Jiang Yuqing mentioned this idea to her master and several senior brothers. She obtained their unanimous approval.
In fact, they had long been curious about those magical medicines she took out. It's just that they didn't dare ask much about the "Heavenly Doctor's Legacy".
Hearing that some of these medicines could be tried to produce by themselves, they were all eager to have a try, rubbing their fists and slapping their thighs in excitement.
Among them, Lu Yi was the most enthusiastic.
He was good at poisons. The more strange and bizarre the poisons were, the more interested he felt.
In some ways, these poisons were similar to bacteriology in the previous life. Or rather, they themselves were a kind of bacteria.
It was great to have him participate.
Alcohol purification was relatively simple.
It was to further distill the liquor to meet the standards of medical alcohol through an additional distillation process.
The liquors at this time were all made from grain.
Fortunately, there had been good harvests for several years in Da Xia, and the grain yield was considerable, so strong liquors were not uncommon.
Among these strong liquors, "Burning Knives" was the fiercest. It was said to be the favorite of the garrison soldiers guarding the borders.
It was said to be the strongest liquor, but Jiang Yuqing measured that the alcohol content was only over 40%, far from reaching the standard of medical alcohol.
Fortunately, when working part-time to support her study in her previous life, she had worked in a winery and witnessed such distillation equipment. After drawing the diagram, Jiang Yuqing found Jing Yan.
After seeing it, Jing Yan took her to the Ministry of Industry without saying a word.
Hearing that this gadget was used to refine liquor, the big bosses of the Ministry of Industry who liked to drink were instantly interested. They put down what they were doing and gathered around to study the drawings.
Finally, they readily gave a date and said the equipment would be delivered in three days.
On the way back, Jing Yan asked if the mass-produced alcohol could be preferentially supplied to the Da Xia army.
The soldiers had been guarding the borders for years. The conditions there were harsh, and battles would occur from time to time. Injuries were commonplace.
When he first witnessed alcohol at the He An Hospital, he knew it was a good thing, but unfortunately it was the exclusive "secret medicine" of Bianque Valley, far from enough. Wanting to supply the army in large quantities was wishful thinking.
If it could be mass-produced in the future, Jing Yan would naturally like to provide more protection for the lives of soldiers at the borders.
Jiang Yuqing was a soldier in her previous life, and she knew the hardships soldiers endured.
Especially at this time when there was not even enough food to eat, lack of clothing and medicine was commonplace in the army.
The cold weapons they used often had rust on them.
Once it was chopped on someone's body, even if the bleeding was stopped in time, a considerable number of the injured would still die from wound infection.
Therefore, looking through the history of ancient wars, deaths caused by wound infections accounted for a large proportion of total casualties.
So she wanted not only to purify alcohol, but also to cultivate penicillin.
And for the latter, it was absolutely lifesaving magic medicine in ancient times. Once it came into being, the benefits it could bring were bound to make countless people covet it.
In short, Bianque Valley had money, manpower, medicine and reputation, but lacked sufficient ability to protect itself.
As a result, even a Muenbo Mansion was able to force her famous master to hide in the town.
Although the incident was temporarily resolved, and it also deterred other powerful figures with a warning.
But money came first. Who could guarantee that things would not happen again in the future?
She urgently needed to find a powerful backer for Bianque Valley.
And in terms of which backer was the most powerful, besides the royal family, who else was there?
Therefore, in addition to asking Jing Yan to help her solve the problem of distillation equipment, another purpose for her to enter the palace today was to discuss cooperation with the Emperor.
She needed to use these "secret prescriptions inherited from Bianque Valley" as bargaining chips to obtain a guarantee from the Emperor that Bianque Valley would not be harassed by nobles and powerful forces.
There was a saying in the previous life that there were no permanent friends between countries, only permanent interests. This saying also applied between Bianque Valley and the royal family.
In the imperial study room, after listening to Jiang Yuqing's plan, the Emperor was silent for a long time. After a good while, he only said one sentence: "The younger generation is formidable!" Then he asked her directly about Bianque Valley's conditions.
This was equivalent to a tacit consent.
Bianque Valley's conditions were simple. That was to cooperate with the royal family and establish a national medicine bureau.
The Emperor would provide manpower, raw materials and venue for the national medicine bureau, while Bianque Valley would provide the prescriptions for medical alcohol and penicillin as technical investment.
And ensure that if new prescriptions were developed in the future, they would also be put into production by the National Medicine Bureau at the first time.
Except for supplying the military at cost price, the profits from selling medicines produced by the National Medicine Bureau would be split 73/30 between the royal family and Bianque Valley. The royal family took 70% while Bianque Valley took 30%.
But there was one prerequisite. That was, the director of the National Medicine Bureau must also serve as the master of Bianque Valley in each generation.
What Jiang Yuqing valued was not the 30% profit share, but rather this partner, the royal family.
In other words, once Bianque Valley became the money bag of the emperor. Afterwards, whoever wanted to move people from Bianque Valley would have to weigh things up.
After all, it would not be easy to move the Emperor's money bag now that a Bianque Valley was involved!
After listening, the Emperor nodded in agreement without saying a word. He immediately asked someone to draft a detailed contract, while asking Jiang Yuqing to return immediately with Bianque Valley's seal to sign the contract.
For a pie falling from the sky like this, disagreeing would be foolish.
Not only did he agree, but it had to be done quickly. What if Bianque Valley's people had second thoughts overnight?
Returning to the He An Hospital, Jiang Yuqing hurriedly gathered her master and several senior brothers and nephews together for a brief meeting to tell them about the partnership with the Emperor to open a medicine bureau.
