In the autumn of the third year of Yuanyou, Goryeo sent envoys to the Great Song Dynasty for the seventh time, sending tribute 2,000 purple and white crystals, 50,000 catties of brass, etc., among these tributes, the most eye-catching but the ginseng that came from the tribute, these ginseng are mainly divided into two kinds, namely the Korean ginseng produced by Goryeo, and the wild ginseng produced in Changbai Mountain. Among them, those Korean ginseng is nothing, but those Changbai Mountain wild ginseng is extremely precious, among which there are 20 old ginseng more than 100 years old, 10 ginseng more than 500 years old, 2 more than 800 ginseng, and another ginseng king more than 1,000 years old.

Speaking of the original Zhao reign, the king of Goryeo Wang Hui sent envoys to the Great Song Dynasty several times, at the beginning of the threat of Goryeo in the Liao State, so that they have not dared to openly contact with the Great Song Dynasty, but later the Great Song Dynasty became stronger and stronger, especially after the Great Song Dynasty recovered Yanyun, Goryeo almost continued to send envoys, and the tribute is more and more valuable year by year, this year it is a bloody capital to send the thousand-year-old ginseng that is regarded as the national designation, in order to want to hug the thick legs of the Great Song Dynasty.

Originally, when Goryeo sent envoys to pay tribute several times ago, the people of the capital of the Great Song Dynasty were also cheering, because this showed that the status of the Great Song Dynasty was improving, and their people also felt that their faces were bright, but with the number of times the Goryeo people came, the people of the capital were not surprised, only the officials of the Ministry of Rites in the capital were still happy about it, after all, they had received so many tributes from others, so they had to be entertained well.

For this group of Goryeo envoys, Zhao Yan didn't care at first, because during this time he had been troubled by curbing the rise of the Jurchens, although Cao Ying pointed out a clear way for him, but how this method should be implemented, and how to do it so that everyone can't find fault with it. There is a lot of attention to this, Zhao Yan wrote to Xu Yuan and Hu Yanping before to discuss this issue, but they didn't have any good solutions, so Zhao Yan was also quite distressed about this, where did he have the time to pay attention to those Goryeo envoys?

But it was a coincidence that those Goryeo envoys didn't know where to hear the news. Knowing Zhao Yan's influence in the Great Song Dynasty, so after sending the tribute, he immediately ran to Zhao Yan's mansion to visit, Zhao Yan didn't want to see them, but when he inadvertently swept the gift list sent by the Koreans, he was stunned for a moment, because he saw a gift on the gift list, which made him suddenly have an idea and thought of a very feasible way.

It is precisely because of the above reasons. So Zhao Yan immediately changed his mind, not only personally received the visiting Goryeo envoys, but also praised the gifts sent by the Koreans, especially for the 800-year-old Changbai Mountain ginseng given to him in the gift list, although this ginseng is not as good as the thousand-year-old ginseng king that the Goryeo paid tribute to the imperial court, but the mountain ginseng that can grow to 800 years can also be called a priceless treasure.

It needs to be added here that millennium ginseng often appears at every turn in later movie novels, but in fact, in reality, although it cannot be said that there is no thousand-year-old ginseng. But it is also extremely rare, and ginseng is also a human lifespan. Generally, ginseng that can grow to 100 years can be called a treasure, as for 500 years, it is even rarer, it can be called a national treasure, and as for more than 1,000 years of ginseng, it can be called the king of ginseng, even if it is the history of thousands of years in the Central Plains, there are not many records of ginseng for thousands of years. From this, it can be seen that ginseng is scarce for thousands of years.

When receiving the Goryeo envoys, Zhao Yan seemed to be very interested in ginseng, and the conversations during the period also revolved around the people participating in the exhibition. So I told everything I knew about ginseng.

Among them, Korean ginseng is not enough, mainly produced in the mountains and forests of Goryeo, and it is generally matured in six years, and the medicinal effect is limited, but the wild ginseng they sent is produced in the Changbai Mountain, speaking of which the northwest of Goryeo borders the Changbai Mountain, and often conflicts with the Jurchens there, and then they chose the means of appeasement and force, to put it bluntly, they can fight if they can fight, and if they can't fight, they will appease the Jurchens, and then trade with the Jurchens, and these wild ginseng of more than 100 years are also exchanged by them from the Jurchens.

Zhao Yan was also very satisfied with the answer of the Goryeo envoys, and finally even sent them out of the palace in person, which made the Goryeo envoys also flattered, after all, they also knew Zhao Yan's influence in the Great Song Dynasty.

