Mrs. Lu was right. The method of making wine is very simple in itself. It is impossible to prevent others from imitating it. It cannot even be considered as stealing. However, the method is simple, but if the fermentation is not good, the whole tank of wine will be ruined.
Mrs. Lu saw that there were still a few people with flickering eyes, and she obviously had something in mind. She took note of them and would not continue to use them next year. She would also sign a long-term contract with those who could be used next year. As long as the winery was there, those who signed the long-term contract could come to the winery to work every summer. Although they could only work for two or three months each year, they could be guaranteed a salary of at least two taels of silver every month.
When Xu Qinyu came the next day to adjust the ratio of grapes to sugar, Mrs. Lu told her about this matter.
Xu Qinyu has a similar attitude to Madam Lu.
It doesn't matter if those two women can actually make wine, just let them do it.
Inside the winery, the wine continued to be brewed, and Xu Qinyu was running back and forth.
However, with Dongqian as her kitchen helper at the restaurant, she has a lot more free time. At breakfast, Dongqian can help with everything except mixing the stuffing and seasoning. At dinner, Dongqian can also help with the side dishes and occasionally help with the cooking. With her looking after her, the taste is almost the same, so she has a lot more free time and doesn't feel so tired every day.
At the winery, batches of wine have been fermented and are now being bottled and sealed.
Mrs. Lu planned to divide these wines into four batches and ship them to four places, all of which were wealthy provincial capitals. She also planned to send a batch to the capital. If we talk about the richest place, it must be the capital. There are many dignitaries in the capital. There is no shortage of money, but only of fine wine and delicious food.
Knowing that Madam Lu's caravan would go to the capital again, Xu Qinyu wanted Madam Lu to help her send a hundred bottles of wine to her parents and uncle's family to try.
In fact, knowing that Madam Lu wanted to ship the wine to the capital, Xu Qinyu also agreed, not afraid of letting the new emperor and the empress dowager in the capital know.
The fact that she opened a restaurant could not be hidden from people in the capital.
She is not really stupid. She is just a cook running a small business. In the eyes of outsiders, she is the one who supports the whole family. If the prince has reached this point, I am afraid that the new emperor and the queen mother will be more relieved.
After all, in the eyes of the world, businessmen are not much better than untouchables.
Mrs. Lu had already sent people to inquire about Xu Qinyu's identity and learned that she was the wife of the exiled Prince Shu.
But Madam Lu didn't think it was a big deal. Although the exile of the former queen was shocking, the lineage of Prince Shu was now just ordinary commoners and should be treated as ordinary people. What's more, the Pei family was just doing business now, and business was the lowest class in the eyes of dignitaries.
Madam Lu also knew that Xu Qinyu was only marrying off for her cousin and was just a poor little girl exiled by the Marquis's Mansion.
As soon as Xu Qinyu mentioned this matter, Madam Lu immediately agreed and assured her that she would help her deliver the wine to the second house of the Marquis' Mansion.
Another half month passed, and Mrs. Lu was ready to deliver the first batch of wine to the capital.
The border town is thousands of miles away from the capital, so goods are naturally transported by water.
There were bandits on the waterway, so Zhen Wu personally escorted the convoy this time and brought along a dozen of the most skilled martial artists in the caravan. He attached great importance to this delivery. Fortunately, the bandits did not appear along the way. He had been to Raozhou a lot and knew that there were two groups of bandits on the cliffs on both sides of the canal in Raozhou City. One of the groups was not so bad, they did not hurt anyone, and most of the goods they robbed were ill-gotten gains.
Another wave of pirates were extremely brutal. They not only robbed goods but also killed people.
Previously, the government ship was robbed, and the court sent officers and soldiers to suppress the bandits. The better-performing bandits disappeared from then on, and everyone thought that this group of bandits had been wiped out by the court.
But Zhen Wu felt that the wave of bandits should not have been wiped out and might have gone to other places.
In addition, the Boshui bandits suffered heavy losses in the imperial court's anti-bandit campaign and have rarely appeared in the past year.
The canal is safer now than before.
Zhen Wu's trip was also safe. The cargo ship traveled slowly by water and arrived in Suizhou after seven days.
Suizhou is the last stop of the canal waterway and a major thoroughfare with many routes leading in all directions.
After arriving in Suizhou, he walked on the official road for another three days before reaching the capital. After showing his pass to the soldiers guarding the city gate, he was allowed to pass.
