"Master Hou, it seems that this is a sugar factory!"

After passing through a sugar cane forest, there was a fenced courtyard in front of me, with several thatched huts, but the courtyard door was closed and there was no one in sight, and the heat was steaming in the strong sunlight, and even snakes, rats, insects and birds were already dormant.

A group of men stopped outside the fence yard, and the head of the guard looked inside to make a return.

"Call the door, there should be someone inside!"

Chen Xu commanded, and a group of guards began to bang on the courtyard door and roared a few times, only to hear a sound of dogs barking inside, and soon heard footsteps and talking, but in three minutes, several dark-skinned shirtless men ran over with swords, but after seeing Chen Xu and the others, they did not open the door, and one of the guys who seemed to be the leader opened his mouth and scolded: "You look like you are raw, this is a forbidden place, leave quickly, otherwise don't blame me for being welcome!" ”

"Choking~choking~"

A group of guards had never received such a white eye, and there were seven or eight swords unsheathed in an uproar, and one of them pointed at several men with a bright steel knife viciously and said, "Noise, open the door quickly, otherwise you will chop and feed the dogs!" ”

Chen Xu: ......

A group of bare-armed men: ......

"Quickly copy the guy and call someone, someone is robbing~"

In an instant, several shirtless men in the courtyard also unsheathed their swords and roared.

A group of musketeers who followed Chen Xu also began to open the safety of the rifle at this time, and pulled the bolt with a click, Chen Xu said to the leader of the guards with a smile: "There is no need to cover it up now, show them the waist card!" ”

"Yes, Master Hou!" The leader of the guards raised his hand to stop the movements of his companions, lifted the hem of his clothes and took out a yellow and clear waist card, held it in his hand and shook it at a few people inside, "Qinghe Hou is coming, and he dares to block it, quickly open the courtyard door, and call Shang Qi to come to greet and talk!" ”

"Huh?!"

"When Chang~~"

Several shirtless men were petrified in an instant, their faces were dull in surprise, and the swords in their hands fell to the ground.

"Quick...... Open the door...... Quickly go to the merchant supervisor and a few stewards to come and ......" After a few seconds, one of the leaders came to his senses, and while commanding to open the door, he shouted to his companions to report the news.

And when Shang Qi hurriedly ran over with a group of big and small stewards of the sugar factory and a few craftsmen and craftsmen, Chen Xu and his group had already entered the courtyard, and several bare-armed men were cautiously accepting the reprimand of the head of the guard.

"Hou Ye~~"

Still far away, Shang Qi excitedly greeted loudly, and the craftsmen and students from the College of Agriculture of the Academy of Sciences who followed him were also red with excitement, and they all came up to salute and say hello.

After some excited and excited noise, surrounded by Shang Qi and others, Chen Xu came to rest under a shed, and also brought a basin of ice powder and a pot of herbal tea to quench everyone's thirst.

"Hey, there's sucrose in this ice powder?" Chen Xu only took a sip and felt a familiar taste of brown sugar in his mouth.

"Hehe, it seems that you can't hide it from Master Hou, there is indeed sucrose in it......" Shang Qi didn't speak yet, but a group of craftsmen and craftsmen from the Academy of Sciences, who were already familiar with Chen Xu's style, all laughed proudly.

"Okay, the taste is very sweet, it seems that Benhou's hard work has not been in vain, and you have not worked hard in Wuzhong for more than a year......" Chen Xu was full of praise while drinking, and soon a bowl of ice powder was in his stomach, and the sweet taste in his mouth made him very happy.

"Master Hou, this herbal tea is also very sweet!" The guard drinking herbal tea next to him was full of reminders.

So Chen Xu also asked for a cup of herbal tea, and there was a familiar sweet and sour taste in the mouth, which was very delicious, obviously different from the sweetness of honey.

"More than a month ago, there was news that Hou Ye was going to come to Wuzhong, and I began to select some mature sugarcane for sugar experiments, and at the same time I looked forward to seeing it day and night, I never thought that Hou Ye would personally find the sugar factory, for safety reasons, I deliberately set up the sugar factory in this deserted outskirts, and there are very few people in the city who know, I don't know how Hou Ye found it?" When Chen Xu tasted the herbal tea, Shang Qi asked.

"Ben Hou went to your salt shop and invited an old man to lead the way!" Chen Xu said after taking a few sips of herbal tea and wiping the sweat on his forehead with his sleeve.

