Qin Official

In December of the 26th year of the Qin Dynasty, Anlu County in the south was already very cold, but a workshop located a few miles away from the county seat was still billowing with smoke.

As soon as Heifu, who was wearing thick fur, got inside, he felt a wave of heat: everyone inside was wearing summer clothes and working, and they were still sweating from the heat, and there was a sweet smell of sugarcane in the air. fragrant.

"Chief Zuo is here!"

A voice that sounded sweeter than sucrose sounded, but it was Heifu's distant cousin "Yan".

He was originally a hawker who made a living by making candies in Yunmeng Township, but now he became the owner of this brown sugar workshop thanks to Heifu's investment.

Dozens of his men also saw Heifu at this time. They all dropped what they were doing and hurriedly knelt on the ground and nodded to Heifu.

"Quickly excuse yourself, it's important to watch the heat!"

Hei Fu was helpless. He arrived in Jiangling in November. In the middle of the month, he sent Li Younan to Changsha, and at the end of the month, he sent Ye Teng's family north to Xianyang. Although Hei Fu, who had been single for a long time, coveted the Ye family girl, he couldn't follow her. Go, the instruction he received from the King of Qin was to arrive before February in February, and he still had time to return home.

When he returned to his hometown this time, he could feel the treatment received by some provincial and national leaders who came from small counties in later generations when they returned to their hometowns. The Anlu County magistrate Yong He who worked with Heifu has been transferred. The new county magistrates, county magistrates, and county lieutenants, regardless of their image as national cadres, went out of the city gate to greet him. Officials also lined up to get close to Mr. Hei...

Heifu finally got rid of them, and returned to his newly moved home with his brother Zhong two years ago. What followed were village officials and elders who almost broke through the door. Heifu finally got tired of it and simply stopped visiting.

The only people he invited to his home were the family members of Dongmen Bao, Li Xian, Xiao Tao and Ji Ying. Heifu apologized to them, saying that he had caused everyone to be unable to return home, but he would definitely try his best to find a way to give his subordinates the opportunity to return home to visit relatives, or to allow their family members to go to Nanchang and other places as soon as possible.

Heifu also personally went to each township and asked the three elders of the township to help him gather the families of the southern expedition soldiers, entertained them, and told them something.

"It is hard to disobey the king's order, so I have to go to Xianyang to wait for the call. But Heifu will never leave Anlu's thousands and five hundred descendants alone! I bought two large ships in Jiangling, which can carry hundreds of people, and they go back and forth every month. Once in Xiakou, Xunyang, and Pengze, all soldiers and family members who want to visit relatives can come and go for free as long as they show their certificates and biographies!"

As soon as these words came out, the Anlu people who originally had some complaints against Heifu were shocked and moved to tears. Some elderly people at home often scolded Heifu for abducting their children and never coming back, but now they held his hand tightly and were very excited.

"Although the county captain has become the chief of Zuo Shu, he still does not forget the children of this county and regards us as township party members..."

After gaining the understanding of his fellow soldiers and family members, Hei Fu felt that he had spent so much money well worth it!

The reward from the King of Qin, the plunder of the Chu State's treasury and Lord E and Lord Fanyang, plus the "fire consumption" of the gold mines, Heifu now has a net worth of one hundred yi, which can be converted into half a tael, which is worth more than one million !

But just those two big ships cost Heifu one-third of his property and gave them to two Jiangling boatmen introduced to him by Zhao Tuo to make the bows...

Of course, these two ships not only carried people, but also transported seeds, farm tools, cloth, grain and other items in Nanjun and Yuzhang. Don't say that these are all legitimate goods. Even if Heifu wants to bring some contraband, Zhao Tuo, who is in charge of Penglize's defense and checkpoints, is Heifu's brother, and he will let him go with a wave of his hand.

In addition to the two large ships, Heifu took out another third of the gold and opened this brown sugar workshop near Anlu County.

At the beginning of winter, he had planted more than ten hectares of sugar cane and harvested it. In addition to the wild sugar cane he had found by Yunmeng Zebian and planted for three or four years with slight improvement, Heifu also had some wild sugar cane from Jiangling Chu during his tenure in Jiangling. The variety found in the old palace of the king. After all, it was the sugar cane that was squeezed for juice by the King of Chu, and it was much sweeter than wild sugar cane.

