On the 27th of September, Yang Sichen rested for a day in the Jade Wave Courtyard. He practiced calligraphy and reading in the morning, followed Xia Zhong in the afternoon and practiced martial arts. In the evening, he played around with Yun Shui and Yun Lan in the courtyard for the whole night. He was having a good time. Yanhong and Liu Lan also played around for the whole night and only rested at midnight.
The next day, Manager Li accompanied Yang Sichen to buy a wooden bucket and a large funnel from the grocery store in Song Jiang City. He also ran to the cloth store to buy an undyed gauze and then went straight to the brown sugar workshop.
When they arrived at the brown sugar workshop, Yang Sichen first went to check on the construction progress of the hydraulic juicer.
Halfway through the construction of the wooden house, the water wheel was already running. The lever juicer was being adjusted. The juicer was about twelve feet tall and the lever was about twenty-six feet long. At one end, there was an inverted pyramid-shaped water bucket that could hold about seven hundred and fifty pounds of water. The water bucket could be turned over, and the axis was located at the top of the inverted pyramid. There was a weight fixed at the top. When the water was full, it would naturally turn over. The lever's pivot point was about 19 feet away from the water bucket. There was a seat on the other end, and there was a rope in front of the seat. The other end of the rope was connected to the bottom of the water bucket. Pulling the rope could also turn the water bucket over. The juicer was located one and a half feet away from the pivot on the side of the water bucket. It was arranged on a stone platform about one and a half feet high. There were grooves around the stone platform and a gap on one side for collecting sugar cane juice.
Yang Sichen was very satisfied with the construction progress. He immediately tipped each worker ten copper coins.
Yang Sichen returned to the workshop and started instructing everyone to make the filter.
He used an awl to chisel more than ten half-inch-wide holes on the bottom of the wooden barrel. He laid four layers of coarse gauze in the wooden barrel, then laid clean coarse sand and gravel in turn. He placed the wooden barrel on a high place and connected it to a large funnel. The bottom of the large funnel was stuffed with activated carbon wrapped in coarse gauze. A simple filtering device was completed.
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In the afternoon, Yang Sichen asked Manager Li to go to the pottery workshop to order a batch of pots. Each pot was exactly the same size and shape. The bottom of the pot was branded with the words A, B, C, D, and E. Each pot was just enough to hold a packet of sugar.
Manager Li said with a bitter face,"Young Master, a clay pot like this costs at least fifty wen, and wrapping sugar with paper is almost free." You see…"
Yang Sichen ignored him and asked,"What kind of person can afford Frost Candies?"?”
Manager Li immediately understood and went to do his job without saying anything.
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On the first day of the tenth month, Carpenter Li completed the construction of the hydraulic juicer two days in advance. Yang Sichen was very happy, so he paid the remaining sixty taels of silver to him and gave him an additional five taels of silver.
On the second day of October, Yang Sichen went to the brown sugar workshop early in the morning. Manager Li had already gathered all the workers in the workshop to wait for him.
Yang Sichen cleared his throat and said,""Everyone, after nearly a month of hard work, this workshop is about to start operating again. "However, we no longer produce brown sugar that costs 60 copper coins per packet. Instead, we produce a jar of frost sugar that costs 300 copper coins. Everyone can see that the materials we consume have only increased by a small amount, and the effort we put in has decreased by a lot. What are you relying on?" Yang Sichen paused for a moment and glanced at the workers below. He pointed at his head and continued," An idea. In ancient times, there were no cars, so people could only carry things on their backs. Later, Emperor Huang Xuanyuan made cars, so people could easily transport things to and from the Yellow River. During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang could not find a way to cross the Yellow River. It was three stooges who thought of using sheepskin rafts to cross the river... What did this mean?”Yang Sichen paused for a moment and looked at the workers below. He continued," There's nothing impossible, only something unexpected. Everyone, think about it. Isn't that right?”
The workers below nodded in agreement with Yang Sichen's words.
"I'll set a rule for everyone here: "From now on, if you have any good ideas for the workshop's production, tell me. Once they are adopted, I'll immediately reward you with two taels of silver," Yang Sichen said loudly.
"Boss, is what you said true?”
Boss, do you mean what you said?"
The workers below asked all at once.
Yang Sichen gestured for the workers to quiet down and said,""Yes, it definitely counts. From now on, everyone's wages would rise to two taels of silver per person per month. Moreover, if everyone worked hard, they would be rewarded with an additional six hundred wen a month. As for how much they could get, it would depend on everyone.”
Yang Sichen was then surrounded by the workers below. The workers were all asking him if his words counted. "Yes, it definitely counts!" Yang Sichen said loudly.!”The expression on his face was very sincere.
Manager Li hurriedly rushed the workers to work. He turned around and said to Yang Sichen with a bitter face,"" Young Master, I think one tael of silver is already high enough. You even want to raise their wages…" As he spoke, he shook his head.
"Steward Li, let's see how the production for next month is…" Yang Sichen smiled.
Steward Li shook his head without saying anything.
Yang Sichen walked around for another fifteen minutes and went to Song Jiang City for a walk before returning to the Yang residence for lunch.
In the afternoon, Yang Sichen and Rong Guang were beaten up by Xia Zhong again. In the evening, Manager Li came to report that he had produced 45 catties of Frost Candies during the day. Seeing the surprise in Manager Li's eyes, Yang Sichen only smiled without saying anything.
In fact, Yang Sichen knew that activated carbon was not the best choice for the brown sugar. Bone charcoal was even better.
Bone charcoal was a type of shapeless carbon that contained seven to eleven percent carbon, about eighty percent calcium phosphorus, and other minerals. It was made from defatted bones through many processes such as defatting, de-sizing, high-temperature burning, sorting, and so on.
Bone charcoal is a white lump that is difficult to dissolve in water and is rich in elements such as phosphorus and calcium. It could be used as an addition agent for porcelain, medicine, and plastic. It could also be used as a polishing agent and a release agent for metals. Bone china, commonly used in Europe during the Napoleonic era, contained more bone charcoal.
However, bone charcoal had many components and the processing process was relatively complicated. Yang Sichen could not mass produce it at the moment. Therefore, Yang Sichen chose the second best option and chose the relatively simple activated carbon. Even so, processed white sugar was still better in this era.
The next day, Yang Sichen went to Xuji's brown sugar workshop again. This time, he asked Rongguang to bring a catty of sulfur and half a catty of lime. He planned to make some of his own sulfuric white sugar for future use.
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