Rape this plant, China's planting history is very long, China's history of oil extraction is also very long, but before the Song Dynasty, rape and vegetable oil are not very common things, about the Northern Song Dynasty, the emergence of iron pots and stir-frying, so that the use of vegetable oil gradually increased.

In the last years of the Jin Dynasty, although vegetable oil has not yet entered the homes of ordinary people like the Ming and Qing dynasties, it is not a rare thing.

There is vegetable oil in the kitchen of the Yang Mansion, which is purchased from the oil mill in Laiwu County, and is only supplied to some of the Yang family's masters and subordinates.

By threatening Steward Yang, Chen Xian invited two oil extractors from Laiwu County, found two farmers who knew how to grow rapeseed, and bought a lot of rapeseed.

Chen Xian ordered that all the newly opened more than 100 acres of land near Xiangshuizhuang be planted with rapeseed, and as soon as Xiangshuizhuang was built, the construction of a new oil mill would begin, and soap would be another trade commodity in Chen Xian's hands in the future.

At present, the price of soap made from soap horn is very high, and the soap produced by Chen Xian by chemical method is not only much lower in cost than soap soap, but also has better quality.

After receiving this group of young men and women, Chen Xian began to build a soap production line.

At the heart of the soap production line designed by Chen Xian is a stove for boiling a solution of plant ash.

It is a large furnace that resembles a modern boiler, and on the side of the furnace is mounted a huge wooden bellows, which are pulled by a cam mechanism driven by a water turbine.

In order to build this boiler, Chen Xian even gave up a hydraulic workshop and freed up a water turbine.

Unlike boilers, the stove is mounted on an open cauldron with a long pointed bottom to receive more heat.

There is a wooden attic around the pot, the floor of the second floor of the attic is level with the mouth of the pot, and three brackets are installed on the side of the pot, and three huge burlap cover filters are installed on the brackets.

During processing, the bellows driven by the water wheel will make the coal burned in the boiler produce a lot of heat, and constantly heat the cauldron, and the clarified plant ash solution in the cauldron will continue to precipitate carbonate with the evaporation of water......

The hot exhaust gases from the furnace are piped into the winding tunnel beneath the adjacent storeroom, and these exhaust gases are used to heat the warehouse.

This warehouse is where freshly cut artemisia grass is stored.

The dried artemisia grass is burned in a special furnace not far away, and the burned plant ash is collected and mixed with water to precipitate the required plant ash solution.

After repeated experiments, Chen Xian chose ordinary Artemisia grass as the raw material for obtaining plant ash, although the potassium and sodium carbonate content in Artemisia ash is not the largest, but it is also relatively high, and the number of such plants in the wild is extremely large, very easy to obtain.

According to the carbonate content of potassium and sodium in the ash of artemisia grass is as high as about 25%, according to these data, he asked the workers to mix plant ash and water according to a certain weight ratio, and the resulting plant ash solution is a carbonate solution that is close to saturation, and such a solution is poured into a boiling pot, and after a little boiling, the carbonate will be precipitated.

On the other side of the boiler is a chemical reaction workshop, there are ten wooden reaction tanks in the workshop, lime, water, and the carbonate just produced are put into the reaction tank according to the determined proportion and stirred for reaction, after the full stirring reaction, the solution obtained is left to stand for a period of time, and after the calcium carbonate is precipitated, the copper valve on the side of the reaction tank is opened, and the clear mixed solution of potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide will flow out. These solutions are dosed in graduated cylinders and then sent to the adjacent saponification reactor to be mixed with the measured amount of oil.

In order to increase the reaction speed, the saponification reaction pot is slowly heated to maintain a certain temperature.

At the end of the saponification reaction, the resulting viscous soap base is loaded into a mold and stored in a warehouse to wait for solidification.

In the process of building the factory, Chen Xian purchased and hoarded a large number of various oils and fats through Yang Bai's two families, and the factory was completed and successfully put into production, and there was a steady stream of soap output immediately.

Chen Xian also bought spices and added soap to make soap.

After having soap, Chen Xian has a new fist product.

Due to the gradual saturation of the market, Tang Dao's price and profits have begun to decline, but Yang Bai and his family did not dare to negotiate with Chen Xian, seeing that the profits were getting thinner and thinner, they had begun to complain secretly.

The emergence of soap can be regarded as a solution to the urgent needs of the two families.

Since the defeat, in order to satisfy Chen Xian's huge appetite for the bottomless pit, the size of the caravans of the two families has increased again and again, and just transporting coal has made the two caravans busy.

Fortunately, although Chen Xian is hateful, he does business very fairly, and he buys coal at three times the price, so that the Yang and Bai families have a lot of money.

However, Chen Xian's demand for coal was like a bottomless pit, constantly rising, and in addition to increasing the size of their caravans, the Yang and Bai families had to give up some of their interests and ask the merchants of Xizhuangzi, Tangjiazhuang, and even Laiwu to help transport coal in.

Chen Xian just took the opportunity to send people to get in touch with these firms, and offered a higher price to trade directly with these firms.

After establishing ties with these firms, there were new sales channels for the katana and some fine iron tools produced by Chen Xian's factory.

With the participation of these firms, the supply of fuel and raw materials at Chen Xian's factory is finally sufficient.

After the efforts of the engineering team, the project of Xiangshuizhuang was basically completed before the Chinese New Year, and Chen Xian immediately organized people to relocate his residence, most of the workers, and all the apprentices to Xiangshuizhuang.

Compared with the new Zhuangzi, there are more water turbines in Xiangshuizhuang, there are 24 units, the technology is more mature, the power is stronger, Chen Xian moved the musket manufacturing workshop, iron rolling workshop and other more important workshops to Xiangshuizhuang.

In order to maintain secrecy, Chen Xian rebuilt a larger soap production line in Xiangshuizhuang and temporarily suspended the soap factory in Xinzhuangzi.

In Chen Xian's plan, the remote Xiangshuizhuang will be used as a military area and school, while the new Zhuangzi, which is relatively close to the farmland, will be used as a residential area.

In the past six months, Chen Xian has not only completed the research and development of soap, but also completed the design and trial production of wire drawing machines

Before Zhuangzi was completed, a hydro-powered wire drawing machine had been installed on one of the 24 turbines in Xiangshuizhuang.