Chapter 18: Refining Wine

In this era, the alcohol content of wine is generally not high, but strong spirits do exist.

The set of equipment that appeared in the manor of this wealthy Li is for the purpose of distilling and purifying low-alcohol brewed wine to obtain high-proof spirits.

In the eyes of Wen Gu, these tools are still crude, but it does not matter; as long as they can achieve the goal, that is enough.

Qingyi Daozhang frowned deeply: "Only refine these two jars of wine?"

With just this little bit of stuff, is it worth me going to the trouble of setting up a furnace to refine wine?

"It is not. Tomorrow we will search this manor again for any usable items, and while we are at it, see if there is any more wine elsewhere. If we can find some, I will have to trouble you, Daozhang."

"In that case, that is acceptable."

Although Qingyi Daozhang was not very willing, after weighing the pros and cons, he still agreed. He maintained his solemn facade.

Outside, the sky had already darkened; they did not move the things here again, and for the time being, they let the big donkey stay here.

Those two jars of wine were not taken away, but were locked in a small compartment to save the remaining bit from being ruined by this donkey.

They returned to the Kitchen.

Compared to the wine room ruined by the big donkey, the Kitchen and the woodshed were more suitable for them to spend the night; there was still plenty of firewood in the woodshed, so there was no need to be stingy with the bonfire.

After burning Medicinal Herb and lighting the bonfire, a scent of wine would drift through the air from time to time, and nearby evil entities would not approach upon smelling it.

"Xiao Liu, tomorrow have Matuan send a message to your father, telling the Village not to drink up all the stored wine," Wen Gu said.

Falcons are diurnal birds of prey, so it is better to send messages during the day.

Tomorrow they will all stay in this manor and will not go out, so they can let Matuan make a trip.

They had only left the Village for one day, and they had to be cautious and guard their surroundings on the road while pushing the cargo; they even stopped for a while when the temperature was high at noon, so at their pace, they had not traveled very far.

Xiao Liu Liehu was just thinking about this matter; knowing that wine can perform Exorcism, he wished he could tell the Village immediately not to drink all the wine, and no matter how much they liked it, they must save it and keep more to save their lives.

For the matter of writing the letter, he still had to ask Wen Gu for help.

Using the small notebook he carried with him, he used a Charcoal Pencil to write a few lines of small characters, briefly conveying the information, and would let Matuan deliver this note back tomorrow morning.

After a good night's rest, the next day, they searched the manor for supplies to see what was useful and could be taken away.

The manor was large; those who lived here before, besides the master's family, included maids, servants, guards, as well as laborers who did odd jobs, and so on.

What those above prefer, those below will surely follow.

As the saying goes, the subordinates follow the example of their superiors, and there were quite a few servants who liked wine.

When the people here evacuated, they could take away grain, valuable items, gold, and silver, but it was very difficult to take all the wine jars.

Even the master's family could only leave the wine in the rooms, so it was even harder for the servants to carry it.

The wine found in other rooms added up to more than ten jars, three of which had been opened.

The quality of the wine varied, and the raw materials for brewing were diverse.

It did not matter; they were all going to be refined by the Daozhang anyway.

Besides this, in the process of collecting supplies, they found a basement containing nearly a hundred jars of fine wine!

The entrance to the secret room was relatively hidden and easily overlooked; the first person to discover it was Qingyi Daozhang.

At that time, the look in Wen Gu's eyes when he watched Qingyi Daozhang was quite meaningful.

This Daozhang's past experiences of wandering must have been tumultuous and colorful.

Looking at the old marks left here, the secret room used to be stacked with many boxes containing the master's private wealth, but during the emergency evacuation, the boxes were all carried away.

These fine wines were difficult to carry, so they were all left in the secret room as they were.

They would not stay here for too long, and the Daozhang did not need that much wine for distillation.

Wen Gu did not move them all out.

And they could not be taken away.

Wen Gu said to Xiao Liu: "Send a message to the Village; in case the Village encounters an unexpected situation, you can come here to hide."

Xiao Liu also liked this place very much, it was just a pity that it was a bit far from their Ge Village. The falcon could fly back and forth in the sky very quickly, but it was different for them walking, and they still had to guard against dangers along the way.

"Sigh, what a pity. I don't know who these will end up with in the end," Xiao Liu said with regret.

"Not necessarily. If you make a name for yourself in Beidi, and when the time comes to return home in glory, you bring troops to pick up the elders of the Village to go north for refuge, you can take all the wine here on the way. In the end, these will still fall into our hands," Wen Gu said.

After hearing this, Xiao Liu Liehu had a dreamy expression and a firm tone:

"Right! That's right! In the end, they are all ours!"

Qingyi Daozhang, who was on the side, looked at Wen Gu, then at Xiao Liu, and was speechless for a moment.

You even dare to eat the big pie Wen Gu is drawing?!

We have barely started, just at the very beginning, and you are already dreaming?

What a fool!

Too impatient to listen to their nonsense, Qingyi Daozhang picked out some things he needed and went to refine the wine.

In addition to wine, they also found some leftover grain, salt, Sugar, and other items.

There were no finished weapons, but there were some farm tools that would be very useful if modified slightly.

The intact Wooden Board Carts had already been taken away, but there were two faulty ones left; by taking them apart and repairing them, one complete one could be put together.

Wen Gu calculated how much stuff a donkey cart could hold and selected the items they had found.

Things like large wine jars were inconvenient to carry; just bringing some of the products refined by the Daozhang would suffice.

The Daozhang refined wine, Xiao Liu repaired the cart, and Tietou went over to help with some manual labor.