"I see, the old man's name is Wu Lai, who was originally my wife's uncle, because he knew some calculations, his subordinates let him stay in the salt shop to help take care of it!" Shang Qi's explanation suddenly understood.

"Then the other woman with a child is your mother!" Chen Xu said with a smile.

"Exactly, the subordinates did not marry a wife before they came to Wuzhong, and later after the Xiang rebellion was quelled, the subordinates settled down in Wuzhong, and had a son last year, and now Qi can start a family and live a stable life, and they are all given by the Hou Ye, and the great kindness of the Hou Ye is unforgettable......

"Okay, okay, what happened seven or eight years ago was said to be done, Ben Hou came to inspect the Tantu plan this time, by the way, let's see how the sugar making task assigned to you is completed, since you have made it, then take Ben Hou to see the production process!" Chen Xu interrupted Shang Qi's words and stood up.

"Yes, Master Hou, please!" Shang Qi and a group of craftsmen from the sugar factory all stood up, and then hugged Chen Xu and walked towards a bamboo forest behind.

"No wonder I didn't hear you!"

Walking about half a mile in the bamboo forest, Chen Xu saw several large bamboo and wood factory sheds, covering a large area, and there were more than ten black and thin civilians processing sugarcane in the factory shed, some were removing leaves and peeling skins, some were using machines to squeeze juice, and in the middle of a vacant lot, there was a row of earthen stoves, on which a large iron pot was set up, and a group of women were making a fire to boil cane sugar water, and there was a strong smell of sugar water floating in the bright and warm air.

"Master Hou, in order to keep it secret, I hid the sugar factory in the bamboo forest by the river, the small courtyard is just a cover, in fact, the sugarcane is transported from the bamboo bridge on the other side of the river, this is a wasteland nearby, so no one has found out, these workers are recruited from other places......" Shang Qi carefully followed and explained.

"Sugar production does not need to be so hidden, but this year is still the experimental stage, and next year the sugar factory will be arranged in a convenient place for transportation, only then Benhou has seen it, there are a lot of sugar cane fields outside, and your work has been fruitful for more than a year!" Chen Xu couldn't help but praise Shang Qi and a group of craftsmen.

Shang Qi shook his head: "Master Hou, not all of those sugarcane fields were planted by us, most of them were planted by some merchants from the southeastern counties, and it was precisely because we were afraid that the sugar making technology would be stolen by them, so we hid the sugar factory here!" ”

"Haha, wouldn't that be better, so that you can quickly expand the planting area and promotion speed of sugarcane, the climate of the southeast counties is warm and humid, suitable for planting sugarcane and rice, this is the advantage of the south, the Academy of Sciences and the College of Agriculture must cooperate well, improve rice and cane seeds, vigorously promote planting and follow-up treatment, as soon as possible to develop the sugar industry, cane sugar is extremely sweet and the cost is not high, in the future to make cane sugar a delicious food that ordinary people can afford, As for the technology of sugar production, you should write a detailed manuscript as soon as possible and send it to the Ministry of Industry for the record, and after obtaining the patent certificate, the auction will be authorized to encourage more businessmen to join the sugar industry......"

"Master Hou said so, I'll rest assured when I wait!" Shang Qi and a group of craftsmen and craftsmen all breathed a sigh of relief.

"This kind of industry that changes people's livelihood does not need to be hidden, although the Lingnan counties are rich in products but the transportation is inconvenient, and it is difficult to develop since ancient times, and now the national development is thriving, but if you want to revitalize the Lingnan lands together, only from these local products, so only the participation of more people, a large amount of money invested in, in order to make this industry bigger and stronger, sucrose is a highly nutritious condiment, can be used in the diet and wine industry, so the general demand for oil and salt is extremely huge, According to the current level of production, we can sell as much as we want, so as to stimulate more people to plant sugarcane in Lingnan and set up sugar factories, so that the local Yue people can learn to cultivate and get harvests, and drive the entire Lingnan to quickly integrate into the economic circle of the Central Plains......"

"Master Hou is far-sighted, I can't wait for the dust!" A group of people started patting again.

"Forget it if it's nice, but your merits will be rewarded in the future through sugar patents, these are Benhou's promises, by the way, Jiang Heng, the county guard, may soon be transferred to Guangdong County, in order to help him open up the situation as soon as possible, you should also prepare in advance, and arrange sufficient manpower to open a sugar factory in Guangdong when the time comes, and vigorously promote sugarcane planting......"

