Chapter 170: The leader lacks a secretary

The soap-making workshop is about to bring in good profits.

The peanut processing workshop will also soon generate decent profits. Among the newly purchased serfs, several chefs were assigned to research delicious peanuts. They have already developed peanut butter, peanut brittle, salted peanuts, and fried peanuts, which have been sold in small batches by the Thorns Caravan.

The response has been excellent. Many nobles who tasted these delicious peanuts expressed interest in purchasing large quantities next time.

The flower production in Flower Town is insufficient, and there are not enough workers. The head of the peanut processing workshop, Chef Lucas, has already commissioned the Thorns Caravan to purchase shelled peanuts from North Valley City.

"Good job." Liszt only gave verbal praise before leaving. The entire peanut processing workshop was his idea; these people were merely executors with no creativity.

He preferred using gold, silver, and copper coins to encourage creativity and discovery, setting examples rather than rewarding diligence—since serfs should work diligently anyway.

The last stop was the brewery.

Frank Wine Dregs can brew fruit wine, Bordin can brew rice wine, and Huntla can brew beer. They are all working hard to produce their respective wines as quickly as possible to earn income for the workshop. Unfortunately, no one in the workshop knows how to brew distilled spirits or wine.

Ordinary wine is not much different from fruit wine.

However, craft wine requires high standards and meticulous grape selection. Dry, semi-dry, sweet, and semi-sweet wines all require different techniques.

Only Tulip Castle on Coral Island has mastered the technique of making sweet wine. The Crescent Moon wine is renowned throughout the Grand Duchy for its sweetness and crispness.

The red wine from Razi Manor that Liszt tasted at Longtaro Castle is an exquisite example of dry wine.

These techniques are closely guarded secrets, exclusively held by the great nobles.

Distilled spirits are the same.

As a distilled spirit, the brewing process is more complex and monopolized by the great nobles. Spirits like juniper gin are not always available.

Therefore, the brewery in Flower Town can only produce simple fermented wines.

After inspecting the workshops, Liszt began to ponder: "If I remember correctly, distilled spirits only add distillation to the fermentation process... It seems to purify alcohol by utilizing the different vaporization temperatures of alcohol and water. Repeated distillation can produce strong spirits."

Because he dislikes drinking, he has done little research into alcohol. However, he has read many novels that often mention the distillation of spirits, which seemed simple, so he had a vague impression.

"Perhaps I can have the brewery research distillation techniques. Maybe they can produce distilled spirits, adding another specialty to Flower Town."

Rice wine is made by fermenting grains.

Distilled spirits are essentially also made from grains.

Liszt thought, if rice wine is further distilled, could it become distilled spirits?

So he called over three brewers: "I have a task for you. Remember, this task is highly confidential. Anyone who leaks it will be whipped to death along with their entire family!"

The three brewers tensed up and responded: "We swear to keep the task secret!"

"Very well. I have a recipe that claims distilled spirits can be obtained by distilling rice wine. Heat the rice wine until it becomes steam, then cool the steam elsewhere to remove the water, leaving only distilled spirits... You must experiment multiple times and try to produce distilled spirits in Flower Town!"

The three brewers listened, somewhat confused.

But they responded firmly: "Please rest assured, my lord. We will produce distilled spirits as soon as possible."

With the task assigned,

Liszt felt that another specialty of Flower Town was beckoning. He even came up with a name: "Let's call it Flower Brew. Yes, we need different tiers.

Low-proof Flower Brew can be labeled as five-year-aged, while high-proof can be ten-year-aged, twenty-year-aged, or even a century-old aged or five-century-old aged."

Suddenly, he remembered that the Sapphire Grand Duchy has only been established for a little over a hundred and fifty years. Before that, the island likely only had monkeys.

"Forget the five-century-old aged. Let's go with a vintage as old as the nation, saying it was brewed by a master distiller when the nation was founded... Just one barrel, but we can make a new barrel each year, like the 1982 Lafite, which never seems to run out."

Thinking about sales, many classic cases came to mind.

But he also recognized the risks: "The distilled spirits industry is highly profitable and requires significant backing. We must collaborate with Tulip Castle."

With Tulip Castle's support, business would be easier. As a count appointed by the Grand Duke, Lee William Tulip is undoubtedly one of the top figures in the Sapphire Grand Duchy.

Moreover, he serves as the Grand Duke's stablemaster, interacting closely with the Grand Duke annually.

To gain such support, benefits must be shared with Tulip Castle, which Liszt did not mind. The more he integrated into this world, the more he understood the importance of noble connections.

Levis, Lvera, and even Lytton, despite their scheming, are still family members who can provide help in times of crisis.

The destruction of the junior branch of Papa Island has prompted the senior branch to tirelessly investigate and urge the Grand Duke to find the culprit.

Liszt naturally hopes that the Tulip family will grow stronger, becoming a towering tree that shields them from storms.

The Black Dragon horse walked steadily, barely feeling any bumps.

On horseback, Liszt could think clearly, jumping from one idea to another. After considering profit distribution, he suddenly thought: "Speaking of monkeys, perhaps I can promote monkey wine?" Whether monkey wine exists or not is irrelevant; what matters is the novelty.

Nobles love luxury.

Luxury includes not just gold, silver, gemstones, and famous horses, but also art and the pursuit of rare items. Monkey wine is certainly a rare item.

"However, there are too few nobles with deep roots; most are nouveau riche, including the Tulip family, which only rose to prominence recently. They might not be particularly interested in monkey wine and would prefer gems and gold."

Regardless, promoting monkey wine during fruit wine sales could be worth a try.

...

Subsequently, Liszt inspected other shops and workshops.

Currently, Flower Town's commercial district only has a bakery, grocery store, and barbershop. The Workshop Area consists of a blacksmith shop, leather shop, locksmith shop, tailor shop, cooperage, and the newly built brewery, soap-making workshop, and peanut processing workshop.

Many completed wooden houses remain empty.

If it weren't for the numerous serfs paving roads, building houses, and planting grass, Flower Town would look like a ghost village.

The addition of four hundred and seventy-six serfs assigned to various settlements for farming caused barely a ripple. The over one hundred artisans who were highly anticipated mostly turned out to be workers incapable of independently running shops or workshops, and could only temporarily join the farming efforts, wasting their craft skills.

"The commercial area can only serve as a trading market for now, receiving occasional caravans," he said, looking at the empty houses with great emotion. "We need to develop the Workshop Area first, turning it into a production and processing center, which will then drive the development of the commercial area."

He pointed at the commercial area.

He was eager to gesture and explain, "This area should be built like this," and "That area should be constructed like that," but when he turned around, he saw only his male servant Thomas and a few escort knights following him.

All of them were coarse individuals.

His grand ambitions were instantly stifled.

"During an inspection, there should at least be two secretaries following me, taking notes on small notebooks whenever I speak..."