Mrs. Lu knew that there would be a long queue for breakfast and dinner at Xu's Restaurant, so she followed Zhen Wu there in advance. Unexpectedly, there were already many diners in the restaurant when they arrived in advance. Fortunately, they arrived early and there were seats available. The two of them chose a seat by the window. The seat was not big, and the distance between the front and back tables seemed a bit close. Mrs. Lu used to be a girl from the Duke's Mansion, and she had the best food, clothing and daily necessities. At this moment, she was a little uncomfortable. Zhen Wu couldn't help asking, "If you are not used to sitting here, let's find another restaurant to eat?"

Madam Lu shook her head. She was a little curious about Miss Xu's cooking skills. Could it be that the food was even better than Zuixianlou in Raozhou City? Otherwise, why would they have to queue up?

When Zhen Wu first returned to Raozhou City, he said that Xu's breakfast was very delicious, and even more tempting than any other breakfast he had tasted during his years of traveling.

Yuan, who was serving the guests, recognized Mrs. Lu and came over immediately, smiling and saying, "Madam, what would you like to eat? We have everything at Xuji."

Mrs. Lu asked, "What is the sign here?"

Yuan said immediately, "We have many signature dishes at Xu's, such as fish with fat intestines, grilled lamb chops, fried eel shreds, stir-fried shrimp, and bald butter, etc. However, now that the weather is cold, our boss has launched a new copper pot shabu-shabu mutton dish, which is almost a must-try at every table. It uses a copper pot and contains our boss's clear soup, shabu-shabu mutton fat, mutton, mutton leg, mutton brain, and some other dishes. Madam, would you like to try it?"

Mrs. Lu couldn't help but become curious. It sounded a bit like the hot pot in Zuixianlou.

She said, "Then bring a copper pot, and give me one portion of the dishes you mentioned, and one portion of the other vegetarian dishes as well."

"Okay, ma'am, please wait a moment."

After Yuan left, the chef told Xu Qinyu, who then asked Wen to exempt Madam Lu from the order. She quickly filled the copper pot with burning charcoal, poured clear soup into the pot, and asked Yuan to take it out. The other dishes were also taken out one by one.

Xu Qinyu knew that Madam Lu came to eat with Zhen Wu from yesterday.

Mrs. Lu only introduced that he was the leader of the caravan, but Xu Qinyu could see that the relationship between the two was unusual.

Zhen Wu was obviously a big eater, so she served two portions each of lamb tail fat, lamb, lamb leg meat, and lamb shank, one portion of other vegetarian dishes, and a large portion of wide noodles that she had rolled by hand.

This portion of lamb leg also includes the front leg and the hind leg, half each.

That is to say, the small and large forks on the mutton have different tastes.

Wait until the pot and ingredients are served.

Mrs. Lu is a good eater and you can tell the ingredients are very fresh.

But the soup in the pot is too clear, just like water. How can the dishes cooked with it taste good?

This pot is made by Xu Qinyu with just water, scallions, a little bit of ginger slices and her mushroom powder. It has just a little bit of umami flavor and no other flavor. Not even salt is added because the taste of the sesame sauce is just right. The meat is just salty and suitable when coated with sesame sauce. This way of eating has the freshness and original flavor of the meat, as well as the fragrance of sesame sauce. If salt is added to the clear soup and then dipped in sesame sauce, it will be salty.

Yuan knew that it was the first time for the two to eat shabu-shabu mutton hotpot, so she explained to them in detail how to make it.

The sesame sauce seasoning is prepared bowl by bowl by the owner, and this bowl of seasoning alone costs five cents per person.

Zhen Wu listened carefully, and then started to dip the sheep tail oil.

After the dish is cooked, it is placed in Mrs. Lu's bowl. Mrs. Lu is a little disgusted. How greasy and smelly must it be?

But after rinsing it in this way, she smelled a strong fragrance, and could not help but dip it in the bowl of sesame sauce. She accidentally dipped too much, and some sesame sauce dripped down. When she put it in her mouth, it was indeed greasy, but also fragrant. This fragrance was the fragrance of sheep tail oil combined with another fragrance, which should be the fragrance of this bowl of sesame sauce. It was a bit like going straight to the top of her head.

She also had to admit that she liked the sheep's tail oil that she disliked very much.

Then there is the taste of shabu-shabu mutton, the meat is tender and fresh.

The lamb leg was tender and juicy, and the lamb top was fat and lean, giving her a different flavor in every bite.

For a moment, Mrs. Lu didn't bother to talk to Zhen Wu and just ate the mutton hotpot quietly.

