2 million bottles of penicillin, this is definitely the largest amount of antibiotics ever obtained in the country.
Don't forget that on the eve of liberation, our party in Shanghai had to pay a sky-high price of even a small yellow croaker to get a bottle of penicillin.
The key point is that the transportation is very dangerous, and countless comrades have died on this line.
Despite the hardships, we could only manage a few hundred bottles at a time. After all, all penicillin was imported, and the supply channels were controlled by the Japanese and later by the Kuomintang army. Our party was in dire straits.
This happened only more than ten years ago. The department and bureau cadres in the conference room were all veteran revolutionaries who had experienced it personally.
So when the number of 2 million bottles was announced, not only were the health ministers of major provinces and cities across the country excited, but the directors of military hospitals, as well as other departmental hospitals such as the Coal Mine General Hospital, the Railway General Hospital, etc., were also very excited.
"President Lin, we in Shanghai want 300,000 bottles!"
"Get lost, we in the capital want the lion's share, we'll take 500,000 bottles!"
"You two want to take it all for yourself. The national market is so big, and Liaodong is the national heavy industrial base. We don't want much, just 400,000 bottles."
"Bullshit! We have over a million railway workers and engineers combined. 500,000 bottles isn't too much, right?"
"Have you considered the military's usage? If we supply one million bottles to the troops first, how many soldiers will be saved?"
Lin Sanqi was a little surprised when he saw this, and wondered if these old men were going to fight.
So he quickly looked at Minister Li for help.
The old lady was the boss after all, and her authority was evident, so she slapped the microphone heavily:
"Everyone, be quiet, sit down. What are you arguing about at your age? You're all just individualistic. Comrade Lin Sanqi, go get those two million bottles of penicillin and hand them over to the ministry, who will make the overall arrangements. Hehehe!"
Lin Sanqi secretly gave a thumbs up, thinking that the old lady understood politics.
With so much penicillin in her hands, whether she gave it to someone or not, everyone would have to beg her for help. Her authority as a minister would increase significantly.
Seeing that everyone had quieted down, Lin Sanqi decided to speak out loud and clear:
"I have to clarify one thing first. Buying medicine has a cost. Even if I, Lin Sanqi, don't make a single cent profit, I can't lose money, right? So before you give me a number, think about it. You should take as much penicillin as you can.
In other words: asking for money is not free!
I don't sell on credit, I hope you can understand that. After all, penicillin is not produced by my family, I have to get it from overseas.
If you want a few hundred or a few thousand bottles, the seller doesn't care, and I'll just pay you back. But if you want hundreds of thousands or millions of bottles, they'll ask you to pay for the goods first.
In addition, due to the imperialist blockade, penicillin could not be legally imported through customs, so the risk was very high. If it was caught by a foreign country, all the drugs would be confiscated, and then everything would be lost. Therefore, the price was not cheap.
Everyone in the conference room was a health system official, so they naturally understood the preciousness of penicillin, and nodded frequently after hearing this.
"So, let me set a price for everyone here. A bottle of penicillin is now going for 10 yuan on the black market. Today, I'm making the decision and giving everyone a 50% discount, 5 yuan a bottle. It's rock-bottom price, a bargain. The pharmaceutical factory owner ran off with my sister-in-law..."
As he said this, a huge thunder suddenly came from outside the house.
(The God of Thunder was furious: "The retail price is 50 cents, and the cost price is 10 cents. You want to sell penicillin for 5 yuan? You are even more evil than ASML in the Netherlands!")
Lin Sanqi clasped his hands together, secretly making a palm-folding gesture, and silently chanted in his heart: "May the Lin ancestors bless you! Namo Gatlin Bodhisattva bless you!"
At this time, everyone in the conference room started whispering to each other again. Is 5 yuan a bottle of penicillin expensive?
It’s expensive, very expensive. The average salary these days is only 30 yuan.
But Lin Sanqi did not lie, because the black market price was even more than 10 yuan. When he sold it to the old people, he exchanged it for gold at 10 yuan per bottle. At least they could make some money by reselling it, right?
So 5 yuan per bottle is indeed a fair price. The total price of 2 million bottles of penicillin is 10 million yuan.
Lin Sanqi Diamond dared to donate tens of millions of US dollars, so why would he care about 10 million RMB? Besides, he is not a person who likes money!
However, the unit price of 5 yuan per bottle still made the local leaders in the meeting room feel troubled.
Penicillin is definitely needed, the more the better, and it would be best if it were a planned economy, with the higher-ups allocating it for free. (Habitually taking it for free)
Now it is a bit tricky to pay for it yourself. If a province takes 100,000 bottles, that is 500,000, which is still a huge amount of money for the impoverished health system.
