But it seems that the color of this sugar is very dark, darker than the ordinary brown sugar we usually see, almost like the so-called "brown sugar".
What flowed down from the vat was black in color, and Wen Tong knew that it was "molasses" - during the refining process of the cane juice, as the sugar continued to crystallize out, the last thing left was the dark mother liquor. This kind of
There is still a lot of sugar in the mother liquor, but it cannot be separated by economic means. It was not until the 1970s that the sugar in it could be recycled. Before that, molasses could only be recycled as a scrap.
The most promising way of utilization is to make wine-the raw material of rum is molasses.
The workers said that the leaked sugar, which they called "gushui sugar", could be boiled into a kind of brown sugar and 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 asked:
"Is there anyone making white sugar or rock sugar here?"
Several workers just shook their heads after hearing this. Liao Dahua translated and said that no one in Xuwen, Haikang and other places makes white sugar and rock sugar. All sugar factories make brown sugar like this, and some also make sugar bricks. The method is to make red sugar according to the method.
The method of boiling sugar is to boil the cane juice until it becomes a paste, 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 square sugar frame, and cut it into pieces with a knife to make brick sugar.
.Brick candy is packed in large bamboo baskets with dried cane leaves, each basket contains 50 pieces.
Wen Tong remembered that the real method of making white sugar appeared in the late Ming Dynasty, using the method of pouring yellow mud water. This method is not technically difficult, so why does no one use it locally?
Wen Tong calculated the entire sugar making process and calculated that the daily output of brown sugar in this sugar house is about 100 kilograms. The scale is really pitiful, and judging from the entire process just now, although the leading fire master is very familiar with the entire process.
I am familiar with it, but I obviously have no experience in the specific operation. Whether it is the size of the firepower, the time to make the sugar or the amount of lime to add, I seem very hesitant. The quality of the sugar produced is obviously not high. Moreover, because of the poor structure of the stove, the firepower
It was difficult to adjust, and the sugar solution was burnt for several pots. After adding lime, the sediment was poured out before filtering, and a lot of sugar was lost. There are still many areas for improvement here.
While he was deep in thought, someone brought several sugarcane farmers nearby. Wen Tong asked about their situation one by one. The planting areas of these sugarcane farmers were all very small, ranging from only a dozen acres to thirty or forty acres.
.According to them, each acre can produce about three shi of sugar. They planted sugar cane, and after harvesting, they sent it here for processing and making sugar. This sugar factory adopts a share-sharing method for the processing of incoming materials: the sugar factory divides 40% of the sugar cane.
, the sugarcane farmers share 60%, and in some places they pay for processing, and the products belong to the sugarcane farmers. After calculation, the costs on both sides are almost the same.
According to the sugarcane farmers, the destination of the produced sugar is whether it is produced in the sugar factory or processed on behalf of the sugarcane farmers. In the end, most of the sugar is transported to Hai'an Street in Haikang and purchased by sugar shops. Most of these sugar shops are Chaozhou people.
People from Guangzhou and Guangfu came to open it one after another, specializing in the export of local sugar. Bags of sugar are shipped out from Hai'an Port.
"How much money can you make from growing sugar cane like this?" Wen Tong was curious.
"One acre can net you six to seven thousand cash," one of the sugarcane farmers said. "Although the taxes are heavier, the income is pretty good, but the interest is high. After paying off the principal and interest, you won't be left with much money."
"Interest?" Wen Tong felt strange. Do you need to borrow money to grow sugar cane?
"This is why the gentlemen don't know the difficulties of us farmers." The sugarcane farmer said with a wry smile. "Although the income from sugarcane farming is not small, it consumes too much water and fertilizer. Just buying fertilizer is a big expense. If it doesn't rain, you still have to pay for it."
When you hire people to drive and harvest sugar cane, you have to hire small laborers, and the cost of one acre of land is at least four to five thousand cash. If the country people don't have cash, they have to find someone to borrow money."
The interest rate on the loan is 15 to 20 percent, which seems not high, but after the sugar is processed, it must be shared equally with the creditor. In this way, the income will be reduced by half out of thin air. Both Wen Tong and Chang Shide feel that this usury is really shady.
That's enough.
"I got it." Wen Tong nodded and said, "Even though I'm a new takeover here, I still want to give you some benefits. During this crushing season, anyone who comes to my place to make sugar will receive 30% from you."
