Chapter 13 Arrival at Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi is located in a village called Shitou Village in the southern suburbs. It is a remote location and is inhabited by farmers. It is a very quiet place for Yan Xuanyu to live.
The village is very large, surrounded by a high wall. There is a stone-paved path leading inside. There are many houses in the village, and the interior decoration is very simple.
"Okay, living here is quite rustic." Yan Xuanyu stopped Li Zhongxian from saying, "There are mountains behind the manor, and there is a stream. It can be said to be close to mountains and water, right?"
Li Zhongxian still muttered quietly, "How can His Majesty be allowed to live here?"
"For ordinary people, this is a place to live that they can't even imagine." Yan Xuanyu said this because when Li Zhongxian led people to renovate the manor in advance, it attracted the attention of countless farmers nearby. They even often stopped to look at this "grand" manor in their spare time.
Li Zhongxian thought it was simple, but Yan Xuanyu felt refreshed after staying there for a night. His residence was in a small house against the mountain. The bed was small but soft and clean, and there was also a set of bamboo furniture, which Yan Xuanyu liked very much.
Perhaps it was because the palace's architecture was too magnificent, making him feel as if something was pressing down on him. Even with the medicine from the Imperial Hospital that he took every day during the first few days after arriving, he couldn't sleep well. Moreover, because nothing he ate had any taste, even his cheeks became thinner.
Yan Xuanyu has ordered people to look for mint leaves in the mountains, but they have not found any yet.
Mint wasn't rare; he remembered it being found not only in the far south but also in the north, and it was even recorded in ancient books. But since he needed it now, he simply saved the mint seeds from last autumn and continued planting them in Baicao Garden, then brought all the mint he had there with him.
Yan Xuanyu had never been exposed to these things in the palace before. It was not until he arrived at Zhuangzi that he discovered that most of the food in the Zhou Dynasty was malt sugar. There was sugarcane in the south, and sugarcane juice could be squeezed from it, but the planting area was too small, and even less could be used to make sugar.
Maltose, also known as maltose, is also very precious to the people. After all, maltose is made from starch crops such as barley, millet, and corn. In this era, corn had not yet appeared, and the maltose of the Zhou Dynasty was mostly made from barley.
The quickest way now is to make the malt candy that is available here.
In addition to making sugar from starchy crops, Yan Xuanyu also knows another method, which is making sugar from beets.
If he could try making sugar from beets on the farm, he could save a lot of food. There was no rush to return to the palace anyway, so at most he could just try a few more times.
Currently, beets are used for food and as a traditional Chinese medicine. Beets are quite common and have a short growth cycle, but they require more raw materials to make sugar than sugarcane.
It was definitely too late to plant now, so Yan Xuanyu immediately ordered the people on the farm to harvest the beets.
There were many young and strong laborers hired to work in the village, and the leader among them was called Dazhuang.
Dazhuang is from the nearby Xiaoshi Village. Although he is young, he is very smart and has the trust of the villagers. Previously, they only knew that the village was taken over by a mysterious rich man, and those of them who used to farm in the village were also retained.
At first, the people who lived on the farm were worried about being kicked out, but later the new owner generously paid them wages, and they felt relieved.
"Beets? Beets can be used to make sugar?" Da Zhuang clicked his tongue.
Every household here does have beets, but it's already March and the weather is cold in the southern suburbs. Every household in the village has a cellar, so they can store them for a longer time.
But the wheat harvest was poor this year, so we had no food, so we had to use beets and wild vegetables dug from outside to make soup. Even if we stored some, there wasn't much left.
Why does he feel that this mysterious rich man is so...
If Dazhuang had some knowledge, he would probably be able to think of a word - fantasy.
Seeing the farm paying money to collect cartloads of sugar beets, Dazhuang could hardly help but run over and tell the owner that these sugar beets were just something the common people used to make soup and there was no sugar in them!
"What are you going to do?"
At noon that day, the farmers in the village gathered together and slurped the thick rice in their bowls. After Dazhuang finished drinking, he wiped his mouth, put down the bowl and was about to get up, but A Tie, who also came from Xiaoshi Village, called him.
A Tie is old, and Da Zhuang calls him uncle in the village.
"I'll tell the owner that these truckloads of beets..."
What a waste.
Before Dazhuang could finish, Ah Tie cursed, "The master has plenty of money! Why do you have to complain?! We are just farmers on the farm, and the boss hasn't said anything! I'll kick you out!"
"I..." Da Zhuang stammered.
But he finally gave up the idea.
That afternoon, several thick layers of thatch were piled outside a house on the farm, and a piece of land was built next to it, saying that it would be used as a place to grow sugar.
...
Yan Xuanyu only knew the general process, and to actually do it he had to rely on several people with strong hands-on skills he brought from the palace and the people on the farm to help.
He assigned several people to do something. The first was to "extract the juice". Due to limited conditions, Yan Xuanyu could only ask those who came in to participate in making sugar to take a shower, change clothes, and then wear veils and linen gloves specially made by Yan Xuanyu. He then instructed them several times to wash the beets, clean the tubers and put them in a clean place, cut the tubers into shreds, squeeze out the juice and filter it. Due to limited conditions, the evaporation process was changed to boiling in a pot to extract the sugar from the shredded vegetables, and finally obtain the exudate juice. After that came the more critical point - adding a little lime.
