(ps: The New Year is here. I wish you a happy New Year. I will keep updating during the New Year, so that everyone can enjoy watching it more!!!)

A big thing happened in Leizhou Prefecture, which was not a small thing Zhu Hongsan told Tong Yangjia. Now Xuwen County, Leizhou Prefecture, has been in chaos, and the sugar farmers have killed the runners of the two county yamen, and the government's government orders can no longer go out.

The story of Leizhou starts with Ma Jiyuan coming to Leizhou Prefecture.

The main soil sugar production area in Leizhou is in Xuwen. Sugarcane is not a Chinese plant, and it was produced in India and introduced to China since the early Ming Dynasty. However, sugarcane can only be planted in the tropics, so the Leizhou Peninsula, located in the tropical region, has become the main sugarcane production area.

By the Chongzhen period, the sugarcane planting areas in Leizhou were distributed in Xuwen and Suixi counties, but 80% of the planting areas were concentrated in Xuwen County, which was near the sea. Sugar cane has been planted in this place for hundreds of years, and sugar sugar production has formed a complete industrial chain in the local area. Sugar farmers produce sugar cane, which is purchased by local Tutangliao, and is produced by red sugar, and then distributed nationwide through twenty-five local sugar merchants.

Among the more than 50,000 agricultural populations in Xuwen County, 80% serve this sugar industry chain. In almost every village, there are tutangliao, private ones, and village people jointly open it.

The tools are also very simple. Two huge cranes are side by side and pulled by several cows. The sugarcane is put in the middle and squeezed out the cane juice. After cooking and drying, it is made into small brick-like strips of red candy.

In the era of shortage of materials, sugar was still an important material. Sugar-making handicraftsmen were relatively rich. These crutches were actually a symbol of wealth. The use of sugar cane to make brown sugar cubes has a history of hundreds of years. According to the "Xuwen County Chronicles", by the first year of Tianqi, there were more than 600 citrus in the county, with an annual output of more than 5,000 tons of sugar.

Ma Jiyuan is undeniable to be a good official and a capable official. He visited everywhere as soon as he came to investigate the local sugar and salt production.

The salt industry is very simple. The salt farm on the Leizhou Peninsula is very small and cannot be compared with the large salt farms in Lianghuai in the north. It is not as rich as the big salt merchants like Lianghuai, so the craftsmen brought by Ma Jiyuan simply built a salt drying farm in Gangtou Village, Xuwen.

What Zhu Hongsan gave them was an improved salt drying method, which produced a very high salt rate.

Seeing that the salt industry was fine, Ma Jiyuan was very happy, but unexpectedly encountered a nail in the sugar industry.

After Ma Jiyuan's investigation, it was decided to build a sugar factory ten miles outside Xuwen County.

Zhu Hongsan made the sugar factory naturally adopt the routine of large-scale industrial production, abandoning the artificial production that utilizes animal power, and using all hydraulic power. Zhu Hongsan asked the steel factory to cast two solid steel rollers with a length of five meters and a diameter of one meter using cast iron.

The water truck designed by Zhu Hongsan uses standard gear transmission, and the transmission ratio is very high. Using hydraulic power, the two steel rollers roll slowly, and the sugar cane is pressed through the middle of the two steel rollers, and then the sugar juice is squeezed out for processing. Zhu Hongsan did not discard the sugar cane bagasse, and the sugar cane bagasse in Tutangliao was burned directly. Zhu Hongsan wanted to use this thing to make wine, and the residue after the bagasse fermentation was even more of the feed for cows and pigs.

The sugar production line designed by Zhu Hongsan is even more high-end. After Zhu Hongsan's transformation, the sugar yield rate of this sugar production line is 20% higher than that of the local Tutangliao, and the cost is 50% lower. At the same time, the quality of sugar is much higher than that of Tutangliao, and the sugar is close to the sugar produced by later industries.

Ma Jiyuan was also very happy to see the sugar factory successfully produce sugar. He had been in charge of the economy and knew that good sugar was equivalent to silver in Nanzhili. This did not include the income brought by some surrounding industries of sugar, such as winemaking and cattle breeding.

After seeing that the sugar factory was put into production, Ma Jiyuan handed over the production to the foreman and returned to Leizhou Prefecture to handle government affairs. After all, in his mind, this official position was his job.

Ma Jiyuan had never read the Capital Theory and did not know the conclusion summarized by his relative, Max, that when the profit reached 300%, the capitalists would dare to risk being beheaded. What's more, this sugar factory has seriously infringed on the interests of local sugar merchants.

Think about it, the same is true. Your sugar factory has a high sugar yield, low cost, and high output, which makes people live. So after Maji left, twenty-five local sugar merchants joined forces to boycott this sugar factory.

