Chapter 56: Sugar Workshop

After the syrup became clear, Su Lun did not continue stirring. He let the syrup settle and then filtered out the charcoal.

One bucket of syrup was about twenty liters. To turn the syrup into sugar, it needed to be heated so the water in the syrup would evaporate. When the water reduced to a certain level, crystals would form.

Su Lun found an iron pot, poured the syrup into it, and lit a fire to simmer it slowly. As the temperature rose, the water in the syrup started to evaporate.

The process of boiling the syrup was slow. Su Lun felt bored after watching for a while. Luckily, his method of boiling the syrup was correct. After about an hour, some white granular substances began to appear at the bottom of the iron pot.

When he saw those white granular substances, Su Lun immediately perked up. After the White Sugar appeared, the rate of sugar formation began to speed up. The flames continued to heat the pot, and the syrup in the iron pot bubbled. More and more white crystals appeared in the iron pot.

A Barbarian Warrior nearby smacked his lips. “Boss, why is the syrup freezing inside when it’s boiling?”

“You fool, if you don’t know, then don’t speak!” Su Lun glared at him.

As time passed, the syrup in the iron pot decreased, and the solidified sugar inside increased. Finally, after simmering a bit longer, no more White Sugar formed. Su Lun then filtered out the White Sugar inside.

The remaining syrup was actually waste molasses. Although it contained a lot of sugar, due to technical limitations, it could not be extracted.

Because the sugar content in waste molasses was very high, but due to technical reasons, the sugar inside could not be extracted, some people later discovered that this waste molasses could be used to make alcohol, and thus a new type of Rum was born.

After filtering out the waste molasses with gauze, a pile of pure white, sand-like, snow-like white granules appeared in the iron pot—this was White Sugar.

The Barbarians nearby did not understand the principle behind this and looked at the White Sugar in amazement.

“Try it,” Su Lun said, crossing his arms and tilting his chin up casually. However, his attitude was wasted, as these Wilderness Barbarians had never even heard of White Sugar before.

“It looks like ice crystals,” one Barbarian said, dipping a finger in and putting it in his mouth. He then said in surprise, “It’s sweet. Is this sugar?”

“Of course it’s sugar. What else would it be after boiling syrup?” Su Lun tapped the Barbarian’s head with a spoon.

“Boss, does that mean we’ll have sugar to eat from now on?” the Barbarians said excitedly.

“Eat, eat, eat—all you think about is eating! These are goods for trading!” Su Lun grabbed a handful of White Sugar and examined it. Compared to the White Sugar he had eaten in his previous life, this White Sugar was slightly yellowish, probably because the charcoal filtering was not as effective. Even so, the quality of this White Sugar was quite good.

Su Lun collected the White Sugar and weighed it. There was a little over three jin of White Sugar. The syrup he boiled was twenty liters, or about forty jin, and it produced three jin of White Sugar. Su Lun was very satisfied with this yield.

Using this rather primitive method to produce White Sugar, getting three jin was considered a lot. As Su Lun knew, the sugar-making technology of this era only had a yield rate of five to seven percent, and the sugar produced was Brown Sugar.

Su Lun had used one-fifth of the sugar beets he brought back this time. After confirming the method to produce White Sugar, he pressed the juice from the remaining sugar beets and produced White Sugar. In the end, he obtained a total of fifteen jin of White Sugar. After drying the fifteen jin of White Sugar, he stored it in a sealed ceramic jar.

“Ding! Congratulations, Host. You successfully produced White Sugar and acquired the sugar-making craft.”

“Congratulations, Host. You successfully acquired three technical crafts and unlocked the Technology Panel.”

“Data updating… Update complete!”

Just after he sealed and stored the White Sugar, the System’s notification sounded in his ears.

Opening the System interface, Su Lun quickly found a Technology Panel in the town interface. Clicking on the Technology Panel, he saw that it now contained three skills: iron smelting, farming, and sugar making. Under each skill, all the steps and key points were clearly marked.

Following these production steps, it was entirely possible to set up a workshop.

Seeing this, Su Lun directly followed the steps provided to build a workshop. The Sugar Workshop required about one thousand square meters of space. Such an important workshop could only be built within the town. Su Lun designated an empty area near his Lord’s Castle and directed the slaves to start construction.

The Sugar Workshop did not require very complex machinery, so the construction difficulty was not high. While Su Lun directed the slaves to build the workshop, he also sent a large number of people to the Wilderness to collect sugar beets. Before the sugar beets in his Territory could be harvested, the raw materials for this Sugar Workshop had to be gathered from the Wilderness.

Fortunately, the Wilderness was vast enough. Although there were not many places where sugar beets grew, collecting over such a large area allowed the amount of sugar beets in the warehouse to increase visibly every day.

The construction of the Sugar Workshop progressed quickly. In two days, a workshop was completed.

[Sugar Workshop: This is a simple handicraft workshop that can produce various types of sugar, such as White Sugar and rock sugar. Sugar quality +1, Sugar yield +1.]

Because the sugar-making process was not very complex and could easily be leaked if not controlled, Su Lun split the process into parts. Each person was only responsible for one task. The most critical step—using charcoal to remove impurities—was assigned to two slaves whose loyalty was both one hundred.

Moreover, this process was carried out in a separate room. Only after the impurities were removed would the syrup be sent to another workshop for further processing.

In addition to this, Su Lun added an isolation wall outside the Sugar Workshop. Except for the workers of the Sugar Workshop, no one else was allowed to approach. At the same time, Su Lun stationed four Barbarian Warriors outside the Sugar Workshop to be responsible for its security.

Although there were no outsiders in his Territory at the moment, once he started selling White Sugar, his Territory would soon become known to those with ill intentions. The profits from White Sugar were not low—no, they were actually very high. One jin of White Sugar could easily sell for hundreds of Gold Nar in Karlt City.

Based on the Sugar Workshop producing five hundred jin per month, Su Lun would earn tens of thousands of Gold Nar in profit each month, equivalent to the annual tax revenue of some small cities. Of course, this was under the best circumstances. In reality, once Su Lun started selling White Sugar in large quantities, the price of White Sugar would certainly drop, as scarcity drives value.