As the sugar cane harvest began, Li Yuanshan, the person in charge of Ryukyu City, became extremely busy.
He first came to the sugar cane juice pressing area.
Because the main economic crops in Ryukyu City are sugar cane, Liu Jindu has no intention of changing this, at least in the next few years.
Therefore, a large-scale juicing area and sugar boiling area were specially built here in Ryukyu Castle to squeeze juice and boil sugar.
In the juicing area, all the juicing machines have been shipped from Tianjin in the past month. These machines were designed by Liu Jin using Golden Finger, and they are all manual juicing machines.
The sugar cane is inserted from one end, and then the gear is continuously rotated. As the gear rotates, the sugar cane will be squeezed by the machine, and juice can be extracted naturally.
There is naturally no comparison between this gear juicer and various advanced juicers of later generations, but it is a very advanced machine in this era.
The ability to manufacture these machines, in addition to golden fingers, is actually mainly due to the fact that Miyun Iron Works has begun to produce high-quality gears.
Utilizing the rotation of this wheel of the machine and the linkage between the large and small gears, this new type of juicer is not only very labor-saving, but more importantly, it can squeeze out the juice from the sugar cane.
In the juice extraction area, hundreds of juicers are working continuously. With the rotation of the machine, the sugar cane is crushed very quickly, and the sugar cane juice inside is also squeezed out.
The juice machines are connected to each other, and the squeezed sugar cane juice is collected into a pool through the water tank.
"It's still too slow~"
Li Yuanshan watched hundreds of juicers being busy. A juicer is controlled by two people. One person is responsible for transporting the sugar cane, and the other person is responsible for turning the machine. Naturally, the efficiency is far behind that of cutting sugar cane outside.
Speed, so the juice pressing area is already filled with mountains of sugar cane.
"It seems that two shifts will be implemented, and people will have to work overtime in the evening. The recovered sugar cane must be squeezed into juice and boiled into sugar as soon as possible."
"In addition, these juicers alone are not enough. We must use soil juicers. We need to make some soil juicers as soon as possible."
Li Yuanshan looked at the busy scene and thought quickly in his mind.
As the person in charge of Ryukyu City, although he does not need to do these physical tasks, managing such a huge Ryukyu City is not an easy task.
What's more important is that he knows very well that the value of Ryukyu City is mainly reflected in the sucrose. How much sugar can be boiled is very important.
It is not only related to the return on investment of many shareholders of Ryukyu City, but also related to the year-end bonus of Li Yuanshan and many managers of Ryukyu City. Whether everyone can have a good year depends on the harvest of these sugar canes.
Currently, there is a bumper harvest of sugarcane. With 30,000 acres of sugarcane fields, the sugarcane production is very good and the sweetness is very high. Sugarcane planting is considered a success.
Now it’s time to look at the last step, squeeze the juice and boil the sugar. The next month or so will be very busy.
Soon, Li Yuanshan also began to make arrangements. People who knew carpentry here in Ryukyu City began to make a soil juicer. The traditional juicer is very simple. It is a stool with a movable wooden root on it. It uses a wooden pole to squeeze the sugar cane and extract juice.
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Naturally, this kind of soil juicer cannot be compared with the gear juicer, but it is simple to make. The key is that now, there is a bumper harvest of sugar cane here. The harvested sugar cane must be boiled into sugar as soon as possible. Time is tight, so the soil is not taken into account.
The question is whether the juicer can squeeze the juice cleanly.
As the machine rotates, each sugar cane is continuously being crushed, and the sugar cane juice continuously flows into the pool below. Next to the pool, someone is carrying buckets of sugar cane juice and walking towards the sugar boiling area on the side.
After Li Yuanshan inspected the juice pressing area, he also came to the sugar boiling area. Compared to the bustle of the juicer, the sugar boiling area seemed much deserted.
For the sake of technical confidentiality, all the people working in the sugar-making area are stewards, and they have all signed confidentiality agreements, so that the technology of making sugar cannot be leaked.
Here in the sugar boiling area, large pots are boiling with steam, and at the same time, beside the large pots, the stewards who are boiling sugar are constantly stirring.
Boiling sugar is a laborious task, and the entire process requires constant stirring to prevent the sugar from burning.
