Chapter 195: Business (Part 2)

Over the next few days, under Shen Fan's bustling management, several identical courtyard buildings rose on the wasteland beside Purple Treasure Studio along Huifu Street. High walls, tightly closed gates. Inside stood rows of standardized brick-and-timber factory buildings. The distillery was first to start production. Ming Dynasty distillation technology was mature, with numerous urban and rural distilleries producing all kinds of famous wines and inexpensive crude liquors.

Guo Yi had never planned to brew from grain fermentation. Per Wu Nanhai's liquor industry development plan, transmigrator brewing industries would only begin after sweet potatoes and sugarcane were harvested in bulk. Directly buying grain in Guangzhou for brewing was too costly: the process was complex, and brewing-quality water and yeast had specific technical requirements—quite troublesome. Plus brewing involved massive grain inputs and distillers' grain disposal—traditional distilleries usually raised pigs to process the grain waste. Guo Yi had no intention of opening a pig farm in Guangzhou.

Therefore, they adopted a re-distillation approach for crude liquor. This cheap white liquor was available nationwide, simple to make, inexpensive, and abundant. Purchasing it directly, then performing secondary distillation to remove impurities, purify the liquid, and increase alcohol content could produce premium product. Actually, many famous modern white liquors were made by bulk-purchasing base wines from small distilleries, then blending. Compared to this spacetime's best distilleries, transmigrators had advantages in quantifiable quality standards, modern testing equipment, and highly efficient distillation apparatus.

The distillation equipment was manufactured at Lingao by Machinery, then disassembled and shipped to Guangzhou via Dengying Island. The still was made of cast iron, tin, and wood. This still was far more efficient than contemporary equipment. Instead of direct heating, it used a small transmigrator-made boiler—a very simple atmospheric-pressure boiler made from cast iron and oil drums—generating steam to indirectly heat the coil. Crude liquor processed through this re-distillation produced a clear-as-water, mouth-burning high-proof spirit. After two or even three distillations, almost all fusel alcohol odors disappeared, leaving pure flavor.

Alongside the still came several hundred small flat bottles, already labeled with printed trademarks—a woodcut image of a general in ceremonial armor, below it the seal script characters "Guoshi Wushuang" ("Peerless Champion"), then smaller simplified characters with explanatory text. At the label's bottom: "Zichengji Proudly Presents." Finally, the label included volume specification: 250 ml. This seemingly superfluous detail was Xiao Zishan's suggestion: promoting new units of measurement and Arabic numerals should be done "imperceptibly." Many future generations who grew up in the transmigrator state first learned simplified characters, Arabic numerals, and metric measurements from various "transmigrator goods" packaging.

After the liquor was produced, several distillers sampled it. All agreed it was mellower and stronger than market crude liquors. But compared to top white liquors, it was only competitive, not especially fragrant. One distiller regretfully said with such a fine still, he could make his own yeast culture, find good water, and create Guangdong's number one. Guo Yi smiled without answering—Zichengji's liquor didn't rely on the liquor itself but on the glass bottles. Guo Yi was pursuing the premium gift-box route. He ordered the liquor bottled and sealed for later use—the first batch was small, intended as gifts for VIPs at the shop's opening.

Shen Fan ordered over 100 gift boxes from local lacquerware shops, lined with brocade. Each box contained two bottles and two small glass cups. This idea was borrowed from their spacetime's liquor gift sets. In Ming Dynasty, it was absolutely groundbreaking. Even Old Manager Shen was amazed—the owner truly had grand ideas.

Guo Yi instead marveled at Chinese traditional handicrafts' exquisiteness. These lacquer boxes were crafted with such beautiful decoration—nothing he'd ever seen before. Yet Manager Shen said these weren't even top-tier pieces, just batch goods.

Throughout the entire first month of Chongzhen Year 2, the Guangzhou advance station was even busier than Lingao—opening three shops simultaneously was no light matter. Daily, Guo Yi took Manager Shen, Sun Chang, and others calling on clients in every direction—newcomers needed proper etiquette. Each visit, different gifts were presented according to the host's status. Even Young Master Liang Cunhou, who'd received a calling card at the human market, was specially visited. Young Master Liang was pleased to see him opening business, accepting gifts and returning homemade preserved meats. The close relationship between Young Master Guo and Young Master Liang delighted Old Manager Shen.

"Owner has great skill, befriending Young Master Liang," Old Manager Shen whispered in praise.

"Is Young Master Liang very famous?" Guo Yi had heard from Liu Gang that Young Master Liang was a patrician, known for charity and generosity.

