Inside the pharmaceutical preparation room, Jiang Zhi and the others had changed into uniform clothes made of coarse cloth, put on cloth masks, and even covered their hair tightly.
After a year of making mosquito repellent liquid, boiling various ointments and powders, Qiaoyun has long been an experienced master craftswoman.
She skillfully laid out all the tools and then instructed Tian Tao'er to put water in a pot to soak the medicine.
Beside her, Li Ersao lit a fire under the stove; each of the two rows of seven-star stoves required a dedicated person to manage the fire.
Jiang Zhi prepared the necessary medicinal herbs.
This time, she'll start with various easy-to-prepare powders.
The medicinal herbs are all commonly used herbs that I prepared myself last year, such as motherwort, prunella vulgaris, loquat leaves, and lysimachia christinae.
The first batch I brewed was Motherwort Granules!
The ingredients are motherwort, starch, and sugar in equal parts. The motherwort should be harvested with purple flowers and square stems, and the whole plant should be used as medicine!
Wash and chop the motherwort, put it in a pot with water and boil it. Add water as needed if the amount of water decreases, and boil for one hour.
Remove the liquid and let it stand. Then add water to the dregs and boil again. Repeat this process twice to extract all the liquid.
Then, the two batches of liquid are boiled together to concentrate the liquid, and then starch and sugar are mixed in to form a mixture with the appropriate dryness and wetness.
Now that there's no longer the expert in sieving, Xiaoman Milk, and no need for manual sieving, Jiang Zhi uses a suspended sieve to shake the mixture into granules.
Then spread it thinly on a cloth-covered sieve and place it in the drying room next door, which was built using the heat from the stove fire, to dry it.
Jiang Zhi, along with Qiao Yun and Tian Tao, carefully observed the boiling process as they began simmering the medicinal broth over a dozen large stoves, ensuring it neither burned nor overflowed.
If the water level is low, add water promptly. After one hour, drain the water, change the water, and boil again.
These things require carefulness and patience; a slight lapse in concentration can lead to mistakes.
The stove was roaring, the medicine preparation room was filled with steam, and the air above was thick with white mist. The strong smell of medicine permeated the whole body.
With Qiaoyun's careful guidance and instruction, Tian Tao quickly got the hang of it and adapted to these trivial matters in just half a day.
While the kitchen was busy, Errui, Xiaoman, and Xu Genqing were grinding various medicines in the mill, some of which needed to be sifted.
Li Ersao was in charge of the fires in the two rows of large stoves and also had to cook for several people, so it wasn't an easy job.
It's alright now in April, but it will definitely be a tough time in the summer.
Everyone worked in an orderly manner, but it was Li Laoshi who complained the most.
When Jiang Zhi finished brewing the first batch of medicine in four hours and started to reduce the liquid, she came out to find three people exhausted.
Li Laoshi lay limply on the haystack that sheltered the firewood from the rain, looking half-dead.
Beside him, two little girls were also sleeping on the haystack.
Covered by Errui and Xiaoman's thick clothes, their little faces were rosy from the warm spring sunshine as they slept soundly, with Nini holding half a leftover pancake in her hand.
Being young is great; you can fall asleep instantly, recharge for five minutes, and go crazy for two hours.
Upon seeing Jiang Zhi, Li Laoshi almost burst into tears: "Sister-in-law Jiang, I'll go to town to transport medicine! I'll also transport charcoal, I won't take the children with me!"
One is almost two years old, and the other is five. The two children are at a lively and active age. Li Laoshi, who was not afraid to climb mountains, is now scared!
At dusk, all the medicinal liquid brewed on the first day had been put into the drying room, ready to be packaged the next day.
Qiaoyun and Errui drove the mules, carrying the two children back to the mountain, while Jiangzhi and Xiaoman stayed behind to guard the medicine shop.
After Tian Tao and the others left, Li Laoshi hurriedly returned to the village.
After a lively day, the small valley quieted down, and Xiaoman locked the front and back fences with iron chains.
Jiang Zhi brought out the food that Li Ersao had prepared, and the two of them had already eaten.
