Ten days later, Tian Fan made distilled spirits.

In the Mijia hotel, the guests invited to attend saw an unprecedented wine, colorless, strong and compelling, and the fragrance is stronger than the ordinary wine, as for the taste, there is no sweet and greasy feeling of ordinary wine, the taste is monotonous, it is two words - very spicy! When Zhang Fei heard this smell, his index finger moved, and he poured almost three taels of Yijue wine into his mouth very boldly, and after he swallowed it, a black face suddenly turned red, and then there was a heart-rending cough! After coughing, this guy was addicted, saying that it was piping hot, and the fire was burning, and he felt that it was a ball of fire drilled into his stomach along his mouth...... In the end, the result of the bet was that Zhang Fei lost, probably drinking less than three catties! In fact, it's not that he can't drink enough, no matter how heavy the amount of alcohol is, he is used to drinking low-alcohol alcohol, and it is easy to get drunk even if he drinks high-alcohol alcohol.

About ten days later, the first high-grade liquor ever produced by the Tian family and the Mi family was launched. It has made the good drinkers of the Great Han addicted, and its popularity has greatly exceeded expectations. The price (wholesale price) of this wine is as high as 1,000 yuan per jar (about five catties), while the price (retail price) in Liangzhou, a state in the northwest, is the highest at 10,000 per jar.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the price of grain per stone was about 100 yuan, which could reach about 50 yuan in a bumper year, and 4 or 500 yuan in a war or disaster year. One stone of grain is one hundred and twenty catties, and one catty between the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties is 222.73 grams, that is to say, one stone is equivalent to 53.46 catties now, and this thousand dollars can buy ten stones of grain, how much wine can these grains make? The profit is still very lucrative!

Leftovers such as sake lees after brewing are also very useful, and they can be used to raise pigs, sheep and horses. Especially when raising pigs, the sake lees contain a certain amount of alcohol, and those pigs who eat the sake lees fall asleep after eating, and they are fat! In ancient times, fatty meat was more popular than lean meat, and it was very profitable to raise pigs on sake lees! Although pork is not popular in large households, most of them eat mutton, and occasionally eat some pork, only small households eat pork, but most of the soldiers are from poor backgrounds! They definitely like to eat pork, especially the fatty, oily chunks of fat, they definitely like it to death! Raising more pigs, even if it is a special supply for the army, to improve the life of soldiers, how cost-effective is this?

In line with the principle of equal profit sharing, but also to prevent people from coveting the profits of spirits and destroying them, Tian Fan and Mi Zhu decided to let the Chen family, the Cao family and other big families and Tao Qian, Liu Bei and other Xuzhou helmsmen participate, and they will jointly venture and set up a liquor wholesale department with money or land or effort, which is responsible for wholesale to the outside world. As for how much profit they occupy, they can discuss it themselves. The production process is still completely controlled by the two Tianmi.

The profits generated by this small wine are not expected by everyone, and the few families who participated are very happy, and those who cannot participate are very greedy, after all, no one is afraid of money, right? In order to appease them, and also to make up for the lack of their own production, Tian Fan and Mi Zhu decided to buy and brew good distiller's grains from major families at a price higher than the market price of 50% higher, and after buying it, the finished product can be obtained after distillation! In order to ensure the uniform quality of the purchased sake lees, the koji and fermentation process that the Mi family has been inheriting for hundreds of years are provided to the major families free of charge, which may be a raw material processing model, right? Of course, this kind of cooperation is also suitable for Cao Bao, Chen Qi and others, and they all joined without hesitation. So, all of a sudden, the major families in Xuzhou were surprisingly united! Now Cao Bao and Chen Qi saw Tian Fan and a nephew, and they were very affectionate to him.

Doing business in ancient China, especially before Wu Zetian in the Tang Dynasty, well, to be exact, before the Song Dynasty, if you are a big family, especially the kind of family with many famous people, then you are crooked. Even in times of war, as long as you are not fighting, you don't have to worry about your goods being unsafe, except for things that are too sensitive, such as food and ironware, of course. Any force, it should be said that it wants to mix well and want to get the support of the wealthy family, can't offend you too much, otherwise it will definitely not develop. …,

During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Yellow Turban Army did not slaughter any of the nobles. In Gaomi County, where Zheng Xuan is located, because of a request from Zheng Xuan, a famous man who asks the world, the entire Gaomi has not been looted by the Yellow Turban Army.

