Chapter 11 Quick Project (I)
The main surname of the people in the next village is Zhu, and it is said that the second brother Zhu Youquan is from this village. Huo Chong went straight to the courtyard at the head of the village and smelled the smell of wine brewing before he reached the gate.
The smell was not pleasant. The smell produced by fermented grains was very different from the smell after brewing. It smelled like steamed grains, neither sweet nor mellow.
Uncle Zhu is said to be a famous . Huo Chong has met the old man. At the meeting arranged by Uncle Liu, Huo Chong was quite impressed by the old man. He looked mighty with a full beard.
Seeing Huo Chong, the old man had some impression of him and asked, "How is your master's health?"
Huo Chong dealt with the old man's questions. He couldn't just say "my master ran away because of something".
After chatting about some family matters, Huo Chong went straight to the purpose of his visit, "Uncle Zhu, how much wine have you brewed this year?"
"You want to buy? You've come at the right time!" Grandpa Zhu answered happily, "I brewed more than a thousand kilograms of wine this year, and it's almost time to steam the wine. When I start steaming the wine, people from all over the country will come to place orders. If you want to buy, you can't guarantee how much you can keep."
Huo Chong chatted with the old man with a smile, and then he turned the topic to the old man's way of making wine. The old man didn't pay much attention at first, but Huo Chong inadvertently got him to know his way. Huo Chong confirmed that the old man's wine had reached the end of fermentation, so he said: "Uncle Zhu, I want to order a few hundred kilograms of wine. I just want to add something to the wine, please brew it for a few more days."
After saying this, Master Zhu's expression became serious. He looked Huo Chong up and down and asked, "Young man, I just heard what you said. Do you know how to make wine?"
Huo Chong didn't know how to answer. As the person in charge of the platform, of course he had to work on projects. If he wanted to choose a project, of course he had to learn a lot of things. This wasn't just a Baidu search, but a real study of the industry reports that he paid for. There weren't many such reports on the Internet, and they were all published by authoritative sources in various industries. Someone paid to subscribe to them.
After reading reports on the wine-making industry and various related materials, Huo Chong knew that he could not say that he understood wine-making, but he knew many steps.
But Uncle Zhu's tone was not good, and Huo Chong didn't dare to act arrogant in front of the old man. Putting on a humble look, Huo Chong replied: "I don't understand, I just want to try."
"If you don't understand, why are you talking so much! Do you want to ruin my reputation? If you want to try, find someone else. Don't ruin my reputation."
After hearing Uncle Zhu's resolute words, Huo Chong was unwilling to give up and wanted to try again. However, Uncle Zhu did not give him any face at all. The old man must have felt that his authority was challenged and he scolded Huo Chong. This attracted a group of apprentices in the winemaking workshop to come over and watch. Many of the apprentices felt that their master had been wronged and wanted to stand up for their master by rolling up their sleeves.
Huo Chong had no choice but to leave in disgrace. There were three wine-making families in Zhujia Village, and Huo Chong went to each of them. The owners of the other two families were not as confident as Uncle Zhu, so their words were much gentler. Everyone said the same thing, Brother Huo, if you want to buy something, just do it yourself. No need to drag us in.
This is also the ancestral rule that cannot be broken! Huo Chong was very disappointed. I didn't expect to encounter such a thing at the beginning. Just when he was about to go to another village to make wine, he saw someone following him from a distance. Huo Chong had some impression that he was an apprentice in Mr. Zhu's winemaking workshop. This guy's expression was different from that of others when the other apprentices were indignant from the bottom of their hearts.
Ignoring him for the time being, Huo Chong continued walking forward, slowing down his pace to give the stalker behind him a chance to catch up.
As a result, when they were almost reaching the next village, this man quickened his pace, shouted "Brother Huo", and caught up.
After a few words, he asked Huo Chong if he wanted to buy some wine. Huo Chong suddenly had an idea and said with some disdain: "Did you steal my skills?"
