After that day.

Zhao Yan dispatched three envoys to the states of Yan, Qi, and Chu, vowing to recruit them into his enterprise, conquer Qin territory, and kill King Ying Zheng of Qin.

Meanwhile, the scouts Huan Yi had sent back from Kucha were also on their way back to Xianyang at full speed.

......

Xianyang.

"Grand Commandant, this tool should be the most efficient version that can be manufactured so far, unless a new revolutionary technology emerges." Xiang Lihe pointed to the refined salt extraction tool in front of him, his face full of pride.

The wicked man examined the tool in front of him; its design was ingenious and its structure compact, clearly more advanced than any previous version.

He nodded slightly in agreement, "Then let's use this for now! There's no need to waste any more energy on it."

Technological change doesn't happen overnight. Since Xianglihe is so confident in this tool, it must be quite effective.

In terms of the fastest way to refine refined salt, it would be to build salt fields by the sea and implement the sun-drying method. Once the remaining countries are conquered and the coastal areas are taken over, these tools will be basically obsolete, and there will be no need to spend too much effort.

Right now, what he's most anxious about is refining white sugar!

I spent the last few days traveling around Neishi County. Although the people in the disaster-stricken areas had a place to stay, they were also able to fill their stomachs with a few bowls of porridge each day.

Although there were no instances of people exchanging children to eat or starving to death, the people were still emaciated and looked very pitiful.

To alleviate the people's suffering, he could only pin his hopes on sugar. Adding sugar to the porridge would at least provide some energy.

"Grand Commandant, are you thinking about sugar?" Xiangli He smiled when he saw that her husband was a little absent-minded.

The wicked man nodded slightly upon hearing this, and said with considerable anxiety, "This flood has been going on for a long time. Although we have porridge and fruit to eat, even an iron man would not be able to withstand it if it went on for too long, let alone the children and the elderly."

Xiangli He smiled mysteriously, grabbed the wicked husband's hand and walked quickly forward, "Grand Commandant, please come with me, I will take you to see a great treasure."

The wicked husband was puzzled and quite curious about his mysterious behavior, so he let him pull him inside.

Before long, the two arrived at the deepest part of the refined salt workshop, where they were blocked by a large door, with six Qin soldiers standing guard with swords on both sides of the door.

"We pay our respects to the Grand Commandant!"

"Greetings, Lord Xianglihe!"

The wicked man nodded slightly, while Xianglihe said, "No need, open the door quickly."

Without any hesitation, the two Qin soldiers pushed the gate open together.

Inside, a bustling scene unfolded as various craftsmen operated complex mechanical devices, with a massive bronze container at the center of these devices.

Steam was rising from the container, as if something was boiling.

Xianglihe approached with his wicked husband, pointed to the device in front of them and said, "Grand Commandant, this is the 'treasure' I was talking about—the sugar refining device that the Mo family has just developed."

The wicked man carefully observed the device in front of him and found that it was divided into three parts. The front end was a pulping machine, in which the sugarcane was put in and the juice was squeezed out by the rotating mechanism. The juice flowed into the filter device through the half-open pipe below and finally entered the huge container for heating and boiling.

"This...you actually managed to do it?!" the wicked husband suddenly exclaimed.

Xiang Lihe chuckled, revealing an expression of admiration. "The Grand Commandant is indeed remarkable, though this device is a bit off-track, yet it still produced this very sweet substance."

As he spoke, Xianglihe walked to the box next to him, took out a crystal, and handed it to the wicked man. “Grand Commandant, take a look. Although it’s not the same as the white sugar you mentioned, it’s still very sweet.”

The wicked husband stared intently at the crystal in his hand, then froze, "This...this isn't rock candy, is it?"

To verify his hypothesis, he put the object in his palm directly into his mouth and savored it with his eyes slightly narrowed.

"This texture, hmm... it really does taste like rock sugar."

The wicked man patted Xianglihe on the shoulder with satisfaction: "Good, good! Your Mo family has really done a great job. Although you accidentally produced the rock candy, it is more in line with the current needs."

The manufacturing process of rock sugar is simpler than that of white sugar, and the loss of raw materials is far less. The only difference is that there are slightly more impurities, which is not a big problem.

Considering the current weather and transportation situation, rock sugar is indeed more convenient than white sugar. If each person is given two pieces of rock sugar a day, we can guarantee that it will last until the disaster is over.

Xiang Lihe scratched his head, somewhat annoyed, and said, "Grand Commandant, we designed the tools according to your requirements, but we don't know why we extracted this crystalline substance. We just can't find any white sugar that's as white as salt."

The wicked man leaned closer to examine it closely, but he was not a well-educated person and only had a superficial understanding of refining sugar, so how could he see the clues?

Just then, a craftsman shouted loudly, "Open the kiln!"

When the lid of the huge container was opened, the dark yellow syrup was poured into the large vat below. The craftsman then pushed the vat aside and went to work on other things.

The wicked man's eyes lit up immediately, and he pointed at the large vat, saying, "When this sugar water cools and crystallizes, it becomes rock sugar. Didn't I tell you that you need to use the yellow mud water leaching decolorization method before you can get white sugar?"

Xianglihe was stunned upon hearing this, and said dryly, "I did use the yellow mud water bleaching method, but it was before this step!"

He dragged the wicked husband to the filtration device, gesturing with his fingers, "I'll store the muddy water here, and then mix it into the filter during the filtration process..."

The wicked husband laughed loudly upon hearing this, "You really are too clever for your own good. No wonder the rock sugar you refined is only slightly yellow instead of being black."

have to.

The truth has come out!

It's all because Xiang Lihe's design was too advanced. In order to save time and improve efficiency, he forcibly changed the steps, but accidentally refined a product comparable to the white rock sugar of later generations, only it was a little yellowish.

"That's not difficult, I'll fix it right away!" Xianglihe's expression immediately turned enthusiastic. For the Mo family, who had been immersed in mechanical arts all their lives, it was hard to accept that they couldn't create a mechanism that met their ideal standards.

"By separating this device and combining it with the final step, we can obtain white sugar!"

The wicked man chuckled, then said in a deep voice, "We can put aside the white sugar for now and focus all our efforts on producing rock sugar."

Rock sugar is easier to carry, while white sugar is just better to eat. For current needs, rock sugar is more suitable than white sugar.

Whether distributed to civilians or soldiers, it is more convenient and easier to store than white sugar.

As for white sugar, now that we know where the problem lies, there's no rush. After all, we're not in a hurry to satisfy our appetites right now, nor is it time to forge firearms. We might as well focus on producing rock sugar first.