Chapter 279 "Prince Chun's Palace Wine"

Qin Jingru took a bite of the steamed corn bread, then a bite of pickled vegetables, and then smelled the aroma in the air with intoxication, imagining that she was also eating delicacies from land and sea.

She is not picky about food and eats with relish. She feels that as long as she can eat her fill, she is much happier than living in the countryside.

In the countryside, Qin Jingru's life was difficult, and even having enough food and clothing became a problem.

She lived a life of having no food to eat in her hometown, and even food like steamed corn bread was difficult to get.

Food like steamed corn bread was prepared for the strong laborers in the family. She and other family members could only eat food like dried sweet potatoes and wild vegetable dumplings to fill their stomachs.

Now is a year of famine, and the other year has only been a decade of peace. The country and society are still relatively poor, and people's living conditions are generally poor.

Especially in rural areas, where material resources are even more scarce, being able to eat enough and not feel hungry is a very happy thing.

Fine grains were even more precious. Being able to eat steamed corn bread for every meal was a luxury, while coarse grains such as dried sweet potatoes and wild vegetable dumplings became indispensable foods on people's tables.

Sometimes, such food doesn’t even fill you up, you’ll be hungry one meal and full the next.

Moreover, foods like "dried sweet potatoes" are not filling and will make you feel uncomfortable if you eat too much.

These days, because sweet potatoes have a large yield and are easy to store in winter, they become the "main force" on ordinary people's dining tables after the Spring Festival and the beginning of spring.

Dried sweet potatoes are definitely not considered a "delicacy" in people's eyes! Because they contain an oxidase that easily produces a large amount of carbon dioxide gas in the human gastrointestinal tract. If you eat too much and too frequently, it will cause bloating, frequent farting, and "heartburn".

But in those difficult days when supplies were scarce and people were hungry one day, in order to cope with hunger and fill their stomachs, people planted sweet potatoes in large quantities in the land, and they didn't care about whether they had heartburn or not.

Compared with Qin Jingru's life in the countryside, Qin Huairu's family felt particularly happy because they could eat steamed bread every day.

Qin Jingru's appetite was amazing. She could eat as much as Qin Huairu and Jia Dongxu combined in one meal. Qin Huairu and her husband felt sorry for her, but they couldn't drive her away immediately.

Qin Huairu took out a piece of steamed bread with an expressionless face, put it gently into her mouth, and chewed it slowly.

Seeing Qin Jingru wolfing down her food, she was having all sorts of thoughts in her mind. She could tolerate the fact that Qin Jingru was a big eater, but no matter how much she ate, she couldn't make her family poor.

As the weather got hotter, Qin Jingru's clothes became thinner and thinner. She was very young but looked very delicate, and didn't look like a country girl at all. Her skin was white and delicate, and her figure was slim. If you didn't know her, you would think she was a young lady in her twenties.

He, Jia Dongxu, actually had bad thoughts. Countless times, he stared at Qin Jingru furtively, his eyes full of ill intentions. All this made Qin Huairu feel flustered.

Qin Huairu felt very troubled. She thought that if she continued like this, something serious would happen sooner or later.

However, she was about to give birth in a few months, and she couldn't do without someone to take care of her. She missed her mother-in-law Jia Zhang very much, and she would rather her mother-in-law come back quickly than let Qin Jingru stay at home.

Looking at Qin Jingru's heartless look, she couldn't help but blame her: "Jingru, you are a girl, can you be more sensible? If you continue like this, do you still want to keep your reputation?"

Qin Jingru smacked her lips and responded nonchalantly, "What's wrong with me? Why don't you want a reputation?"

"You are shameless. He already has a wife, but you still stick to him all the time. Are you crazy about men?" Qin Huairu suddenly lost control of her emotions and yelled, and she was stunned after she finished speaking.

Qin Jingru was also shocked when she heard this. She looked at Qin Huairu in disbelief, "Sister, why do you say that to me?"

Then she got angry and said, "Yes, I just miss a man, what can you do about it!"

"I just like him. At worst, I can be his lover." After saying that, she threw down her chopsticks and ran out crying.

"Jingru, that's not what I meant, you..." Qin Huairu apologized hurriedly. Seeing that Qin Jingru was really angry and left, she also panicked and wanted to chase her back.

Unfortunately, she was unable to move due to her big belly and could only watch Qin Jingru run away anxiously.

In the middle courtyard, the Qin sisters were making a scene. Xiao Dang was frightened and crying loudly. It was so miserable.