Only then did the senior brothers realize that their little junior sister had already thought things through without their knowledge.
Not only did she find a powerful backer for Bianque Valley that no one dared provoke, she had also resolved potential future threats.
Doctor Qiu wished he could pick up his little apprentice and kiss her a couple of times.
His judgement was still good. Back then on the mountain in Qingzhou, he had spotted this little girl with a medicine shovel at first glance and took her as a closed-door disciple.
It turned out that the little one not only had high talents and status, but was also very smart. They struck gold this time!
Doctor Qiu happily followed her back to fetch credentials and entered the palace.
In the end, he came back triumphantly with a covenant stamped with Bianque Valley's master seal and the emperor's jade seal.
After hiding the stuff properly, he hummed a tune and swaggered out to the streets.
Well, us commoners were really happy today...
To celebrate the successful cooperation with the royal family, Jiang Yuqing specially ordered a feast that night. Apart from glutinous rice balls, the master and disciples all got drunk.
After letting people send them back to their rooms, Jiang Yuqing also returned to her own yard.
She was in a good mood tonight and couldn't fall asleep for the moment. She didn't want to go to the spiritual realm for cultivation either, so she simply spread out stationery and wrote letters to her family.
She did miss them a little...
The next day, the Emperor announced the national medicine bureau in the court. The ministers were overjoyed when they heard it. What a great thing, they must go for it!
As for the title of Director, it was just a vanity position anyway, so they didn't care much about giving it away.
Among them, the most excited was Zhang Xiu, the minister of revenue. When it came to collecting taxes and money, it had always been his favorite thing to do.
He knew Bianque Valley's people were rich, and he had been jealous countless times, especially when the national treasury was poorer than his face.
But no matter whether they opened a medical hall or a pharmacy, they didn't owe a cent of taxes due. He couldn't find any excuse to exploit them.
He didn't expect that this time they took the initiative to send money to his door. How could the old minister not be overjoyed?
It had to be said that when he got to this point as minister, he really worked painstakingly hard.
It was unanimously passed, so the matter was settled.
No one knew that it was this National Medicine Bureau that laid the foundation for Da Xia to set up a separate medical and health department in the future.
Seven days after the C-section, the woman who had undergone the surgery was discharged from the hospital.
No one knew what her husband had experienced these days. When they left, he surprisingly kowtowed to thank several doctors including Jiang Yuqing who had saved his wife.
When they left, the man carried his wife in a princess hold to a rickshaw outside the medical hall. He carefully tucked in the quilt and walked away carefully pulling the rickshaw.
Jiang Yuqing really hoped that this man could change his male chauvinism and shoulder the responsibilities a man should take.
Because of the recent successes of several surgeries, He An Hospital's reputation spread far and wide. In the past two days, the number of patients with difficult illnesses sent to He An Hospital has clearly increased, including two difficult labor cases.
After a meeting of doctors and nurses, He An Hospital unanimously decided to open two more operating rooms for backup, one of which was specifically for receiving obstetric patients.
At the same time, the Ministry of Industry also sent over the distillers, which was quite successful overall. Doctor Qiu and his two disciples were busy without a break.
Jiang Yuqing then brought Third Senior Brother Lu Yi to start refining medical alcohol.
At first it was not ideal, perhaps because the fire was not well controlled, or perhaps because of some other reason. The alcohol refined was always below the degree she wanted.
The two of them were not discouraged and tried again and again, improving again and again. Finally, after seven days, they succeeded in extracting 75% purity qualified medical alcohol.
The moment the test was passed, Lu Yi happily poured himself a cup and took a big gulp, then coughed violently, frightening Jiang Yuqing to quickly pour him a whole pot of water before he recovered.
She impatiently said, "If you drink a little more, I can only give you a gastric lavage!"
Lu Yi waved his hand unconcernedly, "It’s not that serious. At most I’d have to drink a few more pots of water and go to the latrine a few more times."
The first thing Jiang Yuqing did after successfully extracting medical alcohol was to tell Jing Yan about it. It was a pity that the National Medicine Bureau had only just started construction. It would take some time for it to be built.
Next was the extraction of penicillin.
This stuff was very easy to extract in the laboratories of the Spirit Realm General Hospital, but bringing it outside without the assistance of related equipment was quite difficult.
The first two batches failed in the experiment. After summarizing the lessons, the senior siblings started the third batch of experiments.
While waiting for the fruit juice to grow mold, Jiang Yuqing suddenly thought that she could extract allicin first.
Although this stuff was not as versatile as penicillin, it was also a good antibiotic and anti-inflammatory.
Moreover, steam distillation could extract it. The materials were easy to obtain and simple to get started with.
She bought two baskets of garlic heads from the vegetable market and started experimenting with Lu Yi.
With the experience of extracting medical alcohol before, the extraction of allicin went very smoothly this time. They succeeded in the second try.
The senior siblings conducted several more refinement experiments to ensure large-scale and rapid extraction before finally finishing.
By this time, it was mid-July.
The weather was hot as if it could roast people.
Doctor Qiu was old and could not stand the heat. Jiang Yuqing found some saltpeter to make ice cubes and put them in an ice bowl in her master's room to cool him down.
When Lu Yi saw it, he also clamored to put one in his room.
When Jing Yan came to the mansion to see her, he felt that the method of making ice with saltpeter was both amazing and simple and practical. He quickly had the people from the Ministry of Industry come to learn it.
Thus, the aristocrats of Da Xia finally ended the history of needing to store ice in winter during the hot summer days.
