At this time of year, the weather can be unpredictable.

In the morning, the wind and the sun were beautiful, but in the afternoon, after a few rains fell in the sky, it turned cold, and the sky became white, and there was no sun in sight.

When they came to the place, Cai Hongming and the others got out of the car and looked for Suoyang among the plants in the desert Gobi.

Suoyang, is a perennial succulent parasitic plant, also known as elixir, ground hairball, rusty iron rod, lock strict, wild in the desert Gobi, where it grows is not snowy, the ground is not frozen.

Regarding Suoyang, there are written records in the pre-Qin period, and the Han Dynasty began to use medicine, which was cherished by famous doctors and famous cases in the past dynasties. The "Compendium of Materia Medica" says that it is "sweet, warm and non-toxic." It greatly replenishes yin qi, benefits sperm and blood, and facilitates stool. Moisturize dryness and nourish tendons, cure impotence and weakness. "Modern medical research believes that Suoyang has a good effect on the treatment of leukemia, diabetes, asthma, and premature ejaculation.

There is a Suoyang City in Guazhou in Jiuquan, and the ruins still exist.

According to legend, Xue Pinggui of the Tang Dynasty was trapped near Guazhou when he conquered the west, and the soldiers were sleepy and lacking horses, and there was no food and water, and the whole army was about to be wiped out. By chance, the soldiers found a plant in the desert and used it to satisfy their hunger. Unexpectedly, after eating this plant, the soldiers were full of energy and won the battle. This plant is the Suoyang. Since then, the place where the soldiers found Suoyang was named "Suoyang City".

The reproduction process of Suoyang is very peculiar, different from ordinary plants, and very similar to people and animals.

In May and June every year, Suoyang begins to expose the ground, and begins to mature in July and August. The male and female parts of the same plant pollinate and set seeds with each other.

Because the head of Suoyang is covered with scale armor, the seeds are very tightly wrapped and cannot fall off. At this time, a small white worm will be born from the lock **, which experts will name the lock yang worm. The impotence insect begins to gradually rise from the bottom along the inside of the suoyang, eating the yang little by little until it reaches the top. At this time, a hole is formed inside the lock yang, and the lock yang seeds fall into the bottom of the lock yang along the hole. With the inverted flow of water inside the spur, a channel about 2 mm thick connecting the guò lock yang and the white thorn enters the root of the white thorn. At the root of the white thorn, it follows the flow of water into the suitable part of the depository area. At this time, winter came, and the white thorn stopped growing. Suoyang seeds begin to absorb the nutrients of white thorns, and grow and grow rapidly. The parasitic part bulges out a fist-sized bag. After a winter of gestation, germination begins in March of the following year, breaking through the soil in one fell swoop, and it can grow, pollinate, and set seeds in dozens of days, and start a new round of growth cycle.

There is an old saying in Liangzhou, called "the Suoyang race ginseng of 393".

People call the nine days from the day of the winter solstice as 19, and every 9 days thereafter is a stage, called 29, 3999, a total of 81 days. This period of time is undoubtedly the coldest day of the year. The keyhole has the effect of rejuvenating yang and solidifying essence, strengthening yin and benefiting the marrow, and it is indeed better than ginseng to eat it in the cold winter to nourish the body and resist the cold winter.

Because Suoyang has the best effect on digging in Sanjiu Tian, there is also a saying that "Suoyang is not picked on non-Jiu cold days." ”

In the old days, every summer when the sun was in full bloom, the herb pickers would brave the scorching heat and search for the black gravel and white thorns on the desert inch by inch.

Any discovery that excites them. After finding it, they did not rush to dig it, but first left a mark to prove that it "had an owner", and then began a long and patient wait. Summer after autumn. In the depths of winter on the Black Wind Night, the herb pickers will set foot on the land again, and follow their memories to dig out the Suoyang that has left a mark.

Without the experience of living in the desert, it is difficult to imagine the hardships of the herb pickers walking on the long yellow sand.

In the past, Suoyang was not valuable, and the desert was everywhere.

At that time, Suoyang was not recognized by the market, and the loading price of the origin was only a few yuan. I can't say what day it started, Suoyang suddenly became a god of "nourishing yin and aphrodisiac", and the real 393 Suoyang was even more speculated to the point that it was priceless! Driven by profits, Suoyang in the desert has attracted a frenzy of predatory mining. The desert's many locks are also slowly decreasing in this frenzy. So much so that some local governments had to issue decrees prohibiting mining in Suoyang.

Now, Gulang. The Suoyang of the desert around the county has basically been excavated, and only some areas that cannot be reached by manpower remain.

The place where Xi Weifeng brought them to is actually not safe, this place is easy to drive over, someone must come to dig, but there are still people who don't pay attention to digging the rest. There are two or three keyholes, and if you're lucky, you can dig up a lot of them when you see one.

After searching for a while in the green bushes of the long yellow sand, they couldn't find the Suoyang they wanted to dig. So, Xi Weifeng got into the car and wanted to take them to another place to find them.

When she got into the car, she suddenly shouted, "Uncle, there's something over there." ”

Following the direction of her finger, Cai Hongming suddenly saw a pink straw mushroom head emerging from under a cluster of grass, and ran over to take a look, and sure enough, it was Suoyang.

Xi Weifeng, who was about to drive, saw it, and hurriedly took out a shovel from the car and dug it up, and after a while, a cluster of locks of different sizes below was revealed. He happily shouted to Yaya, "Yaya is awesome, Uncle will invite you to eat roast mutton in the evening." ”

The girl laughed happily when she heard this, she liked meat the most.

Cai Hongming shook his head again and again, he didn't expect this guy to even lie to a child, and he had arranged to roast the whole sheep at night.

This harvest was good, and a total of 12 Suoyang trees were dug up. Knowledgeable people will only dig above the roots, keeping the roots connected to the host when digging the lock sun, so that it can grow new lock sun in the future. Those who don't know how to do it don't care about it, even the pot end.

There is an old Chinese saying, "Be a man and leave a line to see each other in the future." ”

This sentence is also very suitable for digging wild Suoyang, if it leaves a glimmer of life, it can be dug again in the future, if it is all dug up, it will be gone in the future. Many people don't understand this truth, so now there are fewer and fewer wild resources in Suoyang, and they have to start artificial planting.

In addition to drying and medicinal, Suoyang can also be eaten raw, and the taste is OK, but some Suoyang has a bitter taste and some sweetness, so it tastes good or bad.

Under the demonstration of Xi Weifeng and Cai Hongming, Ruan Tianxuan, who grew up in the water towns and cities in the south of the Yangtze River, took a Suoyang tree and peeled it and ate it, feeling that the taste was okay, and it seemed to have a hint of wild flavor than the cooked medicinal food. It's just that I don't know if I will have diarrhea at night if I eat like this. Ruan Tianxuan was very worried.

After digging Suoyang, Xi Weifeng took Ruan Tianxuan to see the desert scene again, and originally wanted to take him to dig Cistanche, but unfortunately it was a little late, so he didn't go, and drove back to the county seat directly.

It is also a parasitic plant, but compared with Suoyang, the price of Cistanche is not much higher.

Under the ** of money, wild cistanche is now dug up so that it is almost invisible, and it is difficult to find, so it is impossible to dig it in an afternoon, so it can only be left for later.