Chapter 156 The winery's business is booming again

The Earl of Nanping was so angered by the two women's remarks that he simply abandoned the matter.

The second family was Zhang's own choice: the second son of the Duke of Wei, who was nineteen years old. Although he was not destined for a title, this second son was an excellent student. Last year, he passed the imperial examination and became a scholar. Now, with the help of his father and elder brother, he was entering the Hanlin Academy to further his studies. With the family background of the Duke of Wei, he was sure to have a smooth career in officialdom.

Moreover, the Duke of Wei's mansion has a high enough lintel, so his granddaughter can definitely enjoy a lifetime of wealth and honor after marrying into it.

The third family was the one that Zhang and Wen were most satisfied with. It was the fourth son of the Prince of Cheng'an's family, who was also the Prince of Cheng'an's most beloved youngest son. He was twenty years old this year and was definitely a member of the royal family.

Although this child was not born to the Princess Consort, but rather to Consort Min, everyone in the capital knew that the Emperor's uncle, Prince Cheng'an, favored Consort Min more than the Princess Consort.

The saying goes that a son's status depends on his mother's. Prince Cheng'an had a large number of legitimate and illegitimate sons, but the one he valued most was his youngest son.

Moreover, Prince Cheng'an was the late emperor's younger brother, and the current emperor also showed him some respect. If a marriage alliance were formed with Prince Cheng'an's family, the status and prestige of the Marquis of Nanping would take a significant leap forward, and even the Qiao family could benefit from it.

As for which of these three families to choose, the elders all have their own ideas and it's difficult to decide for the time being.

While they were discussing things frequently, Yu Qingci was also busy on her side.

After the New Year, the winery of the General's Mansion was completed, specializing in brewing local specialty yellow wine.

Because the winery is quite large, in addition to using all the labor force on the estate, they also hired many experienced people from nearby villages.

There are many breweries of all sizes in this area, almost all of which brew local yellow rice wine, so the recruitment process went relatively smoothly.

Yu Qingci renovated her two nearly bankrupt shops into a winery, and after everything was ready, she opened for business on a beautiful, sunny spring day.

After the yellow wine brewed on the estate was transported to the winery in the capital, it was all placed in the backyard. There were people specifically responsible for adding ingredients and turning it into clear wine.

These people were all carefully selected by Steward Lu. They included servants from the manor and workers from the estate. Without exception, they had all signed a life-or-death contract, so Yu Qingci was not afraid that they would leak the secret of the recipe.

She even gave this sake a special name: Cypress Leaf Green.

Compared to the ubiquitous local yellow wines on the market, Baiyeqing quickly gained a strong reputation in the Beijing area after it was launched.

The newly launched Baiyeqing wine has a significant advantage over traditional yellow wine. First, the wine is exceptionally clear, and the taste is mellow and smooth. The difference in taste between Baiyeqing and ordinary yellow wine is like night and day.

Moreover, Baiyeqing takes a people-friendly approach, with a price that is only 30% higher than that of Tuhuangjiu, making it affordable for most ordinary people. As a result, it became an instant hit as soon as it hit the market.

Both Yu Qingci and Su Chengniang's general stores also stocked Baiyeqing tea. Of course, aside from the cost of brewing the wine, their accounts remained separate, with each earning their own profits.

These shops quickly became the focus of attention again.

Many people know that after the General's Mansion made a fortune selling Xia Guang Brocade, it started to have a unique business, which naturally made many people envious.

However, the Nanping Earl's Mansion was still backing the winery, and most people turned their attention away from it amidst envy and jealousy.

Some people began to wonder if the General's Mansion had produced a business genius, otherwise how could it have made a fortune selling Xia Guang Jin before the New Year, and then launched Bai Ye Qing to start a wine business after the New Year?

And how exactly is this clear and bright Baiyeqing wine brewed?

This is what most winery owners and their behind-the-scenes bosses want to know most.

So many people made a special trip to buy Baiyeqing wine to experiment with, wanting to find out how the wine was made.

This cannot be determined through natural research.

Some people started to speculate based on the name of the wine that something related to cypress leaves might have been added during the brewing process.

As a result, the cypress trees around the capital that had just sprouted new buds suffered greatly. Various wineries removed their crowns and took them back for various experiments and comparisons. Some wineries even uprooted the entire trees and took them back for further testing.

But no matter how much effort everyone put in, they never made any progress. Instead, a lot of spoiled rice wine was poured into the moat outside the city.

After much effort, many people gave up on finding a recipe and flocked to Baiyeqing Winery to buy the wine, which they then transported back to sell in their own shops.

The distillery manager had already received instructions from his master: anyone who came to the store was a guest, and as long as they followed the rules, signed a contract, and paid the full amount of money, the wine would be sold, and everyone would make money together.

Those who were in business and had connections quickly sent the stockpiled wine out of the capital and sold it at high prices in other places.

As for the capital, many more people were still determined to get a share of the profits from the recipe.

It has already been found out that the sale of this Cypress Leaf Green tea, as well as the previous sale of the Glowing Brocade, was all done by the Third Miss of the Earl's Mansion, who returned home halfway through her life and is now a widow living in the General's Mansion.

It turns out that the third young lady of the Earl's Mansion was actually a business prodigy.

I heard that her mother, Madam Su, was the first wife of the Earl of Nanping. Does that mean that this third young lady is the true legitimate daughter of the Earl's family?

In no time, all sorts of rumors about the Earl's Mansion returned to being topics of conversation among people.

Now that we know that Bai Yeqing's formula is in the hands of the young mistress of the General's Mansion, if we want to participate in this business, we have to find a way to get in touch with the young mistress of the General's Mansion.

But since she is a widowed woman, she cannot go out and move around freely. How can we make contact and discuss business?

Counting the days, General Ningyuan and his son, the young general, have almost completed a year of mourning. Once the year of full mourning is over, it will be alright for them to visit the old lady.

So some people started tentatively sending invitations to the general's residence.

When these invitations were sent in, Yu Qingci instructed that they all be given to Old Madam Ning for her review. After all, these people were all visiting her under the guise of doing so, and they were all people she couldn't afford to offend. She had to carefully consider whether or not to see them.

These days, Madam Ning has been devoted to Buddhism and doesn't care about anything else. She originally didn't want to get involved in these matters, but the invitations that were sent all clearly stated that they were for visiting her, so she had no choice but to inquire about them one by one.

When the General was alive, the Ningyuan General's Mansion was considered a rising star in the capital. The old aristocratic families disdained to associate with nouveau riche like them.

Moreover, Madam Ning herself came from a humble background, and such a status was not worthy of the attention of those self-proclaimed nobles. Therefore, she did not have many friends among the noble ladies she had previously been acquainted with. Now, facing the families she was not familiar with on the invitation, Madam Ning made excuses to decline most of them, with only two exceptions.

One of them was the old lady of the Zhenbei Marquis's mansion. The Zhenbei Marquis's mansion was also a military family, and the old Zhenbei Marquis had been kind to the general during his lifetime, so the two families had a close relationship in the past.

Now that the matriarch of the household has come to visit her personally, Madam Ning dares not and cannot refuse.