"Look at what the letter says!" After receiving Cui'er's news, Master Ye hurriedly rushed to Lian's Mansion with his three sons, saw Cui'er in the study in the outer courtyard, and asked busily.

"It's news from the Dingguo Mansion, I looked at it and wrote the steps, methods and standards for the selection of imperial merchants, let's study them carefully one by one, if there is anything that doesn't fit, hurry up and get it." Cui'er said, taking out a piece of paper and placing it on the table.

"I put away the letter sent by the Dingguo Mansion properly, and I can't let people get the handle, no, I copied it." Cui'er put the paper on the table and said. Cui'er not only copied the letter again, but also marked out the key points and the like, and the five people in the room crowded around the table, carefully watching the news sent by the Dingguo Mansion.

This time, the selection of imperial merchants was divided into three stages, and in the end, only one tea chamber was selected as an imperial merchant to receive this supreme honor and all the tea orders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the next ten years. Of course, this tea merchant does not necessarily have to be a household, and it is also possible for one to be supplemented by several families, but the name of this imperial merchant can only be based on the main one.

Of course, this tea merchant as an imperial merchant does not mean that he has a monopoly on all the tea in the palace. After all, the tea drinks of the emperor and the concubines of the harem are all carefully selected from the top tea leaves in various places, and it is almost impossible to replace them.

As the tea merchant of the imperial merchants, the largest target group is also the most profitable place, in fact, the lower-ranking concubines, palace maids, eunuchs and the like in the inner courtyard of the palace. The tea they drink is not exclusively available. It's just distribution, and most people don't care too much about the number of tea varieties and quality, and the consumption is huge.

Because the oil and water are big. It was also stained with the name of the royal family, and tea merchants from all over the country flocked to it so much.

The Ye family's competition for the imperial merchants, in addition to this oil and water, is more important to be recognized by the royal family. Master Ye thinks that his own Biye tea is no worse than the tea that he gave to the imperial merchants, if he can let the emperor know his own tea through the competition of the imperial merchants, even if he drinks a cup occasionally, this is also a supreme glory.

With this vision. The Ye family is preparing to be selected by the emperor, and they are becoming more and more attentive.

In three phases. The first stage is the primary selection, no matter what kind of tea merchant it is, only need to present no less than five kinds of tea, each ten catties. to qualify for the primary election. The first stage is mainly to see whether the quality and type of tea can meet the needs of advancement, if the quality of tea can be distributed, the variety distribution is wide enough, it is enough to be shortlisted.

In the first stage, 10 shortlisted merchants will be selected to enter the second stage, and the rest will be eliminated.

In the second stage, tea is still offered, but this time it is necessary to offer spring tea, summer tea and newly made autumn tea at the same time, and this stage mainly examines the long-term supply of tea.

Everyone knows that spring tea leaves are thick, delicious and of good quality, but the yield of spring tea is not high. If you forcibly require that the tribute tea can only be spring tea, I am afraid that this imperial merchant will not make money, but lose money.

This tea is not only drunk in the spring. Instead, it is drunk all year round, so the continuous supply cannot be less. How to drink tea with the same quality and taste all year round is the focus of the second level.

If you want to keep the spring tea in the autumn to maintain a good taste, the skill of this roasted tea needs to be good, and the preservation conditions must also be achieved. The green tea quality of summer tea and autumn tea is not as good as that of spring tea. However, to ensure that the taste is the same, the ability to make tea requires a lot of hard work.

Phase II. Three merchants will be selected to enter the next round of competition, and the final royal merchant will also be produced in these three merchants.

The third stage is tea fighting.

"Tea fights?" Master Ye chewed these two words repeatedly, his brows furrowed slightly, "Our tea tasting now is very different from the previous dynasty, how to fight tea?" ”

There was silence in the study for a while, and everyone was thinking about what was going on with this tea fight.

"In the previous dynasty, the tea cake was drunk, and when it was drunk, the tea cake was roasted and crushed, and then boiled in water. This directly combines the tea powder and water in one place, and it can be seen from the tea, soup and whisk that the tea cake is good or bad, and the skill of the tea orderer, but this is different from the tea brewed now. The youngest Ye Lu couldn't help it at first, and said what he thought in his heart.

"Could it be that you want to fight tea in the same way as the previous dynasty?" Ye Qing frowned and said, obviously Ye Qing couldn't make up his mind in this matter.

"Where will this be, if the cake tea is better than our current tea, where will someone abandon it, it is all outdated things, if it is used for the selection of imperial merchants, it is a child's play." Master Ye shook his head and said with a sigh.

"I think that although this letter doesn't say how to fight, it says that there will be nobles to be judges, so it seems that it is according to everyone's preferences." Cui'er hesitated and guessed.

Although it is not known how the third stage of the three-stage competition will be judged, the first and second stages are very clear. The family met together and discussed, and decided to prepare for the first two stages first.

