Chapter 52: Soy Sauce King
The trial production of soy sauce was a great success, and Yuan Ye was very satisfied, but A Man suffered misfortune and was contaminated into a small otter. With her Dou Dou eyebrows furrowed, she pondered a philosophical question: “In the river? Is this in the river? Am I really in a world that’s in the river?!”
As for A Qing, Yayoi, and the Momoi Brothers, they weren’t as curious as she was, needing to get to the bottom of everything. They also didn’t know how long the ancient brewing method for soy sauce should take, taking it for granted and not feeling surprised at all—perhaps this is why the smarter and more knowledgeable one becomes, the easier it is to go mad!
They also liked the soy sauce after tasting it, praising it highly and thinking it tasted very good. Yayoi even scooped some up to take back, planning to bottle it and let everyone have soy sauce over rice that evening.
Yuan Ye didn’t stop them. Although this soy sauce was definitely exceeding chemical residue standards, and many people in later generations would shout that it was carcinogenic and would kill you if you ate it, the food modern people eat isn’t much cleaner. Food safety issues are endless in every country, and the risks are just as high. So, there’s no need to dwell on it too much; eating it occasionally is fine.
Of course, he was only in the trial production stage now, and the production process was certainly not perfect. He would gradually improve the purification process in the future, to the point where he could produce soy sauce that was safe to drink by the jugful. It would just take time, and he couldn’t rush it.
He was even considering market segmentation. For example, Kaito District is adjacent to Ise Bay, where kelp is definitely very cheap. They could acquire some to boil into a broth and mix into the soy sauce, greatly enhancing its umami. This would allow them to produce incredibly delicious “dashi soy sauce” and then sell it for five to ten times the price, catering to the high-end show-off market.
They could also find ways to acquire crops with high sugar content, or roots and stems with high starch content, such as boiling taro into a syrup and mixing it into the soy sauce to increase its sweetness, producing “sweet soy sauce” targeted at scholars, noblewomen, and children. He figured that should also do well.
In any case, he was sure to make a fortune. The money earned would be enough to renovate his house to look brand new, along with super luxurious decorations, greatly improving his quality of life.
By dinnertime, he was still pondering various processes, preparing to open his “high-end soy sauce workshop.” He had already designed over twenty types of segmented products in his mind, and achieving financial freedom was just around the corner. At this moment, A Man gradually regained her senses. She couldn’t understand at all how Yuan Ye had managed to shorten the brewing cycle of one year to seven or eight days. She also couldn’t understand why things like wheat bran and rice bran, which were practically garbage, could be used to brew expensive soy sauce. She decided to stop thinking about it.
She gave up. But she didn’t pester Yuan Ye to explain what strange things he had poured into the vat. After all, despite her young age, she had extensive experience in the world and knew the preciousness of such “secret recipes.” She understood that no matter how much she asked, Yuan Ye wouldn’t tell her. If she held such a secret recipe, she would stab anyone who dared to look at it in the stomach; hesitating for a second would be a betrayal of her ancestors.
So, she didn’t ask. Instead, she picked up the soy sauce pot, poured some into a small dish, and examined it closely under the light. The soy sauce had a rich, bright brown color, emitting a soft, warm hue that looked very pleasing.
She then lifted the dish and gently sniffed it. The complex aroma, composed of alcohols, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, esters, phenols, acetals, and furan compounds, was a gentle, inviting soy sauce fragrance that captivated the senses and inspired longing.
Finally, she cupped the dish with both hands, tilted her head back, and drank the soy sauce in one gulp. The taste began with saltiness, followed by umami, and ended with sweetness. It was salty with a hint of umami, and the umami left a sweet aftertaste. In any case, it was much better than the dark, somewhat bitter soy sauce brewed by the monks.
She slowly put down the dish, exhaled softly, and closed her eyes to savor the taste for a moment. When she opened them again, she was like a zombie leveling up in a movie, with green light practically shooting out of her eyes.
Damn it, this soy sauce is top-grade! This is a miracle! That guy wasn’t messing around; he actually succeeded and brewed soy sauce of a quality equivalent to high-grade winter storage sake. It would definitely sell for a high price, and the cost was incredibly low!
Although she hadn’t been able to boast earlier, and all the witty remarks she had finally come up with about dung beetles, soy sauce, and fools were wasted, she had participated in the entire soy sauce brewing process. She had a rough idea of how much raw material was used and the yield, and she immediately began calculating on her fingers.
One *koku* of bean cake, wheat bran, and rice bran could produce a little over one *koku* of soy sauce. Bean cake, bought in large quantities, was only about 130-140 *mon* per *koku*. Wheat bran and rice bran were only eaten by the truly destitute, mixed with buckwheat when there was nothing else to eat, and were even less valuable. Buying a large amount from a mill would only cost a few dozen *mon*.
