A doctor who travels through two eras

Chapter 166: One Tael of Tangerine Peel and One Tael of Gold
After Lin Sanqi came out of the post office, he never went back to his grandparents or the small Western-style building.

After all, he was a time traveler and had never met the Lin family before. It was impossible for him to feel a blood relationship as soon as they met, so he was too lazy to deal with it. He just fulfilled the responsibility of this body and left enough money for the old man.

In the afternoon, he went to the Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University again, borrowed 10,000 yuan from the purchasing department of the hospital, and then left Huadu.

A citrus mountain in Xinhui County.

Lin Sanqi followed the local village chief, climbing the mountain with difficulty, and listened to the village chief bragging:
"The most amazing thing about our Xinhui tangerine peel is that the skin grows but the flesh does not, and the skin is sweet but the flesh is not. Only citrus trees that are more than 6 years old and produce tangerines with thin skin and good shape will be picked to make tangerine peel.

Every year, we start picking tangerine peels in autumn. According to the different picking times, tangerine peels are divided into different types, each with its own flavor. In September, we pick green tangerine peels, in October, slightly red tangerine peels, in November, slightly red tangerine peels, and in December, large red tangerine peels.

Around the Double Ninth Festival, when the tea-branch tangerines are still green, the green peel is picked. The green peel is most effective for liver and gallbladder diseases, liver qi stagnation, and abdominal qi obstruction.

However, Qingpi is quite strong in nature and can easily damage Qi if used excessively. Therefore, people with Qi deficiency should not use too much Qingpi or use it for too long.

At the beginning of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, the tea-branch tangerine turns yellow-green. If it is picked at this time, it is called slightly reddish peel or Erhuang peel. Erhuang peel has better functions of drying dampness and harmonizing the stomach.

Around the winter solstice, the citrus peel turns yellow-red or bright red after being exposed to the sun. This is the season when the red peel is ripe. It is the red peel that really plays a role in warming and nourishing the qi. After being exposed to the sun, the dryness of the red peel is reduced. "

Lin Sanqi was already out of breath due to exhaustion, but he had to continue pretending to laugh and make a few jokes:

"Wow, Uncle Qu, it turns out there are so many details to our tangerine peel. I always thought it was just dried orange peels, and you can have as much as you want."

Lin Sanqi's "ignorance" even touched the sore spot of the district village chief. As an old man, he always likes to teach others.

"Comrade Li, you young people may not understand that the peel has to be repeatedly exposed to the sun for three years before it can be called tangerine peel. If it is less than three years old, it can only be called peel and cannot be sold to others.

Then you have to wait until 8 years before you can store it in a can, and you have to prevent insects and moths during storage. It's really not easy.

A piece of tangerine peel, from being turned over and dried every year to being preserved all year round, consumes a lot of manpower and material resources in each link. If it is not properly preserved, it will weather and break. The tangerine peel that can be properly preserved is the gold after the great waves wash away the sand. "

Lin Sanqi wondered why tangerine peel was so expensive decades later. It was all the result of capital speculation.

2019年的第五届中国新会陈皮文化节上，陈化了57年、总重量166.9g的新会陈皮，以50万元人民币的价格成交，相当于1斤=150万元！

Later, the price was even raised to a sky-high price of 200 million yuan per kilogram.

It's just orange peel. How magical can it be? How effective can it be? Can eating it make you immortal or immune to all poisons?
However, this kind of capital speculation is equivalent to an advertisement, letting everyone know that tangerine peel can maintain and increase its value, and then everyone follows suit to buy it and speculate on it, and the price also goes up.

This is how the game of passing the flower began.

Later, when a woman from Jiangmen got married, her father gave her 20-year-old stored tangerine peel as her dowry, which pushed the hype to a climax.

Then everyone followed suit. When a Guangdong woman got married, in addition to being covered with gold bracelets, having several boxes of cash and property certificates, she would also have bottles of dried tangerine peel and pieces of isinglass.

This is what it means to have face in the surrounding area.

Anyone who doesn't have one will not be able to hold his head up in the village, and will be laughed at behind the back by in-laws and relatives for being shabby.

Anyway, Lin Sanqi despises this kind of rural custom of comparison. The consequence is that men cannot afford to marry a wife and women cannot afford to marry a husband. Why bother to go through the trouble for the sake of face?

Now that he has the chance, he is ready to make a fortune himself, and the dragon slayer finally becomes the dragon.

But back in 1959, although Xinhui dried tangerine peel was famous, it was by no means famous enough to be known throughout the country or to be hyped throughout the province. So when the district village chief said that one ounce of dried tangerine peel was worth one ounce of gold, Lin Sanqi would never believe it.

To say this is nothing more than raising the price.

"Uncle Qu, you know I'm here to purchase on behalf of our Huadu Food Company. The state has a guide price, and I can't raise the price at will, otherwise the company will think I took kickbacks, and I won't be able to report to the authorities."

Of course, Lin Sanqi couldn't reveal his identity. It was not difficult for him to get a fake letter of introduction, so he simply pretended to be from Huadu City Food Company.

Even his name was fake, he called himself Liming...

Plus, with his fluent Huadu accent, no one would suspect he was a fake.

The village chief sighed, pointed at the orange trees all over the hills and said:
"Comrade Li, you may not know that I really want to cut down all these tea-branch tangerine trees and grow crops instead, but my superiors won't allow it. You said it's time now, and food is the most important thing to save our lives."

Lin Sanqi was also depressed after hearing this. These days, there are regulations on what to plant and how much to plant. It can’t be less or more. This is called “planning.”