"Thank you, shopkeeper, for your kindness!" Several families of sugarcane farmers were so grateful that they almost knelt down and kowtowed. This was equivalent to a 10% reduction in harvest out of thin air, and each family could save a lot of money.
After sending everyone away, Wen Tong returned to the hall, and Liao Dahua and others followed him step by step.
"Shopkeeper Liao, you are the shopkeeper of the semicolon here. I have delayed you for several days. Haikang's semicolon -" Wen Tong felt sorry.
"It's okay, it's okay," Liao Dahua said quickly, "Isn't this Haikang's semicolon just for Dongzhu Guo? I will naturally go all out for the things that he has taken care of." Although he was a serious official.
The shopkeeper of Qi Wei's branch in Leizhou is not actually a bodyguard who practices martial arts, but a bankrupt small businessman. The original intention of Qi Wei's branch in Leizhou is not to be a bodyguard, but to cooperate with Guo Dongzhu in doing business. It is suitable for someone like him to preside over it.
"He's an old man." Wen Tong thought that Guo Yi was really awesome now. He immediately said: "There is no one here right now. We have to ask for help. We need to find a foreman and a candy cook. These are all
It's a top priority, and since we here are unfamiliar with the place, I'll leave it to you."
Although I have just seen many shortcomings in the process, technical transformation cannot be done in a day or two. It not only requires equipment, but also the transformation of basic facilities. I don't have the time at the moment. The harvest season has begun.
Now, for the time being, it is up to Xiao Gui and Cao Sui to follow the old method of producing sugar as quickly as possible.
"Easy to say, easy to say." Liao Dahua nodded repeatedly, "It's all on me. It will be done within three days."
"Don't worry too much about the wages. Now is the time to hire people. By the way, if you can recruit long-term workers or people who sell themselves, just choose honest and reliable people to recruit them."
"Yes." He took a step forward and lowered his voice. "If there are suitable girls, would you like to bribe a few to take care of the daily life of Shopkeeper Wen and Master Chang? Now Guangzhou only sends two rough girls.
The woman who is doing this is a big-handed woman, so she may not be able to serve you two well."
"Okay." Chang Shide said quickly, "Don't be too young, and don't be too thin."
Wen Tong glanced at him in embarrassment. This guy was too impatient. It wasn't that he didn't have this idea. The executive committee also granted them the power to recruit local indigenous people, but now he was eager to find a woman as soon as he settled down. The image sent back is not very good.
"I think this matter should be slowed down," Wen Tong said, "We have just arrived in Leizhou and we have to go to various places to see. I am afraid that we will have to travel for several weeks. We are traveling so much that buying a maid will cause trouble on the road, so we should let It would be more convenient for the pair of boy servants to follow." Hearing this, the pair of boy servants standing next to him blushed with embarrassment and lowered their heads in silence.
Liao Dahua was startled, his eyes glanced around, and a look of "sudden realization" suddenly appeared on his face:
"Yes, yes, I was a little abrupt."
The two of them didn't understand what he "suddenly realized", but there were too many things to do now, so they didn't delve into it. It was already getting late, Liao Dahua and others all said goodbye and left, and all the bodyguards he brought with him Living and guarding in Zhuangzi, Liao Dahua did not dare to take it lightly - Xuwen was the place with the most chaotic social order in Leizhou Prefecture, and all kinds of bandits and strongmen were rampant. Sugar cane farms and sugar mills with more property were the targets of their robbery. Zhou Shizhai I took Li Biao to live in the room outside their house and took care of me at all times.
In the evening, two maids sent from Guangzhou came to say hello. Although these two maids were not muscular women and looked thin and shriveled, they were very strong. They first brought a newly made deep and large bidet. , and then there was a steady stream of barrels of hot water and a lot of soap locust. The two of them had been running around for two days, and they were so dusty that a bath like this was just what they needed. Wen Tong immediately took off his clothes and stood in the hot water. After soaking for a while, I climbed out. I sat on a bamboo stool and smeared my body with saponins. Although the saponins felt a bit difficult to spread, the areas I applied were smooth and greasy, and also had a refreshing scent. , much better than the soap distributed in Lingao Office.
"Old Chang, help me apply soap." Wen Tong said to Chang Shide who was soaking in hot water with his eyes closed and resting.
"Your name is Brother Wenxiu for this job. Aren't you our little boy? You just do this. Please let me enjoy it for a while." Chang Shide was soaking in the hot water with a look of ecstasy on his face.