The guy's expression immediately became nervous. Although he wanted to deny it, his stammering answer showed that he was guilty.
Huo Chong read the story books about the past and found that stealing is mentioned more than once. In fact, from the perspective of business behavior, stealing is normal. The so-called stealing is nothing more than some researched technical processes and methods. Therefore, the modern patent system is used to solve this problem .
In the Qing Dynasty, there was obviously no such system, let alone the foundation for large-scale production. In addition, the scale of transactions was small, so the apprentice really taught the master to starve to death. Stealing skills became a moral evil.
Once such a thing gets out, the reputation of the person who stole the skills will be ruined, and he may even be beaten to death.
Huo Chong actually doesn't care about this kind of thing. Seeing that this guy has been pinched in the sore spot, Huo Chong does not threaten him. Contradictions are relative. Of course, there will be conflicts if there are contradictions. But from the perspective of building a platform, this is also equivalent to a certain connection between the two. Whether the contradiction can be transformed into cooperation is the only way for scammers to deceive small investors to continue investing.
Seeing that this thief was getting more and more nervous, he completely regretted finding Huo Chong. Huo Chong smiled and said, "What's your name, brother?"
"…My last name is Zhu."
"Brother Zhu, I want to try to add something more when brewing wine. If the person that Brother Zhu wants to introduce to me agrees, the newly brewed wine will be made using our method, and it will have nothing to do with Master Zhu. This is our business, and you can't tell anyone else."
Brother Zhu's mind obviously wasn't working fast enough, and he looked confused. Huo Chong could only continue to enlighten him: "Brother Zhu, your master doesn't allow me to add new things. Let me ask you, is the thing I want to add something that I know only about myself?"
Brother Zhu thought for a long time before nodding. Seeing that this guy seemed to understand, Huo Chong continued to ask: "Since it is something I added that I know about, is it my prescription?"
Brother Zhu thought for a while before nodding. Huo Chong continued to ask, "Since it's my recipe, why are you worried about being involved with your master?"
This time, Brother Zhu didn't think so much. After hesitating for a while, he asked uneasily: "If I don't make the wine you want, will you pay me?"
When Huo Chong heard Brother Zhu start talking about money, he immediately felt very happy. In this world, people are not afraid of talking about money, but they are afraid of not talking about money. He stepped forward and patted Brother Zhu on the shoulder, and said, "Let's talk while we walk. How much do you and the people you know want?"
At night, Huo Chong finally rushed home. Five people were already living in the left wing of the house, which was also the west wing. Two of them were seriously injured from the Cao Gang. The other three were uninjured guys, including Xu Youlin. It seemed that Xu Youlin was still ready to go all out and fight with Huo Chong for a while.
Huo Chong knocked on the door directly, and it was Xu Youlin's men who opened the door. Huo Chong said, "Brother Xu, please come out. It's time to make maltose."
Xu Youlin and his two friends joined the ranks of people who used sweet potatoes to make maltose. Sweet potatoes are high-starch crops, and maltose has a simpler and more straightforward name in the 21st century, maltose. It is to use the amylase in malt to decompose starch, and the decomposed product is a disaccharide composed of two glucose units connected by α-1,4 glycosidic bonds, also known as maltobiose.
The Cao Gang members were busy and unhappy, sifting the ground sweet potato paste through a sieve. Xu Youlin did not participate in this purely physical labor, but just watched with a gloomy face.
This guy worked from the evening till the next day. When the final product came out of the pot, Xu Youlin rolled a ball and put it in his mouth. After tasting it, he said unhappily: "It's not better than the one made with glutinous rice in Jiangnan."
Huo Chong didn't care about such a sharp evaluation, and even felt satisfied. Xu Youlin's persistence in watching the whole process proved that he was very attentive, and his ability to make such a sharp and critical evaluation proved that Xu Youlin was completely based on whether he could sell the product.
