Chapter Fifty-Four Some People Are Happy While Others Are Worried

  Good things come in pairs, the dam is bustling with people, and at this time, the wine workshop is also burning fiercely. The wine lees are emitting a sour and corrupt smell, and the craftsmen are busy coming and going. Several apprentices carefully sent the newly cooked new wine into a separate small courtyard, where it will undergo the final process to become a valuable burn wine worth thousands of dollars.

  "Come on, Master Xi, why isn't the liquor flowing out yet?" Zheng Yun stared at the steamer pot on the fire, where the wine had been heating up for a while now, but the "legendary" distilled liquor still hadn't flowed out.

  "Don't rush, use a small fire and simmer slowly, the wine will turn out well!" Xian Xi's thoughts seemed to be elsewhere, and she said this somewhat absent-mindedly.

  "Oh, small fire slow burn, I've got it!" Zheng Yu nodded and instructed the firewood boy to slow down the speed of adding firewood. "Xi Ye, is your fire timing okay?"

  "Ah, just keep it that way, neither too big nor too small!" Xian Xi wiped the sweat from his face and said calmly, but his heart was secretly beating with excitement.

  Jian Xi stood outside the gate, looking around, but Wang Ye hadn't arrived yet. They had agreed that he would come first and then think of a way to get over. Could it be that Wang Ye had 'lost his hand' and been captured? If Wang Ye fell into the hands of that 'mother yaksha', he might suffer family law again. He wouldn't be so unlucky, would he?

  Thinking of this, Xian Xi's heart became even more nervous. More than half a month ago, the palace suddenly sent a few people to the Wang Fu, one of whom was Mu Ye Cha Yu Zhu, mentioned by Xian Xi. She was originally the head of the Palace Administration Department and this time she came with the imperial edict from the Noble Consort to specifically discipline the Prince.

  The palace is generally divided into six bureaus and twenty-four departments, which are managed by the inner attendants and female officials who are in charge of all matters. The Palace Discipline Bureau is independent of this and is specifically responsible for discipline and punishment, as well as investigating crimes within the palace. There is one Palace Director, two Deputy Directors, four Secretaries, and four Female Scribes. Although the Deputy Directors are deputy hands, their power is not small, with a sixth-grade official rank.

  Yu Zhu is only in her thirties, but she's also an old hand in the palace. She enforces the rules strictly and has sinister methods. The young eunuchs and palace maids are terrified of her, even more so than they are of Yang Jia. This is because Yang Jia is high up and won't be constantly watching them, whereas Yu Zhu seems to be everywhere. If she catches someone in a mistake, they'll be lucky if they don't lose their skin. Even Xian Ji's heart trembles with fear when she sees her, and her legs turn weak.

  Although she had been in the palace for a short time, she destroyed all the new systems that Wang Ye had just established and restored the old system of the palace. Wang Ye was naturally the focus of her discipline, from food and clothing to sitting and walking, all of which were re-established by her. However, Wang Ye was not so obedient, and he had already been beaten several times with the "family law" bestowed by the Empress Dowager.

  "Master Wang, please hurry up and come quickly, don't let me get into trouble!" Xian Xi didn't dare to think about it anymore, silently praying that Master Wang would arrive soon. After being restricted from taking action, he had been entrusted by Master Wang as an 'expert' to guide the work at the winery several times. Now, Zheng Yu was obedient to him, but in his heart, he was sweating bullets. Today was not like any other day, it was the day of brewing wine, and if anything went wrong, how would he know how to handle it? His knowledge of brewing wine was just from following Master Wang a few times, and the few nights before, he had been forced by Master Wang to memorize several 'treasured formulas'. As for other things like selecting materials, making the mash, fermentation, collecting the wine, putting it in the cellar, and filtering and boiling the wine, these were all things he had only seen for the first time recently.

  Jian Xi stood at the door, eagerly waiting for Wang Ye to arrive. Zheng Yu was staring blankly at the distillation bucket on the stove, knowing that the secret to making fine liquor lay within it, but he just couldn't figure it out, and his heart was itching terribly. This large contraption looked like an oversized copper water bucket from the outside, but both the top and bottom of the bucket were tightly wrapped in copper skin, with only a few holes of varying sizes left on the wall of the bucket. One hole was used to fill in the fermented liquor, another hole produced the distilled liquor that flowed out, while the others Jian Xi hadn't told him what they were for yet, let alone what was inside.

  In the eyes of modern people, this distillation apparatus is just an ordinary object, which is just a bottom bucket for holding and a top bucket with a cooling device connected to it. In between, there is a filter bottle for collecting spirit vapor. After the steam is cooled by water, it condenses into high-proof white wine. However, in the Song Dynasty over a thousand years ago, after being packaged by Zhao Bian, it became a high-tech product.

  "Hey, Uncle Xi, will this steamer work? What's inside it?" Zheng Yu asked in a low voice, trying to get some secrets out of the 'expert'.

  "Shh, Master Wang says it's still a secret for now, you can't know yet!" Xixi said mysteriously with a hidden smile in her heart. This is a secret that only Master Wang and I know, you're not worthy of knowing, we've taken so much trouble to keep it under wraps, you think you can get it out of me? Dream on!