Chen Xu, Shang Qi and others watched the various links and steps of sugar production, and discussed the areas that need to be improved and follow-up planning for the sugar factory.

The production of sucrose is very simple, that is, the ripe sugarcane without pests and lesions is removed and peeled, and then the juice is squeezed and boiled in sugar water, and the sugar will be precipitated when the concentration reaches the temperature for cooling, and then filtered and dried to obtain a very dark brown sugar, which is like a mud block, but it is very soft and very sweet.

In fact, this sugar is the brown sugar of later generations.

Because there are impurities in it, there is no good decolorization filtration process, so the color is reddish-brown, but it does not affect the sweetness at all, in fact, brown sugar is sweeter and more nutritious than white sugar, because almost all of them are raw sugars that have not been treated with any chemical preparations, and they contain a variety of nutrients.

As for white sugar and rock sugar, Chen Xu also wanted it, but he was blind to the production method, so in the process of watching, he reminded a group of craftsmen and craftsmen of the Academy of Sciences to carry out more slag and decolorization tests, so as to improve the process of making white sugar and rock sugar as soon as possible, so as to distinguish ordinary sucrose, and create a high-end food for nobles and wealthy people to consume, so as to earn more money.

Chen Xu is not too worried about the success of the sugar factory, but he feels that the difficulties are the cultivation and promotion of sugarcane, as well as the scale and technology.

Although sugarcane was planted very early in southern China, it is not a grain crop after all, and can only be used as a fruit-like condiment for life, so the planting range is sparse and very small, and it is necessary to plant on a large scale to open a sugar factory, thousands of acres and tens of thousands of acres of concentrated planting, so as to support the development of the sugar industry.

The second is the process of sugar production, at present, from the sugarcane harvest to the final boiling into brown sugar, almost all the links in the middle are completed manually, even if it is juice squeezing, except for a simple hand-cranked juicer, it also relies on labor, so the labor demand is very large, the cost is naturally very large, one of the biggest disadvantages of labor is low efficiency, even if it is a juicer, it also requires three people to cooperate closely, and only one peeled sugarcane can be squeezed at a time, which takes about two minutes.

Chen Xu squatted in front of a row of juicers and watched for a long time, and finally shook his head and sighed and walked away, which made Shang Qi and the others worry for a long time.

If the process and efficiency cannot be improved, the output will naturally go up, then the price will not go down, the price will not go down, the sales volume will not go up, the sales volume will not go up, and the plan to promote the planting of sugarcane on a large scale in Lingnan will be greatly discounted.

However, with the gradual launch of the Tantu plan and the start of ocean voyages, as long as the route to West Asia and Europe is successfully found, cane sugar will become one of the best export commodities, and will definitely become one of the favorite Daqin commodities of Westerners, and in fact, the best place to grow sugarcane is not in China, but in Indonesia and India, which are warmer and more humid tropical regions, so with the beginning of the great voyage, the sugar industry will become an important industry to support the development of navigation. It is possible to open up a large number of sugar cane fields in Southeast Asia and set up sugar factories to dump them in the West.

In the future, sugar, wine and tea, these daily consumer goods, must become China's characteristic export commodities, if ...... If tobacco can be brought back from the Americas, the lives of Westerners may be much richer......

The steps of sugar production are simple, an hour to see all seven, seven or eighty-eight, in addition to the normal sugar production, juice bagasse and waste skin scraps can also be used to make wine, the sugar factory also found two wine-making craftsmen are studying, made a few large vats under the pergola to ferment, but not completely successful, Chen Xu opened the cellar and looked at it, there is indeed a smell of wine, but the wine rate does not seem to be high.

Because the weather is too hot, Chen Xu is too lazy to stay in the sugar factory, after watching the sugar making process, and a group of agricultural college students to go to the nearby sugarcane field to inspect, Chen Xu put forward a stern criticism of the current primitive planting model, requiring the planting in the coming year must be ditched and transplanted for breeding, and fertilization and weeding should be done at the same time as selecting seedlings, because the sugarcane seen in front of me has a huge gap between high and low quality, and many of them are almost invisible when they are submerged by wild grass vines, and they are thick and thick wrists. As thin as a thumb, such uneven raw materials not only affect the quality of sucrose, but also cause great waste of farmland and labor.