On May 18, the eighth year of the Xuanli period, Fu Daguan and Fu Xiaoguan inspected the landlord's territory and then returned to Linjiang.
During this trip, Fu Xiaoguan gained a preliminary understanding of the land of his family, a large landlord. He created the first product in this world that bore his own stamp - Xishan Qiongjiang, and by the way, he took in a younger brother, Bai Yulian. In addition, he made preliminary plans for the future of Xishan Villa. The outline of a base integrating R&D and production gradually took shape in his mind.
The next step was to understand the world. Of course, the first thing was to understand Linjiang. He had never walked around the streets of Linjiang yet.
He didn’t like shopping before, but now he enjoys it because he really has a lot of free time.
So the next day after finishing his exercise and having breakfast, he took Bai Yulian and Chunxiu out in a carriage, and Bai Yulian became his coachman.
"Xiu'er, I need to make some glass bottles. Do you know where?"
"Glass? I've never heard of it, but I do have colored glaze."
"Oh, Liuli is fine too."
"There's one in Xifang. Let's go check it out now?"
Fu Xiaoguan searched his memory and found that Xifang was a market place in a remote area. "Let's go to Yu Fu Ji first."
"Is there any pottery in Xifang?"
"some."
"Yeah, okay."
Chunxiu didn't know what the young master wanted these utensils for. Glass was very expensive, and only the master in the Fu family had a set of glass wine utensils, which could not be used by any other guests except distinguished guests.
As for pottery, it is cheap and is used by every household.
Fu Xiaoguan didn't ask any more questions. He looked out the car window.
There are rows of houses, quaint and elegant courtyards, bluestone streets, and occasional exquisite pavilions.
A window was opened on the second floor of a certain house. A woman stuck her head out and looked down, but the bamboo pole supporting the window did not fall down.
The shops along the street had already opened, their various signs fluttering in the morning breeze. Peddlers were either pushing wheelbarrows or carrying loads, shouting as they walked.
Linjiang City had already woken up.
After watching this, half an hour later, the carriage arrived at the door of Yu Fu Ji.
This street is called Shibali Lane. It's not the busiest street in Linjiang City, but it's well-located. According to the sayings of my previous life, this place is considered a second-level port.
Fu Xiaoguan looked around. Although it existed in his memory, it seemed much more real when he saw it with his own eyes.
The door of Yu Fu Ji has also been opened, but there are few customers at the door - after all, they sell alcohol, and there are definitely not many people drinking so early in the morning.
Cai Xi, the old manager of Yu Fu Ji, was frowning as he looked at an account book, then he sighed and shook his head.
Yu Fu Ji's sales have been declining over the years, and April was even worse. The total sales for the month were 120 kilograms, 600 coins, and the profit was 120 coins... Although this property was purchased by the young lady back then, even if the rent is put aside and the expenses are deducted, it is already a loss.
He closed the account book and thought about what to do. Although his son-in-law didn't care about the business here, this shop was left to the young master by the young lady. Now that it has become like this, he feels very guilty.
Yu Fu Ji only has one kind of wine, which is the most common wine produced by Xishan Winery and does not even have a name.
The variety is single and ordinary, and there is no competitiveness at all. If it were not for the old customers, I am afraid that the company would have been unable to make ends meet long ago.
The business of Qi's liquor store opposite was not good before, but ever since Qi Yuanming, the young master of Qi's family, got a kind of liquor called Yaochun, the business of Qi's liquor store has become increasingly prosperous.
He went to buy Yaochun wine, which was much inferior to the Tianxiang wine in the capital, but much better than his own wine. However, he still couldn't find out the origin of this wine, so he was helpless.
With a long sigh, he raised his head and saw the young master walking in with two people.
This surprised him a little, and he even wiped his eyes. He was indeed not mistaken. It was really the young master.
Cai Xi hurriedly went to greet him. Fu Xiaoguan bowed respectfully to him. Cai Xi was shocked and hurriedly returned the greeting, "Young Master, you have wronged me, this old servant!"
Cai Xi was Xu Yunqing's servant. When Xu Yunqing married the great official Fu, he followed her and became a servant of the Fu family, and naturally also a servant of the young master.
"Mr. Cai deserves this gift. Ever since my mother passed away, Yu Fu Ji has been run by Mr. Cai single-handedly. Even if he has no merit, he has worked hard. There is no need to panic."
Cai Xi was terrified: "I am incompetent and have not done a good job in the business that the young lady left behind. Please punish me, young master!"
Fu Xiaoguan waved his hand, "This is not your problem, this is my problem."
As he spoke, Fu Xiaoguan looked around. The shop was very large, but the furnishings were very simple.
There were three octagonal tables in the middle, wine jars lined up on the three walls, an abacus and a few wine cups on the counter... and then there was nothing.
Fu Xiaoguan touched his nose and smiled silently. This was really not Cai Xi's problem.
"Manager Cai, ask two men to bring in the wine from my carriage."
There were two jars of wine in the carriage, weighing 180 kilograms. One of the jars was a distilled mixture of wheat and sorghum, with an alcohol content of about 30%.
The other jar is made with rice distilled into the above liquor, and its alcohol content is about 40 degrees.
Compared with the wine I drank at Xishan Villa, the alcohol content is a little lower, but the yield is 20% higher.
