Ma Cheng had just finished his meal and had enough strength to go forward and picked up the seven or eight thin iron cylinders and looked at it. It was a blacksmith in the army, and the handicrafts were very good.

The production process in the Ming Dynasty was limited, and very thin iron sheets could not be produced. Small batches such as this can be completed manually, but large-scale production is not possible.

The iron sheet in Ma Cheng's hand is evenly thin and thick, and the places where the rolls are connected are hand-made and curled edges. If you don't look closely, it is similar to the iron cylinder made of tinplate in later generations.

Ma Cheng nodded with satisfaction: "Does this iron tube leak? "

"Second Master, these villains have tried them. It's okay to use them in a short time, but you're afraid of rusting for a long time!"

This is also impossible. Before the invention of tin-plated steel plate, tinplate, rust of iron tools was inevitable.

Ma Cheng looked at the complete tools and asked Gu Changwei to assemble all the tools. The first step was to assemble the iron tube. The iron tube was in a shape of several shapes to prevent carbon ash from contaminating the saturated solution with the hot air. At the same time, Ma Cheng also added several layers of white cotton cloth in the middle of the iron tube to minimize the possibility of pollution.

The second step is to heat the water. There is a well in the small courtyard where Ma Cheng lives. Yesterday, Ma Cheng checked it. The water quality is not bad and there are no pollutants. Now fill the two large tanks with water, and then light a fire around to heat the water.

While heating the water, Ma Cheng opened a cloth bag containing sugar and put the brown sugar inside into the water in the large tank. Ma Cheng's movement was so scared that Gu Xiying, who was watching the fun, screamed: "Second Master, this is brown sugar, why is it mixed with bitter brown sugar?"

Ma Cheng laughed and said, "What's yellow sugar? I'll tell you to see a diorama today, how to make white sugar!"

As the water temperature in the large tank increased, the sugar bricks inside slowly melted. Ma Cheng added sugar bricks inside while watching the melting progress. Soon the dissolution rate of the sugar bricks decreased, and Ma Cheng knew that it was already a saturated solution of sugar water!

Because brown sugar is made of sugar cane juice, there are a lot of sugar cane residues inside, which tastes bitter. However, now the bitter taste dissolved into the water is gone, and the yard is filled with a sweet fragrance.

Seeing that it was almost done, Ma Cheng waited for a while to settle the sugarcane residue in the large tank, and then directed Gu Changwei to filter the surface sugar water and pour it into a new large tank. This was a sensation. Ma Cheng was the master naturally couldn't do it, but it was exhausted. Gu Changwei, a temporary migrant worker. Gu Xiying felt sorry for his brother and came to help his brother. Soon, nearly 100 kilograms of saturated solution from the two large tanks were concentrated into a large tank.

The next step is the most critical. Ma Cheng directed Gu Changwei to pour five kilograms of lime into the large tank. Gu Xiying saw Ma Cheng ruining the candy water so much and asked quickly: "Master, isn't the candy water in this tank of lime a useless?"

Ma Cheng cursed, "What do you know about your woman? Do you know what you are doing with chemical reactions?" After Ma Cheng said that, Gu Xiying signaled Gu Changwei to pour lime.

The lime is poured into the water and started a chemical reaction. The heat in the water increases and boils. For a moment, the whole yard is filled with a mixture of lime water and sugar water.

After the lime water cools down, it is the most critical step, introducing carbon dioxide. This is simple. The carbon furnace has already grown, and the charcoal fire is strong. Gu Changwei bought all the gold wire carbon, and there was no trace of smoke after lighting it.

Ma Cheng looked at the horn on one side of the iron tube to the top of the carbon stove, and then extended the other iron tube into the lime water. This step is the key to whether it can react. Ma Cheng was afraid that the iron tube would leak and the solubility of carbon dioxide would not be enough.

Fortunately, the blacksmiths in the army are very good at craftsmanship. After waiting for a while, they saw the lime water start to gush and bubble.

Ma Cheng knew that the carbon dioxide began to react with lime. Ma Cheng directed Gu Changwei to slowly stir the sugar water to speed up the reaction between lime and carbon dioxide.

After two quarters of an hour, the bubbles in the water began to decrease. Ma Cheng knew that the reduction reaction in the water was almost done, and adding carbon dioxide would turn into carbonic acid. Ma Cheng quickly directed Gu Changwei to remove the iron tube and wait for the lime water to settle.

Half an hour later, Ma Cheng looked at the lime water in the tank and the lime water in the tank had settled. The top was sugar water and the bottom was calcium carbonate.

The next step is to filter. Ma Cheng carefully separated the sugar water from the deposited calcium carbonate, added the bought bamboo charcoal to the sugar water, and used the bamboo charcoal to absorb the remaining impurities in the sugar water. After absorbing it with bamboo charcoal for the third time, the sugar water basically became clear, and it was almost the same as clean water.

The last step is simple. Just put the sugar water in the iron pot and boil it slowly over low heat. Soon the sugar water that reaches the saturated concentration begins to precipitate white sugar. After half an hour, the sugar water in the iron pot has almost evaporated. Ma Cheng asked Gu Changwei to stop the heat and evaporate the remaining water with the residual heat. At this time, the sugar left at the bottom of the pot is white sugar.

The sugar water in an iron pot can produce a large bowl of sugar. Gu Changwei carefully put the sugar in the pot into the bowl and then handed it to Ma Cheng.

After taking it, Ma Cheng looked at the quality of the sugar. Although it did not reach the level of white sugar in later generations, it was much stronger than the kind of earthy sugar that Gu Changwei bought. Ma Cheng stretched out his finger and twisted it a little and put it in his mouth. The taste was very sweet, and the sweetness was almost the same as that of white sugar in later generations.

