“Isn’t it a little exciting?”
“Will anyone like to drink this?”
"You will definitely feel this way when you drink it for the first time. However, people who like alcohol and have become dependent on it will never forget it after taking a sip. Oh, by the way, this thing you drink is called the original solution. If you want to sell it to others, you need to add water to it. You can't just sell it to others like this."
"Then you let me drink!"
Hearing Sophia say this, Hilde couldn't help but laugh.
Aspasia also took the wine glass from Sofia. She was much more cautious than Sofia. After picking up the wine glass, she first carefully smelled the wine in the glass, and then said to Hilde: "When we entered the workshop just now, we smelled a very strong fragrance. It turned out to be the fragrance of this thing. If you smell it, it really smells good. There is an indescribable fragrance."
"After distillation, some of the aromatic substances in the wine will be concentrated into the wine, so it will have a special and charming aroma, which is its competitive advantage. In fact, its aroma is now suppressed by its high alcohol content. If water is added to it to reduce its alcohol concentration to 5% or 4%, the aroma will become more prominent."
"So can you give me some water?"
"of course can."
Aspasia was indeed a worldly person. She knew that Hilde must have her reasons for making this thing, so there must be a way to drink it. Hilde also used a wine ladle to scoop a spoonful of water from the clean bucket next to her. Hilde roughly judged that the alcohol concentration of the distilled grape wine should be around 65 degrees, so Hilde put an appropriate amount of water into it to make the alcohol concentration around 40 degrees, which is the most suitable drinking degree.
When the alcohol concentration dropped, Aspasia sniffed the taste in the glass again. At this time, she couldn't help but widen her eyes and raise her eyebrows. It can be seen that she still likes the change of the wine very much. So Aspasia picked up the glass, took a sip and put it in her mouth to feel its taste.
"It is indeed somewhat stimulating, but not as strong as one might imagine. It seems that the thing you are talking about is best drunk after adding water."
Aspasia is indeed a person who has seen the world.
It was clearly his first time to drink strong liquor.
You can appreciate its beauty.
Sofia was also a little skeptical. She took the wine glass from Aspasia again and took a sip herself. But she still frowned. It seemed that Sofia really couldn't drink much. After taking these two sips of wine, her face turned red.
“It still tastes so bad…”
"Then you probably can't accept it."
Aspasia smiled and said:
“I think it tastes pretty good.”
"It's nothing, actually. It's just suitable for drinking after adding water. This wine is a strong liquor distilled from wine. If you drink it directly, the aroma is not enough. If it is placed in an oak barrel and aged for more than two years, it will have a better flavor. Of course, if you do this, the cost of this wine will increase sharply, and the selling price will definitely not be much lower than those high-end wines. It may even be more expensive. Of course, it is more worth the money. If you like to drink this kind of wine, you will definitely love this feeling."
Hilde couldn't help but explain.
"So, what is the name of this wine?"
"Brandy."
"Brandy? What does it mean specifically?"
"No, that's the name. Anyway, this kind of wine doesn't exist in this world. And I don't plan to just make this kind of wine. I also plan to expand into other types of wine, such as making wine with barley, and using the wine made from barley to make distilled wine. After all, the cost of wine is still relatively high. If we use cheaper grains instead, we can produce more spirits."
"That's it..."
Aspasia could indeed feel what kind of impact Hilde would have on the world after making these things, but she really didn't understand the specific situation. Hilde did have a lot of ideas, and they were really surprising. Aspasia felt that if she drank strong liquor, especially the brandy that Hilde mentioned, she would fall in love with it if she drank it often, not to mention that Hilde just said that what she was drinking now was only the lowest grade. If it went through a series of processing, it would probably become a supreme delicacy.
Spirits trade.
It was the punch Hilde wanted to throw next.