Zhen Wu first delivered the two hundred bottles of wine and a letter that Xu Qinyu had entrusted to the caravan to the second house of Dechang Marquis's Mansion.
When Xue learned that the caravan was from Raozhou City, she immediately met Zhen Wu. Looking at the 200 bottles of wine that Zhen Wu had brought in, the bottles were exquisite, with beautiful patterns and the words "Xu Ji Wine" engraved on them, Xue asked, "Brother, is this the wine brewed by Yu Niang?"
"Yes." Zhen Wu was quiet and only nodded, but he also explained to the gentle woman in front of him, "Young Lady Xu brews delicious wine, and she's been thinking of you. My wife is currently working with Young Lady Xu in the wine business, and the first batch of goods is about to be delivered to the capital, so Young Lady Xu asked me to bring you some wine to try, along with a letter."
After handing the letter to Xue, Zhen Wu did not stay long and left the Dechang Marquis Mansion.
Xue knew that Zhen Wu was busy, so she didn't try to keep him. She sent him out with the letter and then returned to the inner courtyard to read the letter from Yu Niang.
Yu Niang said a lot in the letter, and she wrote several pages of rambling. She said that she was living a good life in the borderland and was busy every day. She told Xue about the things going on in the restaurant and the winery in the letter. She also told Xue that her mother-in-law and sister-in-law treated her very, very well, and that she and her fourth brother were not husband and wife, but brother and sister.
He also told Xue that her mother-in-law said that if she found someone she liked in the future, she should let her divorce her fourth brother and let her get married.
But she didn't want to get married. She was only interested in the restaurant and winery and just wanted to make more money.
After reading it, Xue couldn't help but feel caring and emotional.
The good news is that Yu Niang has grown up. After going through this, her personality has changed. Although Yu Niang used to be a little softer, she was actually a bit stubborn.
Yu Niang had once liked a young man from a poor family and they were almost at the stage of discussing marriage.
Xue didn't look down on the poor boy, but after meeting him a few times, she felt that he had bad intentions.
He coaxed Yu Niang, hoping to come to Dechang Marquis's Mansion to propose marriage to her.
Xue didn't tell her husband about it, but she actually had no intention of letting Yu Niang marry the poor man. However, before the poor man's family came to propose marriage, the eldest prince got into trouble, the queen's family was exiled, and Yu Niang was pushed out to marry off and exiled to the border. This was an edict from the new emperor in the palace. Even if Xue tried to stop her, the old lady of Dechang Marquis still had Yu Niang sent to Prince Shu's mansion with a little girl named Yi Xiaojiao.
Yu Niang followed the Fourth Prince to the border town, and the poor man never came to visit again, as if he had never known Yu Niang.
Otherwise, if that poor boy really liked Yu Niang, he should at least give her a letter or help her with her travel arrangements during her exile.
Seeing that Yu Niang never mentioned the poor boy in her letter, it is obvious that Yu Niang should have let go of the poor boy.
Because that poor boy had married a while ago, and his wife was a concubine's daughter who was quite favored in other marquis's family.
In addition, Xue was truly relieved that the Queen was so generous and treated Yu Niang well.
As for Yu Niang's marriage, she could not help much in the capital, and could only hope that the Queen could give her some advice in the future.
In fact, even Xue had never thought that Yu Niang would return to Beijing one day. She just hoped that she could live well in the borderland. If she really had no feelings for the Fourth Prince, it would be nice for her to find a man who loved her and marry him.
After reading the letter, Xue sent some wine to her elder brother Xue Liang.
After tasting the wine, Xue Liang knew that Yu Niang's craftsmanship was impeccable. He had never tried the plum wine and osmanthus wine in the capital because they were too expensive. However, the wine brewed by his niece was mellow and had a long-lasting taste. It had the sweet and sour taste of grapes at the beginning and a light aroma of wine at the end. Even he, who didn't drink much, thought it was a good thing.
Moreover, fruit wine is not very intoxicating, so the women can drink it too.
The wine was definitely expensive, and Xue Liang had no plans to sell it at the stall. He wanted to keep a few bottles for his family to drink during festivals.
Xue didn't even send the remaining wine to the third wife, Marquis Dechang, and the old lady to taste, but only sent some to the first wife.
It was the old lady who gave the order to Yu Niang to be sent to Prince Shu's mansion. The old lady even said something harsh, saying that if Yu Niang wanted to compete with Hui Niang, she should just marry into the mansion honestly.
