Chapter 262: Liquor Preservation
Welcoming party?
This looks more like causing a scare!
The wine bowl did not stay in Qiao Yan's hand for long and soon fell back onto the table in front of her.
But the fire lasted for a very long time.
It took until everyone came back to their senses from the strange phenomenon of why the wine was on fire. They cast their eyes into the wine jar and bowl in front of them, carefully poured out a little, and made sure that it was indeed wine and not oil. Then they cast their eyes back to Qiao Yan's face, which was as calm as before. Only then did the fire burning in the bowl slowly die down.
But what surprised them even more was that before they could even ask why the wine caught fire, they saw Qiao Yan pour another half bowl of wine into the bowl, and then drank it without hesitation...
Drink it?
No one present had ever seen such a scene!
It was beyond their knowledge that alcohol could burn.
It was beyond their comprehension that people could actually drink such wine normally.
When thinking of the rumors about Qiao Yan in the past, some people even wondered whether a horrible scene would occur on the platform today, where she would force someone to drink wine and then set the person on fire.
But after all, it was Qiao Yan who drank the wine first. If she really wanted to implement the alcohol restriction order in such a brutal way, there was no need to do such a thing.
What's more, she had already let Yang Xiu and Wei Ji take charge of the task of reception, and she also used the method of soliciting manuscripts for the new Chang'an Road to ease the relationship with them, so there was no need for her to do such a thing.
But what he said was true. When they saw Qiao Yan put the empty wine bowl in front of them and raised his hand to signal them to join in, which was considered the opening of the wine discussion, everyone still froze in their places.
To drink or not to drink, this seems like a life-or-death question.
The ministers in the Chang'an court had also seen this side of him that was beyond their imagination when they were persuaded by Qiao Yan.
But at that time they only saw that strong alcohol would catch fire, but they did not see that it could also satisfy the drinking demand.
At least Qiao Yan showed some sympathy for the psychological endurance of those old ministers.
You should know that the oldest official in the Chang'an court was not even Chen Ji, who was over 60 years old, but Taichang Zhao Qi, who was born in the first year of Yongchu of Emperor An of Han Dynasty and is now 84 years old!
If something bad happened to her as a result of being frightened, she couldn't bear the responsibility.
She could be a little more unrestrained in front of these representatives of aristocratic families, all of whom were in their prime.
In this late May weather, liquor with a content of around fifty degrees according to modern standards would be enough to burn, and she didn't even need to use higher-proof liquor.
So of course I can drink it!
Not to mention, before this wine discussion started, Qiao Yan asked them to have a simple meal before coming here, on the grounds that the discussion might take too long.
Look, she even considered the issue of not drinking on an empty stomach.
"You are not worrying in vain. Except for those who cannot drink much, this wine can still be drunk." Qiao Yan looked around at the unpredictable expressions of the people around him and said, "If you don't drink this wine, how do you know the first reason for the alcohol restriction order?"
Everyone looked at each other, thinking that Qiao Yan did not dare to use cruel means to eliminate them, and that the construction of Chang'an now needed their efforts, so they raised their wine glasses.
But as soon as they swallowed the wine, they didn't know whether it was because they saw the wine burning first, so they felt that what they swallowed was not a mouthful of wine, but a ball of fire.
The fire was also filled with a strong and scorching smell of alcohol, which burned people so much from tongue to throat in an instant that the stimulating taste filled their entire body.
The unprecedented stimulation and flavor made these young men from wealthy families, who were already considered wine connoisseurs, stunned on the spot.
This, this really seems to be wine!
It's just more fierce.
But if this was strong liquor, what had they been drinking before?
After realizing that this was neither poison nor fuel, the brave ones immediately raised their wine bowls and took two sips.
This time they did not drink up half the bowl directly, but took small sips to try to discern the rich flavor of the wine.
After the intense burning sensation, a particularly special taste emerged between the lips and teeth, accompanied by a slight feeling of tipsiness from the rising aroma of alcohol, making people feel that all the alcohol they had drunk earlier was not worth mentioning.
It is said that when negotiating and bargaining, one must follow the rule of using courtesy before force.
Was the "gift" presented by this Grand Marshal too heavy?
What's more, with such alcoholic beverages available, I'm afraid no one would agree to ban alcohol!
The nobles love wine and would never give up such good stuff!
However, perhaps because the united front they presented when they came was so aggressive, it was suppressed by Qiao Yan's method of fighting poison with poison and putting out fire with fire, so that when they heard her speak again, they were actually a little calmer.
