Chao Chong, Shi Qian, and Huang Xin went to check the situation in Lijiazhuang in the east and went down the mountain. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

After a day of investigation, after going down the mountain, it was getting late, and I saw a river inn in front, facing the official road in front and the big stream in the back. Hundreds of weeping willows are the door, and one or two plum blossoms are next to the house.

Chao Chong and the three of them entered the inn, and Xiao Er hurriedly came over to talk when he saw it: "The three guest officers want to stay in the hotel?" ”

Huang Xin stepped forward and said: "It's getting late, so naturally I want to stay, do you have a single room here?" ”

Xiao Er said with a smile: "The country nightclub, where can it be compared to the city inn, there is no single room, only a large bunk, which can accommodate fifteen or sixteen people, but it is also cheap, thirty dollars a night." ”

Huang Xin looked at Chao Chong, Chao Chong nodded and said, "After a day's walk, people are sleepy and tired, so let's do it here." ”

Xiao Er hurriedly led the horses of the three to the backyard stable, and put on the forage. When I go back to the living room,

Huang Xin took out his usual money and said to Xiao Er: "The three of us will stay, and the rest of the money will go to get some food, if there is any surplus, it will be rewarded to you." ”

Xiao Er was overjoyed and said, "The guest officer is really a generous person!" The fire in our shop has been extinguished, so the small ones will go to make a fire to cook and fry a few vegetables. There is home-brewed wine in the store, and a jar is also brought for the guest officer. ”

Huang Xin nodded and said, "That's very good." ”

There are a few rough wooden tables and some sturdy wooden stools. The three of them picked a table and sat down, Xiao Er first brought a jar of wine, three large bowls, and a plate of cooked dishes, and the three of them chatted while drinking.

There are many kinds of liquor in the Song Dynasty, in Bianliang, Tokyo, major liquor shops, the famous liquor is Jian Nanchun, Daughter Hong, Bamboo Leaf Green, Xinghua Village, Rose Dew, Jade Ice Roast, Shaoxing Flower Carving and so on.

In addition to the famous wines made by those big wineries, there are also home-brewed loose wines from rural wild shops around the country, and there are countless of them.

In terms of raw materials, it can be divided into four categories: grain wine, rice wine, medicinal wine and fruit wine.

Gujiu is the earliest liquor invented in China, according to legend, it was invented in the era of the Yellow Emperor, and the main raw material is cereals, especially grains and sorghum. A typical representative is Xinghua Village.

Millet is milled into millet, and the wine made from millet and sorghum together has a yellow color, so it is generally called rice wine. Since the alcohol concentration in the mash reaches 20%, the yeast no longer ferments, so the alcohol content of the brew is generally around 18%. Later, when the secondary distillation technology was introduced to China, the degree of the liquor gradually increased to more than 20%, and the color of the liquor became white.

This is also the reason why ancient people liked to use large bowls when drinking alcohol, and it is the same reason as drinking beer to blowing on bottles.

Rice wine, as the name suggests, is a liquor made from rice. A typical representative is Shaoxing flower carving. The wine is intensely aromatic and its colors are divided into green, yellow, amber and red.

The reason for the green color of rice wine is that the purity of the koji is not guaranteed during the brewing process, and a large number of other microorganisms are mixed in the koji making and brewing process, resulting in the green color of the sake. Therefore, green rice wine is the worst quality, but it is the most common, the ancient idiom: red wine green, refers to the color of rice wine.

In the Song Dynasty, the liquor making technology improved, the liquor that had just been fermented was called raw liquor, in order to further sterilize, people invented the raw liquor heating treatment technology to control the continued reaction of microorganisms in the liquor, and there were two methods of "boiling" and "burning" for the heating treatment of raw liquor, the boiling method uses high temperature boiling point sterilization, and the shochu method uses low temperature micro-fire heating.

The Song people called the liquor that had been heated by the "burning" method "shochu", and this "shochu" was not the distilled liquor of later generations. The secondary distillation technology did not spread to China from the Western Regions until the late Southern Song Dynasty.

