"President Lin, look over here! These are all 10-year-old wild ginseng, which is the main sales force of our ginseng cooperative."
You Liqun and the two vice presidents were introducing the products enthusiastically. Lin Sanqi was a little surprised when he saw the large pottery jars in front of him.
"President You, if you hadn't told me this was a ginseng warehouse, I would have thought it was a kimchi factory. These huge jars don't look like the ginseng warehouse I imagined."
Nowadays, Lingnantang Company spent tens of millions to build a constant temperature and humidity warehouse specifically for storing ginseng.
At the same time, each piece of ginseng is individually packaged in a vacuum box, and some insect-repellent herbs are also placed in the warehouse. The Northeast wild ginseng is simply worshipped as an ancestor.
But when we went to the ginseng's origin place in 1961, we found that the ginseng was actually placed in a ceramic jar?
This surprised Lin Sanqi a little, and then he wondered if it was the same as Xinhui dried tangerine peel.
Sure enough, You Liqun laughed after hearing Lin Sanqi's question:
"Director Lin, you may not know that your hospital only sells as much as it purchases. It generally doesn't stay in the pharmacy for very long, so there's no need to worry about it getting moldy or infested by insects. At most, you can just put a layer of hay underneath.
But we're a wholesale department here, and a lot of ginseng is stored for years, sometimes even decades, so we have to find a perfect storage method, and sealing it in a ceramic jar is the best and most economical way."
After saying that, You Liqun asked the staff to open a sealed ceramic jar, and a strong scent of ginseng filled the air.
You Liqun continued to explain:
"Look, Dean Lin, this pottery jar contains 20-year-old ginseng. To keep it dry, we first put a layer of stove ash on the bottom, then sprinkle a layer of roasted rice on top, and then a layer of red orchid grass. After putting the ginseng in, we seal it again. Replace it every five years, and it will be preserved for a long time."
Lin Sanqi nodded, thinking that the storage method was similar to that of dried tangerine peel, except that in Northeast China there was an additional process of heating the room during the winter.
"President You, it seems that preserving this ginseng is indeed not easy. This layer of fried rice alone must be very expensive."
You Liqun said self-deprecatingly:
"Now even fried rice is gone. It's all replaced with rice husks, wheat bran, or rice chaff. So, ahem, whether it's state procurement or your Chinese medicine hospital procurement, we dry the freshly picked ginseng and sell it directly to you. We dare not store it easily for fear that the ginseng will rot."
When Lin Sanqi heard this, he thought of a joke he had seen on the Internet.
It is said that a city dweller went to the countryside and saw farmers spraying pesticides on their crops, so he kindly reminded them: Fellow countrymen, you should use less pesticides, otherwise the crops and vegetables you grow will be unhealthy and eating them will be bad for your health.
As a result, the farmer smiled innocently and replied: It doesn’t matter, we won’t eat it anyway, so we will sell it all to you city people.
Thinking of this joke, Lin Sanqi laughed first. You Liqun and others saw that the young dean was in a good mood, so they took the opportunity to bring up the matter of the transaction.
"Dean Lin, how much supplies have you prepared? How much ginseng do you plan to exchange?"
Lin Sanqi walked casually while pretending to be a bit cool:
"That depends on what kind of ginseng you're planning to trade with me. If it's 10-year-old ginseng, I'm not very interested. But if it's over 50 years old, especially over 100 years old, then I'm very interested."
You Liqun and the two vice presidents looked at each other...
"As for you, if you want to exchange for more food and penicillin, you need the best ginseng. I'm giving you convenience, so you should also give me convenience, right? Who can I recommend the inferior ginseng to when I take it back to the capital?"
President You nodded repeatedly:
"President Lin is right. Don't worry, our Tonghua Ginseng Cooperative currently has the largest ginseng producing area in Northeast China. The ginseng we have here is not only the largest in quantity, but also of the best quality.
Dean Lin, let me tell you this: today, whatever ginseng you want, we'll give it to you. We'll supply you with whatever quantity you want. Even if you clear out our entire warehouse, we'll thank Dean Lin."
Lin Sanqi was shocked. He had been pretending for a long time, just to get more good ginseng.
