In just a few days, Li Xiao has already visited many wineries in Chang'an.

Chang'an, as the capital of millions, especially as the capital, still consumes a lot of wine, except for a small amount of wine shipped from the local area, most of the wine is brewed in Chang'an and the surrounding wineries.

Although wine consumes grain, and the price of grain in Chang'an is more expensive than that in other places, it is not cheap to transport wine to Chang'an. There are many sake breweries, and there are naturally many sake lees.

casually inquired, and Li Xiao's guess was verified. No matter what kind of sake is brewed by each brewery, the sake lees are actually only sold as feed for cattle and sheep.

"Fifteen pieces with one stone."

The largest wine shop in Chang'an, the shopkeeper was also very polite to Li Xiao, who came to ask for the price, but this price was not polite.

"Shopkeeper, your price is not honest enough." Li Xiao said with a smile, now a bucket of corn on the market is only two and a half yuan, and a stone is only twenty-five yuan, and this stone of sake lees is actually sold for fifteen, which can only be said to be expensive.

"That's not what I said, you look at what kind of sake lees we have, this is the sake lees left over after the glutinous rice transported from the south of the Yangtze River is brewed, our wine is the best wine, and the sake lees are naturally the best. What is the price of a bucket of glutinous rice in Chang'an? One hundred and fifty wen a stone! ”

Japonica rice is 110 yuan and one stone, and the price of this glutinous rice is even higher. According to him, the sake lees left over from the brewing of glutinous rice are sold for 10% of the rice, which is not high.

"Shopkeeper, I buy a large amount, and if the price is right, I will definitely buy it for a long time in the future, as far as I know, your winery brews a lot of wine, and this sake lees naturally has a lot. Sake lees is a problem for you, right? ”

"It's not troublesome, what's the trouble, our sake lees are a good thing, many people buy them to cook, and our sake lees are also good things to feed cattle and horses."

Li Xiao just smiled at the shopkeeper's words.

"It's okay to cook sake lees and eat them, but you can't eat them as a meal, so you can buy some once in a while, and how much can you sell. It's good to feed the cows and horses with ordinary sake lees, you guys are too expensive. To tell you the truth, before I came, I had carefully inspected your shop, and found that your sake lees were piled up in several warehouses, and even some of them had been piled up directly in the open air, and if it rained, it would be in vain. ”

The shopkeeper also smiled when he saw that Li Xiao was an understanding person.

"How much are you going to buy? If it's really large, it can be cheaper. ”

According to Li Xiao's grasp of the situation, the glutinous rice wine brewed in this winery, almost 100 catties of glutinous rice can finally leave about 30 catties of distiller's lees, which is dry distiller's lees.

But glutinous rice to make rice wine is very high, 100 catties of glutinous rice, and finally can even get 120 to 150 catties of rice wine, which is also a characteristic of rice wine, after all, after steaming glutinous rice and fermenting koji, the last is to add water and then ferment, so rice wine is also called water wine.

For the sake brewery, the sake lees can really be regarded as a negligible residue.

But for Li Xiao, this wine residue can become an important raw material for his winemaking.

After 100 catties of glutinous rice is brewed, 30 catties of dry distiller's grains can be left, and Li Xiao is sure that he may use 100 catties of distiller's lees to steam out fifteen catties of distiller's lees.

According to this wine production rate, in fact, even if the shopkeeper asks for fifteen yuan with one stone, it is quite cost-effective.

But business can't always do that.

"To put it mildly, I am willing to buy as much glutinous rice sake lees as the shopkeeper has. But as long as it's fresh, it can't be the kind of spoiled one, I'm afraid that if it spoils, my cattle and horses will have diarrhea after eating. ”

"Hahaha, this brother is really not afraid of the wind and flashes his tongue. Do you know how much wine we make here in a day? Just glutinous rice wine, the lees of the day can scare you. ”

"So, as a sign of sincerity, how about I be willing to buy a hundred stone of glutinous rice sake lees first? What is the price of a hundred stones? ”

A hundred stone of distiller's lees, in fact, can produce a thousand catties of soju, this amount, Li Xiao feels that he is not worried about selling, after all, there will be an order from Cheng Biting Jin.

One hundred stones, that's a lot of money.

The shopkeeper calculated in his heart that he did have a lot of glutinous rice lees here, but all along, glutinous rice lees are not easy to deal with, because glutinous rice is more expensive than any wheat rice and corn lees, so he also sells them at a higher price.

"One hundred stones, twelve wen and one stone, how?" The shopkeeper's is cheaper.

"No, I don't think it's sincere enough, a hundred stones is just the first batch I bought. If we cooperate well, there will be a larger amount in the future, and a hundred stone is not even enough for ten years. ”

When Li Xiao said this, the shopkeeper was really surprised, where did this Li Sanlang come from, how could he need such a large amount of sake lees, especially the fresh glutinous rice lees.

"Dare to ask Saburo what he wants so much sake lees for?"

