Chapter 19: Distilling White Spirits

Wanhua Pavilion.

No, at this time it should already be called "Fengming Tower."

At this moment, the ripples left behind by Liu Zheng's recent commotion were still lingering. First, his zither skills were astonishing, and then his literary talent was outstanding. He even acquired a restaurant; was this number one dandy of Liangzhou always this high-profile wherever he went?

The scholars were still there, shaking their heads and swaying, pondering those three couplets.

Zheng Yue Ru, meanwhile, had returned to her own private room, her dark brows slightly furrowed, before she suddenly smiled lightly: "This young master of the Liu Family is quite interesting."

The manager of this Fengming Tower, called Lao Cuitou, was a rather shrewd old merchant. At this moment, he stood beside Zheng Yue Ru and asked in a low voice: "Eldest Miss, are we just going to let this kid mess around with our Wanhua Pavilion?"

Merchants of this era were still relatively honest and conservative; they actually scoffed a bit at these promotional methods of Liu Zheng.

They felt that doing business should be done in a down-to-earth manner, and that messing around like this would make the Wanhua Pavilion look neither fish nor fowl.

"Heh, you think he is messing around?"

Zheng Yue Ru smiled faintly, took a light sip of rice wine, and shook her head: "I am actually a bit worried that his wager might very well result in us losing our Wanhua Pavilion..."

"Ah?"

Lao Cuitou looked dejected.

Zheng Yue Ru chuckled: "Of course, these methods of his are indeed ingenious, but they must have a catalyst to work. After all, this is a restaurant; it needs either beauties or wine... Otherwise, just by relying on a few couplets and this idea of having several floors, he wants to attract people to this barren land of Yinzhou?"

"He made us terminate our cooperation with the previous wine merchants; it seems he intends to make a fuss over the wine!"

Lao Cuitou nodded repeatedly as he listened.

But regardless, Liu Zheng's ideas were indeed ahead of their time in this era, and Liu Zheng had given a solid five thousand taels.

The next day.

Wanhua Pavilion began to close for business to undergo renovations, inside and out, all according to Liu Zheng's requirements. Taking half the shares of Wanhua Pavilion cost five thousand taels of silver, and this renovation would likely cost another one thousand taels!

For a time, all of Yinzhou was watching the joke.

News from Liangzhou these days had spread that this father and son of the Liu Family had only brought ten thousand taels of silver to Yinzhou. Five hundred taels for the log-lifting trust, renovating the County Marquis Mansion, and treating people to food and drink was another one thousand taels. By counting it all up, ten thousand taels had actually been squandered by Liu Zheng until only one thousand five hundred remained!

The Four Great Noble Families felt their crisis was resolved, and everyone was overjoyed.

"With his speed of squandering, how much longer can he stay in Yinzhou? Once he finally squanders his last savings, watch how I humiliate him!"

Chen Xiang, who had been slapped in the face by Liu Zheng several times in a row, went around making such harsh threats, seemingly on purpose so that Liu Zheng would hear them.

Of course, it was not just him.

Almost everyone in Yinzhou did not think highly of "this generation's" County Marquis, feeling that Yinzhou would soon return to its previous state of "governing by doing nothing."

And on Liu Zheng's side.

In reality, the situation was even worse than outsiders saw.

The County Marquis Mansion had been renovated and rebuilt.

But it needed people!

All kinds of maidservants, servants, gardeners, grooms, and horse carriages—setting these up all cost money, and one still had to pay monthly wages! Liu Dahao was busy to the point of chaos, and he could see the money bag getting flatter and flatter.

"Son, why don't I go to Liangzhou again and visit my old friends to see if they can provide some relief?"

Liu Dahao was almost out of options.

If things went on like this, they wouldn't be able to hold on for many more days.

Liu Zheng, however, smiled slightly: "Father, which of those old friends of yours would look up to us now? Just rest assured, follow what I said and use the money in hand to recruit three hundred Garrison, and remember, they must be young and strong! Let Changfeng assist you in this matter, and as for what comes after, I will find a way!"

"Ah? We still need to recruit soldiers?"

Liu Dahao was on the verge of tears.

Liu Zheng nodded and said: "If we don't recruit soldiers, how can we collect taxes? Father, you must remember one thing: in a prosperous age, value the scholars; in a chaotic age, value the warriors! Without soldiers, it will be difficult for us to gain a foothold in Yinzhou!"

Wanting to collect taxes was equivalent to pulling teeth from the tiger's mouth of the Four Great Noble Families!

Without Garrison, all of this was just empty talk.

And so.

The County Marquis Mansion began to recruit soldiers with great fanfare, and this matter did cause some ripples in Yinzhou. Who was the recruitment for? The Four Great Noble Families were certainly the first to be unable to sit still. But these Garrison were the standard configuration of a County Marquis Mansion; even though they were local powerful clans, they could not interfere with the County Marquis Mansion by law or reason.

After making some inquiries and finding out there were only three hundred Garrison, the noble families then left one after another.

Three hundred?

Each of their private armies had two thousand men!

Thus, the news that the County Marquis Mansion was short on money was confirmed once again.

And Liu Zheng, these past few days, had been doing his own research.

Regarding the matter of wine, he had several ideas. First, to produce higher-quality distiller's yeast; the distiller's yeast of this era still used the most ancient method, utilizing naturally moldy grains to make it. As for artificially manufacturing distiller's yeast, this era did not yet have the technology.

But Liu Zheng did!

