Chapter 427: Let’s get rich together with my brothers next year!
"Grandpa, this policy will not change. It is a decision made by the central government. It is a red-headed document with a steel seal that was issued after collective discussion at the National People's Congress.
There are already many small vendors in the city, so there is absolutely no problem in running a small business of your own.
As for practicing medicine, I have a medical qualification certificate, and I am also a specially hired military doctor. My medical practices are legal. You can just plant these herbs, there will be absolutely no problem." Su Mei saw that Su Xuanhu was backing off, and took the initiative to talk to him about the specific sales channels of the herbs.
Huo Jianguo, who had already dug several rows of potato trenches, also joined in the conversation: "The medicinal herbs are grown mainly for the veterans in the army. Traditional Chinese medicine is in such decline that they have nowhere to buy Chinese medicinal herbs.
These herbs can cure the injuries and illnesses they suffered on the battlefield, and no one dares to say anything bad to the farmers who provide them with herbs. Grandpa will listen to Su Mei and you can just plant the herbs."
Huo Jianguo follows his husband's lead, no matter what Su Mei says, he will support her.
"Are you still treating soldiers in the army? Do they want us to grow medicinal herbs?" This is what Su Xuanhu emphasized. "If it is for heroes who have been on the battlefield, then we will grow them. It doesn't cost money."
"How can they not want money? They are not short of money!" Su Mei knew that her grandfather was also a broad-minded person.
He may not care about his own interests, but when it comes to soldiers who have been to the battlefield, he is very likely to be shaken.
Listening to the discussion, Su Yongcang also stood up from the ground and spoke:
"I think it can be planted. Many of what Su Mei said came true in the end. She studied medicine, was admitted to university, the land was distributed to each household, and she arranged to take the fifth child to the city to work... Anyway, I saw it. Our youngest daughter was very accurate in predicting every detail. She was very capable in what she said and what she did.
Let's just listen to our youngest daughter's arrangements, and we will surely live a prosperous life."
"Then plant it." In the end, Bai Xiaofang used three words to make the final decision.
After planting all the remaining potatoes in the field, the family returned home.
After returning home, Bai Xiaofang went to cook, Huo Jianguo went to fetch water, and Su Yongcang went to cook pig food to feed the pigs and chickens.
Su Mei followed her grandfather back to his pharmacy.
Su Xuanhu searched for a long time in a wooden box before he pulled out a book. He held it in front of Su Mei like a treasure and said, "My precious granddaughter, I'm glad I didn't lose it!"
Seeing Su Xuanhu being so cautious, Su Mei took the book and took a look at it. The cover of the book read "Su Family Collection: Secret Techniques of Collecting Herbs and Cultivating Them".
"Grandpa, these are really great things... It must have taken you a lot of effort to save all of these?" As far as Su Mei knew, when the crackdown was severe, these books that represented old ideas and culture were considered dregs and would be confiscated and burned.
Su Xuanju nodded heavily, "No, luckily I copied down some prescriptions at that time, and when I was arrested I donated those things and burned them all.
They tortured me and asked me to tell them if I had hidden anything else. I said nothing, but luckily I held on and the people bailed me out.
I wrapped all these books in wax cloth and buried them underground. Later, when I returned to the village, I secretly brought them back.
I sealed it on the wall with wax a few years ago, and it seemed much safer in the past two years, so I took it out again... But the book is still old and can't stand being read anymore."
"It's quite old... It just so happens that I'm on vacation now, so Huo Jianguo and I will rewrite the book. After we finish copying, we will keep the original manuscript well. This is our Su family's heirloom, and we can't let it be damaged!" The book is quite thick, so it must be difficult to copy it.
But since this kind of thing is called a secret technique, it certainly cannot be written by outsiders, so Su Mei could only pick up the pen herself.
Fortunately, Huo Jianguo was also at home, so Su Mei could ask him to write together.
I have something to do at home during this winter vacation.
Holding the book, Su Mei carefully turned a few pages before asking her grandfather in a low voice, "What kind of medicinal herbs do you think we should grow?"
She followed Su Xuanhu into the pharmacy just to discuss this point.
"Since you need medicinal herbs to treat old illnesses of veterans, we should plant more medicines for old injuries, old illnesses, and cold legs... The more types of medicines, the better.
It happens to be winter now, and those herbs are drying up and producing seeds. We go up the mountain to look for them, and we plant whatever herbs we can find in the fields.
We need to grow those rare wild herbs. We don’t grow common herbs at home. If we need them, we can go directly to the mountains to pick them. A proper herb field needs several years or even more than ten years to cultivate. But since it’s urgent, we’ll keep it simple.”
"That's what I thought. Let's start looking for herbs suitable for transplanting tomorrow." Let's first go and bring back some seeds we can, and plant as many as we can.
There are no traditional Chinese medicine bases now, and you can’t even buy medicinal seeds. If you want to plant them, the first step is to go to the mountains to find the seeds yourself.
All things are difficult at the beginning, and this first step is definitely going to be difficult.
After ten years of turmoil, traditional Chinese medicine has fallen into decline and no one is interested in it.
If we want to revive the status of traditional Chinese medicine, we must start with growing medicinal herbs.
The grandfather and grandson discussed for a while and roughly decided on the following medicinal herbs: Atractylodes macrocephala, Chuanxiong, Geranium, Corydalis, Achyranthes bidentata, and Rhizoma Cyperi.
These medicinal herbs can be found in the mountains and are easy to grow when planted.
There is not much land, but a lot of medicinal materials have been selected. This is mainly because people are worried that there are too few types and they cannot find all the medicinal materials.
When the medicinal field was first developed, they planted a little bit of everything.
When seeds grow in the medicinal fields in the future, we can select the most profitable medicinal materials for mass production.
The herbs I have selected now are only tentative. When we go to the mountains, we will collect rarer herbs if we encounter them.
While the herbs were being selected, Bai Xiaofang had also prepared the meal.
After dinner, Su Mei wanted to go into the kitchen to wash the dishes with Bai Xiaofang, but as soon as she entered, she was chased out by her mother.
As night fell, several brothers and sisters-in-law in the family also returned home.
After everyone gathered, Su Mei took out her bag and distributed things to her brothers, sisters-in-law, and nephews and nieces.
Seeing that everyone had a gift from Su Mei, Bai Xiaofang was both happy and distressed:
"It's not easy out there, just come back and don't buy so many things in the future!"
Her brothers and sisters-in-law spoke in the same tone, all advising Su Mei to spend money frugally, as they had everything they needed at home.
After distributing the gifts, the whole family sat down and started chatting.
Su Mei also talked about growing medicinal herbs with her brothers.
Several brothers all supported growing herbal medicine, as the Su family used to be a medical family.
Due to various coincidences, Su Mei's brothers all missed the opportunity to study medicine. They all felt regretful and hoped to revive the Su family's former glory.
But even if my brothers support me, I can't bring them to grow herbs for the time being.
Now we have to go to the mountains to find medicinal seeds. It is hard to say whether we can plant all the acres of land owned by Su Mei's parents with medicinal herbs.
As for the brothers, Su Mei said:
"Next year, if there is a surplus of seeds, I will bring my brothers to make a fortune together."