Ten catties of each of the five kinds of tea is not a problem for the Ye family, but the Ye family has many varieties of tea, and it takes a lot of brains to pick out the five most representative and wide coverage.

And the unification of the taste of spring tea, summer tea and autumn tea is also a problem that the Ye family has already overcome, and it is not a big problem.

As long as you save your own spring tea before the completion of the second stage of the competition, store the newly made summer tea well, and make autumn tea in the autumn, the three are almost the same.

Originally, if this matter was carried out in Huxi, it would not be difficult for the Ye family at all. But this is in the capital, far away from Huxi, autumn tea is easy to make, but how to keep the taste is the same is difficult, after Cui'er heard about this rule, she locked herself in the tea shop and studied it carefully.

In the third stage of the tea fight, it is necessary to inquire carefully about the rules of the game, Cui'er discussed it with the head of the family, and this matter of inquiring about the rules is none other than the people of the Dingguo Mansion. It happened that I took advantage of the matter of sending the letter, and sent some gifts to thank the Dingguo family for their help.

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Five days later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a proclamation setting out the arrangements for this year's selection of imperial merchants, which were divided into three stages, and how each stage would proceed was clearly written. Except for some of the more elegant wording, it was no different from the letter sent by the Dingguo Mansion, which made Cui'er more and more confident in the ability of the Dingguo Mansion.

Because Cui'er and they had already known the situation, the terms of the announcement of the Internal Affairs Office that the tea would be handed over three days after the announcement were issued did not make it difficult for the Ye family. On the third day, Master Ye took his three sons and solemnly went to the yamen of the Internal Affairs Office to hand over the tea used in the first stage.

Because of the face of the Dingguo Mansion, the Internal Affairs Office was very polite to the Ye family, and seeing that their tea was of high quality, he nodded secretly in his heart, and his words became more and more respectful.

Because the selection of the first stage was not difficult, dozens of tea merchants who were eager to participate in the selection of imperial merchants all handed in the tea leaves of the first stage within the specified time. As for the mixed advantages and disadvantages, different varieties and other issues, it is not something that Cui'er needs to care about, because they are already starting to put together the second stage of the competition.

The second stage is to take three seasons of tea to taste, and naturally you have to hand over three seasons of tea. Now that the capital is in the middle of summer, there is still a period of time for autumn tea to be picked, although this condition seems very reasonable on the surface, but in private it is somewhat biased towards the nearest tea merchants.

The Ye family did not have a tea garden in the capital before, and it was definitely too late to fry the spring tea, and it could be transported from Huxi or Gushantun. Now the requirement is that the taste of tea in spring, summer and autumn is almost the same, which is naturally not a problem for local tea merchants, but for tea merchants from other places, it has become a headache.

Although the Ye family has a rich inventory of tea, it is all new tea this year, and this autumn tea needs to be fried and cannot use last year's aged tea, so they cut off Cui'er and their way. Whether there is spring tea and summer tea that can match the taste of the newly made autumn tea, to be honest, Cui'er has no bottom in her heart.

From Huxi to the capital, even if it is a fast horse, it will take ten days of effort, and the autumn tea in the capital will have to take ten to fifteen days to pick, and the autumn tea in Huxi may take more than half a month. For more than half a month, plus the time to run on the road, even if you can make tea from Huxi, the distance is prohibitive.

Cui'er frowned and thought about it all day long, thinking about it, only the tea garden located in Mentougou was her own hope. This is also the best method that Cui'er can come up with after knowing the rules of the imperial merchant selection.

In the second stage, because of the need for autumn tea, the time requirements are not as tight as the first stage, and while waiting for the results of the first stage and the time for the autumn tea to start on the market, Cui'er has already begun to prepare for the second stage of autumn tea.

Without further ado, Cui'er sent someone to the tea garden in Mentougou early to clean up. The utensils for roasting tea and making tea need to be prepared, and the black charcoal head is the master of roasted tea, and the three children who can't leave their parents for a long time also need to be brought, because when the children go out, there are more maids and mothers-in-law who need to be bringed.

Of course, the most important thing is to bring all the existing varieties of tea spring tea and summer tea, if you want to make the three seasons of spring, summer and autumn tea are of the same origin and taste, the preparation of existing materials is essential.

Cui'er brought five catties of each tea, and then set off with the children to Mentougou. Although Mentougou is a suburb of the capital, it is also quite far from Fuqi Hutong, and because of taking the children on the road, the carriage did not dare to go too fast, Ye Bi and Ye Lu accompanied Cui'er and his party out of the city gate early in the morning, and when the sun was about to set, they arrived at the foot of the tea garden. (To be continued)

ps: It is recommended that the "Lucky Boat Merchant Girl" with the song of the moonlit night bring space, shake the boat, and accompany the water to make a fortune~

Recommend Ling Che's "A Look at the Country" and want your aunt and grandmother to rebel with you? Dream on.