The color of rice wine is yellow over green and amber over yellow. As for the red color, it is because the red koji is added to the sake brewing, but in fact, the taste is not necessarily better than the amber color, and the typical representative is the daughter red.

Medicinal liquor, in fact, is a kind of prepared liquor, before the second-rate distillation technology, the Song Dynasty liquor production process has reached its peak, since the alcohol content can not be improved, then in some taste and function, there are many wonderful ideas. Most of the medicinal liquor is based on grain wine and rice wine, adding animal and plant medicinal materials or spices, and processing by soaking, blending, steaming and other methods. According to the different functions of use, it can be divided into two categories: Tusu wine, pepper and cypress wine, calamus wine, realgar wine, chrysanthemum wine, dogwood wine and other seasonal wines and nourishing health wines for people to drink on festivals.

Fruit wine, although it is called wine, is a drink. The alcohol content is low, and the taste is mainly sweet. It was mainly supplied to the female dependents of the upper class. With a variety of fruits and wild fruits as raw materials, fermented to make a variety of low-alcohol beverage wine, the mainstream is wine, Shanxi Taiyuan area since the Tang Dynasty has been the main wine producing area in the mainland. In addition to wine, fruit wine also includes lychee wine, coconut wine, yellow mandarin wine, pear wine, honey wine, etc.

What Chao Chong and the others are drinking now is the loose wine brewed by the village shop, and the quality is far inferior to that of the big winery and the official brew.

Chao Chong had also thought about making liquor with secondary distillation technology to make money before, but after making a few urns on Liangshan, he stopped. The reason is simple, it can't be sold.

Distilled again on the basis of the original liquor, only five catties of ten catties can be left, or even less, and the cost is equivalent to more than double. If you want to make money, you must sell for more than twice the price of regular wine.

So was this high-intensity distilled liquor really competitive in the Song Dynasty?

Distilled liquor technology was introduced to China from the late Southern Song Dynasty by the Jin people and was widely promoted during the Yuan Dynasty. But this kind of high-strength wine has always taken the bottom route, like dog meat, delicious, but not elegant.

Moreover, the distilled liquor has a high degree, is sweet and drunk, and is easy to intoxicate, until the Ming Dynasty hundreds of years later, the weak literati doctors did not like it. Will today's literati and doctors of the Song people like it?

If you want to take the bottom route, you have to take the road of small profits and quick turnover. If the price is high, ordinary people can't afford to drink it; The price is low, your cost is more than twice that of regular wine, and it is not profitable!

What's more, now Liangshan belongs to thieves, and there are no good sales channels, and no businessman dares to risk the reputation of colluding with thieves to come to Liangshan to purchase.

Therefore, the distilled liquor was temporarily put on hold, and it was first used as a medicine bar for disinfection of the medical department.

In the future, when the territory of Liangshan is larger, it will be possible to promote distilled liquor, and even sell it to those Khitans, Jurchens, and Mongols in the northern wilderness, who must like it more.

When Chao Chong and the three of them were drinking and chatting, two big men came in outside the door, looking like dusty servants.

One of them, eight feet tall, with two eyebrows and sideburns, phoenix eyes facing the sky, pale yellow skin, a few thin mustaches, carrying a burden, and a long object wrapped in a coarse cloth on his back, if you look closely, the shape looks like a ghost-headed knife;

The other person, with a green scarf and a head, has a resolute appearance, a large figure, a strong body, twenty-seven or eighteen years old, and also carries a burden.

The two of them entered the shop, first observed, and saw that the three of them were sitting idle, and they didn't look like the shopkeeper, so one of them came forward and said, "Brothers, where is the owner of this shop?" ”

Chao Chong said: "I'm cooking in the back kitchen." ”

Then he said to Shi Qian: "Go and shout and tell the little two that there is business coming to the door again." ”

Shi Qian smiled and walked to the back kitchen.

