Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 393: Sake as Juice and Dates as Jade

After seeing off Wang Yi and his family, Zhao Zhen planned to go to the wine-making workshop. Today was the day when the first batch of sour jujube wine brewed by Zhu Fu was ready.

The wild jujubes all over the mountains, in addition to the original ones, there are also wild jujubes that Bai Sheng brought back from Tokyo. These wild jujubes are scattered on a hill in Dongxi Village. It usually takes three to five years for these wild jujubes to bear fruit, but because of the cunning horn, only a small amount of fruit is produced this year.

Compared with the local wild jujubes, the jujubes that Bai Sheng brought back are larger.

Because Cheng Wan'er liked to eat sour jujubes, when this jujube forest grew up, Tang Ting, the head of Dongxi Village, changed the name of this place to "Suanzao Hill".

This Suanzao Hill does not need to be managed on a daily basis. This year, beekeepers even collected jujube nectar here. After the fruits are ripe, people are not allowed to pick them randomly. When the jujubes are ripe, a few children are hired to pick them and deliver them to the farm every day.

Although there were only a small number of fruits, the village could not eat them all, so at Cheng Wan'er's suggestion, they brewed sour jujube wine.

Zhao Zhen gave Zhu Fu a recipe for making sour jujube wine and asked him to brew a batch. Zhu Fu found that brewing the wine was not difficult, and he only needed to collect sour jujubes. So he went to the county to find Xiao Rang and posted a notice in the county to buy mature sour jujubes.

The wine shop bought them at 2 wen per jin. The dates were not big, and they had to be picked all over the mountain. One person could pick ten jin a day, which was considered a lot. Farmers were not very interested in this. Instead, children from the village went up the mountain in groups of three or five to pick them.

The purchased sour jujubes were cleaned, dried, and mixed with wine in a 1600: ratio, and then sealed in jars. The first batch of eight large jars, kilograms of sour jujube wine, were stored in the wine cellar for a month and were unsealed today.

Just as Zhao Zhen was about to call Cheng Wan'er to go with him, he heard Jin Cui Lian beside him say, "Sir, do you know the origins of the two sisters, Guiqing and Guijie?"

Zhao Zhen heard this and asked in confusion, "Didn't Dong Ping recruit her from the brothels? What's going on? Is there another hidden story?"

Jin Cui Lian nodded and said, "I have been interacting with Gui Qing and Gui Jie a lot these days. They are from Qinghe County. They are from the same village as Wu Dutou under your command."

"What's the matter? Are these two related to Wu Erlang?" Zhao Zhen asked.

"I guess so. Last year, Wu Dutou of Yanggu County killed his sister-in-law to avenge his brother. These two people had some connection with the adulterer Ximen Qing. Since Ximen Qing's death, his family could no longer live in Yanggu County. His mistress Wu Yueniang sold her property and took her son Ximen Xiaoge back to Qinghe County to seek refuge with her brother, Qinghe Tuanlianshi Wu Shunchen."

"You two did not want to go together, so you went to Dongping Prefecture to sing and that's how you got to know Dong Dujian."

"I heard from Guiqing that among Ximen Qing's wives and concubines, only the first wife, Wu Yueniang, took Ximen Qing's property away. The second wife, Li Jiao'er, is Li Guiqing's aunt. She and the fourth wife, Sun Xue'e, stole a lot of Ximen Qing's gold and silver. Now they both live in Yanggu County."

"Meng Yulou, the third wife, had a lot of property herself and returned to her own house with her dowry. Pan Jinlian, the fifth wife, and Li Ping'er, the sixth wife, passed away."

"These three girls are young and beautiful, and they have a lot of wealth. My husband, you want to find a good match for your hero, so why don't you send someone to propose marriage?"

Zhao Zhen hesitated and asked, "Do you know what the origins of these three people are?"

"Li Jiao'er also grew up in Washe. Meng Yulou was very lucky. She had three husbands in a row, leaving behind only money. Sun Xue'e was the dowry of Ximen Qing's first wife, and was promoted to the fourth wife."

Zhao Zhen said: "Although you have some looks and money, you are not good enough to be my brother's wife."