Coarse salt was a bit more expensive, but Kaito District was close to the sea, so the salt supply was abundant, and the salt price was only slightly higher than rice. Moreover, if they bought large quantities from the salt fields—no, if they bought large quantities—it could be even cheaper.
Calculating it this way, the cost to brew one *koku* of soy sauce was only around 200-odd *mon*. However, one *koku* of soy sauce could sell for over two *ryo*. No, with such good quality, it should be priced according to the standard of high-grade sake, selling for over three *ryo*. That would be a profit of fifteen times, more satisfying than robbery!
After finishing the cost calculation, the green light in A Man’s eyes intensified. If it could materialize into lasers and scan the surroundings, it could dismember A Qing, Yayoi, and the others who were enthusiastically devouring soy sauce over rice, drinking soy sauce radish soup, tasting fish stewed with soy sauce, and constantly marveling at it.
Of course, she couldn’t do that; she hadn’t trained to shoot lasers with her eyes. But she couldn’t bother with eating anymore. She immediately went up to Yuan Ye and whispered, as if she were about to trade drugs with him, “Those things you poured on the bean cake earlier, and those you sprinkled later… Don’t be nervous, I’m not asking what they are. I just want to know if those things are expensive, if they’re worth much?”
Yuan Ye was slightly taken aback, immediately guessing she wanted to know the cost. He said directly, “They’re not expensive. On average, it’s about a hundred-odd *mon* per *koku* of soy sauce! Yes, that’s the current cost. It will be even cheaper in the future; I’m confident I can reduce it by another 20%-30%.”
He wasn’t exaggerating. Japan has four volcanic belts, with volcanoes everywhere, making sulfur extremely cheap. Ordinary villagers could even find high-purity natural sulfur lumps by going into the mountains. One of the four volcanic belts passes through Owari into the Ise Peninsula, so natural sulfur lumps can indeed be found in the mountains, making it almost a no-cost transaction.
As for alkali, there’s no need to even mention it. In the Japanese Medieval Period, laborers used this stuff for daily laundry. If it was used for daily laundry, it certainly wouldn’t be expensive.
With the raw materials already so cheap, not to mention Yuan Ye’s plan to carefully design the steaming equipment and treat it for corrosion resistance, striving to condense and reuse most of the dilute hydrochloric acid, the cost would be even lower. In later generations, in the 1950s and 60s, Japan did exactly this, using dilute hydrochloric acid in a closed loop with very little loss, which is why soy sauce was so cheap. Even during times of material shortages and constantly rising prices, the price of soy sauce remained stable, affordable for everyone.
Of course, reusing dilute hydrochloric acid was just Yuan Ye’s idea for now. Whether it could actually be done remained to be seen. He couldn’t get glass yet and needed to think of other methods. But even without reusing the dilute hydrochloric acid, it didn’t matter; the cost was still acceptable.
A Man thought the same way, murmuring softly, “There’s no need to lower it further. A cost of three hundred-odd *mon* with a tenfold profit is already very, very good…”
A tenfold profit could be considered exorbitant. For such a secret recipe, she dared to kill the Emperor!
However, it was fine for Yuan Ye to have it. Yuan Ye treated her very well; he never refused anything she wanted to eat or drink, always giving her the best treatment. So, she had no objections to Yuan Ye making money. Yuan Ye wasn’t stingy like ordinary samurai, constantly pinching pennies as if he would die if he spent an extra coin. In the future, she would surely benefit, and her life would become more and more comfortable!
This time, she had truly struck it rich. She never expected that after her righteous attempt at a double-cross failed, the benefits would only increase. It was truly a blessing in disguise!
The more she thought about it, the happier she became. She was already envisioning her future life of debauchery. Her Dou Dou eyebrows couldn’t help but twitch erratically, and the green light in her gaze towards Yuan Ye intensified. The more she looked at him, the more she saw a “kingly aura.” It was possible he was the future “Soy Sauce King.” Just sitting beside him, she could faintly smell the aroma of money emanating from him, making her feel ecstatic and unable to control herself. She had always had a dream, not the matchlock gun one, but another: to buy a large barrel of good wine, soak herself in it, and sleep, sipping it as she slept, enjoying every moment.
Now, smelling the aroma of money from Yuan Ye, the “Soy Sauce King,” she felt that she was not far from realizing that dream; it was within reach!
Yuan Ye felt a bit uncomfortable being stared at by her. He looked down at himself, then at her, feeling somewhat bewildered. He even suspected that the chemical residue in the soy sauce had exceeded the limit too much and had made her foolish. But thinking it was unlikely, he still got down to business and discussed with her in a low voice, “How should we sell the soy sauce now?”
He was very capable of brewing soy sauce using modern industrial principles with primitive methods, but he had been in this era for too short a time to know how to sell the soy sauce and turn it into money. He could only rely on A Man, a person who knows everything about everything.
Yes, sell the soy sauce, earn his second pot of gold after transmigration, and make a good start to a leisurely, high-quality life in the Japanese Warring States period!