"Don't forget to keep stirring. The sugar in this pot is worth a lot of money. Once it gets burnt, you will suffer a big loss."
Li Yuanshan kept looking at the large pots. At this time, the place was filled with the fragrance of new sugar, which was sweet but not greasy, making people want to eat it.
Li Yuanshan focused on learning about boiling sugar. When Liu Jin was in Tianjin, he trained the stewards who came to Ryukyu City and compiled special teaching materials on boiling sugar.
There is no way, sugar is really expensive in this era, and only the truly rich can afford it.
There is a huge amount of investment in Ryukyu City, which includes not only Liu Jin's shares, but also the shares of Emperor Hongzhi, Prince Zhu Houzhao, Zhang Mao and others.
Liu Jin had also boasted about Haikou beforehand. It would definitely be profitable to boil this kind of sugar cane into sugar, so he also paid great attention to this sugar.
Li Yuanshan knew this clearly, so he couldn't help but warn everyone who was making sugar.
"Don't worry ~ we all know ~"
Many of the stewards who cooked the sweets also nodded their heads.
This has come to the last moment. They don't want to be careless. This is related to their year-end bonus.
"Lao Li, come and take a look at our newly brewed brown sugar. It's really good, sweet but not greasy. It's definitely the best brown sugar~"
The general manager in charge of boiling sugar is named Zhang En. He used to be a senior chef who boiled sugar. He was recruited by Liu Jin with a high salary to be responsible for boiling sugar.
At this time, he held a few pieces of newly boiled brown sugar, handed it to Li Yuanshan with a smile and said.
"Hmm~ It's really good~"
Li Yuanshan took the brown sugar and tasted it carefully. It tasted quite good and the sweetness was very high. The quality of the sugar cane here in Ryukyu is really good. There is enough light and rain, which is very suitable for the growth of sugar cane.
Coupled with proper management, these sugar canes are of high quality, and the brown sugar produced is naturally also very good.
"Has the snow sugar been boiled yet?"
Li Yuanshan thought for a while and asked.
Although brown sugar is very good, there are still a lot of impurities in brown sugar, which is far inferior to white sugar. Brown sugar is only the most elementary product. On the basis of brown sugar, white sugar can also be boiled.
The price of white sugar is many times higher than that of brown sugar. Liu Jin, who pursues economic value, will naturally not miss it.
Moreover, it is extremely inconvenient to travel between Ryukyu and Tianjin. Naturally, in order to maximize the value, transporting sugar cane is not as good as transporting brown sugar, and transporting brown sugar is not as good as transporting white sugar. Naturally, it is necessary to boil all the sugar cane juice into white sugar and then transport it back to the Beijing and Tianjin areas for sale.
"I've survived, I'll take you to see~"
Zhang En nodded, and then led Li Yuanshan to the back of the sugar-making area in a slightly mysterious manner. The sugar-making area was originally the core area, and ordinary people couldn't enter. The back was specially used to make white sugar, which is snow.
In the sugar area, the core area among the core areas, only a few people can go here.
Soon, under the leadership of Zhang En, Li Yuanshan arrived at the snow candy making area at the back.
Brown sugar still has impurities, and after removing the impurities, it can be refined into white sugar with a sugar content of more than 95%. This method did not appear for the first time until the late Ming Dynasty.
Liu Jin, who has a golden finger, naturally knows this method. He uses the lime method and lime milk to remove impurities in the sugarcane juice, and he can naturally boil white sugar with a high sugar content.
"Look~ look, these snow candies are so beautiful, with fine particles and crystal clear. The key is that the sweetness is very high and the taste is very pure. I have been making sugar all my life. This is definitely the best sugar I have ever seen.
~”
Zhang En held out a handful of snow candy and couldn't help but admire it.
“It’s indeed very good~”
Li Yuanshan picked it up, observed it carefully, tasted it carefully, and was instantly conquered by the sweetness.
"How much do you think a pound of snow candy like this can be sold for?"
After thinking for a while, Li Yuanshan asked.
"Snow candy like this is definitely the best candy on the market. I estimate that even if it sells for five taels of silver per pound, there will be no problem at all."
Zhang En not only boils sugar, but also knows the prices of various sugars very well. Such high-quality snow sugar is not something ordinary people can afford. It is definitely a luxury product and costs several taels of silver per pound.
