Datang Live Room

In the next few days, besides teaching Zheng Zhixun arithmetic and abacus, Yan Kai followed the craftsmen in the backyard to improve the wine steamer.

As mentioned before, ancient people were not stupid, and neither were these craftsmen.

After Yan Kai explained the purpose of each component and the general working principle, these craftsmen came up with various improvement methods.

For example, insert a stick from above and seal it with cowhide, so that the stick can stir inside and speed up the evaporation of the wine.

Another method is not to use fire directly to burn the container containing the first wine, but to put a large water tank first, and put the container containing the first wine into the large water tank.

Control the temperature by boiling water in a water tank.

Although this consumes more firewood, it can improve efficiency and wine yield.

Originally, Yankai was sealed with dough, but now it has been replaced with a kind of gum, and all the bamboo tubes have been replaced with copper tubes.

Moreover, the entire wine steamer can steam hundreds of kilograms of wine at a time.

Yan Kai looked at the new wine steamer and nodded with satisfaction: "It's enough to just build this one first."

Steaming once a day can produce nearly forty pounds of wine at a time, which is completely enough.

If converted to Datang's unit, it would be almost two buckets of wine.

Butler Zheng was a little jealous and asked with a little eagerness: "Mr. Yan, shouldn't this new spirit be sold everywhere quickly so that everyone knows about it?"

When he thought about it, in such a monopolized business, it was of course necessary to make money as early as possible. How could it be enough to hide and hold two buckets of wine a day?

It would be best to build ten wine steamers at once, then steam the wine day and night, and replace all the current low-alcohol wines of the Zheng family with this high-alcohol wine to make money.

"No, no!" Yan Kai shook his head and asked, "Does Butler Zheng know about hunger marketing?"

He knew the four words separately, and Mr. Zheng also understood the word "hungry" together, and subconsciously thought that Yan Kai was hungry.

"Hungry? Are you hungry, Mr. Yan? I'll ask the kitchen to get you something to eat."

"It's not that I'm hungry, but..." Yan Kai thought about how to explain. Although he didn't major in economics, he has seen a lot of hunger marketing in later generations. Even if he has never eaten pork, he has seen pigs running away.

"How much does Butler Zheng plan to sell for this wine?" Yan Kai suddenly asked.

"If you want to sell it..." Butler Zheng calculated it and said, "A dou of wine now costs about eight guan. Our strong liquor is [-] out of [-], and you have to buy at least two guan to make a profit. I don't think it should be sold for thirty. Really?"

This is similar to Yan Kai's estimate, but the reference for his estimate is those ancient poems he has read, such as "Golden cups of sake fight ten thousand." "Xinfeng fine wine fights ten thousand." and "Ten thousand cups of wine are still credit." drink".

It all shows that in the Tang Dynasty, a dou of wine cost ten thousand, which was ten guan of money.

Of course, this is also related to commodity prices and living conditions at that time. Now in the early Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty as a whole was not so wealthy, so prices were relatively low. A dou of wine could only be sold for eight guan.

But no matter what, this is a high cost. Even after Butler Zheng said it was thirty times, he hesitated. Is the price a bit too high?

"Thirty guan?" Yan Kai smiled slightly: "Why do you want fifty guan?"

"Five...fifty guan?" Butler Zheng stretched out a slap in the face, a little unbelievable.

"Who...who would spend fifty coins to buy a bucket of wine?"

"If there is too much wine at the beginning, it will naturally not be worth it." Yan Kai explained: "Scarcity is the most valuable thing, but Butler Zheng should know, right? Our wine, let alone two buckets a day, wants me to see it, In the beginning, it will be enough for us to fight once every two days.”

"The so-called hunger marketing is to whet the appetite of those who buy wine, so that they want to buy it, but cannot buy it. The less they can buy it, the more they want to buy it, and the more valuable our wine will be."

"Mr. Yan, do you mean it is the same as the Khotan jade? Although the output is small, the price is much higher than other miscellaneous jade because of its high quality?"

How else to say that the ancients were smart? Butler Zheng understood after being nudged a little by Yan Kai.

In the Tang Dynasty, the prototype of auction had already appeared, which was called pumai. Therefore, if something was expensive, it was easy to understand that the one with the highest price would get it.

"Yes, that's what it means. Mr. Zheng, you have to study the consumption psychology of rich people. They are willing to spend thirty guan for a bucket of wine, and they don't care about spending an extra [-] guan. Even for some people, the price you sell is about The more expensive it is, the more they pursue it.”

Butler Zheng nodded. He really couldn't explain it in theory, but he had been with the Zheng family for so many years and had done a lot of business.

He can still understand this truth.

"Listening to Mr. Yan's words really enlightened me."

"Hahaha, don't be polite, Butler Zheng. What we want to think about now is to give this wine a name. It's best to make up a story and then find a good opportunity to name it."

"You want to make up a story?" This was the first time Butler Zheng heard this statement. He had no idea what the story had to do with selling wine.

"Of course it has to be made up. A wine with a story has its own cultural connotation. A wine without a story has no soul."

Butler Zheng was stunned when he was told that. After a long while, he asked: "Then how should we make up this story?"

Yan Kai thought for a while, and remembered what Zheng Zhixun said about Zhu Rong and Gonggong when he was talking about Journey to the West that day, and he had an idea and said.

"Steward Zheng also tasted this wine. Is it as strong as fire?"

"That's right, as soon as the wine enters your throat, you can feel the heat!" Butler Zheng nodded.

"Does it feel like a red-hot knife is being used to burn you?"

"Yes, yes!" Butler Zheng felt that this description was too appropriate: "So this wine is called Shaodaozi?"

"Of course not, let's call this wine the Vulcan Knife!" Yan Kai suppressed a smile and said: "Burning knives is appropriate, but how do you make up a story? If you want to say that this wine is called the Vulcan Knife, it was Zhu Rong every time back then. After the battle, his sword was extremely hot, so he would bring a jar of wine and pour it on the sword, and the evaporated wine would be filled with the spirit of the Vulcan Zhurong's sword, and it would become such a strong drink."

After a few words, I just told Butler Zheng that I was stupid. Well, I had forgotten that this boy was a storyteller.

To be honest, he would have almost believed this story if he hadn't seen with his own eyes how the wine steamer was made and how the wine was steamed.

"Vulcan Sword, Vulcan Sword! This is a good name!"

There is no taboo in using the word "神", since there are so many gods and goddesses in the world.

"But how do we sell this wine?"

"Find a place to smash it for him."

"Smashed it?" Butler Zheng doesn't know how many times he has been fooled. You said you would sell the wine for fifty guan before, but you asked me to find a place to smash it for him?

Let’s just say, can there be more sincerity and less routine between people?