Occasionally, when Xiao Liu was stumped, Wen Gu would go over to take a look, point out the key problem, and provide a solution.

The Wooden Board Cart was soon repaired.

As for Wen Gu, after consulting Xiao Liu, he went to build trust with that big donkey and did some simple training so that the donkey could pull the cart better.

Just as they guessed, this big donkey had pulled carts and carried loads before; even if it had not worked for a few months and was a bit rusty, it adapted quite quickly.

It just had no motivation.

Thinking that it would soon be carrying a heavy load, Wen Gu had Xiao Liu use the available supplies to make some high-energy feed, such as the beans found today, or certain edible byproducts from the Daoist Priest's Alchemy.

Wen Gu also found a small porcelain bottle with a narrow mouth, filled it with wine, and plugged it with a wooden stopper, allowing a faint scent of wine to escape.

A rope was tied around the neck of the bottle, and it was hung in front of the big donkey with a long pole.

Hmm, the big donkey was pulling the cart with much more vigor!

It truly was a skilled worker.

The trust between human and donkey could be considered established.

Wen Gu was very satisfied and even learned how to drive the cart from Xiao Liu.

Among the Six Arts of a gentleman—rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics—driving a horse-drawn carriage was also a skill that needed to be mastered.

He had never driven a donkey cart before, so he learned the techniques.

In such a chaotic world, mastering one more skill meant one more chance of survival.

Xiao Liu couldn't help but exclaim: "So scholars are this amazing!"

Not only could he drive a cart, he could also repair one. Wen Gu had been quite deft when instructing him on how to repair the Wooden Board Cart.

Over there, after learning to drive the donkey cart, Wen Gu went to check on the progress of the Daoist Priest's Alchemy.

Qingyi Daozhang was still reliable when it came to professional matters.

Someone who practiced Alchemy was indeed very familiar with distillation techniques.

What a talent!

It would be even better if there were a few more talents like this.

The wine collected from various rooms in the residence was processed according to the Daoist Priest's own habits.

Originally, the Daoist Priest only wanted to distill the strong spirits and ignore the rest. But Wen Gu had long since provided "pointers," which were not only suggestions on the refining method but also a reminder to the Daoist Priest not to think about cutting corners.

Thinking of the benefits that the Gou Shusheng could bring him in the future, the Daoist Priest still expended some effort, and the refined wine was mainly divided into three categories—

Wine head, wine heart, and wine tail.

The wine heart was the strong spirit, which was drinkable.

The wine head and wine tail had more impurities, but they wouldn't be wasted and had other uses.

Wen Gu looked at the separated products of the Alchemy.

The brewed wine here generally had a low alcohol concentration; without distillation, it could not be ignited directly.

But the wine heart left over after distillation had a higher alcohol concentration and sufficient flammable components.

It also had a certain effect of disinfection and sterilization. Although it couldn't compare to the medical-grade ones from Wen Gu's original world, it could still be used for emergencies in the current situation.

If the collected wine head and wine tail could be ignited at room temperature, they would be kept as offensive weapons.

If they couldn't be ignited, such as the wine tail with low alcohol content, high water content, and a pungent odor, they would be used as defensive weapons, using the smell as cover.

Keep them, keep them all!

They were all things that could turn the tide!

Although the products of the Alchemy didn't reach Wen Gu's original expectations, the tools were crude, so he couldn't demand too much; making do with them was fine.

When Wen Gu was conducting the combustion test, Xiao Liu happened to come over. He knew these were wines refined by Qingyi Daozhang, and he had originally thought that Wen Gu asking the Daoist Priest to refine strong spirits was for drinking to ward off the cold once the temperature dropped.

He had heard people say before that in the bitter cold regions of the frontier, some people drank wine to ward off the cold.

He thought Wen Gu was thinking the same thing.

Until he saw Wen Gu ignite a small spoonful of the poured wine.

It ignited!

So, as long as the wine was strong enough, it could be ignited!

What did evil things fear?

Besides low temperatures, it was fire!

If they encountered a crisis and didn't have enough wood on hand, they only needed:

One of the Daoist Priest's Safety Match, plus a small bottle of strong spirit...

Xiao Liu looked at Wen Gu: Scholars are truly amazing!

Wen Gu didn't avoid Xiao Liu while doing these things and said: "Take them all when we set off. Be careful when the time comes, and absolutely do not go near any fire sources."

Xiao Liu nodded repeatedly.

He definitely had to be careful, otherwise, he would end up burning his own people.

Wen Gu turned back to look at those utensils.

It was a pity that the things they could carry were limited, and they couldn't take these distillation utensils with them.

Thus, Wen Gu used his personal Notebook to draw all these utensils, and once they reached Beidi and had the conditions, he would find craftsmen to manufacture and improve them.

Food was precious; whether it was brewed from rice or fruit wine, it would certainly be harder to obtain. But once the tools were created, they could be used for other things, not just limited to wine.

Sigh, those were all matters for the future; wait until they safely reached their destination before thinking about these.

Having obtained what they wanted and with the donkey cart prepared, the four of them set off again.

With the donkey cart, they left the wheelbarrow in the residence.

If the group were larger, they could have someone push the wheelbarrow along, but the group now only had four people, so there was no need to occupy a combat-capable person.

When they set off early in the morning, the cat they had encountered before was squatting in front of the gate watching them.

It would continue to guard this residence on the manor. It was unknown when it would wait for the return of the owners, or if it would wait for new occupants.

On the road of the manor, the big donkey, enticed by the small wine bottle hanging in front, pulled the cart with great enthusiasm.

Only when resting would Wen Gu feed it a little wine. He wouldn't feed it while it was working.

Don't drink and drive; don't drive and drink.