Half of the wine was sent to the first wife's family. When Yu Niang was in trouble, only the eldest sister-in-law, Jiang, came to comfort her. The eldest sister-in-law was a relatively kind person. Even Jin Niang, the eldest daughter of the first wife, returned home to question the old lady and Hui Niang. Hui Niang blamed everything on the old lady, and the old lady also blamed Jin Niang for not standing up for Yu Niang, saying that Yu Niang was now the concubine of the criminal king, no longer a child of the marquis's family, and she completely cut off all ties with Yu Niang.
Even though the third wife and the old lady had come to Xue to ease the relationship, Xue still refused to forgive them.
The eldest wife has nothing to do with this matter. She gets along well with the eldest sister-in-law and they still get along like sisters-in-law as usual.
Once the wine was sent out, neither the third house nor the main courtyard had it, and it could not be concealed.
The old lady of the Marquis of Dechang was furious. "This second son's wife, wasn't it because of the situation that she married Yu Niang back then? Now Yu Niang is living a good life in the borderland and making a lot of money. Isn't this Yu Niang's good fortune? But she still holds on to this matter. She is really rebelling against Tiandu. I invited her to a banquet a few days ago, but she refused to come."
In fact, it was her third son and granddaughter who asked her to have a good relationship with the second wife. For some unknown reason, the old lady had to agree since her son refused to tell her. However, she took the initiative to talk to Xue, but Xue still looked lifeless. It was really infuriating!
After Xu Qinhui found out, she was also a little angry. She, her father and grandmother had already taken the initiative to reconcile with the second house, but her second aunt still had a lukewarm attitude. Even her second uncle was almost the same.
It was learned that the caravan that delivered wine to the second house was from a border town.
Xu Qinhui asked someone to pass a message to Zhen Wu, wanting to meet him and ask him to help her write a letter to King Shu and send it to the border.
As a result, Zhen Wu directly refused and refused to see her.
Xu Qinhui had no choice but to hand the letter to her father and ask him to find a reliable person to deliver the letter to King Shu in the border town.
Xu Shuping found his confidant and delivered the letter to Yuanbao Town.
It would only take two or three days to reach the border by galloping.
Three days later, the letter was delivered to the Pei family in Yuanbao Town. Pei Weixuan was still outside and had not returned. During the day, there was no one in the house in Laixi Lane. Pei Jianing was also busy recently. Her Linglong Pavilion was about to open, and she was still busy looking for an embroiderer. Yan Jie'er and Feng Ge'er were sent to the courtyard where Old Lady Zhu lived in Guihua Lane, and asked Zhu to help look after the two children.
So in the end the letter was sent to Xu's Restaurant.
It was a letter received by Wen. The person who sent the letter was a man in his thirties. He insisted on giving the letter to Pei Weixuan. Wen felt strange and asked who sent the letter to his son. The man paused and said that it was a letter sent from the Dechang Marquis' Mansion.
At first, Xue thought it was someone from the second branch of the Marquis of Dechang's mansion, a letter from Yu Niang's family. But Zhen Wu had gone to the capital, and if Xue wanted to reply, Zhen Wu should have brought it back. Now it was a stranger, and Wen became wary. There was not even a signature on the envelope, so Wen said directly, "If you don't want to say who delivered the letter, take it back the same way you came. We won't accept it."
The man could only tell Wen that the letter was sent by the third branch of the Dechang Marquis's Mansion.
Wen's face turned cold and she just said that her son was doing business outside and was not in Yuanbao Town.
The man had no choice but to give the letter to Wen after some hesitation.
Wen was not sure who from the third branch of the Marquis Dechang's Mansion delivered the letter to her son.
But no matter who it was, she didn't want to show the letter to her son, but her upbringing didn't allow her to tear up the letter to her son. She just took the letter back to the house and put it away, and then gave it to her son when the time came, letting him decide whether to read it or not.
Wen did not hide this matter from Xu Qinyu. In her opinion, they were all family, and there should be no hiding of things. They should discuss it together.
After hearing this, Xu Qinyu just raised her eyebrows. She couldn't understand why the third house sent a letter to the fourth brother.
When the original body was sent to Prince Shu's Mansion, Marquis Dechang, the old lady and the people from the third house obviously planned to have nothing to do with Prince Shu's Mansion in the future. So why were they delivering the letter now?
Xu Qinyu said, "Wait for Fourth Brother to come back and let him read the letter himself."
Wen nodded, "That's what I plan to do."
By the end of the month, Zhen Wu also returned from the capital with the caravan.
