I was a prince in ancient times

Being watched by everyone, Xie Anlan also noticed something was wrong, swallowed the candy in her mouth, and squinted her eyes slightly, "Why, is there something wrong?"

Lu Chengjie coughed and explained in a low voice, "Your Highness doesn't know something. It's extremely difficult to get icing sugar. Out of several thousand catties of brown sugar, only one or two catties are produced. Only the royal family and powerful families are eligible to enjoy it, and ordinary people don't have it." .”

"I see." Xie Anlan raised her eyebrows, suppressing the words that were about to spit out.

After several people tasted it one by one, Xie Anlan stopped paying attention to the sugar, and asked about agriculture, "Do people here rely on growing red vegetables to survive?"

Although the conversation between Lu Chengjiao and Xie Anlan was quiet just now, Jin Lei saw that they didn't pay much attention to sugar, so he knew that this must be the nobleman among the nobles.

Hearing the nobleman's question, his attitude became a little more humble, "Returning to the nobleman, red vegetables need to be planted for two years before harvesting, and it takes up a lot of land, so the surrounding farmers dare not grow them. They usually grow wheat and soybeans. Lord."

Xie Anlan understood, and asked again, "Does the farmer grow red vegetables to make money?"

Jin Lei forced a smile, "If the nobleman is joking, he can make a living. It's Feng who wants to make money."

As he spoke, he picked up a piece of brown sugar from the bamboo basket without concealing it, "Take this brown sugar as an example, the sugar made from the red vegetables in our whole village is only worth about two thousand catties, and sold to vendors, one catty Fifty or sixty renminbi, shared among more than 100 households in the whole village, each family only has about one or two taels."

Xie Anlan pointed out that each family only earns about one tael of silver in two years, which is really only enough to make ends meet.

As he said that, Jin Lei sighed again, "In the past, Guotai Minan was fine, but there were always businessmen coming to our village to collect sugar. This year it's hard to say."

Jin Lei couldn't stop shaking his head as he spoke. In previous years, at this time of year, all the sugar produced in the village was taken away by the merchants. The villagers could live a good year with the money. So far this year, no merchants have come to collect the sugar. It seems that no one will come this year.

This brown sugar will turn into water in the summer, and it will be worthless if it turns into water. If it is not worth money, it means that two years of hard work have been wasted.

For this reason, he and his fellow villagers were all grey-headed.

It’s not that they don’t want to sell it loosely, it’s that this brown sugar is not really a new product in Yicheng, and other villages also have sugar production, but each village’s sugar production technology is different. It's worthless.

If you want to sell brown sugar, you have to go to other cities.

First, they are not businessmen, second, they are not famous scholars, and third, they have no relatives in other places, so they cannot leave Yicheng.

After hearing this, Xie Anlan smiled slightly, "Could it be that no merchants have come this year."

Jin Lei nodded, "I'm not afraid of noble people's jokes. Not a single businessman has visited our village this year, let alone our village, and the same is true for other villages."

Xie Anlan thinks about it too. All the prominent merchants in the city have run away, so how can there be merchants going to the countryside to collect sugar.

After thinking for a while, Xie Anlan smiled and said, "I just tasted the brown sugar you made, and it's really good. I don't want to eat your sugar for free. How about it, sell me as much brown sugar as you want? How about the price of sixty Wen?"

Jin Lei had an unbelievable expression on his face. It was not until a while later that the whole body realized that he knelt down to Xie Anlan, "Thank you, my lord, thank you, my lord."

"I was just doing business with you normally, and I didn't show you any kindness, so why thank me." Xie Anlan smiled.

Jin Lei said, "Although the nobleman is only doing business with me, he has saved the people in our village. This year's life is difficult. Everyone is waiting to spend the New Year with this little sugar money. If the nobleman doesn't buy it, it will be in your hands. Next year Even if it can’t be sold, thanks are due.”

He didn't delay after speaking, and immediately went into the village to yell at people.

When the people in the village heard that a nobleman wanted to collect sugar, they even collected sugar at a high price of sixty yuan, and a large wave of people rushed out.

The whole village, old and young, worked together to move all the sugar out of the sugar mill, and then put it on the scale.

There are many people and strength is great, and the weight of the sugar will come out after a short time of skill, which is close to three thousand catties in total.

Jin Lei was very honest, wiped off the last one hundred catties of change, and directly counted [-] catties.

A total of 170 four taels of silver.

