The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 442 Brewing (Two Chapters Combined)

When Hu Biao learned that his future father-in-law and mother-in-law were coming to Beijing to meet him, he did not take a day off as he had originally planned and was fast asleep on the sofa.

Instead, they were busy brewing the three types of wine that were the reward for this time travel.

Guangxi offers three types of alcoholic beverages: briefcase wine, rice wine, and gecko medicinal wine.

To be more specific, one can only say that once a biological clock is established, it has a huge inertia.

What a disaster! Hu Biao had planned to take a nice nap, but he couldn't fall asleep at all while lying on the sofa. Instead, as the sky gradually brightened, he became more and more energetic.

Unable to fall asleep, Hu Biao didn't scroll through his phone or look at the swaying young women on it. Instead, he pondered some more serious work.

Or, to put it less modestly, he was pondering Hu Biao's future career development:

Opening a branch of Deyuelou? There's no need to worry about that. Just proceed steadily while training qualified store managers and finding suitable locations.

Hu Biao has enough confidence in the braised food he makes.

The ingredients are of high quality, clean, and reasonably priced. Most importantly, the taste is excellent, so once you open the shop, you don't have to worry about not being able to sell it because nobody wants to eat this kind of food.

Sooner or later, Deyuelou branches will be all over the capital city.

The main store is open here? It seems there are indeed some issues.

The key is the private kitchen dishes, with three tables each for lunch and dinner, totaling six tables.

For reasons that some gentlemen can understand, a dish of bull penis is an absolute must-order at every private kitchen.

Unfortunately, the source of the raw materials for this stuff is now giving Hu Biao quite a headache.

Because this thing isn't just about having one of those things from a bull.

Raising beef cattle is definitely not an option. These cattle, which are specifically raised for meat, may look strong, but they are physically weak, and their reproductive organs are also weak. As a result, the dishes made from them will be much less effective.

We can only use some yellow cattle and water buffalo that are normally free-range in the countryside and have been around for a long time.

As for whether yaks would work, Hu Biao hasn't tried it yet and doesn't know the specific effects.

Anyway, Hu Biao has already offered a high price and has almost completely bought up all the suitable bull penises in several vegetable markets near Panjiayuan. There is a bit of a shortage of this stuff.

What to do? The old Hu Biao had no choice, but after this time travel, everything is different.

Before he launched the road roller tactic against the Japanese in Dadong Township last time, he drank a bowl of gecko medicinal wine offered by a villager and clearly felt a strong medicinal effect, which was quite good in a certain aspect.

The medicinal wine brewed by a mysterious entity, with master-level brewing expertise, will only have better effects.

This effectively compensates for the shortage of bull penis supply.

After all, what those old SPs—no, I should say the distinguished private guests of Deyuelou—are most concerned about is actually the actual effect after eating.

They didn't care whether the effect was due to what food they ate or what alcohol they drank.

Therefore, you must get the gecko medicinal wine yourself as soon as possible.

Of course, the Guangxi briefcase wine and rice wine are also of considerable value and need to be brewed as soon as possible.

The reason is simple: they can not only make more money, but also increase customer loyalty and stickiness.

After all, not everyone who comes to eat needs to nourish their body, so the Guangxi briefcase can be used as a normal drinking beverage.

Rice wine is actually a low-alcohol rice wine, with a sweet and sour taste that is suitable for women.

After thinking about all this, Hu Biao couldn't sit still any longer; after quickly washing up, he immediately drove his minivan off to do a big shopping spree.

Hu Biao was busy until 10 a.m. before he finished all the purchasing.

It mainly produces Guangxi briefcases and rice wine, requiring glutinous rice, yeast, wine jars and other containers, and distillation equipment; and the base liquor for soaking medicinal wine, which is some high-proof liquor.

These things are relatively simple; they can be easily bought as long as you have the money.

Even finding a place to brew and store food is easy; there are many storefronts and warehouses for sale in the capital city recently.

