Lin tied a small wooden spoon to dig some light yellow medicine powder, sniffed the strong smell of medicine at the tip of his nose, and licked his tongue with a hint of bitterness.
Wu Yanqing's prescription is different from ordinary external application of knife-tip medicine (Jin Chuang Yao). This medicine can be applied externally and taken orally, with hemostatic and analgesic effects. It even has obvious therapeutic effect on ulcerated wounds. From the perspective of later generations, this prescription has a strong anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effect when used to treat injuries. It is much better than using animal bone powder as the main medicine for knife-tip medicine, and it also has an obvious therapeutic effect in accelerating fracture healing and internal bleeding.
Wu Yanqing was famous in Jiangning for treating injuries from falls and fights. This prescription was the result of his study of medical books by previous generations and his summary of decades of experience treating such injuries, which he passed down to his son but not his apprentices. At this time, Wu Yanqing not only offered this prescription to Lin Xue to open a pharmacy, but also pulled in his eldest son Wu Jiye to work there.
Lin Mengde walked behind Lin Xianshen, feeling deeply moved in his heart. He thought that the officials of Jiangning were as numerous as fish crossing a river, and Lin Xianshen was just a small ninth-grade Confucian official, which didn't count for much in terms of official position. However, how many officials in Jiangning could make people willingly serve them like Lin Xianshen? Even among those who truly trusted Gu Wuduan, there were far fewer than Lin Xianshen.
Lin Tie did not know what Lin Meng was thinking about. He stood beside him, propping his chin with his hand and seriously watched Wu Yanqing's son, Wu Jieye, instructing the apprentices to process medicinal materials.
The most used medicine in Wu Yanqing's prescription is Kudzu root, the one purchased by Ji Yun She is dried and sliced Kudzu root, which needs to be stir-fried with bran and then ground into powder before mixing with other main medicines.
Lin Xie was able to identify more than a dozen kinds of wound-healing herbs that could be found in the wild, but as for traditional Chinese medicine, he really didn't know much about it. He couldn't offer any better suggestions for Wu Yanqing's prescription, but as for how to improve the efficiency of preparing medicinal decoctions, perhaps later generations would have more advanced knowledge than his own time.
Although the assembly line did not have much significance before machine production replaced manual labor on a large scale, from traditional handicraft workshops to more detailed and specific workshop handicrafts, production efficiency has also been significantly improved; this is what Lin Xie learned in junior high school.
Medical clinics and pharmacies of the time also prepared medicines for external sales, but medical clinics and pharmacies of the time can be said to be standard workshops, with most employees being apprentices.
The disciples in the medical halls and pharmacies were considered unpaid labor, and before they completed their apprenticeships, they relied on the medical halls for food, clothing, and shelter. The compensation they received was extremely limited, and there were also strict personal attachment relationships between them.
"The relationship between a master and an apprentice is like that of father and son." This sentence is not used to describe the emotional bond between a master and an apprentice, but rather it reflects the authority that a master has over his apprentice according to the laws of the time. If an apprentice physically assaults his master, he will be guilty of rebellion; even if the master accidentally kills his apprentice in self-defense, he will only be charged with a minor crime punishable by imprisonment or less. Of course, masters also have many obligations towards their apprentices.
It is precisely these factors that even if a medical institution has apprentices to work for free, the scale of preparing medicines for external sales is still very limited due to the limitation of personnel.
The medicine workshop to be set up at the river mouth, even if the people recruited are nominally apprentices, in a strict sense, they are formal manual pharmaceutical workers. All recruits receive monthly wages and food allowances. Although it is not possible to use apprentices for free labor, on the other hand, there is no responsibility or obligation to teach them until they become skilled craftsmen, and there is no strict limit on the number of people recruited, making it possible to expand production.
To quote from junior high school textbooks, the emergence of this de facto employment relationship at He Kou Yao Fang represents the true sprout of capitalism.
Lin Yu won't go to rationalize capitalism, his real concern is to make everything in the estuary operate more efficiently, so he can use this tiny land of the estuary to gather more people and momentum.
Lin Xie and Wu Jiye discussed, asking him to divide the various steps of preparing medicinal materials into finer details, so that not all apprentices in the pharmacy need to be familiar with the properties of the medicine. Except for the master who dispenses the medicine, other apprentices only need to grasp their own part of the work.
In this way, hiring one person only needs a little training and guidance to get things done, and the part of the work they are responsible for is easier to master, fewer mistakes, and naturally more efficient.
The medical clinic uses ten apprentices who have been trained for many years to prepare various powdered medicines according to the complete process, and can produce 500 packages in a month. On the other hand, the He Kou medicine workshop uses ten slightly trained ordinary people under the guidance of an experienced apprentice familiar with medicinal properties, strictly dividing labor, and can produce at least 1,000 to 2,000 or more packages of powdered medicines per month.
