The rise of the prince

Chapter 54 Brewing of distilled spirits
Zhao Si is a well-known carpenter in Kyoto.Normally, many people would come to him throughout the year to make some household appliances. If he met poor people, he would give preferential treatment and charge less money, so he had a good reputation in the east of the city.

Although his wife often complained that he received less money, his family lived a much more comfortable life than ordinary families.

It is precisely because of this that some high-ranking officials will ask him to do carpentry. At that time, not only will he be paid, but he will also be rewarded for doing it well.It's just that there are very few such opportunities, and one must be careful in words and actions when entering and leaving the rich family.

Having the opportunity to enter and leave the homes of high-ranking officials and nobles also made him understand that those big men must never be messed with. The gap between the sky and the earth can only be understood by witnessing it with his own eyes.For this reason, he lives in peace and order every day, marries a wife and has children, works hard to make money, and wants to live like this for the rest of his life.

But just this morning, a thunderbolt hit him on the forehead.

It's the end of the year now, there is no work to do, and it's cold, so he's finally free, so he wakes up very late every day, but this morning he was awakened by a hasty knock on the door.

Dissatisfied, he pushed the quilt out of bed with sleepy eyes, and was complained by his wife.Walking through the snow-covered courtyard, shelv opened the old wooden door on the front, and found that the door was his second uncle, followed by a person.

Zhao Si rubbed his eyes and said, "Why is Second Uncle knocking on my door so early? Can't we talk about it later?"

The second uncle said anxiously: "It's not that I have something to talk to you about, it's that Prince Xiao's mansion is looking for you. This is Mr. Yan from the mansion!"

Xiao Wangfu!A thunderous thunder exploded in his mind, and Zhao Si lost all sleepiness at once, and quickly wiped his face and said, "What orders does your lord have?"

"My son would like to invite you to the palace, pack up and follow me."

Zhao Si was stunned for a moment, and said in a panic: "Okay, okay, the villain will clean it up now."

"Hurry up, don't make Shizi wait."

"I know, I know." Zhao Si smiled again and again, but as soon as he retreated into the hospital, he lost his soul, staggered into the room, and his wife asked in puzzlement, "What's wrong with you?"

"Prince Xiao's Mansion recruited me to do something." Zhao Si replied with a mournful face.

"Wangfu! That's not right, and you have a lot of salary, otherwise, with your little ability, how can you hire a husband for the child in the future." The wife said while making the bed.

"What do you know, there is Li Xingzhou in Prince Xiao's Mansion!" Zhao Si almost burst into tears: "Li Xingzhou is a disaster in the capital, he is arrogant and unreasonable. Dao, being broken alive, I have suffered from leg problems for the rest of my life!"

Hearing this, the wife also panicked: "I'm not going. Although the family is short of money, there are plenty of opportunities to make money. Don't be in a hurry."

Zhao Si shook his head in despair: "If I go, I will be the only one who suffers, but if I don't go, my whole family will suffer!"

The wife was stunned on the spot, as if the sky had fallen all of a sudden, she hugged her husband in tears and said, "I scold you all day, but I can't be angry. You are the backbone of the family. What if something happens to you!"

Zhao Si, who had been scolded by his wife all day long, suddenly heard this, and couldn't help crying when he was moved, and the couple hugged each other and cried.

It took a while for Zhao Si to calm down, and he made up his mind to caress his wife's back and said: "My lady, if something happens to me in the palace, you can take your son and your family's savings out of Beijing. How far can you go? As a dowry, find another good family to marry."

"What nonsense are you talking about? If I marry you, you will be from your Zhao family. If something happens to me, I will die." Mrs. Zhao Si choked up.

"Miss."

"Zhao Si, what are you doing, hurry up!" The lord of the Wangfu came urging from outside the courtyard.

Zhao Si endured his grief and wiped away his tears and said, "Here we come!"

Li Ye met Zhao Si, a famous carpenter in the east of the city, in the deserted courtyard, and was confused by his expression of seeing death as if he was about to go to the battlefield.

"Yan Shen, is he really a carpenter and not a sergeant?" Li Ye asked Yan Shen who brought him here.

"Absolutely, my son, I have asked people around me to find out clearly." Yan Shen is very sure.

At this time, the weeds and snow in the entire yard have been removed by the servants, and the wood stored in the wing room has been piled up in the yard.

Li Ye stepped forward to the trembling Zhao Sidao: "I sent someone to ask the neighbors in the neighborhood. You are the best carpenter in the east of the city. Everyone recognizes that, so I sent someone to invite you here."

Zhao Si nodded, almost crying with bitterness in his heart, usually he would charge less money for the sake of fellow villagers in his big hometown, even if he was scolded by his wife, he would not hesitate to forge a good relationship, he didn't think about it at this critical moment Time has hurt itself!

Li Ye continued: "I called you here because I want you to make something for me." As he spoke, Li Ye took out a piece of paper from his pocket with detailed diagrams drawn on it.

"That's it. You can use nails or mortise and tenon joints between the boards. You understand this better. You can figure it out. The purpose is to make the boards tighter and airtight as much as possible." Li Ye said while showing him the drawings.

Zhao Si had already looked at it. The drawings drawn by Shizi were beautiful and easy to understand. It seemed that he was afraid that he would not understand, so he drew it from different directions, just like an old craftsman.

"Is the son going to make a big steamer? But why is there no idea?" Zhao Si looked at the blueprint a little puzzled.

"Don't ask too many questions, just make it according to the blueprint I gave you, and you will be rewarded with ten pennies if you finish it," Li Ye said.

ten times!Hearing this, Zhao Si was stunned. He worked so hard to earn only ten pennies a year. Could it be that just being such a big steamer with no bottom is enough!Regardless of whether it was true or not, he was too excited, and he didn't care about being afraid, and said quickly: "Don't worry, my son, the villain will definitely do a good job!"

Li Ye nodded and said with a smile: "Then you start working, the sooner the better, tell the servants what equipment you use, and let them take you to the warehouse to find it."

Zhao Si nodded again and again, and then hurriedly started working.
In fact, it is not difficult to brew distilled wine, and two pots are needed.

The lower pot is filled with water to prevent burning, and then a bamboo disc is woven into a disc, wrapped in gauze and placed on the pot surface. A cylindrical wooden structure is placed on top of it, like a bottomless steamer, but much larger.

It is better to use iron for airtightness. Many wineries in later generations also use metal materials, but iron is prone to rust when exposed to water, and the wine brewed over time will have a rusty smell.

The column is also called a wine cage in the country, and fermented grain is placed inside, and then a pot is placed on the top of the wine cage, which is called "Tianguo".

When the bottom of the pot below is heated during brewing, a small amount of water in it boils, and the bottom of the wine cage will heat up rapidly, like a steamer.At this time, the alcohol in the fermented grain has a low boiling point, vaporizes quickly, and then rises to touch the bottom of the pot.

Here comes the most important step. The Tianguo must have two sinks, one for water inlet and one for water outlet, to keep the water in the Tianguo cold at all times, which is equivalent to a primitive water cooling system.

In this way, the Tianguo is always cold. When the vaporized high-temperature alcohol touches the cold bottom of the Tianguo, it will instantly condense into liquid droplets and adhere to the bottom of the Tianguo. Because the pot is a circular arc, the liquefied wine will flow downward. It gathers at the bottom of the sky pot and then drips. At this time, only one wine tank can guide the high-level wine gathered at the bottom of the sky pot.

This is the brewing of distilled spirits.

(End of this chapter)