Wen Tong thought it was right, he could also rub his back or something. He straightened his throat and shouted. Just as he shouted, Wen Xiu came in from the next door. He had changed into a short shirt and trousers, and was barefoot.
"My master's body is really strong." Wen Xiu said while rubbing his back vigorously.
"Huh, he's so skinny, 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. Wen Tong asked, "Who did you learn Mandarin from?"
"I learned it from Butler Sun."
Wen Tong and Chang Shide already knew before departure that Sun Daguan was Sun Chang, the main indigenous staff member of Guangzhou Station.
"Xiao Guo must have raised a lot of people there."
Wenxiu hesitated for a moment, not daring to confirm that the "Xiao Guo" mentioned by the master was Dongzhu Guo, whom they regarded as a god. After a moment of hesitation, he replied:
"Yes, there are no less than a few dozen people." Wen Xiu was very attentive and thorough, "They all learned to speak Mandarin from Butler Sun. Boss Guo said that this is all prepared for the gentlemen who will come in the future -"
Chang Shide laughed a few times: "Xiao Guo is really good at getting things done. As soon as we arrived in Leizhou, we already had all the servants. Otherwise, there wouldn't even be anyone who can speak." He yawned, "Today we have all the servants."
It’s really boring, it reminds me of watching folk performances. By the way, are there any improvement plans for sugar production?”
"There are improvements, but it will be too late to make major changes soon. Let's deal with them first." Wen Tong gestured. Wen Xiu scooped out water from the bucket next to him and washed him. The warm water washed his body, which was very refreshing.
Cozy, "I'll go to the fields tomorrow to have a look, and then I'll go to other Zhuangzi and sugar mills soon to check out the situation."
"Come on, rub my back too!" Chang Shide climbed out. His body was much stronger than Wen Tong's. Although he was a fat man, he usually exercised a lot. After the d day, he did a lot of physical work.
There were muscles all over his chest, abdomen, and thighs. Wenxiu glanced at his body with awe and envy, and said with a charming smile:
"Master has such a good physique." He said and rubbed his back.
"I think there are too many sugar factories. We should simply merge them and cancel them. Create a general factory for intensive production and transport all the sugar cane 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 it nearby. Who wants to travel across mountains and rivers to sell sugar cane? It's too troublesome. The roads here are not easy." Wen Tong said, "Look at the distribution of these sugar cane farms. If they are scattered
It’s very open, and the sugar industry in Leizhou is like a coffee table.”
The problem he thought was actually much more complicated. He already had an overview of Leizhou's sugar industry today, and what to do next remained to be investigated. As for improvements, it was far from just a problem of processing equipment and production technology.
In the sugar shack, he had already checked the sugar cane used for juice extraction, and it turned out to be bamboo cane. This is a type of sugar cane native to China. Although it is a specialized variety for sugar extraction, its sugar content is not as high as that of "Kunlun sugar cane."
"-Although the latter is actually fruit cane. Even in Leizhou, a place blessed with sugar cane, the sugar content of bamboo cane is only 9%, which is far lower than the common standard of 14% for modern sugar varieties. From this point on
From this point of view, there is a lot of potential for improving the variety of sugarcane itself. The agricultural department has preserved many improved sugarcane seedlings, and you can try to plant them here. As for field management, not to mention, there should be more room for improvement.
"It's the same - oh, oh, oh, it's so comfortable. Is your massage skill good?" Chang Shide felt so comfortable being served that he couldn't help but moan.
"Young ones have learned all the skills of serving others." Wen Tong massaged his back as hard as he could to please.
"Or is it rough processing in various places, and the brown sugar is shipped here to be aggregated and processed into white sugar?"
"I think so too, but I have to look at the situation in each place before I say it."
After the two of them took a bath, the maids came again to drain the dirty water, tidy up the house, and take the clothes they had changed out to wash. After a while, dinner was served again. Wine was also served, which was Xuwen's local "Xuwen Liquid".
", a kind of local wine brewed from jackfruit. Liao Dahua and Zhou Shizhai accompanied them at the banquet, and both of them drank a glass as a token. Wen Tong didn't drink much in the first place, and all the wine was given to Chang Shide in the end.
He drank it. Although he was not drunk, he was still a little drunk. Wen Tong had no choice but to ask Wen Xiu to help this guy back. Originally, he wanted to talk to him about things at night, but now it seems that he can only go to bed after dark.