Lin Bai also suggested that Wu Jiye could use a kind of wild mouse from Jiangning to test the medicinal properties, so as to continuously improve Wu Yanqing's prescription.
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"Mrs. Guo and Master Guo and Miss Guo have all arrived, the horse carriage has just reached the gate..."
Lin Xuan stood under the Osmanthus tree in the middle of the medicine workshop, discussing medicine preparation with Wu Jiye. Someone came running over to report that Gu Wuchen's wife, Madame Gu, had arrived at the river mouth with her daughter, Jun Xiang, by horse-drawn carriage, and Zhao Qinmin and Gu Siming had already gone ahead to greet them.
"Let's go first." Lin Xuan pulled Lin Mengde to leave the medicine workshop together. When they passed by the grass hall, they saw Gu Yanxiu, San Furen, Liu Furen, and Shao Furen Ma Shi, as well as Zhao Xuanchu, who were all making preparations to welcome them in the grass hall. Lin Xuanchu didn't know whether he should run to the south gate of the fence to welcome them or not, so he stood outside the grass hall waiting for Lin Xuan to come back, and then Lin Xuan pulled him along to go over together.
Today is the seventh day after Lin Tingxuan's death. Although he has not been buried yet, the Lin family still invited Taoist priests and monks to perform the "seventh day" rituals at the river mouth. Three days ago, Lin Xian sent a message to Madame Gu, mentioning that Lin Xuelu and the Lin family were willing to resolve their past grievances with the Gu family, but since they are all in mourning, it would be inconvenient for them to visit, so they hoped Madame Gu could come to the river mouth personally.
Mrs. Guo had already received the letter brought back by Gu Wu from Dongyang, which was delivered to Lin Fu, saying that he would rush to the river mouth on the seventh day of the lunar calendar to pay his respects and visit his niece Gu Yingxiu and other members of the Guo family who had fled to Jiangning.
Lin Jie and Lin Meng arrived at the south gate of the bamboo wall, where they met Gu Xiuming, a nephew of Gu Wuchen, and Gu Xiuyuan, who were riding high-headed horses, surrounding the carriage carrying Mrs. Gu and Gu Junxun as it entered.
"I should have gone to pick up the lady and Miss Junxiang myself, it's already late for me to come out and greet you now. How annoying." Lin Fu made a bow towards the carriage.
"What's with all the politeness? You're busy, go take care of your own affairs. We can't grow legs for ourselves?" Madam Gu lifted up one corner of the silk window curtain. Although the weather was already sweltering, it was a rule in wealthy households that women should not expose their faces to outsiders. By lifting the curtain and speaking with Lin Xie, Madam Gu was already treating him as an insider.
Lin Xuan smiled and didn't say much, following the horse carriage all the way to Caotang. Only then did he help down Mrs. Gu and Gu Junxun from the carriage. The female relatives naturally took charge of receiving them, with Seventh Lady at the lead, along with Liu Yue'er, Third Lady, Sixth Lady, as well as Young Lady Ma, Lin Xu Lu, and the wives of Gu Tianqiao and others, surrounding Mrs. Gu and Gu Junxun as they entered the inner hall directly. Lin Xuan considered himself a junior and went in to pay his respects along with Gu Tianqiao and Gu Siming, chatting briefly for a few sentences before going to the front hall of the outer residence to keep company with Gu Wudang's son, Gu Siyuan.
Gu Suiyuan bore a grudge against Lin Xiangqian, so in the front hall, surrounded by everyone, he deliberately cold-shouldered Lin Xiangqian and didn't speak to him. He spoke enthusiastically with Gu Suiming and Zhao Qinmin instead. Lin Xiangqian wasn't bothered, and quietly discussed matters with Lin Xuelu on one side.
In the Gu mansion, there were some things that Gu Wudu couldn't take charge of, and Gu Suiyuan was even more unable to show his face in front of his strong-willed mother. Today's main event was in the inner courtyard.
"Lao Shi Qi," Lin Xulü said in a low voice, "the three aunts finally nodded and agreed to pay 24,000 taels of silver for my father's salary for the next three years. Although Dongyang Prefecture is not in chaos, there are many bandits lurking about, so I need your advice on how to transport this silver back to Dongyang."
Lin was thinking of other things in his heart, the Lin family's silver for maintaining the local braves should be controlled within 10,000 taels per year. For Lin Tingli in Dongyang, he had to pay out 8,000 taels each year, which means that only 2,000 taels of silver could be used to maintain the local braves on this side of Jiangning, and at most they could only support about a hundred people. The total number of local braves in Lin's family on this side of Jiangning was over three hundred, which means that nearly two hundred people had to be laid off.
"Has a decision been made on how to reduce the number of village braves in Jiangning?" Lin Fu asked.
