(I was interrogated all night yesterday, and the monk who can't rest on weekends is seeking recommendation votes and comfort...)

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  As soon as he returned home, Li Jian came to the door. Chen Ke gave him a wink and said to Lian Guang with a sly smile: "Boss Li has come for the wine yeast."

  "Go." Liang smiled and said: "Not being at home for these few days has worried Boss Li to death."

  "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter." Li Jian chuckled and followed Chen Ke through the main gate to the warehouse.

  In the Song Dynasty, ordinary people in Shu lived in hanging foot buildings, rich people lived in public houses... basically it was like the northern quadrangle courtyard. Of course, in a small place like Qing Shen, living in a public house doesn't mean you're a big shot.

  The Chen family is a three-entry and four-courtyard house. After entering the door and turning over the screen wall, you can see the five rooms of the guest hall in the north house and the seven small rooms of the servant's house. There were also east and west wing houses, which were demolished under Chen Ke's strong advocacy, making the length of the courtyard increase to ten zhang. Large bluestone was used to pave the ground, with stone locks and arrow targets placed in the corners, and single and double bars were installed for the brothers to exercise.

  From the living room and the two side doors, you can enter the second courtyard. This courtyard has a main hall of three rooms, with two wing-rooms on each side, a corridor in front, and east-west wings of three rooms each. Generally speaking, it is only in the third courtyard that the master's family lives in the main house, but Chen Jia does not have any female relatives, and the five men live in the second courtyard, which is already spacious enough.

  In the center of the second floor is a dining room, also where **** reviews homework. To the left is ****'s and Gorō's bedroom. To the right is Jirō's and Saburō's bedroom; both side rooms are study rooms.

  The three eastern wing rooms were basically idle, only used to store miscellaneous items. The three western wing rooms, however, had been converted into a wine cellar, with iron bars hidden behind the doors and windows. The main gate was usually locked tightly, and Chen Ke kept the key with him at all times.

  Open the door and window of Warehouse C, let the air inside circulate for a while, then Chen Ke and Li Jian walked in. The room was filled with rows of ceramic jars in the shape of a curved character, each containing wine yeast that was about to ferment.

  The yeast is actually enough, and it's no problem to brew as much wine as you want. The key is that the Qing Shen Garden has only so much, even if all the pomelos are used for brewing, the annual output of raw wine will not exceed 100,000 catties. The production capacity limit is there, according to the official conditions 'and buy', it's better to hang yourself than to do that.

  Only three days had passed, and Li Jian's whole person had become thinner by a circle, his waist was slightly hunched, he supported the wine jug and asked: "San Lang, is there any news?"

  "Who is the wine merchant of Mei State?" Chen Xiao lifted a vat of wine, scooped up a ladle of richly colored wine lees with a wooden spoon and sniffed it lightly.

  "Peng Shan Bi Ming Jun." Li Jian said.

  "Doesn't He Meishan have any relation with the Cheng family?" Chen Ke said somewhat disappointedly.

  "Of course. If it weren't for the help of the Cheng family, how could he have snatched the Glass Spring from its original owner?" Li Jian said with a matter-of-fact expression: "Bi Da is the maternal cousin of Song Furen." Song Furen was the wife of Cheng Hu.

  "So it was like that..." Chen Ke nodded slowly: "How is the Bi family's business?"

  "The most famous wines in the world are half from Shu, so competition is naturally fierce. But the first-tier Snowflake wine, Jian Nan Chun and Luzhou Lao Jiao are in a superior position and unaffected by this. The scramble is mainly concentrated on the second-tier Han Zhou E Huang wine, Rong Zhou Hu Po wine, Mei Zhou Bo Li Chun, Pi Xian Pi Jian wine and Lin Qiong Lin Qiong wine. These five families mainly rely on civilian consumption, so they all use flat prices to sell in large quantities. It's unclear who sells the best, but the worst seller is undoubtedly Mei Zhou Bo Li Chun!"

  "What reason?"

  "Bai Mingjun is an outsider, and he likes to bully and mistreat workers. The employees at the wine shop can't wait for their contracts to end, and as a result, the taste of 'Glass Spring' wine has been getting worse and worse. If it weren't for its exclusive sales rights, I'm afraid it would have gone out of business long ago." Li Jian shook his head and sighed, "What a pity, what a pity."

  "What impact do we have on them?"

  "There will be some impact, but it won't be too big." Li Jian thought for a moment and said: "Because we don't sell through stores, but instead sell the original wine to merchants in various places, who then distribute it. And our annual output is less than 100,000 catties, so how much will each place get? It won't affect those exclusive distributors."

  This carefully designed sales approach was intended to avoid having too great an impact on the official wine industry in certain regions, thereby avoiding unnecessary trouble. It was precisely this approach that allowed Huang Jiao's wine business to develop and expand smoothly until this incident occurred.

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  At this time, Li Jian had already somewhat understood, his face looking unpleasant: "Could it be that they are behind the sinister plot, we didn't provoke them!"

  "A single man is innocent, but carrying jade makes him guilty." Chen Ke almost broke the wooden spoon, his eyes coldly said: "Seeing good things and being jealous, this is the usual behavior of official children!"

  "What can a local tribute bring? It's all up to the high-ranking officials in the capital. Does the Cheng family have such great power?"

  "The local officials didn't report, how would the capital know that Meizhou in Shu has Huang Jiao wine?" Chen Xiao sneered and laughed: "Could it be that you really think that within three years, Huang Jiao wine will become a world-renowned wine like Jian Nan Chun or Xue Qu wine?!"

