"Okay, I'll ask them to build a special yard in the sugar factory for you to use. [Read the latest chapter]"
"No." Bei Wei refused, "It's too eye-catching. We won't be here for a long time."
"Okay, Qiwei has inns in Haikang and Xuwen counties, where you can stay and rest. There are also South China Sugar Refinery's industries in various places where you can stay. Even if the conditions are average, I will arrange for someone to notify you right away. .”
"No need. We'll stay in an inn all the way. Try not to have anything to do with the South China Sugar Factory."
"Do we have any tasks?" Chang Shide was very excited.
"No." Bei Wei answered simply.
Chen Tianxiong said: "The sugar factory has no specific tasks, just cooperate with the actions. I will do the specific things. But I am still a technician at the sugar factory."
There is no intelligence work that makes Wen Tong happy, he is not interested in such things. There are still a lot of things at the sugar factory that have not been dealt with.
"The Tang Monk Plan is a long-term action, and the past few years have been the preparation stage." Chen Tianxiong said, "How is our relationship with the local government?"
"The relationship is not bad, but the friendship is not deep," Wen Tong introduced several recent negotiations with the Yamen, including renovating the sugar factory and maintaining order. "... Generally speaking, there is not much contact."
"I think there will be more recently." Chen Tianxiong said with a smile, "Now even a blind person can see that you are rich, and trouble will inevitably happen in the future."
"Yeah, I'm worried about this too." Wen Tong said worriedly, "Although Qiwei's escort agency has prepared a certain foundation for us, their foundation is very shallow after all. I'm afraid they won't be able to handle some things."
"If it doesn't work, just spend money to buy Ping An." Chang Shide said. "How about giving some shares to the officials? Protective umbrella. Fortunately, Leizhou will be ours in two years."
"Try to bring local officials into the water and form a community of interests." This is the instruction of the executive committee to all travelers entering the Ming District.
"That's okay," Wen Tong nodded, "but we have to report to the executive committee how to do it. Speaking of which, it's too inconvenient here. We don't even have a radio station. There are even five radio stations in a place like Yanchang Village."
"The executive committee of the radio station will probably allocate one to you soon. Mass production of the radio station will soon be in sight. The glass factory has been experimenting with pulling glass tubes every day recently, and Dr. Zhong has already started to do it." Chen Tianxiong said.
"Building a radio station?" Wen Tong didn't believe it, "Isn't it too sophisticated?"
"He wants to build a lot of high-tech things: clocks, batteries, and water and gas airships. I don't think airships are very practical, so let's just listen to him."
"His airship has argued with him in the past. It is not realistic at all. Dr. Zhong has read too much and takes it for granted." Chang Shide disagreed.
"If he can make it, he can give us a vacuum pot and a centrifuge first." Wen Tong only thought about his candy.
"It's probably not difficult for him. By the way, I heard that we are coming this time, and he wants me to bring you a message: Xuwen is very rich in diatomaceous earth, more than Lingao. You can make white sugar. Filter with this.”
"Really? Then I have to ask someone to look for it. The efficiency of getting yellow mud water is really bad now." Wen Tong perked up after hearing this, "If we continue like this, the labor cost of a ton of white sugar is too high."
The price of brown sugar is much lower than that of white sugar, and it is more profitable to process it into white sugar and then sell it. Wen Tong has recently been thinking hard about whether they can develop a white sugar process that is within their capabilities but has higher processing efficiency. There are more and more brown sugar in the warehouse. In the past, when there were no steel rollers, the average yield of brown sugar per mu of sugar cane field was about three shi. Now that the juice yield has been improved, the output per acre is more than five shi. The sugarcane fields under the name of the Huanan Factory alone can produce thirteen thousand shi of brown sugar, plus the processing fee for processing on behalf of others. There are mountains of brown sugar in the warehouse, totaling more than 20,000 shi. The output of the sugar workshop in two shifts, 24 hours a day, is only five or six stones.
While they were talking, Wenxiu suddenly came to report: The pigeons from Guangzhou have arrived and delivered a secret letter.
Chang Shide asked him to go out, took out a code book from the room, and started decoding. Several people looked at him eagerly. After a few minutes, Chang Shide said happily: "Zhang Xin wrote and said that we need to transport all the sugar in stock quickly, including brown sugar. The market is quite good: the market in Guangzhou is three taels. Eight qian, it looks like it will go up! He said that if he could buy it, he would buy it as much as possible. If it is shipped to Guangzhou, it can be exchanged for silver!"
