Returning to the home of Han the Big Wine Cask, Wang An handed the four kneecaps over to Han Shuisheng.
Han Shuisheng was naturally very pleased and handed a piece of deer hide to Wang An in return.
The hide wasn't large, roughly one-third the size of the small piece of deer hide Wang An already held.
Taking the hide, Wang An was momentarily stunned. Why this thing again?
Was this thing some kind of secret manual? The key was that this thing had no actual value!
Noticing that Wang An seemed clueless, Han Shuisheng explained with a chuckle
"This is the address of that old *daozi*. This old man isn't teasing you, rest assured! Hehehe!"
Wang An examined it from all angles but couldn't make out anything. It was just like the two pieces of deer hide at home—not a single word, just a map of mountain ranges!
He asked in confusion, "Uncle, how do you read this thing? Isn't it just a mountain map!"
Han Shuisheng said with a smile, "You have to look at it against the sun."
Without suspicion, Wang An held it up to the sunlight.
As he looked, *holy shit*, it turned out the secret was fucking simple!
The deer hide was thin to begin with, and the words on it had simply been scraped even thinner!
In truth, even without the sunlight, if one looked closely, they could see that the surface of the hide where the words were was a different thickness than the surrounding areas.
However, the deer hide was soft and thin, and due to the tanning process and its age, it had become filthy.
No matter how you looked at it, it looked like a dirty rag that had been used countless times!
Furthermore, deer hide should avoid water; once it gets wet, it shrinks, which would blur the lines, so no one dared to wash it!
This ensured that anyone seeing it wouldn't pay attention to these fine details.
Against the sunlight, Wang An clearly saw words written in cinnabar ink: *215 North of DJ County West*, and there was a dot on the northern slope of the mountain range.
Wang An immediately read the words aloud.
Han Shuisheng explained with a smile, "Correct, that's right. The old *daozi* is in that spot."
Wang An was instantly ecstatic—not because of this piece of hide, but because of the two at home!
Just how many *daozi* were there? How many *bangchui* could be unearthed? Wouldn't this make him fucking legendary!
Suppressing his joy, he began to ask Han Shuisheng about the knowledge regarding *bangchui* and the rules for harvesting them.
Wang An asked as he listened, but as he inquired, he was fucking startled by what he learned!
For example, the number of "mountain callers" harvesting *bangchui* had to be an odd number, with the *bangchui* itself counting as one person!
Because *bangchui* were precious and hard to find, and one had to face various wild beasts in the forest, the idea was to enter as an odd number and return as an even number. This symbolized that good things come in pairs and that they would successfully find a *bangchui* upon entering the mountains.
Additionally, before entering the mountains, one had to pay respects to the Mountain God, the Old Head. The Mountain God Old Head here was a man named Sun Liang.
Legend had it that this man was deeply loyal and righteous, insisting on searching for his lost brother, Zhang Lu, in the mountains until he eventually starved to death. After death, he became the Mountain God.
He protected the safety of the mountain callers, helped them find *bangchui*, and guided the *madashan* partners to find their way home!
These things were quite normal, representing people's beautiful wishes that everyone would have a harvest upon entering the mountains.
It also reflected the hope that all who entered the mountains would be loyal and righteous, not stabbing each other in the back, and that everyone would return safely.
However, some rules were utterly baffling. For instance, after entering the mountains, one could only eat vegetarian food and must not touch any meat!
Climbing mountains and crossing ridges was already arduous and dangerous, consuming a great deal of mental and physical energy. Without good stamina, let alone harvesting *bangchui*, just staying alive would be a struggle!
Given the living standards of this era, the staple foods were mostly coarse grains, which weren't filling. Without meat, one could imagine how exhausted a person would be after one trip into the mountains!
There were many other miscellaneous rules, such as the fact that no one except the mountain caller head could speak too much!
