Bringing the dishes to the table in the open space in front of the room, Du Zhongxiao said to his father, "Daddy, come and eat." ”

After saying these words for a long time, Du Xun finally recovered a little, nodded, and silently went to the table.

His mother took Du Zhongxiao aside and told him what his father had been going through these days. It turned out that when he failed in the Kaifeng Provincial Examination, Du Xun fell ill as soon as the results came out. After two days, his condition became more and more serious, because he didn't have much money on his body, so he didn't dare to stay longer. Thinking that Kaifeng Mansion was not far from his hometown of Xuzhou, he was forced to hurry. When I didn't think of Weishi County, the illness worsened, and I used up all the coils there. After that, when his body was a little better, he forced himself to beg and hurry. When he arrived in Xuzhou, he brought a message to his family and fell ill again.

Du Xun originally thought that he would be able to come to Linying a few months ago, but he didn't expect to be too sick in Xuzhou, and only came to the county with a few beggars who had passed through the state more than ten days ago. Those beggars are old in this way, and they took Du Xun to fill their stomachs as "bad people".

Looking back at his father's gobbling up, Du Zhongxiao sighed secretly in his heart. After this catastrophe, my father seemed to be a different person, and he no longer wore a green shirt, talked about poetry and books, and pointed out the shadow of the country.

Du Zhongxiao sighed infinitely in his heart, reading changes his fate, who would have thought that it would be like this? I suddenly remembered that the scholars recruited by the imperial court in this era were the kind of people who only read the books of sages and sages, or were they the kind of talents who could endure hardships, read books, and even go to the battle array?

I can't tell. When Taizu Taizong, I was afraid that he would go towards this kind of wandering wanderer. The emphasis is not on the imperial court's recruitment of talents, but on bringing this kind of social instability into the governance of the imperial court. From Taizong to Zhenzong, and then in the past one or two decades, the imperial examination has become more and more standardized, and it has slowly changed to persuade scholars to recruit scholars. If his father had been born decades earlier, Du Xun's experience might have become his capital in the future, and he might have a real future interest. As for now, forget it.

Who can say clearly what life encounters are? It's not enough to work your own, you have to be born at the right time.

After taking a breath, Du Xun let out a sigh of relief and spit out all the fears of these days. The current situation at home is definitely not as good as before he entered Beijing to take the exam. But he endured so much along the way, and the days that followed were nothing to him. As long as the home is still there, life will always get better day by day. I have suffered so much, and a little debt is nothing.

Patting the table, Du Xun said: "Today's family reunion, it's a pity that there is no wine." - Dalang, you brought the sake lees, it smells of wine. I have endured all the way back from the capital, and today can be regarded as a breakthrough. ”

Du Zhongxiao agreed, and went over to pick up the wine lees that his father brought back. When I held it in my hand, I felt the smell of wine. As the largest restaurant in the county, "Qixiangju" brews a good liquor, and there is a mellow smell when you smell the lees.

Suddenly, Du Zhongxiao said to his father: "Daddy, there is wine in the lees, why don't you steam it out and drink it?" ”

The mother said, "What kind of stupid words do you have kid, and how do you steam wine out of the lees?" ”

"It can be steamed, of course it can be steamed!" When his father came home and the family was reunited, Du Zhongxiao's mind suddenly became clearer, and some knowledge in his previous life slowly sorted out.

Distiller's lees, especially the lees of rice wine, can be steamed out of wine, and it is white wine that can be steamed. Du Zhongxiao had spent some days in Jiangnan in his previous life, and he knew that there was a special kind of liquor in that place, which was steamed from the lees of rice wine, called lees liquor, or a kind of flavor in Chinese liquor. Nowadays, the lees are filtered out of the water wine, and the separation is not complete, and the content of the sake lees is not low.

Chinese liquor is a distilled spirit, the process is very special, solid fermentation, solid distillation, the only one in the world. Therefore, in the previous life, some people discussed that Chinese baijiu came from the West, which is simply superfluous, and there is no such process in other parts of the world, so it is impossible for it to come in from the outside.

Solid distillation has several advantages, one is that the quality of the liquor is stable, and the other is that the distillation process is simple, so simple that any small workshop can make liquor at home. With one pot and one retort, the liquor can be made.

Just do it when you think of it. The pot at home is ready-made, and the steamed bun also happens to be there, which I borrowed from a neighbor a few days ago.

After brushing the pot, Du Zhongxiao added some cold water and put a grate on it. After thinking about it, I added a fire to the stove and boiled the water first.

When the family was reunited, the father and mother were happy, and when they saw Du Zhongxiao working there, they all smiled and shook their heads, and they didn't care about him.

When the water boiled, Du Zhongxiao opened the lid of the pot, took the sake lees brought back by his father, spread it on the grate, and put the retort on the pot. There was a bamboo pipe next to it, Du Zhongxiao took it, inserted it on the retort, led it to the side, and received it into a clay pot. This is a crucial step, the steamed wine should be condensed at the outlet, and the better the condensation effect, the higher the yield of the wine.

Looking left and right, Du Zhongxiao took a wet cloth, soaked it in the cold well water, and wrapped it on the bamboo pipe.

