"Well, I'll take care of them to build a special yard in the sugar factory for you to use. ()”

"Don't." Bei Wei refused, "It's too dazzling, we'll stay here for a short time." ”

"It's okay, Qiwei has inns in Haikang and Xuwen counties, you can settle down there to rest. There are also industries in the South China Sugar Factory that can also settle down, but the conditions are average, so I will arrange for someone to notify them. ”

"No need. We stayed at the inn all the way. Try not to be associated with the South China Sugar Factory. ”

"Do we have any tasks?" Chang Shide was very excited.

"Nope." Bei Wei replied very simply.

Chen Tianxiong said: "The sugar factory does not have a specific task, as long as it cooperates with the action. I'll do specific things. But I'm usually a technician in a sugar factory. ”

The absence of intelligence work made Wen Tong happy, he was not interested in these things. There's still a lot of sugar mill to deal with.

"Tang Seng Jihua is a long-term operation, and the last few years have been in the stage of preparation." Chen Tianxiong said, "What is our relationship with the local government? ”

"The relationship is not bad, but the friendship is not deep," Wen Tong said, referring to several recent negotiations with the yamen, including the rectification of the sugar factory and the maintenance of order...... In general, there is not much contact. ”

"I think it's going to be more recently." Chen Tianxiong said with a smile, "Even the blind can see that you have made a fortune now, and troubles will be indispensable in the future." ”

"yes, I'm worried about that, too." Wen Tong said worriedly, "Although Qiwei's dart game has prepared a certain foundation for us, they are also very shallow after all. I'm afraid I can't handle some things. ”

"If you can't do it, spend money to buy peace." Chang Shide said. "How about some dry shares for the officials? Umbrella. Fortunately, after two years, Leizhou is ours. ”

"Try to pull local officials into the water and form a community of interests." This is the direction given by the Executive Committee to all traversers who enter the Ming District.

"This is okay," Wen Tong nodded, "but the specific way to do it has to be reported to the Executive Committee, speaking of which we are too inconvenient here, we don't even have a radio station, and there is still a 5W radio station in such a place as Yanchang Village." ”

"The executive committee will give you one soon. Radio mass production soon became eyebrow-raising. Recently, the glass factory has been pulling glass tubes every day in Shiyan, and Dr. Chung has already started to do it. Chen Tianxiong said.

"Build a radio station?" Wen Tong didn't believe it, "It's too high-end, right?" ”

"He's going to build a lot of high-tech stuff: clocks, batteries, and water and gas airships. I don't think I know much about the airship, so I'll listen to him anyway. ”

"His airship has been discussed with him in the past, it is not realistic at all, Dr. Zhong has read too much, and he takes it for granted." Chang Shide disagreed.

"If he can build it, let's get us a vacuum pot and a centrifuge first." Wen Tong only thinks about his sugar.

"It's not hard for him about either. By the way, I heard that we are coming this time, and he also asked me to bring you a sentence: Xu Wen is very rich in diatomaceous earth in this place, more than Lingao, and you can use this filter to make white sugar. ”

"Really? Then I'll have to ask someone to look for it. Now the efficiency of taking yellow mud water is really bad at home. Wen Tong perked up when he heard this, "If you want to continue like this, the labor cost of a ton of sugar is too great." ”

The price of red sugar is much lower than that of white sugar, and it is more profitable to process it into white sugar and sell it again. There is more and more red sugar in the warehouse. In the past, when there were no steel rollers, the average yield of red granulated sugar per mu of sugarcane fields was about three stones, but now the juice yield has been increased, and the yield per mu is more than five stones. The sugarcane fields under the name of the South China Factory alone can produce 13,000 stone of red sugar, plus the processing fees shared by the generations. The red sugar in the warehouse was piled up, and the total amount exceeded 20,000 stones. The output of the sugar workshop in two shifts 24 hours a day is only five or six stones.

As he was talking, suddenly Wen Xiu came to report: The pigeon from Guangzhou has come and sent a secret letter.

Chang Shide let him out, took out a codebook from the house, and began to decode. Several people looked at him blankly, and after a few minutes, Chang Shide said happily: "Zhang Xin said in a letter that he would soon transport all the sugar in stock, and the red sugar would also be needed." The market is quite good: the market in Guangzhou is three or two eight dollars, and it looks like it will rise! Said that if you can buy it, you will try to buy it. Shipped to Guangzhou, it can be exchanged for silver! ”

"Great," Wen Tong was very interested, "I heard Liao Dahua say that the purchase price on Hai'an Street is only two or five yuan!" ”

Chang Shide said: "Then we will buy it in twos!" "Everyone is daxiao, and it feels really good to make huge profits.