Xie Anlan didn't cheat them either, she didn't settle the bill with cash, she used the cash she got from selling saddles one after another during this period of time to settle the bill.

Since all the merchants in the city have left, there are naturally no people left in the major banks. The soldiers bought saddles with cash. Xie Anlan had nowhere to save them, so they put them all in the house. Just in case you need to use it on the road, you should bring some more, otherwise it is really not enough for today.

The vain money is spread out in front of them, and the villagers are all laughing, and now they don't have to worry about having a bad year.

Three thousand catties of brown sugar couldn't fit in a carriage, but fortunately they brought more than 200 guards, and the villagers sent a lot of rattan baskets made by themselves, so two people could carry one basket back to the city.

Before leaving, Jin Lei caught a chicken from his yard and stuffed it to Xie Anlan.

He couldn't offer any good things to thank, only the chickens he raised as a token of his gratitude.

Xie Anlan didn't intend to ask for it at first, but seeing how enthusiastic he was, she had to accept it.

On the way back to the city, no one took the chicken seriously at first, and left it in a corner of the carriage, waiting for it to fend for itself.

As a result, the chicken seemed to be unaware of its own destiny, and it didn't make a fuss when its wings and feet were tied up.

It just barked twice, and after attracting everyone's attention, it turned its butt towards them, and slowly gave birth to a white egg...

Xie Anlan, "..."

Lu Chengjie, "..."

Lu Chuyi, "..."

Chen Gui, "..."

For a moment, the atmosphere in the carriage compartment seemed to be frozen, and everyone paused.

After a long time, Xie Anlan eased the atmosphere and said, "So this is a hen that can only lay eggs."

"Well, it proves that Jin Lei is sincerely grateful to His Highness." Lu Chengjiao nodded seriously, "Generally, the hens raised in the farmhouse will not be killed, and the eggs are kept for money, unless the hen can no longer give birth. Eggs are killed in order not to waste food, and a hen like this one that still lays eggs in winter is even rarer, let alone giving it to others, it is too late for my own treasures."

Xie Anlan didn't think so deeply, he just wanted to ease the atmosphere, and after being told by Lu Chengjia, he didn't want to kill the chicken.

Soon Lu Chengjie stopped thinking about the chicken, and asked instead, "Your Highness bought so much brown sugar, but do you want to do brown sugar business?"

"Is the brown sugar business profitable?" Xie Anlan didn't know much about it.

"The price of a catty of brown sugar in the Imperial City is two renminbi. Generally speaking, it is not a problem for His Highness to earn one renminbi when transporting it back to the Imperial City from Yicheng to the Imperial City, excluding the freight and loss."

This is also the reason why he didn't stop His Highness from buying it just now.

"What's the price of frosting sugar?" Xie Anlan knew that brown sugar would definitely make money, but he didn't just buy brown sugar just to make money by reselling it.

Although Lu Chengjie didn't know why Xie Anlan asked the price of the icing sugar, he still told him carefully,

"Icing sugar is condensed during the cooking process of brown sugar. It is sweeter than brown sugar. It usually only condenses a tael after a thousand catties, and even a few thousand catties can't condense a tael. Therefore, its price is very expensive. Ten taels of silver a two."

"Ten taels of silver, one tael, so expensive?" So eating a catty of white sugar costs 160 taels of silver, which is comparable to eating gold.

Xie Anlan never thought that sugar would be so expensive.

Lu Chengjie then said, "Don't look at it being so expensive, many people want to buy it but can't buy it. It takes thousands of catties of sugar to produce one or two frostings. How can there be so much brown sugar rushing around in the world, so it's always a tribute to the palace. the icing, and the rest were all scraped off by the rich and powerful, and there is not a single icing on the market."

"In other words, this icing is very popular?" Xie Anlan asked as she tapped the back of her left hand with her right index finger.

"It's not only easy to sell, it's a crazy grab." Lu Chuyi answered this question. He has traveled all over the country with their young master, but he has seen some big families fight for a catty of icing sugar.

Xie Anlan raised the corners of her lips, and for the first time touched the laying hen, feeling very happy, and boasted, "It really is a good hen that can only lay eggs."

Lu Chuyi didn't understand what Xie Anlan was saying, but Lu Chengjia did, and pursed his lips slightly, "Could it be that Your Highness wants to pay attention to that icing sugar?"

"En." Since there is such a good opportunity to slaughter a big family in front of him, of course he will not miss it.

