Seeing the neat and clean herbs and fresh fragrant herbs, Xu Dong was very happy: "Sister Jiang, these herbs have come at just the right time. They have really helped me a lot."
Jiang Zhi smiled and said, "Doctor Xu, what medicine do you need? I'll see if we can find it on the mountain. As you know, there aren't many medicines on the mountain here."
The mountain is full of herbs, but Xu Dong needs Chinese medicines that are listed in the pharmacopoeia, which are hard to find in ordinary mountains.
Xu Dong said, "I need a lot of medicine; I'll take whatever I can find."
"How about I write you a list, and next time you find the items listed and bring them over?"
The doctor never complained about having too many kinds of medicines, especially now. He goes to urge them every day, but the medicines from the military logistics department are still missing some and others, and he can't replenish them all.
A prescription cannot be made without all the necessary medicines, but the wounded don't care about that. They will curse when they are in pain. Not only the medics who take care of them get cursed, but even Xu Dong has been cursed by these scoundrels.
"A list?" Jiang Zhi was taken aback for a moment, but then her eyes lit up.
The original owner of this body was an illiterate peasant woman. In the six months since she arrived, she had never seen a pen and ink, let alone written words.
If only I could take this opportunity to learn to read!
"Physician Xu, I can't read. Could you write down each type of medicine on a separate sheet and then put it together with the other medicines?"
"This way I can recognize the medicine and remember the characters, making it easier to write prescriptions in the future!" Jiang Zhi demonstrated the wisdom of a clever village woman to the fullest.
Xu Dong regretted writing the prescription earlier. How could this woman, who relied on her family's knowledge of medicine, possibly be literate? Even if she tried, she couldn't learn to read.
But if you just write down the names of the medicines one by one and refer to the herbal medicine records one by one, it will be simple!
Xu Dong had no reason to object, as he didn't need to teach him himself, and it would be convenient in the future.
He acted immediately, finding those old cloth bags, first putting a medicine in each bag and labeling it, then placing a piece of straw paper with the medicine's name on it.
Jiang Zhi looked at the characters written by Xu Dong, her mind in turmoil. Good heavens! They were all traditional characters, and she recognized them all.
That makes sense, considering I was reading a Chinese book back then, so it's normal for it to be written in Chinese characters.
Xu Dong wrote down more than ten sheets in one go: "These herbs should be available on the mountain. If you find them and dry them, the medical shed will send someone to pick them up if they need them."
If you can recognize the characters, then do so; if not, look for the herbs inside the bag.
Thinking that these mountains were ordinary, Xu Dong only wrote down the commonly used herbs, such as perilla, mugwort, ophiopogon japonicus, and cibotium barometz...
"That's all for now, we'll find as much as we can!" Xu Dong couldn't rely entirely on a mountain villager for medicinal herbs.
Jiang Zhi was overjoyed. She had already collected these things and only needed to send them over gradually in the future.
However, in front of Xu Dong, she still pretended to be hesitant: "Alright, Doctor Xu, don't worry, everyone in the family will go look for it, we'll definitely find it."
This time, the medicinal herbs were replaced with grains, salt, and oil. In addition, Jiang Zhi asked for some quicklime and strong liquor.
Just by carrying a large basket on his back and walking through the village, he quickly attracted countless stares, including Li Laoshi, who had been lying in bed for several days without dying.
Li Laoshi squatted by the roadside, gazing enviously at the basket on Jiang Zhi's back, and asked, "Sister-in-law, do you need someone to help you gather herbs?"
He's unemployed now, doesn't want to leave, and doesn't want to learn from others to grow some vegetables or do some odd jobs. He's just envious of the fact that he can just reach out and pull a handful of grass to exchange for grain.
Jiang Zhi glanced at her coldly: "The clinic needs someone to wash the sheets. You can go do it."
Li Laoshi scratched his head and gave a fawning smile: "Sister-in-law, this job is easy!"
Jiang Zhi ignored him and continued walking, keeping an eye on her surroundings.
Fortunately, the refugees here already knew what had happened to Li Laoshi and his companions, so no one caused any more trouble. The bearded man's head injury hadn't fully healed yet!
As soon as they reached the edge of the woods, Xu Errui rushed over, took the heavy basket from her back, and said worriedly, "Mother, I have to go with you next time."