Without much effort, just two phone calls, Hu Biao got through to a regular customer at a location more than 300 meters away from the main store.

We successfully leased a small warehouse of 200 square meters in a hutong (alleyway), with the keys in hand in advance and the contract to be signed later.

The key issue is the various medicinal herbs used to soak the gecko in the medicinal wine.

Hu Biao went directly to the Meihua Chinese Herbal Medicine Wholesale Market in Haidian District. It must be said that the market is quite large, and you can buy all kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs there.

This naturally includes the dried gecko needed for Hu Biao to soak in medicinal wine.

It also contains a variety of medicinal herbs such as wolfberry, ginseng, angelica, dodder seed, epimedium, rosehip, seahorse, eucommia bark, morinda root, alpinia oxyphylla, and psoralea corylifolia.

However, here, Hu Biao encountered the same problem as when purchasing bullwhips.

These medicinal herbs are mostly artificially cultivated and grown, and they use a lot of feed and fertilizer.

It looks quite good, and it certainly has medicinal properties, but it is still significantly inferior to wild ones, and its effect when used to make medicinal wine will be equally unsatisfactory.

So Hu Biao wandered around the market for more than an hour before finally buying a batch of suitable medicinal herbs at a high price.

Somewhat coincidentally, the shop owner, Lao Huang, is from Yulin, Guangxi. Yulin is known as the "Southern Medicine Capital" and has more than 1000 kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs.

This has provided Hu Biao with a good way to purchase medicinal herbs. In the future, if he needs any herbs, he can just call Boss Huang and have him deliver them, without having to go through all this trouble.

As for someone like Hu Biao, how could he possibly distinguish between cultivated and wild medicinal herbs?
This is a terrible question, of course, because when I received the reward of master-level gecko wine brewing techniques, I also learned how to identify the relevant Chinese medicinal herbs.

What else? If you can't even distinguish the medicinal herbs, how can you claim to have master-level brewing skills...?

Carrying these Chinese medicinal herbs, Hu Biao went directly to the newly rented small warehouse.

When they arrived, the miser had already brought several waiters and had almost finished cleaning up; even the wine jars and other containers had been thoroughly washed.

It should be noted that, except for rice wine, the brewing of these beverages does not require a long wait.

The other two types, because they involve some unique traditional techniques, require a considerable amount of time to brew.

The brewing process for Guangxi briefcase wine requires 60 days, while the preparation of gecko medicinal wine requires soaking for 3 months.

Such a long period of time undoubtedly causes considerable delays.

What to do? Hu Biao stared at the large pile of materials in the corner of the warehouse, and soon he had an idea.

Rice wine is easy to make; let's brew fifty or sixty catties first to test the waters.

Regarding Guangxi briefcases and gecko medicinal wine, in addition to being busy with the shop these past few days, I've also taken the time to brew 1,000 jin of authentic Guangxi briefcases and soak 200 jin of gecko medicinal wine.

Also, make some quick-cooking versions, the kind that can be consumed in half a month, to deal with World War I first.

Of course! The biggest reason why Hu Biao dared to do this was that he believed that even these quick-fix versions would still be much better than those on the market in terms of taste and effect.

Then, at that moment, Hu Biao's phone rang.

After answering the call, Annie's voice immediately rang in my ears. She was telling me that her parents were coming to see Hu Biao.

Sensing his girlfriend's somewhat amused and exasperated tone, Hu Biao's attitude remained perfectly reasonable.

After organizing his thoughts, Hu Biao solemnly said, "There is no reason for elders to visit juniors. It should be me, the junior, who should take the initiative to go to Shanghai to pay my respects to the two elders."

How about this? You can ask your father-in-law and mother-in-law to wait for another two months.

"How about we set off a few days earlier for the Mid-Autumn Festival, go to Shanghai first, visit our parents, and then go back to our hometown in Hunan Province to celebrate the holiday?"

"Okay! I'll call my mom right away, otherwise she might have already booked the plane tickets."

