To purify brown sugar, the modern method is to use activated carbon adsorption. However, there was a lot of charcoal in ancient times, and activated carbon could not be produced at the moment. Chu Ci thought hard for a long time last night, and finally thought of a method.

This method comes from Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu". It is mentioned in the book that the brown sugar prepared by rinsing it with yellow mud water can also remove the impurities in it, thereby purifying the white sugar.

Chu Ci believes that the big families that sell frosted sugar now probably use this method, but it may be some kind of method that he doesn't know. But no matter which kind it is, there must be very few people who know it, so this

As a result, the price of frosting sugar remains high, making it a luxury product that only wealthy families can enjoy.

"Sir, we've got the brown sugar." Old man Chen asked people in the village to go door to door to ask for it, and finally got a jar of brown sugar, which looked like it weighed about five kilograms.

Old Chen was afraid that Chu Ci would be dissatisfied, so he explained: "Not long ago, those businessmen came over and bought all the brown sugar we made. We squeezed these out of the leftovers. Each family divided some, and occasionally gave it to the children.

Mouth, that’s all that’s left.”

"It's okay," Chu Ci said, "I'm going to try it with a small amount of brown sugar first. If it doesn't work, it won't be too wasteful."

"Yes, sir, we need to turn this brown sugar into frosting sugar, but we need something else. I will prepare it now." Old man Chen is very positive. After all, if this sugar can be successfully made, it will be a great success for them.

A very good thing.

"Yes, I dare to ask Chen Weng if there is yellow mud in our village?"

"Yes, there are a few yellow mud fields not far from the sugar cane field. However, this land is not fertile and cannot be used to grow anything. It is not as good as black soil." Old man Chen said without thinking. He has been here since he was a child and has learned a lot about this land.

Everything on the farm is a treasure trove.

"That's good. Could you please Chen Weng to ask someone to bring some yellow mud over, and then sift out the grassroots and gravel in it, making it as fine as possible."

Old man Chen was puzzled, but he still asked a young man who was pulling weeds nearby to carry a load of yellow mud. He prepared it according to Chu Ci's instructions and put it aside.

During this period, Chu Ci took Old Man Chen for a walk around Zhuangzi, and then made a vat and a tile slide in the kitchen. The tile slide was actually a large funnel made of tiles, which would be used for filtering later. Finally

He also pulled a large handful of straw out of the cowshed.

The more Old Chen looked at it, the more confused he became. Is the frosting actually made of these things? Why does it feel a bit...unreliable?

Chu Ci didn't notice his little thoughts. After seeing that everything was ready, he was ready to take action. Before taking action, old man Chen suddenly kicked everyone out of the yard, and then retreated to the door, preparing to close the door and wait.

outside.

In his opinion, this is a unique skill. No matter who masters it, it is a great thing, but no one can learn it secretly.

Chu Ci stopped him: "Mr. Chen, it's okay with the others. You'd better come in. It doesn't matter." He had previously checked the accounts of several academic fields in the past ten years, and the academic fields managed by Old Man Chen had the largest output.

, he himself is not as fussy as other dealers, he is a truly honest person.

Old man Chen was very excited when he was called. He hesitated for a moment, then stepped into the yard, then turned around cautiously and closed the door behind him.

"Sir, don't worry, I will keep my mouth shut and won't tell anyone!"

Chu Ci smiled: "That's not possible. Chen Weng learned it today. From now on, this matter will be left to you. You have to teach other people how to do it."

When Old Man Chen heard this, his face turned red, and his mouth was trembling and he was speechless: "Sir... Sir, do you mean to teach this craft to the little old man? Teach everyone?"

In his heart, he would be satisfied if he could get them started in making frosting. Who would have thought that adults would teach them such an important craft?

"Of course, I can't be here by myself every day, right?" Chu Ci smiled again. He looked at Old Chen who didn't know what to do and added, "Old Chen, let's make the frosting first.

.”

Old man Chen said "Alas" repeatedly, and then operated step by step according to Chu Ci's instructions. He listened very carefully and was very careful when doing it, as if he was doing something extremely noble.

Old Chen first stuffed the leaky hole of the tile with straw, and then placed it on the vat. Then he poured the brown sugar in and waited for it to solidify. While waiting, Chu Ci was not idle. He poured the yellow mud into the water and exerted force.

Stir until the brown sugar adheres to the tiles, ask Old Man Chen to remove the straw from the leak, then pick up the wooden bucket and slowly pour the yellow mud water into it.

When Old Man Chen saw what he was doing, he stretched out his hand to stop him but was a step too late. He couldn't help but exclaimed. Apparently he felt that he was messing with things. Once the yellow muddy water was poured out, let alone frosted sugar, even brown sugar would not be able to be eaten.

Got it!

However, before he could say anything, he saw that there was a layer of something on the top of the tiles that had been soaked in yellow mud water. The color was like snow, white and crystal clear, and looked extremely beautiful. The middle layer was brownish-yellow, and the last layer was brown.

The lower layer is black.

"This...this is frosting sugar, right?" Old Man Chen stared at the white layer of snow and stammered.

Chu Ci also breathed a sigh of relief: "Yes, this is Shuangtang."