Money is not the problem, the problem is having no money.
Seeing the constipated expressions on everyone's faces, Lin Sanqi started to act like a profiteer again.
"Ahem, everyone, please be quiet for a moment. Since we are family, besides being considerate of the price and giving us a 50% discount, we should also offer other discounts. We can't let ourselves die from holding our urine, right?
I know that you all have no money. Even if you had money, you wouldn’t let me hold this experience sharing meeting to discuss how to build a hospital without money, right?
So, I will take the risk. All provinces, cities and systems across the country have their own local specialties.
For example, precious Chinese herbal medicines, top-grade jade, precious wood, various handicrafts, and antiques can all be traded.
Let me give you an example. Isn't the province of Yunnan poor? It's remote and far away, but you also have advantages, like your Pu'er tea. But I don't want the common stuff.
The Mansong ancient tree tea from Yibang Tea Area, the Bingdao Laozhai ancient tree tea, the Maguaitang Fenghuangwo tea, the Duoyi ancient tree tea and the Tianmenshan ancient tree tea, etc., can't they all be traded?
If these ancient teas aren't enough, you have Burmese people next door. Go get some jade from them. Hey, think about it, can you trade them for penicillin?"
The more the leaders of Yunnan's health system listened, the brighter their eyes became. They nodded continuously, feeling that their province was now secure.
Pu'er tea is not valuable in Yunnan. There is plenty of it available. However, they have never heard of some of the ancient tea trees that Dean Lin mentioned. They need to go back and investigate and look for them.
What Lin Sanqi didn't know was that many Pu'er teas were actually hyped up by capital. The precious varieties that were famous throughout the country decades ago might now be the "worst tea" that old farmers just casually make tea with.
Just like how Cordyceps sinensis is used to feed pigs these days.
At this time, Lin Sanqi emphasized again:
"Everyone should pay attention. I only want high-quality and rare items, so I hope you won't try to fool me. You may fool me once, but not a second time. If you can't fool me a second time, you won't get any good stuff in the future. So you must have a long-term vision."
At this time, Leader Zhou, the main person in charge of Guizhou, who was sitting on the rostrum, asked with a smile:
"Dean Xiaolin, we in Guizhou are truly impoverished. Other provinces at least have some wealth, but look at what we have here. How about I give you a few cattle and you give me some penicillin?"
Hehehe~~~Everyone in the conference room chuckled.
The scenery in Guizhou is absolutely beautiful. In 1961, it still retained its original mountain and forest landscape, and various ethnic minorities still lived in mountain villages. If this were to happen a few decades later, it would definitely be a popular tourist destination.
But these days, primitive landscape means primitive and backward. In addition, Guizhou is the only province in the country without plains, so it can only be described as poor and with bad mountains and rivers.
So although the Guizhou leader spoke easily, he was actually very anxious inside.
He wanted penicillin, but he didn't have enough resources. Even Guizhou's best tea, Baimaojian, was only that good.
Lin Sanqi disagreed and said confidently:
"Leader Zhou, you may have forgotten that your hometown has a great specialty."
Leader Zhou's hometown was Renhuai, so he immediately understood what Lin Sanqi was talking about. However, his reaction was not the expected sudden enlightenment, but a wry smile.
"President Xiaolin, do you think I don't know Moutai? Although Moutai Distillery is a provincial enterprise, the right to distribute liquor is in the hands of the central government. Our province doesn't get much every year."
(Commander Xu: Cheers!)
(Lin Sanqi: Lao Xu, how does your salary support you drinking Moutai every day? Come on, I’ll treat you to some tea!)
At this time, Minister Li interrupted:
"Don't worry, Lao Zhou. I already got the Imperial Sword before I came to Guizhou. This guy now has $6 million in foreign exchange. He said he wanted to convert it all into Maotai liquor, and his superiors agreed.
The superiors also said that this year's annual production of Moutai, including all inventory, would be given to this kid as long as he could afford it, and the central government's share would not be kept a single bottle.
So hurry up and give him your province's share of Moutai liquor to exchange for penicillin. This is a profitable business. I don't need to tell you how precious penicillin is, right?
Otherwise, if you compete with other provinces, Guizhou will definitely suffer. You might even be worse off than Tibet, which at least has special care from the central government. Be careful, if you miss this opportunity, you'll miss it forever."
Leader Zhou was able to become the top leader, so he naturally had the courage and determination. After a little thought, he made a decision:
"Okay, let's trade Moutai for penicillin. With the country's situation these days, we really can't drink this wine anymore. We'll trade it all for penicillin. But..."
