Chapter II Acquisition

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"The noodles are ready. The noodles are ready."

As Li Ang closed and locked the wooden box containing all the money, Chai Cuiqiao walked out of the kitchen holding two bowls of hot egg noodles.

The master and the servant were eating noodles. Maybe it was because she was afraid of poverty when she was young. Chai Cuiqiao had a very good appetite. Even if it was just light noodles without oil, she would eat them with joy and slurp.

"Eat slowly, don't choke."

Li Ang reminded him with a smile, and Chai Cuiqiao said "hmm" and continued to cook the noodles, one bite at a time, one bite at a time. At the end of the meal, there was only a complete poached egg and a small amount of soup left in the bowl, and then she reluctantly bit it off.

The poached eggs have crispy edges and can be eaten with the soup.

"Boom, boom."

A knock on the door interrupted the tranquility at the moment. Li Ang frowned slightly and looked at the door of the Security Hall.

The filial piety period has just passed, who will come to visit?

He turned his head and glanced at Chai Cuiqiao, who understood immediately, wiped the corners of his mouth with a handkerchief, stood up, lifted the wooden box full of coins from the ground, and walked to the backyard.

After Chai Cuiqiao left, Li Ang cleared his throat, walked to the door, and asked, "Who is it?"

"Is the husband of the Li family here? I am Yu Jie, the clerk from Qing'antang in the east of the city. Brother Li, just call me Yu Liu."

The voice outside the door said: "My husband sent me here to bring you the gift box that was distributed at the Xinglin Association a few days ago."

"Your husband? Qingantang?"

Li Ang narrowed his eyes and saw that Qing'antang in the east of the city was a medicine shop and medical center just like Bao'an Tang. Its owner's surname was Yu and his given name was Miaoshui. He was a popular "welfare doctor" in the city of Zhuzhou.

Fu doctor does not mean that he is from Fuzhou or a person who has gained weight, but refers to a doctor who is "lucky".

Li Ang grew up in a medical clinic and has a profound understanding of the medical system of this era.

The medical resources in Yu State can be divided into two categories: official and private.

Officially, they were headed by the Chang'an Imperial Medical Office, the Imperial Palace Provincial Pharmacy Bureau, and the Yao Zang Bureau. The Shan Yao Bureau and the Yao Zang Bureau served the emperor and the prince respectively, and sometimes followed the emperor's arrangements to treat princes, ministers, and concubines in the harem.

The Imperial Medical Office is responsible for national medical administration and medical education.

These three central agencies were well organized and concentrated medical elites. Their medical level was second to none in the world, but correspondingly, the local medical level in Yu State was lagging behind.

Volume 5 of the "Yan Family Instructions" of the former Sui Dynasty, "Saving Trouble", describes a person who is "expert but not expert" - "...a divination shot will yield three out of six, medicine will cure ten and five will fail, music will be inferior to dozens of people, and bow and arrow will be inferior to others."

Among hundreds of people..."

Sun Simiao, the medical sage of this dynasty, also said bluntly in "Essential Prescriptions for Urgent Preparations: Original Preface": "Today's doctors only know the prescriptions for diagnosing the pulse, but do not know the time of collecting the medicines. As for the land of origin, they are not aware of the new, old or false. Therefore,

The reason why you can't manage ten or five or six is ​​because of this."

The cure rate of most doctors is less than 50%.

You must know that the medical system of this era lacks sufficient detailed data reference, such as the patient's constitution, age, physical condition, specific disease type, severity of symptoms before seeking medical treatment, length of disease, etc.

For many diseases, patients can heal themselves by relying on their body's resistance. This group of people is also included in the successful cure cases. In other words, the true cure rate of most doctors will continue to be underestimated.

The mediocrity of the overall level of doctors has severely dampened the people's enthusiasm for seeking medical treatment, so much so that a large number of classics have criticized and ridiculed it.

"Hanshu·Yiwenzhi": "...and when the appropriateness is lost, use heat to replenish heat, use cold to increase cold, and the essence will be damaged internally and will not be seen externally. This is the only loss. Therefore, the proverb goes, 'If an illness is not treated, it will often

Get Chinese medicine.'"

