Chapter 67 Eating Out
In the evening.
Liu Tao, Wang Tiezhu and several leaders of the Yunnan Provincial Defense Management Office left together and came to a restaurant.
At this time, there were no private restaurants!
Even individual businesses did not exist.
All were either state-owned or collective.
The restaurant they came to was also state-owned and was one of the main reception venues for provincial and municipal government meetings.
After showing the letter of introduction, everyone found a private room and sat down.
In a restaurant like this, you can't eat here without a letter of introduction. It's difficult for ordinary people to come here to see and broaden their horizons.
Liu Tao ordered seven dishes, a soup, and three bottles of Moutai.
Last year, Moutai's production exceeded 1,000 tons for the first time, and the price was 7 yuan per bottle, which was more than 13 times higher than the 75 tons of wine produced in 1953.
Since 1953, Moutai has begun to be exported through Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau. In 1957 alone, the Moutai Distillery produced 183 tons of wine and exported 50 tons.
Wang Tiezhu watched Liu Tao come in with two bottles of Moutai, and couldn't help but sigh: "During the Long March, Moutai was used to heal wounds and wash away the dust!"
"Oh? There is such a thing?" Liu Tao was very curious and said: "Director, please introduce it."
Wang Tiezhu then told the story of the Red Army and Moutai.
Since ancient times, wine has been inseparable from war. In order to win the war and inspire soldiers to fight bravely, all the soldiers on both sides of the war would drink a farewell wine before going to the battle, and drink a lot to celebrate after the victory. This ancient custom of military wine culture has been passed down from ancient times to the present, and has also been continued in the Red Army.
When the Red Army passed through the Moutai wine town before crossing the Chishui River for the third time, the superiors required all troops to use the fine wine of the wine town, not only to improve the troops' food as much as possible, so that everyone could eat well, but also to deliberately bluff and make a big show to confuse the enemy, creating the illusion that the troops were all drinking "expedition wine" and were determined to cross the river.
Because of the lack of medicine, many injured soldiers used Maotai to clean their wounds, thereby killing viruses and avoiding inflammation.
"It was because of this fate that Maotai entered the Huairen Hall of Zhongnanhai on the eve of the founding ceremony. Leaders used it to congratulate each other. From then on, Maotai was known as the national wine. The prosperity of the country is the prosperity of fruit wine!" Wang Tiezhu said, full of nostalgia. This is the 'founding wine'!
Another leader, Chen Gang, said: "Later, between 1953 and 1958, the state allocated a total of 1.5 million yuan to the newly established Maotai Distillery."
The money at that time was huge. 1.5 million yuan could build a large state-owned factory.
"This wine cost 3.3 yuan a bottle back then, but now it costs 7 yuan. I usually don't want to drink it, and it's good enough to drink it once a year!" Xiao Yunfei shook his head and said with emotion: "This time, it's also Comrade Liu Tao who is treating us to a meal. Otherwise, we may have to wait until the New Year to buy a bottle."
This time, Liu Tao enthusiastically wanted to treat not only Wang Tiezhu, but also three leaders of the Yunnan Provincial Defense Management Office, a total of five people.
These days, no one can afford to go to a restaurant.
Now every household is in a state of poverty and poverty. Everyone is as poor as a ghost. Even if they are busy for a year, they may not have spare money to support a consumption.
Therefore, being able to go to a restaurant in this era is something worth showing off for people at this time.
In this era, people who can afford to go to a restaurant must not be ordinary people. People who can go to a restaurant frequently must have a certain amount of property in their hands.
People like Wang Tiezhu are considered high-income earners, but you have to know that they only eat out a few times a year because they have five or six children, and each of them has five or six children, who have to rely on them for support, and they usually live frugally.
Like Liu Tao, who came directly to this hotel and ordered a table of dishes and three bottles of Moutai, he was already very rich.
Three bottles of Moutai cost 21 yuan.
Add it all up, it's 50 yuan.
Fifty yuan, many people don't have that much in a month.
The working class or cadres only have 30 or 40 yuan a month, and ordinary people even have more than 10 or 20 yuan a month!
Such a meal is equivalent to an ordinary family's monthly income, or even more!
Liu Tao thinks it's cheap, very cheap.
Although the environment and service quality are not satisfactory, the ingredients are real, there is no need to worry about pre-prepared dishes, and the food does not have any additives, so there is an absolute sense of security.
Each dish is full and very fresh, and there will never be any fraud.
Liu Tao opened the wine cap and filled each bottle with a glass.
Others were reluctant to go to a restaurant, but Liu Tao had no such concerns.
Every time he went to Kun City or returned to Beijing, he would always go to a restaurant to eat toothpicks.
Under his leadership, the canteen food at Panshan Machinery Factory was very good, but after all, everyone had limited funds under their control, and it was still not as good as going to a restaurant by themselves.
As for Moutai, Liu Tao rarely drank before.
It was also this time when he went to Beijing that he suddenly found that Moutai was really delicious. In addition, Wang Tiezhu and others were very supportive of his work, so Liu Tao also spent a lot of money this time.
If he was alone, ten yuan would be enough for a meal!
Several people chatted while eating, and after a few sips of wine, they almost became brothers, and there was no sense of age difference.
Wang Tiezhu and others would talk about some things in the Long March, the battles fought in the Anti-Japanese War, or the wars participated in the War of Liberation.
All of them came from that era. Even if they were not on the front line of the battlefield, they were in military factories or other logistics work.
Liu Tao found that they were very straight, with their backs straight, full of pride and contempt for the enemy.
That was accumulated through victory after victory.
"If I had gone to the Liaodong Peninsula back then, I would have let the Americans taste my power." Wang Tiezhu drank a few more sips and took off his hat.
His biggest regret was that he had not fought on the Liaodong Peninsula.
Liu Tao secretly admired these old predecessors. Their weapons and equipment were far inferior to the United Nations Army, which was armed to the teeth, and their logistics supplies were far inferior, but they dared to show their swords to the enemy, and the brave won when they met on a narrow road, defeating the arrogant United Nations Army.
Think about it again, I don't know how many people have broken spines and weak knees, and they can only lick blindly. The moon in foreign countries is rounder than that in China, and the air in foreign countries is sweet.
Even more, I don't know how many beautiful people married low-level Americans or old men just to get a green card.
This is true for female stars and ordinary women!
Even at that time, 84 combined brigades had been built, there were three aircraft carriers, 10,000-ton destroyers, advanced third-generation and fourth-generation aircraft, and conventional military strength had jumped to the second place in the world, but some people just couldn't straighten their spines and harden their knees.
Compared with these predecessors, it was simply so much worse.
Liu Tao suddenly realized that spiritual power was so powerful. It was not enough to be materially rich, but spiritual power had to be strong!
Otherwise, if you are materially rich but weak in spirit, you will always be a mental patient.