Chapter 97: Brewing Liquor

Compared with most of the lords in the Dawn Continent, the pensions for soldiers in the Harland Territory are very good.

The families of soldiers who died in battle can receive 50 kilograms of food every month, and a death allowance of one gold coin every year.

Such pensions can be received for twenty consecutive years.

In addition, every year on the birthday of the Dawn Goddess, the territory will give some holiday expenses to the martyrs' families.

Last year's holiday expenses were three taels of brown sugar, ten catties of mutton, a roll of linen, and three silver coins.

Although the supplies are small, they are enough for the martyrs' families to have a good holiday.

The pensions given by the territory every year are enough for a family of three to barely support their families.

The pension policy designated by Richard is better than the treatment of the regular army of the Grant Kingdom.

In the central legion such as the Northern Legion, when soldiers die in battle, they only give a pension of ten gold coins, plus a little from comrades and officers, which is a one-time deal.

Once the pensions are spent, the living standards of the families of the dead soldiers will drop rapidly.

The pensions issued by the Haland Territory are not paid off in one lump sum, but last for twenty years. For many families of soldiers who are not good at financial management, this pension is a guarantee of survival.

Because of the implementation of a good pension policy, the soldiers of the Haland Territory will fight to the death.

In several wars, the territory has lost more than 200 soldiers in total. The annual pension, including food, needs to spend about 400 gold coins.

As casualties continue to increase, the pressure of pension expenditure will also increase.

If there is no new source of finance, the capital chain will become tighter and tighter, and the territory will eventually go bankrupt.

The brick order brought by Baron Sharp has been completed. The largest cash income of the territory now is the sale of steel.

The heavy trebuchet blueprints were exchanged for more than a thousand dog-headed slaves, and now all of them are sent to the mines for mining, and the output of the steel plant has also increased a little.

The territory consumes half of the steel production capacity and sells the remaining half.

Steel sales are increasing every month. Last month, it exceeded 300 gold coins. After deducting expenses, the profit is quite considerable.

After completing Baron Sharp's order, Richard did not stop the brick kiln factory and continued to burn bricks.

In addition to supplying Sophia Castle with the burned bricks, Richard also plans to build several roads, and the river transport terminal will also be expanded.

Next year, Richard is also going to build a new military fortress, Tieshan Castle, near the steel plant, and add a squadron of soldiers to protect the mines and guard against spies.

This year's grain has once again ushered in a bumper harvest. After deducting the rations left by the people, the grain reserves in the territory have exceeded 8,000 tons.

Richard is only going to store 3,000 tons of grain. If the remaining grain is put on the market, the grain price in Heihe Castle will drop a little.

Moreover, grain trade requires a lot of transportation capacity. If you want to transport grain out, you need to build roads and grain transport ships.

If you hire grain ships from outside, the profits will be eaten by others.

The investment in road construction and shipbuilding is not small. Richard calculated the cost and felt that it was not very cost-effective.

Especially in recent years, the territory is still short of money, and every bit of money can be saved.

In the short term, Richard only planned to build roads from Sophia Castle to William Castle, Sophia Castle to Tieshan Castle, and Sophia Castle to Bobby Brick Kiln Factory to connect the castles in the territory.

These three roads undertook military dispatch tasks and had a higher priority.

Since the grain could not be transported out, the territory needed cash income.

After thinking about it, Richard decided to build a brewery to brew grain into liquor for money.

The wine market in the Grant Kingdom is mainly wine, and there are some fruit wines, but grain wine is relatively rare.

Richard found through long-term observation that the northern region prefers strong liquor.

If strong liquor is brewed, sales should not be a problem. The key is to keep the secret of the brewing process.

The brewing process of distilled liquor is very simple, and people can copy it as long as they see it.

The trade of strong liquor may not be monopolized for too long.

There are also grain wines in the wine market of Heihe Castle, but the brewing process is very backward. Not only are there many impurities, but the wine is also very turbid and tastes sour.

Richard carefully studied the grain wine brewing process and found that this primitive grain wine used the fermentation method.

The fermentation method not only has low yield, slow time, low alcohol content, but also very ordinary taste.

The taste is much better when it is changed to the distillation method, and the cost is also reduced.

Richard used the distillation method to brew a batch of white wine on a small scale, let the soldiers in the army taste it, and won the soldiers' praise and affirmation.

Of course, this batch of white wine is relatively strong, and the noble ladies don't like it very much, and it is not suitable as a noble banquet wine.

But as long as the market of the soldiers of the Northern Legion is taken, there will be profit in opening a brewery.

After brewing white wine on a small scale and being welcomed, Richard immediately started to build a brewery.

Richard originally planned to go to the Grand Duchy of Stannic to buy a batch of slaves and use these slaves who had no connection with the Grant Kingdom to build a brewery. Unexpectedly, he recruited more than 2,000 refugees.

This group of refugees had no connection with the lords of other regions in the North, so it was just right to select a group of brewing workers.

When these people came to the territory, Richard took them to the south of the Bobby Brick Kiln Factory and the other side of the Bernie River.

The other side of the Berni River is still a wilderness, and dozens of hectares of paddy fields can be reclaimed.

The winery was built at the foot of the mountain, about 500 meters away from the river.

It is now late autumn, and the climate is getting colder and colder.

In order to speed up the construction of the winery, Richard mobilized 3,000 serfs to help 2,000 refugees cut down trees and build houses.

By mid-October, rows of brick houses had stood at the foot of the mountain. The refugees settled down smoothly and the winery was completed. High-proof distilled liquor began to be produced on a large scale.

Because the alcohol content of distilled liquor is very high, it can often reach more than 60 degrees, which is too strong to drink. Richard added some water and felt a little better.

The grain wine with water was born and immediately became popular in Heihe Fort and swept through major taverns.

This wine was named Heart Fire by Richard.

Soldiers, mercenaries, and hunters are loyal customers of distilled liquor.

In the cold winter in northern Xinjiang, drinking a glass of high-proof liquor can make the body warm and resist the cold.

Moreover, the price of distilled liquor is very affordable. Three copper coins can buy one kilogram.

Normally, three kilograms of grain can brew one kilogram of liquor.

The cost of grain for one kilogram of raw liquor is only two copper coins. If labor and investment are added, the cost is higher than three copper coins.

Richard sells blended liquor, which is lower in cost.

It turns out that one kilogram of blended wine costs less than one copper coin, and the profit has doubled. The double profit is enough for the capitalist to sell the noose to hang himself.

Whether it is the previous earth or this life, the wine industry is a high-profit industry.

If a brand effect is formed, the profit exceeds 200%, which is actually very common in the wine industry.

Unfortunately, the productivity of the Grant Kingdom is not yet at the stage of pursuing brands, and there is no brand effect.

I had something to do in the afternoon, so I went to the county town to buy an electric bicycle. Today is still ten updates. From the 1st to the 5th, there are ten updates every day, from the 6th to the 10th, there are eight updates every day, and after the 10th, there are basically no manuscripts left by next month, and I can only update 6,000 words every day.