In December of the 26th year of the Qin Dynasty, Anlu County in the south was also very cold, but a workshop located a few miles away from the county seat was still billowing with smoke.
As soon as Heifu, who was wearing thick fur, got inside, he felt a wave of heat: everyone inside was wearing summer clothes and working, and they were still sweating from the heat, and there was a sweet smell of sugarcane in the air.
fragrant.
"Chief Zuo is here!"
A voice that sounded sweeter than sucrose sounded, but it was Heifu's distant cousin "Yan".
He was originally a hawker who made a living by making candies in Yunmengxiang, but now he relied on Heifu's investment to transform himself into the owner of this brown sugar workshop.
Dozens of his men also saw Heifu at this time, and they all dropped what they were doing, hurriedly knelt on the ground, and nodded to Heifu.
"Quickly excuse me, it's important to watch the heat!"
Hei Fu was helpless. He arrived in Jiangling in November, sent Li Younan to Changsha in the middle of the month, and sent Ye Teng's family north to Xianyang at the end of the month. Although Hei Fu, who had been single for a long time, coveted the Ye family girl, he couldn't follow her.
Go, the instructions he received from the King of Qin told him to arrive before February, and there was still time to return home.
When he returned to his hometown this time, he could feel the treatment received by provincial and national leaders who came from small counties in later generations when they returned to their hometowns. The Anlu County Magistrate Yong He who worked with Heifu has been transferred, and the new county magistrate and county magistrate
, the county lieutenants, regardless of their image as national cadres, went out of the city gate to greet him, and the officials who had known each other also lined up to get close to Hei Futao...
Heifu finally got rid of them, and returned to his newly moved home with his brother Zhong two years ago. What followed were village officials and elders who almost broke through the door. Heifu finally got tired of it and simply stopped visiting.
The only people he invited to his home were Dongmen Bao, Li Xian, Xiao Tao, and Ji Ying's family members. Heifu apologized to them, saying that he had caused everyone to be unable to return home, but he would definitely try his best to find a way to let them go home.
Subordinates have the opportunity to return to their hometowns to visit relatives, or send their family members to Nanchang and other places as soon as possible.
Heifu also personally went to each township and asked the three elders of the township to help him gather the families of the soldiers who were marching to the south, entertain them at a banquet, and tell them something.
"It is hard to disobey the king's order, so I have to go to Xianyang to wait for the call. But Heifu will never leave Anlu's thousands and five hundred descendants alone! I bought two large ships in Jiangling, which can carry hundreds of people, and they go back and forth every month.
Once in Xiakou, Xunyang, and Pengze, all soldiers and their family members who want to visit relatives can come and go for free as long as they show their certificates and biographies!"
As soon as these words came out, the Anlu people who originally had some complaints against Heifu were shocked and moved to tears. Some elderly elders at home often scolded Heifu for abducting their children and never returning.
At this moment, she held his hand tightly and was very excited.
"Although the county captain has become the chief of Zuo Shu, he still does not forget the children of this county and regards us as township party members..."
After gaining the understanding of his fellow soldiers and family members, Hei Fu felt that he had spent so much money well worth it!
The reward from the King of Qin, the plunder of the Chu State Treasury and Lord E and Lord Fanyang, plus the "fire consumption" of the gold mines, Heifu now has a net worth of one hundred yi, which can be converted into half a tael, which is worth more than one million
!
But just those two big ships cost Heifu one-third of his property and gave them to two Jiangling boatmen introduced to him by Zhao Tuo to make the bows...
Of course, these two ships not only carry people, but also transport seeds, farm tools, cloth, grain and other items in Nanjun and Yuzhang. Don't say that these are legitimate goods. Even if Heifu wants to bring some contraband, Peng Lize is responsible for
In defense and checkpoints, Zhao Tuo is Heifu's brother and will let him go with a wave of his hand.
In addition to the two large ships, Heifu took out another third of the gold and opened this brown sugar workshop near Anlu County.
At the beginning of winter, he had planted more than ten hectares of sugar cane and harvested it. In addition to the wild sugar cane he had found by Yunmeng Zebian and planted for three or four years, which had been slightly improved, Heifu also had some wild sugar cane from Jiangling Chu during his tenure in Jiangling.
The variety found in the Wangjiu Palace. After all, it was the sugar cane used to extract juice for King Chu to drink. It is much sweeter than wild sugar cane.
