In the blink of an eye, at the beginning of July, Emperor Hongzhi held a court meeting at the beginning of the month and issued an order to reward a cadre of local officials, among which Ma Wensheng of Ningbo Mansion was the most highly evaluated.

This decree also announced that after more than half a year of the decree to promote agricultural tools, this top-down technology popularization activity officially came to an end.

Because Emperor Hongzhi has always been lenient and benevolent, the promotion of threshers has also been widely recorded as good governance, and many literati have written poems to praise it.

It's just that the people in the rice-growing areas have been affected by this promotion.

In Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi provinces, the impact is positive, and the local people have not been exploited too much because of the threshing machine.

They have even enjoyed the convenience of threshers. This convenience also allowed the people of these three provinces to know the words "Made in Dongqin".

When they see these four words, they think of a durable, well-constructed thresher.

Later, when they bought iron pots, iron farming tools, and summer cloths, they were surprised to find that there were similar four words on them.

They immediately made a habitual choice, so that the goods of Dongqin sold very well in these three provinces.

Merchants also began to advertise, hanging the words "Dongqin goods" at the door, and asked the guys to patiently tell the guests that the goods in their store are all from the coast, and they are definitely serious Dongqin goods.

It's just that other provinces that grow rice are not so lucky, because the craftsmen do not understand the theory of gear involutes, and there is no suitable casting method.

Therefore, the threshing machine made is of inferior quality, some of which cannot be rotated, and some of which will be off the shaft after a long turn.

If the one-to-one ratio is restored, it is barely usable, but this demanding process and size requirements make it a carving-like job.

This gave local officials a headache and at the same time, they completely chose to deceive, they were greedy for merit, and made a large number of defective products.

The big landlords and gentry were unwilling to take over, so they forced it on the small landlords and yeoman farmers, forcing many families to buy these useless iron lumps.

In this process, there was also the exploitation of small officials, which harmed many good and honest farmers, and had to break down to avoid disasters.

Such harm to the people has occurred in Huguang, Liangguang, Sichuan, Anhui and other places, and these people are afraid of the word "threshing machine" when they hear it!

Emperor Hongzhi knew about these situations more or less through the eunuchs, the imperial officials, and the Jinyi guards.

He himself can guess one or two, but Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi provinces can have such achievements, which still makes him complacent.

I feel that this promotion has achieved great results after all, especially in Jiangxi and Zhejiang, which are important places for taxation. One more cent of people's power means one penny more money and grain for the imperial court.

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Ryukyu, Chatan Castle.

The production plant of the Ryukyu branch of Huaxia Sugar Company has been built, and it adopts a wooden frame derivative structure.

This architectural construction, with the belt

The structure of the British 19th-century factory is similar, characterized by a column only in the middle, and it is built every six meters.

The advantage is that there is no need for reinforced concrete, and there is no need to lay too deep foundations, and the roof is directly made of hardwood boards, and the joints of the slabs are filled with twisted material.

Twisted material is the twisted material used in shipbuilding, which is made of hemp silk, tung oil and oyster shell ash.

It only takes a few days to have a waterproof, sun-proof roof.

Looking at this completed building, Ah Ku breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, first build the production plant, production can be realized, and the rest of the facilities can be built slowly.

The reason why I am so anxious is because the Ryukyu pressing season is actually different from Zhangzhou, which is two months early.

"Han Gong, can you start testing?" Ah Ku asked the special engineer next to him, who had come with the entire sugar production equipment.

Han Gong wore a rattan hard hat, nodded and said, "You need to make a note and let the Anyuan Coal Mine send coal over, and the firewood will not be burned!"

"It's already played, but unfortunately there is no coal mine here!"

Han Gong hummed, and people began to add firewood to the stove, and several hand-pulled blowers began to help light the fire, and after the chimney formed a smoking effect, it was possible to wait quietly for the water to boil.

The core of the whole equipment is two Type 01 steam engines, in addition to three iron rollers, plus a horizontal piston press.

As for the sugar production process on Ryukyu Island, Ah Ku and they have also done an investigation, and they visited a Zheng family's local sugar workshop.