  "How could that be? I have a number." Li Jian said: "In terms of fame, at most it's just about the same as amber, glass, and goose yellow."

  "I asked my father in Bianliang, and no one knows about these so-called famous Sichuan wines." Chen Ke said in a low voice: "If someone didn't make trouble for us, how could we possibly 'be honored on the tribute list'?"

  "Ah......" Li Jian's face turned pale and he said: "You're saying that it's the Cheng family who is dealing with us?!"

  "It's just a guess." Chen Ke glared at him with some annoyance: "You're going to be like this?"

  "Our humble door and household, how can we compete with the Cheng family..." Li Jian's legs were trembling as he spoke.

  "It must be the Cheng family!"

  "That's good, that's good......" Li Jian wiped his sweat with a handkerchief.

  "Even if it's not the Cheng family, what's the big deal?" Chen Ke sighed and said: "You're so clumsy, how can you fight with others?"

  "It's not the Cheng family, I'm not afraid," Li Jianqiang laughed: "Not to mention in Meizhou, even in the entire Shu, the Cheng family is one of the top powerful families! If it were really their family, we would still be obedient and wait for our punishment."

  Chen Ke really wanted to curse him with a "fart", but he restrained his sharp tongue, knowing that it would only damage their relationship and change nothing. He spat out a long mouthful of turbid air and said: "You still have to go to the county yamen, find Song Dalin to get the documents, remember to enclose 50 taels of silver as a donation to the county!" One tael of silver was equivalent to one guan of money.

  "Such a lot of money?!" Li Jian exclaimed in pain. Fifty thousand yuan just to see Zhang Wenshu, it's already beyond the acceptable range for ordinary people.

  "It's a probe! We take out such sincerity, no matter whether the other party is a corrupt official or a clean official, they will be accommodating. Li Jian said lightly: "If it still doesn't work, it means there's a problem with this document, and our chance lies here!"

  "What if I'm watching?"

  "It won't be a loss even if you just look at it. In the future, we want to ask the imperial court to remit and reduce, and we still need to rely on Commander's full support, and take the opportunity to improve our relationship." Chen Ke sighed and said: "If you can't bear to part with it, I'll deduct this money from my own account."

  "No need, no need, it's not right to use your dividend, let's take it from the public funds instead." Li Jian waved his hand and said.

  "No need to be polite, at this time, going through thick and thin together is what matters most." Chen Ke smiled and said.

  "...Just as they were about to leave, Li Jian suddenly said: "Can we outsmart the government?"

  "If it were another dynasty, I wouldn't even think about it." Chen Xiao smiled faintly: "But this is the Song Dynasty, although there is also darkness, but after all, it's much cleaner than other dynasties."

  To boost Li Jian's confidence, Chen Ke told him what he had just heard from his elders:

  "That day, I learned of this matter, and thought that closing my eyes and pretending it didn't exist wasn't a solution... For us younger generation tribute writers, the quickest method is to follow the examples set by our predecessors. So I asked several seniors about the things our great Song Dynasty had offered as tribute in the past, and the results were really reassuring."

  "What did you say?" Li Jian stared with wide eyes.

  "The elders said that almost all the tribute goods would be subjected to similar 'harmonious purchases', but over the years, no one has ever heard of anyone being forced to hang themselves." Chen Xiao said: "The Great Song Dynasty does not have the habit of trampling on human life. If it really gets out of hand, the relevant officials will definitely not be able to get away with it."

  "Are we the only ones who are so unlucky?"

  "Of course not." Chen Ke shook his head and said, "The more famous the tribute is, the more ruthless it is to pluck the hair from a passing wild goose. The collection of taxes is layered and coded, but the money received is embezzled layer by layer. Inside and out, it's enough to drive people to death."

  "Why didn't he die from it?"

  "Because there are always officials who work for the people!" Chen Xiao said: "The officialdom of the Great Song Dynasty also has corruption, but there are also gentlemen. Once something goes too far, someone will surely speak out against it!"

  "For example, ten years ago, the famous Duanzhou inkstone was in a similar situation to ours, and many craftsmen fled. Later, the new governor Bao Zheng secretly investigated and found that the palace only required 'Duanzhou to pay tribute to 10 inkstones per year'. Adding those from the three departments and six ministries, as well as those purchased, there were no more than a hundred. However, officials at all levels added their own quotas, increasing the number of tribute inkstones, resulting in Duanzhou having to submit over a thousand inkstones every year. Bao Zheng was furious and reported this to the capital, resulting in many officials being dismissed. From then on, Duanzhou paid tribute with 90 inkstones per year, which became a fixed number, and no one dared to extort even one more!"

  "Sanlang, what are you trying to do?" Li Jian wiped the sweat from his forehead and said.

  "I'd like to see if this Song Dynasty only has one Bao Qingtian!" Chen Ke clenched his fists tightly and said, "If there's only him, I'll go to the capital to file a complaint against him!"

  Li Jian was stunned by the young man's ferocity, and after a long while, he dryly said: "Third Brother, must it be like this?" He didn't dare make such a big deal out of things.

  "Alas," Chen Ke looked at him with a scowl and said irritably, "Of course we'll have to wait until there's no other choice."

  "That's good, that's good..."

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  Last night was delayed by audit, this chapter was written late, sorry, but it won't affect tonight's update... Vote for votes!

  Thank you for the leader's review of key words, hoping this upload can satisfy the leader.