After returning to the Emerald Wave Courtyard, Yang Sichen began practicing his calligraphy. After practicing, Xia Zhong brought a fat manager to see Yang Sichen.
This fat steward was about forty years old and looked very shrewd. He introduced himself as Li and was the outer court steward who followed the old madam to the Yang family. He was responsible for managing the old madam's dowry, courtyard, and workshop.
Yang Sichen flipped through the title deed and the house deed, then asked Granny Zhao about the prices of the various candies. Then, he began to flip through the account book.
The Ming Dynasty's account books were all based on counting methods, supplemented by a large number of Chinese characters. Yang Sichen was dizzy from reading the account book. He had no choice but to re-write the contents of the account book using Arabic numbers according to the bookkeeping method of the later generations. After reading the first book, he saw Granny Zhao standing at the door, looking at him hesitantly. She put down her things and asked. It turned out that Granny Zhao had come to invite him to dinner. Yang Sichen rubbed his forehead and followed Granny Zhao to the inner hall.
After resting for half an hour after dinner, Yang Sichen began to sort out the account books again. Xia Zhong didn't come over to supervise his practice in the afternoon and let him sort out the account books. It was only when it was almost dinner time that Yang Sichen finished sorting out the account books for the past two years.
After dinner, Yang Sichen practiced the Eight Trigrams Fist with Rong Guang, then was served by Granny Zhao to take a bath and go to bed.
Lying on the bed, Yang Sichen's mind kept spinning. 45 catties of sugar cane to squeeze one and a half catties of brown sugar. One catty of brown sugar could be sold for 60 wens. The workshop purchased more than 90,000 catties of sugar cane a year. The purchase price of sugar cane was two wen and five catties. They hired ten people, and each person received one tael of silver every month. They would also give out one tael of silver as a red packet during the New Year. One tael of silver could be exchanged for 800 wen. Including other expenses, he could earn about nine hundred taels of silver a year. There were not many loopholes in the accounts. This money could probably support the food expenses of the residence for nine months.
On the market, the price of white sugar could range from 150 to 350 copper coins per packet depending on its color. Some of the crystal clear white sugar could even be sold for 400 copper coins per packet. According to what Yang Sichen knew, the difference between brown sugar and white sugar was whether there were any impurities like coloring in it. To put it bluntly, one could get white sugar by removing the impurities in brown sugar. Due to the different raw materials and the different methods of removing impurities, the color of the white sugar obtained was naturally different.
How to remove the impurities in brown sugar? It was nothing more than filtering, absorbing, and oxidization.
Yang Sichen thought of activated carbon. As long as the wood was isolated from the air and heated to about 600 degrees, the original activated carbon could be obtained. This didn't seem too sleepy. Activated carbon had the characteristics of strong absorption capacity, good chemical stability, and easy regeneration. It was widely used in industries, agriculture, national defense, transportation, medicine and health, environmental protection, and other fields. If he could do it, he would definitely be able to earn a lot of money.
Yang Sichen thought of sulfur dioxide. Sulfur was readily available, and he could get sulfur dioxide by burning it, so he didn't need to put too much effort into it. As for whether there would be any adverse reactions after eating it, Yang Sichen couldn't care less. Besides, there didn't seem to be any "consumer rights protection law" at the moment.
…………
After breakfast the next day, Yang Sichen said to Rong Guang,""Find a few bricks, an iron crucible for boiling medicine, and some charcoal.”
Rong Guang was dumbfounded. He quickly touched Yang Sichen's forehead and said,""Young Master, are you having a fever?"
Yang Sichen pulled away Rong Guang's hand and patted him on the shoulder, saying,""Go to hell! Young Master, I'm doing something serious!"
Rongguang left the Blue Wave Courtyard with a puzzled expression. Granny Zhao watched from the side, looking like she wanted to say something but hesitated. In the end, she sighed and turned around to clean the house.
Rongguang quickly brought the servants back with the items. Yang Sichen was mixing mud in the courtyard. When he saw the servants returning with some things, he only instructed them to put the things down before looking for some soft, dry wood.
Yang Sichen used bricks and mud to build a small stove at the foot of the wall. He then placed the iron crucible into the stove, added small pieces of wood, covered the lid, and ordered Rongguang to light the fire.
Fifteen minutes later, Yang Sichen opened the lid and found that the wood had not changed much. Frowning, he ordered the servants to bring a fan to blow into the stove to make the fire burn more brightly. Then, he called Granny Zhao over to get some gauze, a bag of brown sugar produced in his workshop, and a big teapot.
Granny Zhao reluctantly left the Blue Wave Courtyard and returned with her after 35 minutes. Yang Sichen was staring blankly at the crucible, which was smoking and emitting a burnt smell.
Granny Zhao coughed lightly. Yang Sichen turned around and took the things. He folded the gauze into small cubes and soaked them with water before rolling them up and stuffing them into the spout of the teapot. After adding water, he poured the water out. The water in the teapot could only seep out slowly through the gauze and flow out of the spout. Yang Sichen poured a tael of brown sugar into the teapot and dissolved it with a suitable amount of water. When he poured it into the bowl, he realized that the color of the brown sugar water had obviously lightened.
After another quarter of an hour, the smoke in the cauldron had dissipated, and the smell of burning was almost gone. Yang Sichen used a metal spoon to take out the already carbonised wood block and put it into cold water to freeze it before putting it back into the crucible to dry.
Yang Sichen heaved a sigh of relief as he looked at the black wooden block. The most primitive activated carbon had been produced.
Yang Sichen used an iron spoon to put the activated carbon into the bowl of brown sugar water. He stirred it a few times and quietly watched the changes in the bowl.
