Chapter 162: The Flower-Palankin Game

They had to bow and bend before Zhao Jin, yet behind his back they mocked his wine as undrinkable — that was its own amusement.

Who would have thought that one cup down the throat would instantly reveal its flavor? They hurriedly called for waiters to order more, but the waiters all smiled wryly and said, "Sold out!"

Cloud Mountain Tavern specialized in banquet business, and wine was their bulk commodity — they consumed far more than Jade Willow Residence could ever know. Once someone tasted how good it was, they immediately ordered more, and with so many doing the same, by the time the slow-witted caught on, the wine was already gone.

Scenes like this played out all over Xuzhou city, though quite a few common folk felt differently. In the words of some drunkards south of the city: "The wine's not bad, but the taste is a touch too mild." Yet they had another line as well: "The wine sellers have all lost their conscience — couldn't they at least water it down a bit?"

Not every shop did well. Many had bought wine but couldn't sell it for a time. Yet while drinkers weren't buying, wine sellers came to buy. Several big establishments with booming business knew they couldn't get any from Fragrance Wine Workshop, so they sent their clerks out with carts to scour the whole city for wine, paying ten or twenty wen extra per jin — which was practically the retail price. Those with poor sales were willing to offload, and those buying at a markup didn't lose out either; they could always sell it on for even more.

The buyers from several of the city's big establishments ran into each other many times across town. To secure a purchase, they had to keep raising the price, up to as much as fifty wen extra per jin. For these big establishments, even a temporary loss was better than telling a customer they had none, and far better than letting regulars go drink this wine somewhere else.

Word of Han Well Famous Liquor's blazing success had not yet reached Zhao Jin's ears, but he could sense it from his father's excited descriptions when he came home.

"... Tonight those bastards were still mocking me, saying if the wine's no good, everyone should just eat more meat. In the end, those drunkards polished off both jars to the last drop, and when they wanted more, there was none. Every last one of them was ready to head off to some little wine-selling dive to drink their fill..."

Zhao Jin had not only summoned all the wine sellers — he had also told his father to invite the constables and civil clerks from the yamen for drinks. These men were also major consumers of distilled liquor.

Of course, this crowd was well-informed and knew Zhao Jin was making wine from sorghum. Many had been waiting to see a joke, and quite a few had made remarks, deliberately or not, needling Zhao Zhentang. This time, it let the old man hold his head high.

"This wine is truly excellent. Bring some home every day from now on." Zhao Zhentang was clearly drunk and brimming with excitement. Zhao Jin laughed dryly and said, "Father, too much drink harms the body. Your son will only bring back two taels a day."

"You little brat, getting stingy now!" Zhao Zhentang pointed at Zhao Jin, caught between laughter and tears, but he didn't press the matter. He simply said with a smile, "Today that wine was delivered to the homes of all the gentlemen in the yamen. Not one of them took it as a favor. Who knows what they're really thinking?"

"It doesn't matter. By tomorrow, everything will be different."

Father and son chatted for a while, but Zhao Jin did not stay the night at home. He hurried off to the wine workshop in the dark. Judging by the current momentum, sales were gradually opening wide — the main worry now was production.

Outside the wine workshop, household guards armed with spears patrolled in formation. Inside, lanterns hung as everyone bustled about in a frenzy of activity.

"Boss, we've got less than five thousand jin of wine grain left, and just over eight thousand jin of sorghum still stored. If sales take off, this won't be nearly enough."

"I've already spoken with several grain merchants. Don't let the wine grain in your cellars run empty, and don't stop the distilling. I can keep everything supplied for you."

"Boss, once the wine jars at the various selling points are empty, we need them back fast, or we won't have enough to use."

"I'll send people to handle it. There's something you must remember: follow yesterday's procedures to the letter. Fermenting the wine grain, distilling the liquor, changing the sky-pot water — not a single step can be skipped. If something doesn't meet the standard, I'd rather you stop and not make it at all. Understand? Our brand has just been established. No matter what, we cannot ruin it!"

Inside the wine workshop, Zhao Jin gave these instructions with a stern expression. Lu Xiangjiu and Su Da were no hotheaded greenhorns either; they understood where the line was.

That night, Zhao Jin did not go back to sleep. He stayed right in the wine workshop. The next day, Ji Xiang and the others went to Chen Hong to draw silver for purchasing and placing deposits everywhere. Chen Hong, ever meticulous with money, handed it over without hesitation this time, because the situation was now completely clear: for every single wen spent, they were certain to get nine wen back, if not more. Why wouldn't you do business like that?

Just as the sky began to lighten, shopkeepers and buyers from all over the city were already crowding outside the wine workshop's courtyard gate. No one had bought all that much the day before, and by their reckoning, there should still be stock left here. Everyone wanted to sweep up whatever remained.

Truth be told, they all had a worry. Though you could taste before buying every jar, such things were far too arbitrary. Who knew if the next batch could still hold this flavor?

Seeing this feverish scene, Zhao Jin gave orders to collect money and ship goods on one hand, then turned and headed for the workshop. One pot was clearly no longer enough.

After discussing with Lu Xiangjiu and Su Da, they decided to add three more large stoves for distilling. According to Lu Xiangjiu, there were plenty of abandoned wine workshops inside and outside the city, and they could always scavenge some brewing equipment. With ready-made items like these, construction would be much faster. Whatever was still lacking could then be custom-ordered. The most urgent matters now were keeping grain, water, and firewood flowing without interruption, and then staffing up properly — otherwise, the wine's quality could not be controlled.

