Chapter 983: Official Medicinal Materials and Farewell [2]

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"Don't use pots and pans made of gold, silver, copper, or iron to prepare medicinal materials. You must use pottery or porcelain to avoid destroying the medicinal properties!"

"Roasted licorice can be divided into honey roasting, salt roasting, vinegar roasting, and wine roasting. The efficacy of licorice roasted with different ingredients will be different, so from selecting pots and utensils, mixing herbs with ingredients, roasting herbs, packing them into boxes, and transporting them to storage, every step cannot be wrong!" said Shen Lu Niang.

After she finished speaking, one of her female doctors would repeat the words to ensure that all the female workers could hear them.

The female workers listened attentively, not daring to be distracted... Now, they have realized that training is not something that the employer has a lot of money to do, but a necessary process.

There are so many ways to prepare licorice, and its effects will be different depending on the preparation method.

There is also something called Rehmannia, which is divided into raw and cooked methods.

Rehmannia root needs to be steamed and dried like Polygonatum sibiricum, but after processing, its price will soar a lot.

There are also some medicinal herbs, such as Pinellia ternata, which are poisonous when not processed. Only after adding ginger or alum will the toxicity be eliminated and they can be used to treat diseases and save lives.

There is also the medicinal herb Asarum, which is also poisonous.

Its poison can also enter the human body through breathing, so when preparing Asarum, not only do you have to cover your mouth and nose, you also have to prepare it in the open air!

In short, the job of preparing medicinal materials in a workshop is not easy. It is a job that requires learning a lot of knowledge.

They are no longer working, but studying medicine and pharmaceutical manufacturing. It's amazing!

Shan Xinye, Li Tianya, Wu Jingniang and Liu Xiuxiu all listened attentively and excitedly, and kept telling themselves that they must learn well, as these were skills that were not passed on to outsiders.

Shen Lu Niang continued, "Dried licorice can also be used directly as medicine. It's called raw licorice and is effective in treating coughs, but it's cold in nature. Processed licorice not only removes the coldness, but also enhances its effectiveness in treating coughs and stimulates lung-tonifying and other benefits."

"So preparing medicinal materials is a process of removing toxins and impurities and increasing their efficacy."

"To make honey-roasted licorice, you must first refine the honey. Once it's cooked to a certain consistency, you can add the licorice slices and stir evenly. Then, put them in a jar and let them sit for at least six chenshi (six chenshi), which is overnight." Shen Lu Niang said as she called Liu Daya and Liu Erya from Liu Jiu's house. "Put the honey-coated licorice slices in the jar and seal it."

"Yes!" The two little girls suppressed their excitement and started to pack the honeyed licorice tablets.

Shen Lu Niang called Peng Su again, "You can read? Come here and write a note on it. Put it on the jar... Write down clearly that it's a semi-finished product, when it was sealed and when it was finished."

"Yes." Mrs. Peng Su carried her box of pen, ink, paper and inkstone, took out paper and pen from it, wrote a note, and handed it to Shen Lu Niang for review.

After Shen Lu Niang nodded, she took a deep breath and carefully stuck the note on the mouth of the jar.

Shen Lu Niang called her female doctor and asked her to bring a few jars of honey licorice tablets that had been prepared yesterday.

"These are licorice slices that were simmered in honey yesterday. It's been over six hours now. Now I'll teach you how to stir-fry them." Shen Lu Niang poured a can of honey-simmered licorice slices into the pot and said, "Slowly stir-fry over low heat until the honey is dry."

After two quarters of an hour, it was finally fried, and the licorice slices became dry and turned into the yellow color of old firewood.

Shen Lu Niang then called to the female workers: "Come over and touch, look, and taste it. Remember its dryness, color, and taste."

The female workers did as they were told and tasted the entire jar of honey-roasted licorice tablets.

Shan Xinye felt heartbroken and raised her hand, saying, "Steward Shen, Old Madam Xiao, please deduct the money for the honey-roasted licorice tablets from our wages."

"This is honey-roasted licorice. Honey is very expensive, and Doctor You gave our herbal medicine shop a low price. If we eat it without paying, the boss's herbal medicine shop may not be open until the New Year."

