Since the medical tent was set up in Xujia Village, many migrants have stayed there, either voluntarily or involuntarily, when they pass by.
After wandering for several months, they were exhausted, but they were afraid of encountering bandits and dared not go home.
Since there are soldiers stationed here, we decided to settle down for the time being and wait until things are peaceful before leaving.
So the refugees built shacks in the village, and usually grew some vegetables in the fields that the villagers had abandoned. They could also do odd jobs at the medical shed, washing and cleaning in exchange for food.
However, there are only so many people available for the medical tent, so in order to save food, we still have to find our own way.
This man's name was Li Laosi. He had an honest appearance and often referred to himself as an honest person.
In fact, they were always calculating and unwilling to suffer any loss or exert any extra effort even among the refugees.
Knowing his true nature, everyone jokingly called him "Honest Li".
Now everyone says they don't recognize the herbs and don't want to go up the mountain, but he's the only one who's enthusiastic, so Zhang Juntou suspects he's a fraud.
Hearing Zhang Juntou expose his thoughts, Li Laoshi didn't blush. He bowed and nodded, saying, "I really do recognize them. I used to dig up some medicinal herbs at home and exchange them for money in town. If you could give me a few more cakes, Juntou... hehe, I'm an honest man, I'll only ask for two more!"
Okay! There's nothing we can do about it now.
Zhang Juntou didn't ask Xu Donglai to check the authenticity. Anyway, Xu Donglai said that he could recognize the medicine as soon as it was in front of him. He decided to deal with the immediate problem first and agreed to go up the mountain to find the medicine immediately.
Li Laoshi wasn't lying; he did indeed recognize several kinds of medicine.
Without leaving the village, you can dig up a bunch of houttuynia cordata and a few stalks of calamus next to the water tank in the ruins of a house in the village.
After cleaning it up, he proudly took it back to Doctor Xu for examination.
These are all commonly used medicines, which Xu Dong is very familiar with. He can recognize them without looking closely, and they can be used now. He dries them and puts them into medicine.
Houttuynia cordata is cold in nature and can drain and descend, and pungent in nature and can disperse stagnation. It mainly enters the lung meridian and is good at clearing lung heat. It also has the effect of eliminating carbuncles and draining pus. It is an essential medicine for treating lung heat cough and is also a commonly used product for external carbuncles and sores.
The wounded soldier is currently suffering from a high fever due to wound infection, and this medicine can be used in conjunction with Scutellaria baicalensis and Coptis chinensis.
Sweet flag is also a good thing, as it has the effect of regulating qi and promoting blood circulation.
It can promote blood circulation and improve symptoms such as chest tightness, shortness of breath, deafness, and injuries from falls and blows.
However, sweet flag is a three-year plant, so it can only be harvested in the third year.
The calamus that Li Laoshi collected had a growth period of less than three years, so its medicinal efficacy would be reduced.
Xu Dong frowned but remained silent. They were short of medicine, so they would just have to make do with what they had.
Knowing that Li Laoshi really recognized the medicine, Zhang Juntou was immediately overjoyed.
However, Zhang Juntou is also cunning. It's too easy for Li Laoshi to just grab a handful of cakes and think he can exchange them for something else.
So they said this amount of medicine was too little, and they needed to collect more to get the reward.
Li Laoshi was somewhat disappointed when his plan to exchange a handful of houttuynia cordata for a pancake failed. It seemed he would need to bring something real.
What Li Laoshi didn't expect was that even bigger trouble was waiting for him.
Just as he arrogantly went to hand over the medicine, the vagrants who had followed to watch the spectacle made public the fact that Li Laoshi had exchanged medicine for cakes.
It turns out that the grass growing by the walls and corners of houses could be exchanged for cakes, and that the medicine sold in pharmacies for hundreds of coins a packet was just grass that everyone was familiar with.
Everyone immediately got the idea and began searching everywhere in and around the village.
When Li Laoshi realized that he had taught someone for free, he was both angry and anxious.
