In Xiaqiu Village, when the fourth new well was drilled, it was the twelfth lunar month.
Everyone wears thick clothes, as the temperature sometimes drops to zero degrees Celsius at night, and only about ten degrees Celsius during the day.
There was no more fish meat and all the loaches were eaten, and the villagers' faces became rosy.
I can't bear to kill the remaining pigs, I want to raise them to eat the New Year pigs during the Chinese New Year.
When Zhu Wentian saw that the fat and protein were gone, this was no good, it was too cold to bear.
"Sell rock candy?" Zhu Wentian thought of a way.
Today's local sugar in the Ming Dynasty is mostly brown sugar, while white sugar is called foreign sugar. Currently, it is imported through the Shibo Department at the mouth of the Yangtze River and is called tribute.
Officials are not allowed to trade with foreigners, but ordinary people will not be allowed to do so next year.
Then he said that Shibosi was too close to the capital and was moved to Zhejiang.
The foreigners who came to trade were so bad that they did not give Ming Dynasty the skills to obtain white sugar and rock sugar.
A few decades later, the Ming Dynasty developed sugar decolorization technology, began to plant sugar cane crazily, and became a powerful exporter of white sugar.
Anyway, Zhu Yuanzhang could not see that day in history, it was too far away.
Zhu Wentian was thinking about it, and began to worry about how to sell sugar. The brown sugar in Xuancheng cost 22 cents per catty, and rock sugar cost 390 cents per catty.
The little girl only bought a few small pieces, otherwise why would she be so angry that she cried after knowing how to make rock candy?
She regretted that she had spent too much money and was ignorant.
Thinking of how the little girl cried miserably at that time, Zhu Wentian laughed heartlessly.
He turned around to find the chief. He had no choice but to ask others.
After asking along the way, I met the chief at the bamboo craftsman's house. The chief led a group of people to make buckets out of bamboo for carrying water.
To prepare for the drought in the coming year, some locations will not be able to be flushed directly, so water will have to be carried, or cattle will help carry it to the side.
"Hanhan is here, wait, I will boil an egg for you." When the wife of the bamboo craftsman's family saw Hanhan, she got up and went to boil the egg.
"No, don't eat, hehe!" Zhu Wentian waved his hand and shook his head.
The other party ignored it and continued cooking.
Zhu Wentian squatted next to the chief: "Candy, sell it, eat meat, hahaha!"
The manager looked at him and frowned: "Bingtang! How do you sell this...?"
The village chief was also worried. He first bought a lot of brown sugar and returned to the village to turn it into rock candy. What excuse would he use to take it out?
Business tax is nothing. Thirty-one tax, just pay it as usual.
The people who made the barrels together all looked over. They all knew that the price difference between brown sugar and rock sugar was more than ten times.
It means that countless people are thinking about it and want to know the method.
If you hand it over, the people in your village will be reluctant to part with it. If you don't hand it over...
"Chief." A villager who was helping suddenly said: "We bought brown sugar in Xuancheng and sold it in Taiping Mansion. We said that we came from the sea along the Yangtze River and bought it from the Shipping Department."
"Yes, Mr. Li, let's sell it once." Another person followed.
Li Chang slapped his thigh and said, "Okay! Every family will take out their money, plus the village minister's money, and do it once."
"Yeah! Hey hey hey!" Zhu Wentian expressed his support, the price is more than ten times the price!
The village chief gave an order, and the villagers took out as much money as they could, wrote it down, and paid the minister 50-50 according to the previous method when the candy was sold.
Some people hand over heirloom jewelry to pawn shops in Xuancheng and redeem it after making money.
The next day four vehicles came out of the village with extra manpower for protection.
The oxen should also pull the cart, and walk slowly, without running wildly.
The jewelry was pawned first, and with the money he collected, the village manager had 55,200 Wen. He bargained with others and bought 2,600 kilograms of brown sugar.
This was the hope of the whole village. With a little money left, Zhu Wentian bought alum.
There will be damage when brown sugar turns into rock sugar. Make a small amount and eat it yourself without adding alum. If you make too much, the damage will be unbearable.