After the spectacle of that day's liquor production, Lu Xiangjiu and Su Da understood that what Zhao Jin demanded was secrecy. So they specifically named a few individuals — all winemaking craftsmen who had already switched trades, all quite down on their luck, but whose winemaking skills were still decent. In such circumstances, if someone hired them, they would be overwhelmed with gratitude. Not only would they work diligently, but keeping secrets would also come easily.

They roughly estimated the wine in storage. Even with production running nonstop every day, if they kept selling at the current limit of five jars per shop, they would run out of stock in a few more days. Demand was fervent, but production capacity was not that great.

The morning passed in a noisy hubbub of shipping goods and buying wine. In the afternoon, even more idlers gathered to watch the excitement, but the crowd at the freight yard also gradually swelled. Ye Wenshu dragged several companions along to come over. Zhao Jin's household guards had also halted their training and spread out in all directions, notifying those qualified young men originally registered in the books. Soon, long lines formed again at the freight yard.

Before, relying on word of mouth, it had taken over ten days to gather fewer than a hundred and fifty men. Now, as soon as word got out, people from inside and outside the city converged. Who didn't know by now that working under Zhao Jin meant eating your fill, drinking well, sleeping warm, and never having your monthly pay delayed? And the young men had another reason: prestige. Nearly every young man in Xuzhou city had seen the household guards drilling on the freight yard — that uniformity, that deadly solemnity, were exactly what young men yearned for. Everyone wanted to be one of them.

Even those without such ambitions figured they could go work as a shop hand at the wine workshop. Never mind whether they could learn the craft — the good food and high wages there were the biggest draw.

Unlike the previous selection, this time there were hard standards. How many times could you lift the stone lock and stone bar? How far could you run within the time it takes a third of an incense stick to burn? Did your parents at home agree? Was there someone willing to vouch for you? Fail a single one, and you wouldn't be accepted.

Yet such hard standards only made the young men more eager. Meeting standards like these and being chosen meant you were far superior to your peers — that in itself was an honor.

As for the wine workshop hands and apprentices, the selection focused mainly on good health, an honest character, and having a guarantor. When registering and signing the contract, a clerk from the yamen would always give a reminder: you all know what sort of man Master Jin is. If the wine workshop's methods are stolen and leaked, your whole family's lives will be in danger.

Some who had come with petty schemes shrank back upon hearing this. But most didn't care. Being an apprentice in a shop these days, working for someone else — it was all about the same. For the first three years, eating your fill was considered good enough. Beatings and scoldings were routine. If you were beaten to death, you couldn't even bring a case against the boss. Conditions like Zhao Jin's could practically be called merciful.

Everyone worked with blazing enthusiasm, but Chen Hong, who kept the accounts, soon wore a bitter expression. The business truly looked like it would make a fortune, but with operations suddenly spreading out so wide, large sums of silver were flowing out just as fast. The silver stored at Xu'an Trading Company was soon down to just over eight hundred taels.

The reputation of Han Well Famous Liquor truly took off on the fourth day after the wine tasting. Through his father Zhao Zhentang and other connections, Zhao Jin had delivered small jars of white liquor to the city's officials and gentry.

These households were never short of people sending gifts. Besides, Zhao Jin had inexplicably sent over a little wine jar. Everyone held Zhao Jin's fearsome reputation in awe, so the servants all politely accepted the wine — but they wouldn't serve it to the master of the house. What if it tasted foul or was harmful? That would just be asking for trouble.

But once the wine tasting was over, word spread through the whole city the next day. Someone would return from a banquet outside and remark how good the wine was, and the household servants would immediately recall that the Zhao family seemed to have sent some wine over. They would hastily present it — and indeed, upon tasting, it was fine wine.

When literati and scholars drink fine wine, regardless of their actual literary talent, they always feel compelled to offer a few appreciative remarks suited to the occasion, or perhaps compose a poem. The gentlemen of the prefect, the deputy prefect, the judge, and the Ministry of Revenue branch office all did just this.

They pronounced it good wine and sent their servants out to buy more. When they met one another, they would discuss it too. After all, for the utterly inexperienced Zhao Jin to produce such fine liquor was a curious and remarkable tale in Xuzhou city.

Once these officials and gentry gave their assessments, the reputation of Zhao Jin's distilled liquor began to ferment and swell. People have a herd mentality; they all like to imitate their role models. The officials and gentry of the ruling class were the role models everyone imitated. If they said this wine was good, then this wine must certainly be good. What's more, Han Well Famous Liquor was not merely riding on empty hype — it possessed genuine, solid, superior quality.

"The liquor is crystalline, sweet and crisp with a pure fragrance — entering the mouth like a spring, sliding down the throat like fire." "The wine's kick is fierce as a tiger, its aftertaste long as a serpent." All manner of reviews, coherent or not, emerged one after another. With their approval and patronage, the fervor for Han Well Famous Liquor abruptly surged yet another notch.

Wang Youshan, the great scholar who stood at the pinnacle of Xuzhou's esteemed circles and rarely involved himself in such mundane affairs, had actually written a scroll for this wine as well: "Fine wine, famous brew — the foremost in Xuzhou."