(Already signed, starting from today there will be updates every day!)

In front of the south gate of the city, just as the vendors said, there was a small market, but there were only five or six vendors. One butcher, two vegetable vendors, plus a few vendors selling groceries, they only sold

Some simple vegetables and daily necessities.

Zhao Fuxiang looked at it for a few times and lost interest, but after thinking about it, he understood that Suocheng is a small town with thousands of people, and its purchasing power is naturally limited. In this era, who doesn't have some open space in front of and behind the house to plant some seasonal crops?

The vegetables are also reasonable, and not many people go out to buy vegetables every day.

Zhao Fuxiang looked at the pork. It must have been slaughtered for a few days, and the quality was obviously wrong. Zhao Fuxiang didn't want to spoil his stomach and had to give up. However, the vegetables were very fresh. Zhao Fuxiang spent two cents to buy a bunch of various vegetables.

After tying the vegetables with straw ropes, Zhao Fuxiang was carrying them home with his hands. At this time, he saw a vendor carrying a load. In addition to selling some needles, thread, and some yellow-brown bricks, he could smell a smell from a distance.

Sweet.

Zhao Fuxiang thought it was chocolate, but when he walked in, he realized that it was not delicate chocolate. It had a rough surface, about the size of a palm, and was rectangular. Because of the sweetness, there were a few flies on it, and the vendor was constantly trying to chase them away.

These nasty flies.

Seeing Zhao Fuxiang's interest, the vendor quickly asked: "How many pieces of candy are you going to buy for your children?"

Sugar residue? Zhao Fuxiang picked up a piece and looked at it carefully. It turned out that this thing was made from crushed dregs. Zhao Fuxiang broke off a piece and licked it. It had some sweetness, but it was not as high as white sugar. It was probably stronger than sugar cane.

Zhao Fuxiang asked: "What is this? Is it made of sugar cane?"

"Yes, this is sugar residue produced in Xuwen. People there squeeze sugar cane juice to make molasses, and what is left is sugar residue!"

Zhao Fuxiang's eyes lit up when he saw this thing. White sugar is a commodity more valuable than salt. I don't know if there was white sugar as white as snow in the Ming Dynasty. If not, you can use this thing to refine the white sugar yourself, and you can make a huge profit if you resell it.

After Zhao Fuxiang thought about it clearly, he bought half of the pot of brown sugar. It looked like a lot but it was very cheap. Half a pot of two kilograms only cost ten dollars.

After it was over, Zhao Fuxiang no longer wanted to wander around. It was estimated that the West Market had also started delivering goods. Zhao Fuxiang returned to Baisha Village with the shopping.

When he arrived at the door of his house, Zhao Fuxiang saw the whole family gathered together and looked at something. Zhao Fuxiang also squeezed in and asked, "What good thing?"

When Zhao Heng saw his father coming back, he smiled and said: "Dad, grandpa made a filter box according to the picture. What do you think of the filtered well water?"

Zhao Heng scooped half a bowl of water from the canvas bucket and brought it to Zhao Fuxiang. Zhao Fuxiang took the plastic bowl and looked at it. The water was very clear. Although not as clear as mineral water, it was much better than well water. Zhao Fuxiang tried to drink it.

After taking a bite, I felt a slight salty taste, but it was no longer obvious.

"Yes, it should be ready for use after boiling. How did you do it?"

Zhao Heng pointed to the filter box converted from a wooden cylinder and said: "This is simple. According to the settings in the picture, from top to bottom there are one foot of fine sand, six inches of coarse sand, three inches of pebbles, and one layer of brown wood.

Four inches of charcoal, with a layer of banyan wood at the bottom. According to the picture, the bottom layer of banyan wood is the best, but there is no banyan wood on the island. Grandpa said that porous banyan wood will also work. Anyway, the filtered well water is already too strong.

Got it!"

Zhao Fuxiang was afraid of getting a bad stomach, so he didn't dare to drink more of this water, and he also warned his family not to drink raw water.

Zhao Zhikuan was still tinkering with the filter box when he saw Zhao Fuxiang coming back and asked, "What did you buy there?"

Zhao Fuxiang briefly described what he had bought, then took out the basin of sugar residue and asked: "Dad, do you think this is the sugar residue left over from sugar cane extraction?"

Zhao Zhikuan is from Hainan, and Xuwen across the street is the origin of sugar cane, so he naturally knows this kind of thing.

"This is sugar residue. Why is this kind of thing sold in Hainan? In later generations, this stuff was used to feed pigs. Why is this kind of garbage still sold?"

Zhao Fuxiang was overjoyed when he heard the news and said quickly: "Dad, this stuff is very cheap, and I tasted it and it still tastes sweet. Why don't we use this stuff to make sugar and sell it for money?"

After hearing this, Zhao Zhikuan stood up, picked up the sugar residue, tasted it, nodded and said: "It seems that the technology of the Ming Dynasty was not enough. There is still a lot of sugar water left in it. Our current technology cannot build a high-pressure rolling machine, but we can use this sugar residue to make wine."

It’s doable!”

Zhao Fuxiang's heart dropped when he heard what his father said. Although brewing wine was quite profitable, it was too time-consuming, and high profits could not be obtained in a short period of time. So it seemed that purifying salt would be faster.

But when Zhao Fuxiang told him that he had purchased a large amount of sea salt and planned to use it to refine refined salt, Zhao Zhikuan poured cold water on him again.

After hearing what his son said, Zhao Zhikuan frowned and said: "Although I am not a chemical engineer, I still know from basic chemical knowledge that the potassium chloride in sea salt is very difficult to remove. Even if the technology in later generations has improved, the cost of refining sea salt is too high and it requires

Using very pure chemical raw materials, it was impossible to refine salt from sea salt in the Ming Dynasty!"