He waited outside, extremely anxious, constantly fearing that the refugees would cause trouble.
Jiang Zhi didn't insist anymore. She took off the straps and stretched, "Okay, next time you come with me, bring everything you need."
Although I won't be going down the mountain recently, I will in the future. I need to be firm when necessary, to make the refugees feel afraid, and to make them suffer a bit.
The weapon that Xiaoman should bring is a thick, stone-embedded oak staff. When she swings it, it whistles through the air and she can knock someone down with one blow.
No skills are needed; brute force overcomes all techniques, showcasing a violent beauty.
Xu Errui didn't have that habit. He just used the medicine Jiang Zhi gave him to rub two broken sickles, cut them open, and didn't feel bad about throwing them away.
The mother and son chatted as they trekked over mountains to get home.
The refugees did not affect life on the mountain. Upon returning home, Jiang Zhi announced one thing: literacy!
Apart from Grandpa Xiaoman and Grandma Xiaoman, everyone must learn to read.
This is a very rare thing.
As night fell, the two families gathered again at Xiaoman's house at the foot of the cliff. This time, they were no longer worried about being seen and lit a bonfire in the middle of the courtyard.
The firewood crackled and popped as it burned, the flames illuminating the entire yard as bright as day.
Grandpa Xiaoman sat beside her, making a broom out of sorghum stalks, while Grandma Xiaoman spun a spinning wheel. The two of them watched the group of children around them with smiles on their faces.
Jiang Zhi took out the slip of paper she had brought back from the foot of the mountain during the day and said to everyone, "This is the medicine that Physician Xu ordered for us. He wrote down the names of the medicines. From now on, we need to learn these characters so that we can understand the prescriptions in the future."
The names of the medicines were written on about ten sheets of straw paper, totaling only about twenty characters.
Even the most fearless people fell silent upon seeing this unfamiliar object.
For them, reading was something they could never even dream of.
Xiaoman looked confused: "Aunt Jiang, we just need to know what medicine the clinic is for, we don't need to be literate, right?"
Jiang Zhi said sternly, "You still remember three or four kinds of medicine? What about thirty or forty kinds? And what if you need to borrow the items you exchanged in advance and have to write an IOU? How do you calculate the accounts when we only settle accounts every ten days or half a month? Can your brain remember that much?"
Xiaoman was taken aback by the question and could only scratch her head and chuckle.
Being literate and knowledgeable is a scarce resource at any time.
Especially in the Great Yan, where most people are illiterate, there are not many who realize the importance of reading and writing and who are willing to make an effort to learn it. People in the countryside are used to passing things down by word of mouth.
Boys like Xiaoman, Xu Dazhu, and Xu Errui rarely had the opportunity to go to school, and girls like Qiaoyun and Chunfeng had even less chance of studying, including the original owner of this body.
It's a rare learning opportunity. If I can recognize a hundred characters, I won't be fooled.
Qiaoyun hesitated for a moment, then said, "Mom, I have to take care of the child, can I stop learning?"
She gets a headache just looking at those ink blobs.
“Study! I’m so old and I have to learn, so you need to study even harder. You’ll have to teach Caixia to read in the future!” Jiang Zhi said sternly.
It's not that I'm being harsh on my daughter-in-law. Although it's said that "it's the father's fault if he doesn't raise his children properly," in reality, mothers always put in more effort in their children's education.
If a mother herself doesn't want to learn or doesn't understand the importance of learning, how can she guide her child?
Qiaoyun lowered her head and stopped talking, only nodding as she hugged the sleeping Xiao Caixia tightly.
Beside her, Chunfeng pursed her lips; she too was afraid to learn.
But Aunt Jiang just said that a mother needs to be literate to teach her child, and she will teach Nini in the future.
Xu Dazhu lay diagonally on a wooden board: "Auntie is right."
In the past, when I went to town to sell charcoal, the weights and measures didn't match. People would just tell me what they wanted, and I wouldn't recognize the receipts they showed me. If I could read, I wouldn't have suffered these losses.
Xiaoman, Errui, we must study hard.
Chunfeng, holding Nini, turned her head and smiled: "Brother Dazhu, how about we have a competition?"
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