Zhen Wu helped her to boil the meat and sandwich the meat for her, so she didn't have to worry about anything during the whole process.

Only when she was busy eating would he eat some himself.

It was also the first time that he saw Mrs. Lu eat so seriously. After he tasted it, he knew the reason. It was indeed very delicious. It was the most delicious thing he had eaten in all these years of traveling around the country. No wonder there were people lining up every day to eat in this small restaurant.

After eating, Mrs. Lu felt a little exhausted.

In order to maintain her figure, she had not dared to eat so much at dusk for a long time, but the taste was so good, so Mrs. Lu decided to indulge herself a little in the next few days and come to Xu Ji to eat every day. After all, she would not be able to enjoy such delicious food when she returned to Raozhou City, and she might even find other food boring.

When she was about to settle the bill, Mrs. Lu realized that Miss Xu would not accept her money. She did not pretend to be rude and did not push the issue to Mrs. Wen. She just said something to Mrs. Wen and left.

After the others left, Yuan and Wen whispered, "This lady is so lucky."

She could tell that the man next to this lady should be her man. It was the first time she saw a man willing to take such good care of his wife outside. This Mrs. Lu ate the hot pot and never cooked the meat herself.

Wen smiled, which was indeed enviable.

…

The next day, Madam Lu and Zhen Wu came to Xu's restaurant early to have breakfast.

Once again, she was amazed by Xu's breakfast. Everything was delicious. Her favorites were the brown sugar rice porridge and custard buns.

This time, she really hoped that Miss Xu’s restaurant could be opened in Raozhou City. No matter how small or crowded it was, she would be willing to eat there.

After breakfast, Mrs. Lu and Zhen Wu walked around the town.

Yuanbao Town is still much smaller than Raozhou City, and there are no larger workshops at all. We can only see if there is any land to build a winery.

In the following days, the two of them searched the town and nearby villages for a workshop or a piece of land suitable for building a workshop.

In the past few days, the two of them have been eating breakfast and dinner at Xu Jiyong's place.

Mrs. Lu had been eating mutton hotpot for three consecutive days before she decided to try other signature dishes in the restaurant.

I didn't expect that the signature dish is just as good as shabu-shabu mutton.

Mrs. Lu was convinced and said to Zhen Wu, "Before, Miss Xu told me that this wine can only taste like this if it is brewed by her. I didn't believe it, but now I believe it. With Miss Xu's cooking skills, it's no wonder that the wine she brews tastes good."

Because even the simplest dish of fried tofu made her eat it with great satisfaction and she thought it was delicious.

I even wondered why tofu is so delicious?

Zhen Wu also agreed.

The two then looked around the area and decided to buy about ten acres of land in Otani Village to build a winery.

Dagu Village is the closest to Yuanbao Town. If you leave the town and head north, it only takes half a minute to get there by horse carriage. There are many villagers in the village. It is also close to the foot of the mountain and has many fields. There is also a large open space at the end of the village. Mrs. Lu took a fancy to this place, as it would be convenient for her to pick grapes in the mountains in the future. She also asked Miss Xu whether fruit grapes grown in other places could be used to make wine.

The grapes introduced here from other countries are green grapes. When ripe, they are very sweet, with a slight sour taste and a strong grape flavor.

Xu Qinyu said yes, and added that the wine made from this kind of green grapes is light green in color, very beautiful in color, and tastes even better than that made from wild grapes.

Even if Mrs. Lu had a plan, there was nothing she could do because there are not many grape growers in the southwest. If she really wanted to transport grapes from other places to the southwest, the cost and loss would be too high, and the grapes could not be preserved. It would take seven or eight days to transport them to the southwest, and they would have rotted long ago.

There is no large-scale planting in the southwest because this thing is expensive, and it is difficult to produce and sell it by oneself. Ordinary people are reluctant to eat it. Even if it is given to rich gentry, they cannot consume it if they plant too much.

After choosing a place, Mrs. Lu went back and talked to Xu Qinyu about it.

Xu Qinyu knew that Dagu Village was near Yuanbao Town, so it would be convenient for her to go there when she made wine in the future.

Finally, Mrs. Lu said with regret, "It's a pity that we don't have green grapes. The transportation cost and loss of green grapes are too high, and the cost of making wine is too high. It's not suitable."

She priced the wine at about three taels of silver per bottle. If the price was higher, it would be difficult to sell. Excluding the transportation costs, she could make about one tael of silver per bottle of wine.