However, after sending off the Goryeo envoys, Zhao Yan suddenly asked people to post a notice, announcing that King Yue would purchase a large number of wild ginseng that was more than 100 years old, and as long as it was produced in the area of Changbai Mountain, King Yue's Mansion would buy it at a high price.

At the beginning, many people were still a little skeptical about this news, after all, although ginseng is a precious medicinal material, but ginseng is really called the king of herbs in the Ming and Qing dynasties in the later generations, and the doctors of the Great Song Dynasty did not use ginseng much, and even the ginseng that was more than ten years old was rarely found in the pharmacy, let alone the old ginseng that was more than a hundred years old.

However, soon there was news that someone took a hundred years of ginseng to the Yue Wangfu to sell, but the Yue Wangfu actually bought it at a price twice as high as the market, after the news came out, it immediately caused a lot of sensation, because they could see that the Yue King was buying horse bones with a thousand gold, which shows how eager he is for ten years of ginseng.

In view of Zhao Yan's good reputation, everyone did not suspect that he would set any trap, so many well-informed merchants immediately through their own doors, from other places to find more than 100 years of ginseng produced in Changbai Mountain, the result of the Yue Wangfu is not refused, all bought at a price twice as high, which made many merchants see a way to make a fortune, desperately began to look for Changbai Mountain more than 100 years old ginseng.

However, not long after the news of the purchase of ginseng by the Yue Wangfu came out, there was soon an explosive news that Zhao Yan actually entered the palace again and personally asked the Empress Dowager Gao to pay tribute to the Korean people for more than a hundred years of ginseng, although many people are doubting how this news came out, but it can also be seen that Zhao Yan, the king of Yue, really needs a large number of ginseng that is more than 100 years old.

As more and more people made a lot of money by reselling ginseng to the Yue Wangfu, this also made many people interested in Zhao Yan's purpose of buying a large number of century-old ginseng, and some people said that it was Zhao Yan's wife and concubine who heard that ginseng could stay in Yan. So a large amount of ginseng needs to be eaten, and some people say that some of Zhao Yan's children have a strange disease and need a large amount of ginseng to cure the disease, and some people directly say that Zhao Yan has a strange disease and needs ginseng to continue his life, which is even more outrageous. There are even people who say that Zhao Yan has an immortal pill, as long as he refines the pill according to the pill and eats it, he can live forever, and the main medicine of this pill is a large amount of ginseng.

"Hahahaha~, third uncle, when will your elixir be refined, you must leave one for your nephew at that time, so that our uncle and nephew will live forever together!" On the bank of the Bianhe River, Zhao Xu, who had just turned ten, held a fishing rod and laughed while saying to Zhao Yan next to him.

"Go, go~. If there is really an elixir, I will eat it with your uncles and aunts after refining it, how can I have your share? Zhao Yan glanced at Zhao Xu and said, he didn't bother to pay attention to the rumors outside, because he guessed that there would be these rumors when he announced the purchase of ginseng that was more than 100 years old, but he didn't expect that the imagination of the people was so rich that they could even pull out the elixir.

"Tsk, speaking of the elixir of life. Back then, Emperor Zhenzong was obsessed with alchemy, and I had seen a lot of so-called elixir pills in the palace. But I don't know if I don't look at it, I was really shocked when I saw it, the material of alchemy turned out to be lead, mercury, cinnabar and the like, and even arsenic, all of which were highly poisonous, and the death of Emperor Zhenzong was unknown in the history books. I wonder if he died of poisoning because he ate too many of these pills? Zhao Xu said with a smile at this time, he has also learned a lot of things from Zhao Yan in the past few years, and his thinking and concepts are very similar to Zhao Yan, even he doesn't believe in immortality, and naturally he doesn't believe that Zhao Yan will refine any elixir.

"Your kid is getting bolder. Even Emperor Zhenzong dared to take it out and ridicule it, and carefully spread it to the ears of the queen mother in the palace, and then you will look good! Zhao Yan glared at Zhao Xu again and said, in fact, Zhao Xu was also influenced by him, because his first lesson to Zhao Xu talked about the gains and losses of Zhao Xu and Zhao Xu, which also made Zhao Xu treat the emperors of the Great Song Dynasty as his own mirror, and would take it out from time to time to take a picture of himself.

