The huge windmill blades on the mill rotate slowly,
In autumn, not far from the Wujia Round Fort, five tall windmills stand. Under the huge wind blades are a mill, an oil pressing mill, a sawmill, a dye grinding mill, and a paper mill.
In the oil mill, the fan blades drive the rollers to squeeze peanut oil.
The groundnuts that were just harvested this year were shelled and stir-fried in a large earthen stove. They were then ground into powder in a grinding trough, steamed in a large steamer, and then wrapped in straw to make cakes. Finally, the cakes were made one by one.
Put it into the oil trench, add a wedge, and keep hitting it with the impact barrel to squeeze out the oil bit by bit...
Very strong fragrance,
Stir-fry, grind, steam, press,
The golden oil flows down like a thread and connects to the oil barrel below.
With the help of windmill power, the efficiency of the oil mill has been greatly improved, and it is more stable and efficient than hydraulic power.
"This peanut oil is golden and the heat is well controlled,"
Wu Huaiyu went around the oil mill, frying, grinding, steaming and squeezing. Every step was controlled by an expert. Just like this stir-frying, the cookedness of the fried peanuts is different, and the color of the peanuts is different. The more cooked they are, the darker they are. But if they are overcooked,
, the oil will have a bitter taste.
Grinding the powder is relatively simple. Just grind it as finely as possible. It can be steamed and made into a dough. It also requires a lot of skills. You need to pour the hot powder just out of the pot into the iron ring while it is hot, and quickly wrap it with straw.
Making cakes is a very hot job, so you can only do it with your bare arms, and stepping on the dough is very labor-intensive.
"So oily."
"How much oil does it produce?"
"It's very high. If you choose good quality peanuts, it can reach 50%. One pound of peanuts and half a pound of oil. If you haven't chosen, it can usually reach about 40%."
One catty is sixteen taels, and half a catty is eight taels.
This oil yield rate is really very high. After repeated squeezing, every drop of oil is squeezed out.
The oil cake is pressed to an extremely tight state,
The steward of the oil shop told Huaiyu that now the oil shop is almost open all year round. The main oils in the workshop are peanut, rapeseed, soybean, flax, sesame, linseed, sunflower seed, and even camellia oleifera and cottonseed oil.
"Which one has the highest oil yield?"
"The highest one is flax oil, which can reach a maximum oil yield of 55%, followed by peanuts, which can reach 50%, rapeseed, which can reach about 45%, sunflower seeds, which can reach 40%, cottonseed, which has about 25%, and camellia oleifera.
It’s only a little over 20%, and for soybeans, it’s only over 10%.”
The oil yield rates of various oil crops are different. Generally speaking, among the Wu family's most commonly processed products, flax is still the most commonly processed. Sesame has the highest oil yield rate, followed closely by peanuts.
However, the yield per mu of flax is relatively low, while that of peanuts, rapeseed, and sunflower is higher.
Nowadays, soybeans and flax are mostly grown in Datang, especially soybeans are planted in high quantities.
However, the oil yield rate of soybeans is low.
In addition, camellia oleifera is only grown in the south, and it is also in the mountains. The Wu family now purchases camellia oleifera seeds in the south every autumn, processes and presses most of them directly there, and also transports some to the north.
Walking in the oil mill with a strong fragrance, you can feel the money scene here.
Oil is expensive,
It is more profitable to press and sell oil,
Although many ordinary people cannot afford oil at ordinary times, and a few drops of oil in cooking are good, but the world is peaceful and life is getting better and better, the demand for oil is also increasing. Restaurants, restaurants and even early night snack stalls all need it.
lots of cooking oil,
Even lighting is still dominated by oil lamps.
The oil mill under the huge windmill not only has a processing workshop, but also has a warehouse and counter next to it. It also directly serves as a retail and wholesale business.
Not only selling various oils, but also oil cakes.
These pressed various oil cakes are still excellent things. Peanut, sesame, and soybean cakes are all good for making feed. They can even be used to satisfy hunger in small amounts when you are hungry.
Basically, all oil cakes can be used as fertilizer and are excellent organic fertilizers.
Even after the tea oil cake is hammered into powder, it can also be used to medicine fish. When poured into streams and fish ponds, the fish medicine can be turned over.
It can also be used to wash and condition your hair.
In front of the large counter in the shop, many oil merchants, vendors and even nearby villagers lined up to buy oil. The Wu family has its own oil shop, and oil is also sold in department stores in many cities. Some big cities even have their own specialized oil shops.
, and also wholesale and retail some in oil shops, mainly selling lower quality ones.
Of course, we will also sell some fried cakes in small quantities.
The Wu family themselves have a great demand for oil cakes, which are used as breeding feed and fertilizer for planting.
"There are some clever villagers nearby who will come to us to buy two barrels of oil during the off-season, and then carry them around the village to sell them. Although it is hard work, they can still make some money."
These oil sellers in the villages have flexible trading methods. People can exchange grains or other local products for oil. This kind of trading method is more profitable for the oil sellers. It is also convenient for the people to go to the countryside, and they can earn a lot of money.
