The weak scholar in the end of ancient times

Chapter 18: Wine Refining
The alcohol content of alcohol in this era was generally not high, but there were also strong liquors.

The set of equipment that appeared in Mr. Li's farmhouse was used to distill and purify some low-alcohol brewed wine to obtain high-alcohol liquor.

In Wen Gu's eyes, these tools are still simple, but it doesn't matter, as long as they can achieve the purpose.

Taoist Master Qingyi frowned and asked, "Only these two jars of wine?"

Is this just a small amount of stuff worth my hard work to make wine?
"No. Tomorrow we will search this house again to see if there is anything useful, and by the way, see if there is any wine elsewhere. If we can find it, I will trouble you, Taoist priest."

"That's okay."

Although Master Qingyi was not very happy, he still agreed after weighing the pros and cons, maintaining his solemn appearance.

It was already dark outside, so they didn't move anything here and let the donkey stay here for the time being.

The two jars of wine were not taken away, but were kept in a compartment to prevent the remaining wine from being wasted by the donkey.

They returned to the kitchen.

Compared to the wine room that was messed up by the donkey, the kitchen and woodshed were more suitable for them to spend the night. There was still a lot of firewood in the woodshed, so there was no need to be stingy with the fire.

After fumigating the herbs and lighting a fire, the air was filled with the smell of alcohol from time to time, and the evil creatures nearby would not come near after smelling the scent.

"Xiao Liu, let Ma Tuaner send a message to your father tomorrow, asking the villagers not to drink all the stored wine." Wen Gu said.

Falcons are diurnal birds of prey, so it is better to deliver the message during the day.

They will all stay in this house tomorrow and will not go out, so Ma Tuaner can fly there.

They had just left the village for one day, and they had to be careful and alert on the road, and also had to push the goods. They even stopped for a while at noon when the temperature was high. Given their speed, they didn't walk too far.

Hunter Xiao Liu was also thinking about this. Knowing that wine could drive away evil spirits, he wanted to tell the villagers right away. They were told not to drink all the wine. No matter how much they liked wine, they had to use it sparingly. Leaving some behind could save their lives.

Regarding the matter of writing the letter, I still need Wen Gu’s help.

He wrote a few lines of small words with charcoal in the small notebook he carried with him, briefly telling Ma Tuaner the message and asking her to send it back tomorrow morning.

After a good night's rest, they searched the house the next day to see what useful supplies they could take away.

The house was large, and in the past, besides the owner, there were also maids, servants, guards, and servants who did odd jobs.

What the superior likes, the subordinates must follow.

As the saying goes, what goes around comes around, and quite a few of the servants also like wine.

When the people here evacuated, they could take away rice, grain, valuables, gold and silver jewelry, but it was difficult to take away all the wine jars.

The host could only leave the wine in the house, and it was even more difficult for the servants to carry it.

There were more than ten jars of wine found in other rooms, three of which had been unsealed.

The quality of wine varies and the raw materials used to make it are diverse.

It doesn’t matter, they all need to be refined by the Taoist priest.

In addition, while collecting supplies, they found a basement containing nearly a hundred jars of fine wine!
The entrance to the secret room is relatively hidden and easily overlooked. The first person to discover it was Taoist Master Qingyi.

At that time, Wen Gu looked at Taoist Qingyi with a very meaningful look.

This Taoist priest's travel experience must have been full of ups and downs and rich and colorful.

Looking at the old traces left here, there used to be many boxes piled up in the secret room, which contained the owner's private property. During the emergency evacuation, all the boxes were taken away.

These fine wines were difficult to carry, so they were left in the secret room as they were.

They won't stay here for too long, and the Taoist priest doesn't need so much liquor for distillation.

Wen Gu didn't move them all out.

You can’t take it away.

Wen Gu said to Xiao Liu, "Send a message to the village. If anything unexpected happens, you can hide here."

Xiao Liu also liked this place, but it was a pity that it was a bit far from their village. Falcons flew quickly in the sky, but it was different for them walking, and they had to be wary of dangers along the way.

"Oh, what a pity. I don't know into whose hands these will end up." Xiao Liu said regretfully.

"Not necessarily. If you make it big in the north, and return home in glory, you can bring your men and women to pick up the villagers and take them north for refuge. You can also take all the wine here with you. Eventually, all of this will fall into our hands," Wen Gu said.

After hearing this, Hunter Liu had a dreamy expression and a firm tone:

"Yes! That's right! In the end, it will all be ours!"

Taoist Qingyi standing next to him looked at Wen Gu, then at Xiao Liu, and was speechless.

Do you dare to eat the cake painted by Wen Gu?!

We're just getting started, and you're already dreaming?

What a fool!
Too impatient to listen to their nonsense, Taoist Qingyi picked out some things he needed and went to make wine.

In addition to wine, they also found some leftover rice, grain, salt, sugar, and other items.

There are no finished weapons, but there are some farm tools that can be used very well with a little modification.

All the intact wooden carts have been taken away, and there are only two faulty ones left. They can be dismantled and repaired to make a complete one.

Wen Gu calculated how much stuff a donkey cart could carry and selected the things he had found.

It is not convenient to carry large wine jars, so you can just bring some products refined by the Taoist priest.

The Taoist priest was making wine, Xiao Liu was repairing the car, and Tietou went over to help with some heavy work.

Occasionally, when Xiao Liu was stumped, he would review the past, point out the key issues, and provide solutions.

