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Chapter 153 Business 2
In the next few days, under Shen Fan's hard work, several identical courtyard buildings were built on the wasteland next to Zizhenzhai along Huifu Street. The courtyard walls are high and the courtyard gates are closed. Inside are rows of standard factory buildings with brick and wood structures. The distillery was the first to be put into production. The distilling technology of the Ming Dynasty was already mature. There were many distilleries in urban and rural areas, producing all kinds of famous wines and low-priced local roasted wines.
From the beginning, Guo Yi did not intend to start winemaking from grain fermentation. According to Wu Nanhai's wine industry development plan, the cross-country wine industry will only start after the sweet potatoes and sugar cane are harvested in large quantities. The cost of directly purchasing grain and brewing wine in Guangzhou is too high: there are many processes, and the water and yeast used for brewing have certain technical requirements, which is quite troublesome. Moreover, the winemaking process involves the transportation of a large amount of grain and the processing of distiller's grains - traditional wineries often also raise pigs in order to process a large amount of distillers' grains. Guo Yi has no plans to open a pig farm in Guangzhou city.
Therefore, they adopted a method of distilling Doshao liquor. Doshao liquor is available everywhere in the country. The process is simple, the price is low, and the batch size is large. Simply purchase the Dosha and conduct secondary distillation to remove the impurities in the Dosha, purify the liquor, and increase the alcohol content to make a high-end product. In fact, many modern famous brand liquors are made by purchasing a large amount of base liquor from small distilleries and then blending it. Compared with the best winery in this world, Chuanchuanzhong also has the advantages of quantifiable quality system standards, modern monitoring equipment and extremely efficient distillation equipment.
The distillation equipment was manufactured by the machinery department in Lingao and then disassembled and shipped to Guangzhou on the Deng Yingzhou. Stills were made of pig iron, tin, and wood. This still is much better in efficiency than all contemporaneous stills. It no longer uses direct heating. It is equipped with a small boiler - a very simple atmospheric boiler made of pig iron and oil drums. Water vapor is generated to indirectly heat the serpentine tube. After such distillation, the final product is a high-strength liquor that is as clear as water and as hot as fire in the mouth. Due to the second or even third distillation, various creosotes are produced. The smell disappears almost completely, leaving a pure taste.
Along with the stills, hundreds of small flat wine bottles were shipped, and printed trademarks were affixed on the wine bottles - on the top was a woodcut of a Han general's military uniform, and below was printed the Chinese character "Guo Shi Wushuang" in seal script, and below it was another Marked in small simplified Chinese characters. The bottom of the trademark is: Produced with honor by Zichengji. Finally, there is actually a nominal volume on the trademark: 250 ml. This seemingly unnecessary approach was proposed by Xiao Zishan: the promotion of new weights and measures and Arabic numerals should be "moisturizing and silent". Many of the new generations who grew up in the time-traveling countries learned simplified Chinese characters, Arabic numerals, and weights and measures for the first time from the various packaging of "time-traveling goods".
After the wine came out, several winemakers tasted it, and they all felt that it was more mellow and powerful than various local roasted wines on the market. However, compared with the best liquors, it could only be regarded as the best, and it was not particularly fragrant. One winemaker lamented that with such a good steamer, he could make his own koji, and if he found a good water source, he would be able to make it the best in Guangdong Province. Guo Yi smiled but didn't answer - the wine that Zicheng remembers is not the wine itself, but the glass bottle - Guo Yi wants to take the high-profit gift box route. He ordered the wine to be bottled and sealed for later use - the first batch of wine was small and would be used as gifts for dignitaries when the business opened.
Shen Fan ordered more than a hundred gift boxes lined with brocade at a local lacquer shop. Fill each box with two bottles of wine and two shot glasses. This idea was copied from the wine gift box of this time and space. It was definitely an unprecedented innovation in the Ming Dynasty. Even shopkeeper Shen was amazed and said that the proprietor was really generous.
However, Guo Yi lamented the exquisiteness of traditional Chinese handicrafts. The exquisite craftsmanship and gorgeous decoration of these lacquer boxes were something he had never seen before. According to Mr. Shen, shopkeeper Shen said that these were not top-notch works, but just batch goods. That’s all.
Throughout the first month of the second year of Chongzhen, the Guangzhou Advance Station was busier than Lingao. It was not easy for anyone to open three stores at the same time. Guo Yi takes Shopkeeper Shen, Sun Chang and others out to visit guests every day, visiting every aspect - it is very important to be polite when you are new. Everywhere you go, give different gifts to each other according to their different identities. Liang Cunhou's family, who had given name stickers at the market, also made a special trip to visit him. Mr. Liang was very happy to see that his business was open. In addition to receiving gifts, he also gave back home-made roast meat. The close relationship between Guo Dongzhu and Mr. Liang made Mr. Shen overjoyed:
"The proprietor is so resourceful that he actually got to know Mr. Liang." Mr. Shen, the shopkeeper, praised quietly.
"Is Mr. Liang very famous?" Guo Yi heard Liu Gang say: Mr. Liang is a son of a noble family. He is always eager for justice, philanthropic and charitable.
