Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Oil Pressing Workshop

  Gu Xing and Dong Shiwen's warehouse was located on the banks of the Yangtze River, but the business was not doing well, with a monthly loss of nearly twenty taels of silver. Although Lin Chunhong had previously instructed them not to be afraid of losses, as long as they could provide convenience to the villagers, their goal would be achieved. However, how could Gu Xing, who wanted to make something of himself, be satisfied with this? Just then, Gu Xing and Dong Shiwen were building another house next to the warehouse, which was said to be used for oil extraction.

  After arriving in Baili Zhou, I was deeply moved by the vitality of Baili Zhou. Everywhere in Baili Zhou is an ocean of wheat, and although it's winter, the whole island looks green and lush. In front of every household, there are piles of firewood used for cooking. In Baili Zhou, there are also some old cotton farmers from South Zhili who were hired to guide villagers in planting cotton in the fields.

  Gu Xing also subconsciously wanted to increase the production of wheat and cotton in Shuangmiao Mountain, and kept chatting with old farmers to learn some planting techniques, which benefited him greatly. However, what really caught his attention was an old farmer who casually mentioned that cotton seeds could be used to extract oil, but the oil yield was too low. After hearing this, Gu Xing's mind lit up, and he thought that Shuangmiao Mountain could completely use cotton seeds to extract oil!

  Gu Xing is a cautious person, he brought some rapeseed, crushed and steamed them hot, using the equipment for pounding rice to continuously pound the rapeseed. To his delight, the rapeseed powder really produced oil! He immediately ran non-stop to Zhijiang Xiannü and stayed in an oil extraction workshop for three days, learning how oil is extracted from rapeseed.

  With great enthusiasm and high spirits, it is indeed a good choice to extract oil from the temple. Cotton seeds were considered useless and discarded on the roadside, but now they can be used for oil extraction. Villagers sell cotton seeds and get an income. Moreover, oil extraction requires a lot of manpower, so villagers do odd jobs and also earn an income.

  He didn't want to stay for a moment, and immediately returned to Shuangmiao Mountain. After discussing with Doushi Wen, he started building an oil extraction workshop next to the warehouse. He also entrusted Li Shu to specially make oil extraction equipment for him and put forward requirements: to use high-quality camphor wood to make the collision contract!

  Gu Xing and Dong Shiwen were busy building a workshop, working day and night. Chen Kesin stood aside, coldly observing with a sneer in his heart: "The whole stone mill doesn't even produce vegetable seeds, yet you're dreaming of extracting oil, you'll suffer for it!" Chen Kesin didn't bother with them, eagerly waiting to see the joke.

  After seeing the evidence of Chen Kesin's greed and baseness in Huiwangfu, Gu Xiangxing and Dong Shiwen were also puzzled as to why he wasn't replaced. Given that Chen Kesin didn't cause any trouble at Shuangmiao Mountain, the two didn't bother to deal with him either. When the villagers saw Chen Kesin, apart from greeting him, they no longer showed their previous fear of him; some villagers even openly ridiculed him, making him grit his teeth in anger.

  Chen Kexin liked to listen to books and knew the story of Han Xin's humiliation, so he often compared himself to Han Xin, still looking at the villagers with contempt, and buried his hatred for Gu Xingxing and Dou Shiwen deep in his heart. He often encouraged himself with "a gentleman takes revenge, ten years is not too late". As for Gu Xingxing and Dou Shiwen's oil extraction workshop, he could ignore it, but when it came to their other move, he couldn't help but want to take action.

  Originally, Gu Xingying wanted to improve the lives of villagers, so he and Dou Shiwen encouraged tenant farmers to return their land and move to Baili Zhou to rent land and work as laborers. Baili Zhou was short of people and welcomed them with open arms, repeatedly asking Gu Xingying to organize more people to come over. Gu Xingying had villagers who had been to Baili Zhou return to the village to share their experiences, which attracted a large number of tenant farmers to move to Baili Zhou en masse. As a result, some land in Shuangmiao Mountain was inevitably abandoned.

  Chen Kexin held the land lease of Shuangmiao Mountain, and he refused to accept the villagers' request to withdraw from the lease. However, the villagers didn't take Chen Kexin seriously and ignored his response, directly boarding the ships organized by Gu Xing to head to Baili Zhou. This made Chen Kexin overjoyed, urging the villagers to withdraw from the lease, which would prevent King Hui from collecting rent, wasn't this directly causing trouble for King Hui?

  Chen Kexin really wanted to burst out laughing, damn it, you two also have today, dare to fight with me, I'll kill you both! Chen Kexin's smile was cold and sinister, whoever saw it would be terrified.

  After the beginning of spring, three new houses were built around the warehouse in Shuangmiao Mountain, one of which had a high chimney. This chimney became the highest building in Shuangmiao Mountain overnight, attracting the attention of villagers. Villagers kept looking up at the chimney, wondering what new tricks the warehouse was playing.

  What surprised the villagers even more was that the chimney started smoking today! Thick black smoke rose straight into the sky, visible from twenty miles away. It turned out that the oil extraction workshop on Shuangmiao Mountain had begun its first operation! Under the chimney, in the house with two large pots, as soon as you entered this room, you could see that it was filled with smoke and fog, and you couldn't tell whether it was the smoke from the cottonseed or the steam. Two women were constantly adding cottonseed to the fire pit, coughing nonstop. The high chimney was built to increase the firepower and shorten the time for steaming the cottonseed.

  "Aunt! Is the cooking done?" Cui Xing exclaimed as soon as he entered the room.

  "Quickly come over and take a look yourself, even my wife can't make up her mind!"