She said, "I don't want to discuss with you whether this drink tastes good or bad. It's not an important matter today."
As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of the people present at the meeting suddenly became interesting again.
It doesn't matter what happens, this is obviously very important to them.
Why is the profit margin of alcoholic beverages so high? Isn’t it because of their unique taste? This is the first priority.
Qiao Yan continued to talk on his own, "May I ask what is the proportion of wine produced in each of your wineries?"
The output rate of wine, that is, how many buckets of wine can be produced from one stone of grain, is indeed a more practical issue than the taste of the wine.
The man replied in the direction Qiao Yan was looking at, "In the past, when the revenue of the wine industry was limited and collected by the government, there was a regulation that one hu of coarse rice and one hu of koji could produce more than six hu of wine, which is more than twice the output. But in reality, there are still cases where the wine is not brewed properly or the koji goes bad, which will lose about 10% to 20%. If a natural disaster occurs and the grains dry up, the wine output rate will drop again."
"Let's just say it's less than twice as much."
Qiao Yan shook his head. "There are some problems with this calculation. For most of the wine on the market, the actual wine flavor is less than 10% of the total amount. There are also many residues that have not been filtered thoroughly, which leads to the saying of turbid wine. This so-called double is mixed with a lot of things that should not be counted."
After she said this, everyone noticed that the wine in the bowl in front of them, although slightly yellow in color, was indeed clear and very different from ordinary wine.
She continued, "As for the so-called wine and beverage, I will assume that the wine and beverage each account for half of the total output. If we calculate it based on the wines on the market, it would be at most 50% to 60%."
From the original less than twice to the current 50%, there is a gap of nearly three times.
If they had not drunk the "more alcoholic" wine in front of them, they might have thought it was a bit ridiculous, but now they vaguely felt that it made sense.
Qiao Yan: "The wine in front of you is roughly a mixture of wine and water in half. The yield of this wine is about 13 hu of wine from 20 hu of grain."
Not everyone here may be proficient in arithmetic, but we can still roughly calculate the business.
They could totally accept that this fiery wine was three times concentrated. It was even possible that it was even better because of the striking contrast between the low-alcohol wine and the strong wine.
Then according to the ratio of 10 hu to 13 hu, the output rate is about 65%, which is higher than the wine brewed in their winery.
Although Qiao Yan did not say it directly in front of them, it was not difficult for everyone to understand her subtext from the way she understood it -
She has mastered a method of brewing wine that produces a higher yield.
Since he didn't want to make it public for the time being and wanted to save on grain, it was natural to take the winemaking business into his own hands.
It is still unknown whether the efficiency of wine production is as high as she said. At least one thing is certain, this special-flavored wine has been placed in front of her as evidence for her to present to everyone.
But if she only relied on this thing to make them accept her opinion, it seemed far from enough to them.
The taste of strong liquor is very special, but everyone's taste is different. Some people can drink three jars of it, while others just drink a little to enjoy themselves. The original low-alcohol liquor still has its irreplaceable market.
In addition, each winery has a clear account of how much revenue the winery makes in a day and how many workers there are from top to bottom.
They rely on this to make a living and enjoy themselves!
There was a time in the past when liquor was government-run, and there was also a time when 70% of the revenue from liquor was collected by the government. However, both of these policies were cancelled due to opposition from the aristocratic families. In their opinion, Qiao Yan probably did not have the capital to be the first person to stand out.
She took in all their expressions.
Perhaps it was because her flaming behavior at the beginning of the cocktail party scared many people, so they only dared to express this demand in their eyes at this time, and did not dare to directly refute her before she said the rest of her words.
However, it is unknown what kind of performance they will show when they return.
There's no guarantee that she won't be tripped up.
Fortunately, Qiao Yan did not expect to dispel these people's doubts just by using a new wine.
She raised her hands and clapped, and someone brought up small jars and placed them in front of everyone.
She said, "What I just said is the situation where wine and water are half and half. There is another situation where wine is three parts and water is one part. This is what you see in front of you."
In other words, it's disinfectant alcohol!
Seeing her signaling to everyone to relax, someone opened the lid first.
The smell of alcohol in the porcelain jar immediately hit my face, which was even more terrifying than the previous strong liquor.