The wooden cart was repaired quickly.

Wen Gu consulted Xiao Liu and went to build trust with the big donkey. He did some simple training so that the donkey could pull the cart better.

As they guessed, this big donkey had pulled carts and carried goods before. Even though it hadn't worked for several months and was a little unfamiliar with the job, it adapted quickly.

I just don't have any motivation.

Thinking about the upcoming load, Wen Gu asked Xiao Liu to make some concentrated feed using the supplies he had, such as the beans he'd found today and some edible byproducts from the Taoist's winemaking. Wen Gu also found a small, narrow-necked porcelain bottle and filled it with wine, corking it with a wooden stopper so that a slight aroma of alcohol would escape.

The rope was tied to the neck of the neck and hung in front of the donkey with a long pole.

Well, the big donkey is much stronger when pulling the cart!

He is indeed a skilled worker.

Trust between people and donkeys has been established.

Wen Gu was very satisfied and even learned how to drive a cart from Xiao Liu.

The six arts of a gentleman are rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy and mathematics, and driving a horse-drawn carriage is also a skill that needs to be mastered.

If you haven’t driven a donkey cart before, learn some skills.

In such a chaotic world, mastering one more skill means a greater chance of survival.

Xiao Liu couldn't help but sigh: "Scholars are so amazing!"

Not only can he drive, he can also repair cars. When Wen Gu taught him how to repair a wooden cart, he was very skillful.

Over there, after Wen Gu learned how to drive a donkey cart, he ran to monitor the progress of the Taoist priest in refining wine.

Master Qingyi is still reliable in his professional field.

Alchemists are indeed very familiar with distillation technology.

What a talent!

It would be better if there were more people like this.

The wine collected from various houses in the mansion was processed according to the Taoist priest's own customs.

Originally, the Taoist priest only wanted to distill the liquor and not worry about anything else. However, Wen Gu had already given him some "suggestions", which were not only suggestions on refining techniques, but also a warning to the Taoist priest not to try to fool around.

Thinking about the benefits that the dog scholar could bring to him in the future, the Taoist priest still spent some time and effort to refine the wine. The wine he refined was mainly divided into three categories:

The head, the heart, and the tail of the wine.

The core of the wine is strong liquor and can be drunk.

There are more impurities in the head and tail of the wine, but they will not be wasted and will have other uses.

Wen Gu looked at the packaged wine-refining products.

The brewed wine here generally has a lower alcohol concentration and is not distilled, so it cannot be ignited directly.

The heart of the wine left after distillation has a higher alcohol concentration and contains sufficient combustible components.

It also has a certain disinfecting and sterilizing effect. Although it is not as medical-grade as the original world, it is still sufficient for emergency use.

The collected head and tail of the wine, if they can be ignited at room temperature, can be kept and used as offensive weapons.

If it cannot be ignited, such as the tail of a wine with low alcohol content, high water content, or a pungent smell, use it as a defensive weapon and use the smell as a cover.

Keep it, keep it!

These are things that can turn the situation around!

Although the product of the wine refining did not meet Wen Gu's original expectations, the tools were simple and we couldn't have too high expectations. It would be fine as long as it could be used.

When Wen Gu was doing the combustion test, Xiao Liu happened to come over. He knew that these were the wines refined by Taoist Qingyi. He originally thought that Wen Gu asked the Taoist to refine the strong liquor so that he could drink it to ward off the cold when the temperature dropped in the future.

He had heard before that in the bitterly cold border areas, some people drank alcohol to ward off the cold.

He thought Wen Gu thought the same.

Until he saw Wen Gu light the small spoonful of wine he had poured out.

lit!
It turns out that as long as the alcohol is strong enough, it can be ignited!

What are evil creatures afraid of?
Besides low temperature, there is fire!
If you are in a crisis situation and don't have enough wood, just:

The Taoist priest's [Invincible Fire Slave] and a small bottle of liquor...

Xiao Liu looked at Wen Gu: Scholars are really amazing!

Wen Gu did all this without avoiding Xiao Liu, saying, "Take everything with you when you set out. Be careful when you go, and don't go near any fire."

Xiao Liu nodded repeatedly.

You must be careful, otherwise you will burn your own people.

Wen Gu turned around and looked at the instruments.

Unfortunately, they were limited in what they could carry and could not take the distilling equipment with them.

So, Wen Gu used his notebook to draw all these utensils, and when he arrived in the north and had the conditions, he would find craftsmen to make and improve them.

Food is precious, and whether it's brewed from rice or fruit wine, it will definitely be harder to obtain. But tools can be made for other things, not just wine.

Well, that’s all for the future. I’ll think about it after I reach my destination safely.

After getting what they wanted and preparing the donkey cart, the four of them set off again.

Now that you have a donkey cart, leave the wheelbarrow at home.

If the team had more people, they could have someone push the wheelbarrow and leave together, but there were only four people in the team now, so there was no need to occupy a military officer.

When they set out early in the morning, the raccoon they had met before squatted in front of the door and looked at them.

It will continue to guard the farmhouse, but who knows when the owner will return, or when a new owner will arrive.

On the road to the farm, the big donkey, lured by the small hanging wine bottles, pulled the cart with great energy.

Wen Gu would only feed it some wine when it was resting, not when it was working.

Don't drive a cart if you drink, and don't drink if you drive a cart.

(End of this chapter)