Xu Qinyu couldn't help but say, "If the people here are willing to grow grapes, then we can make Qing wine."

The taste of green wine is slightly different from that of wild grape wine, and it tastes sweeter.

There is no need to plant on a large area for the time being. If you wish, you can divide the arable land into one or two or several mu of land for planting. One mu of land is one tenth of an acre of land, which will not affect food supply.

Green grapes can bear fruit in the second or third year. Most people are certainly not willing to take the risk of trying it on a large scale. They have to grow food to feed themselves. Besides, grapes have only been introduced a few years ago, so even other places do not dare to plant them in large quantities.

So you can plant a small amount at first. If you don’t want to plant it in the fields, you can plant it in the front or back yard of your house.

The geographical conditions in the southwest are favorable, and fruits are easy to mature. There is plenty of sunlight and rain, and the fruits are sweeter, so it is still very suitable for growing grapes.

Mrs. Lu couldn't help but say, "Why don't you talk to your relatives and friends at home and ask them to grow some grapes? I'll talk to my relatives and friends when I get back. Even if we brew less, it's okay. We have to try it first."

Her caravan's business was rather sporadic, mostly transporting things for other people, more like an escort agency. Mrs. Lu also wanted to make the caravan more regular. If the wine business could continue to grow, maybe she would just have to run this business in the future.

So Mrs. Lu still hopes that the southwest can slowly try to grow some grapes. Of course, it is impossible to become fat in one go. Take it slow. Maybe in a few years,

Xu Qinyu had an idea and thought that she could talk to County Magistrate Yang about it.

After planting the grapes, she and Mrs. Lu were willing to buy it to make wine.

Growing grapes can make more money than growing grain, and people don't have to use all their land to grow grapes. An ordinary family will have at least two or three acres of land, or one or two acres of land will be enough, or they can grow grapes in the front and back yards. After all, who in the village has two pieces of vacant land in front and behind their house? Even people in the town have a small yard. A few grape seedlings can be planted into a large area, and a rack can be built and the grapes can climb all over the rack. The yield of grapes is much higher than that of grain.

This is about making everyone rich together, and it can boost the economy of the entire village. It does not require the use of most of the arable land, and we can start small and work slowly.

Xu Qinyu thought she could talk to County Magistrate Yang.

She shared her idea with Mrs. Lu, and Mrs. Lu also thought it was feasible.

However, it is more troublesome to plant with grape seeds. There are no grafted grape seedlings in Yuanbao Town, so they have to be bought from other places. Mrs. Lu has a caravan, and she plans to ask the caravan members to go and buy some grafted grape seedlings to see who is willing to buy them for trial planting.

Afterwards, Madam Lu went back and told Zhen Wu about it, and Zhen Wu asked someone to do the job. The two of them stayed in Yuanbao Town and bought a house first. It was troublesome to live in an inn. Madam Lu thought that even if Zhen Wu was in charge of the place in the future, she would like to come here often to eat the breakfast and evening meals prepared by Miss Xu, so it would be more convenient to buy a house.

There were many houses for sale in Yuanbao Town, and Mrs. Lu also wanted to live closer to Xu Qinyu, so she bought a two-story house in Laixi Lane in front of Guihuaxiang, which was big enough for her and Zhen Wu to live in.

After buying the house, Mrs. Lu didn't want to go back to Raozhou City for a while. She just wrote a letter to ask the two maids who used to serve her in Raozhou City to come over. She wanted to stay in Yuanbao Town for a few more days because Zhen Wu would definitely be busy here for a long time.

After choosing a place to build the winery, Zhen Wu took care of other matters.

After Zhen Wu bought the land, he started looking for people to build a winery. He hired many craftsmen, and although they were not provided with food, they were paid a lot of money, fifty coins a day, which was one and a half taels of silver a month. If there were many people, the winery could be built in a year or two. Building a winery is not like building a house, where you just need to lay a good foundation and make each room spacious.

This meant that he wanted to build the winery as quickly as possible regardless of the cost.

Zhen Wu was busy looking for a craftsman, and Xu Qinyu's day off had just come, so she went to the county government office to look for County Magistrate Yang.

Every time she went to look for County Magistrate Yang, she would go through the backyard. The gatekeeper who was guarding the backyard had already recognized her and called her "Miss Xu" with a smile, and asked her, "Miss Xu, are you looking for our daughter or the master?"

Xu Qinyu said hurriedly: "I have something to ask you, sir."

The doorman went in and passed the message, and County Magistrate Yang immediately asked the doorman to invite the person in.

