"Well, what does it taste?"

"Boss, look over there, someone is burning something!"

"Go and go over and take a look!"

Xue Yu originally wanted to take his friends to the city for a walk to see if there was any opportunity to make money, but Zhizhi had just walked to the inn gate and suddenly smelled a strange smell!

There are burnt, bitterness, and a faint tea fragrance, all mixed together!

The group looked around and found that in the southwest direction, the flames were blazing, and the thick smoke rolled into the sky dozens of feet high, like a huge mushroom cloud, and then slowly drifted around. This is how the strange smell came.

Driven by curiosity, Xue Yu and others walked over and found that dozens of ragged soldiers were burning things on an open space. To be precise, they were burning tea leaves. One bag after another, they were thrown into the flames and instantly turned into ashes!

There were dozens of mule carts not far away, filled with tea bags, all of which were ready to be burned. There were also some idle people gathered around, pointing fingers, as if they were talking about something.

In northern border towns, tea is a scarce material, and hard currency that is easier to use than silver, so why should it be burned?

"Mouse, go and ask!"

"Yes, boss!"

The mouse is smart, verbal, and good at socializing, so he quickly found out the matter.

Those soldiers who burn tea are all Ku soldiers from Baodezhou-Thaimasi. As for the reasons for burning tea, it’s a long story!

The imperial court set up the Tea Horses and Horses, which originally intended to exchange tea for Mongolian horses. This not only solved the problem of lack of good horses in the Central Plains, but also eased the ethnic conflicts between Mongolian and Han, and stabilized the northern border. It was a good thing that won multiple goals in one fell swoop!

The problem is that the profits of tea and horse transactions are too great. Many high-ranking officials and rich and profiteers are red when they see them. They also organize caravans to smuggle tea to the border in large quantities, which makes them share the pie. As a result, tea is flooded on the border, the market is seriously saturated, and sales have become a big problem!

The officials of the Tea Horse Department were corrupt and secretly deducted the horses. After the Mongolians suffered several losses, they would rather drive the horses to the black market for sale than trade with the Tea Horse Department.

As a result, the imperial court spent a lot of effort to exchange horses and sell them out. They were all piled up in the warehouse of the Tea Horse Department. Day after day, year after year, the number of tea increased. In the end, even the warehouse could not be stored, so they could only be piled up in the yard!

The officials neglected their duties and did not preserve them properly, which caused many tea leaves to get wet and then to deteriorate.

The market is severely saturated, and it is difficult to sell good tea, let alone spoiled tea. No one is willing to ask for it for nothing, so there is no way, so he had to burn it out!

Not only the Tea Horses, but many businessmen are also worried about this matter, because the shelf life of tea is about one year. If it expires or deteriorates, it can only be burned with fire, and there is no other way!

Some people have estimated that in Baodezhou alone, the tea burned every year can range from hundreds of thousands of kilograms to millions of kilograms. As for the tea burned every year on the entire northern border, it is even more an astronomical figure!

Even so, merchants continued to transport tea, because the profits of tea-horse transactions were too great. Even if they only sold a portion of the tea, they could still make a lot of profits, and the rest would be burned without much.

"The people have worked so hard that they have planted and produced tea, and transported it to the northern border thousands of miles away. Now they have to burn it with fire. It's really a waste of resources... Hum?"

There were scattered bags near the fire. Xue Yu opened it and found that it was filled with tea. It was a flower tea produced in Huguang. It was known for its "internal aroma, freshness and richness". Unfortunately, it was soaked by rain that the tea became black and hard, and it also emitted a strange smell!

But it is not a moldy and stinky smell, but an indescribable and unknown taste: sour, sweet, astringent, bitter, fishy, ​​sweet... almost all mixed in it!

Xue Yu sniffed it with his nose, broke off a small piece of tea, put it in his mouth and tasted it. A few gleams flashed in his eyes instantly, and a smile appeared on his face, like a little mouse, suddenly found a warehouse full of food and no one was taking care of, and his nose was so beautiful that it was bubbled.

Open a few more bags and the situation is exactly the same!

"Boss, why are you laughing at?"

"Haha, we have picked up the treasure, a treasure that is more valuable than a mountain of gold!"

"Baby, why didn't we see it?"

"Far from the sky, near from the sight!"

The friends were all confused. There were only a few bags of deteriorated tea in front of them. What kind of treasure is this?

Xue Yu wanted to explain, but he didn't know how to explain. These tea leaves did spoil, but spoiled into two types: one is moldy and the other is fermentation!

Fermentation and mold have common points. They are all organic matter decompose and produce small molecules under the action of microorganisms. In other words, the principles of the two are the same.

But there are essential differences. Simply put, fermented foods can be eaten, and they are more nutritious and easier to be absorbed by the human body!

