Chapter 143 Sugar Refining

The initial investments were all covered by Lin Miaomiao, with the agreement that the official treasury would reimburse the funds once it had sufficient revenue.

Li Yanhe naturally agreed upon learning of this, as human nature inevitably leans toward self-interest.

The sugar mill and brickworks in Li Village were soon established, finally granting Lin Miaomiao and Li Yanhe some well-deserved leisure time lately.

The couple had recently visited several nearby villages. Mobei was not particularly large, yet it was exceedingly impoverished.

There were a total of three towns, each governing numerous surrounding villages. The town where Lin Miaomiao and Li Yanhe resided was actually the most prosperous area in all of Mobei.

Even so, this most prosperous region remained profoundly poor. The local officials were corrupt and abused their power, while commoners turned to highway robbery to survive.

During this period, Li Yanhe had to handle official duties in the town, though the nature of these tasks was actually quite simple—it was essentially about purging the corrupt officials and rectifying past injustices.

There were simply too many corrupt officials. As Li Yanhe continuously reviewed the wrongful convictions and mishandled cases from recent years, he gained a comprehensive understanding of the pervasive corruption here.

Before this territory was granted to Li Yanhe as his fiefdom, officials assigned here had always prayed for an early transfer.

To those officials, this place offered neither political achievements to be made nor illicit gains to be plundered.

This time, Li Yanhe made a bold decision: to thoroughly investigate and crack down on all corrupt officials and their illicit practices across Mobei. Consequently, corrupt officials throughout the various cities of the region quickly began to panic. However, the fortunes they had amassed through years of corruption were immense, and it was impossible for Li Yanhe to address every single case all at once.

Therefore, Li Yanhe could only start by executing a few of the most egregious corrupt officials. Upon witnessing the dire conditions in Mobei firsthand, Yuan Sihan furrowed his brow immediately.

The situation in Mobei proved even worse than they had imagined, and the implementation of the legal system here was far from smooth.

Seeing the factories taking shape, Lin Miaomiao called together the women of the village.

While strolling through Li Village earlier, Lin Miaomiao and Li Yanhe had spotted fields of sugar beets, prompting Lin Miaomiao to question an elderly peasant woman working the land.

Upon hearing Lin Miaomiao's inquiry, the woman immediately replied, "This isn't anything out of the ordinary."

"We call this the sugar turnip. Every time you pluck its leaves, they just grow back again."

"Once they mature, we usually just stir-fry them for meals." Hearing this, Lin Miaomiao realized that many households in the village cultivated sugar beets.

The sight of the sugar beets instantly sparked an idea in Lin Miaomiao's mind regarding a method for producing sugar.

In the Great Yong Dynasty, sugar was a precious commodity, primarily due to its scarce yield and the fact that most available sugar was maltose.

Lin Miaomiao shared her knowledge of how to produce sugar from sugar beets and sugarcane with Li Yanhe. Initially, Li Yanhe assumed Lin Miaomiao simply wanted to build a standard sugar mill.

However, Lin Miaomiao shook her head and slowly explained to him, "This place is far too poor. If it can be transformed into a hub with well-developed transportation and unique local specialties,"

"then it will gain a competitive edge over other regions and attract a massive influx of merchants."

"The arrival of these merchants will spur the development of local transportation and information networks, eventually causing the towns here to flourish."

After saying this, Lin Miaomiao continued, "Why don't we have them sign a contract with the government, using the village as a collective unit?"

"The initial construction of the sugar mill and the production techniques will be funded and provided by the government, while the subsequent production and manufacturing will be handled entirely by the village itself."

"The dividends generated from this can be used to construct roads for the village. Once these roads are built, it will mean this region is well on its way to becoming a thriving transportation hub."

Upon hearing Lin Miaomiao's proposal, Li Yanhe nodded immediately and said to her, "That is an exceptionally brilliant plan."

Lin Miaomiao had already begun teaching everyone how to extract juice from the sugar beets. Seeing her order the extraction process in a way that seemed to waste grain, the onlookers instantly grew somewhat dissatisfied.

Standing on an elevated platform, Lin Miaomiao addressed everyone gathered in the village: "Do you have any idea how much sugar costs per catty?"

Immediately, someone raised a hand and said slowly to Lin Miaomiao, "Sugar is a precious commodity; it costs a full liang of silver per catty."

Hearing this, Lin Miaomiao nodded and said, "Yet we have so many sugar beets here, enough to make a vast amount of refined white sugar. Anyone willing to give it a try is welcome to stay."

"If anyone doubts my words and feels this is a waste of their own grain, you are free to leave."

As soon as Lin Miaomiao finished speaking, Madam Hu stood up from the ground, roughly slapping the dirt off her backside, and snapped at Lin Miaomiao, "Who do you think you're trying to fool with that grand act?"

"Do you think our village isn't suffering enough already? Are you doing this on purpose?"

"Everyone knows these sugar beets are our households' food supply. What on earth is your intention in making everyone waste grain like this?"

Hearing Madam Hu's words, Lin Miaomiao nodded calmly and said, "Indeed, anyone who finds my method unreliable, feels it isn't worth taking the risk, or believes there's no need to waste their own grain is free to leave."

"I am not forcing anyone to stay. But for every single person who remains, there will be one more worker in this factory, one more person staying here to learn the art of sugar-making."

Following this statement, the village chief, whose lingering doubts about the identity of Lin Miaomiao and her husband remained, stepped forward and said to Lin Miaomiao, "Our family grows a relatively large amount of sugar beets, so I will stay."