As a result, you told me that as long as I had the need, you could empty the entire warehouse and give me as much as I wanted.
This is just like the stock market in later generations. You want to buy a company's stock and wait to get rich.
As a result, I found that I bought more and more, and in the end I became the major shareholder, as if the old shareholders were giving the company to me.
This is indeed good news for him, Lin Sanqi, but the other party surrendered so easily. Lin Sanqi always feels that there may be some conspiracy.
After all, a warehouse full of ginseng is full of treasures. How can you give it away so easily?
In fact, Lin Sanqi still underestimated the torture that long-term hunger would cause to the common people.
In order to have a bite to eat, the old people and young people in the old city took out the gold buried in the corner of the toilet and traded it. They would do anything for a bite to eat.
For our fellow countrymen in Northeast China, what is ginseng compared to grain?
The world is big, but the most important thing is that people are not starving to death.
"President You, how much ginseng do you have in stock now? Tell me the total number and see if I can eat it."
If it were someone else, You Liqun would think that the other person was bragging, but the other person was able to become the director of the Capital Hospital at such a young age, and was able to transport food safely to the Northeast across thousands of miles. Who would believe that he did not have a strong background?
You Liqun, who firmly believed in it, shouted excitedly:
"Xiaoqin, come quickly and report to Dean Lin how many ginseng we have."
Xiaoqin is the accountant of the ginseng cooperative. She knows how many ginsengs are in the warehouse, so she ran over quickly with the account door in her arms:
"Hello, Dean Lin. I'd like to report that we currently have a total of 24,983 wild ginsengs in our warehouse."
Lin Sanqi was shocked, thinking, "So many?" This is the number after multiple purchases by various major units.
It seems that it has not experienced the era of crazy ginseng harvesting more than ten years later, and the area is still in its original forest state, so there are indeed a lot of wild ginseng.
"Among them, there are 8,902 ginsengs aged between 50 and 99 years old, 856 ginsengs aged over 100 years old, and the majority of the rest are under 50 years old."
"etc!"
Lin Sanqi's eyes lit up. Ginseng that's over a hundred years old, each one can be sold at a sky-high price. 856 ginsengs, wow!!!
"There are so many over a hundred years old. Can you confirm their specific years?"
Accountant Xiaoqin then turned to one of the pages and continued her report:
"President Lin, the answer is this: there are 698 bottles between 100 and 200 years old, 123 bottles between 200 and 300 years old, and 35 bottles over 300 years old."
“How many hundred years old is the oldest?”
You Liqun interrupted at this time: "Dean Lin, come here."
Several people took Lin Sanqi to a small independent room:
"President Lin, let's not lie in front of a real person. The 35 ginsengs in this room are all our treasures. The youngest one is 300 years old, and we estimate that the oldest ones are 400 years old. In our industry, we call them thousand-year-old ginsengs."
So this is how the saying "thousand-year-old ginseng" is hyped up.
But even if it was 300 years old, it was enough to make Lin Sanqi drool:
"Can I see it?"
You Liqun was a little embarrassed, or perhaps he was trying to figure it out:
"Well, I'm afraid that won't work. This ginseng is still sealed. Unless you, Dean Lin, want to eat it right now, it's best not to touch it."
Lin Sanqi looked at the old pottery jars in front of him and asked directly:
"President You, I'll take all of your ginseng. Let's discuss how much food and penicillin you need. Let's agree on a deal. You can't calculate based on the market price, or I won't be able to eat it."
Previously, 200 ginsengs were given for 200 tons of grain, which meant that Lin Sanqi wanted to subsidize the ginseng cooperative.
But if more than 20,000 ginsengs are taken out, they will need more than 20,000 tons of grain, and at least 500 train cars will be needed to transport it. That is simply crazy.
Even if Lin Sanqi could get it, would the ginseng cooperative dare to buy it? The local government would intervene in no time.
In fact, You Liqun is a little scared now. He said that he was going to clear out the inventory, but that was just talk. He didn't think that President Lin would really take them all.
As a result, this wealthy man from the capital went all-in now. He was also a little trembling. What if the superiors came up with an unplanned procurement task and he couldn't produce ginseng? Would he be doomed? (End of this chapter)
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