"However, he may not be able to cook a few ounces of icing sugar for the sugar we bought today." Lu Chuyi was full of doubts, and the few ounces of icing sugar would not be able to do anything.

"Silly, who said that brown sugar can only be turned into icing sugar after being boiled." Xie Anlan made a fool of himself, just as the carriage arrived at the mansion, he got out of the carriage immediately.

Commanding the guards to put the brown sugar brought back neatly in the back kitchen, and then ordered someone to go out to help him find some things back.

Lu Chengjie and Lu Chuyi couldn't figure out what Xie Anlan was going to do. Fortunately, they could hold their breath. Seeing that Xie Anlan was busy with brown sugar, they didn't care about the hen they brought back.

So the master and the servant built a coop for the chicken by themselves, and even named it Jinzi.

Because its whole body's fur is a little yellowish, and Xie Anlan likes money more, it's a perfect name for gold.

The gold was also very competitive, and within three days after bringing it back, three eggs were laid, and Lu Chengjiao picked it up one by one, and when Xie Anlan remembered it, he would distribute it.

After three days of busy work, Xie Anlan finally finished all the preparations and dismissed all the people in the kitchen, leaving only Lu Chengjiao, Lu Chuyi, Chen Gui and others to help in the kitchen.

Chen Gui lit the fire, and Xie Anlan directed Lu Chu to add the brown sugar he bought into the pot and stir it to cook.

The brown sugar they bought not long ago was re-made into a paste by them, and then poured the brown sugar paste into a tile that filled the bottom with straw.

After the brown sugar paste gradually solidified, Xie Anlan removed the straw at the bottom of the tile, and poured a bucket of yellow mud on it under everyone's surprised eyes.

"My lord!" Lu Chuyi was startled, suddenly met his young master's gaze, and silently swallowed the rest of his words.

"Okay, take this jar back to my room, and see the results in three days." Xie Anlan shook his hand after finishing this, and let it go.

Lu Chengjie had no choice but to summon two servants to move the big jar of brown sugar and yellow mud back to Xie Anlan's room.

Time passed, and three days passed in the blink of an eye.

On the third day, early in the morning, the three of them waited impatiently outside Xie Anlan's room door.

They were very curious about what the lord's method could turn brown sugar into, it couldn't be white sugar.

The three of them were looking forward to it but felt that it was impossible. If they really used such a simple method to turn brown sugar into white sugar, the money in that day would really be no different from picking up money.

But if it's just the prince's playfulness, it doesn't look like it.

Everyone has been with the prince for so long, and they have never seen the prince play a joke with them.

Everything he did had a purpose, not to mention that he did it so seriously this time, not allowing all the servants to peep, it must be an important thing, otherwise the prince would not be so careful.

Before Xie Anlan woke up, she opened the door and saw three expectant faces. She rubbed her eyes and stood there awake for a while, only to realize that today is the time for his yellow mud bleaching method to be unveiled.

He yawned and said, "You wait for me, I will come when I go to wash up."

Speaking of which, Xie Anlan asked his servants to bring hot water, and after a quick wash, he brought the three of them to a corner of his room.

There is a large tank in the corner, and a tile is placed on the tank.

Xie Anlan was afraid that something dirty would fall into it, so she covered it with a thick layer of cloth.

It seems to cast a layer of mystery on the tank.

The hearts of the three couldn't help becoming tense, wondering what would be inside when the cloth was lifted.

Xie Anlan wasn't nervous at all, this is actually an extremely simple experimental method.

Therefore, there will not be too many mistakes. If you make a mistake, it is a big deal to do it all over again.

Thinking of this in her heart, Xie Anlan strode to the big vat, and regardless of what the three of them were thinking, she directly lifted the cloth covering the vat to reveal the shape inside.

"what--"

Lu Chuyi snorted, he didn't see Wa Liu, but he saw that the big tank outside Wa Liu was filled with black liquid.

The big vat lost its sense of mystery, and Lu Chengjiao was no longer nervous. He took two steps forward and went straight to see Wa Liu.

Rao was prepared in his heart, and when his eyes touched the white snow, he couldn't help being surprised.

"I really made the icing." Chen Gui is not a reserved person, when he saw the whiteness in the tiles, he directly said it together with Lu Chengjie's heartfelt voice.

Lu Chuyi's reaction was a bit slow. Hearing Chen Gui's voice, he went to see Wa Liu, and couldn't help but want to exclaim.