Wen Tong smiled and said, "If he doesn't want to write a letter, I still want to write a letter to ask what to do with these sugars." Several local sugar stores have approached me to buy our sugar, but I hesitated and didn't agree to sell it. Fortunately, it was not sold, otherwise it would have been a big loss! ”

Chang Shide said: "In this case, we will have to find him to buy!" ”

"That's no need to think about it, they will only know the market in Guangzhou better than us. Hum! Wen Tong probably didn't have much of an impression of these sugar shops.

"Whatever, this will be our world from now on." Chang Shide said. opened the door and called Wenxiu, "Go and invite Shopkeeper Liao." ”

In the past month, they have been trying to find a local shopkeeper who is familiar with the sugar business to handle the foreign affairs of the sugar factory, and specially asked Liao Dahua to accompany them to Hai'an Street and the county to look for it, to see if there is another shopkeeper who is willing to find another high-ranking shopkeeper, but to no avail. No one wants to change jobs, and more people are wondering: Are you a sugar shopkeeper, can you use the shopkeeper of the sugar shop?

In this way, Liao Dahua has become their only foreign agent in the local area. In order to do things conveniently, Liao Dahua simply lived in the courtyard of the South China factory, fortunately, it was less than two or three miles away from the county seat.

Liao Dahua came to the study, Beiwei didn't want to be too much, so he avoided going to the wing. Wen Tong told Liao Dahua about the preparation for a large-scale purchase of sugar. He was asked to set up a team - even if there was no sugar shop manager, they were going to do it themselves.

Liao Dahua shook his head again and again: "Master, this is not appropriate." ”

"What's wrong?"

"The lord doesn't know," Liao Dahua said, "The sugar in Leizhou has always been purchased by the sugar store on Hai'an Street......

"He accepts his, I accept mine, everyone has nothing to do with it." Wen Tong felt strange.

Chang Shide understood: "They monopolize it, right?" ”

"Exactly." Liao Dahua said. There are a total of 21 sugar shops on this Hai'an Street, forming a sugar association "Haiyitang", all the sugar produced in Leizhou as long as it is exported, it must be transported by their hands. The annual purchase price of sugar is only opened after public discussion in the court. Outsiders cannot get involved in the purchase and sale of sugar unless they join the "Haiyitang".

"I see." Wen Tong nodded, this monopoly organization is really everywhere.

"It's strange that Weishenme can't set foot in it. Why? Chang Shide was very unconvinced.

"This ......" Liao Dahua didn't think that Weishenme couldn't, the sugar store on Hai'an Street has monopolized Leizhou's sugar exports for decades, and everyone regards it as a norm. The shopkeepers didn't know that the sugarcane farmers didn't have big ships, so it was inconvenient for them to transport them abroad. Only then did they entrust all the sugar to these sugar banks and transport them to other places for consignment. After the sale is finished, the sugar store will settle the account with the cane farmer to pay, and the sugar bank will settle the account according to the ninety-eight, and take two deductions as a commission. Over time, because of the fear of piracy and robbery by sea, and the sugar store sometimes swallowed up the money, it gradually became the current cash purchase, the sugar store made more money, and the sugar cane farmers were willing to take a big risk, after all. ”

"I see. It's nothing. Wen Tong said, "We also take these risks, so we will prepare tomorrow and prepare to open the scales and collect sugar in a few days!" ”

Liao Dahua's lips moved, as if he still wanted to advise, Chang Shide smiled and said, "Just do some business, what a big deal." In this way, we also gave the second deduction of the purchased sugar. ”

The second deduction is 2%, which is not a decimal number. Not only is it good for the dart game, but you can also land a lot. Thinking of the wealth of these Australian merchants. Liao Dahua's courage was also strengthened, and he responded: "Since the shopkeepers have made up their minds, the small ones will be done." I know a little bit about the sugar business, so I'm going to prepare! With that, he took his leave and went out.