Upon discovering a *bangchui*, one had to shout "Bangchui!", and those nearby had to respond promptly with "Which grade leaf?", after which the discoverer had to shout out the grade of the leaf!
Upon waking in the morning, the head had to ask the members of the ginseng gang what dreams they had to use as omens!
One could not sit on tree stumps because those were the seats of the Mountain God!
After harvesting a *bangchui*, one had to fill the hole back with soil and cut the bark off a nearby tree to "cut a sign"... and so on and so on!
"Cutting a sign" meant peeling a piece of bark off a tree; horizontal marks were cut on the left to indicate how many people came, and horizontal marks were cut on the right to indicate the grade of the leaf. Some even carved the year, month, and day.
This was to tell future arrivals how many people had been here and what grade of leaf they took. When many trees had signs cut into them, that area was called a "*daozi*." If it was very old, it was called an "old *daozi*."
Only when a *bangchui* had been there for a long time would it grow large, hence the term "big *bangchui*." The larger the *bangchui*, the more valuable it was!
And the older the *daozi*, the higher the chance of producing a big *bangchui*!
As the old saying goes: *Circle around an old daozi, and you'll have a full meal every day!*
The intricacies and rules here were fucking more numerous than the factory regulations in Wang An's previous life—a tedious, rambling pile of nonsense!
When it was mentioned that the Mountain God's divine seat was personally bestowed by Nurhaci, Huang Taiji, Wang An became even more speechless.
That "Big Blue" with the big nose and swollen face? How many years ago did he die?
Fortunately, at the end, Han Shuisheng said that aside from the wishes and hopes, basically no one followed the later rules anymore. Wang An felt that it was only normal that no one followed them!
Otherwise, if you found a *bangchui* and suddenly shouted at the top of your lungs, specifying the grade of the leaf...
What if there were people with ill intentions nearby, or a gang of bandits looking for a score...!
*Holy shit, I'm not one of those people, but even I would want to rob them!*
Furthermore, regarding cutting signs—humans are selfish creatures!
If there were strict rules that everyone followed, it might be one thing.
But in this day and age, the law was barely effective, and scoundrels were everywhere! Rules didn't mean a damn thing.
Moreover, given the chance to become an official, get rich, or find a job, people only thought of their own relatives, friends, and descendants!
Who would perform the selfless act of cutting a sign, which benefited others but not oneself? Cut a damn sign? That's just telling others: "There's big cargo here, come dig it up!"
Absolutely impossible!
After finishing with the rules, they discussed the *bangchui*.
A newly grown small *bangchui* has only 3 small leaves, called a *sanhuazi*.
A slightly larger one has 5 leaves—three large and two small—called a *mazhangzi*.
An even larger one splits into two branches, with 5 leaves on each branch, called an *erjiazi*.
Even larger, it splits into 3 branches, with 5 leaves on each, called a *dengtaizi*, also known as a "third-grade leaf." These are quite valuable.
Those with 4 branches are called "fourth-grade leaves" and are considerably valuable.
5 branches are called "fifth-grade leaves," which are rare, and 6 branches are called "sixth-grade leaves."
A normal *bangchui*, regardless of whether it grew for a few years or decades, has at most six-grade leaves—meaning it only splits into six branches!
Of course, there are rare exceptions. It is recorded that when the growing environment is exceptionally good, a *bangchui* can grow seven-grade leaves!
But that is only in records; no one has ever seen such a *bangchui*!
There is also a special case: during growth, a *bangchui* might be trampled or eaten by mountain livestock, or bitten by insects. If the *bangchui* doesn't die, it enters dormancy.
After ending dormancy, the branches that grow out have a high probability of being third-grade leaves, i.e., *dengtaizi*!
Therefore, some might despise an *erjiazi* for being too small and temporarily abandon it to wait a few years before digging, but no one would let a *dengtaizi* slip away. Besides, *dengtaizi* are already very valuable!
If you have tickets, please throw some! Thanks!
(End of Chapter)