1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 163 "Export earning foreign exchange" products

Dong Fengshan's "Flying Fish 2" crossed a huge bay (Bay of Carpentaria) on November [-] and arrived near the small town of Bamaga, Australia, where it landed to replenish some fresh water. Things to rest.Continue to go north the next day, pass a series of broken islands, in the afternoon, come to the northernmost tip of the mainland (Cape York), and then go all the way south along the coastline.

On November 28, a winding river bend was reached in Cairns, later Australia.So far, the [-]-day exploration operation has come to an end.During the period, Dong Fengshan, Huang Mingfang, and Zhang Qisheng jointly explored the topography and landforms of the coastline in the northern and northeast corners of Hanzhou, and drew detailed sea charts. At the same time, they also marked several locations suitable for the establishment of supply points, for the next step of Hanzhou's control and development. Immigration to the East Coast laid the groundwork.

When "Flying Fish 2" returned to the Jianye City Wharf on December 2, it found that the No. [-] Fort and No. [-] Fort were under construction on the mountains on both sides of the wharf.Originally, the two forts were planned to be completed by the end of August, but the construction of a large number of immigrant houses and the hardening of the cement on the road from Heishan City to New Huai'an have greatly affected the construction of the two forts.

However, in mid-November, Jianye City felt a sense of danger when a ship of unknown forces broke in accidentally.Therefore, Qi Tian mobilized a large number of construction workers to start building and perfecting No. 2 and No. 3 forts on the mountains on both sides of the pier.In view of the bombardment of the fort by the enemy ship this time, a lot of gravel was splashed, and there was also a crack in the cement baffle above the gun emplacement.It made Qi Tian feel that the naval guns of the 17th century were also so powerful.

If there were more enemy ships, and the naval guns bombarded for a while, it is estimated that the parapet of the fort could not be blocked at all, and the concrete bars above the head would inevitably be smashed by the shells.That being the case, let's continue to thicken the fort bunker. If the cement wall of more than 30 centimeters does not work, then it will be thickened to one meter.At the same time, more hardwood baffles were added inside the fort bunker to prevent the gunner from being injured by the splashed gravel after shelling.

"Is the chief executive in Jianye City?" Huang Mingfang and Zhang Qisheng came to the Jianye City Civil Government Building to find their fellow interns.

"What a coincidence, the Chief Manager is in Jianye City!" Ji Yulin said with a smile, "He's in the sugar factory...how about it, he must have gained a lot after going out for a month."

Ji Yulin is one of the more than 70 children that Cao Xiong brought back to Daming for the first time last year. He is only 16 years old this year.After the classroom study in the morning, I will practice in the Agricultural Affairs Office of the Civilian Government in the afternoon.Except for those children under the age of 15 in Hanzhou, they basically study in the morning and go to various departments, workshops, farmland, schools, and even township soldiers in Hanzhou for half-day internships in the afternoon.

At present, the population of Hanzhou has reached more than 7000, but most of the people are basically still implementing a military settlement management model.This model is implemented a few years before the arrival of immigrants, which will naturally save a lot of management personnel, and can also cultivate the organizational discipline of immigrants.

However, as immigrants gradually live a stable life, they will inevitably yearn for a normal social organization model.Therefore, Hanzhou needs to train a large number of middle-level and grass-roots managers in advance to prepare for the establishment of a management model that is completely different from that of Daming.

Qi Tian was in the sugar factory at this time, watching the craftsmen using the adsorption properties of the soil to decolorize the syrup.

The craftsmen pour the boiled yellow-black syrup into a funnel-shaped tile, with a large vat under the tile.The craftsmen drenched it with yellow mud water, so that the black slag in the original syrup fell into the tank, and the white icing remained in the tile.When it condenses and dries, it becomes white granulated sugar.

Qi Tian always thought that white sugar was only available after modern times, but before modern times, it always looked like yellow or yellow-black syrup.It turns out that during this period, our great ancestors were already able to make white sugar.

In fact, craftsmen use soil to decolorize the syrup, which is described in detail in Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu".During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, there was another method of decolorizing white granulated sugar, which was the coagulation clarification method using duck egg white.

This method is to add a little whipped duck egg white to the sugarcane juice, and then heat it. At this time, the coloring substances and dregs in it will condense with the egg white and float to the liquid surface.Then skim off, so that the cane juice becomes clear and the yellow-brown color fades.But decolorization with this method is not thorough after all, and uneconomical.Later, this method was probably only used when making rock sugar.

In China, the earliest record of sugar cane planting and sugar crushing was in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.During the Warring States period in the 4th century BC, there were records of the initial processing of sugarcane.There is such a line in Qu Yuan's "Songs of Chu: Calling the Soul": "There is some Zhe pulp for the turtle and the lamb."The "Zhe" here is sugarcane, and "Zhe pulp" is the juice obtained from sugarcane.It shows that during the Warring States Period, Chu State was able to process sugarcane primitively.

