Lu Qiqi paced around the tent countless times, making Doctor Ren's eyes blurry.

Suddenly, she realized something.

"I see!"

While she was lost in thought, Physician Ren found a small stool and sat down. A loud, surging sound nearly startled him so much that he fell off the stool.

He steadied himself and asked in a yielding manner, "What does the village head know?"

Lu Qiqi said, "I misunderstood and got the facts backwards."

The reason why water and alcohol cannot achieve a sterilization effect is because its alcohol concentration is low, so a large amount of water and alcohol must be used to wipe or pour it.

Even so, the effect of disinfection and sterilization is still very small.

The purified alcohol is different; a small amount of alcohol can achieve several times the effect of water and wine.

If they can further purify it to produce anhydrous alcohol.

"Anhydrous alcohol?" After hearing Lu Qiqi's explanation, Physician Ren felt completely bewildered and couldn't understand her words at all.

"Wine, wine, where does wine come from without water?" He thought for a moment before voicing his doubts, lest the head of Kang Le Township think he was short-sighted.

Lu Qiqi didn't know what he was thinking, nor did she know how to explain it to him. After all, in this era, anything that was liquid would be considered to have water added to it.

There is no way to explain it.

She said, "Anhydrous alcohol, you can just take that as a name. What we need to do now is to further purify the alcohol."

"We've all overlooked something important: the liquor that Bianyun Winery uses to make alcohol is not very intoxicating. Using this kind of liquor to make alcohol will only increase the manpower and material resources required."

If you use intoxicating liquor, you can reduce the number of distillations.

From now on, you can obtain the alcohol you have by distilling the water and wine once, and then use quicklime to distill anhydrous alcohol.

After all, the more intoxicating the wine, the higher its alcohol content.

The imperial physician nodded as if he understood, "The distillery has plenty of grain and wine, but I don't know if we can get the lime as soon as possible."

The closest mountain range to the border town is the Yanlian Mountains. Leaving aside whether there are stones in the Yanlian Mountains that can be used to make lime, it is impossible to send people to mine stones and make lime at this time, given the continuous wars outside the pass.

Lu Qiqi had plenty of limestone; the two limestone formations she had previously discovered in Tianshui Village were enough to produce lime.

Before she came to the border town, she only asked Zhao Xiaodong to control the production of bamboo paper, but did not ask him to reduce the calcination of lime.

As long as someone is sent back to Tianxin Village on horseback with her letter, and then the Tianlang Escort Agency transports it to the border, this matter can be resolved quickly.

However, she did not intend to reveal her discovery of limestone. After all, the appearance of a paper mill in five villages was enough to attract the attention of others who wanted to bring her to the border town.

If they find out there are two limestone mountains, they might just consider these five villages the place to hatch the golden eggs, and then she'll be stuck in the border town forever. That would be the end of her.

Learn from your mistakes; it's always better to be cautious.

Therefore, Lu Qiqi told a little lie, "I have a friend in Heshun Prefecture who specializes in this business. I will send him a letter and he will know the whole story and be able to help us."

Physician Ren thought they had succeeded, but little did he know they had only succeeded halfway.

That day, he obtained a pass and gave it to Lu Qiqi, instructing her to leave the military camp and go to Yunbian Winery to inform Steward Yan of the news and to plan for what would follow.

Lu Qiqi left the military camp, landed easily, mounted her horse, and galloped away, heading straight for the Yunbian Winery.

When Steward Yan learned of Lu Qiqi's arrival, he greeted her personally with a beaming smile.

Before he could even utter his words of congratulations, he saw Lu Qiqi rushing over, her forehead beaded with sweat, but her face showing no joy. Immediately, he had a bad feeling.

The two walked into the main hall where guests were received. After they were seated as host and guest, the waiter served two cups of tea and then withdrew.

"Princess Kang Le, you must be tired from your journey. Please have some tea to quench your thirst." Steward Yan knew she had come with business, but his smile remained unchanged.

Thank you.

Lu Qiqi didn't stand on ceremony. She had rushed all the way here, and now that the weather was getting hotter and hotter, she felt like her throat was on fire.

When she picked up the teacup and her right hand touched the lid, she found that the edge was cold, which made her raise an eyebrow.

She brought the breath close to her nose and smelled a faint, sweet fragrance.

It's sugar water.

It was rare for Tang Jingui of this era to serve guests sweet soup; she couldn't help but think that Manager Yan was just coaxing a child.

Lost in her thoughts, she drank the sugar water.

Although sweet soup doesn't quench thirst, it's still quite refreshing to drink a cool sweet soup on a hot summer day.

Setting down her teacup, Lu Qiqi recalled their conversation and relayed what she had said to Physician Ren to Steward Yan.

After listening, Steward Yan suddenly realized, "So that's how it is. No wonder the extracted alcohol tastes different. Brother Changlong thought there was something wrong with the method he remembered."

"In that case, it will take some more trouble."

"The township head of Kang Le has handled the lime matter very well, but I wonder how to calculate the costs of purchasing and transporting this extra step?"

This item was not included in the previous cooperation agreement. Now, an extra step has been added, as purchasing lime and transporting it to the border town both require money.

When it comes to matters of money, Manager Yan always prefers to be a little cunning first and a little gentleman later, so as to avoid any mistakes or unequal distribution of profits, which could lead to both parties losing everything and becoming enemies.

In business, Lu Qiqi prefers people who are open and honest; for long-term cooperation, there can be no disagreements.

This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!