Solid fermentation means that the sake brewed with koji is solid, and the lees are only moist, not liquid. Solid distillation refers to the direct distillation of this solid distiller's grains, which itself is the filter. The liquor is steamed from the lees and condensed at the exit, and it is directly the finished liquor. Because what comes out at this time is not alcohol, but the state of the densest solution of alcohol and water, which is called the co-soluble state. Because alcohol dissolves in water at the same time, water also dissolves in alcohol, and one state of dissolving each other is co-soluble. At this time, the alcohol content is exactly between 50 and 60 degrees, which is the high alcohol degree of Chinese baijiu. The high alcohol in the 50s is naturally formed by the physical properties of alcohol and water, and is not deliberately blended to such a degree. After that, the blending is carried out by high-grade liquor to increase the flavor.

In this era, there is no liquor process, and it is divided into high-end and low-grade, as long as it is made, it is a rarity.

Everything was ready, Du Zhongxiao added another fire under the stove, and then held his breath and looked at the exit of the bamboo pipe.

Du Xun and his wife glanced at each other, shook their heads and smiled together. The husband and wife were reunited, and they were in the right mood, and their son was messing around.

After about a cup of tea, from the exit of the bamboo pipe, "tick, tick", there were water droplets dripping.

When Du Zhongxiao saw it, he couldn't help clapping his hands and laughing: "There's wine!" There's wine! ”

After speaking, he couldn't care so much, stepped forward and stretched out his fingers, took the dripping wine, and wiped it in his mouth.

Smacking his lips, Du Zhongxiao raised his head to the sky and let out a long roar, shouting: "Good, good, it's really wine!" And it's real liquor! ”

In the past few months, Du Zhongxiao's two souls have been constantly fused, muddy, until today the bad liquor was made, and the depression in front of him was finally swept away, and I couldn't help it. In the past few months, Du Zhongxiao has thought of many ways to change the situation of his family, but none of them are feasible. Now that the liquor has been made, the lees are useless, and finally there is no need to worry about running out of capital.

The mother looked at Du Zhongxiao's crazy appearance, and couldn't help but shake her head: "This child, Daddy is also very happy when he returns home." ”

Around the stove and retort of steaming wine, Du Zhongxiao turned around, chanting words in his mouth, and countless thoughts turned in his heart. With liquor, not only can the plight of his own family be relieved, but even the plight of the Han family's foot shop should be solved. "Its Xiangju" doesn't give them wine on credit? Then they did not take wine from them, but steamed it on sake lees and sold it themselves. This is a real liquor, and the Great Song Dynasty is the only one.

It didn't take long for the wine dripping from the bamboo pipe to decrease rapidly. Du Zhongxiao stepped forward to take a look, but only took a small half bowl.

Carefully holding up half a bowl of wine, Du Zhongxiao held it in front of his father and said, "Daddy taste it, how about this wine?" ”

"Can you get out of wine this way?" Du Xun didn't care, and took it casually.

In the end, it was his son's heart, Du Xun took a small sip lightly.

With this sip of wine in his stomach, Du Xun felt a piece of hot coal roll down his throat and into his stomach.

Putting the bowl down, Du Xun's eyes couldn't help but widen, looked at Du Zhongxiao and said, "This wine is so powerful!" My son, how do you make this wine? Or is it made from the useless stuff of sake lees! Isn't that a miracle? ”

Du Zhongxiao said with a smile: "Daddy, I said earlier, the smell of wine in the lees is so strong, naturally there is wine, just see if there is a way to steam it out of it." But one pot and one retort, doesn't this make wine? And it's also a very powerful wine! ”

After being happy for a while, Du Zhongxiao said to his parents: "I can't hide it, when I went to Hanjiajiao Store to deliver sheep's hooves yesterday, I happened to meet a small staff member of the 'Qixiangju' restaurant in the city. That little guy was a bastard, and he actually molested Yueniang, so he hated him. Today, the little man is not allowed to give his 'Qixiangju' wine to the Han family's foot shop on credit, and the Han family is worried. Nowadays, it is possible to make sake from sake lees, so where is it necessary to sell it on credit from 'Qixiangju'. As long as you collect some sake lees every day, you can make sake. ”

Du Xun didn't know about the Han family's foot shop, so he asked his wife: "Is this Han family's foot shop familiar with you?" ”

The mother smiled slightly: "In the past few months, he has been selling sheep's trotters in his shop, and he has become familiar with it." The family is a very good man, and the trotters of our house are sold well with them, and the accounts of the money are clear, and there are no mistakes or omissions. There was a little lady in that family, Yueniang, who was a year younger than my son, and she was very good. ”

Du Xun smiled and nodded slightly. The wife specifically mentioned that there was a daughter in the family, thinking that she had some thoughts in her heart. The son is seventeen years old, and he has reached the age of talking about marriage, and it is time to settle down if there is a suitable family. Although the Du family is poorer now, with this method of making wine, they don't have to worry about reviving the family business. As long as he is no longer poor, Du Xun's identity as a township tribute jinshi will be useful, and he will be a leading figure in the local area. In many things, the imperial court will ask people like Xianggong Jinshi to come forward, and they can be guarantors for others. Don't underestimate this guarantor, with this article, there will be infinite benefits. Of course, as a guarantor, you must first have a decent family property.