  Gu Xing lifted the lid, and a large amount of steam escaped from the pot. Gu Xing blew away the steam, looked down, and saw that the cottonseed powder had already shown signs of oil seeping out. Gu Xing shouted: "Add more fire, make it stronger, almost done!"

  As soon as Gu Xing's words fell, a large handful of cotton firewood was stuffed into the stove by Auntie, and the flames suddenly rose high.

  "Alright, let's get started! Everyone come quickly!" Gu Xing's voice was exceptionally loud and startled the more than a dozen men in the oil extraction workshop. These men promptly put the steamed cotton seeds into baskets and carried them to the stone mill room.

  In the stone mill room, there is a huge stone mill, pulled by an ox, creaking and turning in circles. Taking advantage of the heat to crush the hard cotton seeds into powder. The stone mill is very heavy, and it's very difficult for the water buffalo to pull it under the whip, with its eyes wide open, mooing loudly.

  Gu Xing couldn't help but glare at Shi Wa Zi and scolded, "Can you stop whipping the cow all the time? I spent 28 taels of silver to buy this cow!"

  "Heh heh, I'm not impatient or anything," said Shi Wa Zi with a smile. "I just want to hurry up and grind it into powder so I can see what this cottonseed oil really looks like!"

  "Stinky little brat, it's all right, it's already been ground into powder. Let the cow rest for a while, we'll make some rice cakes!"

  In the oil extraction room, more than a dozen steel hoops made of fine steel were placed. Gu Xiu-xing brought over a steel hoop, padded the bottom with straw, poured in cottonseed cake, and used a wooden mallet to tamp it down repeatedly, then refilled the cottonseed cake and continued to tamp it down until the steel hoop was full, pressed tightly, and covered with straw on top. Gu Xiu-xing picked up another steel hoop and repeated the process.

  "While doing it, he shouted: 'Don't just stand there, it's not a difficult thing, you all try, and we'll all do it later!'"

  Then the remaining steel hoops were looted, and the oil extraction room kept ringing with the sound of wooden mallets.

  "Alright, put the steel hoop on the press!"

  The mortars were made of high-quality camphor wood, impact-resistant and crack-resistant. The men put the steel rings on the mortars, and some couldn't wait to push the wooden pestles. The pestles hung from the beams, requiring two people to push them. The diameter of the pestle was about two feet, also made of high-quality camphor wood, anyway, Baili Zhou was not short of wood, so Li Chengzong used the best wood. The head of the pestle was wrapped with iron hoops and covered with a layer of iron skin.

  "Hasn't put in the wedge yet, what's the hurry?"

  Gu Xing put a triangular wooden wedge into the press and nodded: "Let's start!"

  Doushi Wenhe and Shi Wawa grasped the battering ram, pulling it back with all their might until they couldn't retreat any further. Doushi Wenhe shouted "Ram!" The two of them used all their strength to push the battering ram forward, striking the wooden wedge. A loud crash was heard, and the wedge sank in a large chunk. Doushi Wenhe let out a pained cry, jumping up and waving his hands wildly as he yelled out in agony.

  Everyone immediately surrounded Dong Shiwen and asked what was going on.

  "My goodness, how can I withstand this shock? If it gets any more intense, my hands will be crippled!" Duan Shiwen said, enduring the severe pain.

  "Actually, you've never done farm work before, so you don't know how to use your strength. Look at Shi Wa Zi, she's not even breaking a sweat, and when it's almost time to collide, you let go!"

  Everyone burst out laughing, Du Shi awkwardly retreated to one side, indicating that it was time for someone else.

  Shi Wa Zi and another man continued to push the wooden block, pushing for over ten times, until they were exhausted and had to be replaced by two others. As the number of pushes increased, everyone's eyes were fixed on the oil outlet, eagerly awaiting the first drop of oil to fall into the wooden basin. However, after thirty or so pushes, not a single drop of oil came out. A few impatient men looked at Gu Xiangxing with puzzled eyes. Duan Shiwen also quietly asked Gu Xiangxing, "Scholar, is there really oil in the cotton seeds?"

  Kuso's heart was also fluctuating wildly, and even in spring, beads of sweat as big as beans appeared on his forehead.

  They crashed for more than twenty times, still not a single drop of oil came out. The two men who were pushing the crash-wood sat on the ground with their buttocks, panting heavily and said: "Alas, it's no use, we're exhausted to death, but not a single drop of oil!"

  Everyone's eyes were on Gu Xiu Xing, who ordered the crowd to rest and himself opened the lid of the oil press. He reached inside with his hand, then took out his fingers and looked at them before putting them in his mouth to taste. Excitedly, he shouted: "Brothers, it's producing oil! We used new wood, and all the oil has seeped into the wood!"

  Everyone heard, and they all stretched out their hands to the oil press, scooped out some oil, and greedily sucked it into their mouths. Dun Shiwen was even more excessive, he picked up Gu Xingxing in one hug, jumped up and shouted: "You really did it, you actually managed to get the oil out!"

  "Hurry up and change the cotton cake, squeeze a few more times, and the oil will come out!" Gu Xing was held tightly by Dun Shiwen, couldn't breathe, but shouted out this sentence with all his might.

  Everyone took out the cotton cakes from the oil press, replaced them with new ones, and started pounding again. With the pounding sounds, in less than ten beats, a drop of oil slowly seeped out, broke free from the surface tension, and dripped into the wooden basin.

  "Oh, oil is out! Oil is out!" The cheers echoed through Shuangmiao Mountain Village like a tsunami, and finally, Shuangmiao Mountain took the first step in extracting cottonseed oil!