It’s hard-earned money,
But as the steward said, it has indeed provided many nearby people with an additional way to make money. This can be regarded as a way of relying on the mountain. If you rely on the oil mill, you can become an oil seller.
Like cotton, peanuts and sunflower seeds are new crops brought by Wu Huaiyu. They are all good oil crops and even great snacks.
Of these oils in oil shops now, the most expensive ones are naturally camellia oil, then peanut oil, then flax oil, and the cheapest ones are rapeseed oil and soybean oil.
This year, the Wu family began to extract oil from cottonseed, but the extracted oil was not used for consumption.
To be honest, the oil yield of peanuts is much higher than that of soybeans, and even the yield per mu is higher, but harvesting and processing is more troublesome.
The steward brought the oil mill's account book and happily reported the oil mill's income.
Very high, very high.
In the past, oil mills and mills were originally two processing industries monopolized by rural landowners. They were a profitable business, and they did not even require much investment, and they made huge profits.
The Wu family's oil mill uses windmill power, which is more efficient, and the Wu family has a great reputation. In addition, the business has always been relatively honest, so the oil mill almost never stops, purchasing various oil crops and processing them all year round.
Other small workshops only press a handful of oil during the slack season, but the Wu family presses all year round, and there is even more than one oil press. The workers in the workshop are all employed year-round.
"The oil mill can still be expanded. We are completely overwhelmed right now, and all kinds of oil are in short supply."
The Wu family is not limited to this oil mill, but the manager feels that the oil mill in Longqiao can be expanded.
The manager is ambitious and even wants to expand several times. By then, the peanut oil mill, rapeseed oil mill, flax oil mill, soybean oil mill, cottonseed oil mill, etc. will all be separate."
"Build a separate cottonseed oil pressing mill, and then build a big windmill," Wu Huaiyu said. Although cottonseed oil is edible, after all, later generations found that traditional oil pressing mills would make cottonseed oil contain some toxins that may make men infertile.
For food use, use it specifically to make soap.
People in Chang'an like to eat sesame oil.
Flax pancakes are a delicacy favored by everyone from emperors to common people, and flax oil goes perfectly with mutton, but again, ordinary people can't afford much oil in a month, let alone sesame oil.
During the period of turmoil in the world, it was also the period of greatest food shortage. During this period, staple foods were not enough, let alone other things.
There are few oil crops, little natural oil, and high prices.
Generally speaking, the Tang Dynasty has had several consecutive years of bumper harvests. The world is stable, agriculture has recovered, and food rations are basically sufficient. Although many people are still hungry, this is not a problem of supply, but of purchasing power.
The problem is not that there is no food on the market, but that many people are poor and lack purchasing power.
When grain has entered a period of stable supply, and even started to oversupply, grain prices have been falling year by year. In the past two years, with the support of the imperial court, grain prices have been slowly recovering. Now the grain price in Chang'an has basically remained at five cents per millet.
A dou of rice costs about eighty-nine qian.
is still at its lowest level in recent decades,
This situation has also prompted some landowners with large amounts of land to start changing the types of food they grow. They are sensitive to the change and found that they no longer just grow food, but start growing cash crops, oil crops, soybeans, rape, flax, and even
Plant medicinal materials, cotton and linen, vegetables, etc.
When food is no longer in short supply and prices are low, the demand for other oil crops, medicinal materials, vegetables, cotton and linen, etc., is still huge or even growing, and the prospects are still excellent.
The income gap between growing grain and growing other things is getting wider and wider.
However, for most ordinary people, they still mainly grow food, and then grow some mulberry and hemp. First, they still need to be self-sufficient in food and clothing.
They have too little land in their hands, and most of them still rent land, and they have to pay a lot of rent.
Now the Wu family's own land is reducing the planting area of grain every year. The suburban fields are mainly used for growing vegetables. Now they even start to rotate cotton and rice, corn and wheat, soybeans and wheat, rape and rice, mainly to increase the output value and efficiency.
.
The Wu family now encourages its tenants or neighbors to plant some cash crops on the premise of ensuring food rations, such as rapeseed, flax, peanuts, and even sunflower seeds, soybeans, and cotton.
Plant one acre of these and sell them to the Wu family after harvest. The income is much higher than that of traditional grains.
There was a young man working in the oil shop, shirtless, when an old man selling oil at the door called him,
"Mr. Wu."
This is a father and son, and they are from Longqiao. Both of them were very excited when they saw Wu Huaiyu.
"Uncle Qian, is this your son Qian Erlang?"
The oil seller was very excited. He used to be an official slave, but later he rewarded Wu Huaiyu. If he performed well in the Wu family, he was rewarded and exempted once, which became a part of the Wu family.
Although it is a branch of the Wu family and is still affiliated with the Wu family, the Wu family gives them a lot of freedom. In fact, Lao Qian's family is the tenants of the Wu family. The Wu family provides land for livestock, seeds and fertilizer, and Lao Qian's family provides people to help cultivate the fields.
divided into.