Chao Chong saw that the two of them looked extraordinary, so he invited: "Meeting is fate, there is still a place on the table, why don't you have two drinks together?" ”

The two glanced at each other, and the young man wrapped in a cyan turban arched his hand and said, "Thank you little brother for the invitation, it's just that my brother is covered in dust, and I'm afraid of disturbing Your Excellency's Yaxing." Thank you very much! ”

Huang Xin frowned, and wanted to speak, but Chao Chong shook his head slightly.

Chao Chong raised the wine bowl, saluted from afar, and said, "It's okay! After saying that, he took a sip. The two nodded in acknowledgement.

Soon, Shi Qian and Xiao Er walked out of the back kitchen, and Xiao Er said to the two people: "Here is the Xiao Er of our store, do you want to stay?" ”

The two said, "Arrange two positions." ”

Xiao Er said: "Do you two want to eat something?" ”

The man with the knife on his back said: "Let's just make some food ourselves, borrow the store's pot and stove, and borrow five liters of rice first, and calculate the money for you tomorrow." ”

Xiao Er said: "There is a pot on the stove that is clean, and the guest officer may as well use it for his own use." It's just that the villain is a small business here, and he doesn't take credit. ”

The man with the knife on his back took out a small hairpin from the baggage, handed it over and said, "Use this thing as a mortgage first, if it's not enough, it's good to settle accounts together tomorrow!" ”

Xiao Er took it and looked at it, it was indeed silver, and it was worth five or six hundred dollars, so he nodded and said, "In this way, guests please take care of themselves." ”

The two followed Xiao Er to the back kitchen.

Shi Qian glanced at them a few times, and whispered to Chao Chong: "Lord, these two people are not like mortals. There is still food for me in the back kitchen, and I am afraid that they will make trouble, so I will go to spy on one or two. ”

Chao Chong smiled: "You are becoming more and more intuitive with the intelligence director. Go ahead, but be careful, don't let them find out, so as not to be embarrassed. ”

Shi Qian responded to the call, walked outside the store first, turned over on the roof, and touched the back kitchen.

There were three stoves in the back kitchen, one for steaming rice, one for cooking, and one for the two brothers.

Xiao Er's craftsmanship is good, although the fried vegetables are just ordinary vegetables, they are also delicious. Soon the rice was steamed, Shi Qian also returned to the hall, and the three of them had a full meal, and then went to the back room to rest.

After the two brothers finished eating, they also carefully packed their bags and slept in their clothes on the bunk.

Nothing was said all night.

Early in the morning of the second day, everyone washed up and was about to leave, when Xiao Er walked in with an angry face and shouted to the two brothers: "Guest, you are so unreasonable, how did you steal the chicken reported in my store!" ”

The man with the knife on his back said, "Hell, we slept in the dawn last night, how could we have seen your chicken!" ”

Xiao Er said angrily: "Where are the chickens in my store?" ”

The man with the green turban said: "Maybe it was dragged by a wild cat, and the yellow ape ate it, and the harrier eagle pounced, but how did our brother know!" ”

Xiao Er said: "My chicken was still in the cage last night, who did you steal?" ”

The big man with the knife pointed at the three of them: "Why don't you doubt them?" ”

Chao Chong looked innocent and looked at Huang Xin and Shi Qian, both of whom shook their heads.

Xiao Er arched his hand to Chao Chong and the three of them: "Those three are all on horseback, and they are generous, how can they steal if they want to eat chickens?" On the contrary, it is you who eat and buckle the rope. Who else could it be? ”

The big man with the knife on his back took out a handful of silver from his baggage and said, "What, you think we don't have any money?" What is it? We don't argue with you, a broken chicken is worth a few dollars, just when we are unlucky, we will lose you. ”

The big man with the green scarf grabbed the big man with the knife on his back and said, "Big brother, we didn't steal it, why did you give him money?" ”

The big man with the knife on his back sighed: "Brother Xian, we are out of the house, more things are better than less!" ”

The shopkeeper said: "Mine is Baoxiao chicken, and if there is no less in the store, you will pay me ten taels of silver, as long as I return the chicken." ”

The green scarf man said angrily: "Who are you fooling? If the master doesn't compensate you, what will happen? In fact, he was quite dissatisfied with the loss of money, so he deliberately made provocative remarks.

