Chapter 254 253 Visit him

"You mean, ordinary ginseng for decades is three or four taels of silver per pound? ginseng for more than a hundred years is only ten taels of silver?"

Wei Guangde asked in disbelief after watching Zhang Ji summarize the prices of ginseng in Beijing.

"Yes, my master, the shopkeeper said that in the past, I only bought one or two taels of silver for those ginseng. Now the number of Shangdang ginseng collected every year is getting smaller and smaller. Many local ginseng farmers have changed their careers, so most ginseng in Beijing has turned to

The purchase price in Liaodong, northern China has also increased."

Zhang Ji thought Wei Guangde was a little dissatisfied with the price of ginseng, so he hurriedly explained the news he had heard from the shopkeeper of the pharmacy.

Shangdang ginseng?

Codonopsis pilosula?

Wei Guangde had a vague impression of him, and he seemed to have seen him somewhere.

Now it seems that the price of ginseng in this era is not expensive, almost the same as the price of bargains.

In fact, except for most areas in the south that are not suitable for ginseng growth, so the yield is small, the number of parameters in the north during this period is still very considerable.

However, with the large-scale collection and consumption of the Song Dynasty, the production of ginseng in the mainland has sharply decreased, especially when Codonopsis was dug to an almost extinction. Now many powerful people often eat ginseng and have developed a habit, so they buy similar things from outside.

Changbaishan ginseng, also known as "Northeast ginseng", has led to the soaring price of ginseng today.

During the Song Dynasty, ginseng was not considered a precious health medicine, but was just like dates, and was used by many people to soak in water.

Su Shi, a great writer in the Song Dynasty, was like a food blogger, often recording the taste of various delicacies on paper.

Once Su Shi asked his friends to purchase some dates and ginseng for himself, which shows that in people's eyes, the value of ginseng is the same as that of jujubes.

However, Codonopsis has disappeared now, and Changbai Mountain ginseng produced in Liaodong has become a substitute. The difficulty of entering the mountain to mine, inter-trade trading and long-distance transportation naturally increase the procurement cost, resulting in the surge in ginseng prices.

The records of the efficacy of ginseng are expressed in the "Shennong Bencao Jing", but it is also believed that this thing is sweet and cold in taste, which is responsible for replenishing the five internal organs, calming the spirit, calming the soul, stopping the palpitations, eliminating evil spirits, improving eyesight, and making happiness good.

The effect of wisdom is just a common medicine, and it is a different distance from the great tonic and prolong life boasted by later generations.

Wei Guangde heard that people today are not as popular as ginseng in later generations. They regard it as a magical medicine that can prolong life, or as an ordinary health product.

Cheap is cheap, but I don’t know if I can make the price increase in the future.

Relatively speaking, for this type of medicinal herb, it must be precious if it is older, so Wei Guangde still plans to stock up on a batch of ginseng that has been added to the vintage.

It’s not that I want to hype this thing. The shopkeepers of the drug shop know that the production of ginseng in mainland China is now low, and they are all hanged by the ginseng in Changbai Mountain, Northeast China.

It seems that there are a lot of Liaodong ginseng now, but it can't stand such continuous collection. Wei Guangde estimates that the price of ginseng has risen for sure.

The prices of ginseng from last year may not be as exaggerated as in later generations, but the rise is inevitable. It is also a waste to stock up so much cash in your hands. It is better to take out some of the money to invest in ginseng.

"You take the time to go to those pharmacies and buy them in large quantities for those centenary ginseng."

Wei Guangde sat on the chair and thought for a while before continuing, "Don't move the money at home for the time being. Go to Huitong Trading Company to find Master Lin Er, and first bring in 2,000 taels of silver to do this."

Last time, Wei Guangde offered 3,000 taels of silver from Huitong Trading Bank and gave Gao Zhong one thousand taels of silver. Now there are about 2,000 taels in his family, but it may be used at any time, so Wei Guangde wanted to keep it first.

Huitong Trading Bank has only released a sum of silver for so long, five thousand taels, not too much, three cents of interest.

The remaining 12,000 taels of silver were taken home for trouble, so Wei Guangde never wanted to withdraw cash.

Now that it is useful, let’s go to the accounts of Huitong Trading Bank first and take back the money.

"Young Master, do you really want to buy so many ginseng?"

Zhang Ji was frightened by the silver digits reported by Wei Guangde. For two thousand taels of silver, how many ginseng should I buy?

Have you eaten so much ginseng?

"I said that only ones that are more than a hundred years old will be better as the longer the year, and you don't have to buy ones that are shorter, and I don't know how many you can buy."

Wei Guangde said with some regret.

"I understand, buy ginseng that is more than a hundred years old."

Zhang Ji nodded quickly and agreed, then suddenly thought of something and said to Wei Guangde, "Young Master, there is something else.

This afternoon, Chen Ju and Eunuch Chen sent a small servant over to show that the Japanese Emperor was going to summon Tong Miaosan to the palace to refine medicine."

Wei Guangde nodded when he heard this.

Yes, there is Ganoderma lucidum. Chen Ju said before that if you can’t find the remaining medicinal herbs, you can use Ganoderma lucidum instead.

The peaceful Zhang Juyou was really lucky. He just sent Ganoderma lucidum to the palace not long after the order was announced.

I don’t know if Geng An has agreed with Liang Gaofu these days, and whether Liang Gaofu will tell you in detail about the sins that King Hui committed during this refining process.

Sure enough, after the second day, Wei Guangde had a banquet with his colleagues again. When he got drunk, he heard Zhang Ji report that Geng An returned home at noon. According to Geng An's words, he knew

The cases of King Hui's rampant crimes in Junzhou were explained in detail to Liang Gao and Liang Sanren.

