A few days later.
The spring breeze is warm and the sun is shining brightly.
A fast horse galloped over and stopped in front of Cao Zhang's mansion.
The heroic young man on the horse jumped off and rushed inward with large strides. It was Xiahou Ba, Cao Zhang's good brother.
The servants guarding the door were all familiar with him and hurried forward to salute.
"Where is your young master?" Xiahou Ba asked as he walked inside.
"The young master is in the backyard." the servants answered.
Xiahou Ba stopped talking, rushed directly into the door of the house, and walked quickly to the backyard.
Before Xiahou Ba entered the backyard, he smelled a strong smell of alcohol.
He sniffed, looking puzzled.
"Did you get drunk in broad daylight?" He muttered quietly and walked quickly into the backyard.
In the open space in the middle of the backyard, a stove was set up, and a large iron pot was burning. The servants were constantly adding firewood to ensure that the fire was strong.
On top of the big iron pot, a huge clay pot was placed on a shelf to look like a grate.
On the top of the shelf, there is a large pot with the mouth sealed.
There is a bamboo tube connected between the clay pot and the sky pot. At this time, the liquid is continuously flowing down the bamboo tube. After being sifted by the clay pot, it flows into a wine jar connected to the clay pot.
There is already about half a jar of liquid in the wine jar, and the aroma of the wine is emanating from the wine jar.
Cao Zhang was standing next to the wine jar, looking at the wine with a happy smile on his face.
"Ziwen, what are you doing?" Xiahou Ba greeted loudly.
"Zhong Quan?" Cao Zhang turned around and saw Xiahou Ba, and greeted him happily, "You're just in time, come and try the wine I brewed."
"Did you make wine?"
Xiahou Ba looked surprised. When did his good brother know how to make wine again?
Cao Zhang scooped up a spoonful of wine from the wine jar with a wooden spoon and brought it to Xiahou Ba.
Xiahou Ba took the wooden spoon and saw that the wine in the spoon was clear in color, with very few impurities, and exuded a strong aroma of wine.
Xiahouba drank the wine in one gulp. The wine went down his throat, leaving a spicy and hot feeling, as if a fire was lit in his chest. That comfortable taste was far from ordinary wine. comparable.
"Here, what kind of wine is this, and how can it taste so good?" Xiahou Ba looked at Cao Zhang in shock and asked.
Even though he is young, he has been drinking since he was young and has been drinking for a long time. He has drunk a lot of good wines, but none of them can compare with the wine in front of him now.
A proud smile appeared on Cao Zhang's face: "That's natural. This is brewed with my unique secret recipe, and we will make money from it in the future."
In the past few days, Cao Zhang has been thinking about how to strengthen himself in the future.
In addition to recruiting talents, cultivating a well-equipped army is also extremely important.
But if you want to raise troops and build good armor and weapons, you cannot do without money.
Although he is Sikong's son, it does not mean that he has a lot of money to spend at will. He can only think of ways to make money by himself.
After thinking about it, Cao Zhang felt that making wine and selling it might be a relatively low-cost and easiest way to succeed, and it would be easier to sell in the future.
Because the wine in the late Han Dynasty was still fermented wine, the alcohol content was very low, and it was not the current fermentation method of koji. The clarity of the wine was very poor, the liquid was turbid, the wine taste was not strong, and the aroma was not enough.
As a forensic doctor, Cao Zhang was naturally inseparable from chemical knowledge when analyzing evidence from various crime scenes, so he immediately thought of making distilled liquor.
After several days of experiments, he finally succeeded in brewing a wine with extremely high concentration and aroma.
"You want to make money by brewing wine?" Xiahou Ba looked at Cao Zhang in surprise.
"Do you think it's okay?" Although the wine was made, Cao Zhang was not very confident.
"Okay, of course. As long as such a good wine can continue to be brewed, the supply will definitely exceed the demand and it will be a huge hit!" Xiahou Ba said with excitement.
"Then do you think we can let the Xiahou and Cao clans make the wine in our hometown in Qiaoxian County? I will provide the technology, and the specific wine-making and selling of the wine will be completed by the clan members. We will share the profits with them in half. What do you think? How?" Cao Zhang asked Xiahou Ba.
The wealth does not go to outsiders. Cao Zhang is not willing to hand over such good money-making skills to outsiders. People in the clan are more reliable.
"I think there is no problem. You are giving them an opportunity to make a fortune out of thin air. It is too late for them to be happy, and they will definitely not refuse." Xiahou Ba gave the answer after a short analysis.
"Okay, then let's discuss this matter with the two Xiahou uncles later and let them arrange for people from the hometown clan to negotiate." Cao Zhang told Xiahou Ba his plan.
"Let my uncle and the others make arrangements? Aren't you going to tell Sikong about this and let him make arrangements?" Xiahou Ba didn't fully understand Cao Zhang's intention.
"Tell my father, do you think we have a share in making money?" Cao Zhang reminded Xiahou Ba.
"That's true. Sikong is now fighting everywhere, and military expenses and rations are never enough. If he knew about this way of making money, he would definitely confiscate it." Xiahou Ba stuck out his tongue and understood what Cao Zhang was referring to.
"So this matter must be kept secret and carried out quietly." Cao Zhang warned carefully.
"I know." Xiahou Ba nodded in agreement.
"By the way, Zhong Quan, why did you think of coming to see me today? What's the matter?" Cao Zhang asked.
Xiahou Ba slapped his forehead: "Look, as soon as I came here, I was so busy talking about wine that I almost forgot about the real thing."
"The Xu Fu family you asked me to find has been found. They have now moved to a relatively remote village in Changshe County. I finally found out about them."
"Great!" Cao Zhang was very excited when he heard that Xu Shu's family had been found.
"Then let's go find them now." Cao Zhang took Xiahou Ba and walked out.
The distance between Changshe and Xudu was only more than fifty miles, and they could be there in an hour at a fast pace. Naturally, he didn't want to delay.
Xiahou Ba knew that Cao Zhang was impatient, so he did not refuse. The two of them quickly left the house, mounted their fast horses, and went straight to the north gate of Xudu.
The two of them walked north along the official road.
At this time, spring was blooming, but Cao Zhang had no intention of watching the scenery along the way. He just kept urging his horse to move forward, and Xiahou Ba could only follow closely.
The two of them traveled about ten miles when a military camp appeared on the roadside ahead.
At the entrance of the military camp, there were several carriages parked with food sacks piled on them.
Several soldiers in the military camp surrounded the general who was responsible for escorting the grain and grass beside the carriage, making loud noises.
"General Cao, every day is not easy for our soldiers. How can you deduct our military rations?!"
The general who was surrounded couldn't help but roar loudly: "Xu Huang, you are so brave. How dare you lead the crowd to cause trouble and falsely accuse this general of depriving you of military rations?!"
Xu Huang? !
Cao Zhang became interested when he heard this roar. He quickly tightened the reins of his horse and stopped, looking in the direction of the military camp...