This carbon dioxide saturation method was invented by later Germans. The advantage is that the quality of the sugar produced is very good. The disadvantage is that the output is not high and the production cost is too high. After the invention of the extraction method in later generations, countries around the world no longer used this inefficient method. However, this method was extremely advanced in the Ming Dynasty. Ma Cheng needed a luxury product that could obtain a lot of money in a short period of time, rather than reducing the price of sugar in order to improve the quality of life of the people of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the carbon dioxide saturation method was very suitable for the current situation.

Gu Xiying didn't expect that those choking lime water could make such white sugar. Gu Xiying stepped forward and twisted it with her fingers and put it in her mouth. Then she shouted in surprise: "It's so sweet, it's even sweeter than the sugar I bought by my elder brother. Master, what kind of sugar is this?"

What other sugar can be? It’s just a relatively high-purity sugar. However, Ma Cheng knows the brand effect. If he doesn’t want a good name, he can’t buy it at all. Ma Cheng thought for a while and said, “This kind of sugar is as white as frost and snow, so it’s called frost and sugar!”

Gu Changwei was dizzy just now because he was sent to Ma Cheng, and now he came to watch the fruits of his labor.

Just now, only one-fifth of the sugar water in the two large jars was used, and a large bowl of frosted sugar was boiled. Gu Changwei smiled and said, "Second Master, it seems that these two jars of sugar water can make more than ten pounds, and it is estimated that it will cost more than ten kilograms!"

Ma Cheng looked at the remaining black sugar. He used about half of it just now. According to the sugar factories in later generations, the sugar rate was too low. I guess no sugar factories wanted to use this method. However, the price of sugar is very high now. Although it is wasteful, it still has huge profits!

Ma Cheng nodded with satisfaction: "Gu San, how much brown sugar did you buy in total?"

"Second Master, I bought a total of 200 kilograms of brown sugar, 20 kilograms of brown sugar, and 6 liang of white sugar, and spent less than one liang of silver in total. Brown sugar is the cheapest, only 100 kilograms are three cents of silver, and yellow sugar is more expensive. Twenty kilograms use five cents of silver, and these white sugars are the most expensive!"

Gu Changwei looked at the remaining black sugar and said, "Second Master, half of the black sugar produces ten kilograms of sugar!" Gu Changwei was frightened by the huge profits of sugar. Even if Ma Cheng produced this kind of sugar, it was eight cents of silver per kilogram. The brown sugar bought with one cent can produce twenty kilograms of sugar. This is sixteen taels of silver. It is a real huge profit.

Gu Changwei didn't expect that he would make 16 taels of silver in just one hour, and stood there in a frightened manner.

Ma Cheng looked at Gu Changwei's idiot and smiled silently. This was a serious waste in the workshop. The sugar yield rate of brown sugar can reach one tenth. If improved, the sugar yield rate can be maintained at about one fifth. At the same time, the sugar bagasse in brown sugar is also useful and can be used to make wine, which is also an income.

This time, sugar making is a practice of Ma Cheng's high school chemistry knowledge. Ma Cheng couldn't help but feel a little proud. It seems that he can start making steel. Isn't it just adding appropriate carbon to the molten iron? I can make even white sugar. Isn't it easy to add carbon to molten iron?

At this moment, someone outside the courtyard said, "Second Young Master, is the Second Young Master here?"

When Ma Cheng heard that it was the old butler Ma Gui, the only person in the entire Ma family called Ma Cheng the Second Young Master was Ma Gui, and everyone else called Ma Cheng the Second Master.

Ma Cheng quickly said, "Uncle Gui, I am at home, please come in!"

Ma Gui is Ma Shiying's book boy. Although he is a servant, no one dares to underestimate him in the Ma family.

Ma Gui pushed open the door and was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Sure enough, this second young master is coming from here!"

Ma Gui walked into the yard and bowed and said, "Second Young Master, this sweet fragrance has been spread to the backyard. The old lady asked the old slave to come to the front yard to see what was going on! It turned out that it was emitted by the Second Young Master!" Ma Gui looked at the iron pot and cloth bag all over the yard, and then asked, "Second Young Master, what are you doing with a tank and a brazier?"

Ma Cheng smiled and said nothing, but took the bowl of frosted candy from Gu Changwei, and then said to Ma Gui: "Uncle Gui, I'm doing some experiments! I still lack some staff here. Please help Gu San complete the work. I'll go to the backyard to talk to my mother!"

After Ma Cheng said that, he carried the sea bowl out of the yard and headed to the backyard. Ma Cheng's idea was very simple, just to use the power of the Ma family to develop his own sugar manufacturing industry.

Ma Cheng was at the bottom of society in his later generations and knew that in the middle and upper levels of a society, he had a lot of resources. If you, a loser, want to make inventions and creations, you have to rely on which big family if you don’t rely on the country. If you don’t believe in evil and want to do it alone, you will have only one end. You will be eaten alive by those big chaebols, and you will not be left with bones.

Ma Cheng had a good luck in traveling to this era and became Ma Shiying's legitimate son. However, Ma Shiying is not the chief minister of the Southern Ming Dynasty. Now Ma Shiying is just a senior bureaucrat at best. As the legitimate son, Ma Cheng wanted to make some small moves independently, but once something with high value added in white sugar is released, it will definitely be targeted by those real powerful people. At that time, Ma Cheng has worked hard for a while and is likely to be a wedding dress for others.

Of course, Ma Cheng can also wait for Ma Shiying to grab it back when he is in power, but by then it will be too late. Ma Cheng still needs sugar to make money quickly to train a new army, so he naturally can't afford to wait.
Chapter completed!