional condition.Surprisingly no one asked.Then let Liao Dahua go over to ask.

Note (this paragraph is beyond 4000 words, no charge):

Make a correction: Hai'an Street, the current Hai'an Town, belongs to Xuwen County, not Haikang County as mentioned above.

(End of this chapter)