The reason why Cao Cao withdrew during the second expedition to Xuzhou was because Lü Bu copied his old nest. And the fundamental reason is because he killed the Yanzhou celebrity Bian Rang and slaughtered his clan. At that time, Chen Liutai guarded Zhang Miao, as well as Chen Gong and other scholars, colluded with Lu Bu and made Yanzhou full of smoke, so Cao Cao had no choice but to withdraw his troops. This shows the strong appeal of the scholars!

Tang Taizong is awesome, right? But when the Tang Dynasty was founded and the world was looking forward to stability for a long time, it still had to look at the faces of several major families in the early Tang Dynasty! You must know that the officials who went out from those big families accounted for nearly forty percent of the officials of the Tang Dynasty at that time.

The reason why Tang Xuanzong was so awesome and was able to create the rule of Kaiyuan and make the Tang Dynasty reach the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty was not that he was capable, but that in Wu Zetian's era, she had already done almost everything for those big families who stood in the way.

It can be said that ancient China, which began with the Han Dynasty, was under the control of the family for more than half of the time. This is also the fundamental reason why the emperor and the scholar rule the world together! Someone said, it's not a big deal for me to offend a family, right? Not necessarily, the ghost knows how complicated the relationship between the various families is! Through marriage, cooperation and other means, a formidable network of relationships has been formed between the clans, which is not something that everyone has the courage to touch. Therefore, under normal circumstances, it will be over if it can pass, as long as it does not involve issues of principle, the big difference will pass.

Only a person with great courage like Wu Zetian can have the courage to touch those big clans, and at this point, she is a well-deserved strongman! But, then again, it is also because the world has been peaceful for a long time, and her strength is enough, if she was born in the early stage of Zhenguan, she would not dare to do this! However, she did not do it thoroughly, the final end of the period of China's rule by the big clans is not how many people you kill and how many families you exterminate, but how to cut off their means of controlling the world - the inspection system!

The probation system, as the name suggests, is produced by the officials! The laws of the Qin and Han dynasties stipulate that if the recommended talent is not qualified, then the recommender will be punished, and the recommended talent is qualified, and the recommender has no benefit. In this case, will the officials recommend outsiders they don't know? Would you recommend people who don't have a relationship with you? In the long run, these officials will be recommended by a small number of families, and these people will definitely unite around the family that recommended them. So, this phenomenon of the rule of scholars and doctors was formed! For example, Yuan Shao's family, the third prince of the fourth world, and his protégés and former officials are all over the world, so he raised his arms and shouted, and immediately had extremely strong strength.

It can be said that as long as the inspection system exists, after the old family is destroyed, a new family will be formed! It was not until the Song Dynasty that the imperial examination system was fully matured, and China was considered to have entered a highly centralized feudal monarchy from a country controlled by the great clans!

In a strict sense, the Mi family does not belong to the scholar clan, and can only be regarded as strong. But this heroic strength is not ordinary! At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a saying among the wealthy families called the four elephants, ten cows and thirty-two sheep, which were some of the most powerful families in the Haoqiang. Although many people don't know what an elephant is, this sentence still spreads, and everyone understands that "elephant" is more bullish than "cow". Elephant refers to a family with an annual income of more than 200 million yuan, cattle refers to a family with an annual income of between 50 million and 200 million, and sheep refers to a family with an annual income of between 10 million and 50 million.

The four elephants refer to the Hedong Wei family, the Qin family in Sichuan, the Zhen family in Zhongshan, and the Xiapi Mi family, among which the Hedong Wei family is the descendant of Wei Qing, and its family is mainly engaged in food and weapons. There are many people in the Wei family in the past dynasties, although there are not many top officials, but there have been a few celebrities, and they can be regarded as scholars, and the other three families are all real heroes. …,

Among these three, except for the current head of the Zhongshan Zhen family, who once served as an insignificant county magistrate, the other two families did not have a career at all. But there is no celebrity, and there has never been a celebrity, but it does not mean that it is easy to bully! The Zhen family is mainly engaged in grain and jewelry, etc., and its influence in Jizhou, Bingzhou, and Youzhou is very large, so big that even Yuan Shao does not dare to offend easily. Yuan Shao gave his second son Yuan Xi to marry Zhen Mi, the youngest daughter of the Zhen family, just to win over the Zhen family. The Qin family in Sichuan is not easy to mess with, and its family is mainly engaged in weapon casting, and its history can be traced back to the Warring States Period. Seventy percent of the weapons used by Liu Zhang's army in Yizhou were provided by the Qin family, so it can be imagined that its huge influence was huge. Mijia's business is mainly wine-making and grain, its annual grain is less than 6 million stones, more than 15 million stones, is Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Yangzhou the largest grain merchants, and many famous scholars in the Han Dynasty are related, its influence is very huge!