There is really too much icing sugar in the tile. The brown sugar that the prince boiled in the pot yesterday was about [-] catties, and the icing sugar in the tile weighed more than ten catties.

And it's all snow white, not a little brown.

You must know that no matter how pure the icing sugar is, it will be somewhat reddish-brown when it is boiled, and it cannot be white and flawless.

And the icing made by the prince can no longer be called icing, it should be called snow sugar.

Snow sugar, which is better than icing sugar, think about it, how many people should rush to buy it.

"First day of junior high school." Seeing that Lu Chuyi was about to exclaim in ecstasy, Lu Chengjiao stopped in time.

"Besides the four of us, we must not let others know about this matter." Lu Chengjia was not overwhelmed by joy, he quickly realized that Xie Anlan had resigned when he was doing this, so he They must know that this method is feasible, so now they must hold their breath.

"Huh—" Lu Chuyi choked back the exclamation stuck in his throat, his little face flushed red, and it took him a long time to recover.

Xie Anlan waited for them to catch their breath, then filled out the white sugar in the tile, and said with a smile, "Actually, this method can produce half of the icing, you see, the bottom half is brown .”

Sure enough, after Xie Anlan planed the icing on the top, the uneven discoloration underneath was revealed.

But they are not disappointed, let alone half the success rate, even if it only has a success rate of one or two floors, this method can make people crazy.

Only Lu Chengjiao looked at Xie Anlan in surprise, "His Royal Highness said that this method has only half the success rate. Could it be that there are other better methods than this."

Of course there are.

Activated carbon plus bleaching is faster and more convenient. Unfortunately, with the current backward industrial technology, there is no way to make activated carbon. After thinking about it, forget it.

Xie Anlan didn't speak anymore, and Lu Chengke didn't ask any questions. When His Highness wanted to tell him, he would naturally know.

Lu Chuyi and Chen Gui didn't worry about whether there was another way. They were almost stunned by his [-]% success rate.

Lu Chengjie thought for a while, and then asked Xie Anlan, "Your Highness, do you want to continue buying brown sugar from other villages?"

They remembered that day that Jin Lei said that not only his village, but other villages did not come to collect sugar this year. Wouldn’t it be a waste of money to buy it now? arrive.

"Take it, it will not only help us earn money, but also enable the farmers to have a good year." Xie Anlan agreed without thinking.

The Chinese New Year will be in three days, but I can imagine the panic of those villages that cannot sell sugar.

"Then Cheng Ke bought it in the name of His Highness." Lu Cheng Ke didn't want to take advantage of Xie Anlan.

Since this method is Xie Anlan's own, it is also reasonable that Xie Anlan earns the money alone.

Xie Anlan pulled him back, "I don't have enough money."

Lu Chengjie smiled, "Just treat it as if I lent it to His Highness, and return it to Cheng Jie after His Highness sells the sugar."

"I don't have any manpower yet, so I can't let my majestic prince sell it." Xie Anlan continued.

Lu Chengjiao, "Then the prince can give full authority to Chengjia's caravan. If he can help His Royal Highness sell icing, Chengjia's caravan can also benefit from it."

Xie Anlan turned her head to look at Lu Chengjiao, who didn't take advantage of him, and said with a smile, "It's not good to always take advantage of you, and besides, I can't handle such a big business by myself. They have other things to discuss today. .”

Everyone changed their faces and listened attentively.

"I've already made up my mind to divide the icing into [-]%. Since I made the recipe, I can take the big part and account for [-]%."

Everyone nodded, not to mention [-]%, even [-]%.

"The remaining [-]%, I plan to share [-]% with my brother, and you can take the other [-]%. I don't want to take care of such trivial things as sales. Of course, brother doesn't want to take care of it, so this important task has to be handed over to me. You have it." Xie Anlan's words slowly stunned the three present.

It's okay to share [-]% with His Majesty, but what really makes Lu Chengjiao palpitate is that His Highness actually shared [-]% with him?

"No, Your Highness." Lu Chengjia refused to accept, "Your Highness is willing to sell this icing to me. I have already taken advantage of it. How can I still want His Highness's shares?"

"Take it, this is to gag you. Now that you know the method of making icing sugar, if I don't give you the shares, wouldn't it be even worse for you to start a new one?" Xie Anlan said, betting Lu Chengyu to death All rhetoric.