In the front yard, there was constant laughter and the atmosphere was very lively. Liu Zhiye planned to take a day off today, so he relaxed and had a good drink with his uncles Yan Bugui, Yan Jiecheng, Sha Zhu, his father Liu Jingzhai, his younger brother Liu Zhitai, his driver Yu Miao, and his correspondent Li Ming.

"Hiss! This liquor is really good, mellow and not intoxicating." Liu Jingzhai drank a few more glasses today, which was rare. He only felt a little dizzy, but did not have the uncomfortable feeling after drinking too much other strong liquor.

"Yes, Uncle Liu is right. It is not worse than some famous wines. What kind of wine is this?"

"Yes, yes, if loose liquor tastes so good, why would we drink branded liquor?"

The third uncle Yan Bugui nodded in agreement and said, "I think this wine tastes better than some bottled wines. This is not just ordinary loose wine." As he said that, he gulped down another cup of wine with a very happy expression.

Liu Zhiye nodded and smiled, "Dad, if you like, I'll leave a few jars for you to drink slowly." Then he said to Yan Bugui, "Uncle, take a jar home with you later."

"I asked someone to brew this liquor according to the method of [Fu Niang Baijiu], using water from Yuquan Mountain. It is not sold anywhere else."

Shaojiu is what we now call Baijiu. Li Shizhen said in Compendium of Materia Medica: "Shaojiu is not an ancient method. It was created in the Yuan Dynasty. The method is to put strong wine and dregs into the steamer, steam them to make the gas rise, and use a container to collect the dripping dew. Any sour wine can be steamed. Recently, glutinous rice, millet, sorghum or barley is steamed, mixed with koji and brewed in a jar for ten days, and then steamed in a steamer. It is as clear as water and has a very strong taste, which is probably the wine dew."

"Fu Niang Baijiu" is a traditional famous liquor of the royal family in the Qing Dynasty of China. It is well-known in the world as "Three Baijiu" together with Lotus Baijiu and Chrysanthemum Baijiu. It was originally used exclusively for banquets of the royal family and the royal palace, and has a history of more than 100 years.

Although Funiang Baijiu is not an imperial wine exclusively used by the palace, nor is it a traditional Chinese wine like Lianhua Bai and Juhua Bai, Funiang Baijiu has a noble origin. It was the private wine of the royal palace in the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty was ruled by the Eight Banners of the Manchus. The descendants of the Eight Banners did not have to participate in labor as they had a "share of the farmland". As the princes with the highest titles, their family lives were even more luxurious. Many palaces had their own dedicated chefs who prepared delicious meals for these princes, their wives and princesses in various ways.

Many of these dishes are original or exclusive dishes that cannot be found anywhere else. Even now, there are still many dishes in Beijing that are said to be the private dishes of royal palaces.

The same goes for wine. The palace technicians can brew wine specifically for the emperor and empress to enjoy, and the technicians in the royal palace can do the same.

As a wine lover, Liu Zhiye was naturally excited to learn about this good wine. After searching for a long time, he finally found the source of this wine - the descendants of the winemaker of the "Prince Chun" mansion.

After some negotiations, the other party agreed to brew several thousand kilograms of "Fu Liquor" for him for the sake of money.

To be honest, what Liu Zhiye cares least about now is money. He never expected that a business of reselling resources would make him so big.

The business was getting bigger and bigger, until he himself was terrified.

He alone makes two trips to Tianjin Port every month and can bring back millions of kilograms of seafood resources.

This does not include Liujiazhuang, an increasingly important material supply base that can provide him with a lot of meat, grain, fruits, vegetables, wild products, etc.

Such a large trading volume every month supports dozens of large enterprises and fishermen like Hao Shun who make a living from the sea, as well as thousands of old and young capitalists who need these scarce materials to survive.

If he wanted to stop now, these people would not agree to it. This is why these people were so impatient when he failed to make a deal on time just once or twice.

As his wealth accumulated more and more, he had to consider how to spend the money, otherwise it would just become a pile of meaningless waste paper.

So he began to think about how to spend the money on more meaningful things and make the money more valuable.

In addition to continuing to buy antique artworks, exchanging gold, jewelry, jade, gems, precious medicinal materials, wood, and collecting rare stamps, he also hoarded high-end liquor, tea and other beverages.

Among them, stockpiling high-end liquor is another track he is targeting, and its future appreciation will be no less than that of cultural relics and artworks.

For example, Moutai, a bottle costs only a few dollars, but if it is stored for decades, its value will increase by at least 100,000 times.

Although high-end wines are not cheap nowadays, they are very easy to obtain compared to antique works of art which are hard to come by.

If that doesn't work, he can still brew wine, which will still be valuable after a few decades.

"Wangfu Baijiu" was the first kind of liquor he asked someone to brew.

(End of this chapter)