According to agricultural technician Zhao Xi, that is, the craftsmanship of the Ryukyus is completely unsightly!

They used stones to struck them up and down, like rice. The process of boiling sugar is even more inadequate, and even Zhao Xi, a person who has only burned in Zhangzhou Tangliao, is very disdainful. thinks that this group of people doesn't even know how to master the heat, no wonder they can only make brown sugar.

In Zhao Xi's words, Zhangzhou is "cow-pulled stone rollers to squeeze cane, pots and stoves to boil sugar, and pottery to divide honey", which is much better than making sugar in these workshops in the Ryukyus.

As for the sugar making equipment in front of him, Zhao Xi thought at a glance that as long as the three iron rollers could be pressed once, the sugarcane juice would be squeezed out.

Soon, steam began to be produced in large quantities, and the Han Gong in charge looked at it for a while and opened the valve of the cylinder.

As a few workers turned the flywheel outside, the entire steam engine creaked.

Then the steam entered the cylinder, and there was a snorting sound, and the entire connecting rod and crankshaft began to operate.

After the output began to stabilize, Hangong connected the deerskin belt and gear of the transmission, and drove the three iron rollers.

The three iron rollers are divided into small, medium and large, after the first small iron roller, the bagasse is passed through the second medium iron roller, and finally the third iron roller with the smallest maximum gap.

The Ryukyu workers in the factory looked at this one

The steel machine actually moved without animal power, and all of them were shocked and inexplicable.

Looking at the fire in the furnace and listening to the sound of this machine, these people trembled with fright, and they all felt that this was not the power of ghosts and gods.

"What are you doing in a daze, hurry up and throw the sugar cane into it!"

Zhao Chenglin, who was the supervisor, shouted, and the workers led by him timidly stepped forward.

They stuffed bundles of sugar cane into the first iron roller.

It was like throwing an egg into it, and the tender sugar cane snapped, and the juice splashed in all directions.

The workers swallowed, they'd seen it there before!

Ah Ku was overjoyed, and hurriedly let these people continue.

By the time the second and third rollers had passed, the bagasse had already looked extremely shriveled.

After a horizontal piston press, even a little juice was squeezed out.

After calculation, about 350 catties of juice were obtained from 500 catties of sugarcane, and the juice yield was about 70%.

If the sample size increases, this ratio will increase a bit.

Compared with the juice yield of the Ryukyu workshop, there is almost 25% more, and the key is to save trouble!

If the chemical industry is strong, the juice yield of this process can be improved, and the juice yield of the modern sugar industry can reach more than 90%!

And the Ryukyu workers in the sugar factory, Tianling Gai was almost shocked and flew away, they knew very well what it meant to have more juice.

"Zhao Gong, it's up to you next!" Ah Xi said with a smile.

Zhao Xi arched his hand, let people carry sugarcane juice, and poured it into a large iron pot.

Several workers took out a fine gauze net to remove some of the floating residue.

Then while boiling the sugar, you can get rid of the foam and debris in it.

Then, when it was about to boil, there were workers who carried some lime and sprinkled it in.

Lime is added to obtain purer crystals, which is equivalent to the process of clarification, and the Ryukyu workshops will also add plant ash to it.

After the sugarcane juice turned yellow, Zhao Xi asked people to pour the juice into a large iron bucket, which burned charcoal under the bottom of the bucket, covered with a top cover, and as soon as the transmission belt was connected, a wooden blade paddle in the iron bucket rotated rapidly, and the paddle juice was raised in the iron bucket.

This operation fooled the Ryukyu workers, who had grown sugarcane and knew how to transpire and dry the water, but they had never seen such an operation.

After shaking for a while, the steam in the pores became sparse, and Zhao Xi hurriedly asked people to pour water on the iron bucket.

When I lifted the lid again, I found that the juice inside had turned into a dark sugar, just like the brown sugar of the Ryukyus.

If it were Ryukyu sugar production, it would be almost the end of this step.

It's just that Dongqin sugar has to add a step of yellow mud and water, and through this step, you can get white sugar!

The price of white sugar is three times higher than that of brown sugar!

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