Chapter 823: Medicinal Wine

At this time in Xiao Town, the city walls had basically taken shape. They prepared to take advantage of this final period of time suitable for work to finish constructing the walls entirely. The weather during the day was also cool now, so working was not as painful as it had been in the summer.

Coupled with the days getting shorter, they simply reduced the rest time at noon; including eating and resting, it was only a short hour. Che drew a circle on the ground and then divided it into twelve equal parts, inserting a wooden stick in the very center of the circle. As long as the shadow of the wooden stick moved to the next point, it meant an hour had passed.

Of course, this was an extremely simple sundial, without an angle of inclination, nor specific time markings, and even the time and place for drawing this sundial were different every day. But for Che, it was already enough; he did not need to know the accurate time. Even in Huaxia, no one knew the accurate time, nor would anyone care.

Baifeng also could not make an accurate sundial, because he did not know the latitude and longitude of the place where he was. Now in Huaxia, there was indeed no need for this; one worked at sunrise and rested at sunset. The alarm clock was the big rooster that started crowing when the sky was just beginning to brighten.

The timber needed for building houses had already been felled and cleared in sufficient quantities. The forest on the road they came from was already very sparse now, and the good timber that could be used to build houses was basically almost all cut down. If they wanted to continue cutting, they would have to go to forests further away.

To facilitate the hauling of timber, from the forest to Xiao Town, wherever the terrain was relatively suitable, small logs were placed. By rolling the timber along this way to drag it over, a great deal of manpower could be saved.

The Artisans began to lay foundations on the ground according to the plans in the design drawings. However, all work still prioritized the construction of the city walls, so the speed of foundation construction was relatively slow.

Because the city walls were being built higher and higher, and also due to large-scale human capture, scorpions had basically become extinct within the city walls of Xiao Town. If one could see one, people would not only not be afraid, but would also be very happy.

Every night, most people still chose to go out to catch scorpions, but now the number of scorpions that could be caught every day was getting fewer and fewer. Even Che had not expected such a result; the power of humans was actually this great.

Every time the Huaxia caravan came over, they could haul back two or three carts of dried scorpions. Che also got his wish and used the medicine made from scorpions. Because the journey was long, they only brought him medicinal wine made from scorpions and other medicinal herbs, but it could only be used externally; applied to painful areas, the effect was very significant.

Even if those Laborers had any bruises or sprains, Che would also take out the medicinal wine for them to use. Overall, the cost of the medicinal wine was not too high, but if a strong Laborer could not work for several days in a row, their loss would be somewhat large.

And as for the large quantity of whole scorpions sent back to Huaxia, the happiest person was none other than Baifeng. He did not have any injuries or illnesses that would require this medicine, but there were plenty of people in Huaxia who needed this medicinal material.

Those strong Laborers who seemed young to Baifeng were already suffering from the torment of rheumatism, and for general sprains and falls, as long as they were not serious, they would not go to see a doctor, but would endure it themselves.

Whole scorpions paired with some other medicinal herbs could completely make medicine with a relatively people-friendly price, and it would be fine if every household bought a bottle. Huaxia had enough Wine, and it was difficult for ordinary people to use medicinal wine in large quantities.

Changle had already taken people to the Xuanyuan Tribe to purchase Melia Bark and wax. It was unknown how long they would stay at the Xuanyuan Tribe. Otherwise, they could have made a bottle and let Changle take it to Qibo. He believed the Xuanyuan Tribe also had a large number of scorpions; as long as Qibo discovered the wonderful uses of medicinal wine, then Huaxia could use medicinal wine to trade for a large number of scorpions from the Xuanyuan Tribe, which would definitely be a profitable business.

Apart from Huaxia, there was no other place that could brew Wine, and it was even high-proof distilled Wine. Perhaps in the future, when their other tribes became wealthier, it was possible that they might accidentally ferment vinegar or wine, but it would still be incomparable to the high-proof Wine of Huaxia.

At the same time, Baifeng also informed everyone that they were to prepare to brew a large amount of Wine this year, brewing those miscellaneous grains into a large amount of Wine. However, in this way, the pottery factory would also have to work overtime, after all, there were quite a lot of jars needed for storing Wine.

Baifeng even specifically had the Glass Factory manufacture some relatively large Glass jars to use for soaking medicinal wine. The reason Baifeng had never let anyone soak medicinal wine was because there were certain limitations on the medicinal materials that could be soaked in wine.

Because wine-processing was itself a method of preparing medicinal materials, white liquor was also a type of medicine. Many medical books recorded that white liquor was pungent, bitter, and highly hot, and it was poisonous, entering the twelve meridians. As a preparation method, it could better allow the medicinal power to penetrate the whole body.

However, following the human nature of those in later generations who would even squeeze the feces of silkworm moths into wine to soak, Baifeng decided not to start this precedent of soaking just anything. Unless it was defined as medicinal wine from the beginning, ordinary people should not think about taking it as ordinary wine to drink.

Some extremely Yang medicines had even better medicinal power now. Based on the summary of these many years, the current dosage of most medicines should be reduced by about one-third compared to his time, and the effect was still very good, which also meant that the use of medicine should be more cautious.

Wine, whole scorpions, Bone-Piercing Grass, Chuan Xiong, and other medicinal materials were put together to soak in medicinal wine. Mainly, there were many medicinal materials that were incomplete, so Baifeng could not soak it according to a good prescription. As long as it was effective when soaked this way, it would be fine; with whole scorpions, the effect would not be bad.

As soon as the first jar of medicinal wine came out, Baifeng immediately arranged for testing. Through multiple tests of medicinal wine and white liquor, the clinical results proved to be very good.

Traditional Chinese Medicine in history was an empirical medicine. Everyone tested each other, and even the doctors tested the medicine themselves to determine the medicinal properties. Without certain assurance, they would not take patients to test the medicine. In this way, they each summarized a set of medical experience, followed by various exchanges and records, and then perfected the entire Traditional Chinese Medicine system.

Even the government was promoting the exchange and standardization of Medicine. In ancient times, there was such a thing as "Physician Qualifications." The "Rites of Zhou" already had management and examination requirements for doctors. Only after passing the exam could one practice medicine. Successive dynasties also had departments for training doctors and conducting examinations.

This was also one of the important reasons for the perfection of the Traditional Chinese Medicine system. But now Baifeng did not have much time to wait, and the double-blind experiment used in modern times was the best way to test whether his medicine was effective and how effective it was.

He was also not afraid of anything like violating medical ethics. Those used for testing medicine were all Slaves. As the master of a country, letting Slaves test medicine, no one dared to object, and if the medicine testing was successful, it could save more people.