The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 175 The Wanli Era Begins

Wansheng means the Wanli era of prosperity.

So, what started the Wanli Era of Prosperity?

The internal manifestation of a prosperous era is prosperity and advanced technology, while the external manifestation is strong military power and great influence.

All of these require money to support, and a lot of money.

Therefore, the way to start the Wanli prosperous era is simply to do business and make money.

Wanli made money through business himself and used imperial power to develop various industries.

In order to develop the pharmaceutical industry, he put in a lot of effort and prepared for several months.

September is the golden autumn and it is the harvest season.

The first day of September, Wuchen.

Early in the morning at about noon, as the sun was rising, the huge Wanshengtang Pharmacy finally opened at the intersection of West Chang'an Avenue and Xuanwumenli Street in the capital.

The people of the capital were telling each other that there were so many men, women, young and old queuing up that there was no telling how many there were. The ten long queues were almost stretching to Xuanwu Gate.

As for the reason, it is very simple, because Wanshengtang Pharmacy had already posted notices all over the streets and alleys of the capital. Three days before the opening, the Medicine Saint Li Shizhen, the Director of the Imperial Hospital Li Jianzhong, and the eight sons of the Medical Saint Wan Mizhai provided free medical treatment to the people of the capital!

Citizens in the capital can come to see the doctor for any illness, whether it is serious or minor, and the medicine is free, without having to spend a penny.

This kind of good thing is rare in a hundred years. No matter whether men or women, old or young, as long as the people in the capital are sick, they naturally want to be examined by the canonized miracle doctor and his descendants for free.

Ten tables had already been set up in the square in front of Wansheng Hall where the carriages were parked, and long queues had already formed in front of the ten tables.

At the hour of noon, Li Shizhen came out of Wansheng Hall on time with his eldest son Jianzhong and the Wan brothers, followed by a long line of children from medical families.

Seeing this, the people in the queue couldn't help but cheer, and some even fell to the ground and cried bitterly, "Divine doctor, help me!"

The ten long queues that were originally lined up in an orderly manner were now a bit chaotic. Those who really had serious illnesses or even felt that they could not live happily all knelt on the ground and begged the people in front of them, crawling towards the table on their knees.

Li Shizhen immediately raised his hand upon seeing this and said, "Please be kind and see those in critical condition first. Those who are not seriously ill please wait a moment. Okay."

Those whose illnesses were not serious immediately moved aside upon hearing this.

The two women immediately climbed up to the table.

One of them was holding a child of four or five years old.

The other woman and the child seemed to have the same symptom, which was that their noses would not stop bleeding, and even stuffing them with cloth would not stop it, and the bleeding continued.

Upon seeing this, Li Shizhen immediately asked the son of a doctor behind them to help the two men up and take a closer look.

After examining the patient for a while, he said to the woman holding the child, "Please ask the son of the God of Medicine to look after the gynecology and pediatrics departments. They are more skilled in these two areas than I am."

Is this hopeless?

Upon hearing this, the woman holding the child burst into tears, "Divine Doctor Li, Great Sage, please save my child! He's been coughing for months and is bleeding from his mouth and nose. It looks like he's dying."

Upon hearing this, Wan Bangzhong immediately stood up, apologized to the first patient who came before him, and walked over quickly.

Li Shizhen said to the woman whose nose was bleeding, "Please take off your shoes."

After saying that, he pulled a female disciple over and whispered in her ear, explaining everything in detail.

Upon hearing this, the female disciple hurriedly took out the medicine mortar, threw a bunch of raw garlic into it, pounded it vigorously for a few times, took out the garlic skins inside, pounded it a few more times, and then took out two pieces of cloth, scooped out the garlic paste and pinched it into the size of copper coins.

Then she placed the garlic paste on the soles of the woman's feet and wrapped them with a cloth strip.

Is garlic also a medicine these days?
You know what, garlic is really a medicine, even chili peppers are medicine.

In a certain drama, Jacky Cheung played a doctor who opened the medicine box and found piles of chili peppers and garlic inside.

Although this may be a bit exaggerated, garlic and chili peppers are indeed medicine.

The female doctor's son wrapped the soles of the woman's feet with garlic paste, and a miraculous thing happened. The woman's nosebleed stopped immediately!

At this time, Wan Bangzhong was still taking the child's pulse.

He examined her carefully for a long time before sighing softly, "Your child's cough is caused by a spring cold. He's been coughing for more than half a year, right?"

Upon hearing this, the woman nodded hopefully and said, "Yes, yes, miracle doctor, I've taken him to see many doctors, but they just can't cure him. I'm almost dying of anxiety. Miracle doctor, please save my child."

Alas, there are too few doctors who know how to treat pediatric patients nowadays. These guys probably treat children as if they were adults.

Wan Bangzhong frowned and thought for a while, then sat back and started writing quickly.

He wrote about more than ten kinds of herbs, including asparagus, ophiopogon, anemarrhena, fritillaria, platycodon, raw licorice, tangerine peel, fructus aurantii, donkey-hide gelatin, scutellaria, perilla leaf, etc., and the quantity was very large.

After he finished writing, he immediately picked it up and said to a disciple behind him, "Weigh it immediately, divide it into thirty portions, package them and send them over. Take a handful of Imperata root first."

Upon hearing this, the disciple immediately invited a few disciples nearby and hurried to Wanshengtang Pharmacy.

So many kinds of medicine, thirty doses!
Although the woman holding the child was illiterate, she could still count how many lines Wan Bangzhong had written.

