Chastity Layman

The Qin family in Pingkang Fang holds the exclusive secret of perfume, but many people in Tang Dynasty can only decipher it according to the existing Taoist tradition of "refining", and then according to the appearance of Persian rose water and Qin's perfume on the market.

They researched and researched, but they only stopped at the step of "picking flowers, soaking water, and steaming the liquid", so what they produced was "imitation rose dew", which was more similar to rose dew, but it was completely different from Qin's perfume. class products.

In the end, the toilet water sold by the local merchants of Datang in Chang'an market is actually the Datang version of fragrance that is combined with "steaming fragrance".

They soak hard spices such as agarwood and sandalwood, or soak them in storax oil and rose water, or seal them together with fragrant flowers, and put them in a soup pot for fumigation, so that the spices can obtain a complex fragrance. The perfume obtained is actually a perfume liquid.

The incense liquid is also put into the incense burner and steamed on the fire with a plate.

Compared with the Qin family's perfume that is directly applied to the body and clothes, it is far worse.

The new fashion thing that is popular in Chang'an now is to steam the toilet water in the incense burner, and the steamed toilet water will fill the room with fragrance.

Some merchants even provide simple flower liquid, which is the scented flower liquid water obtained by distillation and purification of fresh flowers or dried flowers, which is sold to nobles for steaming spices, or used in incense shops to process and steam perfume water.

This Datang fragrance liquid, which is first steamed and then soaked through various processes, is essentially a semi-technical product, but compared with traditional spices, it can turn a single fragrance into a compound fragrance, especially with some fragrant flowers. .

Of course, in a dry house in winter, steaming the dew liquid has another advantage, that is, it can be humidified, which is an unexpected gain.

After all, the purity of the scented dew is not high, unlike the perfume of the Qin family, which is very expensive, and only a little bit is applied at a time. It is not like the scented dew, which is steamed into a large bottle at a time like steamed vinegar.

Good things need packaging, but also need a corresponding high price.

For example, Persian merchants made up a story in order to sell cinnamon.

They say that on the high plateaus of Persia there is a gigantic bird which carries cinnamon sticks from faraway lands and uses them to build its nest on the cliffs.

In order to get these cinnamon sticks, the merchants hired the best hunters, put some large pieces of beef outside, and lured the big birds to catch the beef and bring it back to their nests, but the beef was too big and heavy, and would kill the giants. The bird's nest collapsed, so the wise businessman would send brave hunters to snatch the fallen cinnamon branches under the attack of the giant bird, and then sell them for sale.

But in fact, Persia does not produce cinnamon. The real origin of cinnamon is on the island of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean, where there are dense cinnamon forests. It was not the Persians who first transported cinnamon to the west, but Sri Lankan businessmen. It was sold to Tianzhu, and then the Tianzhu merchants sold it to Persia.

Persian merchants monopolized the cinnamon trade with Rome, Egypt and other countries, so Europeans were deceived by the Persians, thinking that cinnamon was produced in Persia, and they really believed that there were giant birds that made their nests with cinnamon sticks.

Another example is ambergris, which was originally made from the squid mouth of sperm whales that cannot be heard, etc., were wrapped in secretions in the intestines, and finally spit out of the body after floating in the sea for a hundred years. A miraculous story of salivating and turning into incense.

So what should have been sperm whale feces turned into tall ambergris.

For businessmen, they don't think about benefiting mankind or anything. What they think about is how to maximize profits. Good things are not cheap.

Qin Lang has no objection to using perfume to make money from the rich. Anyway, it is just a luxury that the rich can consume. No matter how expensive it is, it will not affect ordinary people. It is not wheat and rice, nor is it salt.

The imperial court can frantically increase the price of salt that is not expensive by ten times the salt tax, and forcefully collect poll tax. It is nothing if he robs the rich for a few dollars.

The New Year's Eve of the fifth year of Zhenguan was more lively than previous years.

This year's Taiji Palace, Daming Palace and the gate of the East Palace all held grand fireworks displays, which were gorgeous and eye-catching, stunning Chang'an. Last year's New Year's Eve fireworks came out, but this year there has been a large production of fireworks. The aristocratic and famous families in Chang'an started to set off fireworks, and the rich and merchants also set off firecrackers.

Only ordinary people, small people, are still burning bamboo and listening to the explosion.

The whole city is shaking, to drive away the beasts of the year, to bid farewell to the old year, the thick smell of sulfur and whistle in the gunpowder smoke, but it is so similar to the realgar wine used to drive away the epidemic during the Dragon Boat Festival.

This is the taste of expelling diseases and eliminating epidemics.

The fluttering heavy snow changed Chang'an into new clothes.

On the evening of the 30th, Qin Lang led the whole family to watch the fireworks at his house, and then personally distributed red envelopes for the New Year to all members of the family.

Everyone has a share, and the owner personally distributes them to express his gratitude to them for their hard work for a year.

Everyone received the bulging red envelopes, smiling happily, and were very grateful to Qin Lang.

night.

Qin Lang took a bath with tulips. Tulips are the saffron of the later generations, which were trafficked from Persia by Sogdian merchants, and the price is expensive.

It is said that a catty of tulips can only be made by picking 90,000 saffron styles, so there is a reason why they are expensive. Moreover, tulips are not only fragrant, but also have strong medicinal effects, preventing Alzheimer's disease, and preventing high reactions.

