Whether the medicine in the willow tree exists in the bark, branches, or leaves is unknown and remains to be tested.

I found three large urns, filled them with water and carried them on my back. I took papers and wrote [willow branch] on one paper, [willow bark] on the other paper and [willow leaves] on the other paper. The labels were written.

Stick it on the pottery urn.

After that, Li Mengxi wandered down and found a bundle of willow branches. He said to the woman, "Auntie, please break the willow branches and leaves into pieces and put them separately."

The woman nodded, grabbed the white willow branch that was peeled off and shrunk, and started cutting it with scissors.

I don’t know whether it’s because willow branches peel off easily or for some other reason, but willow branches are much easier to handle than other branches.

After a while, the willow branches were processed and divided into three parts, one part bark, one part wood branches, and one part willow leaves, and they were brought over together.

With all the materials in hand, Li Mengxi took his brother and started testing.

Li Mengxi took a look at the willow bark to his younger brother and asked, "Brother, do you think the medicine is hidden in the bark?"

Xiao Bian thought about it carefully and said, "Yes!" Xiao Bian nodded seriously.

Then, perhaps feeling that what he said was wrong, Xiao Bian looked at Li Mengxi with wide eyes and asked, "Brother, what should I do if there is nothing inside?"

Li Mengxi laughed.

You are right. Until the test results come back, no one is sure whether the drug is hidden in the bark or branches.

Ten pounds of willow bark was poured into the urn, then ten pounds of willow branches, and then ten pounds of willow leaves.

The water and raw materials were all ready, and Li Mengxi and his brother started to light a fire under each pottery jar.

It seems that the extraction of herbal ingredients should be done over low heat to avoid destroying the properties of the medicine if the temperature is too high. However, Li Mengxi thought that when the medicine was extracted from willow trees, the soldiers boiled the solution due to improper operation.

As a result, less than half a bowl of medicinal powder could still be extracted from the solution after boiling.

This is very strange, Li Mengxi wondered, could it be that the medicinal substances in the willow tree would not decompose at a high temperature of 100 degrees.

This test was to find a substitute for willow bark, not to test the optimal temperature for extraction. Therefore, in order to reduce the difficulty and increase the speed, Li Mengxi felt that it was better to just boil it at high temperature.

Thinking of this, Li Mengxi threw the firewood into the fire and ignored it.

An hour or two later, the women had finished processing all kinds of branches, and the branches all over the house turned into baskets of scraps.

Li Mengxi held a piece of paper in one hand and a pen in the other, checking them one by one. While checking, he wrote a label for each basket of materials.

After a while, I finished the inspection and counted the dozens of baskets of bark in the house, with a total of thirty-nine species of trees.

He ordered his soldiers to fetch thirty-nine large urns and bring some firewood. Then, Li Mengxi set up piles of fires in the house and began to cook.

Thirty-nine and three for Li Mengxi's own use, a total of forty-two, as many as forty-two jars, and forty-two fires were lit in the house, immediately making the house filled with smoke and like a fire.

In the city, Liu Bei and others were patrolling around when they suddenly heard a warning from their guards. Liu Bei followed the direction of the guards' fingers and saw that where the city lord's palace was, smoke was rising into the sky.
Chapter completed!