Regarding food issues, Xin You has always been most worried.
In this place where supplies are scarce, whoever dominates the food supply has the right to speak.
As one of the three major families, the Xin family naturally occupies a lot of fertile land, and its grain output is second only to the Fan family.
If the Xin family is self-sufficient, there will be no problem at all.
But this is the food of the whole Xin family, not Xinyi.
Not to mention the food of a large branch of the Xin family.
The large sect of the Xin family, that is, Xin You's lineage, has few people and does not occupy much fertile land.
Strictly speaking, the fields in Xinyi belong to the royal family.
The Xinyi officials of all dynasties, namely the ancestors of Xinyou, strictly followed the well field system.
However, with the development of time, in the middle and late Spring and Autumn Period, the well field system was almost destroyed.
Rather than cultivating the well fields allocated by the state, those powerful families preferred to cultivate wasteland themselves and regard these wastelands as their own private fields.
People's minds are focused on their own private fields, and public fields will naturally become deserted.
This is the case for most of the public lands in Xinyi.
Anyway, the annual output of the public fields must be handed over to the royal family, so you can just plant whatever you want, as long as you have something.
Private fields, on the other hand, are cultivated intensively and their yields are high.
Only Xinyou's family has always treated public land and private land equally.
The ancestors of Xinyou were unwilling to open up wasteland, thinking that it would destroy the Zhou rites.
For several generations, they clung to the land assigned to them by the emperor without making any progress.
Therefore, the food output of the Xin clan is far inferior to that of the Xin Jin clan, let alone the Fan clan.
According to Xinyou's father Xin Wubing, all the land in Xinyi belongs to the emperor.
How to allocate land must be ordered by the emperor. It is illegal to open up barren mountains without permission.
It's just that this is the general trend of the times. From the princes to the small nobles, everyone is running their own private land.
No matter how Xin Wubing wrote to the villagers, no one would pay attention to him.
Occasionally, the output of Xinyi's public fields was insufficient, and Xin Wubing would make up for it with his own grain.
In addition, he has been seriously ill all year round and his family is thin, so the Xin family has no say in the issue of "food".
Every year at the end of the year, Xin Wubing had to beg several big families to share their food and lend it to the public and other people who had no food to eat.
Therefore, Xin had to pay attention to the food issue.
Unfortunately, this is a problem that cannot be solved in the short term.
Learn from those foreign princes such as Lu, recognize private land, and start collecting agricultural taxes?
It would be okay if he were the Emperor of Zhou, but now he is just a doctor in the city. He does this because he doesn't want his own head.
Develop your own private land?
It's feasible, but it won't be until next year at least until there is a harvest.
This winter, there is still no food.
Water in your eyes cannot quench your thirst.
Without food, the Chinese people did not even dare to come to school.
Everything Xin You wants to do will come to an abrupt end here.
"I have to try that thing when I go back tonight."
After class, Xin returned home directly.
He had already ordered Lian Zuo to call Fan Dou.
Fan Dou was riding a borrowed ox cart, which was loaded with Xin You's custom-made pottery.
"Gentleman, my father and I have been working hard these days and finally made what you asked for."
Ling Zuo ran over curiously and found that dozens of large and small pieces of pottery were loaded on the bullock cart.
"It's strange, why does a gentleman need so much pottery? I haven't heard that there is a shortage of pottery at home..." Qian Zuo thought to himself.
"Zheng Zuo, what are you doing standing still? Move your things into the hall." Xin asked again.
Ling Zuo did not dare to neglect, and moved many pottery in with Fan Dou.
Xin asked the others to avoid it, leaving only Wei.
"Gentleman, there is no shortage of pottery at home. Why did you buy so much pottery?" Wei was also very curious.
"Brewing wine." Xin said simply.
"Wine wine?! Gentleman wants to make wine?"
"What? Are you surprised?"
Wei is really incredible. What happened to Xin? How come he started to care about these things?
"Xinyi is poor, and only the brewing industry can make Xinyi rich." Xin added.
"But don't we have a winemaker named Xinji? I heard that the wine he makes is very good."
"It's good, but it's a pity that it's not enough to make money from this kind of wine." Xin added.
The wine made by Xinji can only be regarded as service wine.
This kind of wine is the cheapest in Ganlu's market, and can only be sold for two yuan per catty.
There is an old saying among the people, a pound of wine is worth three pounds of food.
The price of grain in Xinyi is basically about 60 yuan per stone.
Each stone of grain weighs more than one hundred kilograms. If these grains are brewed into wine, about forty or fifty kilograms of wine can be produced.
Including other costs, wine brewed with one stone of grain is generally sold for about 70 yuan.
This translates into about two yuan per kilogram of wine to make a profit.
Generally speaking, in a year when food prices rise, wine prices will definitely rise as well.
However, most of the wine in Xinyi was supplied to the countryside and the royal family, and the price of wine was fixed.
Even if you get Ganlu, the price can only be slightly higher.
This year's grain prices have risen to sixty-five yuan per stone, and Xinyi winemaking is simply losing money.
But if Xinyi's wine can be rated as "old wine", the price will not be the same!
The wine that the princes drank was at least old wine, so the price of this kind of wine was far higher than ordinary wine.
However, the brewing process of Xijiu is more complicated than that of Shijiu, and the price is at least five times that of Shijiu.
Even more!
Xin You had already inquired about the prices of these wines.
So he wanted to make distilled liquor as soon as possible.
Distilled wine naturally has no lees, and its color is naturally much clearer than ordinary wine.
In addition to the rich flavor, there is nothing wrong with being rated as a past wine.
As for how many kilograms of wine can be distilled from each kilogram, Xin is not sure yet.
He only remembered that he had seen someone do an experiment on the Internet before. Using eighty kilograms of wine, about seven or eight kilograms of brandy could be distilled.
Xin You's requirements for wine are not that high, as long as the distilled wine is cool in color and can beat ordinary wine.
In this case, the proportion will probably be higher.
…
Looking at the pottery all over the floor, Xin couldn't help but smile bitterly.
In order to protect his "patent", he took great pains.
He mixed the pottery used for distillation with ordinary pottery and placed an "order".
In this way, even if someone from the Fan family asked Fan Dou to bake another batch, they would not know how to use it.
"Wei, take all of these aside." Xin said again, "Let Qian Zuo come in with a bottle of wine."
"Gentleman, it's so late, do you still want to drink?" Wei asked with concern.
"It's not about drinking, it's about making wine."
Soon, Wei brought a bottle of wine from the kitchen at the back.
At this time, Xin had already placed several pieces of pottery and was waiting for the wine to be put into the pot.
Wei looked at the pottery on the ground, some she recognized and some she didn't.
Xin You has "assembled" these things into something Wei has never seen before.
There was a large pot underneath, and a cylindrical pottery was placed on top of the pot. There was a small opening on the top, and a bamboo tube protruded from it.
This thing is called "Zeng", but it is different from the Zeng in the Spring and Autumn Period.
On top of the cylinder, there is a smaller pot filled with water.
"This thing is called the 'Heavenly Pot', which can make the wine clear." Xin added: "Tomorrow morning, we in Xinyi will have our own old wine!" This chapter has been completed!