Back in early March of 1659, more than a month passed after the Pride last came to Xiaowanshan Island, during which Ren Ke lived a very full and busy life, and of course, he was still a little anxious.

The sugar factory finally began production, and on 2 March, the Assassin brought 100 tons of sugar cane purchased by Qiao's family from Macau to the sugar factory.

Ren Ke found that the sugarcane from the local area is very different from the sugarcane at home, not only thick, but also has many short knots.

On Mornington Island, the sugar cane in the old king's land is tall and tall, with few branches, green in color, and high in sugar, while the sugar cane here has short branches, thick and dark color.

Obviously, this kind of sugarcane belongs to the fruit cane with relatively low sugar content, no wonder in this era, both brown sugar and white sugar are more expensive, it seems that no matter from the production technology or from the quality of raw materials, white sugar can not be popularized to the public is the result of a combination of factors.

And the production of this 100 tons of fruit cane is not very smooth, because the workers are not strong.

Especially at the beginning, as soon as the machine of the sugar factory started, as long as Ren Ke was not on the scene temporarily, the tenants of Xiaowanshan Island did not dare to stay in the yard, because in the minds of the tenants, there must be some cow ghost and snake god stationed in the rumbling press, and obviously only Ren Dagongzi could "suppress" these demons and monsters, so as long as Ren Ke left for a while, these workers were furious, and finally scattered and ran outside the yard to stay.

So Ren Ke was very depressed---- Nima, how can she still work?!

As a result, Ren Ke had no choice but to learn from Xiao Ai's rhetoric, and said to the skeptical tenants that this was "science", and there were no demons and monsters in the machine......

Fortunately, after talking many times, the tenants still believe in Ren Dagongzi, and in the face of Ren Dagongzi's good words and coaxing, slowly the tenants are used to it, and finally they will not run outside the courtyard in a panic when Ren Ke leaves.

But when these tenants come to work, Gao Xiang still has to be burned, and all kinds of talismans on his body must be carried, in short, there will be some things that make Ren Ke cry and laugh at work from time to time.

In these days, the heads of the four Chinese merchants in Macao, all of whom had visited Xiao Wanshan Island, had witnessed the whole process of the Australian sugar factory turning sugar cane into white sugar, and although they did not think that Ren Ke was doing magic like those fools, they were also amazed and amazed at the whole production process.

Of course, the next step is also very exciting, because the sugarcane processing process of Australians is too different from the production method of local sugarcane farmers, whether it is production efficiency or sugar yield, it is several streets away from the best local sugar cane workshops and the most senior sugar masters.

You must know that these people are all merchants, and they are maritime merchants---- so to speak, in this world, they are the most broad-minded and innovative group in the world.

After visiting the whole production process of the sugar factory, several family members immediately realized that there were huge interests and great business opportunities contained in it, so several family members all decided to go inland to buy and expand sugarcane fields, especially after Ren Ke told them on behalf of Lao Wang that he was ready to provide high-quality "Australian sugarcane seedlings" to the four families.

After the production of the sugar factory lasted for a month, it finally slowly got on the right track, and at this time Ren Ke became the "big treasurer" of the ammunition factory, but fortunately, the production of the ammunition factory has been very normal, and now the number of operators there has expanded from 25 to 40, and the newcomers are mainly from the daughter-in-law and aunt of the Da Yong Bay Water Village.

At present, the combined ammunition output of the 57 rifle has been greatly improved, and 40 operators have refined the process, and they cooperate with each other to produce 4,000 rounds of 57 rifle bullets per day, and 50 50 57 hand @ grenade @ bullets, and he is also ready to expand the production site, and then recruit some daughters-in-law and aunts to produce explosives @ medicine @ bags for mortars.

The increase in ammunition production has greatly relieved the pressure on Xiao Ai's live-fire training.

However, this move also made Xia Xiaoou of the Red Mansion call and complain, you people really don't know how expensive firewood and rice are, do you know how much your military spending is a month? It's just a military salary, or a "military training subsidy", an average of one or two taels of silver per person per month, which is nothing, but the consumption of ammunition and other things is too great!

Your garrison now spends an average of more than three thousand taels of silver a month! Each soldier costs almost seven taels of silver a month! Each person is more than eighty taels a year!

The Red Mansion said that in this era, even the most expensive soldiers of the Eight Banners would not be able to spend so much silver on everyone! And people are still dragging their families!

Of course, complaining is complaining, at this time, the brothers are simply pretending not to hear, but fortunately, they are just complaining at home, and the budget that should be given must be given at that time, after all, armament is a matter of security, not to mention that they are now facing the realistic pressure of the Qing army's attack.

Of course, these silver can also afford to spend, at present, only Huang Lei's pharmaceutical factory, business is in full swing, the turnover of various "Australian miracle medicines" shipped out every week is as high as more than 5,000 taels of silver, and it is still growing, in addition to the consumption of raw materials for artificial equipment, the weekly net profit is as high as more than 4,500 taels, which has not included the future profits of the sugar factory.

So this kind of huge profit obviously makes the family feel that Xiao Ai's military expenses are a little more expensive, at least people not only don't rely on blood transfusions from the Red Mansion now, but also earn a lot of money for the family, right?

However, Xiao Ai's military expenses were quickly slashed by the Red Mansion's side, and it was reduced to about two thousand taels per month.

The reason is that Dai Xiaoshan finally obtained accurate information about the Qing court's defeat in the battle against the Xiangjiang bandits through the connections of the four Chinese businessmen, and the conclusion is laughable: the Qing court had no intention of invading the outer islands at all, and it is not even clear whether the Australians exist or whether there are people engaged in reclamation on the outer islands.

It all started at the end of last year.

At that time, due to weather conditions, the telegram of the plenary meeting of the Red Chamber on December 28 was delayed for several days before it was received by the Macao side, and the telegram received a week after the battle.

However, on the night after that battle, Dai Xiaoshan received a report on the battle situation of Ren and Ai from the Zhong family, and he was keenly aware of the seriousness of the problem at that time, so he immediately carried out intelligence collection of relevant information.

Two months later, in early March, through the complicated and tortuous connections of the four Chinese businessmen, the Liang family finally obtained the official documents and newspapers of Xin'an County about the anti-bandit operation from the channels of the Zhennan Wangfu, as well as the real situation behind it.

The content of this information is shocking.

First of all, the county magistrate of Xin'an County was rewarded a month ago, and the official document handed down by the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of Meritorious Service said this:

"According to the performance appraisal report of the provincial road department, the officials sent personnel to verify that it was correct...... Xin'an County was rated as an excellent ...... in the performance appraisal"

The reasons are:

"Shixiang Island was defeated, and the people of Xin'an County were unstable...... The officer was not afraid of the danger of the new defeat of the green battalion, and gradually led the officials to follow, gathered the stragglers of the green battalion, took advantage of the enemy's new victory and arrogance, and won a surprise victory, first defeated the enemy in the Shishan Village, and then raided Datang, one by one to quell the rebellion of the island thieves, and destroyed more than ten thief villages such as Shishan, Dayuan, and Datang, so far, the rebellion of the water thieves in the whole territory of Xin'an County has completely disappeared......"