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Chapter 294 Private Distillery
After drinking the wine made by Li Chongjiu, Yinghefu asked in a bit of shock: "Khan, I have never drank such a strong wine in my life on the grassland. Compared with the wine I drank in the past , It's like horse urine, I wonder if the Khan can give me a few altars?"

The adjective horse urine is too exaggerated.But Inhofer licked his lips, obviously speaking the truth.

Li Chongjiu smiled. This is the fine wine brewed by distillation. Of course, the alcohol concentration is much higher than the wine of this era.The kumiss on the prairie, which he drank was very strong, but the taste was extremely bad.However, the wine made by the Han people has a mellower taste, but because of its low alcohol content, for grassland people who are used to drinking spirits, this kind of wine is not enough to resist the wind and cold, so they don't like to drink it.

The wine distilled in this way can definitely meet the needs of the herdsmen on the grassland.From then on, in Huaihuang Town and Yuyi Town, in addition to selling silk and tea bricks to Fan people, there was more alcohol.

Li Chongjiu listened to Yinghe Fu's words, smiled and said: "Anyway, if there is a surplus, let's take thirty altars and go."

Yinghefu couldn't help being overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately took a small jar of wine and started drinking it.

"Khan, this wine has no lees and does not need to be sieved. It is comparable to the Sanle pulp from the Western Regions. I wonder how much it is worth compared to ordinary wine?" Wen Yanbo also took a sip, smiling with a bearded beard, obviously very satisfied.

Li Chongjiu said: "It's only a little more expensive than ordinary wine, but it's much cheaper than sanlejiang."
Wen Yanbo's eyes lit up at the moment, and he said: "This will be of great benefit to my Huaihuang Town. Fanren are famous for their good wine. If we can win over with this wine, there will be disadvantages, and it will even improve our Huaihuang Township. power."

Li Chongjiu fully agrees with Wen Yanbo's point of view. From Cai Yinghefu's reaction just now, it can be seen that as long as they drink distilled wine, people who are good at drinking will never drink that kumiss again. last sum of money.For the prairie people, the status of the two towns of Huaihuang and Yuyi was even stronger.
We must know that in the late Qing Dynasty, the monopoly trust on the grassland, the Dashengkui firm, had the best sales of tea bricks, silk satins, and camel head wine.

Li Chongjiu turned his head and said to the craftsman in charge of the winery: "In the future, we will mass-produce this wine. Remember that the secret method of wine making must be kept strictly confidential and cannot be passed on to outsiders. If one day, I find out that other people also have this wine, I won't let you go first."

The craftsman said with trepidation and trepidation at the moment: "No, everything will be according to the wishes of the envoy, and I will never reveal the method of making this wine."

Wen Yanbo said with a smile: "Dare to ask Shijun what name he gave this wine?"

Li Chongjiu thought for a while, and said: "It's called Huaihuang Bar. From now on, all the fans on the grassland will know about this wine."

Now that the craftsman is in charge, Li Chongjiu decided to set up three major distilleries in Huaihuang, Yuyi and Jixian to specialize in brewing this distilled wine.

In addition to the official brewing and distilling of wine, Li Chongjiu decided to let go of the order of wine distribution. The so-called wine distribution refers to the official management of wine since the Qin and Han Dynasties.Because alcohol has always been a profitable industry.Therefore, in the Sui Dynasty, the government set up wineries to collect profits, and strictly ordered the bootleggers to be guilty.

But government-run wineries, like modern state-owned enterprises, have too many disadvantages, and the price of wine is inflated, and ordinary people can't afford it.And Li Chongjiu wants to sell the wine to the grassland fans in exchange for cattle, sheep, horses, furs, and the price cannot be too high, otherwise the fans will not be able to afford even the best wine.

And Li Chongjiu decided to release the official operation of the winery, allowing Lin Dangfeng and others to support Li Chongjiu and other five chambers of commerce to jointly brew wine privately.However, Li Chongjiu taxed the wine songs of the five chambers of commerce, which can be regarded as enriching the wealth.

However, Li Chongjiu was just about to let go of the drinking order, but Ji Chuan, Liu Yi, and Zhou Xu all opposed it, and even Wei Zheng wrote a letter to oppose it.

The reason for their opposition is clearly stated in Wei Zheng's letter. When Qin Shangyang reformed, the decree price of wine was ten times the cost.Qin Law also forbade surplus grain to make wine, selling it for profit.Wei Zheng was worried that the wine industry was making huge profits, and he was afraid that merchants would use their surplus grain to make wine, which would lead to an increase in the price of grain among the people.

As far as the present is concerned, due to the spread of the war, the price of food in the Northland has always been high. Although Huaihuang Town and Yuyi Town have been good in the past two years, they are only enough to supply Shanggu County. As for Zhuo County, it has a large population. , there are [-] households, and many people cannot have enough food and clothing.

In the third year of Daye, during the heyday of the Great Sui Dynasty, the price of grain in the eastern capital was only five cents a bucket, and in the north it was only six cents a bucket. Now, the price of grain in Ji County has never been lower than fifty cents a bucket since last year. Below Dou, the people suffer unspeakably, but compared with other counties, the food price is relatively much better.

For example, in Dongdu, which is now under heavy siege by Li Mi, the price of grain has reached an appalling level, a bucket of [-] yuan, and there is no market for it.The reason why the price of grain is so high is that apart from the large population in the Eastern Capital and the lack of food, there are many well-off families in the main Eastern Capital who are willing to pay for rice.