In the "Three Kingdoms · Book of Wu · Sun Liang Biography" written by Chen Shou in the Western Jin Dynasty, there is a record that Liang envoys the Yellow Gate to cover it with a silver bowl, and the Chinese and Tibetan officials took the sugarcane donated by Jiaozhou...Sugarcane juice is a kind of liquid sugar, which is viscous. It is concentrated and processed from sugarcane juice to a higher concentration (viscosity), which is convenient for storage and consumption.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, the technology of sugar production was gradually developed, and some new technologies and techniques appeared one after another. New varieties such as white sugar and rock sugar produced by local methods also appeared one after another, and some theoretical works on sugar production also appeared.

In the middle of the 8th century, Chinese sugar technology was introduced to Japan. Around the 13th century, it was introduced to Java and became the origin of the island's sugar industry. From the 15th to the 16th centuries, Chinese expatriates also spread sugar-making methods in the Philippines, Hawaii and other places.

In 1130, Wang Zhuo of the Northern Song Dynasty wrote the first monograph on sugar production in China——"Sugar Frosting Spectrum".The book is divided into 7 chapters with rich content, respectively describing the history of the development of sugar in China, planting methods of sugar cane, sugar making equipment (including pressing and cooking equipment), technological process, icing taste, use, sugar industry economy, etc. .

In Volume 1637 ("Sweet Addiction") of Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu", published in early 20, it describes various methods of planting sugarcane and making sugar, which is more systematic and detailed than the book "Sugar Frosting Spectrum".These methods have been used in Chinese folk until the [-]th century.The method (pressing method) described in the book using ox-drawn stone reels (or wooden reels) to squeeze juice multiple times (pressing method) is similar to the principle of modern sugarcane multiple pressing.In terms of cane juice clarification, the book summarizes the lime method clarification process for the first time, and its principle is still used in the modern sugar industry.

"Chairman, do you want to have a taste?" Bu Chuncheng scooped up some white sugar with a wooden spoon, and held it in front of Qi Tian.

Bu Chuncheng was the fourth batch of artisans recruited from Guangzhou and transported to Hanzhou in August this year.In the past, he was a craftsman in the Guangzhou Sugar Factory, but a serious illness of his child caused the family to owe tens of taels of silver.Hearing that craftsmen were being recruited from the wharf outside the city to go to Nanyang, I went looking for it.

Hearing that he was a craftsman, without further ado, Luo Rucheng gave him 30 taels of silver to help him repay the debt, and then loaded his family of five on the boat.

Bu Chuncheng, who thought he had sold himself and his family, came to Hanzhou nervously.After the quarantine period ended, the family of five shared a house, the wife went into the cafeteria, and the eldest followed him into the sugar workshop.The younger son and the younger daughter were recruited as students by the newly built Enlightenment School in Jianye City.

Bu Chuncheng has been in Hanzhou for two months, and he always feels that he is dreaming.There is a house to live in, clothes to wear, food to eat, and children can still go to school.There are no black-hearted owners who are vicious and oppressive in the workshop, and there are no hooligans who extort money on the street or near the residence.Everything seems to be in order.

Even walking on the street, there are government servants in gray "soap clothes" yelling not to walk in the middle, to give way to passing vehicles, and to go to the right.

Bu Chuncheng is a grateful person. Master Hanzhou treats us as a person, so we must pay back!

Looking at those artisans in the past, after repeatedly crushing sugarcane, barrels of brown syrup were made, and then loaded onto cars and sent to Heishan City and New Huai'an, as a benefit to improve the diet, distributed to officials and marines soldiers, and artisans.

Bu Chuncheng had the courage to propose to the person in charge of the workshop that he could make these bad-looking syrups into white sugar.

The person in charge of the workshop immediately gave him several craftsmen to try out white sugar with him.

In less than 10 minutes, Bu Chuncheng used yellow mud water to separate the black slag in the syrup, and made half a barrel of white sugar.

"If there are enough raw materials, how much white sugar can be made in a day?" Qi Tian stretched out his fingers, picked a little white sugar and put it into his mouth, um, it seems that the sugar content is lower than that of later generations.But it doesn't matter, this kind of white sugar must be able to sell for a good price.

"According to the current conditions, it can produce about one hundred barrels a day!" Bu Chuncheng estimated and gave the figure.

One hundred barrels, twenty kilograms per barrel, that is, two tons can be produced a day.

"Well, let's do it. If you feel that the equipment and tools in the workshop need to be added and improved, you can report it to Lao Sun." Qi Tian pointed to the person in charge of the workshop beside him, and said.

Turning around and leaving the sugar factory, Qi Tian decided to go to Pan Qifeng and discuss with him about expanding the sugarcane planting area. The current 1000 mu of sugarcane planted is obviously not enough.

Since Hanzhou can produce white sugar of such a quality, it can be regarded as an important "export earning foreign exchange" product.For this reason, more raw materials must be provided.

(End of this chapter)