After hundreds of years of natural evolution, Xuwen's sugar production industry has been controlled by 80 to 90% of them in the hands of these 25 major sugar merchants, including the Wang family.

The heads of Xuwen sugar merchants came to the Wang family’s manor on October 20 to discuss how to deal with the official sugar factory.

The head of the Xu family who was speaking at the beginning: "Dear masters, do you know that the new magistrate has built a new sugar dormitory outside the city?"

Those who came to the meeting naturally knew what was going on, and everyone answered.

The head of the Xu family continued, "I heard from the workers working inside that the sugar yield rate of official sugar lanes is 20% higher than that of ours, and the cost is 50% lower. Everyone knows that our red sugar can buy five cents of silver and ten kilograms of silver in Guangzhou. Do you know what the factory price of official sugar lanes is? "

Everyone doesn’t know how much it costs?

"Everyone never thought that the cost of snow sugar is only ten taels of silver per stone. Everyone heard it correctly, it is one stone. We all need three taels of silver per stone, and snow sugar is even six taels of silver per kilogram. If this continues, it will take only a few months, and we all have no way to survive."

Many small sugar merchants had no idea that the cost of the official sugar factory could be so low. After listening to the head of the Xu family, they were all mourning and approved.

"So low? Then how can we live!"

"It seems that it's better to change careers!"

Seeing everyone's reaction, the head of the Xu family said: "Don't panic, everyone, today I want everyone to come and discuss the regulations and see what we should do?"

Someone shouted below: "Let me tell you what Master Wang said."

Master Wang is Wang Youdao, the head of the Wang family. This guy is in his sixties. The previous generations of the Wang family were begging for food, but later they were so hungry that they took the risk to become a pirate. In Grandpa Wang Youdao's generation, he saved up a lot of property, and then returned to his hometown Xuwen, bought hundreds of acres of sugarcane fields, and became a landlord.

Because the Wang family came from the wrong way, they were harsh. It was passed down to Wang Youdao's father's generation and became a well-known sugar merchant in Xuwen County through forcibly robbing and robbing. The Wang family itself accounted for one-third of Xuwen's red sugar production. Therefore, the establishment of an official sugar factory had the greatest impact on the Wang family.

Wang Youdao was very happy to see the crowd excited and felt that the people were able to use it. He stood up and said, "In the past, thanks to everyone's trust, Wang was the president of Xuwen Sugar Industry Chamber of Commerce. Now that such a big thing has happened, for everyone's interests, we must come up with the regulations and not let the official sugar yard squeeze us to death."

"Let's listen to Mr. Wang!"

"Mr. Wang said what to do!"

This is the entrusted man Wang Youdao found. But he also had a clear idea and asked: "Master Wang, this official Tangliao is run by the prefect. Our little arm can't twist our thighs. What should we do if the prefect pursues it?"

This sentence poured everyone a basin of cold water. Yes, the county magistrate who destroyed the family and the prefect who destroyed the family, everyone has heard this sentence. This is not like Jiang Long wanted to interfere in the sugar manufacturing industry in Xuwen before, and everyone joined forces to squeeze out the matter. This is the government.

Wang Youdao smiled and said, "Did you forget about County Magistrate Xue a few years ago?"

A few years ago, Xu Wenxin came to Xu Wenxin. He saw that the sugar industry was very profitable and wanted to interfere in the sugar industry. He asked Wang Youdao to join forces with the county's big sugar merchants to let the county's magistrate's sugar yard not receive one or two sugar cane.

County Magistrate Xue wanted to use official means to deal with these sugar merchants, but Wang Youdao bribed the Guangdong governor and transferred the county magistrate Xue. County Magistrate Xue had no choice but to leave in shame. Finally, he heard that County Magistrate Xue's ship encountered pirates on the sea, and County Magistrate Xue sacrificed his life for the country.

It was also this incident that Wang Youdao established his dominance in Xuwen sugar merchants.

When all the sugar merchants remembered the unlucky County Magistrate Xue, they couldn't help but feel confident, and they all expressed their willingness to follow the leader of Mr. Wang.

Wang Youdao nodded and said, "Everyone, we are protecting our own property. If we let the official sugar yard continue to operate, we will know what the result will be. So I hope everyone must work together to overcome this difficulty."

The head of the Xu family said, "We all understand, please tell us what should we do?"

Wang Youdao said: "We want to make the official sugar yard unable to do it. The first step is to everyone go back and reduce the purchase price of sugar cane, and reduce the sugar cane per stone to one tael of silver."

The heads of the family below were shocked and said, "Is it too cruel to have one tael of silver? You must know that rice now costs two taels of silver and one stone. Those sugar farmers will not rebel if they are so cruel."
Chapter completed!