Wei Guangde quickly found Geng An and asked in detail about the situation, and then was satisfied.

As the matter has been done, I just wait a few days to find out if I can find out about Emperor Jiajing's reaction later.

Wei Guangde guessed that Chen Ju was afraid that he could guess something, at least he knew that Wei Guangde was very concerned about King Hui, but he had any specific ideas. Wei Guangde did not explain in detail to Chen Ju.

As for Chen Ju, Wei Guangde's judgment on him seems to be honest and honest, but he is also very smart. Otherwise, he would not have been trusted and relied on by an old eunuch like Gao Zhong.

Yes, in recent contacts, Wei Guangde felt that Gao Zhong liked to hand over his errands to Chen Ju, and obviously he was optimistic about him.

I don’t know how long it will take to refine the medicine this time, so Wei Guangde can only continue to wait and go to Chen Ju to drink and inquire about the news in a few days.

"Zhang Ji, when I went to Huitong Trading Company, I asked Zhang 200 taels of silver to come back to me."

Wei Guangde thought about it. Although he took the initiative to invite Chen Ju to drink in the first two or three times, he had never given other people the benefits to contact each other, so it would not work if this continued.

The first time Gao Zhong gave 1,000 taels of silver, this time he gave Chen Ju 200 taels of silver. He had to inquire about the situation in the palace through him, so he naturally had to try his best to maintain this relationship.

"Also, let Li San follow me in the past two days, Zhao Hu would rather stay at home first. You should hurry up and go out and collect some of the ginseng that has been in the year."

Yesterday, I told Zhang Ji that after I transferred the silver to buy ginseng from Huitong Trading Company, Zhang Ji was still running up and down with him today, and Wei Guangde felt it was completely unnecessary.

Wei Guangde now trained Zhang Ji as his housekeeper and had to go out and stand on his own.

Geng An was also sent out and stared at Liang Gaofu to see when he left Xiyuan. This means he could have a drink with Chen Ju.

A few more days later, Zhang Ji had already started to deliver boxes of century-old old ginseng into the Wei family's warehouse.

Wei Guangde was still very happy when he saw these thick ginseng.

Take out a box of ginseng here, which can be called the treasure of the store in that era.

However, in the current Ming Dynasty, it was just a drink that the powerful and powerful drank in water on weekdays.

But then again, if it weren't for the large collection of ginseng during this period, I'm afraid there wouldn't be such a high price in the future.

In later generations, these old ginsengs were not eaten, but the food was only expensive to stir-fry.

Now that Emperor Jiajing is stir-frying Ganoderma lucidum, Wei Guangde has taken another approach to frying Laoshan ginseng, but he doesn’t know if he can finally make the price.

Wei Guangde was unsure, but he thought that he had already made it anyway, and as long as he stocked up all the goods in his hands, he would not be afraid of the price.

Too bad cheap.

However, the problem was quickly exposed. According to Zhang Ji's return, a pharmacy shop owner told him that the method of preserving ginseng is also very important, otherwise it will be easy to eat and rot.

For ginseng that has been dried, it is much easier to preserve, that is, sealing.

Although there were no sealed boxes in ancient times, they could also be sealed with jars and jars. You only need to pay attention to keeping them dry and seal them with wax. Sprinkle them with quicklime, charcoal, etc. around to make the storage environment dry.

Some fresh ginseng needs to be dried regularly before being stored.

If you want to keep fresh, it is troublesome. You need to use fresh moss to gently wrap the ginseng in all directions, then put it in a dry foam box or other container, and drizzle a little water on the surface.

Protect the moistness of moss.

However, even so, it only takes a few months to store it. It cannot meet Wei Guangde's requirements at all, so naturally everything needs to be dried and sealed.

For this reason, Wei Guangde asked Zhang Ji to find someone skilled in this way in the Beijing pharmacy shop to take care of the ginseng he stored.

I used to look at the so-called ginseng king in other people's shops. I thought it would be preserved for a long time if it was completely dry, but I didn't expect that there would be so many things to do later.

In the past two days, Wei Guangde asked someone to wait outside the Xiyuan Garden, and waited until Chen Ju came out of the palace.

Through Geng An, he already knew that Liang Gaofu had left the palace and returned to Tongmiaoguan, and now he needed to inquire about the news from Chen Ju.

Chen Ju is now without a house outside the palace. After all, the grade is so high, so there is naturally less oil and water.

Two hundred taels of silver were only enough to buy a house in the outer city, but with his current grade, it was definitely inappropriate.

I will give you 200 taels first and then continue to cooperate later. Of course, I will have some money to buy and buy a house in the inner city of Beijing sooner or later.

For Chen Ju, who is still a young eunuch, Wei Guangde felt that 200 taels of silver was a lot.

Chen Ju should not have been raised to the appetite of those eunuchs now. Maybe he didn't look at others with a thousand taels of money.

In a private restaurant near West Chang'an Street, Wei Guangde and Chen Ju sat opposite each other, drinking and eating while chatting about interesting things inside and outside the capital.

"Brother Chen, that little gangster Zhang Juyou is really lucky. The emperor just wanted Ganoderma lucidum, so he sent it to the palace. I don't know how the medicine refining you mentioned before is progressing, but I have received the reward from the emperor .”

After drinking for three rounds of dishes and five flavors, Wei Guangde naturally had to turn the topic into medicine refining.

"Hi, don't mention it."

When Chen Ju heard Wei Guangde's question, he picked up the one on the table and drank it all in one gulp.
To be continued...