Moreover, Li Chongjiu also heard that Bing Yuanzhen, under Li Mi's command, was greedy for huge profits, so he secretly sold the general's grain to Dongdu in exchange for money.After hearing this, Li Mi actually acquiesced in Bing Yuanzhen's move.

Li Chongjiu disagreed with Li Mi's short-sighted approach, but on the other hand, he also believed that the price of grain is so high now, whether in the world or in Zhuo County. The worries of the civil servants under his command are also justified. If the people open up the wine industry, the price of food will rise further.

However, Li Chongjiu insisted on his own opinion. He wrote back to the civil servants, saying that several big wineries would hire poor people in Zhuojun County as their jobs, so that they could make a living for more than a thousand people.As for stabilizing grain prices, Li Chongjiu decided to set up an official grain store in each county of Zhuo County.

The government-operated grain stores were drawn from the granaries in Zhuojun County, and sold grain at [-] yuan a bucket in order to stabilize the price of grain above the market.

Seeing Li Chongjiu's insistence, Wei Zheng said at the moment that the ancients cultivated for three years and then accumulated for one year, and cultivated for nine years and had three years of storage, but people had no food.Although Zhuojun's granary has a lot of hoards now, it can't just sit and eat.

The army can be restored, let the soldiers solve their own food, instead of taking food from Zhuojun's granary, Zhuojun will build another righteous warehouse, which is specially used for future famine preparations. In case of any natural disasters, it is good to have a preparation .

When Li Chongjiu saw Wei Zhengzhi's letter, although he felt that what he said was very reasonable, whether it was the wine industry or the strong army, it was in conflict with his general policy of winning over the grassland and subduing the hearts of Huairou Fan people with power, so he decided to stay temporarily on hold.

But in any case, Li Chongjiu's wine business plan has been implemented. At the same time, Li Chongjiu also abolished the city gate tax in order to encourage the circulation of commerce.

The so-called city gate tax is a one-money tax for those who enter the market. The city gate tax was implemented since the Northern Wei Dynasty and was temporarily abolished in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. However, because the court could not withstand the temptation of this tax, it was restored again. It has been practiced in every city.

This is mainly for ordinary people.In the era when the city was divided into city and square, the square was the place where people lived, and the city was the place for shopping.This is like when you go to a store to shop or sell things, whether you buy or not, sell or not sell, you have to pay a tax of one cent as long as you enter the door.

In the eyes of modern people, this is very unscientific. Now everyone knows that economic growth can only be promoted if the people spend their money.Restricting people from entering the market for consumption and shopping in this way is not killing the chicken to get the eggs.

Therefore, no matter whether it is a private distillery or the abolition of the store tax, after all, Li Chongjiu wants to support Lin Dangfeng, Liu Chengan and other local merchants in Zhuo County. As for the government-run grain shops, the abolition of the store tax is for the benefit of the people and the convenience of the people's livelihood.

But although these three have long-term benefits, the short-term disadvantages are very obvious. For Li Chongjiu, it is the shortage of food and grass and the decline of fiscal revenue.Li Chongjiu suddenly discovered that after he captured Zhuojun, he spent money faster than before. The Fanjun on the grassland wanted to give benefits, not to mention that he had just sent a large amount of supplies to Tuli.

Therefore, Li Chongjiu had to find a way to get money and food. If he couldn't save money, he had to increase the income. Otherwise, according to the current consumption rate, the money and food would bottom out by the end of the year. A civil official like Wei Zheng would be enough to annoy him to death.

So where did you get the money from? The emerging businessmen in Zhuo County, that’s not enough. Taking money from them now will definitely destroy the current harmonious relationship between the two sides.What's more, Li Chongjiu will vigorously support them in the future.

As for the gentry in Zhuo County, who monopolize local resources and keep money tightly, it is impossible to even think about asking them to show a little bit of money and food through their fingers.In the end, the people of Zhuojun are now so poor that they are tightening their belts, let alone this.

Then internally it doesn't work, as the saying goes, getting rich depends on robbing, and the nomadic cavalry is best at stealing.As the saying goes, coming and going like the wind, Li Chongjiu can take advantage of the cavalry under his command when he fights Caogu.

Luo Yi, Gao Kaidao's Beiping, Yuyang two counties, these two warlords are not good at governing the region, and they are poorer than Zhuo County. If they capture their territory and don't get anything, it is enough to resettle the people of the two counties It broke Li Chongjiu.

Dou Jiande in the south is still an ally, and he can't afford to offend him.

As for the prairie tribes in the north, such as Khitan, to be honest, there is really nothing to grab. Khitan is different from the royal tribe of Huhe.What's more, spring is coming soon, and the cattle, sheep and horses have just passed the winter, so it's not a good idea to snatch them to raise them. If they are killed, there is not much meat, so they can only cook soup and eat bones.

So counting and counting, there are only Goguryeo people who are also farming people in the surrounding area.
Last year, Li Chongjiu broke Goguryeo's Gaimu City, which made Goguryeo break a gap in the defense circle of Liaodong.But the Goguryeo people remained the same, and sent Qingqi across the Liaohe River several times to kill the western Liaoning, and the internal bandits in Liaodong County copied.

Li Chongjiu can be regarded as coming and going now.

(End of this chapter)