Chapter 3438: Extra Chapter 17
Lu Xiaofo opened the letter sent by Bai Shan and was stunned when he saw the recipe for Qiuli Paste attached.
Mrs. Lu stepped forward and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Lu Xiaofu handed her the recipe and said with a smile, "It was sent by Zhishan. They gave us a great gift."
Mrs. Lu took it and looked at it, "What's the use of this?"
"It's very useful," Lu Xiaofo said, "Please prepare some money. I'll ask the steward to find a drug dealer in the city."
He smiled and said, "Just think of it as an additional income for the family."
But it is more than just a source of income. If this business is done well, it will not only solve the problem of pear backlog in the village, but also allow nearby villages to grow pears in the future, which will provide an additional source of income for many families.
Mrs. Lu said worriedly, "It's just a recipe. Not to mention whether we can make it, can we really sell it after we make it?"
How could business be so easy? Their family had never been in the medicine business before.
Lu Xiaofo smiled and said, "If it was a recipe given by someone else, I would naturally consider it, but this is from Zhou Man. As long as we spread the word, many people will come to ask for it. Don't worry, this pear paste will sell well."
Mrs. Lu then left.
Lu Xiaofo guessed correctly. The pear paste had not been made yet. The manager of the governor's mansion just found a few drug dealers to spread the word that Governor Lu had a paste recipe written by Zhou Man himself, and they expressed their interest one after another.
After privately finding out that Lu Xiaofo and Bai Shan were classmates, and that Bai Shan and Zhou Man had appeared in Lingnan some time ago and had been entertained by Governor Lu in Liuzhou, the drug dealers became even more convinced that the prescription was written by Zhou Man.
Without hesitation, they came to the Lu family's manager to discuss the pear paste business.
Seeing this, Mrs. Lu, who had been worried, breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly asked people to prepare the workshop and purchase pears.
Although Ashan and the others were skeptical about Zhou Man's words, they still went up the mountain to tidy up the messy orchard.
After waiting for a few days, no one showed up. Just when they were about to get disappointed, a man claiming to be a manager from the governor's office came with a group of people in a carriage and wanted to buy their pears directly.
The steward said, "Two cents a pound. As long as it's good, we'll take as much as you have."
Ah Shan's eyes lit up, and he pushed through the crowd and asked, "Did Madam Zhou ask you to come?"
"What Madam Zhou? That's Master Zhou," the steward said. "Do you know who Master Zhou is? He was the former director of the Imperial Medical Bureau. She runs all the medical offices throughout the Great Jin."
The villagers were amazed, and Ah Shan's father regretted, "Oh, I neglected our distinguished guests."
The steward asked, "Are you going to sell these pears or not? Our master is still waiting for the pears to make pear paste."
"Sell, sell, sell. Two cents a pound."
This price was also promised by the original merchants when they encouraged them to plant pear trees.
After the pear paste was made, it was quickly sent to various parts of Dajin through the hands of drug dealers in Liuzhou.
Two months later, when Chang'an was at its coldest, the imperial palace also purchased a jar of pear paste.
The emperor took his men out hunting some time ago, and when he came back he had a slight cough. The imperial physician prescribed some medicine, and the emperor drank it for two days. Although he felt much better, he still coughed from time to time, so his subordinates presented him with this jar of pear paste.
The emperor glanced at the pear paste that Eunuch Wu had presented to him, raised his eyebrows, and asked, "Is this what Zhou Man made in Liuzhou?"
"Yes," Eunuch Wu bowed and smiled, "People outside say this pear paste is very useful. Children don't like to take medicine when they are sick. This pear paste is sweet. Just soak two spoonfuls of it and they will love to drink it."
The emperor scoffed, "Good medicine tastes bitter. How much use can this sweet pear paste have?"
But I still ate it.
However, "Do I need to buy Zhou Man's prescriptions from outside? It's not too troublesome to check layer by layer. Let the Imperial Hospital make some and keep them. If the Queen and the princes and princesses need them, they can get them directly from the Imperial Hospital."
Eunuch Wu smiled and said, "I heard that this is the recipe that the princess gave to Governor Lu of Liuzhou. It's brand new and a little different from the pear paste sold outside now."
The emperor just looked at Eunuch Wu quietly.
Eunuch Wu understood what was going on immediately, bowed and responded, then went to find Zheng Yuanzheng from the Imperial Hospital.
Zheng Yuanzheng: "What do you want?"
"Recipe, the recipe for Qiuli Paste," Eunuch Wu whispered, "How can Your Majesty import something? How can you buy finished goods from outside? It's safer if the Imperial Hospital makes it themselves."
He said, "Zheng Yuanzheng, you have a close relationship with the princess. This recipe..."
Zheng Yuanzheng: ...Thank you. It’s not him who has a close relationship with Zhou Man, but his nephew.
He had a headache, but still agreed, "Please tell His Majesty that I can give it a try."
After returning, Zheng Yuanzheng did not look for Zheng Gu, but wrote a letter to Zhou Man on his own.
When Zhou Man received the letter, she was writing a letter to Yang Heshu.
Through her wandering investigations for several months, she circled several plots of land in Lingnan that were suitable for growing medicinal herbs, and people from the Imperial Medical Bureau came to survey the land.
Zhou Man asked Yang Heshu if he needed advice from her and Zheng Shuling?
With her coming forward, it would be easier for Yang Heshu, the superior, to gain the support and trust of the Imperial Medical Bureau.
After all, Lingnan is too far away from the Central Plains. Even Zhou Man, the former director, could not guarantee that the officials of the Imperial Medical Bureau would agree to set up the medicine garden in Lingnan.
As a result, before the letter to Yang Heshu was sent out, the letter from Doctor Zheng arrived first.
Zhou Man opened it and took a look. He clicked his tongue twice, then unfolded a piece of white paper and wrote down the recipe for pear paste.
She thought about it and decided to write a letter to Doctor Zheng. However, she did not mention what Yang Heshu asked her to do. Instead, she wrote that she had been living in Lingnan and found that the climate and soil here were very suitable for growing medicinal herbs. Now that Dajin was short of medicinal herbs, had the Imperial Medical Bureau ever thought about setting up a medicine garden in Lingnan to grow herbs?
There are some medicinal herbs that can only be grown in the Lingnan area, such as Panax notoginseng, which is currently in short supply.
Zhou Man had just finished writing a long letter to Doctor Zheng, and before he could seal it, Bai Shan called out from outside, "Zi Qian, hurry up, we're waiting for you."
Zhou Man hurriedly stuffed the letter into an envelope, took it out, and handed it to the guard, saying, "Seal it and send it back to the capital."
She trotted out. Everyone's luggage was ready. Bai Shan was standing by the car waiting for her. When she came out, he reached out and helped her into the car. "Hasn't the letter to Brother Yang been written?"
"I just remembered that my three children are in the capital for the New Year, so I asked Brother Yang to help take care of them. Who knew that the letter from Doctor Zheng had just arrived, so I wrote him a letter in reply."
Zhou Man got into the car, turned around, lifted the curtain and looked out, and asked excitedly, "Did Lu Xiaofu agree to us?"
Bai Shan responded and said with a smile: "We have helped him a lot, so naturally he will help us too."
He said, "The people he sent have arrived. Let's meet at the city gate and go directly to the Liaozi tribe."
Zhou Man and Bai Shan were the only ones in the car, so Zhou Man lowered the curtain and asked in a low voice, "Does the Liaozi tribe really have elephants?"
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