After a while, the brown sugar water became clear, and the original color could hardly be seen. Yang Sichen dipped his finger into the sugar water and tasted it. A satisfied smile appeared on his face. It seemed that sulfur was useless.
Rong Guang curiously watched Yang Sichen's actions and also put some into his mouth. He said in surprise,""Young Master, it's sweet."
Yang Sichen nodded and instructed,""Get someone to wash the crucible, put it back on, and boil this bowl of water dry. Let's see what we can get. Be careful not to burn it. Let's take a break." With that, he returned to the study.
……………
After an hour, Flowing Mist ran into the study and said with a face full of surprise,""Young Master, it's Frost Candy. Top-quality Frost Candy!"
"Have you weighed it?" Yang Sichen asked with a smile.”
Flowing Mist blushed and said embarrassedly,""A total of nine coins. This servant ate three coins, leaving six coins.”
Yang Sichen asked Liu Lan to go out and tell the servants outside not to tell anyone about what happened today. Otherwise, they would be given 30 strokes of the stick. Flowing Mist's expression turned serious as he nodded in agreement, then retreated.
"Rongguang, what do you think?" Yang Sichen asked.”
Rong Guang thought for a moment and said happily,""Young Master, we might be rich!!”
…………
Early in the morning of the sixth day, Xia Zhong arranged for a carriage and guards to send Yang Sichen to Treasure Mountain. Manager Li had also arrived early and was chatting with Yang Sichen about the workshop.
From the servants, Yang Sichen learned that Old Madam Yang's maiden name was Xu and she was the descendant of the founding general Xu Da. However, 200 years had passed, and the Xu family had long since multiplied into a large family. Old Yang Furen's grandfather moved to Quanzhou to become a sea merchant because of his brother's discord. After thirty years of hard work, by the time Old Madam Yang was born, the Quanzhou Xu family was already a wealthy family with millions of assets. With the reputation of Xu Da's descendants, even the government had to give some face.
Old Madam Yang was the youngest daughter in the family. She had three older brothers and one older sister. He had been very favored since he was young. In the fifth year of Longqing, Old Lady Yang was only eighteen years old. She was dissatisfied with the marriage. In a fit of anger, she disguised herself as a female boss with a servant girl and boarded the family ship to run away from home.
After going out to sea, he encountered the Japanese pirates. Fortunately, he was rescued by Old Master Yang, who was chasing the Japanese pirates. Thus, a cliché story happened.
Later, when Old Master Yang became the Song Jiang Navy Admiral, the Xu Family knew that their family's Miss Yao had once been the wife of the Flying Fish Gang. Only then did she send over the dowry that she had been holding back for nearly 20 years.
…………
After the carriage left the Yang Residence, Yang Sichen lifted the curtain covering the window and looked out at the street.
As they came out early, there were not many pedestrians on the road. There were a few stalls selling things on the roadside. Most of the shops were not open, and the street seemed a little deserted. Yang Sichen was a little disappointed and lowered the curtain.
Granny Zhao watched from the side and said,"Young Master, we came out early. The city gates have only been open for less than fifteen minutes, and most of the people have yet to rush over.”Yang Sichen nodded without saying anything.
As expected, the further they walked, the more lively the streets became. Suddenly, the carriage stopped. Yang Sichen lifted the curtain and saw a tall building stretching across the road. In the middle was a not-so-tall doorway. On both sides were a few soldiers with weapons hanging from their waists, patrolling back and forth. Yang Sichen knew that this was the city gate.
After leaving the city, they walked for another hour before the carriage stopped again. Manager Li came over to tell Yang Sichen that they had arrived at the brown sugar workshop and asked him to get out of the car.
A medium-sized courtyard entered his sight. It was roughly the size of an acre of land. After entering the courtyard, there was a field directly opposite. There were rows of tile-roofed houses on both sides of the field. These were where the workers lived. Looking further in, there were a few warehouses. Manager Li led Yang Sichen and the others around the warehouse and saw a large bungalow behind it. Needless to say, this was the processing workshop.
On the other side of the workshop, two people were operating a screw press, responsible for squeezing the juice. Beside him, there was another person in charge of chopping the sugar cane into small pieces. There was also a person transporting sugar cane and sugar cane juice.
Yang Sichen nodded and asked,"Why are there only five people?"?Why wasn't there anyone in charge of wrapping brown sugar?”
Manager Li replied,"These ten people will be divided into two groups. They will change every six hours, day and night." I randomly assign one person to supervise each batch. Otherwise, we won't be able to finish processing 8,000 catties of sugar cane in a month. The person who was making the fire was also responsible for wrapping the brown sugar.”
" This method is not bad!!" Yang Sichen asked again," How many days do you rest every month?”
"Three days. From the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the 15th of the first lunar month, and from the 13th of August to the 18th of August.”
Yang Sichen frowned and calculated in his heart," It was less than 300 catties a day. It was too little to become a scale.
After leaving the workshop, Yang Sichen noticed that there was another door in the backyard. So he went over and ordered someone to open the door. He looked outside and was surprised to find that there was a river not far from the paddy field. Judging from the sound, the river was flowing quite fast.
"Who owns this piece of land by the river?" Yang Sichen turned around and asked Manager Li.
"It's our own land, a total of two acres and eight cents. We bought it together with the workshop. Old Master said that Young Master can take care of this land himself.”Manager Li was a little confused, but he didn't show it.
Yang Sichen smiled and asked again,"How much does it cost to repair a bigger waterwheel?"”
Manager Li understood a little and said,""At least thirty taels of silver. If you use it to blow air, it might cost more than forty taels of silver.”
Yang Sichen didn't say anything. After returning to the processing workshop, he looked around again. Then, he went to the warehouse to look at the finished brown sugar. He also asked about the purchase price of various kinds of sugar. After eating lunch, he left.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]