What is the concept of six million stones? Equivalent to a year's ration for an army of 400,000! (The question of the amount of food for the ancient military will be discussed later.) That's the equivalent of a million ordinary people's food in a disaster year! That's the equivalent of a year's worth of food for 600,000 people! It is also equivalent to one-fifth of the total annual output of Xuzhou during its heyday! Although it is a war year, and although its trading volume has shrunk significantly, the network that has been established in previous years has not disappeared immediately......

Some people may ask, then why does Mi Zhu want to be an official? How so? This guy is an official fan! He wants to be an official, and he would rather give up the huge wealth left by his ancestors to become an official! What can you do?

With the Mi family's business routes and influence, Tian Fan is not afraid that his wine will not be sold. Through this wine, he can help Liu Bei establish a strong network with many wealthy families in the non-occupied areas, and through a series of new inventions and creations in the future, he will gather all the big families in the occupied areas of Liu Bei into Liu Bei's hands. Burning knives is just the first product!

Due to the extremely complex process of distilling liquor, especially the process of final distillation, the distillation process was still very imperfect at this time, until a year later, after the two winemakers worked day and night to explore and study, each process of distillation was clarified, and a complete set of work processes was formed.

Tian Fan gave this wine the name of burning knives, and the reason why the name of the first wine is so strong is because the taste of this wine is not good, it is very spicy, and the name of burning knives is very suitable for it.

Regarding spirits, Tian Fan's plan is to divide the wine into two parts. Some of them should be cellared for a period of time before being blended and sold. Of course, the longer the cellar time, the higher the price, which is the aging process, and this wine mainly takes the high-end route. The other part is distillation to complete direct blending, which is to take the ordinary route. Even for ordinary routes, the price of thousands of dollars is unusually high!

In addition, Tian Fan also has two ideas for distilled spirits, the first is to sell the burning knives to the grassland area, and exchange them for horses, cattle, sheep and furs and other things that were urgently needed in the Han Dynasty; The second is to find a way to make alcohol and use it as a disinfectant, but now the degree of distilled alcohol does not reach the level of medical alcohol, due to the problem of technology, it is only about 60 degrees, and you have to find a way to remove some water. It is too difficult to remove this part of the water by distillation, and the method that Tian Fan thought of was to use zeolite to absorb it, but he didn't know where there was zeolite, so he could only take it slowly.

During this period of time, Tian Fan has been very idle, Tao Qian is not dead, and he does not have to work for Liu Bei. So he either stayed at home, compensated his parents for talking, teasing Xiao Liu'er, and telling stories to Tian Kun's stinky boy, or went to Mi's house to find Mi Zhen. The relationship between the two is also rising in a straight line, under Tian Fan's rhetoric and semi-compulsion, Mi Zhen lost her first kiss without paying attention~~ Tian Fan felt very happy! …,

In the middle of October of the first year of Emperor Xingping of the Han Dynasty, heavy rain fell from the sky, and the drought that lasted for ten months finally ended.

In late October of the first year of Emperor Xingping of the Han Dynasty, Tao Qian was seriously ill, and all the doctors involved in the diagnosis and treatment said that they were unable to return to heaven. Tao Qian's situation is that his vitality is exhausted, and he has run out of oil and the lamp has dried up! Shortly after Cao Cao retired from the army, he became ill. The ensuing drought, locust plague, and the disaster victims, his heart was always hanging, and he kept doing what he had to do. Now it's raining, and the breath he was holding on to suddenly leaked, and people can't do it!

Tao Qian sent Tao Ying, a pottery merchant, to invite Mi Zhu and Tian Fan, and the two hurried over. At this time, Tao Qian was already bedridden, the two knelt on the edge of the hospital bed, and the pottery merchant wiped his tears and shouted "father" a few times, and Tao Qian woke up. He tried hard to open his two cloudy eyes, turned his head laboriously, and looked at Mi Zhu and Tian Fan, and it took a long time before the focus of his eyes fell on the two of them. He said to the potter, Tao Ying, "Go out! The two wiped their tears and agreed, and first tucked the quilt corner for Tao Qian before going out.