In this way, it is possible for the brown sugar workshop to operate.

Outside the workshop, more than a dozen cows or poor horses are pulling wooden mills and squeezing them repeatedly in circles to squeeze out the sugar juice in the sugar cane. Then they are carried into the workshop by young men. They are all soldiers from the South who were hired by Heifu to help during the off-farm period. My son, he takes care of two meals a day and still gets money. This can be regarded as dividing profits between the black husband and the soldiers and their families.

In the workshop, there were more than a dozen stoves and cauldrons lined up in a row. During the time when the sugar was boiled, the entire stove kept burning and simmering. The fire master constantly adds firewood to the stove to ensure stable firepower during the sugar boiling process.

Several sugar boilers trained by Heifu's cousin Yan first steamed, filtered and sterilized the newly squeezed sugarcane juice to remove impurities and residues in the sugarcane juice, and then poured them into the cauldron, up and down. Stir constantly.

Under the boiling fire, the water in the cane juice is evaporated, and the sugar juice slowly condenses and turns amber, floating in the cauldron and exuding a sweet taste. Finally, the master extinguished the fire at the bottom of the cauldron, then scooped the steaming brown sugar juice into the wooden trough, flowed into the "sugar tray", settled and cooled, and formed brown sugar lumps...

Tasting the freshly baked brown sugar, Heifu nodded with satisfaction, and then asked about the sugar yield rate. Yan told him: "Just now, one thousand kilograms of sugar cane was boiled, and fifty kilograms of brown sugar were produced."

When they first made sugar three years ago, the sugar yield was about 2%. It took thousands of kilograms of sugar cane to produce twenty kilograms of brown sugar.

Now, after using the new varieties from Jiangling, the sugar yield rate has reached 5%. Although it is still far from the ten or twenty percent common in later generations, it is already a great improvement.

At present, more than two million kilograms of sugar cane have been harvested, which can produce ten thousand kilograms of brown sugar...

Yan anxiously asked Heifu about the expected price, and Heifu gave him three different prices.

"Anlu can be sold for a hundred yuan. Folks in the countryside are not interested in making money. Jiangling needs to be sold for a hundred and fifty yuan to make a profit on costs and freight. If it is sold to Xianyang or Guandong..."

Hei Fu was cruel and called out a price: "Depending on the distance, two hundred to four hundred yuan! No less! If we sell it to Qi or Yan, it will cost five hundred yuan!"

Yan almost bit his tongue. He calculated the account secretly. After including the cost of planting sugar cane and boiling sugar, it was only fifty yuan per catty. Hei Fu was too cruel.

However, in Heif's view, even in the 18th and 19th centuries, sugar was a luxury product, not a necessity. That's why American plantations were so profitable. What's wrong with setting the price more expensively? If you can make white sugar in the future, the price will have to be doubled. Times!

Moreover, the common malt candies these days are not cheap. The main reason is that they are produced from grains, the output is small, and the government does not promote them. Chinese families cannot eat them a few times a year.

Brown sugar is different. Sugar cane is easy to grow, but sugar is boiled during the slack season, so there are plenty of people available. This is still the first year, and every year after that, Heifu plans to expand production so that when people think of Anlu, they will think of brown sugar and their mouths will be full of sweetness!

Rather than the birthplace of public toilets and the vague smell...

He has made up his mind: "I will set off for Xianyang in the middle of the twelfth lunar month. You have to work out at least two thousand kilograms before then. Come with me to the north and find a way to sell brown sugar in Xianyang!"

In the Qin State, every workshop, shop, and stall, whether rented or purchased, must have a clear owner. This can facilitate tax collection and avoid inheritance disputes.

For example, Man, Heifu's subordinate, told him that there was an open space in Jiangling Government Market. Some people once asked him to rent it as a coffin shop, but Man refused. Later, he was accused of secretly bribing the operation, and there was a quarrel. A case of "Rui stealing and selling public land" came out...

At the same time, government officials are not allowed to do business blatantly, so Heifu owns this property in his mother's name.

Although from the perspective of Confucianism: a wife has no selfless goods, no selfless beasts, no selfless weapons, she dare not take private leave, and she does not dare to take private possessions. But in Qin, women undoubtedly have property rights.

