Chapter 27

When Xiaoruo hurried back to the Tzu Chi Hall, old man Cen was patting amomum.

People in the market went to the market today, and there were not many patients who came to buy medicine for treatment. Old man Cen picked out some high-quality amomum kernels and smashed them. He planned to let Xiaoxun make steamed ribs with amomum kernels tonight. This dish dispels cold and dispels the cold Moist, appetizing and digesting, mild medicinal properties after cooking, it is most suitable for children to eat.

As soon as he patted an amomum, he heard a childish voice calling him cheerfully.

"Grandpa Cen, Grandpa Cen! You are back~"

He rushed out to welcome Xiao Niao, who was rushing in like a cannonball, into his arms.

"Why did you come back so early? The market hasn't ended yet, so I won't take them to play for a while." Old man Cen pretended to complain to Xiaoruo.

Xiaoruo didn't have time to answer these questions, so she hurriedly dragged old man Cen to the backyard.

"Mr. Cen, I want to pay some monthly money in advance."

Seeing her haste, and saying that she wanted to pay the monthly money in advance, old man Cen became confused.

The eldest girl of the Xiao family has always acted prudently, and she is not a person who likes to spend a lot of money, why did she go to the market and come back short of money?But he didn't ask too much, he still believed that Xiaoruo had a sense of propriety, and maybe he really encountered a place where he had to use money.

"How much is the advance payment?"

"Three taels of silver."

"How much?" Old Cen was really surprised now, three liang of silver is enough for the whole family for two or three years in an ordinary farm.

"I bought something and it cost five taels of silver. Now I paid one tael as a deposit, and I need four taels. My own savings are more than three taels, but I want to save some for emergency use, so I advance you three taels of silver. "

Xiaoruo didn't hide it from old man Cen, and told him the ins and outs of the matter in detail.

Just as they were talking, Xiaoxun and the sugar vendor also arrived at the Tzu Chi Hall.The hawker asked the owner of the stall next to him to borrow a cart and delivered the stones by cart.

"Girl, I've brought you what you asked for. Are you ready for the rest of the money?"

"Come with me." Old man Cen said with his hands behind his back, and took the peddler to his room in the backyard to take out three taels of silver, and Xiaoruo took another tael of silver and handed it over to the peddler. settle.

When they settled the payment, Xiaoxun had already unloaded the stones and weighed them separately with a scale. The last one added was more than 160 catties.

"Then thank you for your patronage, Miss. I have to go back to the stall. Just now I asked the elder brother next door to take care of me so I can bring it to you." The peddler counted the money and was about to leave.

"Wait!" Xiaoruo called to stop the peddler, and said to him with a smile on her face: "To be honest, this stone is useful in our medical clinic. After the boss returns home, can you ask your neighbor if he still has such a stone?" , we still charge, and the price will be converted according to today's price."

The hawker calculated in his stomach, this is more than 30 yuan a catty!I can buy four or two fat meats!It was a good deal, and he had to go back and tell the neighbors.

After saying yes repeatedly, the peddler left with an empty cart.

Old man Cen looked carefully at the pile of pink and white stones. He hadn't seen the value of this pile of stones yet, but the girl from the Xiao family was willing to pay such a high price to buy them, and promised that if there were any more, she would take them all.

He looked to the left and looked again, picked up a smaller stone and looked it up at the sun, but he didn't see the name for a long time.

Xiaoruo smiled mysteriously, as she expected, this stone is extremely rare in the south, even the well-informed old man Cen didn't recognize it for a while.

"Old Cen, do you know about saltpeter?"

"Naturally, saltpeter is also known as ground frost. It is cold in nature, bitter in taste, and slightly salty. It returns to the stomach and large intestine meridian and can cure diarrhea."

"Nitre has to be precipitated in autumn when the weather is high and crisp, covering the ground and corners, especially in the corners near pigpens, stables, and toilets. It is time-consuming and laborious to collect, and it is difficult to obtain a large amount at one time. Isn't it right?"

"exactly."

"This stone is saltpeter ore. After processing, a large amount of saltpeter can be obtained at one time."