Encouraged by the chief's decision, several village elders standing nearby echoed his sentiment, saying, "That's right. Since the village chief is staying, we'll stay and learn along with him."

Many villagers remained deeply worried that the sugar beets would be wasted and that the sugar-making attempt would fail, leading a large number of people to stand up and leave.

Watching the backs of those departing, Lin Miaomiao turned to the village chief and declared, "The families who choose to stay will be given priority in learning the sugar-making techniques. For the time being, do not share the method with those villagers who left."

Lin Miaomiao was not doing this out of spite toward the villagers. Rather, the initial investment in the sugar mill had to be kept small, and market demand for the sugar was still uncertain.

If the sugar mill turned a profit in the early stages, welcoming those villagers back later would certainly still be a viable option.

Moreover, no family was eager to take such a risk; those willing to take chances were always in the minority.

Therefore, as long as the fledgling sugar mill had sufficient hands to successfully produce white and red sugar, the rest would depend on the market and the capabilities of the merchants.

Noticing the village chief's less-than-pleased expression, Lin Miaomiao smiled and said to him, "Chief, you needn't overthink this. I have no intention of holding a grudge against these people."

"However, the chief must understand a fundamental principle: our sugar mill has no reputation yet. If a completely unknown sugar mill has so many people producing sugar at once, what shall we do if the sugar fails to sell?"

"This sugar mill is an enterprise jointly run by the government and the village—or, to put it more nicely, it belongs to the government."

"The management here will be uniformly handled by the government. The only difference is that the government will weigh the sugar beets from each household and pay for them according to market prices."

"Daring to do this is a form of initial investment. To succeed in making sugar, some beets are inevitably going to be wasted. If we haven't even managed to produce any sugar yet, on what grounds would the government pay us?"

"However, if we do succeed in making sugar, then even if the beets from our fields cannot be consumed as food, we can sell them to the government, can we not?"

"The sugar we produce ourselves must ultimately contribute to the village's development, and the portion allocated to the village will certainly be monitored by officials sent by the government."

"As for that sum of money belonging to the village, the government will certainly not allow the chief to pocket it all for himself. Our village may be an exception, but such exceptions are always subject to correction."

Having heard this, the village chief, who had once been a scholar himself, naturally grasped the hidden implications behind Lin Miaomiao's words.

Seeing that Lin Miaomiao showed no fear whatsoever when speaking to the chief, Cuihua stood up, expressed her stance, and said to Lin Miaomiao, "Little sister, I can tell at a glance that you're an educated person."

"So what if we waste a few sugar beets in the beginning? These are trivial matters. As long as we work hard, we'll definitely be able to make sugar out of this. I believe in you."

Turning to her husband after speaking, Cuihua urged, "You should show your support to Miaomiao as well. Our whole family strongly backs this endeavor."

Lin Miaomiao smiled, waved her hand dismissively, and resumed teaching the crowd the sugar-making process. Naturally, setbacks were inevitable in the early stages.

Consequently, people could be seen carrying bucket after bucket of discarded sugar beets and failed sugar syrup out of the workshop.

Madam Hu and a group of her followers stood nearby, making sarcastic remarks: "I said all along that making this sugar wasn't going to turn out to be a good thing."

"Just look at all this wasted grain; my heart aches just watching it. Heaven knows what those people are thinking, just crushing the good grain into pulp like that."

Witnessing the repeated failures in the initial phase, Lin Miaomiao could not help sighing as she said to the village chief and the others, "Failures are bound to happen. If we don't fail in the beginning, we'll only panic all the more if things go wrong later."

Lin Miaomiao and her group began working around the clock on sugar production. Although it was already spring, everyone working inside the hot workshop broke out into a heavy sweat.

Finally, guided by Lin Miaomiao's instructions, the village chief's family succeeded in producing sugar. Lin Miaomiao and the others stood close by, pinching a tiny grain of white sugar to taste.

At that exact moment, the people remaining in the workshop cried tears of joy and shouted, "We've succeeded!"

Lin Miaomiao smiled and nodded, then turned to the village chief and said, "Let's run the process one more time. If everyone manages to succeed by tonight, then our hard work over the past few days will not have been in vain."

With that, Lin Miaomiao looked at everyone present and stated, "All of you are participants in the early stages of sugar production, and you now possess specialized skills."

"These skills may yield dividends in the future, so I hope everyone here will keep the sugar-making method strictly to yourselves."

After saying this, she sat down to the side, feeling a wave of exhaustion washing over her body, and quietly watched the rest of the workers continue their sugar production.

Li Yanhe knew that Lin Miaomiao had been busy setting up the sugar mill recently, leaving early and returning late every day solely to ensure the success of the sugar-making venture.

Returning home today, Li Yanhe discovered that the stove was cold and unlit, with no sign that anyone had been staying in the house all day.

He immediately headed toward the village sugar mill. Seeing the lights brightly illuminated inside the workshop, a wave of deep affection and heartache for Lin Miaomiao welled up in his chest.

Li Yanhe pushed open the heavy doors of the workshop. Everyone inside turned to look at him with guarded expressions. The moment Lin Miaomiao raised her head and caught sight of Li Yanhe,

a radiant and tender smile bloomed at the corners of her mouth. Li Yanhe strode swiftly to her side, his voice carrying a trace of gentleness as he asked, "I knew you'd be here. It's so late, and you haven't gone home—you must be starving, right?"

Lin Miaomiao smiled and shook her head. Li Yanhe gently stroked her hair, then turned his gaze toward the village chief and asked, "Did the sugar-making fail again today?"