"Great," Wen Tong said with great interest, "I heard from Liao Dahua that the purchase price on Hai'an Street is only twenty-two-five cents!"
Chang Shide said: "Then let's buy in twos and threes!" Everyone laughed, and it felt really good to make huge profits.
Wen Tong said with a smile: "If he hadn't written, I would have written to ask what to do with the candies. Several local candy shops have approached us and wanted to buy our candies, but I hesitated and didn't agree to sell them. Fortunately, I didn't agree to sell them. I didn’t sell it, otherwise I would have suffered a huge loss!”
Chang Shide said: "In this case, we will have to look for him to acquire it!"
"You don't have to think about it. They only know the market conditions in Guangzhou better than us. Hum!" Wen Tong probably had little impression of these sugar shops.
"Whatever, this is our world from now on." Chang Shide said. He opened the door and called Wenxiu, "Go and invite shopkeeper Liao."
This month they have been trying to find a local shopkeeper who is familiar with the sugar business to handle the sugar factory's external negotiations. They specially asked Liao Dahua to accompany them to Hai'an Street and the county to see if there was a shopkeeper who was willing to find another job, but found nothing. . No one wants to change jobs, and more people express doubts: You are a candy store, do you need to be the shopkeeper of a candy store?
In this way, Liao Dahua became their only external agent in the local area. For the sake of convenience, Liao Dahua simply moved into the courtyard of the Huanan Factory. Fortunately, it was less than two or three miles away from the county seat. If there was anything to be done in the branch of the escort office, he could go back immediately.
When Liao Dahua came to the study, Bei Wei didn't want to see too much, so he hid in the wing room. Wen Tong told Liao Dahua about his plans to purchase sugar on a large scale. He was asked to set up a team - even if there was no sugar store manager, they planned to start it themselves.
Liao Dahua shook his head repeatedly: "Master, this is inappropriate."
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know something," Liao Dahua said. "The sugar in Leizhou has always been purchased by the sugar shop on Hai'an Street..."
"He takes his, I take mine, it doesn't matter to you." Wen Tong felt strange.
Chang Shide understood: "They have the monopoly, right?"
"Exactly." Liao Dahua said. There are a total of twenty-one sugar shops on Hai'an Street, forming a sugar industry association "Hai Yi Tang". All sugar produced in Leizhou that is exported must go through their hands before being exported. The price of sugar purchased every year is determined after public discussion in the hall. Outsiders cannot get involved in the sugar purchase business unless they join "Hai Yi Tang".
"So that's it." Wen Tong nodded. Such monopoly organizations are really everywhere.
"It's strange, why can't we get involved? Why?" Chang Shide was very unconvinced by this.
"This..." Liao Dahua didn't think about why it couldn't be done. The sugar shop on Hai'an Street had monopolized Leizhou's sugar exports for decades, and everyone regarded it as the norm. "The shopkeepers didn't know that the sugarcane farmers didn't have big ships, so it was inconvenient to transport the sugar by themselves. So they entrusted these sugar companies to transport the sugar to other places for sales. After the sales were completed, the sugar companies settled accounts with the sugarcane farmers and made payments. The sugar companies followed the 1998 regulations. After settling the bill, two deductions were taken as commission. Over time, due to concerns about shipping and theft, and sugar stores occasionally swallowing up money, it gradually became the current cash purchase, and sugar stores earned more. The sugarcane farmers are also willing - after all, they are taking a big risk."
"So that's it. It's nothing." Wen Tong said, "We can take these risks. We will prepare tomorrow and prepare to open the scale to collect sugar in a few days!"
Liao Dahua moved his lips, as if he wanted to dissuade him. Chang Shide said with a smile: "Just do some business, it's not a big deal. In this way, we can also give Wei Escort two buckles for the purchased candy."
The second deduction is 2%, which is not a small number. Not only will it be of great benefit to the escort agency, but it will also save you a lot. Thinking of how wealthy these Australian merchants are. Liao Dahua became more courageous and responded: "Now that the shopkeepers have made up their minds, let me go and handle it. I know something about the sugar store's business, so I will prepare it now!" He said goodbye and went out.
Chen Tianxiong said: "Isn't it a bit risky to do this? Haven't you considered the other party's counterattack?"
"It's okay." Wen Tong said, "I've been to Hai'an Street and met a few shopkeepers. The sugar shops are doing serious business. In fact, they manage the entire Hai'an Street, and the order is very good."
