The daily life of a concubine's daughter

Chapter 384 Fermentation

Xie Jibai said with embarrassment: "There are many things I don't know. I brewed wine just on a whim. I've brewed wine two or three times before, so I'm not an expert."

He walked to Shi Yao, fanning himself with a large palm-leaf fan.

Only then did Shi Yao realize that a thin layer of sweat had appeared on her body.

"Let's go. I also want to learn how to make wine. Did you ever finish the wine you made? I want to taste what your wine tastes like."

The young couple walked side by side into the yard outside.

Xie Jibai held up an umbrella to block the sun for his newlywed wife, and said regretfully, "I finished drinking a long time ago. During the festivals, I didn't have anything to give to my elders, so I just used my homemade wine to make up the difference."

Shi Yao smiled and said, "You are lazy."

Xie Jibai lowered his head to avoid the lush branches that were growing on the road and said, "I'll ask someone to trim the branches later. There's been a lot of rain this year, and these trees are growing like crazy. I just trimmed them half a month ago, and now they're growing on the road again."

Shi Yao placed a fan over her forehead and stuck her head out of the umbrella to look at the clear, cloudless sky and the bright, glaring sun. She quickly hid back under the umbrella: "But I feel that today is a little hotter than in previous years."

As the weather gets hotter, people become more restless.

I wonder if Shi Mingzhu and Gong Xuan, the two little princesses who fled, regret their actions now or if they are crying.

While chatting and laughing, the two arrived at the pavilion in the courtyard.

The servants had already prepared all the tools for making wine. Shi Yao was sharp-eyed and saw a book on winemaking. She casually inserted the brocade fan in her hand into Xie Jibai's waist and picked up the book to read.

As she looked through the materials, she compared them with the brewing materials, picked up the grains drying on the winnowing basket, and asked, "Are you using sorghum and wheat?"

"Well, the wine brewed from sorghum and wheat tastes more mellow." Xie Jibai replied, "It has already been cooked. Today I saw that it was almost dry, so I called you over to add the koji.

After adding the koji, the wine is fermented, sealed, and stored in a cellar. It can be taken out after three or two months. However, the longer the wine is stored, the stronger the flavor. It will taste even better after a year or so. "

Shi Yao came over and asked, "Where did you get the yeast? Does the Xie family's restaurant brew its own wine?"

Xie Jibai explained in detail: "Wine is made from grains. It's fine to make wine for yourself, but selling wine is not allowed. The business of selling wine is owned by the government to prevent wine merchants from making large quantities of wine and driving up grain prices.

The wine of Xie's Restaurant was of course purchased from the wine shop designated by the imperial court. This wine yeast was given by the owner of the wine shop."

Shi Yao suddenly realized.

During this period, people inside and outside the government were discussing collusion between officials and businessmen, and the people applauded the officials who were dismissed. She also realized the importance of the court suppressing business.

There will be no end to the sweetness that capitalists have tasted.

They don't care about the lives of the people, or the rise and fall of prices. As long as they can make money and put the money in their pockets, they don't care whether the people will starve to death.

Ultimately, it is the imperial court that cares about the lives of the people, and the one who most wants the people to live and work in peace and contentment is the emperor who wants to secure his throne.

It is a disaster for the people when officials and their families engage in business.

Because officials who do business are no longer pure officials. They will use their official positions to squeeze the living space of ordinary merchants for their own businesses, that is, they will exploit the living space of ordinary people and become capitalists.

Half a month before Shi Yao's marriage, some merchants took the opportunity of the emperor's attack on business officials and sued the Minister of Personnel Guo Yuan to the Dali Temple.

The merchant said that Minister Guo used his power to coerce others and took a fancy to the merchant's jewelry business. He first asked his son Guo Yang to come forward and force the merchant to divide his business into shares. In the name of collecting protection fees, he directly snatched away 20% of the shares of the jewelry shop.

Later, the official's wife came forward and wanted to do jewelry business, and she wanted to take away 50% of the shares to add to her dowry.

The merchant appealed to the local prefect, but was suppressed by Minister Guo, who fabricated a crime and threw the merchant into jail.

The merchant's family sold all their shops to Mrs. Guo at a low price and was only then released from prison.

When he came out, he realized that his son had signed an indenture contract without knowing it and had become a slave of the Guo family. The merchant burst into tears and begged the Shangshu family's servant to let his son go. After some negotiations, he continued to be the owner of the jewelry shop and earn money for the Shangshu's wife in exchange for his son's safety.

This happened five years ago. Two years ago, Mrs. Guo's maid figured out the ins and outs of the business and used her power to squeeze out two other local jewelry stores. The merchant's son died, and his old mother and wife died of anger. The merchant was then driven out and had to depend on his old father for support, under surveillance day and night.

His old father died last year and the merchant fled. This year, when he heard that the emperor was reorganizing the court, he begged all the way to the capital and sued Guo Yuan in the Dali Temple.

At that time, it was the first time in half a year that the Shi family's limelight was stolen, and the whole capital was talking about it.

The corruption case of Minister of Personnel Guo Yuan has implicated many people, and his entire family is still in prison.

As things escalated to this point, the Shi family was pushed to the forefront again. It was said that Mrs. Guo cursed the Shi family in prison for ruining the Guo family and cursed the Shi family to have no descendants.

However, Shi Yao saw from this incident the harm of officials doing business.

If all the court ministers are engaged in business, and the royal relatives follow suit and abuse their power, will there be any way for ordinary people to survive?

It may look like the beginnings of capitalism, but in reality, money and power are concentrated in the hands of a small group of people, and the world will only fall into deeper darkness.

The Minister of Personnel was not the first person to embezzle merchants' property, nor would he be the last.

This time, Shi Yao stands on the emperor's side.

Of course, the biggest exploiter in the feudal dynasty was actually the emperor himself.

In the past, Shi Yao only thought that power could protect wealth. Later she realized that those who truly held power used power as a knife. Some wanted to protect themselves and the people behind them, but more people did whatever they wanted and slaughtered human lives as if they were trampling on grass.

Shi Yao washed her hands, added wine yeast, and chatted with Xie Jibai about the Minister of Personnel: "...When will this case be concluded?"

Xie Jibai said calmly: "The merchant was able to file a complaint in Beijing not because of luck, but because someone was there to protect him."

Shi Yao asked: "Is he a political enemy of Minister Guo?"