It's not good to eat too much alum, but Zhu Wentian doesn't worry about others eating it hard, it's money.
I used to use it when frying fried dough sticks, but later it was banned but not completely.
Everyone cheered up and rushed home.
It wasn't until the second quarter of Chou's junior high school that we arrived at the village. All the people in the village came out to help carry it.
Those who go should go to bed quickly. Someone is responsible for standing guard at night, but they can't be gone. The whole village depends on these candies to survive.
The next morning, everyone had a full meal and began to work according to Hanhan's instructions.
Nine days were spent in a tense atmosphere, and two thousand kilograms of rock candy and some leftovers were produced.
"The inside is long, the rock candy pieces are bigger than those sold in Xuancheng, and those rock candies have no strings."
A villager who went to Xuancheng to look at rock candy discovered something was wrong and his eyes brightened.
Zhu Wentian looked at it without saying anything. God knows how people make rock candy nowadays.
It is recorded in "Tiangong Kaiwu" that bamboo slices are put in to help crystallization.
The rock sugar that comes out is divided into five categories: Shishan, Tuanzhi, Wengjian, Xiaokou, and Shajiao.
These five levels are from best to worst. You can tell by looking at the names. The bigger the better.
"We have to pay extra for rock candy in our village." The eldest son in the village thinks it's not cost-effective to pay the same price as Xuancheng.
"Go to the local area to see the situation and price of local rock sugar. Go to bed today and get up early tomorrow and go on the road." The director took a deep breath.
When Zhu Wentian saw it, he hurriedly said: "More, more cars, more shovels, shovels, sacks, huh huh!"
"There are cows in the village, but no carts. We didn't have time to build them, so we had to borrow empty carts. I sent the leftovers from the sugar boiling to other villages, and drove the cows to a place to hook up the carts."
The village chief continued to trust the village guard, and Hanhan asked him to bring many carts, shovels, and sacks.
The villagers took the cows and things and spread out to borrow cars. This did not require payment, and it was not renting cows.
***
On November 22nd, there will be another eight days into the twelfth lunar month.
Twenty vehicles were dispatched from Xiaqiu Village, and a hundred people set out with tools and headed north.
It should have gone west, directly to Wuhu.
If there is a boat, the transportation volume will be greater by taking the Huangchi River by boat.
Just go west, closer to the village, for fear of others knowing. Go north and then turn west, which is Dangtu County, the seat of Taiping Prefecture.
Nowadays, there are many cars, and it is convenient to load them with food and drink for everyone and fodder for mules and cattle.
After driving for an hour and a half, Zhu Wentian shouted: "Ah! Stop here, uh uh uh uh!"
"What's wrong Hanhan?" The head turned his head and looked over.
Zhu Wentian jumped out of the car with a shovel and dug on the ground. After digging a few times, he squatted down to grab a handful, looked at it, and smelled: "Hey, hey, hey! Soil."
He smiled happily, finally finding it.
This place was called Zanghan Village at that time, a small village.
He asked people to bring carts and shovel sacks over for the current soil, which is called peat, also called peat.
Peat can be burned, but he is not prepared to burn it. Another use is to cultivate seedlings, which is rich in nutrients.
He wanted to use the peat to cultivate seedlings. This time he came to pull some first. Seeing that the distance was not very far, he would send more trucks to load them in the future.
The head of the village followed him to the side, squatted down and grabbed a handful: "The soil is good! We can't find it in the village. We'll leave first and come back."
"Hmm! Okay, hey hey hey!" Zhu Wentian is already used to role playing and is becoming more and more proficient.
Others followed to take a look and confirm, it's so rubbish.
The team got back on the road and arrived at Dangtu County, the seat of Taiping Prefecture, at 3:00 noon.
Everyone didn't care about eating. They were thinking about rock candy and asked the price.
When they came back and looked at each other, someone whispered: "Four hundred and twenty cents per pound, the bigger ones are four hundred and fifty cents, and the biggest ones are not as good as ours."