However, there are few buyers for the processed dried tangerine peel, and this dilemma is exactly the same as that faced by the fishermen at the seaside.

The inability of commodities to circulate freely and the inability of farmers to decide independently what crops to grow are actually the main reasons for the aggravation of the food shortage.

Lin Sanqi looked around to make sure there was no one within 100 meters, then he said with ease:
"Uncle Qu, I actually have another idea. Our unit has secretly organized a batch of rice this time. The leaders also know that it is not easy for you farmers, so they want to subsidize you with some food." When the village chief heard this, he grabbed Lin Sanqi's wrist:

"Are you serious? Young man, you can't lie to me, an old man!"

People in Lingnan are brave by nature. They are definitely not like the men in some Wu dialect areas who are gentlemen who use words rather than violence. They may quarrel for a long time on the bus without even touching each other's fingers.

People from Lingnan will really pick up weapons and fight you, and they will not hesitate to die. For example, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Guangdong Army fought a bloody battle with the Japanese army in the Battle of Shanghai.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, only a few thousand of the 92 Guangdong Army returned, and not a single one of them went to the government to receive military medals. Every household in Guangdong hung white silk.

It was the heroic fighting of the Guangdong Army that laid the foundation for the War of Resistance Against Japan. In the end, the Guangdong Army was wiped out and the Sichuan Army came out.

So don't underestimate the Dongguan people because they are small and thin. Whether they are fighting or arguing, they are willing to risk their lives. When Qu Bo showed his fierce look, Lin Sanqi was so scared that he almost fell to the ground.

"Uncle Qu, I didn't lie to you, but you have requirements for the food. We need to exchange the best tangerine peels. Bring us your 50-year and 40-year-old tangerine peels. We can benefit from each other!"

After hearing this, Qu Bo snorted: "I think you are taking advantage of the situation. Do you know how precious tangerine peel is?"

Lin Sanqi asked back: "Times have changed. Do you know how precious white rice is now?"

Qu Bo was speechless for a moment. He held the tangerine tree with one hand and fell into deep thought. It was obvious that he was having a fierce struggle in his heart.

"Comrade Li, I need to discuss this matter with the people in our commune. I can't give you an answer now."

Lin Sanqi was not in a hurry. It would be best if he could receive decades-old tangerine peel, but it didn't matter if he couldn't. Now his "channel space" was full of cordyceps, isinglass, shark fins, and abalone, which was enough for him to make a fortune.

There is no end to making money. As an old bastard once said, don't try to earn every last penny.

In a tangerine peel warehouse.

Seven or eight people were secretly holding a meeting. They were all village heads from the main tangerine peel producing areas, including Tianma, Meijiang, Chakeng, and Dongjia.

There was an oil lamp lit on the table, making the atmosphere even more depressing.

The village chief told everyone what Lin Sanqi had told him during the day about exchanging grain for tangerine peel:
"Whether this can be accomplished or not, let's all make a decision."

Village Chief Li of Meijiang Village asked:
"Old District, what does Huadu Food Company mean? They are purchasing unplanned dried tangerine peels, and they want the best quality. This is against the principles, and if our Xinhui Supply and Marketing Cooperative finds out..."

Village Chief Yao of Chakeng Village doesn't care:
"What are you afraid of? To put it bluntly, these dried tangerine peels belong to our village collective and to every villager. They don't belong to the supply and marketing cooperative. We can sell them at whatever price they say. If they say we can't sell them, we won't sell them."

Village Chief Li said with some concern:

"The dried tangerine peels we have preserved for decades are all to be exported to Hong Kong and Macao. By then we will have exchanged them for food, and the supply and marketing cooperatives will come to collect them and we won't be able to take them out. Wouldn't that be terrible?"

Village Chief Yao chuckled:
"They took our tangerine peels and gave us only a tiny bit of the money from selling them. They couldn't even recover the cost, and they kept asking us to make sacrifices. But who has ever thought about our difficulties? Look, I'm so hungry, how much meat do I still have on my body?"

Village Chief Jiang of Dongjia Village, who had been silent, asked at this time:
"Old District, did Comrade Li say how much food he would exchange for?"

“他说如果是50年陈皮，一斤换10斤大米；40年陈皮的就换8斤；30年陈皮换6斤，以此类推。”

As soon as these words were spoken, several village chiefs immediately began to calculate in their minds how much food they could exchange for their own stocks.

In fact, compared with the transactions with fishermen, Lin Sanqi definitely gave a favorable price, because they are all from the same hometown.

Village Chief Yao gritted his teeth and made up his mind:

"I think it's possible. Now a kilogram of high-quality rice is sold for 5 yuan on the black market in the city. A kilogram of 50-year-old tangerine peel can be exchanged for 10 kilograms of rice, which is equivalent to 50 yuan. This purchase price is 10 times the price offered by the supply and marketing cooperative."

Village Chief Jiang also nodded in agreement:
"The key is that now you can't buy food even if you have money. Damn it, only the provincial capital's food company is so arrogant. If you miss this opportunity, you won't have this store in the future."

The district village chief then said softly:
"We all villages must work together on this matter. No one can tell anyone, let alone let outsiders know about it. Whoever wants to be a traitor, the other villages will work together to destroy him. Are you willing to do it?"

"We in Meidong Village do it!"

"We in Dongjia Village followed suit!"

"Well, we in Chakeng Village will do it too!"

"Okay, now that we have discussed it, go back and prepare to organize Chenpi. I will go and discuss the details of the transaction with Comrade Li. Finally, I reiterate that it must be kept confidential!"

(End of this chapter)