It was almost the beginning of the month when he arrived in the capital, and now it is the end of the month. The round trip took more than a month. This was because his caravan often went to the capital. He knew some businessmen in the capital who helped introduce his wine to several dignitaries. After tasting the wine, these dignitaries immediately ordered a lot of wine. So within half a month, all 7,000 bottles of wine were sold out.
After selling everything, Xue Wu stayed in the capital for a few days and then returned.
When he left, the merchants he was friendly with asked him when he could send the second batch of wine to the capital.
In fact, the merchants that Zhen Wu was on good terms with did not charge any fees, but being able to connect with dignitaries was already the biggest benefit, and naturally they also hoped that Zhen Wu would bring more wine to the capital.
Zhen Wu did not plan to transport the remaining three batches of wine to the capital.
No matter how well the wine sells, it has to be on the radar of these dignitaries, after all, scarcity makes things valuable.
Zhen Wu had no choice but to say, "Although there is still some left, we have already placed orders with other prefectures and cities and need to send them there. There is not much wine this year, so we will send more to the capital next year."
After Zhen Wu came back, he did not delay and immediately took the second batch of goods to another state capital.
The first batch of wine was 7,000 bottles, and the price was set at three taels of silver per bottle. After deducting all costs, as well as the expenses for handling matters on the road and in the capital, and including Miss Xu's share of the money, the net profit of three taels of silver was probably about one tael of silver.
Three taels of silver are certainly expensive in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the eyes of the dignitaries in the capital, it is nothing.
There are three batches of wine remaining, with a total of about 25,000 bottles.
That is to say, all this wine can earn more than 20,000 taels of silver, which is actually not much. The caravan can easily earn tens of thousands of taels of silver every year, but Mrs. Lu attaches great importance to wine. If she can make it successful, she can specialize in this business in the future.
So Zhen Wu also tried his best to promote the reputation of the wine.
After Zhen Wu left, it was already autumn and the winery could almost stop working.
A few days ago, not long after Zhen Wu went to the capital, two women who had secretly learned how to make wine came to the winery to make trouble. It turned out that the wine they brewed had been fermented and had a lot of white foam in it. The two women didn't know why this happened. After calculating the time, they changed the jars for a second fermentation. After the second fermentation was completed, they tasted the wine and found it sour and astringent, with a strange sweetness. The taste was not right at all, so they went to the winery to make trouble.
Madam Lu sneered, "You guys secretly learned the winemaking skills, and I didn't stop you. I didn't even report you to the government. You can't brew a good wine, but you come to the winery to cause trouble. It's really funny. Come on, tie them up! Send them to the government office."
The two women didn't expect that Mrs. Lu would tie them up as she said. They were so scared that they knelt down and apologized.
In the end, Mrs. Lu did not make things difficult for them and had them released.
Other people in the winery then realized that although the steps of making wine look simple, it is not the case at all.
The wine was ruined, the grapes were worthless, but the sugar was very expensive. The result of greed was that I lost such a good job and lost two taels of silver.
Although some incidents occurred during the first year of winemaking, it was a good thing because it would spread in the future that the winemaking method looked simple, but it was not. This would prevent the craftsmen in the winery from secretly brewing wine like the two women when the business started to grow.
When Zhen Wu returned with the first batch of money from selling fruit wine, Madam Lu personally visited him and gave Xu Qinyu a silver note of seven thousand taels.
Xu Qinyu only made wine, and she earned one or two taels of silver for each bottle of wine.
She had bought land and a house before, and gave two thousand taels of silver to Xue, and five hundred taels to Ning Jie'er. In addition, there were miscellaneous expenses in the past few months, but she had been receiving money in the account all the time. She had three thousand taels on hand, and with these seven thousand taels, she had ten thousand taels of silver on hand.
The other three thousand taels were kept in a money shop. No one kept large sums of money or banknotes at home for fear of theft.
Although Xu Qinyu was not afraid of thieves coming to her house, after all, Mo Yu and Bai Yu took turns guarding the house, and if a thief came, he would be seeking his own death.
Holding the thick stack of banknotes in her hand, Xu Qinyu smiled with her eyebrows curved, her teeth showing but her eyes not visible.
She has ten thousand taels of silver!
You will be a 'ten thousand yuan household' in the future!
But this "ten thousand taels household" is different. Even some officials' families cannot save so much as ten thousand taels of silver.
And this ten thousand taels is just the beginning!
