Chapter 4 Section 42 Strange Fragrance

Dian Wei was indeed clumsy, and he explained several times, even comparing and describing, but Liu Bei and Xu Shu were still confused and looked at each other.

"What the hell did he say? Do you understand? Liu Bei asked.

"What do you mean by a big fish, a huge fish, a big fish?" Xu Shu said half-asleep.

There is no way, who made Dian Wei's Chinese vocabulary mediocre, and it was beyond Dian Wei's intellectual range to describe a strange thing with barren words.

"Since it's what happened on the dock, let's go to the dock and take a look", Liu Bei stood up, took off the saber and held it in his hand.

Dian Wei's eyes rolled, and he found the cloak thrown on the chair, so he ran over at a trot and took the cloak and put it on for Liu Bei. Liu Bei stood quietly, Dian Wei buttoned the cloak buckle between his chest collar one by one, tidied up the cloak a little, and Dian Wei retreated behind Liu Bei.

The dock was crowded, and the small snowflakes were still floating, but everyone didn't care, and they all craned their necks to look at the pier. Wherever Liu Bei passed, everyone gave way one after another, and the sound of salutes became one.

Liu Bei walked slowly all the way, returning to the military salute if it was a military salute, and bowing to the people, Liu Bei bowed his head and smiled again. Soon, Liu Bei smelled a foul smell, and he was careless, almost throwing it up.

"What is it, so old and so stinky?" Liu Bei's eyes lit up and he walked out of the crowd. Holding back his anger, he raised his eyes to look at the objects on the dock that made everyone talk.

It is really a "good big fish, huge fish, big fish", in front of it, a giant big fish more than ten meters long is horizontal, as if a mountain of meat towers, Liu Bei is tall, however, approaching the body of this foul-smelling big fish, the whole person looks as small as a matchstick.

"This is, is this a kun?" Xu Shu exclaimed.

There is a fish in the northern underworld, and its name is Kun. The Kun is so big that I don't know how many thousands of miles it is. Turned into a bird, its name is Peng. Peng's back, I don't know how many thousands of miles it is. Flying in anger, its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky. It is a bird, and the sea will migrate to the south. The Southern Underworld, Tianchi is also - this is the description of "good big fish, huge fish, big fish" in ancient China, which is full of poetry.

Liu Bei didn't answer, turned to the head of the giant fish, and looked the giant fish up and down.

The giant fish looks very strange, with a heavy head and a light tail, like a huge tadpole, with a huge head accounting for about one-third of its body length, and the whole head seems to be a big box. Its nose is also very peculiar, with only the left nostril located in the upper left front and upper part of the nose blocked. The entire massive body is light gray with a slight patch. Part of the corpse's skin had decayed, and the stench emanated from it.

Haha, earned, earned, this is a sperm whale.

"How did you catch it?" Liu Bei smiled and asked the owner of the boat who was following.

"Back to the envoy Jun, on the way to deliver the goods to Lianyun, we found this giant fish floating on the sea, it doesn't know how long it has been dead, some of the corpses have decomposed, such a big fish and small people have never seen it, just to get fresh, so we dragged it to Lianyun."

"It's good to die, it's good to die", Liu Bei replied excitedly: "100 gold coins, I bought it." ”

A big boat is worth 10 gold coins, and Liu Bei paid enough money for the owner to buy 10 boats. The owner of the boat didn't know the purpose of this giant fish, and only thought that Liu Bei was having fun to buy it, and didn't dare to accept such a huge amount of money, so he replied with a smile: "I can have today, thanks to the Lord Jun, if Lord Jun likes it, just put a few small dollars, and the small people will give it to the adults, why so much?" ”

Liu Bei shook his head and said, "Buying and selling by force is not my Liu Bei's habit, if you don't collect money, I don't want this thing." ”

The owner of the ship looked at Liu Bei with a blank eye, and replied: "If Lord Jun likes it, just give a few money, these money, the people dare not accept it." ”

Liu Bei glared at him and said, "You are too little, in this way, how about I add ten more money?" ”

At some point, Zhang Fei came out of the crowd and shouted, "Big brother, is this meat delicious?" ”

Liu Bei glared at him fiercely: "You know how to eat it, it's all rotten, how can you eat it?" ”

Xu Shu was beside him, and he wanted to persuade Liu Bei not to spend so much money on playthings, but when he heard that Liu Bei was willing to add money, he denied Zhang Fei's plan to eat, so he was silent: "The lord must know what it is for." ”

Sure enough, Liu Bei continued to speak: "If it is freshly caught and still alive, the meat tastes exceptionally delicious." However, it is dead, and the value is higher, 120 gold coins, whether to sell or not. ”

As if in a dream, the owner muttered repeatedly: "For 100 gold coins, I will sell 100 gold coins." ”

"Yide, call the soldiers of a brigade and let them bring all the daggers", after paying the money, Liu Bei ordered Zhang Fei.

