Late Ming Dynasty: Conquering the world starting from riding and cutting

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"Congratulations, sir! Congratulations, sir!"

The sugar cook's face was filled with joy, and he held a round blue ocean bowl in both hands. It was full of freshly processed brown sugar and was still radiating heat. With such a convenient and quick sugar-pressing method, sugar can be produced in the same day, and the amount of sugar produced has never been seen before. This is really amazing. "

Hearing this, Qin Hao smiled knowingly. Li Chun was a technical talent after all. If he didn't have such skills, he might as well go back and study again.

Use your fingers to twist a pinch of brown sugar and put it in your mouth to taste it carefully. It tastes sweet and has the aroma of sugar cane, which is not bad.

The joy of being alone is not as good as the joy of everyone. Then Qin Hao motioned to the guards to bring it to Zhuge Xuan and others to taste, and they also showed satisfied smiles.

At this moment, a voice broke the satisfied expressions of several people.

"However, General and Lord Zhuge, there is something wrong with this thing." As a technician, the sugar boiler has his own unique point of view and raised questions about this production line of sugar extraction and sugar boiling.

"Oh? What's wrong? Tell me quickly!" Qin Hao was also willing to have people raise questions.

After all, this workshop was built by Li Chun, a technical geek. There are no technical problems, but he also provided all the methods of making and boiling sugar. He is not a talented person in this regard. He only knows the general process. Not proficient.

Since there are specialized craftsmen who can improve it, it would be best.

If you listen to both, it will be bright; if you listen to one side, it will be dark.

"General, please give me this."

The sugar boiler pointed to the iron pressing roller in the hut, "Convenience is convenient, but I made a rough estimate and found that the current sugar cane reserves can barely support the consumption for more than a month. If General Ruoguo agrees, If we want to continue to operate the mill, I am afraid that the existing sugar cane will not be enough to support the entire pressing season. The iron windlass that the adults have spent a lot of money to build will probably not be able to be started for more than half a year. "

This is a problem of insufficient raw materials!

However, Qin Hao has also experienced a lot of things and has long become calm. This thing does not bother him, so he looked back at Zhuge Xuan.

Li Chun is in charge of supervising this workshop, while Zhuge Xuan is in charge. Now it is time for him to step forward when the master raises difficult questions.

Zhu Ge This quarter is similar.

However, I also know that this is not a long-term solution. Firstly, there is no fixed location and it is inconvenient to harvest. Secondly, the sugar yield rate of this wild sugarcane is not high and there is too much residue. "

It has just been calculated that after one hundred kilograms of sugar cane is squeezed, about ninety-three or four kilograms of residue is left, which means that the sugar production rate of this production line is between 6% and 8%. If artificially grown sugar cane is used, the sugar yield rate can be increased by three to four percentage points, reaching about 10%.

Although it is slightly less than the 15% sugar yield rate in later generations, in an era when wood presses were used everywhere, this number was already appalling.

"In addition, I have asked households to replant sugarcane seedlings in batches on newly reclaimed land this year. After the next season, the situation will improve and there will be no need to harvest wild ones. But if "If there are more sugar pressing workshops, it would be best." Zhuge Xuan said this and looked at Qin Hao meaningfully.

"Actually, the best way is to go to Daming, right?" Qin Hao smiled and added the second half of Zhuge Xuan's unfinished sentence. He knew what he meant.

Before the advent of steam sugar mills in the 19th century, mechanical sugar mills generally produced 100 bags of sugar per year. According to current international standards, one bag is 100 kilograms. To produce 100 kilograms of sugar, at least 1 ton of sugar cane is needed, but the yield per mu of sugar cane is not very high.

The average yield per mu of No. 9 sugar cane in Taiwan in later generations was only about 5 tons. In this era, there was no fertilizer to increase production, and with the Little Ice Age and various disasters, the yield per 100 acres was estimated to be a little more than one-fifth. , can't hold up to 1 ton. If you want to reach the standard of producing 10,000 kilograms, or ten tons of white sugar, in one crushing season, you need at least 100 tons of sugar cane, which is the total output of eight or nine hundred acres.

The sugar cane production in Taiwan alone only requires seven or eight sugar mills to consume all the sugar cane. After all, households are now willing to grow food, and sugar cane is really not something they can make. Large tracts of sugar cane plantations currently do not exist, so the sugar cane of the Ming Dynasty is a new source of raw materials. The sugar cane grown there has a long history and is of good quality.

Opposite Taiwan Island are Ningde and Quanzhou of the Fujian Chief Envoy, and a little further away are Qinzhou, Lianzhou, Leizhou and Qiongzhou. Sugar cane is produced in these state capitals, especially Xuwen County, Leizhou Prefecture, which is famous far and wide.

At the same time, the reason why Qin Hao was able to approve the construction of this sugar pressing workshop was to dump white sugar to the Ming Dynasty and earn silver. Now that the territory is gradually getting on the right track, there are more and more places where money is needed. This sugar pressing workshop is the first open source project.

As for the place where the goods will be sold, Zhuge Xuan has also determined that it is a prosperous place in the south of the Yangtze River. There are many people here who eat sugar and they generally like to eat it.

Jiangnan people always love sweets.

Now if you sell the boiled brown sugar to Daming, the price is estimated to be only 40 to 50 cents per pound. Although the demand is huge, the price/performance ratio is not high. If you go through a few more processes to boil the brown sugar into white sugar, the price will be high. If it rises tenfold, it can reach 500 yuan per catty.

This price is beyond the reach of ordinary people. Small families may buy one or two kilograms to try during the holidays. The rich and powerful are the main consumers of white sugar. The dishes produced with a little white sugar are sweeter and more delicate than brown sugar. The color is much prettier, the taste is more pure, and it is sweet and delicious even if you eat it on a daily basis.

So Qin Hao asked the sugar boiler if there was a way to boil brown sugar into white sugar, because now the workshop can basically only make brown sugar, and the craft of white sugar is also a technical job.

The sugar boiler was quite cheerful, "Sir, I'm not a hiding person. I know the sugar boiling technology, and my family's technology is pretty good and can reduce the loss by half. Since you have taken in our family, You are our savior, and I am willing to hand over this technology to you."

Of course Qin Hao would not treat the sugar master badly like this, "I will reward you with 100 acres of Yongye farmland, and I will grant you a sugar mill when I build one."

"Thank you, sir, thank you, sir." The sugar-cooking master was overjoyed when he heard this and thanked him repeatedly.

As a result, other masters and workers in the workshop were also jealous, and they secretly wondered if they had such craftsmanship at home, which could be used to trade for fields.

Although it seems that the technology of making sugar is not a superb one, and Li Chun can almost make a filter or something by tinkering, but what Qin Hao wants is the effect of this technology that can be purchased with a hundred gold.

As long as someone has technical contributions, there is no fear that the disciples will starve to death and the master will starve to death.

In this way, there will be two categories of brown sugar and white sugar. When the time comes, it will be built into a high-end and low-end industry and sold together, which will definitely make a lot of money.

Qin Hao could already imagine boxes of white money entering his pocket.

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