Chapter 96

Arriving at Han Dajiugang’s house again, Wang An handed the four kneecaps to Han Shuisheng.

Han Shuisheng was naturally very happy and handed a piece of deer skin to Wang An.

The deer skin wasn't large, about one-third the size of the small piece of deer skin in Wang An’s hand.

Wang An took the deer skin and was instantly stunned; why was it this thing again?

Could this thing be some kind of secret manual? The key is that this thing has no practical value!

Discovering that Wang An seemed not to know what was going on, Han Shuisheng explained with a smile:

"This is the address of that old den; the old man won't tease you, don't worry! Hahaha!"

Wang An looked it over from all sides and didn't see anything; it was just like the two pieces of deer skin at home, not a single word, just a mountain range map!

He asked suspiciously: "Grandpa, how do you read this thing? Isn't this just a mountain range map!"

Han Shuisheng said with a smile: "You have to look at it against the sun."

Wang An didn't doubt him and started looking at it against the sunlight.

Looking at it this way, oh my god, it turned out the mystery was actually so simple!

The deer skin itself was thin, and the words on this deer skin were just worn thinner!

Actually, even if you didn't look at it against the sun, if you looked at it carefully, you could discover that the skin surface with words had a different thickness than the skin surface next to it!

It’s just that the deer skin itself was soft and thin, and because of the tanning process and the long age, this deer skin had become dirty.

It looked like a dirty rag that had been used countless times!

And deer skin is something you should try not to get wet; once it gets wet, it shrinks, and it also makes the lines on it blurry, so no one dared to wash it!

This made people who saw it never pay attention to these details!

Against the sunlight, Wang An clearly saw written in real pen: DJ County West 215 North 26, and there was another point on the north slope of the mountain range.

Wang An immediately read out the words he saw.

Han Shuisheng explained with a smile: "Right, that’s correct, the old den is in this place."

Wang An was instantly ecstatic, not because of this piece of deer skin, but because of the two pieces at home!

How many old dens would this be? How many ginsengs would this raise? Wouldn't this be directly awesome and lightning-fast!

Suppressing the joy in his heart, he started asking Han Shuisheng about some knowledge regarding ginseng and some rules for raising ginseng.

Wang An listened and asked, but he didn't know until he asked; once he asked, it was truly shocking!

For example, the ginseng-calling people need to be an odd number; the ginseng must be counted as a person!

Because ginseng is precious and hard to find, and one has to face various mountain beasts, it means entering in odd numbers and returning in even numbers, implying that good things come in pairs, and you can find ginseng when you enter the mountain!

For example, before entering the mountain, you must worship the Mountain God and the Old Leader; the Mountain God and Old Leader here is a person named Sun Liang.

Legend has it that this person was loyal and righteous, insisted on looking for his lost brother Zhang Lu in the mountains, and finally starved to death, turning into the Mountain God after death.

Protecting the safety of the ginseng-callers, helping the ginseng-callers find ginseng, and pointing the way home for those lost in the mountains!

Things like these are still very normal, representing people’s beautiful vision that everyone can have a harvest when entering the mountains!

And there is also what everyone hopes for: that all people entering the mountains can be loyal and righteous, not stab others in the back, and whether entering or leaving the mountains, everyone can be safe and sound!

And some rules make people very speechless, for example, after entering the mountains, you can only eat vegetarian food and not touch meat!

Climbing mountains and crossing ridges is already arduous and dangerous, consuming a lot of spirit and physical strength; without good physical strength, let alone raising ginseng, just staying alive is difficult!

With the life in this era, the staple food is basically coarse grains, which are not filling, and if there is no meat, one can imagine how people would be tossed after entering the mountains once!

There are also many miscellaneous rules, such as no one except the ginseng-calling leader can talk much!

If you discover ginseng, you must shout "Ginseng" loudly, and the people around you must respond in time with "How many leaves," and then the person who discovered it must shout how many leaves it is!

When getting up in the morning, the leader must ask the ginseng-hunting group what dreams they had, to use as an omen!

If you encounter a tree stump, you cannot sit on it, because that is the Mountain God’s seat!

After raising the ginseng, you must fill in the soil, and on the nearby trees, cut off the bark, cut the omen... and so on and so forth!

Cutting the omen is peeling off a piece of bark on the tree, cutting horizontal marks on the left, cutting as many marks as there are people. Cutting horizontal marks on the right, cutting as many marks as there are leaves, and some also cut the date.

This is to tell later people how many people were here and what grade of goods they took; after many trees have been cut with omens, this area is called a "Den," and the ones with long years are called "Old Dens"!

Only ginseng with long years will grow big, so it’s called Big Ginseng; the bigger the ginseng, the more valuable it is!

And the older the den, the greater the chance of producing big ginseng!

The old saying goes well: turn around the old den, eat your fill every meal!

The tricks and rules here are simply more than the rules and regulations of those factories in Wang An’s previous life; nagging and long-winded!

When it was said that the Mountain God’s position was personally conferred by Nurhaci and Huang Taiji, Wang An was even more speechless.

That "Big Green" with a big blue nose and a big swollen face? How many years ago did that die?

But fortunately, in the end, Han Shuisheng said that except for those visions and hopes, basically no one followed the rules later, and Wang An felt that no one following them was normal!

Otherwise, if you discovered ginseng and suddenly shouted so loudly, you would also have to say how many leaves it was!

In case there were people with crooked minds nearby, or a gang of bandits robbing the goods...!

Damn, I’m not one of those people, but I’d want to rob too!

Besides, cutting the omen, people are selfish!

If there are strict rules and everyone follows them, that might be easy to talk about.

But in this day and age, the law doesn't work well, and there are trashy people everywhere! Rules, what the hell are they?

Besides, once there is an opportunity to become an official, get rich, or get a job, people think of their relatives, friends, and descendants!

And who would still do the selfless act of cutting the omen without benefiting oneself? Cut what? Isn't that just telling others: "There are big goods here, come and dig quickly!"

It’s simply impossible!

After talking about the rules, he talked about ginseng.

Newly grown small ginseng only has 3 small leaves, called "Three-Flower."

A little bigger, it will have 5 leaves, three big and two small, called "Horse-Palm."

Bigger, it will divide into two branches, each branch with 5 leaves, called "Second-Grade."

Bigger, it will divide into 3 branches, each branch with 5 leaves, called "Lamp-Stand," also called "Three-Grade Leaves." It’s relatively valuable.

4 branches are called "Four-Grade Leaves," which are quite valuable.

5 branches are called "Five-Grade Leaves," not many in number, and 6 branches are called "Six-Grade Leaves."

And normal ginseng, no matter how many years or decades it grows, has at most six-grade leaves, which is to say, it will only divide into six branches!

Of course, there are very individual exceptions to this situation; when the growth environment is very good, there are records that ginseng will grow seven-grade leaves!

But it’s just a record; no one has ever seen such ginseng!

There is also a special situation where ginseng, in the process of growing, will also be stepped on or eaten by mountain beasts, or bitten by insects; if this ginseng doesn't die, it will enter dormancy.

The branches that grow after ending dormancy have a high probability of being three-grade leaves, which is the Lamp-Stand!

So some people might dislike the Second-Grade for being too small and give up temporarily to wait a few years before digging, but no one will let go of the Lamp-Stand; besides, the Lamp-Stand itself is also very valuable!

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