Hilde has been preparing to build a national chamber of commerce, and all kinds of high-quality products produced by the Byzantine Kingdom will be sold all over the world through this national chamber of commerce. At the same time, membership of this chamber of commerce will also become an important way to verify the authenticity of goods. In this era, there is no good way to verify the authenticity. If the reputation of the Byzantine Kingdom Chamber of Commerce can be made famous and a strict inspection system can be established, everyone will believe that as long as the goods are sold by the Byzantine Kingdom Chamber of Commerce, they must be genuine from the Byzantine Kingdom.
Liquor will become one of the main products of the Byzantine Kingdom Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce will use the liquor invented by Hilde to open up markets in other city-states or countries. Liquor distillation technology is not a simple technology. Hilde spent almost a year to manufacture the brass liquor distillation pot. Therefore, if others want to imitate the liquor distillation technology, it may take ten to eight years. In such a long period of time, the liquor of the Byzantine Kingdom will enter a mature stage from a just starting state.
The second tune, the second verse: The secretly serious guy
By that time, other countries will not be able to catch up even if they ride horses.
Afterwards, Hilde took Sofia and Aspasia on a brief tour of the liquor workshop. Hilde took them to see the liquor still that could distill up to 500 liters at a time, and also showed them the triple distillation liquor still system that was being designed and manufactured. This still system could distill purer liquor. At present, the Greeks brewed wine in pottery jars, and they had not yet mastered the method of brewing in oak barrels.
Hilde has asked craftsmen to use European white oak as raw material to make oak barrels. These oak barrels will be used to store brandy in the future. They can also be used to brew beer, brew better wine, or brew whiskey. As long as there are oak barrels, the spirits made by Hilde can have better flavor and more beautiful amber color. At the same time, it is also the most important way to transport wine. After all, there are no glass bottles in this era.
In Hilde's blueprint.
The winemaking industry is divided into many processes.
First is the primary winemaking industry.
This part includes wine brewing, as well as beer brewing, which Hilde will promote in the future. Although strong liquor is very important, low-strength wine will also be the focus of Hilde's exploration. After all, as long as there are oak barrels for storage, low-strength wine can also be transported over long distances. Therefore, Hilde plans to implement the winery system in the Byzantine Kingdom to raise the threshold for wine production and prevent anyone from planting grapes and making wine. In this way, the amount of low-quality wine that enters the market will be reduced, and the price of wine will be increased to open up market space for other types of wine.
After low-end wine is eliminated, people's demand for cheap wine will increase sharply, which will leave a lot of room for beer. The geographical location of the Byzantine Kingdom is very suitable for growing barley, wheat and other grain raw materials for brewing beer. In addition, the agriculture of the Byzantine Kingdom is relatively developed, and a large amount of grain is produced every year.
These grains would not be wasted if they were used to make wine.
Therefore, high-quality and low-priced beer will be a good choice for everyone.
Another important role of the primary wine industry is to provide raw materials for the distilled wine industry. Wineries will provide finished wine to brandy distilleries for distilling brandy, and beer breweries can also provide fermented grain wine to whiskey manufacturers for distilling whiskey. At the same time, factories making oak barrels will also have a very large market. With a large consumption of alcohol, oak barrels will become a very important commodity. Coincidentally, many places in Thrace are still in forest areas, and there are a lot of European white oaks. These projects are not very suitable for making ships, but very suitable for making wine barrels.
Whether it is produced wine, beer, or brandy and whiskey after distillation, or even the transparent whiskey that has not been aged in oak barrels, soaking some juniper in it will become the famous gin. Hilde is very confident that these wines will become hot commodities in the international community and can be easily sold all over the world.
Once this industrial chain is formed, the wealth it can bring to the Byzantine Empire every year will be huge, which may be more profitable than the Byzantine Empire selling weapons and equipment or other commodities. After all, grains are very cheap, and grapes are not expensive either. The price is very cheap, but once grains are brewed into wine, the price will increase sharply. It can not only promote the development of commerce, but also make the country richer.
After these days of hard work.
There are a lot of things to do regarding brandy making, so I'm almost done with it.
