Han Zhen looked at Zhu Zhengze: "Do you remember what I asked just now?"
Zhu Zhengze chewed the cooking cake and was stunned for a few seconds as usual before nodding.
"Today you will be on duty in the hall. If there are any villagers who have escaped from their households, they will be dealt with according to the method I just mentioned. I will give you the information about the abandoned fields in the village. For the reward of money and rice, just look for my sister-in-law."
Han Zhen said, handed over the information he had written just now, and ordered: "After eating, copy this household registration information again."
The job is very simple, and Zhu Zhengze's dull temperament is just right for this boring job.
As for Han Zhen, of course he has more important things to do.
make money!
Just relying on tax collection from hundreds of acres of fields in Xiaowang Village cannot support a regular army.
What's more, Han Zhen still has to rely on tax exemption to win over people's hearts, so at least for a year, don't even think about the idea of land tax.
The only way to make money is to develop industries and do business.
After breakfast, Ma Sangou took the Pu Dao and led the other four people out on patrol.
Last night, Han Zhen had informed them of their work content, including patrolling villages, maintaining public order, and arresting criminals.
Of course, there are no criminals at this time. The villagers are busy farming and going up the mountains to find fugitives.
Han Zhen returned to the backyard, took out the key and entered the small warehouse.
Soon, he came out holding two clay pots.
When he checked the small warehouse the day before yesterday, he initially thought the two jars were filled with wine, but when he opened them, he discovered that they were actually filled with sugar.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, both the sugar and salt industries experienced unprecedented development. In southern Fujian alone, tens of thousands of jars of cane sugar could be produced every year.
Note that altar is used here.
Why not bags? Because during the Northern Song Dynasty, most areas could only produce liquid sugar with relatively primitive technology, that is, granulated sugar.
Many people know the "Sugar Frosting Manual" and mistakenly believe that the frosting in the Northern Song Dynasty is all solid sugar. In fact, this is not the case at all.
There is a joke recorded in Wang Pizhi's "Mianshui Yan Tan Lu", which says:
【There is a person who is in charge of the government, he is deeply favored, and he obeys everything he says and does. One day at the royal banquet, Jiaofang Zaju was a small businessman, claiming his surname was Zhao Mingshi, carrying a clay pot, and selling sugar. When I meet an old friend on the road, I am happy and worship him. He stretched out his foot and accidentally stepped on the cup, causing the sugar to flow to the ground. The merchant snapped his fingers and sighed, "Tiancai, you are slipping away. What can I do?" Everyone on the left and right laughed. 】
It can be seen from this joke that the sugar sold in wells in the Northern Song Dynasty was in the same thick liquid form as in the Tang Dynasty.
Although the Song Dynasty mastered the technology of making solid sugar, it was limited to a few areas such as Suining.
Therefore, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the production of solid rock sugar was not large. It was exclusively for the royal family and dignitaries, and very few of it was on the market.
Especially in the first year of Xuanhe, Song Huizong ordered Suining and other places to pay tribute to thousands of kilograms of rock sugar every year.
This heavy decree caused nearly half of the sugar merchants to go bankrupt, and many sugarcane farmers abandoned their fields and hid in the mountains as fugitives.
This led to a sharp decline in rock sugar production, resulting in the current scarcity of rock sugar.
Carrying two cans of sugar to the kitchen, Han Zhen ordered: "Boil these two cans of sugar."
"Alang wants to make preserved fruit?"
Chef Shen took the clay pot and explained, "Half a can of sugar is enough to make preserved fruit. You don't need so much."
"Don't worry about it, just let it go."
After leaving these words, Han Zhen hurriedly left again.
Although Chef Shen was confused, she still followed the instructions honestly, poured two cans of sugar into the pot, heated it over low heat and boiled it.
Not long after, Han Zhen came back, carrying a bucket of loess and two reed pipes.
"Alang, what are you doing?"
Fang Sansan stepped forward, curiosity written all over his round face.
Han Zhen didn't answer and said, "Go and help me find a sieve."
"oh."
Although Fang Sansan talks a lot, he has one advantage, that is, he is obedient.
Just do whatever you ask.