This process was done twice. The covered area was very hot because of the fire, and there were many people working inside, but no one complained because a hint of sweetness emerged while the juice was being boiled!
Some of the people working there were recruited from nearby villages. Almost all of them had never tasted "sweet" since they were born. They only thought that the smell floating in the air wrapped in hot air was so pleasant.
It is not easy to achieve this step in the current lack of sophisticated tools.
If the sugar becomes granulated sugar with a lot of impurities after crystallization in this step, it needs to be continuously dissolved and re-crystallized to obtain white granulated sugar. This step is the highlight.
But after they successfully made sugar for the first time, Yan Xuanyu asked them to stop. This was a very laborious task. It was almost afternoon now, and they had to keep trying and making errors. If they worked until late at night, they might not be able to make it. Yan Xuanyu planned to prepare the necessary materials on the farm before making white sugar.
However, the amount of beets they harvested this time was limited. At present, there is no large-scale cultivation of beets in the north of Da Zhou. If they want to get enough beets, they have to plant them in the right season.
"Candy is really made?!"
“It smells so good!!”
A group of men were wearing veils, which seemed out of place in today's fashion, and they were extremely excited!
Other people in Zhuangzi were also attracted by them, and everyone rushed to spread the word - they made sugar from beets!
If someone didn't believe it, the men would take them to the small window to smell it.
“It’s really candy!!”
This behavior and dialogue occurred repeatedly.
Yan Xuanyu looked at this group of big men who were as excited as children, and couldn't help but be infected by their emotions and smiled.
Li Zhongxian went to see and found that the sugar was very rough, reddish-brown in color, and at most had the sweetness of sugar. The officials and nobles would definitely not like it.
Not to mention the emperor.
This was almost the first time that Li Zhongxian had seen the emperor smile so relaxedly since he had been following him. He certainly had no idea what Yan Xuanyu was thinking.
Yan Xuanyu thought that he had hardly accomplished anything since he came here, and had not changed anything here. But today, relying on modern knowledge, he finally did something. Even though this thing did not help him in political affairs, it gave him great confidence.
No, it's not useless.
Although the process of making rough brown sugar from beets is complicated, it can be made almost immediately once you understand the steps. In addition, beets have a short growth cycle and are easy to grow, so almost every household can grow them.
At that time, the people could not afford to buy sugar. Just the spread of this crude sugar could improve the people's diet, even slightly, and let them taste sweetness.
Li Zhongxian watched Yan Xuanyu smile to himself and couldn't help but sigh, "Sir, this is the first time I've seen you smile so happily."
Because of his external status, Yan Xuanyu specifically emphasized the need to change his words.
Yan Xuanyu was startled by Li Zhongxian's words. He inappropriately thought of the hero's housekeeper saying to the heroine in the novel, "This is the first time the young master has laughed so happily."
He was about to stop smiling, but found that he was smiling even more.
After arriving at the farm, Yan Xuanyu wore a fine cloth garment that anyone with a little money could afford, but the dark red color of the garment made Yan Xuanyu look even more sickly and pale.
In contrast, Li Zhongxian next to him was wearing brocade clothes and a crown inlaid with a piece of fine jade, looking like a wealthy businessman from Beijing.
He said a few words to Li Zhongxian, and Li Zhongxian went to the chief official, with Yan Xuanyu following him.
"The young master said to skim off the sugar juice on top." Li Zhongxian said.
His voice was not loud, but everyone heard it and quickly stopped what they were doing.
The person in charge quickly said, "Yes."
The sugar juice skimmed off from the top is the best part of the whole pot, with almost no impurities precipitated, but this is all you can get from a pot.
Then he introduced Yan Xuanyu to the men: "This is the master of our village."
The men were about to call Li Zhongxian "Master" when they heard Da Zhuang take the lead in bowing to Yan Xuanyu and saying, "Hello, Master!"
Turning back, they saw the master smiling and nodding. The men were stunned for a moment and then bowed and said, "Hello, master!"
Yan Xuanyu said, "Everyone has worked hard today. Let's first distribute the raw sugar made in the pot to the people in the village to taste its sweetness. We will make fine sugar later."
"Can we continue?" someone exclaimed.
Zhuangzi glared at the man.
Yan Xuanyu didn't take it seriously and continued, "Of course, if we continue to filter this pot of sugar water and repeatedly crystallize it, the color will become lighter and we will eventually get fine sugar, but it will take a lot of effort."
Everyone was even more excited when they heard this. Who would have known that sugar beets, which are readily available everywhere, could be made into even more expensive sugar?
This candy is made by everyone, and it’s made from beets, so it must be edible!
With Yan Xuanyu's permission, the brave ones carefully picked out a little with a linen glove, dipped their fingers in it and put it in their mouths, then instantly widened their eyes in surprise.
sweet!
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