For example, according to the "inheritance law" of the Qin State, if the black husband unfortunately dies, his property must first be passed on to his son, that is, his son. Of course, he is still a bachelor now and has no wife. Where can he have children? So next, it is the turn of "the father is like the mother". If both parents are dead, it will be the turn of the widow, daughter, and grandson, and the brothers will be ranked first. later.

Furthermore... Could it be that the Great Qin only allowed the widow of Ba Qing to dig mines, but not the old woman of Anlu to cook sugar?

Heifu's mother only cared about the radishes, mallows, and leeks in the field. During dinner, she was shocked when she heard that Heifu had put a property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in his name. I just felt like I couldn't sleep well at night, and said Hei Fu might as well take the money to Xianyang.

"Maybe give him more room for shock. He is in Jiangnan. I feel pitiful just thinking about it." The mother felt sorry for her little son and was about to wipe away her tears again.

Hei Fu hurriedly comforted her and said: "I went to Xianyang, and it was indeed a lot of money. It was far from enough to rely only on salary and the harvest of the fields, so I had to buy some properties in Nanjun and Yuzhang. I would like to work there." , can also help me take care of it."

"Are you planning to plant sugar cane and extract sugar in Yuzhang?" Zhong responded.

"Of course."

Heifu said to his brother sincerely: "The climate in Yuzhang is hotter than that in Nanjun, and it is also suitable for growing sugar cane. I have forty-nine hectares of land in Nanchang, leaving a few hectares to grow taxable grain, and the rest to grow sugar cane. Wait until tomorrow autumn and winter. Also open a brown sugar workshop in Nanchang, selling exclusively to Huainan and Kuaiji. Excluding costs, freight, and hiring fees, the two workshops together can make a net profit of one million yuan every year, which should not be a problem!"

"Millions of dollars!"

Both Zhong and his mother were a little frightened. The mother kept talking about how people could not take anything with them when they died, so why did they earn so much? No one who has ever produced such a noble person dares to marry you, but you are not young yet, and you are already married to Lady Yan. Isn’t it time for you to get married?"

The mother got more and more angry as she talked, and finally pointed at the eleven-year-old Yang and said, "Is it going to take longer than Yang?"

The older young man Heifu smiled and said: "My mother can rest assured about my marriage. Heifu has already fallen in love with a lady..."

"Is this true?"

As soon as this statement came out, the whole family was shocked, and the mother was so happy that she almost cried. She always thought that her son's vision was too high, and he didn't like this or that. Zhong Ze and his uncle and sister-in-law looked at each other, feeling greatly relieved. Niece Yue opened her eyes wide and wanted to know who the lucky woman could be attracted by Uncle Zhong.

Only Yang raised his head and said in surprise: "I thought Uncle Zhong would stay single forever, and he would not be made a marquis or get married unless he became a general!" Jing had also mentioned Heifu's ambition to his family.

"You've always been single!"

Heifu stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth. When his family asked, he pretended to regret and said: "It's just that she just went to Xianyang with her family, so I can only wait until she gets to Xianyang before considering asking for marriage." thing……"

This rhetoric finally suppressed the family's new round of forced marriage.

The military career has come to an end, and marriage is indeed on the agenda. Although Heifu has managed his lower body rationally in the past few years, it is not a problem to continue to be single like this and only rely on his left and right hands.

Rather than marrying a woman whom you have never met and whose appearance and temperament you don't know like many people do in this era, it is better to start with a good cabbage that you have some good feelings for and has already grown up!

These days, it’s rare for aristocratic women to be polite to a black guy from Guizhou, and even say something like, “You should be proud of your meritorious service, and don’t be ashamed of not having a family name.”…

Furthermore, if this matter can be accomplished, it will also be profitable for Heifu. Although Ye Teng has a bad reputation in Korea, he has been operating in Jiangling for seven years. It is not an exaggeration to say that "his disciples and former officials are all over Nanjun". Now, those subordinates promoted by Ye Teng have dispersed to Jiujiang, Changsha, Dongting and other counties.

Thinking of this, Heifu set a small goal for his trip to Xianyang, which will start tomorrow.

"A husband should be worth two thousand dan, and a wife should be married to Ye Zijin!"