Moldy food is harmful to the human body and cannot be eaten.

The tea leaves in front of me were piled up in the yard of Teamasi. After being wet by rain, they were exposed to the sun again. This was repeated many times, and it fermented in a high temperature and humid environment instead of mold!

This involves chemistry, physics, microbiology... a variety of knowledge. Xue Yu even talks about it for three days and three nights, and my friends are afraid they won’t understand it!

But there is one thing that Xue Yu is very sure: he is going to make a fortune!

...

Next, Xue Yu found the leader among the soldiers, a treasurer, and proposed to buy these spoiled tea leaves. The latter immediately looked at Xue Yu with a fool's eyes and kept looking at Xue Yu!

These tea leaves have deteriorated. Not to mention humans, they don’t even eat animals. What’s the use of buying them back?

"Don't misunderstand that these teas are really not drinkable. I want to buy them back and put them in the pool and ferment them. They are used as farmer fertilizer and scattered into the fields. The farmer planted in this way will definitely grow very well. There are too many fields in my house and there is always not enough fertilizer!"

"Oh, it turns out to be used for farming!"

There was no chemical fertilizer in this era. If farmers farmed and fertilized, they would either be human or animal manure, or they would be fertilized with plants and trees. If conditions permit, they could also fish some river mud as fertilizer!

Therefore, Xue Yu said that it would be reasonable to buy tea and ferment fertilizer.

But, the treasurer's gaze still seemed to be looking at a fool when he looked at Xue Yu!

If you want to get fertilizer, just pull the ashes away after the tea is burned, wouldn’t it be enough? The nearby farmers often do this, so why bother paying for these spoiled tea?

Having said that, it’s the waste that needs to be burned. Since someone wants to buy it, there is no reason not to sell it, and it can save a lot of trouble!

The treasurer's clerk discussed with Xue Yu for a little while and quickly negotiated the transaction price: two cents!

I’m optimistic, it’s not two cents per pound or two cents per bag, but two cents per cart, which is cheaper than hay!

In this way, Xue Yu spent 120 cents to buy a total of 60 carats of tea, weighing about 60,000 to 70,000 pounds!

And I made an agreement with the minor official that Xue Yu bought all the remaining large amount of spoiled tea leaves in the Tea-Ma Si, with the same price as this time, and I also paid a deposit of 100 cents in advance!

"It's a matter of determination. Three days later, you'll come here to transport tea. Hundreds of thousands of kilograms of spoiled tea are enough for you to farm and fertilize!

The brothers left, found a tavern, and had a few drinks!"

The clerk took the money and led the soldiers to enjoy it happily.

Xue Yu called his friends over and issued an order quickly:

"My mouse, go back to the inn immediately and ask the mad grandfather to bring ten people over to guard the tea leaves. Don't lose them or get burned by fire!"

"yes!"

"Monkey, go find Yue Guofu and ask him to find me a house nearby. It doesn't matter if the location is remote, but there must be many houses and large areas, otherwise so many tea leaves will not be stored!"

"yes!"

"Hundred Flower Snake, Da Hei, you two took the money and went to the nearby market to book 20,000 kilograms of charcoal, twenty iron pots, one hundred large steamers... and five pieces of fine linen cloth!"

"yes!"

...

After the arrangement was made, Xue Yu returned to the inn and borrowed pen, ink, paper and inkstone from Eunuch Lu. He worked in the house for a long time and drew more than a dozen drawings in a row, all of which were strange tool parts, and the sizes were marked very clearly!

Then he handed the drawings to several old military households, and asked them to go to the city separately, find different blacksmith shops and carpenter shops, and make these parts according to the styles on the drawings.

This method of separate production can not only speed up the production speed, but also ensure that there will be no leaks. Blacksmiths and craftsmen just make a piece of part, and no one knows what the whole is?

Let’s take a step back, even if these blacksmiths and carpenters gathered together and made all the parts, they couldn’t be assembled together!

Because there are several important small parts, Xue Yu did not pretend to be someone else, but bought a bunch of tools and materials to make them by himself!

Isn’t it easy for a top student with a double degree in exploration and mechanical engineering to make a few simple parts!

...

Things went very smoothly. It didn't take long to make the tools and parts, everything was purchased, and the second batch of tea was obtained. This time it was a total of 100,000 kilograms, but the house was not purchased.

There is no way, Pau Dezhou is too dense, and the houses are already tight, big and cheap, and are just right for sale, which is indeed difficult to find!

It was not until the afternoon of the third day that Yue Guofu ran over sweat: "Home, I found a house. It is a good location and has enough houses. It is also quite good in other aspects, but there are a little problems!"

"What's the small question?"

"It's a haunted house!"
Chapter completed!