Hearing what Xiaoruo said, old man Cen couldn't help being surprised that this rock he had never seen before was actually a saltpeter mine.

Saltpeter mines are mainly produced in the northwest region, and raw ore is rarely seen in the south.

It's just that although raw ore is hard to find, saltpeter is not scarce.Because saltpeter is poisonous, it cannot be taken in large quantities. Only a small amount of saltpeter is enough for the prescription, and manpower is enough to collect the ground frost from the corner of the ground. He still can't understand why Xiaoruo bought a large amount of raw saltpeter.

Old man Cen asked his doubts, but Xiaoruo said that he would know when he had enough saltpeter.

"Old Cen, do you know how to make saltpeter?"

Although she knows how to use saltpeter, she is not familiar with how to make saltpeter. Old man Cen is very familiar with the preparation of medicinal materials in the world.

"Ancient books record that there are two kinds of frying and radish making. There is a certain risk of explosion when frying, and most of them use the method of making radish."

"Okay, then let's make it with radishes."

There are no patients today, so they simply closed early, and several people got busy around a pile of raw saltpeter.

Xiaoxun was in charge of breaking the rough stone into fine pieces, and then put it in the stone mill to grind it into fine powder as much as possible.

Old man Cen and Xiao Ruo were in charge of preparing the carrot juice that would be used as a medium in the saltpeter preparation.This radish juice is not simply squeezed radish juice, but sliced ​​radish, boiled in water for an hour, then filtered through the radish residue, and the supernatant liquid is taken after the filtrate is allowed to stand, in order to obtain radish juice that can be processed into saltpeter.

The two little bean dings were unwilling to be idle, so they gathered around the three of them to look at this side and gather together, rolling up their little sleeves and wanting to help, and in the end they had to clean the large amount of white radishes they bought temporarily from the market.

The two cubs were very happy to be able to help sister and grandpa Cen, and they washed the radishes very hard.

When all the preparatory work is done, the moon is already bright in the sky.

The backyard of the Tzu Chi Hall is still lit with candles.

For every five servings of saltpeter powder, mix with one serving of radish juice, and boil them over high heat.

The processing of saltpeter is dangerous, although the risk factor of making radish is less than that of frying, for the sake of safety, Xiao Ruo still drives the others out of the pharmacy, keeping them far away to prevent accidents from spreading.

The old man Cen took orders to stay in the room farthest from the pharmacy with Xiaoxiao Xiaozhao, watching the orange fire from the window of the pharmacy from a distance.

No matter what Xiaoruo said, Xiaoxun was unwilling to leave the pharmacy, and in the end Xiaoruo put on a serious face before he was willing to dawdle to the door.Gripping the dagger tightly, he leaned his back against the closed door, as if he could protect her more by doing so.

Under Xiaoruo's control, the jumping fire evenly wrapped the saltpeter dissolved in the radish juice, and small bubbles rose from the pot. After the bubbles rolled to the surface of the water, they exploded and disappeared with a small "pop".

Pots of carefully boiled saltpeter solution are filtered and poured into wooden barrels. Ten wooden barrels are arranged neatly in the pharmacy. The filtrate in the wooden barrels cools down and recrystallizes.

The prepared saltpeter had to be taken out to dry, and Xiaoruo was the only one in the pharmacy, she didn't want to wait for the next day to dry in the sun, because the battle would be too big, and it might attract the attention of others.

The ignition point of saltpeter is 334 degrees Celsius, as long as it is controlled below the ignition point, the saltpeter will not be detonated.So she directly covered the pure white saltpeter crystals, mobilized the slow-flowing fire in her body, and the invisible flame instantly raised the temperature near the crystals to 200 degrees Celsius precisely, and quickly evaporated the excess water in the saltpeter crystals.

Fully dried saltpeter crystals only need to be lightly twisted to become a powder. Under her precise temperature control, the 160 catties of saltpeter ore purchased today has not been lost at all. Except for the gravel, she has gained a full three times in the past night. Ten catties of extremely high-purity saltpeter.

(End of this chapter)

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