After that, we just need to wait for the craftsmen to make more stills and build a complete distillation system, and then we can start Hilde's plan. Let's put the grain brewing on hold for now. After all, people's consumption of alcohol is not so widespread now. First, we will open up the market with grape wine and brandy, and then expand the market with grain brewing. This will form a two-step plan. Anyway, these things have to be done slowly, and we can't be too impatient. We can't eat hot tofu if we are impatient.
Tofu?
Oh yes, there seems to be no tofu in this era!
Hilde began to have wild thoughts again.
After she finished her work in the workshop, Hilde did not return to the palace until the evening. When she came in, she saw a man lighting a candle in the corridor of the palace, seemingly reading something. Hilde was curious, so she went over and found that the person reading there was Alcibiades. He was holding a manuscript written on papyrus in his hand, and he was so absorbed in reading it that he did not even notice Hilde walking behind him.
"What are you looking at?"
"Ah, Your Majesty!"
Alcibiades rose immediately.
"I...I'm reading a book!"
"What book?"
"Ah... To be precise, it was the manuscript given to me by Lord Herodotus. Lord Herodotus came back from the north these two days. He saw a lot of things in Thrace in the north and wrote down what he saw and heard in Thrace. I was very interested, so I asked Lord Herodotus to show me his manuscript. Lord Herodotus was very generous and lent me all his manuscripts."
Alcibiades seemed a little flustered for some reason, perhaps because he felt that it was wrong to light a candle and read in the palace at night. Hild took advantage of the dim light of the candle to read the contents written on the papyrus. Alcibiades was not lying, the handwriting was indeed Herodotus's handwriting, and the contents written on it were also some research on the various tribes in Thrace.
"Why are you watching it so late?"
"Because... I'm usually too busy and can only watch it at night. And if I watch it in the room, the candles will disturb other people's rest, so I watch it here."
"Do you think scrubbing the toilet is tiring?"
Hilde suddenly asked.
Alcibiades was stunned for a moment, then nodded.
“It’s really tiring.”
"But I think you're having fun doing it."
"Because I know that this is the mission given to me by His Majesty to test me."
The second part of the third section has a different political ecology
Alcibiades did not shy away from this. He just said what he had to say and said what he wanted to say. This is also in line with the character of Alcibiades in history. This person has always been outspoken and easy to offend people, so in the later period of his life, he was always betrayed or framed. He is a very good person, but in fact he is not a very smooth person.
So sometimes it’s very contradictory.
History describes Alcibiades as a dissolute playboy, but also a talented young man. He is stubborn, capable, eccentric, but an opportunist. Perhaps the evaluation of people is contradictory, because there is no way to look at a person comprehensively and what his character is like. Even Hilde has no way to know what kind of person Alcibiades is after spending more than half a month with him.
"……I see."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
After Alcibiades finished speaking, he prepared to pack up.
"Starting tomorrow, you don't have to clean your room."
"……His Majesty?"
Hilde's sudden words surprised Alcibiades. In his heart, it was like the sun had risen. Could it be that his persistence for half a month had finally paid off? Has His Majesty finally recognized my ability? Have I finally passed the test? So is His Majesty going to arrange something else for me to do?
Just as Alcibiades was lost in his fantasy, Hilde smiled faintly and said, "As for sweeping, mopping and wiping in the palace, leave it to the other servants. Then you will be in charge of cleaning the toilet. I have to say that your toilet is much cleaner than others. You have a talent for cleaning toilets. Before I assign you other tasks, you will be in charge of the toilets in the palace."
"what?"
When Alcibiades heard this, he was stunned.
"You still need to clean the toilet?"
"Do you have any dissatisfaction?"
"No no……"
Alcibiades shook his head hastily.
Well... although he didn't need to do the more time-consuming cleaning work, he still had to continue to clean the toilet. This was already a huge improvement compared to before, which showed that Hilde was really concerned about his situation. So Alcibiades lowered his head and said, "I will do my best to clean your majesty's toilet."