625 soldiers reported that Liu Bei pointed to the giant fish and ordered: "Hurry up, peel me and be careful, don't damage its brain and internal organs." ”

The soldier hesitated and did not dare to step forward, and one of the soldiers cowered and asked, "My lord, is such a big fish a fetish?" ”

"Fetish? What fetish? Between heaven and earth, there is only one god, that is our Father in Heaven, this world is created by the Father, the Father is the only god, there is no water god, no mountain god, no sea god, no fish god. Liu Bei said unhappily: "It seems that your faith is not firm enough. ”

As soon as these words came out, the soldiers suddenly changed their cowering expressions, rushed forward one after another, and began to split the whale skin.

Zhang Fei approached Liu Bei and asked mysteriously, "Big brother, what kind of fish is this, it grows so big." ”

Xu Shu walked a few steps and listened.

"This is a whale, a sperm whale."

"Is the fish skin delicious?"

"You know how to eat," Liu Bei blamed. It seems that Liu Bei's delicious name is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and when he saw Liu Bei buying such a big fish, Zhang Fei's first thought was to eat it.

"This whale secretes a kind of wax on its body, its skin is the best leather raw material, and the clothes made of this leather product are soft and breathable, waterproof and coldproof, and it is the most expensive clothing material. Liu Bei explained.

In later generations, as the sperm whale was fished aggressively, it became endangered. Animal protection groups oppose the use of sperm whale skin for clothing. As a result, clothes made of this fish skin were no longer advertised, merchants secretly sold them, and those who wore them did not want to publicize them. However, the price of a whale skin suit is still equivalent to a BMW car.

"Also, the giant square whale has a lot of pasty wax stored in it, and the huge head bone cavity contains a lot of whale brain oil (a colorless transparent liquid), which is pressed into white cetawax, which is a good thing." Shocking to the world, Liu Bei didn't continue.

Whale wax is a good industrial raw material, which can be used to make candles (too luxurious), soap (also luxury), medicine and high-end cosmetics, and can also be used to refine high-grade lubricants. Most of the high-end automobile engine lubricants in later generations are artificially combined cetawax substitutes.

"The most valuable thing is its foul-smelling internal organs," Liu Bei salivated.

"It stinks, what's it for?" Zhang Fei pinched his nose and said.

"The smell is good, the more smelly the better", Liu Bei replied: "You know ambergris, its internal organs are the raw materials of dragon incense." ”

"Ambergris, what's it?" Of course Zhang Fei didn't know, so he didn't dare to ask, and Xu Shu didn't know, so Xu Shu asked.

Oh no, at that time, there was no talk of ambergris in China. Liu Bei was reckless.

The basic food of sperm whales is the squid fish. During digestion, the sharp beak of the squid injures its intestines, and the waxy substances secreted in the intestines are the medicine for their wounds. Ambergris is sperm whale intestinal wax wrapped in the remains of the carcass of the squid, which is slowly discharged into the sea from the intestines of the whale, or after the whale dies, its carcass decomposes and falls into the water. Ambergris taken from the intestines of a killed sperm whale has no value, and it must be floated and soaked in seawater for decades before it can be worth a lot, so Liu Bei said that the dead sperm whale is worth more.

Ambergris itself has a pleasant musky scent, but more importantly, it has the special function of keeping the fragrance of the spice long-lasting, so it has been used in the cosmetics manufacturing industry for a long time. The most valuable is the white ambergris, which has been soaked in seawater for more than a hundred years; The lowest value is brown ambergris, which has only been soaked in seawater for l0 years.

These gray or brown clumps, sometimes thrown ashore by the sea, have only come to the attention of the ll-century onwards. At the beginning of the 12th century, the famous Arab physician and natural scientist Avikina was the first to describe ambergris. He believed that ambergris was produced at the bottom of the sea, and was brought to the surface by the strong currents that gushed out of the deep sea layer.

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, ambergris was introduced to the Ming court by Arab merchants. The Chinese interpretation of ambergris is that there are many dragons living in a certain part of the ocean. When the dragon sleeps on the shore, it lies straight and with its mouth open, and if its saliva enters the sea, it hardens and becomes a piece of this precious thing, hence the name ambergris.