"The proprietor doesn't know," Shen Fan was a little surprised. "This Young Master Liang Cunhou is the direct grandson of Liang Renpu, the former Minister of Household Affairs. His father served as a prefect for two terms. He himself has a good reputation and is a well-known official in the local area." Big business.”
The old shopkeeper Shen said that the Liang family prided themselves on being the heirloom of poetry and etiquette, and had never cared about jewelry and toys, so there would be no way to do business in his family. But his family has deep roots in the local area and has made good friends, which has many benefits.
"Let's make more friends with him in the future." Guo Yi responded casually, and suddenly thought of a question, "Old shopkeeper Shen, do you know all the officials, gentry, and big families in Guangzhou?"
"Never leave ten." Shen Fan was quite pleased with himself.
"Write it down when I get back. I want to know about all the officials in Guangzhou—"
Shen Fan laughed loudly: "What's so difficult about this? You will know after a while that you will send someone to the bookstore to buy a gentry. In the Ming Dynasty, there are officials ranging from bachelors to underclassmen."
"There is such a book." Guo Yi was a little surprised. Needless to say, in the original time and space, the book Directory of Civil Servants of the People's Republic of China definitely did not exist - even if it did exist, it would not be sold to the public.
"If the proprietor wants it, I'll send someone to buy it right now."
"No rush," Guo Yi thought. Originally, the intelligence information team asked the dispatch station to collect information about officials in Guangdong. He thought it was a huge project, but now it seems not complicated - the information is sold to the public.
"Are there any more detailed ones, such as those who once served as officials but are no longer serving as officials, but are still very powerful -"
"There is also this one, the records of Jin gentry in this province."
"Okay, you will send someone to buy all these books later. Hmm," he thought for a moment, "I also want to get the morning paper."
"It's not difficult, just find a yamen and copy it out. It's just what the proprietor wants to do." Shen Fan felt strange. Jin Shenlu was useful for business. The court reports were all about the court's memorials and court proceedings. Except for those who were officials. If you are interested, no one will go and see it.
"The movements of the imperial court are also very important to us. Who knows what the imperial court's plans are for sea trade?"
Shen Fan thought this was correct. Most of the proprietor's goods came by sea. If the court strictly prohibited sea trade, it would be a big blow to the proprietor. But for this kind of news, as long as you have a good relationship with the clerk, the master or even the junior officials in the yamen, and leak the news in time when you see it, there is no need to bother to copy the newspaper. But since the proprietor said it, just do it, anyway It's not that difficult.
"Master Li, who handles manuscripts in the Governor's Yamen, is very familiar with me. I just want to give him some benefits."
"What you have to do is report the expenses to me directly, and don't spend it at the counter." According to the notice of the Economic and Financial Commission, the intelligence fee of the dispatch station can no longer be spread among the operating expenses of opening a store. It must be In addition, account management and accounting are established. This gave Guo Yi a headache for a while: in terms of favor expenditures, it is difficult to accurately distinguish whether they are for information or business. Most of them are both. In the end, after discussion, it was decided to include all favor expenses in the intelligence fee.
"Yes, proprietor."
Back at Zizhenzhai, the decoration of the shop is almost finished. In order to avoid any controversy, decoration is still a relatively traditional approach. There are three large pavements along the street, square brick floors, blue brick walls with polished bricks and no plaster, wooden lattice ceilings, four big red palace gauze lanterns hanging there, and a row of small glass lamps bought from Yiwu. Surrounded by purple wood corridors, the hall is hung with poems, paintings and calligraphy by famous locals. The styles are very different and appear luxurious and scholarly. If you look closely, you will see that the author is either a local aristocratic family or an official in power. There are three big characters "Zizhenzhai" hanging in the middle of the hall. They are also the most popular staff of Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. The governor's office praised Lu Yizhong's painting work - these three characters cost Guo Yi five hundred taels of silver. The floor is decorated with rosewood flower tables, tables, Eight Immortals tables and official hat chairs. The various vases, screens and ornaments used are all of high quality - all items from the Gou family shipped from Lingao. ―Deng Yingzhou has been transporting large quantities of these items to Guangzhou every time recently. On the one hand, it can save money by opening a brand name at the dispatch station to decorate the scene. On the other hand, it can also take the opportunity to sell the stolen goods, so as not to pile them up everywhere in the warehouse. The commotion made Shen Fan murmur in his heart: Where did all these good things come from? Did they really come from pirates?
Four glass display cabinets are located on both sides of the main hall, which are very conspicuous. In order to ensure safety, Guo Yi asked someone to build an extra circle of copper railings on the outside of the large cabinet to prevent too many onlookers from crushing the glass.
The goods for sale are all held in exquisite boxes of various colors customized from outside. The bottoms are lined with velvet and satin in three colors: black, red and gold. Two modified kerosene lamps are hung diagonally above each cabinet. The spotlights are made, and the items in the cabinet look radiant. Shen Fan, who was accustomed to the dim and deep environment in old-fashioned jewelry stores, was also amazed - Dongzhu Guo really had a magic touch. ,.