Leader Zhou looked at Lin Sanqi and suddenly smiled:
"Director Xiaolin, you have seen that we in Guizhou are suffering. Ordinary people can't even get enough to eat. There are less than 20 regular hospitals in the province, but we have 16 million people in the province who are crying out for medical care.
Take penicillin, for example. We currently have about 200 bottles in the provincial capital, and about 300 bottles in the local area. Director Wang, am I remembering this number correctly?"
Director Wang of the Guizhou Health Department stood up and answered:
"That's right. We really need penicillin. Oh, and if President Lin wants to promote tuberculosis treatment, we in Guizhou are also in great need. We are eagerly waiting for it."
Leader Zhou then said seriously:
"This time I am striving to hold the National Health Conference in Guizhou, hoping to draw the attention of the Ministry of Health and the country to the backwardness of Guizhou's health care, and hope that the country can help us.
As I listened to today's meeting, I was completely disheartened. Why was everyone so broke? They all had to ask Director Kobayashi for advice on how to build a new hospital with no funds? They even had to ask him where to get the medicine.
I don't work in the health system, and I never knew that the situation on the health care front in our country was so difficult. Now I feel very anxious and disappointed.
Just then, a thunderclap roared in the sky, bringing us to Guizhou with Dr. Lin Sanqi. Haha, I just found out that Dr. Lin is actually a timely rain for our health system. Comrade Timely Rain has arrived in Guizhou today, and he must help us no matter what.
When the staff and leaders in Guizhou heard this, they all applauded. The applause was for Lin Sanqi.
Lin Sanqi is not a pretentious person. The provincial leader has said so much, if he continues to be coy, he would be shameless.
The key is that they are really in trouble.
Not to mention 1961, even in 2014, Guizhou's GDP ranked sixth from the bottom in the country, which shows how backward the economy was. The terrain restricted development, and the staple food was almost mainly potato cakes.
If he is in real trouble, we must help him, otherwise he, the profiteer, will be struck to death by the lightning in Guizhou.
"Leader Zhou, since you've said that, let me make a deal with you. The current price of Moutai liquor is 1.5 yuan, right?"
Leader Zhou was very frank: "Yes."
"I buy Moutai at the Capital Supply and Marketing Cooperative for 4 yuan a bottle plus a wine ticket, while Penicillin is 5 yuan a bottle. But to take care of the people of Guizhou, how about I exchange two bottles of Penicillin for one bottle of ordinary Moutai?"
The leaders from other provinces sitting below were all very satisfied when they heard this. The price had more than doubled, so this business could be done.
Some leaders were secretly annoyed, wondering if Dean Lin liked Moutai? Why didn't their province have Moutai?
But Leader Zhou was not very satisfied after hearing this.
If it was new wine, one bottle of wine could be exchanged for two bottles of penicillin, so Leader Zhou would naturally be happy.
However, products like wine are special. The older they are, the better they taste and the more valuable they are.
As an old factory, Moutai has a long history, so Leader Zhou decided to make things clear to avoid any disputes or conflicts.
"Comrade Lin Sanqi, thank you very much for your exchange rate. This is indeed a great consideration for our remote and impoverished province. But now we have a question. What if we have 20-year-old or 50-year-old Moutai? These are truly precious treasures, haha..."
Lin Sanqi was overjoyed when he heard this. Of course he liked aged liquor. Just take out the "Lai Mao Liquor", which is a precious gift. Which leading cadre can withstand the test of Lai Mao?
"Leader Zhou, don't worry. I know there are collector's editions of Moutai, which are even more valuable. So, I can't tell you the specific price, but I will definitely give you a satisfactory number. Anyway, if you are not satisfied, you can simply not exchange it."
Leader Zhou was very satisfied with this statement, so he slammed the table and said, "It's settled."
After the morning meeting, on the way to the restaurant, Lin Sanqi was immediately surrounded by leaders of health systems from all over the country.
I've heard before that there's a timely rain in the Capital Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine who can get things that others can't, and he has connections everywhere, so he can do whatever he wants in the capital.
(Lin Sanqi: I was defeated in Jiangshan County)
Now that I've seen him in person, seeing is believing. Wow, he's offering two million bottles of penicillin right away? He also has anti-tuberculosis drugs in his hands. Isn't this a surefire deal?
It just so happened that in order to promote anti-tuberculosis drugs nationwide in the future, Lin Sanqi naturally had to establish good relationships with the leaders of these health systems, so the group of people talked and laughed and got along very happily.
Walking into the restaurant, Lin Sanqi looked around and saw in the middle of the table a large bowl of plain tofu, a large bowl of rice, a large bowl of yellow steamed buns, a large bowl of watercress, and finally a large bowl of sour soup fish.