These past few days, he first bought a set of brewing utensils, all kinds of vessels, pottery jars, leaking vats, wine vats, and so on... Originally, in Liu Zheng's brewing process, these procedures were very backward, but there was no other way; this era just had these conditions.

It was better than nothing.

He first took various grains, moistened them, ground them, processed them in various ways, and then added water and stirred; artificially making distiller's yeast was much more advanced than making it through natural mold.

By controlling the temperature and researching the proportions, he could produce distiller's yeast with different flavors.

Nongxiang Type, Qingxiang Type, Jiangxiang Type—Liu Zheng prepared a set for each.

Of course, this matter could not be completed overnight.

The production of large yeast cakes takes at least a month.

Therefore, while Liu Zheng was in the process of making distiller's yeast, he also had to research something else.

A Distiller!

For him, he now needed something that would have an immediate effect to help him make money! So, since the distiller's yeast would take a long time to produce, he could only first use a Distiller to distill the existing Turbid Wine of this era; although the effect would be slightly worse, compared to those Turbid Wines, it would be like nectar and jade liquid.

Actually, the principle of a Distiller is also very simple; for a scientific researcher and top student like Liu Zheng, it was just like children playing house—a matter that could be settled by arranging a few bottles and jars.

Connect several sealed jars together. The first jar is responsible for distillation, the second for cooling, and the third for collection.

But the most critical thing...

... is that these jars and pots are hard to find.

Liu Zheng searched the market for several days before finding a few that were barely satisfactory, which made him smile bitterly; living in an era of material scarcity is truly difficult.

And the tubes to connect the jars became another headache for him.

In the end, Liu Zheng ran to several butchers before he could barely find a few cow intestines, which could be used after being washed; this bizarre method also left him feeling somewhat amused yet frustrated.

But regardless, the items were now all prepared.

The Distiller was, for all intents and purposes, created.

"Son, what are you fussing about again?"

Liu Dahao ran into the room in the backyard of the County Marquis Mansion and, seeing the pile Liu Zheng was tinkering with, was left stunned.

"Haha, Father, this is good stuff. Quickly, have Qin Zhangfeng go buy ten jin of Turbid Wine!"

"Ah? My son, ten jin of Turbid Wine costs quite a bit of money!"

Poor Liu Dahao, once the richest man in Liangzhou, was now frowning over a few dozen taels of silver.

Liu Zheng smiled and said, "Father, listen to me, just go! If this goes smoothly, the profit will be far more than just a few dozen taels of silver!"

"Profit?"

Liu Dahao looked at Liu Zheng with some suspicion, as if to say, ever since you were born, you have always been in the red; when have you ever made a profit?

But he naturally would not say this out loud, and immediately had Qin Zhangfeng go buy the wine.

"Also, call Wei Tiezhu over, and tell him to bring a few clever craftsmen!"

Liu Zheng suddenly added.

Liu Dahao never questioned his son's words, and soon, Wei Tiezhu arrived with two of his kinsmen.

The ten jin of Turbid Wine were also bought back by Qin Zhangfeng.

"Tiezhu, can I trust you?"

Liu Zheng looked at Wei Tiezhu and asked calmly.

Wei Tiezhu's eyes immediately turned red: "What are you saying, Young Master? You treat me like a lord treats his subject; this head of mine is yours!"

"Good!"

Liu Zheng warned again: "It is precisely because I trust you that I brought you here. Remember, whatever happens here must be swallowed into your stomachs! You must not tell anyone!"

Wei Tiezhu's two brothers naturally had no issues with this either.

Seeing Liu Zheng so cautious, Liu Dahao clicked his tongue in wonder.

Thus, Liu Zheng began to teach the three of them how to operate the Distiller; at first, they did not understand what this was for.

But under Liu Zheng's guidance, they slowly grasped the essentials.

The Turbid Wine began to enter the distillation process, with Liu Dafu and Qin Zhangfeng watching from the side, occasionally helping out.

In just a short time, the cloudy Sorghum Wine gradually became crystal clear, like a spring; more importantly, the fragrance of this high-proof liquor was incomparable to the low-proof wine of this ancient era. By the time the distillation was nearly finished, the entire room was permeated with a strong, rich aroma of wine.

"This..."

"What is this? Such a strong wine fragrance!"

Liu Dahao's eyes widened.

Qin Zhangfeng also said excitedly: "The fragrance alone is intoxicating; is this immortal brew?"

People of this era were accustomed to drinking crude, low-proof wine; where had they ever seen such high-purity white liquor?

Wei Tiezhu was also dumbfounded: "This wine, this wine..."

Liu Zheng smiled slightly: "Wait a moment longer, and you can all have a taste."

The few of them had their cravings stirred, and their mouths were already watering.

When the distilled white liquor had passed through the distillation and cooling process and was finally collected in the last wine jar, the entire room was filled with an intoxicating fragrance.

"This... Zheng, is this wine?"

A few cups of wine were poured out by Liu Zheng, and Liu Dahao couldn't even bear to drink it.

It was purer than spring water!

"What do you think? Drink it!"

Liu Zheng laughed heartily.

Liu Dahao, Qin Zhangfeng, Wei Tiezhu, and the others each downed a cup, and instantly felt as if their souls had left their bodies, intoxicated by it.

"Good wine!"

"Zheng, Zheng, how did you do this?"

Liu Dahao felt as if he were meeting his son for the first time, and was suddenly struck with awe.

This was not just profit; this was the rhythm of becoming immensely wealthy!