Huo Chong also cares about whether the product can be sold. If the product cannot be sold, then, as Uncle Ma said, the product has not completed the thrilling jump. If it cannot complete this jump, it cannot be converted into cash. If it cannot be converted into cash, this production is equivalent to the end. The product of investment only has use value, but no transaction value.
From the perspective of capital operation, to put it bluntly, this operation failed. To put it nicely, this operation was stillborn.
The Cao Gang members worked hard all night and went back to sleep. Huo Chong said to the one who was still trying to stay awake, "Come with me to another village and take some loose change with you."
Xu Youlin replied vigilantly: "Are you trying to cheat me out of my money?"
"You have to scatter some rice when you feed the chickens. I don't even ask you for money for all this maltose. I've already thrown the rice in. It's your turn."
Xu Youlin answered decisively: "Don't even think about it!"
Xu Youlin's staying here has proved that he has understood the situation, or that he temporarily believes that he and Huo Chong are on the same boat. Huo Chong certainly cannot indulge Xu Youlin.
Seeing Xu Youlin disobeying, Huo Chong mocked him directly, "Ha! Don't even think about it. If there is a way to sit for a night and wait for money to fall from the sky as you want, tell me. I will do it for you for ten nights. Time is running out, it's already been three days."
Xu Youlin snorted and turned away. Huo Chong touched his pocket. Uncle Liu was so righteous that he didn't leave Huo Chong a penny. Maybe Uncle Liu thought Huo Chong would run away sooner or later, so there was no need to give Huo Chong more.
Sitting on the stool, Huo Chong felt that he needed to take a breath. He had been working non-stop for the past three days. If it weren't for the intense situation that made Huo Chong excited, he would have gone to bed by now.
Before my butt could even warm up the stool, Xu Youlin came back and said, "Three hundred coins, no more."
"At least five hundred coins." Huo Chong made the request straightforwardly.
Xu Youlin's narrow eyes were red, bloodshot from not sleeping all night. His hooked nose was white, making him look even more ferocious. Xu Youlin rubbed his eyes and said, "Let's go!"
Huo Chong carried two large barrels of dozens of kilograms of maltose on a wheelbarrow. This wheelbarrow was made entirely of wood, and it was really tiring to push. When he arrived at the home of Zhu's brother-in-law, Huo Chong felt that he was going to be exhausted.
Huo Chong threw a string of money worth one hundred coins to Zhu Lianjin, who quickly stretched out his hand to take the heavy string of money and immediately began to count it.
This guy obviously had never seen a lot of money before. Huo Chong called Zhu Lianjin and handed him two more strings. Zhu Lianjin was already grinning from ear to ear.
Huo Chongming asked, "There are so many. Can we start working?"
"Yes! Yes!" Zhu Lianjin agreed without hesitation.
Huo Chong instructed Zhu Lianjin, who had not mastered any technical skills, to pour some maltose into the wine vat, and he himself felt uneasy.
Grain wine tastes good, of course, not because it is just a mixture of ethanol and water. If that is what wine is, wouldn't it be better to just mix medical alcohol with water?
According to the technical points, brewing is to use some specific yeast to ferment grain into various alcohols with ethanol as the main component. Methanol is harmful to the human body, so of course the less the better. There is no best.
Huo Chong dared to intervene in winemaking because he saw a key point in winemaking. The bacteria in winemaking are not constant, but constantly changing. As the alcohol content gets higher and higher, the reproduction of bacteria that produce alcohol and other alcohols will be suppressed.
The reason why the alcohol content of wine in this era is low is of course because the strains have not been optimized. Another reason is that the nature of winemaking in this era has not been studied to a scientific level. Huo Chong decided to take a gamble and try to see if the supplementary method of adding maltose to modern brewing technology can really work.
Seeing the maltose go into the wine vat, Huo Chong knew there was no turning back, so he just let go of his mood and said, "Brother, lend us a place to sleep for a while."