They do not have their own household registration and are affiliated with the Wu family. Their status is tribal. They have been exempted once, but they still have low status. They must be exempted again to become free and good people.
The Wu family does a good job with its guest ladies and so on. Most of the tribes are actually tenants, long-term workers, or servants of the Wu family. Compared with slaves and maids, the difference is still very big.
For example, Lao Qian's family and the Wu family farm dozens of acres of land. They only need to cultivate their own land. The other Wu families do not interfere. They farm the land, pay rent, and are dependent on the Wu family. They do not even need to pay taxes.
service,
Lao Wu even let his second son work as a long-term worker in the oil mill to earn some money. He also came to the oil mill to sell oil and hawked it in the countryside to earn some money during the off-farm season.
The Wu family will not interfere with their income, let alone take a commission.
In fact, Lao Qian's family is very satisfied with their current status. Now they always hear that the imperial court will abolish the status of bureau, guest daughter, and tenant. In the future, they will either be slaves or good men. There is no such thing as freeing slaves.
, but is not considered a good person yet, he will become a good person directly after being released from prison. Even if he has no property, he can still be registered as a customer and have his own household registration, so he will not be inferior to others.
But after hearing this, Lao Qian was not excited or happy about such a good thing. He thought it would be good to make a Wu family song.
Lao Qian came to the oil shop to sell oil again today, and met and chatted with his son. The load of oil he had sold earlier had been sold out, and he was in a good mood.
"Is the oil easy to sell?"
"Thanks to my husband, I sell oil from the oil mill. I don't need to pay money first. It's all recorded in the account." Lao Qian is a bureaucracy and a landless tenant. He even has cattle, farm tools, shelter, etc.
It was all provided by the Wu family after he was released, so he paid more rent for his share of the land.
There wasn't much left, but Lao Qian was quite content. After all, he had been freed from slavery and had nothing. To be able to get a piece of land from the Wu family and work together to farm it was a great blessing.
When the farmer came to sell oil in his spare time, the Wu family gave him a reward, allowing him to record the oil in his account first, and then pay for it after the oil was sold. In his case, he owed a huge debt of gratitude. You must know that Chang'an City
Although some businesses will have such a cooperation model with merchants, it must be guaranteed, and even this kind of borrowing goods first, selling them and then paying them back will have high interest rates.
The interest the Wu family charged him was extremely low, otherwise Old Wu would have nothing to earn from selling oil.
"Can I make money?" asked a young man next to Huaiyu,
Old Qian didn't know who this young man was. He thought he was a student of Xianggong Wu or a brother of the clan. He said respectfully, "The oil shop will lend me the goods. I promise to give you money after selling them. I only charge a little interest and can still make some hard work."
money,
The main reason is that our oil is good and has a good reputation. Look at my oil pick. The words Wu Family on the two oil jars are not for nothing. The apricot yellow flag with the word Wu on my back when walking through the village is not ordinary.
, with these few words of "武", he will be trusted by the people in the countryside wherever he goes, and the oil will be easy to sell."
The old money seller's method of selling oil is to get goods from the Wu family on credit, and then go to the countryside to sell them. They mainly exchange oil for goods, food, cloth, various medicinal materials, chicken feathers, duck feathers, turtle shells, chickens, rabbit skins, etc., and then pick them back and deliver them.
The Wu family's department store was sold, and after getting the money back, he returned to the Youfang to pay back the purchase price, and then added a not-so-high interest.
Although it is very hard to carry oil poles to the countryside, you can earn some money during the trip, which is actually good compared to the hard work of digging in the soil.
His second son is now working as a long-term worker in an oil mill, where he gets paid monthly and gets bonuses for good performance. The old man feels that he is very ambitious. The family has already married the eldest son a wife, and is now saving money for the second son to marry a wife.
"Old Qian, I have something to tell you. Now there is a decree from the imperial court. Those who were exempted once by official and private slaves and became servants, guests, and tenants must now be granted the status of husbands and register.
After naturalization, even if you don’t own a house or land, you can be registered as a customer, and you don’t have to worry about renting or adjusting.”
"Old Qian, if you have time, go to Wujia Yuanbao to find the steward, go through the formalities, register your household registration, and be registered as a customer."
Before he finished speaking, the old man knelt down. The old oil seller felt as if he were mourning his heir, "Alang, don't drive the younger one out. The younger one doesn't want to leave the Wu family."
"Little, little, I am willing to hand over half of the money I earn from selling oil and the money my second son earns from working to my husband... I beg your husband not to kick us out,"
"Old Qian, get up quickly and tell him what you have to say," Huaiyu pulled him, but the old man hugged Huaiyu's legs and refused to get up. He cried very sadly and was very frightened.
It was as if he suddenly became a bereaved dog that was kicked out of the house.
Prince Cheng Qian stood aside and looked at this scene in surprise. Lao Qian was originally a member of the Wu family who was spared once. He was once an official slave. Now he has the opportunity to gain the favor of the court and become a free man and a client.
But he actually reacted like this,
This was different from what he imagined.
Old man Qian is free. Shouldn't he be bursting with gratitude and very happy? Why are he still unwilling?