While Fang Sansan went to get the sieve, Han Zhen poured the loess on the ground and carefully crushed it with a wooden stick.
This scene attracted everyone's attention, and even Zhu Zhengze, who was sitting on duty in the hall, couldn't help but poke his head out.
Soon, Fang Sansan brought the screen.
Taking the sieve, Han Zhen carefully filtered the loess that he had just crushed, and removed grass roots, stones and other debris in the loess.
Then, add water little by little and start pureeing.
Yellow mud water drenching sugar method?
Han Zhen can answer with certainty that this thing is wrong, or Song Yingxing made a clerical error when writing "Tiangong Kaiwu".
Why is he so sure?
Because in his previous life, Han Zhen had an argument with a netizen on the Internet.
He thought the method of drizzling yellow mud with water and sugar was fine, but the netizen said no.
In order to make the other party speechless, Han Zhen went to search for videos.
As a result, I searched the entire Internet and found no video that successfully reproduced the method of drenching yellow mud with water and sugar.
Those reproduced videos, without exception, all failed.
Han Zhen was not convinced, so he bought sugar cane and squeezed the juice. He followed the steps in "Tiangong Kaiwu" and made it step by step.
After several attempts, he finally came to the conclusion that this method really didn't work.
When a pot of yellow mud water is poured down, most of the brown sugar is dissolved, and only a small piece of crystal is obtained.
The key piece of sugar crystal is still reddish brown...
Later, he discussed with the netizen many times, consulted ancient books and information, and finally found the real method, and even gave this method a serious name.
Yellow mud glue sealing method!
Compared with the yellow mud water-drench sugar method, only two words have been changed. However, this glue and seal are the key to purifying white sugar.
Yellow mud glue should not be too dry, otherwise it will quickly turn into hard soil and lose its ability to absorb impurities.
It shouldn't be too thin, otherwise it will turn into yellow muddy water.
It's probably similar to plasticine, that's about it.
When the yellow mud is almost mixed, the sugar in the pot has boiled and become extremely sticky.
"Come and help."
At this time, Han Zhen called out and asked Fang Sansan to hold a clay pot filled with sugar, while he picked up a ball of yellow mud and carefully glued it to the inside of the clay pot.
When the entire inside of the clay pot was thickly covered with yellow mud, Han Zhen said, "Quick, pour the sugar in."
"ah?"
Chef Shen was stunned for a moment, thinking she had heard wrong.
Han Zhen urged: "What are you doing standing still? Come down quickly."
Hearing this, Chef Shen looked troubled: "Alang, this..."
This clay pot is covered with yellow mud. If you pour sugar into it, can you still eat it?
Even though the sugar industry developed rapidly during the Northern Song Dynasty, for the vast majority of people, sugar was still a valuable luxury product.
The current price of sugar is 30 cents per tael, 16 taels per catty. These two cans of sugar cost more than ten taels.
Fang Sansan on the side looked mournful and advised: "Alang, can you not fall?"
Rather than letting so much sugar go to waste in the yellow mud jar, it would be better to let her eat it.
Seeing the two of them chattering, Han Zhen frowned and said, "Just do it if you want. There's so much nonsense."
Chef Shen sighed and carefully poured the sugar from the pot into the clay pot.
Seeing the reddish-brown sugar entering the clay pot covered with yellow mud, Fang Sansan and Chef Shen felt their hearts bleed.
"stop!"
When the clay pot was about to be filled, Han Zhen immediately stopped, then filled in a layer of dry straw, and then quickly picked up the reed tube as long as his index finger and inserted it into it, leaving a section outside.
Finally, seal the mouth of the jar tightly with yellow mud glue.
After doing this, Han Zhen turned the pottery pot upside down and placed it on another empty pottery pot.
Over time, the pigments in the sugar will be absorbed by the yellow mud in the jar and slowly condense into white sugar, while the remaining molasses will flow down the reed pipe into the empty clay jar.
Han Zhen found two more clay pots and prepared the remaining sugar in the pot in the same way.
Fang Sansan and Chef Shen couldn't understand what he was doing. They only knew that in this short period of time, their own Alang wasted more than a dozen strings of sugar.
Even if he is a prodigal, he is not such a loser.