Since suffering from diarrhea, County Magistrate Yang has not met Xu Qinyu in private, but he will no longer treat Xu Qinyu as an ordinary young lady.

Ostensibly, he was the one who came up with the idea to treat diarrhea, but the capital did not reward him for it, so he took twenty taels of silver from the public account and gave it to Miss Xu as a reward. He had saved this little money by being extremely frugal, and he gave it all as a reward to the doctor who helped treat diarrhea and Miss Xu.

However, Miss Xu refused to take it, and told him to save the reward money for those who needed it more.

When County Magistrate Yang saw Xu Qinyu coming, he smiled and asked, "Ms. Xu, why are you here today?"

Xu Qinyu directly stated the purpose of her visit.

When County Magistrate Yang heard this, he thought it was a very good idea. It would help the villagers get rich, and they would not have to use up all their land for planting. They could just divide up some land and if they didn't want to, they could just plant in the yard. It would only cost some money to buy grape seedlings, but there would be no other costs.

Xu Qinyu smiled and said, "This is just like a date tree or a pear tree. You don't need to take care of it too much. Just fertilize it and water it occasionally."

People here like to plant date trees and pear trees in the front and back yards of their houses. Xu Qinyu's family has a date tree, and the dates harvested last autumn were all eaten by her family.

County Magistrate Yang thought for a moment and said, "Okay, then I will post notices everywhere tomorrow, asking everyone to try planting it, and saying that if anyone is willing to buy it for 20 cents per pound."

The price of grapes in other places is about 20 wen per pound, which is more expensive than fine grains. White flour and rice are only about 10 wen per pound.

Xu Qinyu said, "I also need to inform everyone that when more people grow grapes in the future and the price drops, they can only be purchased for ten cents per pound, so if you are willing to grow them in the first one or two years, you will make the most money."

Otherwise, when the entire southwest wants to grow grapes in the future, it will be impossible to buy them at twenty cents a pound. It is normal for the price to fall, but even if the price falls, the lowest purchase price is still ten cents a pound. This thing has a high yield per acre, and the harvest from planting half an acre is more valuable than the grain from ten acres.

County Magistrate Yang nodded and planned to write all of this down.

Xu Qinyu talked to County Magistrate Yang for a while, telling him how to plant these grapes, how to raise seedlings and transplant them, how to add some fertilizer when raising seedlings, and how the seedlings grown will be better. Then he told him how to water the grapes, and how to build a trellis to guide the vines after transplanting. If the grape branches grow too fast and there are too many fruits, they need to be pruned, and how to prune them, etc.

Xu Qinyu knew how to grow grapes because she dealt with food ingredients and had read books on the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, and the feeding of poultry.

However, this is just talk. Modern planting and poultry breeding are definitely more advanced than those of the ancients.

In addition, Xu Qinyu also told County Magistrate Yang that she and Madam Lu were going to start a wine-making business in partnership. The winery was chosen to be in Dagu Village. In the next one or two years, they would definitely continue to use wild grapes to make wine. In the future, when green grapes can be grown, they would also make green wine.

Last year, Xu Qinyu gave a dozen bottles of wine to the Yang, Xu and Xia families, so County Magistrate Yang also tasted the wine and found it was indeed delicious.

After Xu Qinyu left, County Magistrate Yang wrote a notice and asked the yamen runners to go to Yuanbao Town and the villages under its jurisdiction to post the notice.

Many villagers could not read, but when they saw the notices they would gather around and ask the yamen runners to read them out for them.

Sometimes taxes and corvée labor were announced through notices, so the people knew it was an important matter when they saw the notices.

When the yamen runners read out the contents of the notice, the people began to discuss, "Although these grapes are expensive, they take two years to bear fruit, right? What should we do in the first year?"

"I've already said that you can't use all the land in your home to plant crops. You can use one or two acres of land to plant crops. If some people want to earn more, they can plant more if they are brave enough. It depends on whether you have the courage. If you don't even dare to use one or two acres of land, you can buy two or three seedlings and plant them in the front and back yards of your house. If they grow well, people will harvest them too."

"Why did the county magistrate ask us to plant grapes? Is there anyone willing to buy them? Why did that person buy so many grapes? He is not trying to trick us, is he? Can he eat all of them? Why would he want to buy so many grapes?"

After hearing this, the yamen runner said, "People use grapes to make fruit wine, and the fruit wine is sold for silver. A bottle of wine can be sold for one or two silver coins. People let you grow grapes so that they can help you make money."