"The smell is incense to the extreme", Liu Bei disguised: "Its internal organs contain incomplete gray or brown clumps, which are soaked in seawater for 100 years, well, at least ten years, will become a peerless spice, more long-lasting than musk, in addition, it is the only human taste olfactory in the world." Legend has it that it is the saliva spit out of the dragon, so it is called ambergris."

"These allusions are contained in the canon", Xu Shu asked: "What is the human taste smelling primer?" ”

"These allusions, from the old man of Mount Tai, are recorded in overseas strange books, the Central Plains, I don't know if there is such a saying." Liu Bei looked at the busy soldiers and replied dodgedly: "The word smell smell primer - has the dog seen it, throw a bone, it can smell the meat from a long distance and come to eat the meat, this is the taste of smell." And ambergris is a taste that works on people, it is mainly used in the court, and women use it to fix their pets. It is used by men to court women. ”

This vague statement made Xu Shu vaguely understand. To put it bluntly, this is the sexual attractant of human beings, which can make human beings of the opposite sex.

Knowing the secret of this, Xu Shu was a little uncomfortable, so he approached the whale carcass and watched the work of the soldiers.

Ambergris is expensive, with each gram of ambergris equivalent to a ton of gold. It is said that the famous Rosa Dairy Cosmetics manufacturing company, which produces Chanel V, uses about 20 kilograms a year. However, before adding ambergris to perfume, the ambergris solution needs to be bottled on a cradle and shaken continuously for a year and a half so that the ambergris solution can be mixed more evenly. In the words of the cosmetics manufacturer, this period of time is called the maturation of the solution. Such a long and cumbersome process makes the price of ambergris even heavier.

Sperm whales like to be active in tropical or subtropical warm waters, Qingzhou fishermen used to haunt the Bohai Sea, it is not easy to see giant whales, so the first sight of sperm whales in Lianyungang feels novel. Since then, knowing that sperm whales are not fetishes and are very valuable, it is estimated that soon the fishermen's fleet will go deep into the sea and sail farther and farther for whaling. China may be able to usher in a maritime culture.

That night, Liu Bei wandered on the beach, watching the whole brigade of soldiers light torches and divide sperm whales all night. Zhang Fei and Xu Shu couldn't stand the tiredness and went back to the room to rest, only Dian Wei was by his side.

Whale brain wax has been made into candles by adding rosin as a fixative. Although the aphrodisiac effect of this candle is less than that of ambergris, the faint fragrance emitted after its lighting still has a certain aphrodisiac effect, and the custom of candlelight dinner in the West is derived from whale wax.

In Western culture, candlelight dinner is a specific word, and it is not just a candlelight dinner if you light a candle, only a candle made of whale wax and a love dinner under its candlelight is considered a "candlelight dinner".

What about after dinner? Of course, I continued to love......

This kind of candle made of whale wax is not urgently needed by Liu Bei. However, as a tribute to compensate for Qingzhou's taxes, Liu Bei was very happy. As long as it mysteriously renders its role, the palace concubines will inevitably flock to it, and its price is not high, and it is difficult to think about it. Being able to use two or three candles to offset Qingzhou's taxes for the whole year - hey, hey, Liu Bei was thinking about it while smiling treacherously - a good life began here.

When it was dawn, the soldiers removed the brown clumps in the whale's stomach. Liu Bei instructed the soldier and soaked it in a ruined ship filled with seawater on the dock, and after ten years, these stenching gray clumps would slowly turn into "gray gold" with the passage of time.

Think about it, one gram of ambergris is equivalent to a ton of gold, and the average dead sperm whale has about 100 to 1,000 grams of original ambergris crystals left in the body (there were also 420 kilograms of giant with a maximum diameter of 165 centimeters), as long as you have enough patience to soak it in seawater for more than ten years – of course, 100 years is better – then, what could be more lucrative than finding a dead whale?

A soldier hurriedly ran over and reported: "Xuzhou Mu Taoqian, Xuzhou Lord Bo, the big merchant Mi Zhu, and Xiapi Xiangrong have set off from Houqiu City and can reach Lianyun. ”

Liu Bei couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked: "Tao Xuzhou (Xuzhou Mu Tao Qian) accompanied the carriage and horses, how is the situation?" ”

The soldier replied: "In the convoy, there were many bald people accompanying them, and a float followed. ”

Floats? Is Miss Mi here?

What do you do with a bald head?

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