Lao Wu and Zhang Sancha on the grassland had just left Daheihe, and Liu Heng took Zhao Yutu to the mountain behind Hutou Village.
On the back hill of Hutou Village, there is a courtyard built with green bricks.
At the main entrance of the courtyard, there are soldiers with the tiger flag on guard. There are several turrets in the courtyard, and there are also soldiers on guard above. There are patrol teams patrolling from time to time around the courtyard wall.
From time to time, the aroma of wine wafts out from the courtyard.
"How is the sales of sorghum wine brewed in our winery now?" Liu Heng asked Zhao Yutu beside him.
The courtyard in front of me was built after the Year of the Tiger Flag. Today, the Tiger Flag has no shortage of money. They no longer use adobe bricks to build houses and yards, but instead use freshly fired green bricks.
There is a lot of open space in the back hill of Hutou Village, so the newly built winery was placed in the back hill of Hutou Village.
There is no shortage of idle open space on the mountain. After it was cleared and leveled, a circle of green bricks was used to build a wall, and houses began to be built inside. Such a yard was as big as several wineries put together.
"It has only been more than two months since the wine under our Tiger Flag was sold in Xujiazhuang. Businessmen from Shandong came to buy wine and asked our mule and horse dealers if they could help them send the wine to Shandong and give them more money. Everything is fine." When speaking, Zhao Yutu looked happy.
The Tiger Flag does not lack silver. What it lacks is large sums of silver. The 10,000 taels of silver that were previously sent to the governor's Yamen and the General Military Mansion were barely collected through all possible means.
Today, there are more than 2,000 Tiger Flag soldiers, and there are still many miners to feed in the iron yard. The more than 200 riders of the cavalry team, together with the horses, eat horse chews every day, which is a big expense.
Each of the several workshops in the Ordnance Bureau has been pouring money into it. The self-made fire musket has just been finalized, and they have begun to study riding muskets. Each of them requires silver.
Due to the lack of money, Tiger Flag has not installed self-generated fire guns in large quantities until now, and only equips a small number of soldiers with self-generated fire guns.
The artillery at the artillery field is still being cast. Although the number has been limited, the gunpowder and iron bullets and lead consumed in training every day are worth a lot of money.
Zheng Tie took away a lot of ironware again, and he didn't get back a penny of money after walking for so long.
As the director of the Logistics Bureau, Zhao Yutu has been forced by money in the past few months and has almost lost all his beard.
Fortunately, there were two places where money came from, namely Dongshan Tiechang and Xujiazhuang, which could continuously bring profits to Tiger Flag and barely maintain the situation.
If Tiger Flag had another large expense, he wouldn't know where to make up for it.
Liu Heng took a look at the outer wall of the winery and said, "Add another squadron of soldiers to ensure that there are people patrolling the outer wall at all times to prevent the brewing masters and apprentices in the winery from having fornication with people outside and spreading our brewing technology." .”
"No one should come to Hutou Village," Zhao Yutu said hesitantly. "Since this place has been occupied by us, even the nearby hunters and woodcutters rarely come to Hutou Village."
"That's because this winery didn't exist before." Liu Heng said, "We Huziqi just started selling wine. Please note that we don't have many people. When the time goes by and someone with an interest in our winery figures out the profits of our winery, then It’s indispensable for people to come and come up with ideas for a wine shop.”
Zhao Yutu puzzled, "How can others calculate our own profits, unless there is an insider who spreads the rumors about what happened in the winery?"
Liu Heng waved his hand and said, "There is no need for a mole. Just look at how much sorghum we have harvested and you will be able to tell something. Moreover, the winery in the back hill of Hutou Village is a new wine cellar. The sorghum wine brewed by others is sour and unpalatable. Our sorghum wine is like burning a knife, it is stronger and tastes more mellow. It would be abnormal if no one cares about our brewing process and formula."
"Who would have thought that ordinary sorghum wine can produce such good wine as long as the first pot is discarded." Zhao Yutu sighed.
Liu Heng smiled.
There are sorghum wines all over the Ming Dynasty, but they are all sour and unpleasant to drink. Usually only hard-working people would spend a copper coin to get a bowl to satisfy their craving.
Nowadays, Hu Zi Banner also brews sorghum wine, but due to the craftsmanship, the sorghum wine that was difficult to swallow suddenly turned into a fine wine.
Although the taste is not as good as those of the time-honored wineries, the sorghum wine produced by Huzi Banner is strong enough and fragrant enough to suit the tastes of northern people, and the cost of sorghum wine is also low.
Those good wines with a long history and great reputation need to select the best from the best in terms of food. If the wine is slightly inferior, the taste of the brewed wine will become worse.
The taste of Hu Zi Banner's sorghum wine may be worse than those famous wines, but because it is brewed from sorghum, the profit margin is much greater than that of those famous wines, and the price is not that expensive. It has a wide audience, especially those who rely on grasslands and Beilu Love this kind of liquor.
Zhao Yutu said, "It's a pity that Zheng Tie and the others took away a large amount of ironware and went to sea. If these ironware were sold nearby, the winery could be doubled in size."
Liu Heng said with a smile, "The brewing process of our winery can only be kept secret for the time being. It may be discovered by others at some time, so the benefits brought by the winery cannot be long-term, but Zheng Tie and the others can open the Tiger Flag." Maritime sales, this is the long-term business.”
"My subordinates understand." Zhao Yutu said, "The winery has only been here for more than two months, and it has already brought tens of thousands of taels of silver income to Tiger Character Banner. Now many businessmen from Xuanda and Taiyuan come to Xujiazhuang just to buy Let’s take our wine back and sell it.”
Liu Heng said, "The brewing process of sorghum wine is too simple. Even if we keep it secret, people will find out sooner or later. If Tiger Character Banner really wants to make a lot of money, it still has to target Beilu and Haihai."
Zhao Yutu nodded understandingly, and then said, "Beiliu really likes strong wine. Our wine is strong enough and we will definitely win the favor of Beilu. It's a pity that the trade routes on the grassland have not been opened yet, otherwise we can sell it directly to Beilu."
"There's no rush." Liu Heng said, "The people we sent to the grassland are counting the days and will be back soon. Maybe they can bring back good news."
"I hope so." Zhao Yutu sighed, "If our Tiger Flag can also sell smuggled salt, there will be no need to deal with Beili, we can just make money by sitting on Lingqiu."
Liu Heng straightened his expression and said, "We can't touch private salt, at least not now. The people selling private salt in Datong are either people from the Prince's Palace or people from the General's Gate. With the strength of the Tiger Flag, they rashly put their hands in. That’s really seeking death.”
The reason why the Tiger Character Flag exists today is entirely because Lingqiu is a small place and has a private iron yard, which gave the Tiger Character Flag an opportunity to develop.
Even so, he deliberately did not touch those businesses that brought quick money, because the background behind these businesses was not something that Hu Ziqi could provoke at all. Otherwise, with Hu Ziqi's strength and the knowledge in his mind, the secret He can definitely expand his business.
But he was sure that if he dared to touch the private side, he would offend not the deputy general, but the entire Datong generals, including the Dai Wangfu, and most of the Datong officialdom would not be able to tolerate the tiger-character flag.
When the time comes, let alone giving ten thousand taels of silver to the governor and the general, no one can save him and Tiger Flag even if all the money coming from the Tiger Flag is given with both hands.
