The emperor would rather have a

Chapter 94 Wealth
"Go take a good shower and change your clothes. Just let someone else clean up here later."

After giving Chen Xiaoniang some instructions, he called someone over to clean up.

Afterwards, Li Yi took Guo away from the side courtyard.

"Erlang, what's the use of all this alcohol?"

Guo couldn't help but ask. She would not question any decision of Li Yi, but she just couldn't suppress her curiosity, so she asked this question.

Li Yi thought for a moment and shook his head, "I was just impulsive at first, thinking this thing would be very useful on the battlefield, but now that I think about it, it's really a huge waste to distill alcohol from grain."

"To produce a jar of high-purity alcohol, the grain raw materials required are several times more, and the firewood consumed during distillation is also a huge expense. To be honest, the profit ratio is very low."

"Alcohol can only be used on a small scale at best. Widespread promotion is neither realistic nor in line with the court's policies for the people's livelihood."

Speaking of this, Li Yi was also thinking in his heart.

Many things may have good intentions, but we also have to consider the context of the times. Before agricultural productivity increased dramatically, food was in short supply in all dynasties.

Even if there was no hoarding and uneven distribution of food, the amount of food distributed to the people would not be enough.

Of course, the people could eat only two meals a day, or even one meal a day, and the food could be coarse, with whole grains mixed with wheat bran and stones, and accompanied by wild vegetables and tree bark, and they could survive.

But the raw materials for making wine cannot be fooled. The quality of the grain must be guaranteed, and the amount of distilled alcohol must be determined by the amount of grain required.

It's not like drinking wine which can be adulterated by diluting it with water and then sold.

In comparison, it is easy to make a profit from alcohol, but if you want to benefit the people through it, it is far less direct than finding ways to increase grain production.

Li Yi couldn't help but sigh, "Alcohol is something that only a small number of people can use. It does have some uses on the battlefield, but among the common people, at most it can be used to distill some low-proof liquor and sell it, but it still cannot be separated from the category of consumption."

In addition, Li Yi thought of another thing.

That is, he made alcohol, but how to prove to others that this thing can be used to disinfect, treat wounds and prevent infection.

You should know that alcohol was not used in medicine until after the 13th century.

Li Yi currently has no way to conduct any experiments to prove the medical effects of alcohol... However, in the future, when he leads his troops into battle, he can bring some alcohol with him and slowly promote its use by force.

After all, no matter how much you say, it is not as effective as force promotion.

As long as everyone is used to using alcohol for disinfection, it doesn’t seem to matter whether they understand the principles behind it or not.

However, these are things for the future and need to be done slowly and cannot be accomplished overnight.

We are currently living in a chaotic world, and everything depends on military combat. If we cannot win the battle, everything else is in vain, and invention and creation can only come second.

You can play with small inventions, but you cannot distract your attention from them and affect your main job.

What Li Yi cares most about at the moment is how to consolidate his power and status.

Once you have enough power, you only need to give the order for these inventions and creations, provide a general direction and blueprint, and naturally there will be skilled craftsmen to take care of them.

at the same time.

After listening to Li Yi's words, Guo nodded as if she understood.

In fact, she didn't understand many of the meanings in Li Yi's words, such as professional terms such as "purity level" and "yield ratio", which she couldn't understand at all.

But this did not prevent Guo from thinking that what Li Yi said made sense.

Anyway, her own Erlang has been very smart since he was a child, and always says things that others can't understand. Guo has long been accustomed to it.

……

On the eighth day of the first lunar month, the weather was sunny.

Early in the morning, Li Yi took people to the government office to collect his reward.

The appointment letter to the military position had already come down, and he took the money and property rewarded by the emperor back home.

For this purpose, dozens of donkey carts were hired at once to load the goods.

Five thousand strings of copper coins, calculated at 800 coins per string, would amount to four million coins, weighing several tons and filling more than twenty donkey carts.

As for the one hundred rolls of silk and satin, if they were spread out, they would probably be several kilometers long.

Several donkey carts were also used to pull it.

When Li Yi and his men returned to the house with the rewards, the whole family was stunned by the spectacular sight. It was like someone in the future delivering a dozen pickup trucks filled with cash to your door.