"Owner doesn't know?" Shen Fan was somewhat surprised. "This Young Master Liang Cunhou is the legitimate grandson of the late Minister of Revenue Liang Renpu. His father was twice a prefect. He himself holds a juren degree. Locally, they're a famously prominent official-gentry household."

Manager Shen explained that the Liang family prided itself on poetry and propriety, showing little interest in jewelry and curiosities. Getting their business would be difficult. But their deep local roots meant cultivating good relations brought many benefits.

"We should befriend him more often then." Guo Yi responded casually. Then a thought struck him. "Old Manager Shen, do you know all the officials, gentry, and major households in Guangzhou?"

"About nine out of ten." Shen Fan replied with some pride.

"Write them all out when we get back. I want to know everyone who's an official here—"

Shen Fan laughed. "That's easy. Just send someone to the bookshop for a copy of the Jinshen. From Grand Secretaries down to unranked officials, every official in Ming Dynasty is listed."

"There's such a book?" Guo Yi was surprised. In the original spacetime, a "PRC Civil Servant Directory" certainly didn't exist—or if it did, wasn't publicly sold.

"If owner wants it, I'll send someone to buy it."

"No rush." Guo Yi thought the Intelligence Data Team's request for provincial official information had seemed like a massive project. Now it seemed quite simple—publicly available materials.

"Are there more detailed ones? For instance, former officials no longer serving but still powerful—"

"Yes, the provincial Jinshen Records."

"Good. Send someone to buy all these books. Hmm—" He thought. "I also want to obtain the Chaobao (court gazette)."

"Also not difficult. Just have someone copy it from a yamen. But what does owner want that for?" Shen Fan was puzzled. He understood wanting Jinshen Records for business, but Chaobao contained only court memorials and discussions. Nobody but officials cared about that.

"Court trends are important to us. Who knows what the court plans for maritime trade?"

Shen Fan thought this made sense—the owner's goods mostly came by sea. If the court strictly banned maritime trade, it would be a major blow. But such news just needed good connections with yamen clerks, secretaries, or minor officials who'd leak information when they saw it. No need to labor over obtaining gazettes. But since the owner wanted it, just get it—wasn't particularly difficult.

"The Li Secretary handling documents at the Governor-General's yamen is close to me. Just offer him some benefits."

"Handle this yourself. Whatever expenses, report directly to me. Don't account it through the shop." Per the Economic and Financial Committee's notice, dispatch station intelligence expenses could no longer be buried in commercial operating costs—they needed separate tracking. This gave Guo Yi headaches: on personal favors, distinguishing between intelligence and business spending was difficult—usually both overlapped. After discussion, they decided to count all personal expenses as intelligence funds.

"Yes, owner."

Returning to Purple Treasure Studio, the shop renovation was nearly complete. To avoid shocking public sensibilities, decoration was fairly traditional. Three large street-facing rooms. Square brick flooring, tightly mortared blue-brick walls unplastered with lime. Wooden-lattice drop ceiling. Four large red palace-style gauze lanterns hung, plus a row of small Yiwu-bought glass lamps. Purple wood verandahs surrounded the space. Walls hung with calligraphy and paintings by local celebrities, varied in style, elegant yet refined—closer inspection showed authors were local patrician families or serving officials. Even the three characters "Purple Treasure Studio" at the hall's center were written by Governor-General Wang Zunde's most favored secretary, the yamen's military advisor Lü Yizhong—these three characters cost Guo Yi 500 taels. Central furniture was all rosewood flower stands, side tables, eight-immortals tables, and official-hat chairs, with accompanying vases, screens, and ornaments all being fine pieces—shipped from Lingao from Gou family confiscations. Dengying Island had recently delivered such items to Guangzhou with every trip. First, the dispatch station's shop opening needed staging without spending. Second, better to sell off loot than clutter warehouses. Shen Fan privately wondered: where did all these fine things come from? Maybe really from pirates?

Four glass display cabinets flanked the main hall, very prominent. For safety, Guo Yi had added extra copper railings around each cabinet, preventing pressure damage if crowds gathered too close.

Sales samples were displayed in custom-made elegant boxes and trays, lined with black, red, or gold velvet. Each cabinet also had two kerosene-lamp-converted spotlights angled from above. Every item inside gleamed brilliantly. Shen Fan, accustomed to traditional jewelry shops' dim interiors, was amazed—Young Master Guo truly had inspired ideas.

(End of Chapter)