Upon hearing this, Annie seemed relieved and began to speak.

Without the slightest hesitation, Hu Biao addressed An's parents with incredibly exaggerated terms of endearment, calling them "father-in-law" and "mother-in-law." Immediately after hanging up the phone, Hu Biao busied himself preparing a vat of gecko medicinal wine.

During this process, this guy was more focused than ever before.

There was no other way! This was not only his first time trying to make medicinal wine, but more importantly, it was a trump card for him to gain the approval of his parents when he visited Shanghai in the future.

Just imagine, when the time comes, prepare a feast of bull penis for your father-in-law, paired with this gecko medicinal wine; with both methods combined, is there any doubt about the nourishing effect?
Then the father-in-law was fine, and the mother-in-law was naturally fine too; it was like getting these two key figures sorted out in one go...

By the time the first vat, containing fifty catties of gecko medicinal wine, was soaked, and all that was left was to wait for it to slowly produce some pleasant reactions, it was almost 11 a.m.

Since Deyuelou was open for business at noon, Hu Biao dared not delay any longer.

He quickly closed the warehouse door and rushed into the store; he was stopped by Ling Lanfang, the head manager of the main store, as soon as he entered.

As he handed over a stack of resumes, he pointed to a group of women on one side of the shop and whispered:
"Boss Hu! Based on your requirements, I have tried my best to select some new waiters with potential who can be trained to become store managers. All of them have been recruited today."

There were twenty people in total, and I thought the girl named Pan Wanting was the most promising. I believed she was a talented person and had great training value.

Her file was the first one; she was the one sitting by the window, wearing jeans.

"Since I said I'd put you in full charge, then you can make all the decisions. Anyway, whoever performs well will be promoted to store manager, and whoever doesn't will stay in the store as a waiter."

Because I was in a hurry to get to the kitchen, I prepared all the dishes for lunch, especially some of the private kitchen dishes, in advance.

Hu Biao pushed aside the documents in Ling Lanfang's hand and began to speak earnestly.

However, as he walked towards the kitchen, he still turned his head and glanced at the window where Pan Wanting, whom Ling Lanfang had strongly recommended, was located.

In a fleeting glance, one could see that she was a woman in her mid-twenties.

She is tall and slender, with a delicate face that is bare of makeup and a neat ponytail. She does look quite shrewd and capable, and could benefit from some intensive training.

After that, Hu Biao had no further thoughts.

Otherwise? When it comes to looks, figure, and temperament, his girlfriend is far superior, so he really has no interest in her.

Besides! Boss Hu is a proper man. Even if he sees a girl dancing on Douyin, he'll at most give her a like, but he'll never send her a private message.

******
Time: The third day after returning to the modern world.

It was a little past 10 p.m. when the last waiter at the Deyuelou flagship store was saying goodbye to Hu Biao and leaving get off work.

After closing the door, Hu Biao went straight to the boss's office.

At this moment, an online meeting, which all members of the Transcendent Team must attend unless there are special reasons, was about to begin.

After glancing at the list of attendees and confirming that everyone was present, Hu Biao got straight to the point.

After he opened his mouth, he delivered some exciting news: "Brothers and sisters! This time, we've had a huge haul of spoils!"

Besides helmets, bayonets, canteens, samurai swords, and other individual soldier equipment, these were the spoils of war that everyone kept and disposed of themselves.

Other potentially valuable loot is listed below.

We brought back a total of 51.23 kilograms of gold and gold jewelry; in addition, we had 12 pieces of calligraphy and paintings, 16 pieces of porcelain, 23 pieces of jade, and 39 miscellaneous items such as ancient coins, snuff bottles, fans, and purple clay teapots.

What I mean is this: let everyone sell their gold separately; at the current gold price, that would be worth around 3800 million.

Leave 800 million as public funds, and distribute the remaining 3000 million and the antiques; everyone can sell the antiques or keep them as family heirlooms.