And tell you that all the money belongs to you.

Just think about how exciting it is.

Although Li Yi attaches more importance to the improvement of his status, he does not have much obsession with material things such as money.

But when real money is piled in front of you, no one can remain indifferent.

Li Yi couldn't help but sigh, "There was a time when I had to rack my brains to come up with a compensation of 100 strings of cash."

"However, nowadays, a few thousand strings of cash seems to be nothing to me."

But what he said was also true. With his current position as the commander of the cavalry in front of the palace, plus the additional title of Defense Commissioner of Beizhou, his annual salary alone was several thousand strings of cash.

Not to mention some other miscellaneous subsidies.

The wealth in front of him was at most his annual salary.

Hearing this, Guo, who was standing next to her, covered her lips and chuckled, but because there were many outsiders at the door, she didn't say much.

However, she was thinking about the incident at the beginning of last year when Li Yi accidentally killed someone. At that time, no one could have imagined that her own Erlang would achieve what he has today.

Aunt Chen flattered him, "Erlang is very capable. I have never seen so much money in my life. The emperor gave it to Erlang as a reward."

"I'm afraid even a room wouldn't be able to hold all this..."

Listening to his aunt's slightly petty words, Li Yi was too lazy to say anything more. He wanted to fill up a room, but these several thousand strings of cash were obviously not enough.

However, there is nothing wrong with my aunt Chen, a village woman with little knowledge, saying such things.

After all, for farmers working in the countryside, one hundred strings of cash is already an astronomical figure, let alone thousands of strings of cash, which one would never be able to reach even if he worked hard all his life.

As he was speaking, dozens of personal soldiers called by Li Yi to help were carrying valuables into the mansion in an orderly manner.

Under the command of Li Hanchao, the captain of the personal guards, they were all sent to a specially organized warehouse in the central courtyard.

Seeing that the storeroom where the money was stored was right next to Guo's bedroom, Li Yi asked curiously, "I remember this was originally the side room where your maid lived. How did it become a storeroom?"

Guo stroked her temples and said softly, "I kept all the rewards and salaries from Erlang in my bedroom, but as they grew more and more, I couldn't store them anymore, so I simply converted this side room into a warehouse."

"I put all my valuables in there. It's more reassuring to keep them close to me."

Li Yi laughed dumbly and said, "Are you still worried about someone stealing your things when they're at home? Besides, you just have the key to the warehouse, why do you have to keep it right here?"

Guo said softly, "Erlang is right, but I still feel more at ease having it right here."

"You're just a miser." Li Yi chuckled and said, "Forget it, you're in charge of the household expenses, do whatever you want."

"But where does Lian'er, the girl who used to serve you, live?"

Guo was stunned for a moment and said, "I will sleep in the inner bedroom, and Lian'er can live in the outer room."

After hearing this answer, Li Yi was speechless. If there was a third wheel living in the outer room, wouldn't it be very inconvenient for him to do something bad?

But after thinking about it, it wasn't a big problem. When he wanted to get close to Guo, he could just call her to his bedroom and sleep with him.

What's more, there is a bathroom for taking a shower... Thinking of this, Li Yi realized that most of the time, the exercise between him and Guo seemed to take place in the bathroom.

Could it be that I have this kind of habit in my bones?

"Han Chao, please make arrangements. Every two weeks, a new group of personal soldiers will take turns to my residence. The number of soldiers will be set at twenty. Everyone who takes a turn will receive their usual hard-earned salary."

On the way back to the yamen from home, Li Yi gave Li Hanchao an instruction.

According to regulations, a general of Li Yi's status has the right to mobilize a certain number of personal soldiers to take on the duty of guarding his own residence.

Although it is free labor, Li Yi is not going to get it for free. After all, they are his personal soldiers. These people are the meat shields of the commander on the battlefield, so they must be treated well.

At this point, Li Yi added, "Also, before you get off duty, go and tell Ma Renyu and the other brothers to come to my house for a drink in the evening."

Li Hanchao nodded in agreement after hearing this.

(End of this chapter)