That is to say, the cost is about seven cents per ounce of wine.
Two jars of wine were placed on the table. Fu Xiaoguan sat down casually and said to Cai Xi, "Manager Cai, have a try."
Cai Xi took a wine spoon and cup, opened the lid of one of the jars, and was stunned by the aroma of wine. He sniffed hard, and his old eyes lit up, "Good wine!"
He opened the jar with a 30-proof alcohol content, which was at least 10 degrees higher than the original wine.
He carefully scooped a spoonful, poured a little into the cup, put it to his nose and sniffed it again, drank it in one gulp, savored it for a moment, turned around and said to the waiter behind him, "Go and get the Yaoxiang wine."
Then he opened another jar of wine, and the stronger aroma of the wine startled him. This was... the smell of Tianxiang!
When he was in Beijing, he worked with the young lady and drank Tianxiang more than once.
He looked at the young master in confusion. Could it be that Mr. Hu passed on the secret recipe of Tianxiang to the young master?
He took the wine and tasted it again... It was just like adding fragrance!
"Add fragrance?"
Fu Xiaoguan shook his head.
"Where does this wine come from?"
"A few days ago, I went to Xishan Villa with my father and looked at the winery, and I made this thing."
Fu Xiaoguan downplayed it, but Cai Xi found it hard to believe.
Putting aside the Young Master's absurd past behavior, he had been immersed in alcohol for decades and naturally knew its history. If the Young Master had a secret recipe for scented wine, that wouldn't be surprising. But if it was his original creation... that would be a truly remarkable feat.
Among all the liquors on the market, Tianxiang is the best, but its production is extremely low. Even in the capital, only a few dignitaries can drink it, not to mention outside the capital, where it is not sold at all.
It is no longer measured in silver and money, but a symbol of status.
If the young master really created this secret recipe, then it would break the myth of adding fragrance and it would be able to enter the homes of ordinary people... What a huge market this is!
The waiter brought the Yaochun wine and Cai Xi placed three wine utensils.
Pour Yaochun into one cup, pour 30-degree wine into one cup, and pour 40-degree wine into another cup.
"This wine is sold by the Qi family across the street. It's called Yaochun and costs one ounce and fifteen cents. Young Master, please try it."
Fu Xiaoguan picked up the wine glass, sniffed it, and put it down, saying, "This wine is at most 20% alcohol."
"…What does twenty degrees mean?"
"It's about the strength of the wine. We need to set a standard. From now on, our wine will be labeled with the alcohol content. For example, this jar is 32 degrees, and this one is 42 degrees."
"How do we determine this?"
"Drink it. It depends on your taste. Well, let's use this jar of 42 degrees as a standard. Stronger liquors have higher alcohol content."
Bai Yulian's eyes lit up. This method worked. Then the liquor they drank at Xishan Villa should be 50 degrees.
Cai Xi thought about it for a moment and understood something, but he did not realize the huge impact this standard would have on subsequent alcohol.
He was tasting wine at the moment, starting with Yaochun, drinking three cups and nodding.
A wine with a 32-degree alcohol content is already far superior to Yaochun, not to mention another jar of wine that is comparable to Tianxiang.
Perhaps it was because of the wine, he was very excited, and his old face was flushed at the moment, "Master, with these two kinds of wine, Yu Fu Ji will definitely be famous all over the world!"
He didn't say it was famous in Linjiang, because if 42-degree liquor was produced in large quantities, it would definitely be famous all over the world.
"Excuse me, Master, what is the production volume of these two kinds of wine?"
"The new winery is still under construction, but even after it's completed, the production of this wine won't be high. I estimate that a day... this 42-proof wine will only produce about 30 kilograms. This 32-proof wine will be a little more, probably 70 or 80 kilograms."
The production volume is very low. Cai Xi was slightly disappointed, and then asked, "How much would you like for this wine, young master?"
"This one," Fu Xiaoguan pointed to the jar with the 32-proof liquor, "is called Xishan Xiangquan, and this one is called Xishan Tianchun. Xiangquan is priced at one liang and fifty wen, while Tianchun is priced at... one liang and three hundred wen."
Bai Yulian was shocked and looked at Fu Xiaoguan, you are fucking robbing me!
He knew these two kinds of wine. The cost of Xiangquan was only seven cents, and the cost of Tianchun was only nine cents. How many times the profit was that!
Cai Xi was also shocked. This... "Is it too expensive?"
Fu Xiaoguan smiled and said, "Tell me, is this Xiangquan wine available on the market?"
Cai Xi shook his head. This really wasn’t the case.
"You said that Tianchun is comparable to Tianxiang. Is Tianxiang available on the market?"
Cai Xi shook his head again.
"So, this is an exclusive business. We can sell as much as we want. Moreover, we have to limit the sales. I have to tell you this in advance. Each person can buy a maximum of five taels of Xiangquan per day, and a maximum of three taels of Tianchun. This is very important, you must remember it."
How can you open a shop and not do business?
Cai Xi couldn't figure it out, and Bai Yulian and Chunxiu couldn't figure it out either, but Fu Xiaoguan didn't explain. He just emphasized it once: just do what he said.
"As for the time of sale, wait for me to inform you. The news can be released, but no one is allowed to taste it."
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