"...Don't talk so weirdly."
"Then what should I say?"
"In short, you can read books and study hard in your free time. I allow you to leave the palace and go to other places. You are my housekeeper. You can go to almost all places in Byzantium. I allow you to go there to investigate, learn, and understand the completely different political methods of Byzantium and Athens. At the same time, you can also go to the army to understand the military system of the Byzantine Kingdom, the training methods of soldiers, and familiarize yourself with the conditions in the barracks. If you don't understand something, you can go to Amyntas. He is also an Athenian, so you two are from the same hometown."
"Yes! I understand!"
Alcibiades stood up straight.
"Also, the Byzantine Empire does have brothels, but we have clear regulations here. Public officials are absolutely not allowed to go there. If they go there, they will be sentenced. I know you like that. In Athens, you are a well-known playboy, but you are not allowed to go. If I find out, I will personally turn you into a eunuch."
Hilde said this.
He pulled out the dagger hanging on his thigh.
"My knife is very fast."
"…Your Majesty, I understand!!!"
Alcibiades felt a chill in his lower body. He felt that Hilde was definitely not joking. Since she said so, she must be able to do it. So no matter what, he felt that he could not go to the brothel to find a woman...
"However, since you are already a Byzantine, if you don't mind, I can introduce you to some people. If you are already married, I am afraid that your promiscuous nature can be restrained a little. Of course, the premise is that you can't think of finding multiple wives. Public officials can only have one wife, and they will be held accountable for cheating."
"..."
Alcibiades hesitated.
He seemed to have something to say, but didn't know whether he should say it.
"What's wrong? Is there anything you want to say?"
"Your Majesty...but I heard that you have..."
"I am me and you are you. Just take care of yourself. Do you really think I want to have multiple wives? Sigh... sometimes people just have no choice." Hilde said, turned around and walked towards his room. "You should go back and have a good rest now. I'll have someone arrange a separate room for you tomorrow. This way, it will be more convenient for you to read books or something."
"Okay, thank you, Your Majesty!"
Alcibiades waved his hand at Hilde.
In this way, Alcibiades was finally freed from the chores of cleaning the palace. Although he still needed to clean the toilet, it only took three or four hours a day to complete. As for the rest of the time, Alcibiades could read in his room or go to various places in Byzantium to broaden his experience.
After all, Alcibiades was a young man under 20 years old. Although he was knowledgeable and had studied with Socrates for such a long time, it did not mean that he was very experienced. When he really came to Byzantium alone, everywhere he went opened his eyes. This was a world completely different from Athens.
Athens is a place that advocates freedom. The gap between the rich and the poor in the city-state is still very large. They are willing to talk loudly and express their attitudes and opinions on politics. At the same time, people will intuitively criticize each other's ideas, so it is easy to quarrel. Pericles' supporters and opponents in Athens are almost evenly matched. Most of Pericles' supporters are wealthy merchants, rich people, agricultural nobles, and artisans and small merchants throughout Athens. Many of Pericles' opponents are farmers, or even the poor class in the city, but their large number also caused Pericles a lot of trouble.
Such a binary opposition.
It had been there since Alcibiades was a child.
Chapter 3, Section 4: What I Saw in Byzantium
It can also be said that this binary opposition formed the whole picture of Athens' political life. No one can deny Pericles' strong influence, so much so that opposition to Pericles became an independent force. The question of whether to support Pericles directly constituted the whole of Athens' political life, affecting everyone's judgment on politics.
But this was not the case with the Byzantine Empire.
When Alcibeles went to listen to some people's speeches, or to look at some policies.
There is a sense of bureaucracy here that is similar to Persia.
Hilde never tried to silence people. According to the laws of the Byzantine Kingdom, as long as people did not publicly insult Hilde, there would be no problem. Criticism of some of Hilde's policies was also within the permitted scope. The only difference was that since this was a monarchy, publicly questioning the monarch's rule was a taboo.
