Chapter 282 The wine is out
Gong Xiu visited Luhua Town again, but this time she came to say goodbye to Cui Qingyi.
The two stood in the mulberry forest and looked around. The mulberry trees planted last year have now adapted to the land and climate of Luhua Town. Underground, invisible to people, the still tender roots are desperately absorbing nutrients.
The mountains in the south are not barren at all. Mulberry seedlings do not need additional fertilizer after being planted. As long as there is enough sunlight and rain, they will thrive without much worry.
Gong Xiu picked up a delicate leaf in her hand, with a look of confusion on her face as she faced the unknown.
Cui Qingyi: "Our mulberry trees haven't grown yet, so perhaps our trip to Jiangdu can wait."
Years ago, when all the mulberry trees in Luhua Town were planted, Gong Xiu proposed to go to Jiangdu. She wanted to find some experienced mulberry planters and silkworm breeders there and bring them back.
Cui Qingyi expressed her support for her idea. Although she herself had raised silkworms and knew how to turn silkworms into silk, knowing that and large-scale breeding were two different concepts. Moreover, Cui Qingyi's experience in raising silkworms came to an abrupt end when the silkworms gave birth to silkworm babies, and she herself was not so clear about how to proceed afterwards.
At first, she thought that at worst she could just give it a try based on her own experience. She believed that her old family member Jiangdu, who was involved in mulberry and silkworm farming, also learned from his failures step by step.
But now that Gong Xiuken took the initiative to propose a trip to Jiangdu, Cui Qingyi supported it no matter what. After all, a proactive partner is very rare.
If Gong Xiu can really bring back one or two silkworm breeding experts on this trip, it will be a great help to Luhua Town's plan of planting mulberry trees and raising silkworms.
But when the other party was about to leave, Cui Qingyi softened her heart. Gong Xiu was a woman, and the journey to Jiangdu was long and arduous. No one could guarantee whether there would be any danger on the way. If something really happened, it would be too late for everyone to regret.
After hearing Cui Qingyi's words, Gong Xiu put the delicate mulberry leaves in her hand to her nose and sniffed gently, her tone resolute and unusual: "The village master has many talented people under his command, and I hope I can be one of them."
Gong Xiu's gaze fell on the rows of steaming factories at the foot of the mountain. As a businesswoman, she didn't know much before, but after a year of wandering around, she gradually realized a truth: the interests between businessmen are the strongest rope that binds them together in the long run.
Of course, she also believed that since Cui Qingyi had agreed to take her into business because of their past friendship, he would definitely not give her up easily. But Gong Xiu saw that Cui Qingyi was doing well in Luhua Town, and she felt that she could not just wait. She had to take the initiative and make herself more valuable.
She had thought about going to Jiangdu for a long time. In fact, from her previous conversation with Cui Qingyi, Gong Xiu could also hear that Cui Qingyi herself might not need outsiders to interfere in mulberry planting and silkworm breeding, but Gong Xiu still brought it up.
Her idea was that even if Cui Qingyi didn't need it, she, as a partner, should go and see how the businessmen in Jiangdu ran this industry.
Useless people will be left behind sooner or later, and Gong Xiu doesn't want to be that person.
Seeing that Gong Xiu had made up her mind, Cui Qingyi extended a hand towards her and said, "Then I wish Sister Xiu all the best on her journey and a speedy return."
Gong Xiu held that hand and replied with a smile: "Of course."
In the second month after Gong Xiu left, Cui Qingyi's sake shop produced the first batch of wine.
Cui Qingyi didn't realize how difficult it was to make wine until she actually tried it. Just selecting the materials took a lot of time and manpower. Winemaking has very high requirements for the quality of grains. The grains must be full, fresh, free of insects and mold, properly dried, free of mud and sand, strange smells, and other debris.
Nowadays, there are no large-scale screening tools, so we can only rely on manual screening over and over again.
There is an old saying in the wine-making industry, "Water is the blood of wine, and good water makes good wine." This means that good water is of great significance to grain brewing.
Fortunately, the people in Luhua Town drink mountain spring water, which is clear and sweet, and is the best choice for making wine.
Don't think that everything is ready at this step. In fact, this is just the beginning. Koji making and fermentation are the most important. This step can only be accurately mastered by an experienced winemaker, but Cui Qingyi does not have such a person under his command, nor can he find such a person outside.
Cui Qingyi herself is a complete theorist, but even theorists cannot accurately describe what the koji should look like, or what degree of fermentation the mash should reach.
Shopkeeper Liang is a little better than Cui Qingyi because he loves drinking and can tell you everything about the famous wines in Dajin.
As the saying goes, three cobblers are better than Zhuge Liang. Cui Qingyi and Liang Guanshi are just enough.
Having spent so much money to build the factory and workshop, Cui Qingyi no longer cared about exploiting her employees. She changed into work clothes and stayed in the sake shop with Manager Liang all day long.
After wasting a lot of food, one sunny morning, Cui Qingyi smacked the mash on his tongue, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
Manager Liang, who was standing beside them, was so excited that his eyebrows almost flew up. They both breathed a sigh of relief and said in unison, "It's done!"
If all else fails, Cui Qingyi would feel heartbroken looking at the piles of wasted food. That was all her money, pure silver!
If it weren't for the Hongyan Teahouse supporting it, this sake shop would have closed down long ago.
A few days later, Cui Qingyi carefully opened the lid of the sake jar under the gaze of everyone in the sake workshop. Instantly, a rich aroma of wine wafted out. Manager Liang felt like he was going to be drunk just by smelling it. He had never tasted wine with such a clear aroma.
Cui Qingyi was happy. Having seen liquor with a concentration of 50 or 60 degrees in her previous life, she could naturally tell that the quality of her homemade liquor was still far inferior, but this was enough, wasn't it?
In this era, even liquor with a 40-degree alcohol content is already at its peak, and her Luhuabai was born.
Yes, Cui Qingyi decided on the name of this batch of sake the moment she smelled the aroma of the wine. It was called Luhua Bai from Luhua Town. It was so catchy. From now on, whenever people mentioned Luhua Bai, they would think of Luhua Town.
"Bring the cup, I will drink from it with you today."
No one refused, no one spoke, and even the tall man holding the wine glass almost shed tears when he looked at the clear wine.
Who could have thought that their Luhua Town could actually brew wine, and wine of such high quality at that? He could even see that their Luhua Town's days were going to get better.
Upon learning that the sake workshop had finally produced sake, the tofu shop and the vinegar shop were even happier than the people in the sake workshop. This was because the village chief had already given orders that as soon as the winery produced the sake, she would personally lead a team and take the people from Luhua Town to the county and even Qinghe City.
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