This long-standing folk proverb refers to the fact that if a disease is not treated, it is better to get moderate treatment than to be misdiagnosed and killed by quack doctors.

"Although minor illnesses cannot be completely cured, it is still better to avoid taking evil medicine by mistake."

Essentially, it is out of distrust and ridicule of quackery - as for the so-called "advising people not to take medicine indiscriminately, but to pay attention to the unity of nature and man, and natural healing", it is a misinterpretation of this sarcastic statement, and the curse is taken as a compliment.

people.

In short, the overall backwardness of the medical care in Yu State gave rise to all kinds of chaos. Many civilians got sick and copied the "New Bodhisattva Sutra" and "Encouragement Sutra" at home, hoping to get rid of the disease by copying Buddhist sutras and doing good deeds to accumulate virtue.

Copying Buddhist scriptures without going to the doctor is naturally an act of waiting for death, but trusting medical books is not that good - the medical books of this era are of mixed quality, often contradictory, ambiguous semantics, and even some that can be called curious.

Folk prescriptions.

For example, the "Supplementary Materials on Materia Medica" compiled in the early period of this dynasty stated that "human flesh can cure diseases (possibly tuberculosis)", which led to "folks treating parental diseases by scraping the flesh of the buttocks", killing countless filial sons and daughters.

A kind mother and a kind father.

All the above situations gave rise to the emergence of "blessed doctors", that is, "blessed doctors".

This type of doctor has no medical skills at all. Just by chance, he "cured" a few patients (most likely relying on the patient's own constitution to heal himself). From then on, he became an instant celebrity and was sought after by everyone. As long as he wrote a prescription,

Thousands of people are rushing to buy them, regardless of whether they are suitable for the disease or not.

If the patient takes the medicine and the disease is cured, it is the doctor's blessing. The medicine has been transmitted to the patient and the patient is cured.

And if the patient takes the medicine and his condition fails to improve, it is also destiny. The patient himself is unlucky and will not enjoy the blessings given by the doctor.

Even if the patient dies, he cannot blame anyone else.

To put it bluntly, both medical and welfare medicine are in an invincible position.

Yu Miaoshui is a typical blessing doctor.

Six years ago, he was just a wandering doctor who was so poor that he could not even afford twenty coins. He lived in the city of Zhenzhou in rags and used a miracle medicine that was said to be "a thousand kinds of diseases can be cured by taking them in".

He cured hundreds of patients and became famous and made a lot of money every day.

And his so-called magic medicine is-mung bean soup.

That's right, Yu Miaoshui would only prescribe one medicine at first, mung bean soup.

Children with abdominal pain? Drink mung bean soup.

Have a headache and brain fever? Drink mung bean soup.

Uneven Qi and blood? Drink mung bean soup.

Gynecological diseases? Drink mung bean soup.

Yu Miaoshui asked patients who came to seek medicine to drink it in the morning, drink it in the evening, drink it before meals, drink it after meals, cook it into thick porridge, drink it into gruel, drink it hot or drink it cold.

All turned up.

In Yizhou City, there is the Xinglin Society (a voluntary guild of folk doctors).

Faced with Yu Miaoshui, a man from out of town who did not follow the rules and openly deceived stupid men and women, the doctors of Xinglin Society were naturally resentful at first and wanted to teach him a lesson.

However, as time goes by, there are more and more people who claim to drink mung bean soup all day long and feel that their health is getting better and better. This makes the doctors of the Xinglin Society murmur.

Low-level doctors are doubtful, thinking that Yu Miaoshui may be a truly blessed "fortunate doctor".

Although doctors with higher qualifications know that Yu Miaoshui is deceiving the world and stealing his reputation, they can't stop the foolish man and woman from being crazy - the patients will provide their own evidence to prove it for Yu Miaoshui. It is said in ancient books that mung beans are sweet and cool.

Cooking food clears the gallbladder and nourishes the stomach, relieves heat and thirst, facilitates urination, treats dysentery, thickens the intestines and stomach, improves eyesight, cures headaches, relieves vomiting, cures acne, and relieves swelling...