They gently removed the tiles from the jar, and then gently swept the condensed frosting sugar on the upper layer into the plate. Old man Chen weighed it and found that after removing the plate, there was about one pound and eighty taels of frosting sugar, and the rest

The ones are brown sugar and brown sugar, so there are about five taels of impurities.

Chu Ci looked at this data, and then put them together with the data obtained by asking Old Chen before. He had asked Old Chen before about the amount of sugar produced by their sugar cane, and Old Chen's answer was about one hundred kilograms of sugar cane.

The probability of producing about six kilograms of sugar is almost fifteen to one. In other words, it takes about fifteen kilograms of sugar cane to produce one kilogram of brown sugar.

The probability of producing white sugar from these five pounds of brown sugar is about 2.7 to 1. It takes almost two and a half pounds of brown sugar to produce one pound of white sugar.

After calculating the account, Chu Ci couldn't help but sigh, it's not that white sugar is expensive, the amount of sugar produced is really not much, if one hundred kilograms of sugar cane can produce three kilograms of white sugar, it is considered very good.

Modern white sugar is cheaper mainly because people have better purification methods, and the sugar cane grown specifically for sugar extraction in modern times also has a high sugar yield.

However, the amount of sugar produced is not enough, so the price has to be adjusted. The price of brown sugar on the market is about one or two hundred and nineteen cents, while the price of frosting sugar is comparable to that of ordinary tea. The price of ordinary tea in teahouses is about nine hundred and sixty-six per catty.

It's about ten Wen, calculated based on sixteen taels per catty, which is about sixty Wen one tael.

If the original five kilograms of brown sugar can be sold for 1,520 Wen, then the purified white sugar can be sold for about 1,440 Wen. At first glance, it seems to be less, but don’t forget, the purified white sugar can be sold for 1,440 Wen.

There is also brown sugar and brown sugar.

Brown sugar is slightly more expensive than brown sugar, about 25 cents, and brown sugar is cheaper than brown sugar, about 13 or 4 cents. So the remaining brown sugar and brown sugar can be sold for more than 900 cents.

If you calculate it like this, after purification, five pounds of brown sugar can be sold for more than 800 yuan more than before!

Once the accounts were settled, Chu Ci instantly felt that Baitang's future was extremely bright.

He ordered Old Man Chen to open up some of the areas originally planned to be replanted with fruits and vegetables to grow sugar cane.

Old man Chen looked at the crystal white frosting sugar on the plate. How could he still be unconvinced? Even if Chu Ci didn't say anything, he still wanted to find a few more pieces to plant sugar cane.

The two of them were enjoying the prospect of sugar when suddenly there was a knock on the courtyard door. As soon as the door opened, a group of children rushed in. Their faces were all red and their eyes were full of excitement. They wanted to take this trip to the sugar cane fields.

Let them gain a lot.

After the group of children said hello to the adults, their attention was attracted by the things in the courtyard. They surrounded the big vat and couldn't help but guess its use.

Chu Ci walked over with the sugar and patiently told them about the adsorption experiment they had just done...

After having lunch at the school, Chu Ci led a group of people back to the Tixue Department. In addition, he also brought back the plate of white sugar that had been purified in the morning.

In the afternoon, the long-awaited ringing of the bell rang in the Department of Education. The officials counted the bells with their ears raised, and when they found that it stopped at the fifth time, some officials breathed a sigh of relief and continued working, while others grabbed the paper

He picked up his pen and rushed to the conference room.

When they arrived at the conference room, Chu Ci was already sitting there.

"Sir, I wonder why the officials came here?" Wang Ming asked. This time, the officials who came here were all officials responsible for managing accounts, and as the general manager of the financial department of the Department of Education, Wang Ming, of course, had to take the lead in asking questions.

Chu Ci originally wanted everyone to come over, but he was still training recently and the people were destined to be uneven, so he simply asked only the person in charge of this matter to come over.

"My lords, please come over and take a look at this first." Chu Ci asked them to gather around and then pushed the plate of sugar forward.

"Isn't this frosting sugar?" someone said. All of them had seen and eaten frosting sugar, so they recognized it at a glance.

"This frosting... seems to be whiter than the ones sold in the shop." The ones in the shop always have a slightly yellowish color.

"Yes, sir. I wonder which store I bought this from? I want my servants to buy it there too."

"You didn't buy this," Chu Ci said deliberately, "What do you think?"

"Of course it's good. It's just that the lower officials are stupid. I really don't understand why you want us to see this plate of frosting?" Wang Ming asked doubtfully. They always spoke and acted neatly, but now they have become unpredictable.

Got up.

"What if I say, this frosting is made in Zhuangzi?" Chu Ci dropped a bomb.

"What?!" These officials reacted exactly as Chu Ci expected. They were all engaged in finance, so they were naturally more sensitive to this matter.

"This means that in the future we no longer have to sell brown sugar, but can sell the most expensive frosting sugar?!" Wang Ming was extremely excited.

Chu Ci smiled and nodded, agreeing with what he said.

Wang Ming and other adults were happy when they suddenly thought of a question.

"Sir, who in Zhuangzi made this thing? Why haven't we heard of such people in the past?" Everyone was curious. Except for Wang Ming, who took over last year, everyone else was in the financial department.

They are old people, and they still have a lot of contact with the schools below, so I have this question.
Chapter completed!