In this way, it is possible for the brown sugar workshop to operate.
Outside the workshop, more than a dozen cows or poor horses are pulling wooden mills and squeezing them repeatedly in circles to squeeze out the sugar juice in the sugar cane, which is then carried into the workshop by young men. They are all soldiers from the South who were hired by Heifu to help during the off-farm period.
My son, if you take care of two meals a day and still get money, this can be regarded as dividing the profits between the black husband and the soldiers and their families.
In the workshop, there are more than a dozen stoves and cauldrons lined up in a row. During the time when the sugar is boiling, the entire stove is constantly burning and simmering. The fire master constantly adds firewood to the stove to ensure that the sugar boils.
The firepower is stable during the sugar boiling process.
Several sugar boilers trained by Heifu's cousin Yan first steamed, filtered and sterilized the freshly squeezed sugarcane juice to remove impurities and residues in the sugarcane juice, and then poured them into the cauldron, up and down.
Stir constantly.
Under the boiling fire, the water in the cane juice was evaporated, and the sugar juice slowly condensed and turned into amber color. It floated in the cauldron and exuded a sweet smell. Finally, the master put out the fire at the bottom of the cauldron.
Then scoop the steaming brown sugar juice into the wooden trough and flow into the "sugar tray" to settle and cool, forming brown sugar lumps...
Tasting the freshly baked brown sugar, Heifu nodded with satisfaction, and asked about the sugar yield rate. Yan told him: "Just now, we boiled 50 jins of brown sugar out of 1,000 jins of sugar cane."
When they first made sugar three years ago, the sugar yield was about 2%. It took thousands of kilograms of sugar cane to produce twenty kilograms of brown sugar.
Now, after using the new varieties from Jiangling, the sugar yield rate has reached 5%. Although it is still far from the ten or twenty percent common in later generations, it is already a great improvement.
At present, more than two million kilograms of sugar cane have been harvested, which can produce ten thousand kilograms of brown sugar...
Yan anxiously asked Heifu about the expected price, and Heifu gave him three different prices.
"Anlu can be sold for a hundred yuan. Folks in the countryside don't want to make money. Jiangling needs to be sold for a hundred and fifty yuan to earn costs and freight. If it is sold to Xianyang or Guandong..."
Hei Fu was cruel and called out a price: "Depending on the distance, two hundred to four hundred dollars! No less! If we sell them all, it will cost five hundred dollars!"
Yan almost bit his tongue. He calculated the accounts secretly. After including the cost of planting sugar cane and boiling sugar, it was only fifty yuan per catty. Hei Fu was too cruel.
However, in Heifu’s view, even in the 18th and 19th centuries, sugar was a luxury product, not a necessity. That’s why American plantations were so profitable. What’s wrong with setting your own price? If you can make white sugar in the future, the price will have to be doubled.
Times!
Moreover, the common malt candies these days are not cheap either. The main reason is that they are produced from grains, the output is small, and the government does not promote them. Chinese families cannot eat them several times a year.
Brown sugar is different. Sugar cane is easy to grow, and sugar is boiled during the off-farm season. There are plenty of hands. This is still the first year, and every year after that, Heifu plans to expand production, so that when people in the world think of Anlu, they will think of brown sugar, and their mouths will be full of sweetness.
taste!
Rather than the birthplace of public toilets, and the vague smell...
He has made up his mind: "I will set off for Xianyang in the middle of the twelfth lunar month. You must save at least two thousand kilograms before then, follow me northward, and find a way to sell brown sugar in Xianyang!"
In the Qin State, every workshop, shop, and stall, whether rented or purchased, must have a clear owner. This can facilitate tax collection and avoid inheritance disputes.
For example, Heifu's subordinate Man told him that there was an open space in Jiangling Government Store. Some people once asked him to rent it as a coffin shop, but Man refused. Later, he was accused of secretly bribing the operation, and there was a quarrel.
A case of "Rui stealing and selling public land" came out...
At the same time, government officials are not allowed to do business blatantly, so Heifu owns this property in his mother's name.
Although according to Confucianism, wives have no selfless goods, no selfless beasts, no private weapons, they dare not take private leave, and they dare not take private possessions. But in the Qin State, women undoubtedly have property rights.