"Besides the local militiamen who were summoned to Jiangning to serve as guards earlier, there are only about a hundred or so of them this time who followed the boats to the mouth of the Jiangning River to take refuge. These militiamen have no merit but do have hardships for the Lin family; the Lin family cannot mistreat them. The other militiamen were all remnants that Old Second had left behind in the village camp when he was killed and they were defeated, then regrouped later. Since Old Second was killed by Zhao Neng's slaves, it is already quite lenient of the Lin family not to hold these militiamen responsible for failing to protect their master; naturally, they will not continue to support them idly. The plan is that after today's 'Head Seventh', they will be dispersed——Old Seventeen, what do you think?"
When the village camp was attacked, Zhao Qing-shan, Lin Ji-yuan and Chen Shou-yan led 300 village braves to follow Lin Zuo in Luo Yang Hu. There were still nearly 400 village braves left in the village camp. When the camp was attacked, only about 50 or 60 people were killed on the spot by Zhao's cavalry or died later from serious injuries. Most of them were dispersed and escaped, up to now, Lin Zuo has gathered 156 fugitive village braves at the river mouth, and there are still nearly 200 people scattered outside.
"Second Uncle and Third Brother were polite, only then did they tell me about the big things in our clan. Of course, I support the decisions made by Second Uncle, Third Brother, and several madams," Lin Fu said to himself, thinking that this was also good, as these village braves would be dispersed and removed from the Lin family's register, making it easier for him to train them.
Mrs. Gu stayed in the thatched cottage for lunch and chatted with the ladies about family affairs for a long time. When the sun was setting to the eaves of the surrounding house, she called Lin Xie over to talk again.
"Just now, I've been thinking a lot about this. Since the Lin family has set up their business at the river mouth, I think it would be better for the 70 or 80 people who came with me from Jiangning to settle down there as well. It's not like everything is convenient in the city either. I'll give you 500 taels of silver, and you take care of this matter for me." said Mrs. Gu.
"I don't have any plans on my side for the time being, I don't know if Mrs. Gu has other ideas, there are indeed many inconveniences in the city. Since that's the case, then let me take care of it...” Lin Mou said, there were several women from the Gu family in the house, he didn't mention not giving silver to the Gu estate in person, anyway he wouldn't be short of 500 taels of silver, and good people still have to do things for Mrs. Gu.
Madam Gu, Mr. Gu Xun and Mr. Gu Siyuan returned to the city, Lin Xie rode a horse and Gu Ying sat in a carriage to personally see them off at the East Flower Gate.
At the outer gate of Donghua, Mrs. Gu insisted that Lin Xie not send them off again, and lifted the curtain to say to Lin Xie: "Yingxiu refused to follow me into the city, she really wants you to take care of her at the river mouth, if anything happens to her at the river mouth, I won't forgive you."
"Please don't worry, Mrs. Gu." Lin said without looking up.
Watching Mrs. Gu and her entourage enter the East Flower Gate, Lin Xie turned his horse around and walked alongside the carriage where Gu Ying was sitting, chatting with her in a low voice as they walked.
"After chatting with my aunt in the afternoon, I just knew that Jun Xiang hadn't promised to marry anyone yet..." Gu Ying Shou pushed open a corner of the carriage window curtain and sat inside looking at Lin Xuan speaking.
"This I know," said Lin Xie, "she's already seventeen years old, it's time for her to worry about it."
"Don't pretend to be stupid, you know what I mean," Gu Ying said with a pout. "Jun Xiang was finding excuses to talk about you today, and if you don't have any objections, I'll mention this to my aunt tomorrow - Jun Xiang is indeed beautiful, not much worse than those two in your house, won't bring shame to you."
"To be honest," Lin Xie sighed softly, "I'm worried that in the future, I won't always see eye to eye with your uncle..."
"Are you afraid that when the time comes, Jun Xiang will be caught in the middle and can't do anything?" Gu Ying's beautiful eyes looked at Lin Xuan again, "Why don't you worry about me being caught in the middle and having a hard time?"
Lin Xie smiled but did not speak.
"The situation is chaotic, and everyone is scattered. Who knows, maybe after a few years, my uncle will hit the wall again with a bloody head. You won't become sworn enemies with my uncle, so why worry about future things?" Gu Yingxu said.
"Alas," Lin Xie shook his head and sighed, saying, "No matter what, I'm just a younger son of the Lin family's side branch, my achievements are only that of a candidate, and my rank is merely that of a Confucian scholar. To say that we're a match made in heaven, I'm not worthy of you, Jun Xiang."
"I don't believe my uncle will mind this," said Gu Yan.
At this moment, two fast horses came galloping from the opposite direction. They were the two guards who had been left to guard the river mouth. When they saw Lin Xie, they dismounted and reported: "The Lin family wants to disband the village braves, but the news has leaked out, and more than a hundred village braves have gathered and are making trouble. Please, sir, return to the river mouth to handle the situation..."
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