Hearing Zhao Yan's criticism, Zhao Xu stuck out his tongue naughtily, then turned his head and continued fishing, this morning Zhao Yan gave him a math lesson, because he learned too well, so in the afternoon Zhao Yan rewarded him to accompany him to fish, but Zhao Xu was a little unimpressed with this reward, because he was at an active age, there was no patience of Zhao Yan at all, and he wanted to move around after sitting for a while, or he was talking to Zhao Yan, anyway, his mind was not on fishing at all.

"Third uncle, can you tell me why you bought so much ginseng, and the ginseng that Goryeo paid tribute to is also leaving, it won't really be like the legend outside, what disease do you have and need these ginseng to be cured?" Sure enough, Zhao Xu was quiet for a while, and then asked Zhao Yan again.

"Those ginseng aren't for healing!" Zhao Yan didn't look at Zhao Xu this time, and replied.

"Why do you want so much ginseng for no one to treat the disease, could it be that you want to be pickled as a radish and pickled?" Zhao Xu asked curiously again when he heard this, it was rare for Zhao Yan to do such a thing that violated common sense, so Zhao Xu was also very curious about it, and it was really uncomfortable not to inquire about him.

"What are you doing with so many questions, kids, hurry up and catch your fish!" Zhao Yan finally turned his head at this time and glanced at Zhao Xu and said, of course his move to buy ginseng has its own deep meaning, but he can't tell Zhao Xu, and even in addition to Cao Ying understanding what he means, there is no third person in the entire capital who understands his plan.

Seeing that Zhao Yan didn't say anything, Zhao Xu couldn't help but pout and be very unhappy, this was the first time Zhao Yan had something to hide from him, so the more he thought about it, the more angry he became, and he began to vent his dissatisfaction with small actions when fishing, such as using a fishing rod to keep slapping the water, although the action was not big, but it scared all the fish below away.

Looking at the layers of water waves on the river, Zhao Yan also felt Zhao Xu's unhappiness, but he didn't see it, and still sat firmly on the Diaoyutai, which made Zhao Xu have no way to take him in the end.

Just when Zhao Yan's uncle and nephew were fighting their spirits, suddenly there was a rush of footsteps from behind, and then only Su Shi's somewhat ridiculous voice sounded: "Your Highness, have you refined your elixir, can you give it to the next one?" ”

As soon as the words fell, I saw Su Shi come over with a smile, and when he saw Zhao Xu, he saluted him first, but before Su Shi could speak again, he saw Zhao Xu laughing first: "I didn't expect that Scholar Su and I both thought of a piece, just now I also asked the third uncle for the elixir, but unfortunately the third uncle was too stingy and refused to give it to me!" ”

"Haha~, I didn't expect Your Majesty to hear the rumors outside, but this kind of rumor can only be regarded as a joke, Your Majesty must not take it seriously!" Su Shi said it easily at first, but in the end, he didn't forget to warn Zhao Xu, after all, there was an emperor Zhenzong in front of the Great Song Dynasty, and that emperor made a mess of the Great Song Dynasty in order to ask for immortals, if it weren't for Kou Zhun and a few other virtuous ministers, I am afraid that the Great Song Dynasty would die if it was not in the hands of Renzong.

"Scholar Su, don't worry, I won't believe in any nonsense about immortality, and I won't waste national strength to do some illusory things!" Although Zhao Xu is small, he is extremely smart, and he immediately heard the warning in Su Shi's words, and immediately reassured with a smile that since Su Shi no longer forced him to learn poetry, he also felt that Su Shi was much cuter than before.

"Brother Zizhan, you won't be so bored that you came to me for some elixir, right?" Zhao Yan was also a little weak at this time, he didn't bother to explain.

"Hehe, I naturally don't believe that His Highness wants to refine any elixir, but His Highness's sudden purchase of ginseng is really incomprehensible, I am worried that His Highness is really sick as rumored outside, so I came to visit." When Su Shi said this, there was also a look of concern in his eyes.

"Haha~, don't worry, Scholar Su, the third uncle said that he didn't buy ginseng to treat diseases, but he refused to say anything about what it was for, anyway, I didn't ask." At this time, Zhao Xu rushed to speak again.

"Brother Lao Zizhan bothered, ginseng is indeed not used to cure diseases, as for its use, I can't say for the time being, but in the future, Brother Zizhan, you will naturally understand." Zhao Yan said helplessly again at this time, and at the same time he was also thinking about his plan in his heart, it seems that he should have implemented it as soon as possible, otherwise it would be a troublesome thing to be pestered and asked every day. (To be continued......)