It was the beginning of the month, and there was no moon or stars in the sky. Jiang Zhi lit a fire in the courtyard with a charcoal brazier for lighting and checked the amount of medicinal herbs used that day in the ledger.
Qiaoyun kept all these accounts.
After more than a year of learning, the young woman who used to know nothing can now remember the quantity of various medicinal herbs clearly.
Today is the first day that the pharmacy is making medicine, so I'll watch it as usual.
More than a dozen large pots boiled over a hundred kilograms of dried herbs in one day, producing enough powder to fill at least 200 vials.
With a selling price of 5 coins per piece, the gross income per day would be more than 1,000 coins, which is more than one tael of silver.
Firewood comes from straw in the fields and miscellaneous trees in the mountains behind, so it doesn't cost any money.
Excluding the costs of starch, powdered sugar, labor, bamboo tubes, waxed paper...
Jiang Zhi smiled. Although it was a bit tiring, it was still a good day!
Previously, the income from mosquito coils basically went into subsidizing the village, but now that they have no money in their pockets, they desperately need to recoup their investment.
The herbs used in the pharmaceutical production are purchased by ourselves, so the cost is not high. After deducting the cost of starch, sugar, and a few people's wages, and without electricity or water bills, the remaining net profit is at least 60%.
In the future, we can use more medicinal herbs, which will further reduce costs.
In modern times, the profit margin of Chinese herbal medicine processing plants is around 50%, and now they are quite satisfied with 60%.
The water mill in the mill was still turning, containing the medicinal herbs to be used tomorrow. It needed to be ground for another hour before stopping.
Xiaoman wasn't tired after a busy day. He picked up a long spear with an iron tip and started practicing his newly learned spear techniques on the open ground.
The pharmacy was equipped with weapons; there were wooden sticks of varying lengths placed around, as well as axes and machetes. Everyone who worked there knew where they were.
Both the front and back passes are fenced off. In addition to the back gate, there are several small gates hidden in the back gate that lead directly into the forest, all as a precaution.
After people come here every day, we plan to find a few good dogs to keep.
"Xiaoman, aren't you tired yet?"
Seeing that this young man was truly energetic, Jiang Zhi couldn't help but speak up.
"I'm not tired. What do you want to say, Auntie?"
Xiaoman wiped the sweat from her forehead and came over with her spear.
Jiang Zhi wanted to ask him about his feelings for Tian Tao.
However, Tian Tao spent the whole day in the medicine-brewing room, so the two children didn't have a chance to meet or even exchange a single word.
When it comes to Xiaoman, everyone thought of the same thing.
When he returned to the mountain before, he took advantage of Xiaoman's absence to mention the Tian family's affairs to Xiaoman's grandfather. Although Xiaoman's grandfather did not come down the mountain, he had learned about the villagers' families through discussions with Li Laoshi and Jiang Zhi.
Tian Gui, in particular, was responsible for the farm work on his family's few acres of land at the foot of the mountain, and he did a good job.
Secondly, there were also chicks and rabbit seedlings that were distributed to several households from the mountain six months ago.
We agreed that by the end of the year, we would return one adult chicken to the three chicks, and two adult rabbits to the pair of baby rabbits.
The other households returned exactly the agreed-upon quantity, not a single piece more or less.
However, the Tian family returned an extra chicken and a pair of rabbits, which made Xiaomanye have a very good impression of Tian Gui.
So when he heard that the betrothal was to the Tian family, he immediately nodded: "Even when buying pigs or choosing dogs, you have to consider whether the owners are clean. With such sensible parents, the child can't be too bad, no matter how bad he is!"
The old man was experienced, and what he said always made sense.
Jiang Zhi said the same thing. Tian Gui and Tao'er's mother used to be supported by their parents and brothers back in their hometown, so they were inevitably a bit too obedient. Now that they live independently, they can stand up straight and be competent.
Jiang Zhi then described Tian Tao's personality, saying that the woman was sensible and capable.
I used to suffer with my parents in our hometown, but I'm still a hard-working person now.
Xiaoman was increasingly satisfied: "Errui's mother, if you say it's okay, then it's okay. Regardless of gender, everyone must be able to take responsibility. A farmer's wife cannot be pampered."
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