She hopes that Xu Ji can open stores all over the country in the future!
In fact, she had some other ideas. She wanted Xu Ji to not only provide food, but also provide a place for eating, drinking and having fun, a bit like the farm stays of later generations. However, this matter had to be taken care of slowly. Her current energy was only enough to run a small restaurant in Yuanbao Town.
Finally saving up ten thousand taels of silver, Xu Qinyu couldn't help but smile these days.
She did not keep the seven thousand taels of silver for long and deposited it in the bank the next day.
…
On the border, Xu Qinyu and the Pei family lived their lives as usual.
But in the capital, many people were shocked by the wine brewed by Xu Qinyu.
The wealthy and powerful families divided up the seven thousand bottles of wine and drank some during their meals. It tasted sour and sweet with a light aroma and a long aftertaste, and was suitable for entertaining both male and female guests.
Therefore, it was also used to entertain distinguished guests on weekdays, and some people even used this wine to entertain the new emperor.
It turns out that although the new emperor has ascended the throne, he is still the second prince who only likes to eat, drink and have fun.
Most of his original friends were from wealthy families.
The new emperor seldom left the palace on weekdays. When he did, he would change into brocade clothes and pretend to be an ordinary young master from a wealthy family, and let these princes take him out to have fun and spend money.
It just so happened that the new emperor knew the Prince of England.
The title of Duke is almost always hereditary. Generally, one can only be granted the title of Duke if he or she has made outstanding contributions, or if his or her ancestors have made outstanding contributions.
If one's ancestors were granted the title of Duke and the title was passed down through generations, then even if the Duke's descendants did not have any special abilities, as long as they did not commit serious mistakes and be stripped of the title, they would still be looked up to in the capital.
The Duke of Ying was granted the title of Duke because of his outstanding contributions to Emperor Gaozu more than a hundred years ago.
But more than a hundred years have passed, and the descendants of the Duke of England are now mediocre and have no special abilities. They just inherit the title honestly.
The Prince of England followed the new emperor out to spend his days drinking and carousing, and also brought a few bottles of wine bought from the mansion.
The new emperor tasted the wine and was amazed. He asked where the wine was bought and learned that it was shipped from the border.
The new emperor also praised: "It's quite impressive that someone in that place can make such amazing fruit wine."
Because the wine was delicious, the new emperor wanted to give it to the Queen Mother in the palace to taste. He brought some back to the Queen Mother Fu and presented it to her like a treasure, "Mother, please try this fine wine. It tastes great."
After tasting it, Empress Dowager Fu praised it, saying, "Not bad! Where did it come from? It seems like this is the first time I've seen wine in the capital."
The new emperor told Empress Dowager Fu that it was bought from the family of the Prince of Yingguo and transported from the border.
When she heard it was a border area, Empress Dowager Fu frowned slightly and glanced at the 'Xu Ji Wine' on the bottle.
Xu Ji?
Why did she remember that after Prince Shu's lineage fled to the border, the second daughter of the Marquis of Dechang opened a restaurant called Xu's Restaurant? Could it be that this fruit wine was also made by the second daughter of the Xu family? The family was useless, actually relying on a daughter to be a cook to support the family.
Empress Dowager Fu's eyes were full of disdain.
Since she dared to send the Queen and the Fourth Prince to the borderland despite the opposition of all the civil and military officials, she was naturally not afraid that Prince Shu's lineage would achieve anything great again.
She was conceited because she knew that there were only three women and children left in Prince Shu's lineage, a weak little mute, and Prince Shu, who had been poisoned by her since childhood and looked sickly and would not live long. Naturally, she was not afraid of anything.
She did not send anyone to kill the Shu Wang lineage, but she did send people to inquire about the Shu Wang lineage.
After knowing that Prince Shu's family had gone to the border, they relied on the second daughter of the Dechang Marquis's mansion to set up a food stall to support the family. The young cook had some skills and saved some money to open Xu's Restaurant.
But what if I could make some money?
The Shu Wang family is nothing but good-for-nothings that are supported by a girl.
Even if these wines were sold at a high price and a lot of profit could be made, in the eyes of Empress Dowager Fu, it was just a drop in the bucket. The whole world belonged to her, and there were countless gold and silver treasures in the national treasury. How could she care about the little money earned by a little cook?
Empress Dowager Fu was in a good mood when she thought of this. "The wine is not bad."
I have to say that the second young lady of Marquis Dechang’s Mansion is quite good at making wine, but I don’t know how the food she makes is.
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