After sending Shen Qiu away, Yang Chuxia and Ye Zi’an invited Mu Shaofeng to the study to discuss the matter of sugar cane.
"I heard that your family has harvested quite a lot of sugar cane, and it can’t all be eaten anyway, so why not sell it to me and I’ll transport it to Capital City to sell." Upon entering the study, Mu Shaofeng got straight to the point.
However, Yang Chuxia did not rush to agree.
Instead, she said, "I heard that most of the granulated sugar and white sugar nowadays is made from wheat and other crops like sweet beets. Even brown sugar is made from a blend of ingredients. Most of the sugar workshops are controlled by the government, like salt, and only a small portion of them are privately owned. Private workshops usually process malt sugar, like rock sugar, right?"
In modern times, most brown sugar is refined from sugar cane, but brown sugar here is not. Some are made from red dates, and some are a blend of honey and various other crops.
"Yes, the government controls the sugar workshops because there is a set quota for sugar production each year. If the government does not intervene to balance the sugar price, I’m afraid people won’t be able to eat sugar."
With Yang Chuxia’s questions, Mu Shaofeng’s brain was spinning quickly, wondering what she meant by asking these questions.
"That’s it." Yang Chuxia thought for a moment and asked Xiu’er to serve some peeled sugar cane first. "This is the newly harvested sugar cane this year. Maybe it was well-cultivated, but I think it’s sweeter and more watery than last year’s."
When the dark purple skin of the sugar cane was removed, the flesh of each segment was slightly yellow. A careful observer would find that slightly yellow sugar cane tends to be sweeter.
"What do you think?" She asked after Mu Shaofeng had tasted a segment.
"Very good." Mu Shaofeng nodded approvingly. "It’s even better than what I had on the border before."
"That’s it." Yang Chuxia clapped and laughed. "What do you guys think about making sugar with this?"
"It?" Mu Shaofeng looked at the thing in his hand and thought about the feasibility of it."
Ye Zi’an was also thinking about this matter, as Xiaxia had mentioned before that sugar could be made from sugar cane.
"Yes, it is." Yang Chuxia continued as Xiu’er brought over some rock sugar. "You see, this is rock sugar, which I learned is made from sweet beets. Rock sugar usually comes from the north. After looking through agricultural books, I learned that the sweet beets in Great Zhou mainly grow in the north. Sweet beets are sweet, sugar cane is sweet as well, even purer than sweet beets. So I think if sweet beets can make sugar, sugar cane naturally can too."
As she spoke, she secretly despised herself - of course sugar cane could be used to make sugar; it was one of the main sources of sugar in modern times. Was she plagiarizing modern technology now?
No, that wasn’t quite right. She was just providing an idea, but the actual implementation still relied on these ancient people.
"If we produce sugar for sale, the profit would be much greater than just selling sugar cane." As a businessman, Mu Shaofeng quickly understood the difference. "Moreover, as you become more skilled in cultivating sugar cane, it can be widely planted. It can be used as a snack and to make sugar. If Xiaxia is willing to spread the knowledge, it could even improve the lives of local villagers. It’s a multi-beneficial thing."
"Yes, you’re thinking correctly." Yang Chuxia nodded. "The only pity is that this is just an idea, and I don’t know how to make sugar. So we need someone who knows how to make sugar to research it. If they can’t figure it out, even the best ideas are useless."
Upon hearing this, Mu Shaofeng laughed heartily.
"Fox, indeed a fox. You were waiting for me to show up, weren’t you? Fine, since you’ve made it so clear, I’ll take care of finding someone who can make sugar. I’ll send them to you when I find them."