Even though everyone knows that Lu Chengjia will not start a new stove, once this sentence is said, if Lu Chengjia still insists on not accepting it, it is equivalent to planting a seed of doubt , after all, the human heart is the most vulnerable.

"Okay, then it's better to be respectful than obedient." Lu Chengjia cupped his hands to Xie Anlan, feeling a little unhappy in his heart, but he couldn't blame Xie Anlan, so he had to swallow it forcefully.

Xie Anlan raised her eyebrows, of course she could see that Lu Chengjia was unhappy with what he said just now, she didn't explain immediately, but just asked Lu Chengjia to draw up a contract in triplicate, each of them stamped their own seals, as for Xie Cangming For that share, I had to go back to the imperial capital and ask him to seal it.

After accepting the contract, Xie Anlan breathed a sigh of relief, stood up and said, "Okay, this matter is settled, and I can finally take you to the next sugar production method."

"What, and more?" Lu Chuyi was surprised, he couldn't think of any more expensive candy than snow candy.

"Follow me into the kitchen and you'll know." Xie Anlan asked Lu Chuyi to pick up the sugar he had just filled from the crock pot, and followed him out of the house.

After walking two steps, Fu saw Lu Chengjia who was a little unhappy behind him, so he deliberately slowed down and waited for him.

When the two were side by side, gently put the sealed contract into his hands.

Lu Chengjiao was puzzled, "What do you mean, Your Highness?"

"Family property, I heard that a man is not allowed to leave any property on his body after marriage, and has to be taken care of by his wife. Since you think my princess, then you should be in charge of all the properties of my palace." Xie Anlan said. As it should be, "I used to be poor, and the whole mansion of the Prince Chen's Mansion couldn't afford a few taels of silver. Now that I have money, it doesn't make sense to manage the money myself."

Holding the contract in his hand, Lu Chengjie didn't accept it, and he didn't accept it. A flush quickly appeared on his jade-like cheeks, and it took him a long time to meet Xie Anlan's eyes and said, "What if Your Highness needs money in the future?" manage."

"I have to explain the situation to you, and you can decide whether you want to be your husband or not." Xie Anlan said solemnly, and added at the end, "Of course, if the princess is willing to give me a monthly payment of 80 taels, that would be great gone."

"...Okay." Lu Chengjie replied lightly, his ears were hot red, and he couldn't remember Xie Anlan's distrustful words that gagged him just now.

Xie Anlan watched Lu Chengjiao's ear tips turn red little by little, and thought it was so cute, she couldn't help stretching out and pinching it gently.

"...cough, Your Highness, they should be in a hurry on the first day of the new year." Lu Chengjia coughed unnaturally, breaking the ambiguous atmosphere that was unclear.

"Okay, let's go too."

It only took a few sentences to speak, Lu Chuyi and the others had already entered the back kitchen, Xie Anlan and Lu Chengjia had no choice but to quicken their pace.

Entering the kitchen, Xie Anlan poured white sugar into the pot and heated it to melt as if making brown massecuite.

He also took out the eggs from the past two days in Jinzi, cracked the egg whites and added them to the pot, removed the foam on the top, waited until the heat was almost ready, then sprinkled fresh one-inch-long green bamboo slices into it, then extinguished the fire, and began to wait quietly.

Since they occupied the kitchen, there was no place to cook for the servants at noon, so Xie Anlan directly ordered the Saddle Workshop to make more and send them over, and everyone made do with it.

The four of them waited in the kitchen until it was nearly night, watching helplessly as the sugar liquid in the pot solidified little by little into ice cubes without magazines.

This is a more advanced kind of candy that Xie Anlan wanted - rock candy.

"Rock candy is sweeter than snow candy. I'll knock a piece and give you a taste." As he said that, Xie Anlan mercilessly smashed the piece of pure white jade-like candy in the pot with a spatula.

In an instant, those candies fell apart, and Xie Anlan took the lead to pick up a small piece with chopsticks and put it into Lu Chengjie's mouth.

"Is it sweet?" Xie Anlan asked.

"Sweet." Lu Chengjie nodded vigorously. As soon as the rock sugar entered the tip of his tongue, the delicate sweetness without any impurities spread, which was purer than icing sugar.

作者有话要说：感谢在2020-06-1723:50:33~2020-06-1823:48:18期间为我投出霸王票或灌溉营养液的小天使哦~

Thanks to the little angels of the irrigation nutrient solution: 20 bottles of peach sauce; 2 bottles in Changan; 1 bottle of sugar-loving pig;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!