Chen Tianxiong shook his head: "Old Wen, I'm not too talkative - this is your jurisdiction. But you should know: interest groups will always do anything to protect their own interests. Don't sell candy to The sugar store transports it out by itself, which is already against their taboo, and now it accepts the sugar. This conflict of interest has almost reached the point of life and death."
"Is it that exaggerated?" Wen Tong expressed doubt.
"Thanks to you, you are still a good person in society." Chen Tianxiong said, "Do you really think that the people in the 17th century were simple and simple, and they did not close their homes at night if they did not pick up things on the road? Which of the various ugly things in society has not existed since ancient times? Businessmen tend to Li, don’t you need me to recite Marx’s evaluation of capitalists?”
"What should you do?" Wen Tong thought about what he said and it made sense. The so-called simplicity of the ancients was not inevitable in this time and space: people in this time and space are the same as modern people: there are good people, There are also bad people, but most of them are ordinary people who are silent, neither very good nor fundamentally bad.
Bei Wei said something rare: "Chen Tianxiong's statement should be considered. What if the other party counterattacks?"
"It's best not to touch this piece of cake before we are fully fledged." Chen Tianxiong suggested.
"I don't think there is any need to be so nervous." Chang Shide said after thinking for a long time, "The sugar shops on Hai'an Street are just ordinary merchants. How many tricks can they have? The worst thing is that they have better relations with the county and government offices. We Now there is a way in Guangzhou, and the Leizhou government office and the county government offices in Haikang and Xuwen can all talk to each other. What can you do to me?"
After some discussion, Chen Tianxiong saw that they had made up their minds. He was not the decision-maker of the South China Factory. Talking too much would be unfavorable to the work in the future, so he no longer insisted on his opinion. Just remind them to be prepared for the situation. Bei Wei was not interested in these and kept silent. In boredom, I looked at the hills of bagasse piled higher and higher outside the courtyard wall, and suddenly asked:
“What to do with the by-products from sugar production?”
"There are many uses, but equipment is required. Speaking of this, I also want to report to the executive committee that some fermentation equipment and strains must be allocated." Wen Tong introduced the recycling of sugarcane by-products: Strictly speaking, There is no waste in the sugar industry process, even waste water can be used to produce something.
Alcohol, glycerin, acetone, butanol, citric acid and yeast can be produced by diluting sugar and adding fermentation of different strains. Sugarcane bagasse can be used to make paper and furfural. Cane wax can be extracted from the filtered mud, and the remainder can be used as fertilizer. As for the sugarcane leaves cleaned from the sugarcane itself, they can be used as feed. The sugarcane heads and tails have low sugar content and are cut off before entering the press. However, although the sugar content is small, they can still be used to make wine or extract alcohol.
"These are actually relatively simple recycling methods. Sugarcane bagasse can also recover aconitic acid," Wen Tong said. "The extent to which it can be utilized depends on how many strains of bacteria and chemicals we have available, and secondly, we must have the necessary equipment."
"What the South China factory can use on-site is probably to use sugar rice to make alcohol and sugarcane bagasse to make paper, right?" Chang Shide said.
"It's impossible to make paper." Wen Tong recently conducted an investigation into the fuel situation of the boiler. "It's almost enough to use all the bagasse for fire."
"Such a waste……"
"Then we have to buy coal to burn the boiler. To be honest, I still hope to use coal to burn the boiler. The moisture of sugarcane bagasse is too great. If the manpower here is not valuable, the manpower spent on drying the bagasse every day would be enough for us. It's bankrupt." Wen Tong said, "Industrialization is good, but it also consumes a lot. Now I doubt whether the sugarcane bagasse will be enough to burn until the end of the crushing season."
It is of course possible to buy coal. It is not far from here to buy coal in Hongji, Vietnam. Moreover, Gaozhou is not far from Leizhou, where there is the largest coal mining area in Guangdong Province, which is now the Maoming Mining Area. However, there was only sporadic mining in this mining area during the Ming Dynasty. It's also great as a fuel supplement. At least the distance traveled by coal from Guangzhou is much shorter.
"Then let's set up a coal shop." Chang Shide thought quickly. "There are few people here who use coal, and most of them still burn firewood. In addition to bringing in coal for our own use, we might be able to do some business."
"Okay, it won't cost much anyway. Just leave it to Qiwei." (!)! ~!