Lin Sanqi had never liked tofu since childhood, so he quietly asked the reception leader of the Guizhou Health Department next to him:
"Director Wang, how do you eat this plain tofu?"
Deputy Director Wang didn't think too much about it and introduced it to everyone with a smile:
"This tofu is really good. We specially got some soybeans from the grain station to grind it. We usually don't want to eat it. Everyone who eats tofu should dip it in this Guizhou-style dipping sauce. It's delicious and nutritious."
And this sour soup fish is also a Guizhou specialty. It uses fish from the rice paddies, so it's sour and spicy, and very appetizing. This cold-mixed zhe'ergen is so delicious, it's a must-have delicacy in every Guizhou household, and you don't have to spend money on it.
Dean Shen had already seen from the side that "Young Master Lin" actually complained that the food was not good enough.
But he didn't say it out loud, just patted Lin Sanqi's shoulder and reminded him:
"Come, sit down. If you like, eat as much as you like. This is a gift from our Guizhou comrades. You should know that such white rice and such large steamed buns were already considered landlords' standard before liberation in Guizhou."
Deputy Director Wang was also a shrewd person. He immediately realized something and said with a wry smile:
"President Lin, don't worry. The meeting will last four days. The provincial government has already announced that they will slaughter a cow on the last day so everyone can have a full meal before going home."
Lin Sanqi quickly waved his hands, thinking that he really deserved to die.
He was so proud at the meeting that he forgot what era and place he was in. Was 1961 a time when people could eat meat at will?
He took the bowl of rice served by Dean Shen and looked around. More than a hundred department-level cadres were eating with relish, no one complained, and no one was unhappy.
There is no such thing as Moutai being poured into a mineral water bottle.
Dean Shen whispered a lesson:
"You gave everyone meat on the train because you, Lin Sanqi, are rich and capable. You spent your own money, so everyone felt at ease eating. After all, everyone knows that you have connections and no worries about food and drink.
But Xiaoqi, we're in a meeting right now. Every grain of rice and every steamed bun we eat is funded by the people's blood and sweat. We leaders aren't producers; we rely entirely on the people for our needs. How can you afford to eat and drink so lavishly?
Perhaps you're wondering: no matter how poor Guizhou is, it's not so poor that people can't even afford a piece of meat. On the contrary, Guizhou's leaders are very clear-headed. They don't use public grain to sell personal favors. Public is public, private is private.
Look at Minister Li and Leader Zhou. What's the difference between what they eat and what we eat? Even the top leaders don't have their own special meals. So, Xiaoqi, when the country is in trouble, each of us must contribute our own strength to overcome this difficult time together."
Lin Sanqi didn't hear anything else, but he took one thing to heart: it turned out that cadres of this era clearly distinguished between public and private affairs. They would not take advantage of public funds, nor would they use public money to eat, drink, have fun, or entertain colleagues.
Since the leaders are so honest and upright, Lin Sanqi must of course give them some benefits and build good relationships with them. That way, if he has any problems in the future, there will be someone to help him, right?
After dinner, Lin Sanqi pulled Deputy Director Wang aside and asked:
"Director Wang, how much does a cow cost here?"
Deputy Director Wang was a little surprised:
"President Lin, you want to buy a cow? Let me tell you, our Guizhou Yellow Cattle are famous throughout the country. The meat is plump and tender, and paired with the dipping sauce, wow, my mouth is watering. A cow costs about 500 yuan, but now they won't sell even if you just give money."
Lin Sanqi counted out 1,000 yuan and 500 kilograms of national food coupons from his backpack.
"Director Wang, I'll give you this money and food coupons. Please help me buy two large yellow cattle and then slaughter them. We'll have an extra meal tonight."
Deputy Director Wang looked at Lin Sanqi as if he were a fool and quickly declined:
"No, no, Dean Lin, you're a guest in Guizhou. How can we let you treat us? That's like slapping us Guizhou people in the face."
Lin Sanqi shook Deputy Director Wang's hand:
"Director Wang, you should have heard that I'm not short of money. Our gathering is fate, and buying two cows is just for fun. I don't have any other intentions. My only request is that your chef cook according to the Guizhou style and make it delicious."
Deputy Director Wang sighed and shook Lin Sanqi's hand firmly.
"Thank you, Dean Lin. Just wait and see. I'll find the best chef and make sure you have the most delicious beef."
At dinner that day, when everyone walked into the restaurant after the meeting, they were stunned.
There were two large pots full of beef and beef offal on each table. The aroma of meat filled the entire dining room.
Many people were stunned: "I am not dreaming..."
Only Dean Shen knew that someone was showing off in front of everyone again. (End of this chapter)
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