The shopkeeper smiled and said, "Guest, you don't want to beg for wildfire here!" Only my store is not as good as other inns, take you to my Zhujiazhuang, and then be a Liangshan thief and escort to the government. ”

When the green scarf man heard this, he scolded: "We are the heroes of Liangshanbo, why did you take me to ask for a reward!" ”

The big man with the knife was also enraged, and said: "Kindly pay you some money, don't compensate you, how can you take me!" ”

Seeing that the two eight-foot-tall men were angry, the weak Xiao Er was also dumbfounded, with his own skills, how to arrest the two? I couldn't help but take a few steps back.

The big man with a green scar said angrily: "Our brother is innocent, but he was wronged by you, a dog-eyed prank. Since it is said that it is our brothers who eat, then we eat! What are you going to do? Angered grandpa, set fire to your broken house! ”

After speaking, he grabbed Xiao Eryi, raised his fist the size of a wine bowl, and was about to fight. Xiao Er reprimanded the two with a burst of anger, but he didn't want to really anger the two, and he was about to be unlucky.

One hand blocked the fist of the big man in the green scarf, pulled Xiao Er behind him, hugged his fist and said: "The two of you are also good men who walk the rivers and lakes, and they must also have good skills, why bother to meet Xiao Er." ”

Then he said to Xiao Er: "I'll be fair, I lived in the same room with these two heroes last night, and until dawn, the two of them didn't go out, so naturally they didn't have time to steal chickens, let alone eat chickens!" ”

Xiao Er saw that Chao Chong helped him out of the siege, and he was grateful, plus Chao Chong and the others made a generous move, so he believed three points and said, "What the guest officer said is true?" ”

Chao Chong nodded and said: "Every sentence is true, if there is a lie, you can also be compensated for a horse!" ”

Xiao Er was puzzled: "Then where are my chickens?" ”

Chao Chong said with a smile: "Hearing is false, seeing is believing, we might as well go to the scene to investigate, everyone can go together!" ”

The big man with the knife on his back stepped forward and said, "Thank you, little brother, for speaking up, in order to wash away our grievances, I am willing to go together." ”

The big man of the green scarf also hugged his fists and said: "I was reckless just now, and if I was offended, please Haihan!" ”

Chao Chong smiled and said, "It's okay, go together, go together!" ”

When I arrived in the backyard, I saw a chicken coop next to the wall, hanging three feet above the ground. The chicken coop has a hole, and in addition to chicken manure, there are some chicken feathers.

Chao rushed to Shi Qian and gave him a look.

Shi Qian is used to being a thief, and he is very proficient in this trip, and after watching for a while, he shrugged his nose and sniffed it and said, "Everyone, wait a minute, I'll come when I go." After speaking, he followed the traces on the ground, crossed the official road, was as light as a swallow, and ran into the mountains and forests. After less than a stick of incense, he returned again, holding a remnant chicken with chicken feet and chicken feathers left in his hand, and handed it to Xiao Er: "Look at it, but that rooster of yours?" ”

Xiao Er looked at it and said, "The feather color is quite similar." ”

Shi Qian said: "What was found in the pit in the forest, judging by the size of the wound, should be the weasel's doing." ”

Xiao Er looked at the chicken feet and chicken feathers in his hand, and was speechless, in such a situation, he naturally had nothing to say, he could only sigh unlucky, and when the shopkeeper came back, he had to deduct his monthly money.

Chao Chong saw Xiao Er's depressed expression and signaled to Huang Xin.

Huang Xin took out a small piece of silver from his arms and said, "For the sake of your dedicated service, the prince will reward you." ”

Xiao Er took the silver in disbelief and said gratefully: "Thank you for the reward, but the villain doesn't dare to accept this money......"

