When Huang Dagen led the grain collection team to meet Ouyang Xuan at the entrance of the village, the leader of Liuliba, Lu Dezhi, was already standing on the wall surrounded by a group of villagers. At this moment, Zhu Tiaozi and Zhu Tiaozi were talking to the wall - Ouyang Xuan saw the sudden change in the situation and knew that he was not suitable for this kind of negotiation, so he asked Zhu Tiaozi who was standing beside him to negotiate. Zhu Tiaozi, who received this important task, gave full play to his businessman's lobbying and advocacy skills - in other words, his diplomatic talent. He first narrated the difficulties and hardships of life for himself and Ouyang Xuan as salesmen and wandering monks, and accused the Mongolian soldiers of Brutal and barbaric, he also angrily denounced the bandits as inhumane. In his account, he and Ouyang Xuan risked their lives and, escorted by a team of officers and soldiers behind them, delivered salt to this remote place, not only to earn daily necessities, but also to solve the problem of salt shortage among the Liuliba Mountain people. Sleepy, even shed a few tears when talking about emotional points. Perhaps because of his superb acting skills or the simple folk customs here, Lu Dezhi and the other mountain people felt sympathetic and moved after hearing this. They wanted to exchange for the scarce salt in the village, but they were also afraid of the dozens of strong men with swords, shields and spears at the gate of the village. After all, it was not easy to distinguish between bandits and soldiers these days.
Zhu Tiaozi, who has been wandering around the market all year round, saw through Lu Dezhi's hesitation and the expectations in the eyes of the mountain people at a glance, so he lost no time in letting Huang Dagen come out, saying that he entered this place by mistake because of the Mongolian pursuit. The officers and soldiers The required supplies were all bought and sold by the public and exchanged at equal value, and they swore that they would not collect grain or disturb the people during this trip. He also asked Ouyang Xuan to use his reputation as a monk to guarantee that the members of the grain collection team were all loyal people and had no malicious intentions. After much talk, Lu De made up his mind to open the village gate. When everyone walked into the village gate, it was already dark.
About half a mile into the village gate, Lu Dezhi asked Ouyang Xuan and others to stop, saying that they would discuss the salt exchange tomorrow, and asked Shi Zhongshu to find a few sheds nearby to accommodate everyone. Ouyang Xuan asked for help for Yu Zhu's illness. Lu Dezhi happened to be a man who knew medicine. After roughly checking his pulse, he showed his embarrassment. It turned out that he had diagnosed that Yu Zhu was suffering from "bouncing", and this disease was only Occurs in hot and humid water pools. Liuliba is located in an alpine mountainous area, and villagers do not suffer from this disease, so there is no treatment medicine in the village. There are no medicine shops in Liuliba. When mountain people are sick, they go to the mountains to find some herbs and boil water to drink. Seeing Ouyang Xuan's disappointed look, he promised to send someone to bring some other herbs to try tomorrow. When Lu Dezhi turned back, Ouyang Xuan used the light of the torch to faintly see him walking into a taller gate deep in the village. It turned out that Ouyang Xuan and others rested on the two walls of Liuliba. Between them, they were not in the village.
After a day of driving on the mountain road, everyone was already exhausted. After arranging the personnel on duty, Ouyang Xuan went to visit Yu Zhu's condition again. After just one day, Yu Zhu was tortured by alternating high fever and chills, leaving him weak and sallow. This malaria attack is very violent. The malaria parasite that causes the disease will rupture the red blood cells in the blood, causing great harm to the patient's body. However, if the specific drug artemisinin is available, the disease is not difficult to treat. Academician Tu Youyou's team invented artemisinin in the 20th century and won China's first Nobel Prize in Medicine. It was obviously impossible to extract artemisinin in the late Southern Song Dynasty, but it should be possible to find the raw material for extracting artemisinin - Artemisia annua. Ouyang Xuan wondered if he could find some to treat Yu Zhu tomorrow.
Early the next morning, Lu Dezhi sent someone to deliver herbs and invited Huang Dagen to discuss matters. Ouyang Xuan didn't know much about herbal medicine, but he recognized at a glance some yellowish-white powder crystals in the medicine package. He asked the person who delivered the medicine and learned that it was fire salt, which was collected in a nearby cave. Ouyang Xuan majored in chemical engineering at university, so he naturally knew that saltpeter is white or colorless crystal. The yellowish-white color of the fire saltpeter sent by the mountain people was probably due to too many impurities. After hurriedly eating some dry food, Ouyang Xuan sent someone to take care of Yu Zhu and take medicine, and then called Huang Dagen and Zhu Tiaozi to discuss matters together. Huang Dagen had been handling the salt matter before, but Zhu Tiaozi's performance yesterday proved that he is a talented business negotiator.
