Chapter 639: Circle Around the Old Pit, You Can Eat Your Fill

According to the not-very-clear cutting marks, it could be judged that this was a ginseng digging group of 9 people at that time, who dug out a 5-leaf ginseng.

A 5-leaf ginseng was a very rare big cargo! Normally speaking, the location near the "old sign" was the approximate area where big ginseng had been produced before.

So after Wang An finished reading the information left on this "old sign," he started searching carefully around this large red pine.

Unfortunately, at this time, the plants in the great mountains had just sprouted, which was a typical "budding grass market."

However, Wang An had no experience in finding and digging ginseng, accurately speaking, he didn't even recognize it, so when Wang An was bending over and digging carefully, the invasion knife in his hand didn't stop either. As long as he felt suspicious, Wang An would use the tip of the knife to poke it.

One has to admit that today, Wang An and Wang Li, the brothers, had luck that was simply explosive.

Just when Wang An felt something unusual from the tip of the knife, Wang Li also shouted not far away:

"Fourth Brother, Fourth Brother, there is another sign here."

It was just that at this time, Wang An couldn't care about the sign, digging ginseng was the most important thing.

So Wang An shouted without raising his head:

"Mm, leave it there, I seem to have found a ginseng here."

After Wang An's words shouted, Wang Li ran over while shouting: "Where is it? Fourth Brother, let me see, let me see."

As he spoke, Wang Li ran to Wang An's side.

Immediately after, under Wang Li's gaze, Wang An dug out the place where he found something unusual bit by bit with the invasion knife.

Lifting the ginseng, which was the work of digging ginseng, was a very meticulous work. Although Wang An hadn't dug it, Han Shuisheng explained it very carefully at the beginning.

So Wang An didn't dare to use force, and just used the invasion knife to dig the soil bit by bit.

When a small piece of the reed head, which was the root of the ginseng, was exposed, Wang An determined that this was indeed the legendary ginseng.

Because the appearance of this thing in front of him was about the same as the two dried ginsengs Wang An snatched at the beginning, and the two broken-bearded ginsengs sent by his uncle Liu Deyuan.

Looking at the ginseng reed head with a small section exposed, Wang An laughed happily:

"Hahaha, this is truly a ginseng, hahaha... Fifth, you and I are going to make a small fortune again, hahaha..."

The reason it was called "small fortune" was that if calculated by the harvest of Wang An and others gold panning, even a 6-leaf ginseng could only be considered a small fortune.

Moreover, according to the method of identifying ginseng told by Han Shuisheng, the ginseng in front of him should only be a "lamp stand," which was the standard of a 3-leaf ginseng.

And according to the purchase price of the supply and marketing cooperative, a 3-leaf ginseng could only be sold for three or four hundred yuan.

However, although three or four hundred yuan was not a small number, it was about the salary of a regular employee for a year, but for Wang An and others, it was truly not much at all.

Of course, this price was just an approximate number, and the specific amount of money had to be determined after the appraisal master of the supply and marketing cooperative appraised it.

One has to know that the growth of wild mountain ginseng is extremely slow, so the so-called "product leaves" in wild mountain ginseng is just a rough judgment standard.

Because when there are leaves, one can see "how many leaves," but when there are no leaves, it's just the root of a ginseng, and it's definitely impossible to see "how many leaves."

As everyone knows, ginseng is more valuable the longer it grows, and the method of identifying the age is not difficult, which is to determine the age according to the number of reed bowls on the reed head. "Reed bowl" is the scar left by the withered leaves of the ginseng at the top of the reed head, where the ginseng leaves and the ginseng are connected. Every year, the withered leaves will leave a scar, and this scar is called a "reed bowl."

Of course, these can only be used as a reference.

Because wild mountain ginseng, it's not saying that as long as it grows leaves, it will definitely leave a reed bowl. Many times, the leaves grow and wither, and they won't leave a reed bowl.

And the growth environment of this thing is relatively harsh, such as being bitten by insects, stepped on by livestock, or even smashed by falling tree branches or fallen wood, etc., which are all very normal things.

This leads to such ginseng only having a few reed bowls left, or basically no so-called reed bowls. If one wants to judge the age according to the reed bowls, it is naturally wrong.

So, it is also necessary to judge the age according to the pier marks of the reed head, which is the area size and number of horizontal lines, as well as the number of reed joints on it.

Unfortunately, these methods can still only be used as a reference, and can only roughly determine the age.

Because many times, the reed head of the ginseng is broken, leaving only the lower section, which means no reed bowls, no reed joints, and not many pier marks, but this ginseng only grew two leaves.

And such ginseng, even if the age is truly very long, is not valuable.

So, judging whether a ginseng is valuable or not is mainly based on the length of the ginseng's age, the overall integrity of the main root of the ginseng, and the integrity of the whiskers, to roughly divide a measurement standard.

One has to admit that because of the different product leaves of ginseng, the price difference is quite huge.

The saying "seven taels for ginseng, eight taels for treasure" describes the huge price difference of ginseng.

Of course, this refers to the old scale, which is the standard of the 16-base scale.

Now, it means that ginseng over half a *jin*, which is over 250 grams, is a treasure, and the price is directly doubled, or even doubled several times.

It's just that such ginseng is a giant treasure that countless ginseng diggers dream of, and it might not be seen for decades, so few people talk about it.

And those that don't reach 250 grams are in the normal category of ginseng, but the price difference is also quite huge.

Referring to the purchase price of the supply and marketing cooperative this year, 6-leaf ginseng is over 5000, 5-leaf ginseng is over 3000, 4-leaf is over 1000, 3-leaf is over 300 yuan, and 2-leaf is over

This leads to the remaining half of the ginseng slowly recuperating in the soil on its own; once it has recuperated enough, it will grow out two new branches and leaves after a certain number of years.

But it must be admitted that, by comparison, the ginseng-digging groups of the early years were still considered to follow the rules.

At the very least, after digging up the ginseng, the vast majority of ginseng-digging group members would comply with the practice of "cutting a sign."

The existence of a sign is actually a mark left behind by ginseng-digging group members in the early years; on one hand, it was so that during their own lifetime, they could come back a few more times to dig up the small ginseng they left behind that had now grown into large ginseng.

And on the other hand, it was a blessing left for their descendants.

Therefore, where there is an "old sign," there must inevitably be an "old pit."

And in a place with an "old pit," if the original ginseng-digging members did not cut a sign for various reasons, then naturally there would be no "old sign" in existence.

Upon hearing Wang An's words, Wang Li looked at Wang An's digging knife with eyes shining, cutting open the newly grown tree bark one stroke after another.

Seeing this, Wang An chuckled and instructed:

"Don't stare at me; go look at the nearby trees and see if there are any other trees that have had a piece of bark peeled off like this."

After listening, Wang Li nodded repeatedly and said, "Aye, alright, Fourth Brother."

Just as Wang Li was about to leave, Wang An added, "No need to look at the small trees; just pick these big trees to look at."

"Got it, Fourth Brother."

By the time Wang Li agreed to this, he had already run several meters away.

Just as Wang Li was searching everywhere for "old signs," Wang An finally pried open all the tree bark on this sign.

(End of chapter)