He couldn't help but curse and swear, and almost got beaten up.
"These herbs aren't yours, so why can you pick them but we can't?"
Knowing he was outnumbered, Li Laoshi had no choice but to endure it. He pretended to be looking for medicine as well, and after circling around a few times, he quietly slipped away.
He quietly left the village, but he was spotted by someone with ulterior motives, who followed him.
The man was acting suspiciously, his tall, thin body appearing and disappearing behind the bushes and grass, but Li Laoshi still managed to spot him.
Seeing that he was being followed after sneaking out of the village, Li Laoshi gritted his teeth in hatred, but he couldn't beat them in a fight, and it would be even worse if he attracted the attention of other villagers.
To earn two more white flour pancakes, he had to muster up his courage and risk everything before daring to leave the village alone.
Anyone who has ever been a migrant worker on the road knows that staying in a group ensures safety, while wandering alone is the most dangerous.
Li Laoshi used to be a lazy and unruly man in the village, and he became a bachelor after his parents died.
After separating from his brother and sister-in-law, he relied on selling a few kinds of medicine to make money to eat occasionally, and usually lived on the go without food for nine meals in three days.
Unexpectedly, during this escape from famine, I picked up a lone woman on the road.
He used to think being single was good, but now that he has a woman, it's even better. Even a lazy man like him wants to earn more money to support his wife.
Jiang Zhi and Xiao Man never went near the village at the foot of the mountain when they went to collect herbs, and Li Laoshi actually managed to find some.
In the damp, shady spot by a ditch outside the village, a patch of leafless, budless, tree-like, segmented grass-like plants grows, about a foot tall.
Horsetail
Upon seeing these familiar plants, Li Laoshi was overjoyed. He didn't recognize many medicinal herbs, but this jointed grass was his favorite to dig up.
Whenever I wanted to make some money, I would go out and find horsetail grass to sell at the town's pharmacy.
The reason is simple: other medicinal herbs require traversing mountains and valleys, but this herb grows by the water and roadside, making it easy to find.
But now that he's being followed by a tail, he can't just pick herbs anywhere. Li Laoshi jumped into the ditch, unbuckled his belt, and squatted down in the bushes as if he was about to defecate.
While taking a dump, he was bored and looked around. He casually plucked a sprig of grass, separated it into sections, and tucked them between his eyebrows.
Behind him, a tall, thin man with a bushy beard frowned as he watched Li Laoshi pull up some "cow grass" to play with while he defecated. He spat out a curse and turned to leave.
However, I still had some doubts: Could those herbs also be medicine?
He used to herd cattle in his hometown, and the cattle's favorite food was that kind of grass called "joint grass".
Not far away, as soon as the person left, Li Laoshi squatted down without even pulling up his pants, quickly plucked a large handful of "horsetail" and stuffed it into his pocket.
In just a few breaths, a large clump of horsetail was packed up, and he stopped there.
He lazily pulled up his pants, casually tucked the cloth bag into his waistband, glanced around a few more times to make sure the people following him were far away, and then excitedly went back to the village to find Zhang Juntou to deliver the medicine and ask for a reward cake.
Seeing Li Laoshi come to deliver the herbs again, and then looking at the bag of grass, Zhang Juntou became wary: Didn't Xu Dong say that collecting herbs was difficult? How come it's so easy now?
Li Laoshi brought three kinds of medicine in less than an hour. Was he trying to trick me?
Zhang Juntou opened the cloth bag, revealing the green "branches" inside... He recognized them; he often saw them by the river.
Is it medicine? And what kind of medicine is it?
Moreover, he had seen the medicine packets prescribed by doctors before, and those dark brown, dried, sliced herbs seemed to have nothing to do with the green grass in front of him!
Zhang Jun didn't show it on his face: "Never mind, let Xu Dong identify it himself." So a bag of "horned grass" was placed in front of the doctor.
Upon seeing the "horned grass," Xu Dong, who had been looking serious, suddenly relaxed and immediately picked up a stalk to examine it closely.
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