Ma Cheng and Gu Xiying are both young people, so they are naturally very curious about this kind of thing, this night the two of them tossed until the middle of the night, and they used all kinds of postures, what Guanyin sat on the lotus, the old man pushed the cart, etc., and the two of them fell asleep when it was almost dawn.

The next day, Ma Cheng got up, Ma Cheng touched his sour waist and eyes, thinking that he was still young, he must not be so indulgent, there will be a lot of beauties in the future, if everyone lets themselves work so hard, they will not be able to live.

Yahuan Chunlian, who was in the teahouse outside the door, heard movement in the house, and hurriedly entered the house to serve Ma Cheng and get dressed.

Chunlian is still a big girl with yellow flowers, the first time she saw the naked body of an adult man, when she saw Ma Cheng's unwritten things swaying in front of her eyes, Chunlian was really shy and embarrassed.

Ma Cheng saw Chunlian's bad taste, Ma Cheng shook his little brother and asked, "Chunlian, haven't you seen it!" Don't look at this thing being soft now, it can make you want to die when it's hard, and you can still spit at the end! ”

Chunlian secretly scolded Ma Cheng for his shamelessness in her heart, but there was no way, he was a maid and had to go through this. Chunlian endured the nausea and put on Ma Cheng's pants, and put up with Ma Cheng's hairy hands and feet while wearing them.

Waiting for Ma Cheng to put on all the clothes, Ma Cheng noticed that Gu Xiying on the bed was gone, why didn't this dead girl wait for the master in bed in the morning?

"Chunlian, where's Aunt Gu?"

Chunlian was harassed by Ma Cheng at this time, and it was easy for Ma Cheng to stop moving her hands and feet, and Chunlian opened her mouth and said: "Second master, Aunt Gu has already gotten up and is practicing martial arts in the courtyard!" ”

Martial arts? Ma Chengyi frowned and asked, "What time is it?" ”

"Second master, it's two o'clock, Aunt Gu has been up for a long time, he saw that the second master didn't get up and told the maid not to wake up the second master!"

Damn, it's almost ten o'clock! Ma Cheng secretly scolded himself for being unproductive and deep in the gentle township.

Ma Cheng, who was dressed, walked out of the door of the inner room, and when he came to the door of the main house, he heard a gust of wind outside, and when he opened the door curtain, he saw Gu Xiying wielding a wooden stick, practicing vigorously.

Gu Xiying was practicing to the point of rising, and when she saw Ma Cheng coming out, she quickly stopped and greeted her: "Master, you are up!" ”

Ma Cheng looked at Gu Xiying, who had just broken yesterday and came out to practice martial arts today, which was really admirable. On the other hand, I was just a little crazy last night, and I woke up today with a sore back and legs, and it seems that I really neglected to exercise.

Ma Cheng licked his face and asked, "Little sister, don't you hurt there?" ”

Gu Xiying was really embarrassed to hear Ma Cheng ask this, if there was no one in the courtyard, it would be easy to say, but now there is a maid ring here, and the second master is talking nonsense like this, which really makes Gu Xiying too embarrassed.

Ma Cheng laughed when he saw Gu Xiying's appearance: "It's all because of your own family's shyness!" In the future, the master's body will grow into you, and Chunlian will sleep with the master together! ”

Ma Cheng said this, even Chunlian was embarrassed, but she was still secretly happy in her heart. Chunlian is different from Gu Xiying, Chunlian is sold by human teeth, and she doesn't remember where her own home is, so it is the best destination to be able to get the second master to take over the house, if she can give birth to a boy and a half girl for the second master, then she will have a guarantee in the future.

Ma Cheng is now the head of the family, there are two women to be at his mercy, Ma Cheng is very happy in his heart, and said with a wave of his hand: "The master is hungry, Chunlian, let the kitchen send some food!" ”

Chunlian nodded and went out to let the kitchen prepare the meal, Gu Xiying was no longer practicing martial arts at this time, and went back to the house with Ma Cheng to start freshening up.