"I have a lot of cattle and sheep at home, and it is easy to lose weight in spring and winter, so I can buy some sake lees to make up for my fat." Li Xiao replied with a smile, this answer to the shopkeeper was skeptical, but since the business was sent to the door, he was still very happy. It is better to have a large order of glutinous rice lees come to your door than to throw it there and sell it at a low price.

"San Lang, you make a price, I don't plan to make money, so I should make you a friend."

"How about five cents and one stone?" Li Xiao's price was very ruthless, and he fully played the essence of the direct three-fold bargain.

The shopkeeper rolled his eyes, who was so ruthless in bargaining.

"Shopkeeper, it's not cheap, you're wine dregs, not glutinous rice. Although glutinous rice sells for 150 wen and one stone, it is glutinous rice transported from Jiangnan after all, and you are wine residue, especially as far as I know, there are many wineries in Chang'an and the surrounding areas, and there are also many wineries that make glutinous rice wine, and they also have a lot of wine residues. ”

"Then I'm losing money." The shopkeeper looked embarrassed.

However, Li Xiao was unmoved, he lost a fortune, who didn't know that the profits of winemaking were high, especially those who could open a winery in these years, either it was officially opened, or it was started by those who had a background, and the profits of wine were high, and they usually made a lot of money.

A little sake lees, you can really make as much money as you sell.

"Six cents and one stone, I don't bother the two masters, and I will find the shopkeeper to get the goods in the future."

"Six pieces and one stone is really too little."

"One hundred stones, every time I pay a deposit of thirty percent, and then the shopkeeper sends a man to transport things to Lantian Lanxi, and then pay two percent after the goods arrive, and the remaining half of the payment will be settled in March, how about it?"

"San Lang, you're like this, I still have to take the freight, and there's no money to be made."

"Shopkeeper, let's all hurry up, if you agree, I'll pay, if you don't want to, then I can only turn around and go out, and then go to the next one."

"Can Saburo really ask for three or five hundred stone of sake lees in January?"

"Of course."

The shopkeeper thought about it and felt that if there was such a large amount, it was not that he could not cooperate, and the glutinous rice lees of several hundred stones a month suddenly had a way out, and he was troubled after the province.

"Okay, I've made you a friend."

"It's a pleasure to work with." Li Xiao smiled and arched his hand.

The next thing is naturally to look at the goods and then pay the money. However, Li Xiao asked for a contract, and as a later generation, he still paid more attention to the contract. And the original shopkeeper thought that doing business was honest, where to sign a contract, after all, for him, a few hundred stone of wine lees a month, in fact, there is really not much money.

Five hundred stones in a month is only three yuan, and he still has to take some money out to let people transport this thing to Lantian, dozens of miles away, and it will cost some money. If he didn't think that he could clean up these wine lees at one time, the usual piecemeal sales in the province were always piled up everywhere, and he really didn't bother to grind his teeth with Li Xiao.

Li Xiao insisted, borrowed a pen and paper, wrote a contract on the spot, and then made two copies, each signed and pressed his fingerprint.

The contract is very concise and clear, and the price and settlement method are agreed, so that everyone can avoid any trouble in the future.

The contract was signed, and Li Xiao also generously paid three times in advance, which was equivalent to paying the full amount of 500 stone distiller's grains at one time, which made the shopkeeper a little surprised.

In the warehouse, Li Xiao personally inspected the sake lees.

The warehouse is full of sake lees, all of which are directly scattered, the sake lees are dry, but in fact they are not all dry, but they are still a little wet, compared to the rice wine when the wine is finally squeezed out of the wine, it is impossible to press it too clean.

In fact, the sake lees stored in this way cannot be stored for too long, and it is easy to mold and spoil.

Fortunately, the sake lees in this warehouse are quite fresh, and after checking, there is no mildew, so Li Xiao said to the shopkeeper that the first batch will directly take 500 stone sake lees.

Mr. Zhao, who came with him, said with some concern, "The wine shop at home has not been built yet, so I can steam it after buying so many sake lees at once." ”

"Aye, don't worry, I'm sure."

The money has already been paid, and the shopkeeper is naturally happy to be able to empty the warehouse.

It is not easy to transport 500 stone of distiller's lees to Lanxi, after all, it is 80 miles away. If you transport five stones in one car, you have to transport one hundred trains. However, this is not difficult for the shopkeeper, there are many hard-working porters and coachmen on the edge of the winery, all of whom make some hard-earned money by transporting wine and distiller's lees.

The shopkeeper shouted and called a group of men, and quickly negotiated the price with them, and he did not need to pay, but directly took the lees as wages, and those men were obviously accustomed to and accepted this way of trading.

The sake lees they take are cheaper than the price they sell at the brewery, so they can actually make a little more money by selling them themselves.

However, Li Xiao calculated in his heart and found that the wages of these people were really cheap, and they didn't make much money after a hard day.

Don't say that you can earn a hundred dollars a day, in fact, you can earn about ten dollars a day.

But for those men, it's actually not bad, if it's ten cents, it's enough for them to get a few buckets of rice, even if they still have to buy a car and feed the mules, it's already very good.