But he didn't know if it was his illusion. Although the smell of the wine was strong, it was too much and he definitely didn't want to drink it all. Instead, he only thought of the fire that Qiao Yan had lit earlier.
He frowned and asked Qiao Yan, "What does the Grand Marshal mean?"
"I'm not asking you to drink this. I'm just showing you another way to use this kind of wine." Qiao Yan replied calmly, "This special method of brewing wine produces a highly concentrated wine that has a particularly useful effect, which is to clean up old poisons, whether they are on wounds or in the house. It has a significant preventive effect on the arrival of a major epidemic."
As soon as she mentioned the word epidemic, someone below suddenly made some noise.
Qiao Yan looked in the direction where the voice came from and saw a young man showing some inappropriate behavior.
Unfortunately, because today's meeting did not follow the rules of modern meetings, there was no name or place of origin plate placed in front of him, so Qiao Yan was unable to confirm which family he was from for a moment. He could only guess from this special behavior that he might have come from a family that had experienced a major epidemic.
Unfortunately, this was not the time to ask questions, so she just signaled her subordinates to bring up something else.
There were two jars, and with them came two people.
One is Xianyu Fu and the other is Lu Zhi.
Qiao Yan stood up and walked towards the newly placed table in the center of the platform, pointing at the two jars and said, "I was afraid that you wouldn't understand what I wanted to say, so I did something ten days ago."
"Let me explain this matter on behalf of the Grand Marshal," Xian Yu Fu took over Qiao Yan's words and said, "Ten days ago, the Grand Marshal had people cut ten similar pieces of meat from a dead pig and placed them equally in jars. One of the jars contained ordinary well water, and the other jar contained this extremely strong wine. The two jars were then placed in the shade of the platform outside the Purple Palace, under the supervision of the Jinwu Guards standing guard outside the palace, and the ministers attending the court could also see them."
"At the same time, His Majesty has deliberately allowed all those who participated in the court meeting to send their servants to guard, to show the authenticity of this move. So this time, Lord Lu and I are here to serve as personal witnesses."
These two ceramic jars were originally fired for storing wine, and their sealing performance is much better than that of ordinary ceramic jars.
So when they first saw the two pottery jars, they did not realize the seriousness of the matter.
At most, they noticed that the attendants around Qiao Yan handed a cotton mask to her, Lu Zhi and Xian Yu Fu.
However, when the two pottery jars were opened, a young man who walked closer out of curiosity was immediately choked by the stench of corruption. He almost turned around and ran away on the spot, but he still retched for a long time before he recovered.
Qiao Yan calmly picked up two long chopsticks and fished out the meat from the two jars.
Four to eight days is enough for the meat in the water to go into a state of decay, let alone ten days.
Everyone clearly saw that the pork that was fished out of the water jar had turned gray-green in color and had white spots on it. It looked like it was completely rotten, with not a single piece being an exception.
In sharp contrast, the pork placed in the wine jar did not look much different from its fresh counterpart.
They were still immersed in the shocking effect of this experiment, and heard Qiao Yan say: "With Lord Lu and General Xianyu testifying for me, no one should suspect that the things in this operation were replaced by me. In short, this higher purity wine can kill the things that cause corruption, so using it on the wounds of soldiers can reduce the occurrence of infection, and using it on the walls and houses can resist the invasion of diseases during the epidemic."
"If you still want to see it, we can do the test again here."
As she spoke, she pulled out a dagger from her waist and stroked the blade with her fingertips.
Even though we knew she had no intention of using humans for comparison, her careless action still made one's hair stand on end.
"This... this is not necessary." Someone said immediately, trying to dispel Qiao Yan's plan.
Since this was witnessed by the emperor and his court officials, there probably wouldn't be any problem.
And if it really has such miraculous effects as Qiao Yan said, what is the difference between this high-purity wine and magic medicine?
It’s still that magical medicine that doesn’t need to be taken orally!
If such a thing had been available earlier in the years when natural disasters and epidemics were once prevalent, how could Zhang Jiao have had the opportunity to use talisman water to develop believers and form an existence like the Yellow Turban Army? How could they allow the loss of a family member when they had the conditions to hire a famous doctor?
Or maybe it was because Qiao Yan's action of holding the dagger made them feel a threat of death for no reason. At this moment, they also had a strange and attractive association -
If soaking the pork in wine can preserve it and prevent decay, then after they die one day, can they also soak themselves in this kind of wine to keep their bodies from decaying?
This is a treatment that no emperor in history has ever received!
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