These few simple words seemed to exhaust Tao Qian's strength, and he paused for a while before saying to Mi Zhu and Tian Fan: "Zizhong, Boguang, I can't do it now, I have something to entrust to you!" Mi Zhu persuaded: "Envoy, you will be fine!" Tao Qian waved his hand laboriously and said, "My own body knows that it was already very heavy at the time of the locust plague, and I just held it in one breath!" Now that the problem is solved, as soon as this breath is relieved, I can't do it! Don't talk about those useless things, listen to my arrangement! Mi Zhu and Tian Fan glanced at each other and said in unison: "Please give your command!" Tao Qian said: "Zizhong, after I die, you go to Xiaopei and welcome Liu Xuande over to inherit Xuzhou!" In this troubled world, only he can guarantee that Xuzhou will not be called by Cao Heizi, and only he can protect the people of Xuzhou from being slaughtered by Cao Apu! Mi Zhu hurriedly agreed.

Tao Qian rested for a while, and then said to Tian Fan: "Boguang, I entrusted my two sons to you!" The two of them don't want to go up, they just want to play, and I'm afraid that after I die, they will one day ruin this family! If it really comes to that time, I hope you will take care of one or two in the friendship of the three of you, and only two meals a day! If possible, you must help me keep an eye on them, and don't let them ruin this family! Tian Fan said: "Rest assured, the two brothers are not the kind of gentlemen who don't seek progress!" Suppose there is a day when I assure you that I will definitely watch the two brothers! Tao Qian nodded and said, "Xuande Gong is benevolent, you two must assist him wholeheartedly, and he will not treat you badly in the future!" The two hurriedly agreed. After saying these words, Tao Qian closed his eyes tiredly and nodded! Mi Zhu and Tian Fan said goodbye and left!

In November of the first year of Emperor Xingping of the Han Dynasty, Tao Qian died.

Tao Qian, a native of Danyang (now Northeast Dangtu, Anhui). When he was a teenager, he was uninhibited and unrestrained, and he was studious and studious, and he was born in Shizhou County, raised Maocai, worshiped Shang Shulang, and successively served as Shu County Commander and Lu County Order. Later, he moved to Youzhou to assassinate the history and pay homage to Yilang. Its "innocence in the official, there is no way to correct", in the late Han Dynasty "jackal rule" years is really rare. The official is General Anton, Xuzhou Mu, and the Marquis of Liyang. He was a late bloomer, and at the age of fifty-four, he assisted Huangfu Song and Zhang Wen to quell the rebellion of Beigong Boyu. In the winter and October of the fifth year of Zhongping (188 AD), the yellow turbans of Qing and Xu prefectures rose again and attacked the counties. The imperial court used Tao Qian as the assassin of Xuzhou to suppress the Yellow Turban Army. Tao Qian also lived up to expectations, breaking the yellow scarf at the age of fifty-six. The yellow scarf is broken, and the territory is silent. At that time, Xuzhou was twice hit by the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and after the war, "the world was famine and the people were hungry". If it is not handled properly, it is not uncommon for the hungry people to have another Yellow Turban Rebellion. "The country is people-oriented, and the people take food as the sky", in order to solve the problem of the people's righteousness, we must first solve the problem of eating. Tao Qian showed his excellent political ability at the moment, and he thought of a good way - Tuntian. He was the first person in Tuntian during the Three Kingdoms period! At the same time, in order to fight against the Taiping Sect, Tao Qian acquiesced to the promotion of Buddhism by Pi Xiangrong, which had a very good effect. During Tao Qian's tenure as the assassin of Xuzhou, the Yellow Turban Rebellion in Qingzhou and Yanzhou in the north rose one after another, but Xuzhou was peaceful. This is Tao Qian's great practice in Tuntian, the promotion of Buddhism.

In November of the first year of Emperor Xingping of the Han Dynasty, Mi Zhu was ordered by Tao Qian to invite Liu Bei to Xuzhou in Xiaopei!

In December of the first year of Emperor Xingping of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei personally presided over Tao Qian's funeral, and then entered Xuzhou.