Bathing with saffron can also treat old diseases of physical trauma.

It is said that Alexander the Great had the habit of bathing with saffron to heal the wounds he suffered during the battle.

Saffron was very expensive, but Qin Lang bought a lot, and specially sent people to Songzhou to take a bath for Qin Qiong to heal his wounds, and also gave gifts to Li Jing, Cheng Yaojin, Niu Jinda, Su Dingfang, Liang Jianfang and other well-connected generals.

He also has some old wounds from the war on his body, and he occasionally takes a bath.

Some people in Chang'an soak water with turmeric, just put a few at a time, but Qin Lang takes a bath, and puts a catty at a time, as if soaking honeysuckle or mugwort. The effect of the medicine, otherwise if you put a small amount, how much effect can it have?

People who lie in the big tub soaked in rich saffron water really feel very comfortable. I don’t know if this is a psychological effect or it really has this medicinal effect.

After soaking for half an hour, Qin Lang got up refreshed and rinsed with clean water.

After Qin Lang left, several Persian girls who took his bath brought the saffron to pick up all the saffron that Qin Lang took a bath in. Qin Lang would never use these saffron after soaking them once, but this thing It is so expensive, any one can be worth a lot of money, at least one can buy a bucket of rice.

There are about 90,000 dried styles in a catty, and each penny weighs about five or six hundred. The top-notch ones like this one are worth thousands of pennies, worth several million yuan, so each can be worth tens of pennies. Five or six hundred roots are worth dozens of sticks.

A bucket of rice in Chang’an is only 20 yuan, but a top-quality turmeric is worth 30 to 40 yuan. Although turmeric is not the most expensive among all kinds of spices, it is far inferior to ambergris, white burdock, and top-level agarwood, but the price is also high. Astonishing.

Ordinary incense is burned directly, and after burning, only a little incense ash is left. After the turmeric bath, a bucket of golden turmeric water was soaked, and it would be a pity to pour the remaining flowers.

These turmeric can still be used after being picked up and re-dried, but the quality has deteriorated.

The Qin family will send it to the incense shop, and mark it as the turmeric that Wei Guogong took a bath, but it can still be sold at a sky-high price of one or two thousand guan. Many people pursue this kind of turmeric that Wei Guogong soaked in the bath.

Even the bucket of turmeric water left over from the bath will not be wasted. Put it in a bottle and send it to the incense shop, mark the turmeric water that Wei Gong has bathed in, and use a catty of turmeric to soak a hundred catties of water description of the ratio.

These turmeric bath water are directly sold by taels, and one tael can be sold for hundreds of dollars, but these are bought to soak spices and make aromatherapy liquid.

Of course, some people will buy it as medicine.

Many people knew that this was Qin Lang's bath water, but they still wanted to buy it and take it, thinking that Qin Lang was the Heavenly King's gatekeeper, and had to be taught by the King of Medicine to teach the people how to prevent acne, so Qin Lang's bath water could cure all diseases.

A tael of water in the Qin family incense shop only sells for a few hundred dollars, and some of those people begged and resold it for thousands of dollars a tael, just like selling magic pills and elixir.

Qin Lang actually didn't know these things.

He thought that the turmeric that he took a bath must be thrown away, let alone the bath water. Who would have thought that someone would buy half the price of the turmeric after taking a bath?

Bath water can be sold for 20% of turmeric?

What he doesn't know is that there are many crazy things in this world, and the turmeric comes from far away Persia, and the quantity that was sold to Datang is limited, not to mention the top turmeric he used, which is even rarer. However, the medicinal value of turmeric is highly hyped by the Tang people, the kind that is as high as the sky.

So this thing is hard to find, Qin Lang has his own channel, a lot of turmeric is sold by sea, he is the first to go through it, so he himself has no shortage of turmeric, and he didn't realize the scarcity of this item .

These days, even when prisoners are beheaded and killed in the vegetable market, many people will go to snatch human blood, and then make human blood steamed buns to sell.

Therefore, the sale of bathed turmeric and bathed turmeric water is actually just a general operation.

After soaking in the turmeric bath, and changing into a new set of clothes that Princess Changle from the palace sewed himself, Qin Lang lamented that the princess's female red is very skilled and fits well.

Then he turned his attention to the seal letter sent by the emperor.

The emperor sent him double banners and double festivals, which was a high-level symbol of power that he had enjoyed when he was a Jiedu envoy.

The festival is dedicated to killing, and the Jing is dedicated to rewarding. The festival is double, and the power is even greater.

It can be seen that the power of this custom envoy is indeed huge, but as far as he knows, Li Jing, Qin Qiong and others only got a single banner, and each only patrols one.

Perhaps it is to patrol the province's coastal areas, and this time it is also responsible for the preparation of the navy, the emperor gave a double share of the festival.

Seals were also given along with the festival.

Gold ornaments and silver seals are three inches square and one inch thick. The font is Shangfang Dazhuan, which is also the highest standard for official seals.

There are also two seals, which are the seal of Pingzhangshi under Tong Zhongshumen and the seal of Prince Zhanshi.

Tongping Zhangshi is also a gold-decorated silver seal, while Prince Zhan Shi, as a third-rank official, has a silver-decorated copper seal, the size and font, and the specifications are one level lower than the prime minister's seal.

The day for officially leaving Beijing has also been selected. After the end of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, I will leave Beijing for a tour of the East!