  "Brother Xi, the wine is dripping out of the pipe! What should we do next!" A fellow who had been closely watching the changes in the steamer suddenly exclaimed.

  "I am an expert, I am an expert" Now is the crucial moment, the amount and quality of wine are now up to it. The king's appearance cannot be helped, can only rush to put on a show, and sacrifice his own hundred or so pounds. Seeing the joy in his heart, he silently recited the four-character motto that the king had passed down to him, giving himself a boost. If he knew that the king's knowledge of winemaking was actually not much stronger than his own, and that the "treasured book" he had passed down was probably just a compilation by Zhao based on past wine manuals, he might not be as tense as he is now.

  "Alright, quickly add cold water to cool it down!" Jian Xi hastily ordered the two waiting assistants to slowly pour cold water into a hole at the top of the甑桶 (a type of Chinese brewing vessel), "Go ahead, at this speed, not too fast, not too slow, keep adding water!" Until the liquid flowing out of the pipe used for drawing wine changed from a few drops to a gentle stream. Jian Xi instructed, having had experience with this before.

  As the wine flowed out, the fragrance wafted out, and the entire winery was filled with an unprecedented special aroma. "Old Guan Shi, Xi Ye, how is this wine?" Zheng Yu poured a little wine into two cups and handed them to Zheng Quan and Jian Xi, and everyone's eyes in the room turned to them.

  "Ah, Sixth Master, the appearance should be fine. The liquor is clear and transparent, without any impurities, unlike some of our own brews that are a bit murky!" Zheng Kuan said after observing the wine in sunlight for a while. "This wine also has the flavor of strong spirits, spicy and powerful, with a rich and smooth texture, even the belch it produces is fragrant!" Zheng Kuan exclaimed excitedly after taking a sip and letting out a burp.

  The crowd listened to Laojiu Chong's evaluation and shifted their gaze to the Shaojiu expert, "Hmm, this wine is okay, it's still relatively successful!" Ji Xi swirled the wine in his cup, and a delicate aroma rose from the cup, not much different from before. He pretended to be profound and made a show of himself as he commented.

  "Haha, we succeeded!" Zheng Yu exclaimed with a somewhat manic laugh, knowing that his day of glory was near. "You two quickly pack the wine and return to the capital to report to Master, just say that the distilled liquor has been successfully made!" He immediately instructed his two trusted attendants after his laughter.

  After two more jars of wine flowed out, the flow slowed down. "Hurry up and change the jar! The taste of the wine flowing out later is not good, it should be stored separately and not mixed with the previous one!" Ji Xi ordered, "Zheng Zhanggui, I won't be able to stay here for long, you have to pay attention to these things!"

  "Yes, yes, I'll definitely pay attention!" Zheng Yu hastily replied. These experiences would all be his own capital in the future, and he had to remember them well. He now hated that he couldn't keep Xian Xi as a god and confine him in the wine workshop to dig out everything from his brain.

  An hour later, the liquid was no longer flowing out. Seeing this, he hastily called his assistant to remove the fire and stop pouring in cold water. Then, after weighing it again, 100 jin of original wine yielded 15 jin of good wine and 5 jin of secondary wine. The yield rate was roughly around 20%, which was basically the same as the experiment conducted by Wang Ye. He could now report back to Wang Ye with confidence.

  "Hmm, our winery can now produce 500 catties of raw wine per day, which means we can produce 100 catties of distilled liquor every day. Currently, good quality liquor on the market sells for around 300 wen per liter, and even if the distilled liquor doesn't sell well, it can still be sold for at least 10 guan per catty. That's a daily income of 1,000 guan!" Zheng Yu roughly calculated this and scared himself in the process.

  "If the weather warms up in a few more days, several fermentation tanks will be put into use one after another. One dan of original grain can produce one dan of wine, conservatively estimated to produce two thousand jin of original wine per day, which is equivalent to four hundred jin of distilled liquor, that's four thousand guan! If we can produce for three hundred days a year, the gross income will be twelve million guan. Compared with the huge profit, the cost of raw materials, labor, firewood and other expenses can be ignored."

  Time is money, Zheng Yu thought to himself, and the fatigue on his body immediately disappeared. "What are you guys still doing there? Hurry up and load the fuel, no one is allowed to stop! Today we must try to brew all the wine!" he shouted loudly at the several companions in the house who were still fooling around.

  "You go ahead, I have to go back to the king. He's been suffering for these few days, don't let anything happen!" Seeing Xi has been busy following him these days, he yawned and said, but in his heart, his admiration for the king turned over again. The king must have anticipated that he might not be able to come out, so he let him slip away under the pretext of going out to buy things, otherwise Zheng Yu would have really caught him off guard today.

  "What's wrong with the prince? Who dares to bully him!" Zheng Yu was startled, daring to let his own nephew suffer, isn't it a beating in front of adults, bullying our grandma's family without anyone around?!

  "Zheng's affairs are none of your business, the empress has sent a palace official from the Imperial Household Department to take care of the prince's daily life and teach him etiquette!" Xiqi said with a bitter smile, thinking that if it weren't for that wicked woman's interference, the prince would have long since run out to join in the fun, and she wouldn't have had to suffer through this charade.

  "Ah" Zheng Yu didn't dare speak anymore. The princess was teaching her own child, and as the uncle, he really couldn't intervene.