The distribution method is the same as last time: those who participated in this task will receive one share, and those who did not participate will receive half a share.

As soon as Hu Biao finished speaking, a string of "good," "okay," and "agree" messages quickly appeared on the public screen of the online meeting room.

Even though it was just some Chinese characters, one could still seem to see the excitement of the attendees.

That's absolutely true! Everyone is in a state of high excitement right now. After all, who doesn't like making money, especially wealth earned through their own hard work?

I can spend the money without any psychological burden.

The third brother, who was a chef at weddings and funerals in the countryside, was happily calculating in his mind.

The money and antiques will be divided among 18 participants, with one share for each participant and another 10 people sharing half a share, making a total of 23 shares.

This means that I will receive 130 million in cash, as well as two or three antiques.

Putting aside the value of the antique, the 130 million yuan alone represents many years of hard-earned income; it means being able to buy a bigger house, a better car, and better food.

You'll even feel more confident in showing filial piety to your parents, won't you?

In short, thinking about all of these things makes me feel really happy.

It was precisely because of this good news at the beginning that the enthusiasm of everyone present was aroused, making the atmosphere in the subsequent meeting quite lively.

The relevant personnel readily agreed to the tasks assigned by Hu Biao.

The tasks assigned by Hu Biao were roughly as follows.

First, Uncle Bo, Zanana, and the warehouse manager are the three people in North and South America who are responsible for the procurement of everyone's weapons and equipment.

Make sure that the next group of people who cross over will be fully armed immediately after they arrive, and also prepare a decent long spear for any new recruits.

The main reason is that everyone learned a lesson from the Battle of Guinan, which was a successful time crossing.

That mysterious place wouldn't allow them to reappear in places they'd already been every time they traveled there, and naturally, they couldn't immediately replenish their weapons and equipment through past connections.

Therefore, for safety reasons, it is best to prepare sufficient weapons and ammunition for self-defense.

Secondly, it was really enjoyable to make a deal with those foreign devils, the United States and Russia, using their soon-to-be-breakthrough technologies. We can definitely continue to do that in the future.

However, the last time, many problems were also exposed.

If people don't have a comprehensive understanding of these technologies, only knowing some of the principles and details, it will undoubtedly make it difficult to set prices during transactions.

Therefore, during this break, everyone should choose a skill based on their major to enhance their learning.

Whether it's used for trading or for making your own equipment, it will be an excellent outcome.

For example, Old K, a state-owned enterprise worker in the modern world, could enhance his skills in electronics and become an expert in the field.

Third, in addition to improving professional skills, everyone must not neglect historical knowledge, military knowledge, and individual combat skills, and needs to continuously learn and strengthen these areas.

Because Bo Shu, AT, Mo Shuiyan, and others who died in previous missions have participated in the mission again, it suggests that other personnel who died in previous missions may participate again next time.

Therefore, we hope that Chen Tang, Fatty Huang, Zana, Huang Yizhi, Van Gogh and others will make all the necessary preparations.

What if you actually get the chance to time travel again, only to find yourself in a mess and unable to continue?

After that, Hu Biao didn't make any further requests.

After all, Hu Biao knew that during this month-long rest period, everyone needed to have enough time to relax. Only by adjusting their mental and physical state to its best could they participate in the next crossing.

So, they chatted for a while after that.

What is the background of the next time travel?
If we consider the timeline, it was either the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain or the Hundred Regiments Offensive. What should they have done then to make some beneficial changes for their long-suffering compatriots?

When the meeting finally ended at midnight, Hu Biao announced that it was adjourned.

While washing up, Hu Biao had already made a decision in his heart: once he received his 130 million points, he would immediately find a reliable foundation to donate them to.

No other reason than that he realized that the mysterious being was targeting him.

Others who get such windfall gains usually don't encounter any problems, but he's destined not to keep it; because it's better to donate it sooner rather than later to avoid trouble.

He, Hu Biao, Boss Hu, earned this money with his own hands and hard work...

(End of this chapter)