Cao Fan, the wife of the village chief, said hurriedly, "Pfft, pfft, what nonsense are you talking about, little girl? Our herbal medicine shop is doing a booming business and will last for hundreds of years!"

The damn girl dares to say anything unlucky, but...

Cao Fan looked at Old Madam Xiao and said, "Madam, is our herbal medicine shop making money? Is it not losing money?"

Considering the materials used in preparing the medicinal materials and the selling price of the prepared medicinal materials, it would be unreasonable not to make a loss!

The female workers all looked at Old Madam Xiao, their eyes full of worry. It was really obvious that preparing these medicinal materials was not profitable.

Old Madam Xiao smiled secretly, but said seriously, "Don't worry, the herbal medicine shop doesn't make money by preparing medicinal materials, but by selling new medicines."

There is no profit in preparing medicinal materials.

The profit of the medical industry comes from an entire business line... purchasing high-quality medicinal materials at low prices, hiring servants with death contracts to prepare the medicinal materials, and then using medical clinics and drug stores to sell the medicinal materials at high prices.

So the boss was really kind-hearted to hire female workers to prepare medicinal materials.

The aristocratic family's pharmacy would not do this. The servants were all indentured servants who worked day and night to prepare medicinal materials. If a servant was poisoned or died of exhaustion from preparing the medicinal materials, he would be thrown into a mass grave without any disputes.

Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!

Shen Lu Niang rang the bell and said, "Study hard on preparing medicinal herbs. If you ask irrelevant questions again, you will be punished and your wages will be deducted!"

"Yes." The female workers hurriedly came back to their senses and continued to learn how to roast licorice with wine, salt, vinegar and salt from Shen Lu Niang. After a whole day of study, even the illiterate Shan Xinye learned to recognize the words licorice, honey, vinegar, salt, wine, raw and roasted.

Boom boom boom!

Boom boom boom!

At 3 p.m., the drum sounded to signal the end of work, and the female workers left work by pressing their fingerprints.

It was only after I left the women's workshop, passed the warehouse area, and entered the main avenue that I met the male workers.

"Hey, today we learned how to prepare Asarum. It's so easy to prepare that stuff, we stopped working half an hour early and sat waiting to be dismissed. They said they were afraid of poisoning, so they had to leave work half an hour early for observation."

"What are you observing? If it's prepared outdoors, the aroma of the asarum will float up into the air, so how can you get poisoned?"

"You can't think like that. Old Master Qin, Mr. Qin, and Mr. Xun all said that we must be cautious when preparing medicinal materials." He Wangtian reminded a young worker.

"Yes, yes, yes, you have to be extremely cautious when doing this job. I, Liu Duotian, have kept it in mind! But I think Mr. Xun and the others are really exaggerating. There really isn't any danger. Even if there is danger, I'm not afraid. I, Liu Duotian, will work in the herbal medicine workshop for the rest of my life. After I turn forty, I'll go to the risky herbal medicine class and earn the high salary of one tael and four qian of silver a month!"

Liu Duotian shouted, and after seeing Liu Xiuxiu and Liu Fangshi, he waved at them frantically: "Cousin, cousin, hey, I'm here. We learned how to prepare asarum today. What did you learn today?!"

Liu Xiuxiu and Liu Fangshi didn't answer, but just said, "Let's go faster, our family is waiting for us at the gate."

The details of preparing medicinal materials cannot be disclosed to the outside world. This is a work rule. And this brat Liu Duotian asked about it out loud. Does he want to get fired?!

In fact, it is possible to tell what kind of medicinal materials are being prepared, but the details and process of preparation cannot be disclosed. So although Liu Duotian likes to talk a lot, he has not violated the work rules.

Many workers were also telling their families what they had learned today.

The workers' families were very happy after hearing this, but students such as Lu Qian, Gao Zhenzhi, and Zheng Qianjia looked gloomy and could hardly continue the work of moving building materials.

"Classmate Lu, why did you stop? Keep going." Shi Songxin urged... Carrying the big stone pillar and stopping halfway to listen to the workers was very tiring, and his shoulders were sore from being pressed by the shoulder pole.

Lu Qian didn't answer, but only said: "You said before that she is a woman and can't pass the imperial examination to become an official. She can never be our political enemy in this life. There is no need to compete with her too much. Just endure it until our journey is over."