It was already dark when we entered the village yesterday, so we couldn't see clearly what the village looked like. Following the leader Ouyang Xuan, the three of them walked and looked around, taking a general look around and inside the village. The Liuli Dam is generally gourd-shaped and is divided into three levels of terraces from high to low. The higher the terrain, the larger the area. Last night everyone camped on the lowest platform, with an area of only a hundred acres. The first village gate was like a gourd mouth; the middle platform was behind the second village gate, covering an area of several hundred acres, and the highest platform was There are more than thousands of acres. There is a small stream with abundant water flowing down from the high mountain in the distance. After passing through three terraces, it flows down from the entrance of the first village and winds down to join the Wenjing River in the distance.
The place where the salt sale was discussed was not far behind the second cottage gate, in a house next to the stream. Before Ouyang Xuan and others approached, they heard the sound of children reading in the building next to them, which made the three of them very curious. In front of the meeting room, several elderly mountain people were waiting here. They seemed to be the village elders participating in the meeting. Lu Dezhi welcomed the three of them into the house. As soon as they sat down, Ouyang Xuan asked about the sound of children reading. An elder said: "This is Mr. Lu's righteous deed to civilize the people of Shanzhai." It turns out that Lu Dezhi is fifty years old this year and was originally a scholar in Jinyuan County, Chongqing Prefecture. His family came here to escape disaster more than ten years ago. Seeing that the people in the village were ignorant and grateful for the village's acceptance, he opened a volunteer school to teach children free of charge. He was literate and used medical skills to cure many diseases of the villagers. The villagers were grateful and because of his upright character and profound knowledge, they elected him as the leader of Liuliba after the death of the previous leader.
The discussion about changing the salt went very smoothly. When he learned that there were 40 kilograms of salt, Lu Dezhi was pleasantly surprised and said tactfully that because the village did not have much grain in stock, there was not much grain to be exchanged on the premise of ensuring food and seeds. With a slight sense of guilt, he proposed to exchange 200 kilograms of fine grains or 400 kilograms of coarse grains for 1 kilogram of salt. As for sewing needles, jelly beans, wedding powder, silk headbands, etc., he could exchange them with grains or hunted bears, wild boars, deer, etc. In exchange for the skin and meat of prey, these wild products are not valuable in the eyes of the villagers. Ouyang Xuan and the other three were silent after hearing this. This was not because Lu Dezhi's price was too low but because it was too high. Although salt is comparable to the price of silver in these troubled times and is ridiculously expensive outside the mountains, food is also hard currency. Chongqing Prefecture is close to Qiongzhou, a salt-producing area. One kilogram of salt can be exchanged for 50 kilograms of grain. One kilogram of salt in Yongkang Village can be exchanged for 80 kilograms. As for the exchange of 10 kilograms of salt for 2,000 kilograms of grain in Hengyuan Village, it is because there are also A lot of dried horse meat was sold, and they were originally going to collect grain, and the price was equivalent to half selling and half giving.
"This price is indeed a bit low..." Zhu Tiaozi said when Ouyang Xuan and Huang Dagen were silent.
"We still have crude iron. Although it contains more impurities such as sulfur, it cannot be used to make weapons, but it is still useful for making agricultural tools..." Seeing that Zhu Tiaozi was not satisfied with the exchange price, an elder with white beard and hair said anxiously.
Seeing Huang Dagen and Zhu Tiaozi looking at Ouyang Xuan inquiringly, Lu Dezhi and the elder realized that the young monk on the other side was the person in charge. Although they had doubts, they still turned their eyes to Ouyang Xuan, who was thinking about it. Everyone was silent, and in the silence there was only the sound of children reading outside the house.
After a long while, Ouyang Xuan stood up and bowed deeply to Lu Dezhi and others: "We are grateful for the kindness of taking you in. The food exchanged for salt only needs to be enough for me to live and clothe myself, but I have a few unkind things." Please, I hope you, fellow villagers, will be considerate."
