The octagonal candlestick with Xuande blue and white coiled flower pattern that Lao Na bought for 300 yuan was indeed a big bargain. Even in the 1980s, it was definitely a bargain to be able to buy such a national treasure for 300 yuan.

Yang Jing remembered that he had seen a similar octagonal candlestick with blue and white coiled flower pattern in the porcelain information that Cai Yi gave him. It was also from the Xuande period, but that candlestick was slightly smaller than this one.

That blue and white candlestick was sold at a sky-high price of 19.55 million yuan at the China Guardian Auction in 2011.

There is also a Xuande blue and white candlestick of similar style in the Shanghai Museum, which can be regarded as the treasure of the Shanghai Museum.

The blue and white candlestick that Lao Na collected is better than the one in the Shanghai Museum in terms of size and quality. If this blue and white candlestick was auctioned in 2018, it would easily exceed 20 million!

In fact, the style of this blue and white candlestick is similar in all periods of the Ming Dynasty. Not only in the Xuande period, there were octagonal candlesticks with blue and white coiled flower patterns, but also in the earlier Yongle period, there were also blue and white candlesticks of the same style.

In the materials given by Cai Yi, Yang Jing had seen these two blue and white candlesticks from different eras. The shapes of these two candlesticks are basically the same, and the most obvious change is in the decoration. The banana leaf pattern at the handle of the Xuande candlestick was replaced by the Ruyi head pattern, the square pattern and the chrysanthemum pattern on the neck were replaced by smaller tangled flower patterns and tangled lotus patterns, and the deformed lotus petal pattern at the folded shoulder was replaced by the tangled lotus pattern; in addition, the outer side of the shoulder of the Yongle candlestick without decoration and the oblique straight wall near the bottom were decorated with zigzag geometric patterns during the Xuande period. This change is also reflected in other Yongle and Xuande porcelains, such as the moon-holding bottle and the flower watering can.

No matter what, the octagonal candlestick with blue and white coiled flower pattern that Lao Na collected is indeed a rare old item and can be called a national treasure.

In order to celebrate for Lao Na, Yang Jing asked someone to go out and buy a lot of food at noon, set up a table in the yard, and he and Lao Na started drinking.

The wine they drank was naturally Erguotou. Maybe the old Yanjing people all like this kind of wine. Even though there were Moutai and Wuliangye in the room, Mr. Na would not drink those wines and would just drink Erguotou.

But you know what, the Erguotou from the 1980s is much better than the Erguotou from the new century.

In fact, it is no wonder that people in this era were very honest, including the wineries, which did not have as many tricks as later generations. At this time, the state-owned wineries at all levels in Yanjing used real materials to make wine, and they also used traditional pure grain brewing techniques. The craftsmanship was authentic and the wines brewed tasted great.

The wine of this era is called grain wine and it is just grain wine. It is unlike the wine of later generations. It is almost impossible to find pure grain wine in wines priced below 150 yuan. Almost all of them are alcoholic wines blended with edible alcohol.

"This wine still tastes the most authentic!" After a few glasses of wine, Mr. Na gradually relaxed and started talking more.

"Yanjing today is not like the 1950s when the country was first founded. I was 18 when the country was founded. In the first few years after the founding of the country, there was only one state-owned winery in Yanjing, the Yanjing Experimental Brewing Factory. The annual output was only a few hundred tons, and the Erguotou produced there was in short supply. Sometimes there were purchase restrictions, and each household in Yanjing could only buy two bottles per month. It's nothing like now, when there are 17 state-owned wineries in the entire city of Yanjing, with an annual output of 60,000 to 70,000 tons. You can drink as much Erguotou as you want at 1.7 yuan a bottle."

Yang Jing had never known about these things before, so he enjoyed listening to them. Seeing that Mr. Na's glass was empty, Yang Jing picked up the wine bottle and filled Mr. Na's glass with wine, which made Mr. Na a little flattered.

"Mr. Na, please don't be polite to me. Tell me about what happened at that time, especially about the Erguotou liquor."

"Hey, you want to listen? If you want to listen, I'll read it to you."

Lao Na grabbed the bottle and said, "Have you seen this Red Star Erguotou? This is the largest Erguotou brewery in Yanjing. But what you may not know is that the Red Star trademark did not belong to the Red Star Erguotou brewery before. The original right to use it belonged to the Lu Brewery in Shishi, Hebei Province, but this Lu Brewery and the Yanjing Brewing Experimental Factory were jointly affiliated with the North China Liquor Monopoly Company. Not only that, there were also breweries in Shanxi Province, Tianjin and other places that belonged to the monopoly company. Therefore, most of the companies under the North China Liquor Monopoly Company had the right to use the Red Star trademark. Fenjiu in the 1950s also used the Red Star brand."

"In fact, the Red Star trademark was not designed by Chinese people. It was designed by a Japanese expert in producing liqueur, a guy named Sakurai Yasuzo. This trademark has a certain meaning. The red star represents the Chinese revolution, and the ribbon below means celebrating the victory. I remember that it was not until 1953 that the Red Star trademark, which originally belonged to the Shishi Liquor Factory, was officially transferred to the Beijing Brewery. Later, it became the most representative Erguotou brand of our Yanjing Erguotou."

"Later, in addition to Red Star Erguotou, there were also the 'Shisanling Brand' of Changping Distillery, the 'Xiangyang Brand' of Tongxian Distillery, and the 'Chaobaihe Brand' of Niulanshan Distillery. These three brands of Erguotou, together with Red Star Erguotou, were called the Four Heavenly Kings of Erguotou."

Yang Jing was also amused when he heard this, even the "Four Heavenly Kings" had come out. He had never expected that Erguotou would have so many interesting stories after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

"After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the brewing techniques used by these state-owned wineries are basically the same, and the raw materials are basically sorghum, barley and peas, so the taste of the brewed wine is also similar. If there is any difference, it is probably because of the different water used for brewing. However, I have always liked to drink Niu Er, but since April this year, Niu Er has responded to the call of the state to 'limit the alcohol content of liquor' in previous years and began to reduce the alcohol content from 65 degrees to 55 degrees. All of a sudden, the taste is gone. So I now drink Hong Er instead."

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!