After a while, the kung fu kitchen brought the food, and now it was almost noon, and the kitchen was all lunch, six kinds of stir-fried vegetables, meat and vegetarian, and a small bucket of fragrant rice.

Ma Cheng did a lot of exercise last night, smelled the aroma of the food, and moved his index finger, picked up the dishes and chopsticks and was about to eat, but Ma Cheng saw Gu Xiying standing aside. Ma Cheng asked curiously, "Little sister, why don't you sit down to eat?" ”

"Master, it's good for the slave family and Chunlian to eat some leftovers in a while, master use it first!"

Although Gu Xiying is favored by Ma Cheng, her identity is a concubine, not to mention that she is a concubine in the Ming Dynasty, even a wife cannot eat with the master.

Ma Cheng frowned when he heard Gu Xiying say this: "There are so many stinky rules at home, the master stipulates that in the future, when there are no outsiders in the family, you will eat with the master, you know?" ”

Gu Xiying was very happy to hear Ma Cheng say this, she was already hungry after practicing all morning, anyway, Gu Xiying was also a wild girl who had never read a book, what house rules did she know there? Now I don't lie when I hear Ma Cheng say this, I just put a bowl of fragrant rice and sit next to Ma Cheng to eat.

Both of them were hungry, and the table of food was quickly eaten, and after Chunlian put away the dishes and chopsticks, the two sat in the room and drank tea.

At this moment, someone outside the courtyard shouted: "Second master, second master!" Can the villain come in? ”

When Ma Cheng heard Gu Changwei's voice, why did he have to report it? Ma Cheng stood at the door and said, "Gu San, come in when you come, pretend to be fake!" ”

Outside the courtyard agreed, and the courtyard door was pushed open, and it was Gu Changwei who came. Gu Changwei was carrying a sack on his back, and there were seven or eight family members behind him, carrying things on his back or resisting. Ma Cheng saw that it was he who had told Gu Changwei to do it yesterday, and it seemed that this Gu San was very happy.

Gu Changwei instructed the family to put everything in the courtyard, and after sending the family out, he came to Ma Cheng and said, "Second master, what you said to the villain yesterday is all ready!" Please take a look at the second master! ”

Ma Cheng stepped forward and took a look, there were three clay vats one thousand wide, two iron pots, and a copper basin, a bag of charcoal, and a bag of lime. Ma Cheng saw that the iron pipes he had customized were also completed, and asked happily: "I didn't expect the blacksmith in the city to be able to make the iron sheets, it's really not easy!" ”

Gu Changwei heard Ma Cheng say this and said with a smile: "Second master, the villain drank with a few colleagues last night, and it happened that one of them was in charge of the general. He had a dozen blacksmiths under him, and he quickly knocked out these iron pipes! ”

Hearing Gu Changwei say this, Ma Cheng remembered that the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were part of the army, and the best blacksmiths were naturally in the army, and his Lao Tzu was the commander of the military region, so he naturally had good blacksmiths under him.

Ma Cheng heard Gu Changwei say this and praised: "Yes, Gu San, you did a good job!" By the way, did you buy the candy you prepared? ”

"This villain dares to forget!" After Gu Changwei finished speaking, he opened the seven or eight big bags piled up together and said, "Second master, this is it!" ”

Ma Cheng leaned over and saw that there were bricks as black as bricks, and when the bag was opened, there was a sweet fragrance.

Ma Cheng had only seen brown sugar, white sugar and rock sugar, and he had really never seen this kind of black sugar brick: "This is sugar?" ”

Gu Changwei opened seven or eight bags one by one, the most was this black-brown sugar brick, there were three or four cloth bags, some other brown sugar, the least white sugar, only a small paper bag.