"When did I ever say I wanted to be the first wife? From what you said, I'd rather be a concubine. There are so many good men here, there must be someone who suits you. If you are interested, I'll let you know and ask you to write a letter and send it to me, how about that?"

Zhao Zhen nodded and said, "You can ask Dong Ping's family to explain in the letter that most of my people here are rough men who have fought in the battlefield and do not know how to be romantic, but there are no handsome young men. This will prevent her from being dissatisfied and making a fuss." Jin Cui Lian said, "Of course, there must be someone who suits her. My husband can also see which brave man in the county is interested and make a fuss about it."

Zhao Zhen listened and nodded. Not to mention that Jin Cui Lian sent a maid to look for the Guiqing sisters who had just left, Zhao Zhen took Cheng Wan'er with him, and the two of them rode on horses and went to the winemaking workshop in Xixi Village under the protection of Yu Baosi and others.

In the workshop, Zhu Fu, Zhong Rang, Hua Yue, Zhong Mu and other winemaking masters were waiting on the side. When they saw Zhao Zhen, they all came forward to greet him.

Zhao Zhen asked, "Brother Zhu Fu, what's the story behind this wine?"

Zhu Fu said, "My Lord, Madam, this sour jujube wine is just soaked in wine. I used two jars of each of the big and small wines from Yicheng Wine, Yimeng Mountain Wine, and Huajia Liquor. I'm going to open the jars today and ask you to taste which of these four sour jujube wines is better."

As he spoke, he asked someone to open the jar, and immediately the aroma of wine filled the air.

A few ladles of wine were scooped out from each of the four jars and poured into four large white basins. The color of the wine was all maroon. It was impossible to tell which wine was the best just by looking at the color.

The four kinds of sour jujube wine were all served in wine jugs and poured into wine glasses. Zhu Fu brought them to Zhao Zhen, who took them and tasted them one by one. He did not say whether they were good or bad, and let Cheng Wan'er, Zhu Fu and other winemakers have a taste as well.

Then he asked, "Which one do you think is the best?"

Cheng Wan'er said, "My husband, the second jar of wine has the strongest sour jujube flavor, similar to what I drank in Bianjing. The fourth jar is second, the first jar is third, and the third jar has the lightest sour jujube flavor."

Zhu Fu and others also agreed. Zhao Zhen asked, "Brother Zhu Fu, what kind of wine is used in the second jar?"

"【Yimeng Mountain Liquor】. The fourth jar is the big wine among Hua family liquor, the first jar is 【Yicheng Liquor】, and the third jar is the small wine." Zhu Fu replied.

"In that case, we should use Yimeng Mountain Wine for all the jujube wine from now on. Don't waste the rest of the jujube wine. Send it to the clinic along with the other three jars. An Daoquan told me last time that jujube can soothe the five internal organs, lighten the body and prolong life. Jujube wine can nourish the liver and warm the heart, replenish qi and strengthen the spleen, calm the nerves and help sleep. Some medicines need to be taken with wine, so it can be used."

As Zhao Zhen was speaking, he saw An Daoquan and Bai Duo, father and son, come in together.

After greeting, Zhao Zhen asked, "Doctor An, I was just about to send the sour jujube wine to the clinic, but I didn't expect you to arrive first."

An Daoquan said, "Yesterday I heard Mr. Bai say that the wine shop would open today. The aroma of the wine is so strong that I know the wine shop has opened. The senior official is here, come over and have a drink."

Zhao Zhen asked someone to pour wine and let everyone taste it.

Zhao Zhen asked, "Divine Doctor, how about this wine?"

This good wine could not be hidden from anyone, and the three of them all said that the second jar of wine was the best. Hearing that Zhao Zhen planned to send the inferior wine to the clinic, An Daoquan and the other two agreed with a smile.

An Daoquan said: "Sir, you don't need so much wine. These three jars will be enough for a long time. You can keep the rest in the cellar."

Zhao Zhen said: "If that's the case, there's no need to store these three jars of wine. Send one jar to Baozhu Temple, one to Shouzhang County, and the remaining one to Wangtai Township. The brothers in these three places are the best at drinking wine, so let them satisfy their cravings."

(End of this chapter)