How much would so many medicines cost? She said with some concern, "Doctor, my family's savings have almost been used up on my child's medical treatment."

Wan Bangzhong said without hesitation: "Don't worry, the first three days are free. No matter how many medicines you need, we won't charge you."

After a while, the disciples came with thirty packets of medicine and a handful of grass roots.

Wan Bangzhong explained in detail: "This Imperata root is not boiled together. The juice is taken from the medicine. Remember, one dose every night. After five doses, the bleeding from the mouth and nose will stop. Every five days, you bring him to get fresh Imperata root so I can see the effect."

Upon hearing this, the woman immediately fell to the ground with the child in her arms, kowtowed vigorously and said, "Thank you, miraculous doctor, for saving my life."

Wan Bangzhong quickly helped her up, and ordered his disciples to tie all the medicine bags together into a ring and hang it around her neck, and then he continued to see the next patient.

During these three days, the reputation of the ten great doctors of Wanshengtang Pharmacy spread throughout the capital and even northern Zhili.

They are true miracle doctors and there is no disease they cannot cure.

Moreover, they really don’t charge for treating illnesses, even the medicines they prescribe are free.

The medicines they prescribed were not just the kind that needed to be boiled at home. Most of them were pills that could be taken home and swallowed with a sip of warm water.

The pills were all made of shiny black, and there were magical cloud patterns or tortoise shell patterns on the surface.

Even the bottles that hold the pills are either made of exquisite porcelain or the legendary glass bottles.

Many people collect porcelain and glass bottles engraved with the relief of Wanshengtang Pharmacy as treasures and show them off to others from time to time.

Wanshengtang Pharmacy became famous overnight and became extremely popular.

The first three days of free medical treatment have passed, but there is still a constant stream of people coming to see the doctor, and there are queues every day.

Among the sons of the Medical Saint Wan Mi Zhai, one would be on duty at Wanshengtang Pharmacy every day. No matter how difficult or complicated the disease was, he could cure it.

They also brought many disciples with them. For common illnesses, they would just prescribe a bottle of pills worth a dozen or even dozens of wen and take them home for a few days to cure the disease. It was very convenient.

The pills of Wanshengtang Pharmacy also became famous. People called them magic pills that could cure any disease.

The golden elixir, silver elixir, dragon elixir and tiger elixir that were praised as miraculous by Duke Cheng of Zhu Yingzhen and others also became popular among the wealthy circles in the capital.

Everyone says that Wanshengtang Pharmacy's pills are good. Of course, the efficacy is not exaggerated, it is real. Moreover, the Dragon Pill and Tiger Pill really work as soon as you take them. Everyone who has taken them knows it.

The greeting among wealthy people in Beijing has even changed from "Have you eaten?" to "Have you tried Wanshengtang's elixir?"

It is very rude to ask someone if they have medicine for no reason, but rich people are used to greeting people or showing off in this way.

I eat it every day just to save face, and I ask everyone I meet about it.

If you haven't tasted it, you'd feel embarrassed to ask for it. It's like you'd feel embarrassed to hang out in the circle of rich people if you don't buy some golden pills, silver pills, dragon pills or tiger pills to eat.

Now, it’s hard for Wanshengtang Pharmacy’s business not to be booming.

Duke Peng Qi Jiguang was worried.

These are just ordinary pills, they can produce millions of them every day, and there is no shortage of medicinal materials. The people in the capital will definitely not be able to finish them all.

Some of the ingredients used in the Golden Pill, Silver Pill, Dragon Pill and Tiger Pill are precious medicinal materials.

The main reason why this medicinal material is so precious is that things are valuable because they are rare. If they were everywhere, no matter how good the medicinal material is, it would not be expensive.

It is really difficult to purchase precious medicinal materials. For example, wild ginseng and pearls are not grown, so they must be picked in the mountains or fished out of the sea.

Early in the morning at about noon, he had to rush to the Summer Palace to ask for advice.

When Wanli heard that wild ginseng and pearls were out of stock, he said without hesitation: "Yuan Jing, raise the price. If you can't get one tael of silver, then you can get two taels of silver and one tael of silver. If you can't get two taels of silver and one tael of silver, then you can get three taels of silver and one tael of silver."

what?
Qi Jiguang was quite surprised when he heard this and asked, "Your Majesty, are we going to do this regardless of the cost?"

Are you kidding? How could we possibly use such a precious medicinal material regardless of the cost?

Wanli smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry. One ounce of wild ginseng or one ounce of pearl powder is enough to make several boxes of gold and silver pills. Just don't spread the news."

Oh, that's okay, the profit is hundreds or even thousands of times.

He knew the purchase price of other medicines. Ordinary medicinal materials only cost a few cents per pound, and better medicinal materials only cost a dozen cents per pound. There were not many that cost dozens of cents per pound.

As a result, the prices of wild ginseng and pearls began to rise wildly, from one tael of silver to five taels of silver in a few days.

The garrisons and even the common people in Liaodong and Guangdong and Guangxi were frantically looking for wild ginseng in the mountains and fishing for pearls in the sea.

If this guy is lucky, he can earn several taels of silver or even more than ten taels of silver a day!

Many garrison guards and even common people became rich because of this.

Perhaps, this is the sign of the beginning of a prosperous era.

As all industries gradually develop, they will gradually benefit the general public, and ordinary people will become richer and richer.

As ordinary people become richer, this will in turn drive the development of all industries. If this virtuous cycle continues, we will gradually enter an era of prosperity.

(End of this chapter)