"Second master, in the morning, the villain walked all over the grocery stores in the city, this kind of brown sugar is a lot, and it is the cheapest, a hundred catties is only five dollars of silver, brown sugar is more expensive, a pound and a half of silver, this kind of white sugar is the most expensive!"

After Gu Changwei finished speaking, he opened the paper bag, and there was about half a catty of white sugar in it, but this kind of white sugar was not the pure white of later generations, but it was a little yellowish in the white, showing a milky white color in the sun.

"Second master, this kind of white sugar is the most expensive, these six taels of white sugar is all the inventory of the grocery store, their shopkeeper said that this kind of sugar is very good here in Fengyang, last month their shop just entered a hundred catties from Nanjing, this month has been bought up, this half catty or the shopkeeper to keep his family to eat. The shopkeeper said that the purchase price from Nanjing would cost eight dollars of silver a catty, and the sugar cost a total of five dollars of silver. ”

Gu Changwei gritted his teeth when he talked about the price, such a little sugar costs five yuan of silver, you must know that five yuan of silver is enough to buy thirty catties of brown rice in Fengyang, which is enough food for Gu Changwei to eat for a month!

Ma Cheng took the sugar packet, twisted it with his fingers, looked at it, sniffed it again, and finally put it in his mouth and tasted it.

The color of this white sugar in the Ming Dynasty is average, and the number of filtration is limited, and the sweetness of the sugar is not as sweet as the white sugar of later generations, and there is a feeling of rock sugar.

At this time, Gu Xiying and Chunlian came out of the house, and seven or eight families came to the yard just now, and the two daughters hid in the house in order to avoid suspicion. Now seeing that there was only Gu Changwei in the courtyard, Gu Xiying dared to come out.

Gu Xiying saw the brown sugar on the ground and said happily: "Big brother, are you here to bring candy to my little sister?" Gu Xiying came to Ma Cheng's side and saw the white sugar in his hand, and exclaimed: "Big brother, you are crazy, how to buy white sugar, little sister can eat brown sugar!" ”

Although Gu Xiying said this, she snatched the sugar bag from Ma Cheng's hand, and ran back to the house with Chunlian to make sugar water.

Ma Cheng said to Gu Xiying: "Little sister, don't eat too much, be careful of nosebleeds!" ”

Gu Changwei saw that the sugar was snatched away by his little sister, and secretly scolded his sister in his heart for being ignorant, and he didn't know how to leave some for his brother, sister-in-law and nephew at home?

Ma Cheng looked at the equipment on the ground and said, "Okay, Gu San, you can help the second master and me work in the afternoon!" Let's make white sugar that is whiter than the sugar we just had! ”

Gu Changwei was taken aback when he heard Ma Cheng say this, and asked, "Second Master, can you really make white sugar?" The shopkeeper just said that these white sugars are not produced by my Daming, but are transported by Western red-haired merchants from afar, so the price is so expensive! ”

Ma Cheng heard Gu Changwei say this, and secretly scolded these old hats of the Ming Dynasty in his heart, because he had no confidence in his great motherland. This kind of white sugar is called local white sugar, which is pure and pure domestic white sugar.

In ancient China, there were records of planting sugarcane in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and since the Tang Dynasty, there have been large-scale sugar factories in Guangdong and Hainan, and the white sugar that Gu Changwei bought was produced in Fujian. This kind of sugar production technology has been very mature in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, but because the invention time is too late, it has not been popularized in Nanzhili, and Fujian merchants in order to sell it at a good price, naturally improve the identity of white sugar, saying what is an ocean-going imported product.

The production technology of white sugar in the Ming Dynasty is very simple, and Ma Cheng also listened to the tour guide when he traveled to the sugar factory in later generations, which is the yellow mud water drenching method. Although this method is simple, the yield is too low, and the color of the white sugar produced is not pure.

The method that Ma Cheng is going to use now is the carbon dioxide saturation method, which was improved by the German Kuhlmann in 1840 and is commonly used in later sugar factories.