I trade in both worlds

Xu Xu felt warm in her heart after hearing what her second uncle said. She knew that her second uncle really wanted to help her, but was worried that his skills were not good enough and that he would waste food.

She smiled and said, "Uncle, I don't know how to make wine either. But we can try according to the recipe, step by step. I believe that as long as we do it with our heart, we will succeed."

Xu Jizong looked at Xu Xu's determined eyes and finally nodded: "Okay, I can only help you at most. I will do whatever you say."

Thinking of Xu Xu and the children, Xu Jizong gritted his teeth and decided to take a gamble. If the brewing was successful, Xu Xu would also be able to earn extra income.

Xu Xu was delighted when he heard this, and hurriedly thanked him: "Thank you, second uncle."

The next morning, just as the sky was getting light, Xu Jizong appeared at the door of Xu Xu's house.

"Xuxu, where is the food? Let's weigh it first." Xu Jizong held a large scale.

Xu Xu pointed to the wing next to the kitchen and said, "Uncle, they are all in that room. Let's weigh them according to the proportions in the book."

The two of them came to the wing room together, which was filled with all kinds of food.

Xu Xu first pulled out a bag, opened it and saw that it was sorghum.

She picked up the basket used to weigh grain and said as she put sorghum into the bamboo basket, "The sorghum should weigh seven catties and two ounces."

Xu Jizong watched her pack the sorghum, then picked up the scale and started weighing it.

The scale bar was slightly tilted, indicating the weight of the grain.

He poured the weighed sorghum into the bucket, and then weighed 4.4 jin of rice, 3.6 jin of glutinous rice, 3.2 jin of wheat, and 1.6 jin of corn.

The total amount of food is 20 kilograms, no more, no less.

Next, they cleaned the grain, put it in a large barrel, and added enough clean water.

Xu Xu gently stirred it with her hands to ensure that every grain was fully exposed to the water. Then, she closed the lid of the wooden barrel and began the soaking process.

Every morning, Xu Jizong would come on time to help Xu Xu replace the turbid water with new clean water, and then go back to make bamboo baskets.

The two of them worked well together, and the work became much easier.

On Saturday, after breakfast, Xu Xu sent Xu Qiwei and Xu Tiantian to Xu Jizong's house, and then came back with Xu Jizong. Today they had to prepare steaming grain and mixing koji.

After two or three days of soaking, the grain finally becomes soft and plump, exuding a faint fragrance.

Xu Xu could feel the moisture and vitality inside them with just a light pinch of her hands.

"Uncle, do you think the grains are almost done soaking?" Xu Xu pointed at the swollen grains in the wooden barrel, with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

Xu Jizong nodded, and his calloused hands gently scooped up a handful of grain, looked at it carefully, and sniffed it.

"Well, it's almost done. The grains have absorbed enough water, and now is the time to cook them." He said after pondering for a moment, his tone revealing a calm and confident tone.

The two of them worked together to scoop out the soaked corn, and the golden corn kernels shone with an attractive luster under the light.

They carefully placed the corn into a large pot and began to cook it.

The fire was burning, steam was rising, and the whole kitchen was filled with the sweet aroma of corn.

"Xuxu, do you think this wine can really be made?" Xu Jizong asked while adding firewood.

Looking at so much grain, if it fails, it will be a waste. After all, making wine still requires skills and rich experience.

Neither of them has the skills to make wine, and their experience in making wine is limited to drinking.

"Just follow the method step by step and you will be able to succeed." Xu Xu comforted.

After three and a half hours, the corn in the pot finally started to boil. Xu Xu and Xu Jizong carefully scooped up the corn and put it in the wooden steamer to steam it.

"How long will this take to steam?" Xu Jizong asked, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"It takes a quarter of an hour to steam." Xu Xu replied.

Although her voice was soft, her tone revealed an unquestionable firmness. She had memorized every step of making Wuliangye and did not dare to be careless.

According to the plan, the two cooked sorghum, wheat, rice and glutinous rice in turn. Each time the steamed grains were poured into the bamboo steamer and placed in the back pot to keep warm to avoid affecting the mixing of the koji.

Each kind of grain is first boiled until it blooms and then steamed for a quarter of an hour. The whole process is tedious and complicated, but Xu Xu and Xu Jizong complete each step meticulously.

Each time the steamed grain is poured into the bamboo steamer and placed in the back pot to keep warm.

As time passed, the atmosphere in the kitchen became more and more tense. Xu Xu and Xu Jizong stared at the wooden steamer in front of them, afraid of missing any details.

Finally, after a long wait, all the food was steamed.

"Should we wait until the glutinous rice cools down before mixing them together? Or should we mix them now?" Xu Xu asked his second uncle.

Xu Jizong thought for a moment and said, "Now, mix the grains while they are still hot, then spread them out and wait for them to cool."

Xu Xu nodded, and together with Xu Jizong, he poured all the grain into a large round winnowing basket. The colorful grain looked particularly tempting under the light.

Then he went back to the house, got two new bamboo rice spoons, and started mixing the grains.

The rice spoon turned flexibly in her hands, mixing the five kinds of grains evenly together.

"Uncle, how do you think the grain is mixed?" Xu Xu asked after mixing it for a while. Her face was already covered with fine beads of sweat.

Xu Jizong came over, took a closer look at the grains in the winnowing basket, nodded and said, "Well, it's mixed well. Now spread them out and wait until they cool down before moving on to the next step."

After the grains gradually cooled down, Xu Jizong pointed to a large vat nearby and said, "We pour all the grains into the vat, add the koji, stir evenly, and seal the vat for fermentation."

The two of them worked together to pour the steamed grains into a large vat, and then added koji and water according to the proportions.

Xu Xu and Xu Jizong both stirred the grain in the jar carefully, for fear of disrupting the fermentation process.

After sealing the altar, they placed it in the corner of the main room and covered it with a thick cloth.

After a day of hard work, the two finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Next, let it ferment on its own. The whole process takes about one to one and a half months.

Two weeks later, Xu Ziqing came to Baiping Village again to receive the champagne.

When Xu Ziqing looked at the champagne all over the yard, he felt a pain in his back and waist. Unfortunately, this was going to be taken to Dayun Dynasty, so he couldn't hire anyone to do the work.

She sighed deeply, resigned herself to starting to unpack the boxes, putting barrels of wine on a cart, and then delivering them to Xu Xu's house.

Xu Xu moved the wine barrels to the east wing and put them in bamboo baskets. There were four barrels of wine in one bamboo basket. After filling one bamboo basket, he would stack an empty bamboo basket and continue filling.

After loading 2,500 barrels of champagne, the two men were so tired that they could not straighten their backs.