This yamen runner was from Yuanbao Town. When Miss Xu had diarrhea, he helped her with food. Everyone in the town knew it and knew that Miss Xu was honest. Now that Miss Xu said she wanted to harvest grapes, he believed her and planned to go back and ask his mother to free up some land for a trial planting.

Someone immediately asked, "Sir, who is going to harvest the grapes? Do we really harvest them after we grow them? Even if we want to make wine, we don't need that many, right? Otherwise, if every household grows a few, they will produce a lot of fruit. If we make too much, will we be able to sell them all?"

They also saw that the wines produced by the small wineries in the town were not selling well. If everyone planted grapes, wouldn't they be able to produce a lot of fruit wine? Is fruit wine really that easy to sell? And it's so expensive.

The yamen runner said, "It was Miss Xu from Xu's. They partnered with a caravan from Raozhou City to make wine, and are now building a winery. Originally, they could make wine with wild grapes from the mountains, but it is said that green grapes taste different, so they want to make green wine. What they make will definitely not only be sold in the southwest, but will be transported by the caravan to other wealthy cities. Moreover, the caravan also bought the seedlings back, and did not make a cent off the price. They sold them to us at the original price, but it will take several days for the seedlings to arrive."

"Building a wine shop? I know that. The wine shop is built in Dagu Village. They hired a lot of people to build the wine shop. My husband is there. He is paid 50 cents a day."

"Is the salary so high? Do you still need people? I'll let my husband go too."

"What are you thinking? When they hire a craftsman, they ask him to build a house. Your man doesn't know how to build a house. Do you really think the caravan members are being taken advantage of?"

"Oh, it's not that difficult. It's just adding bricks and tiles. It's very simple."

"It's simple as shit." The two women started arguing.

Everyone else was still thinking about the grapes. Someone said, "Ms. Xu? I've heard of her. She was the one who cooked for the disaster victims when she had diarrhea. She opened a restaurant. The food is delicious and she's a nice person, too. Is she going to partner with someone to open a winery?"

"I think I've heard of her too? Is it really reliable for us to grow grapes?"

"Forget it, I'll go buy some seeds and sprinkle them in the corner of the yard."

"How can we just spread them randomly? Didn't the yamen runners tell us to grow seedlings first? They just sell the seedlings directly, and we can just plant them when we get back."

…

Xu Qinyu didn't know that her reputation had spread throughout the nearby villages.

She knew in her heart that most people would not be willing to give up even an inch of land, and just as she had expected, most people planned to buy one or two grape seedlings and try them out in front of or behind their houses, and would probably wait until they made some money before they would be willing to plant large quantities.

Xu Qinyu is not in a hurry either. She just takes things as they come. If she can make a living from the green wine business, she will do it. If she can't, she won't force it. Her focus is still on the restaurant.

However, she still talked to He Laobotian, the butcher with whom she usually worked, and suggested that they plant some grapes at home and she would harvest them when they were ripe. She could also tell her relatives and friends about it.

When Mr. He got the news, he went back and discussed with his children and grandchildren about planting grapes on all the fields at home.

Now their family relies on fishing, shrimps, snails and crabs in lakes and canals to supply them to Xu's restaurant. They also help Xu's deliver milk. They can earn several taels of silver every month, and sometimes up to ten taels. They also bought a small boat, and the family lives a prosperous life, much happier than before when they were hungry and cold.

Therefore, the He family is not only grateful to Xu Qinyu, but they almost regard Xu Qinyu as their benefactor.

After hearing what Uncle He said, the He family decided to use half of their land to grow grapes. Now that the He family can afford to buy food without farming, they really don't need to farm, so they plan to use half of the land to grow grapes.

Miss Xu said that this season is the best for transplanting grape seedlings, so Uncle He bought a lot of them immediately after the caravan returned.

The price of grape seedlings was expensive in the first few years, but has dropped a bit in recent years, but it is still much more expensive than other fruits and vegetables.

One acre of land requires about seven or eight silver coins of grape seedlings.

The He family had a total of five acres of land, and they planted two acres of it, spending a total of fifteen taels of silver.

Uncle He also told other relatives in the family, but they didn't want to use the farmland, so they bought two seedlings. The seedlings were expensive, about a hundred coins each, so most people would only buy one or two, and they would buy them only after gritting their teeth. Most people thought it was unreliable and didn't buy any.

Even the butcher wanted to buy one or two acres of land to grow grapes, but the land was not cheap, and the grape seedlings were not cheap either. The land was not easy to buy, so he had to give up and only bought a few seedlings and planted them in the yard.