If it’s not good after eating mung bean soup, it means you didn’t eat enough.

Yu Miaoshui knew how to seize the opportunity. After becoming a "welfare doctor" by selling mung bean soup, he quit when he saw the opportunity. With the first pot of gold, he bought a store in Zhenzhou City, opened a medicine shop and a medical clinic, and actually hired

The doctor is there for consultation, but he himself usually doesn't visit, or talks about the theory that "mung bean soup can cure all diseases".

Li Ang quickly went through Yu Miaoshui's background in his mind, silently "tsk" in his heart, reached out to remove the door latch, and opened the door.

He had no good impressions of this kind of charlatan who deceived the world, but the fact that Xinglin Club asked Yu Miaoshui to join was beyond his expectation.

What happened outside during the four months of mourning?

"Yu Liulang, right?"

Li Ang nodded towards the young man in gray clothes outside the door, "Xinglin's stuff..."

"At this."

Yu Liu smiled and presented a wooden box with copper corners in his hands.

Li Ang took the wooden box and opened it. He glanced at it and saw that it was the same as the gift box given out at every regular meeting of the Xinglin Society in the past. It contained small gifts such as saltpeter and Codonopsis pilosula.

"Thank you very much."

Li Ang closed the wooden box, glanced at Yu Liu who was standing still, frowned and said, "Is there anything else?"

"Ahem, that's it."

Yu Liu cupped his hands, pretending to be hesitant and said, "My husband wants me to ask you whether you have any intention of selling the Bao'an Tang store in the near future."

"What?"

Li Ang narrowed his eyes, stretched out his hand to hold the door frame, and said coldly: "No, go slowly, I won't see you off."

Seeing that Li Ang was about to close the door, Yu Liu hurriedly said: "My husband is willing to pay 180,000 yuan to buy the security hall!"

One hundred and eighty thousand, that is, one hundred and eighty guan, is enough to buy forty to fifty acres of medium-sized farmland outside the city, or to buy two houses of the same size in a slightly remote location in Zhenzhou City.

boom!

The door was immediately closed, and Yu Liu gritted his teeth and stamped his feet outside the door, "One hundred and eighty thousand dollars, plus a house in the city..."

"I won't sell it no matter how much you pay,"

Li Ang said indifferently, "Go back."

"you..."

Yu Liu took a deep breath, calmed down, cupped his hands outside the door, and said, "Then my husband will visit you later today and let him interview you in person."

After saying that, he pursed his lips tightly, rolled up his sleeves and left, leaving his cold "we'll see" in the wind.

Li Ang listened to the footsteps gradually receding outside, turned around with a cold expression, and placed the gift box on the counter.

"gone?"

Chai Cuiqiao's little head popped out from behind the bead curtain, "What's going on? Yu Miaoshui wants to buy our house?"

"I guess I'm attracted by the appearance."

Li Ang waved his hand and said: "This street along the river is close to the Miaoshui Bridge and is very popular. If Yu Miaoshui wants to go further, he has to move here from the east of the city."

"That..."

"Of course you can't sell it to him."

Li Ang sneered and said: "Just after the mourning period, I sent a servant to inquire about the price. It is obvious that I am not yet qualified and have no ability to make a living.

They all run medical clinics and drugstores. You can know the turnover and net income by simply calculating the flow of people.

I'm afraid he thinks that we don't have much savings and is afraid that we will be left with nothing, so he won't hesitate to sell it to him, right?

Humph, Yu Miaoshui has a business acumen but no medical ethics. Letting him pick up good land will only help the evildoers."

"Yeah. This guy is too bad."

Chai Chai nodded in agreement, clenched his fist and punched the air several times, as if he wanted to hammer Yu Miaoshui to death from the air.

'not to mention...'

Li Ang walked to the table, picked up the cold tea, stared at it for a moment, drank it in one gulp, and said silently in his heart: 'There are secrets in this security hall...'

Li Ang remembered very clearly that four months ago he first awakened to another world memory, which happened after drinking water from the well in the backyard.

Although it is unclear whether there is any real connection between the two, it involves one's biggest secret and one cannot take this risk under any circumstances.


This chapter has been completed!
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