Chao Chong smiled: "Take it, and then go buy a rooster that has been announced, and the provincial shopkeeper will scold." You can keep the rest for yourself. ”

The second child is overjoyed, and he is very grateful.

The group had breakfast, took their horses, and left the shop.

The big man with the knife on his back said to Chao Chong: "Today's matter is thanks to the help of the son, otherwise my brother will bear the injustice, although it is not a big deal, but he is still aggrieved." In the lower Yang Xiong, thank you again. After speaking, he clenched his fists and bowed.

The big man in the green scarf also hugged his fists and said: "The money is small, but the reputation is big." If you do something big, it's fine, if you are called a chicken thief, I'm afraid it will be a shame for your life! The love of the child, I will repay it in the future. In Shimoshi Xiu, thank you as well. After speaking, he also bowed.

Chao Chong helped the two of them and said, "Could it be that Suo Yang Xiong, the sick Guan of Jizhou Mansion, and Shi Xiu, who is desperate for Sanlang?" ”

The two were also surprised: "Childe actually recognizes us two brothers?" "But in my heart, I secretly shouted bad luck, could it be that the official government's wanted list has been transmitted here?

Chao Chong smiled: "I have heard of the names of the two of them for a long time. The interrogation hall used reckless means, and the execution knife was as sharp as the wind. Yellowish complexion, thin eyebrows, known as the disease. The hero is Yang Xiong. ”

Yang Xiong arched his hand and smiled: "I don't dare to praise it." ”

Chao Chong said to Shi Xiu again: "I am like a tiger in the mountains, and my sex is like adding fuel to the fire." Ambitious, bold and resourceful, he rescues people everywhere. The desperate Saburo is called Shi Xiu. ”

Shi Xiu also arched his hand and said, "Thank you for the compliment." ”

Chao Chong said: "Aren't the two of you in Jizhou Mansion, why are you here?" ”

Yang Xiong sighed and said, "It's hard to say. My brother killed someone for me, and we had no choice but to flee for our lives. The farther away from Jizhou, the better, I heard that here Liangshanbo heroes gathered, robbing the rich and helping the poor, so I wanted to go to join the gang. If Childe despises my two brothers as fugitives, let's just leave them apart! ”

Yang Xiong's words were secretive, which reminded Chao Chong of the character Pan Qiaoyun. If this person is really killed, it is a family ugly, and Yang Xiong doesn't want to say more, so it makes sense. So Chao Chong didn't delve into this matter. Said to the two: "If you want to go to Liangshan to join in, just go along!" ”

Shi Xiuqi said: "We are fugitives, we are forced to be helpless, the son has a good identity, why do you want to fall into the grass?" ”

Huang Xin accosted beside him, and said with a hint of Chao Chong: "We are all heroes of Liangshan, this is the young master of Liangshanbo, surnamed Chao Mingchong!" ”

When the two heard this, they hurriedly bowed down and said: "I don't want the young master to be here, I am willing to join the gang, please accept the young master!" ”

Chao Chong smiled and helped the two of them up and said, "Two heroes joined, I am lucky to be Liangshan!" But I have said first, there are more rules on Liangshan, and it is not more relaxed than other places. If you want to stay, I welcome it with both hands, and we are as close as brothers; If you want to go, I will give you a coil and worry about the rivers and lakes. ”

Yang Xiong and Shi Xiu glanced at each other, bowed down again and said, "Xie Shaozhai Lord take it in!" ”

Name: Yang Xiong (Sick Guan Suo)

Health: 2500/2500

Commander-in-Chief: 56

Force: 82

Intelligence: 51

Politics: 39

Glamour: 73

Affinity: Gratitude

Traits: Unyielding (a good guy with principles in his heart, a tough guy when it comes to the bottom line)

Name: Shi Xiu (Desperate Saburo)

Health: 2600/2600

Commander-in-Chief: 66

Force: 85

Intelligence: 86

Politics: 32

Charm: 81

Affinity: Gratitude

Traits: Bold and ambitious (brave and decisive, but delicate and delicate. ）