Chen Tianxiong said: "Isn't it a bit risky to do this? Haven't you thought about the other party's counterattack? ”

"It's okay." Wen Tong said, "I have been to Hai'an Street, and I have seen a few shopkeepers. Sugar shops are all serious business. In fact, they are managing the entire Hai'an Street, which is very orderly and orderly. ”

Chen Tianxiong shook his head: "Lao Wen, it's not that I'm talking too much-this is your jurisdiction." However, you should know that interest groups have always done everything to protect their own interests. Not selling sugar to the sugar store but shipping it out by yourself is already a taboo for them, and now they are collecting sugar, and this conflict of interest is almost to the point of life and death. ”

"Is that an exaggeration?" Wen Tong expressed skepticism.

"You still have to win people in society." Chen Tianxiong said, "Do you really think that in the 17th century, the people were simple and simple, and the roads were not left behind, and the doors were not closed at night? Of all the ugly things in society, which one has not existed since ancient times? Businessmen seek profits, so I don't need to recite Marx's evaluation of capitalists, right? ”

"What do you say?" Wen Tong thinks about what he said is also reasonable, the so-called concept of simplicity of the ancients, he has known for a long time in this time and space is not inevitable: people in this time and space are the same as modern people: there are good people, there are bad people, and more are ordinary people who are silent, neither very good, nor bad to the root.

Bei Wei made a rare speech: "Chen Tianxiong's statement should be considered. What if the other side fights back? ”

"It's best not to touch this cake until we're in the middle of our fledglings." Chen Tianxiong suggested.

"I don't think there's any need to be so nervous." Chang Shide thought about it for a long time and said, "The sugar shops on Hai'an Street are just ordinary businessmen, how many means can they have?" The big deal is that the relationship with the county government and the government government is better. We now have a way in Guangzhou, and the government of Leizhou and the county government of Haikang and Xu Wen can all speak. What can I do? ”

After some discussion, Chen Tianxiong saw that they had made up their minds, and that he was not the decision-maker of the South China Plant, so saying more would inevitably mean to dominate the crowd, which was not conducive to future work, so he no longer insisted on his opinion. Just remind them to be prepared for the situation. Bei Wei was not interested in these and never spoke. In boredom, I looked at the hills of bagasse piled higher and higher outside the courtyard wall, and suddenly asked:

"What about the by-products of sugar production?"

"It's a lot of use, but it takes equipment. Speaking of which, I would like to report this to the Executive Committee, and I have to allocate some fermentation equipment and cultures. Wen Tong introduced the recycling of sugarcane by-products: strictly speaking, there is no waste in the sugar industry, and even wastewater can produce things.

Alcohol, glycerin, acetone, butanol, citric acid, and yeast can be produced by diluting sugar and fermenting with different strains. Bagasse can be used to make paper and furfural, and the filter sludge can be used to extract cane wax, and the rest can be used as fertilizer. As for the sugarcane leaves cleaned up from the sugarcane itself, the sugarcane head and cane tail are low in sugar and will be cut off before entering the press, but although the sugar is small, it can still be used to make wine or extract alcohol.

"These are actually relatively simple to recycle, and bagasse can also recover aconitum acid," Mr. Wen said. "To what extent we can use it, we need to see how many strains and chemicals we have available, and second, we must also have the necessary equipment."

"What can be used locally in the South China plant is probably to use sugar to make alcohol and sugarcane bagasse to make paper, right?" Chang Shide said.

"It's impossible to make paper." Wen Tong recently investigated the fuel situation of the boiler, and said, "The bagasse is all used to burn the fire. ”

"What a waste......"

"Then we'll have to buy coal to burn the boiler. To be honest, I'd rather use coal to burn the boiler. The moisture of bagasse is too great, and if it weren't for the fact that the manpower here is not valuable, the manpower spent on drying bagasse every day would be enough for us to go bankrupt. Wen Tong said, "Industrialization is good, but it also consumes a lot." I now wonder if the bagasse will be enough to burn until the end of the crushing season. ”

Buying coal, naturally, is possible, and it is not far to buy coal from Hongji in Vietnam. Moreover, Gaozhou is not far from Leizhou, where there is a large coal mining area in Guangdong Province, which is now the Maoming mining area. However, this mining area was only sporadically mined during the Ming Dynasty. It's also a fuel supplement. At least it is much shorter than the coal from Guangzhou.

"Then set up a coal shop." Chang Shide has a quick brain, "There are few people who use coal here, and most of them still burn firewood." In addition to bringing in coal for our own use, we might be able to do some business. ”

"Okay, it doesn't cost much anyway. Leave it to Qiwei to do it. ”(！ )