After hearing what I said, Zhao Fuxiang was still a little dissatisfied and asked: "Dad, isn't the iodized salt we eat in future generations refined from sea salt? It only costs two yuan per bag. Isn't that very cheap?"

"The iodized salt of later generations is not sea salt. It is mineral salt produced in Qinghai. That kind of salt field has very few impurities and can keep the cost very low. Sea salt is mainly industrial salt, so it does not matter whether it contains potassium chloride or not.

It’s important.”

Zhao Fuxiang's imaginary plan to make a fortune was rejected, and he was really disappointed. His mother, Ma Guilan, saw that her son had finally taken it seriously in this life, and did not want to dampen his son's enthusiasm. She advised him: "Son, don't be discouraged. That sugar residue cannot be refined."

, we can buy brown sugar and refine it into white sugar, Lao Zhao, this should be easier!"

Zhao Zhikuan nodded and said: "This is a way, but we don't know if there was pure white sugar in the Ming Dynasty. If the refining cost is too high, the gain will not be worth the loss!"

My mother's words finally gave Zhao Fuxiang renewed confidence. He asked: "Dad, I'm going to deliver bracelets tomorrow. I'm asking if they have brown sugar for sale, and what tools are needed to refine white sugar?"

This stumped Zhao Zhikuan. He knew some chemistry, but he didn’t know what was needed to refine sugar. Fortunately, he still had a notebook, a time-travel artifact. Zhao Heng quickly found the time-travel novels he had read in the offline files. One of them

The ministry provides detailed methods for refining white sugar.

Zhao Zhikuan quickly took out a pen and paper and wrote down the required materials, such as charcoal, lime, iron pot, etc.

At this time, Libang came to deliver the goods. They came to Baisha Village and asked where Zhao Zhai was. The whole Baisha Village was so poor that there was no Zhao Zhai. Finally, the village elder Xu remembered Mr. Zhao who had just arrived.

One family then delivered these delivery sticks to the place.

Seeing the wooden house that was about to fall apart, the leader was obviously stunned. A rich man who could spend hundreds of taels of silver actually lived in such a shabby place. However, the leader did not show it. After all, rich people are very weird. Maybe the rich man is cheap.

You may not necessarily like living here.

The leader stood at the door of the yard and asked: "Is that Uncle Zhao? The goods you bought have been delivered. Where are they placed?"

The Zhao family now has such a dilapidated house, so it is natural to put it in the yard. Zhao Fuxiang originally thought that there was not much, but when he saw the carriage transporting grain, he realized that he was wrong. One hundred shi of grain was so much.

In the Ming Dynasty, one kilogram was equivalent to 596 grams in later generations, one stone and eighty kilograms was equal to 47 kilograms, and one hundred kilograms was more than four meals of food. If placed in the yard, it would be taller than the house. In addition to these, there are also one hundred kilograms of sea salt. Of course, these

Sea salt is nothing compared to grain, and the rest are tools, daily necessities, etc. that Zhao Fuxiang bought, which are so full that the whole yard is filled.

With so many force sticks coming to deliver goods, the whole Baisha Village was alarmed. A group of people stood in the distance and pointed, not knowing what they were talking about.

After the force stick delivered the goods and left, Zhao Fuxiang, who had regained his composure, said calmly: "I didn't expect that there was so much food for one hundred shi, what should I do?"

Zhao Zhikuan looked at the villagers in the distance and said: "Just in time, I will build a brick kiln and burn charcoal according to the drawings in the next few days, so I will use these grains as wages!"

After Zhao Zhikuan finished speaking, he called Xu, the village elder, and said, "Li Chief, how many strong men are there in your village?"

Old Xu summed it up and said: "There are thirty-two Ding men. Does Mr. Zhao want to use manpower?"

"Yes, I'm going to build a brick kiln tomorrow. Each person will receive five kilograms of rice per day and two meals of dry rice. Ask anyone who wants to work here?"

After hearing this, Lao Xu's eyes lit up immediately, and he immediately agreed: "Master Zhao, all the men in our village can come and work for Master Zhao!"

According to the nutrition science of later generations, heavy manual laborers need two to three kilograms of rice every day. Of course, this is the consumption when supplementary foods are available. People in the Ming Dynasty rarely ate supplementary foods containing fat and oil, and their daily energy mainly relied on carbohydrates.

To provide, so at least five kilograms of rice are needed every day.

Zhao Zhikuan calculated the calculation based on everyone having enough to eat, but he didn't know where people in the Ming Dynasty could eat dry rice. Only heavy manual laborers could eat one semi-dry and semi-thin staple food every day, and the other meal would have to be gruel.

.As for the old, weak, women and children who cannot work, if they can only drink one meal of gruel every day, they will be considered as having enough food and clothing.

Now, in addition to providing five kilograms of rice, Zhao Zhikuan also provides two meals a day. He can be regarded as a good person. So when the village chief went back to recruit workers, all the men in the village signed up, even some half-grown men were eager to try. Some were impatient.

The people there were afraid that there would be too many people and Zhao Zhikuan regretted his decision. He persuaded the village elder Xu to strike while the iron was hot and come to Zhao Zhikuan immediately to settle the matter of hiring workers.

When Lao Xu heard that this was the case, he brought more than thirty villagers to find Zhao Zhikuan, hoping that the old man of the Zhao family could take the initiative to sign them.

After Zhao Zhikuan listened to Lao Xu's explanation, he smiled and said: "Don't worry, I will guarantee you today that each person will receive five kilograms of rice per day. If you do well, you will be rewarded with half a kilogram of salt. But the ugly words are ahead. My family's work is tiring. By the end of the day,

If you can’t finish your work on time, don’t blame me for deducting your wages!”
Chapter completed!