For example, according to the "inheritance law" of the Qin State, if the black husband unfortunately dies, his property must first be passed on to his son, that is, his son. Of course, he is still a bachelor now and has no wife, so how can he have a son?
Male? So next, it is the turn of "treating the father as if he were the mother". If both parents are dead, then it is the turn of the widow, daughter, grandson, and brothers.
Furthermore...could it be that the Great Qin only allowed Ba's widow Qing Qing to dig mines, but not Anlu's old woman to make sugar?
Heifu's mother only cared about the radishes, mallows, onions and leeks in the field. During the meal, she was shocked when she heard that Heifu had put a property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in his name. She felt like she was sleeping all night
I couldn't sleep well and said Hei Fu might as well take the money to Xianyang.
"Maybe give him more room for shock. He is in Jiangnan. I feel pitiful just thinking about it." The mother felt sorry for her little son and was about to wipe away her tears again.
Hei Fu hurriedly comforted her and said: "I went to Xianyang, and it did cost a lot. It was far from enough to just rely on salary and the harvest of the fields, so I had to buy some properties in Nanjun and Yuzhang. I would like to work there."
, you can also take care of me."
"Are you planning to plant sugar cane and extract sugar in Yuzhang?" Zhong responded.
"Of course."
Heifu said to his brother sincerely: "The climate in Yuzhang is hotter than that in Nanjun, and it is also suitable for growing sugar cane. I have forty-nine hectares of land in Nanchang, leaving a few hectares to grow taxable grain, and the rest to grow sugar cane. Wait until tomorrow autumn and winter.
We will also open a brown sugar workshop in Nanchang and sell exclusively to Huainan and Kuaiji. Excluding costs, freight, and hiring fees, the two workshops combined will make a net profit of one million yuan every year, which should not be a problem!"
"Millions of dollars!"
Both Zhong and his mother were a little frightened. The mother kept talking about how people could not take anything with them when they died, so why did they earn so much? At the same time, she reminded Heifu: "You are now the chief of Zuo Shu, and the whole county has never
No one who has ever produced such a noble person dares to marry you, but you are not young yet, and you are already married to Lady Yan. Isn't it time for you to get married?"
The more her mother talked, the angrier she became, and finally she pointed at eleven-year-old Yang and said, "Is it going to take longer than Yang?"
The older young man Heifu smiled and said: "My mother can rest assured about my marriage. Heifu has already fallen in love with a lady..."
"Is this true?"
As soon as this statement came out, the whole family was shocked, and the mother was so happy that she almost cried. She always thought that her son's vision was too high, and he didn't like this one and didn't like that one. Zhong Ze and his sister-in-law looked at each other and were very relieved.
Niece Yue opened her eyes wide and wanted to know who the lucky woman could be attracted by Uncle Zhong.
Only Yang raised his head and said in surprise: "I thought that Uncle Zhong would stay single forever, and would not get married unless he became a general, or made a marquis!" Hei Fu's ambition had also been mentioned to his family members.
"You've always been single!"
Heifu stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth. When his family asked, he pretended to regret and said: "It's just that she just went to Xianyang with her family, so I can only wait until she gets to Xianyang before considering asking for marriage."
thing……"
This rhetoric finally suppressed the family's new round of forced marriage.
The military career has come to an end, and marriage is indeed on the agenda. Although Heifu has managed his lower body rationally in the past few years, it will not be a problem if he continues to be single and only rely on his left and right hands.
Rather than marrying a woman whom you have never met and whose appearance and temperament you have never met like many people do in this era, it is better to start with a good cabbage that you have some good feelings for and has already grown up!
These days, it’s rare for aristocratic women to be polite to a black guy from Guizhou, and even say something like, “You should be proud of your meritorious service, and don’t be ashamed of not having a family name.”…
Furthermore, if this matter can be accomplished, it will also be profitable for Heifu. Although Ye Teng has a bad reputation in Korea, he has been operating in Jiangling for seven years. It is not an exaggeration to say that "his disciples and former officials are all over Nanjun"
.And now, those subordinates promoted by Ye Teng have dispersed to Jiujiang, Changsha, Dongting and other counties.
Thinking of this, Heifu set a small goal for his trip to Xianyang, which will start tomorrow.
"A husband should be worth two thousand dan, and a wife should be married to Ye Zijin!"