Hejin, Shanxi: the "Great King of Medicine" in the Yellow River Beach

On the beach of the Yellow River in Hejin, there is a father and daughter who devote their time and energy to 1200 mu of medicinal land. The father engages in management and the daughter engages in sales, making piles of medicinal materials out of Hejin and into the whole country, and has become a well-known "king of medicine." They are Yao Qingze and Yao Jiping.

Yao Qingze, 50, a native of Shangniu Village, Liwang Township, Wanrong County, settled in Hejin more than 20 years ago. At that time, Hejin was developing the saline-alkali land of the Yellow River beach in Lianbo, and Yao Qingze, who had a keen mind, discovered the business opportunity and contracted 1200 mu of beach land early, mainly to grow vegetables and grain, and intermittently planted medicinal materials. Just started to engage in vegetable grain cultivation, due to lack of experience, coupled with the influence of external factors, the income is good and bad. After several years of exploration, Yao Qingze gradually figured out the way, and he found that growing medicinal materials on the beach was not only easy to manage, but also sold for a long time. In 2003, he made up his mind to change his crops and began to grow medicinal materials for a long time.

Yao Qingze manages medicinal materials, just like taking care of children. Before each kind of medicinal material is planted on a large scale, he first tries to plant it to observe the yield, disease resistance and growth of the plant. On one occasion, after two years of "care", it was found that Scrophularia was still not suitable for the local temperature environment, and its disease resistance was poor, resulting in a large number of dead seedlings. Under the pain, Yao Qingze cleaned up all the seedlings of Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae and turned to develop Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, Radix Isatidis, Radix Polygalae, Bupleurum, Platycodon grandiflorum and other medicinal materials. Under his scientific management, the medicinal materials have high survival rate and good quality, and are favored by the market. In 2012, he set up a professional cooperative for the cultivation of authentic medicinal materials, attracting local members to join the cooperative and vigorously developing the cultivation of medicinal materials.

Yao Qingze has made great achievements in various kinds of medicinal materials, but he has no extra energy to expand the market. His eldest daughter, Yao Jiping, graduated from the Chinese and Western clinical major of Shanxi College of traditional Chinese Medicine and worked as an assistant doctor in the Municipal people's Hospital. Her father was busy in the fields all day, and the herbs in stock were piled into a hill. She saw it in her eyes and worried about it. In 2010, she decided to resign, go home to help her father with his business, and start selling medicinal materials.

"although I have learned some professional knowledge, I know nothing about sales at all, and it took a lot of effort to achieve what I am doing now." In 2011, Yao Jiping took a train to Bozhou, Anhui Province to inspect the market. due to lack of experience, he did not know how to take samples of medicinal materials at that time, but only knew how to run next to the merchants. Sometimes after talking for a long time, the shop assistant only left his business card, and there was no news since. After running like this for more than half a month, she was a little exhausted, but she dared not be discouraged at all. "run three or four times, and someone will always remember me." She said. Sure enough, kung fu lived up to the willing, and half a month later, there was a turn for the better. When she had boarded the train and left Bozhou for the next city, a boss surnamed Zhu called to ask her about her herbs. Yao Jiping told Boss Zhu that there were hundreds of tons of Salvia miltiorrhiza in her family. Boss Zhu was very surprised and didn't believe it all the time. With the mentality of trying, he decided to come to Hejin and have a look. As soon as I saw it, I was startled, and hundreds of tons of medicinal materials were right in front of me. Boss Zhu inspected the quality of the medicinal materials, negotiated the price, determined the quantity, and paid for it by weighing. From then on, he established a long-term cooperative relationship.

"sometimes, the opportunity is so sudden, in the process of running the market in that month, I learned a lot of things and gradually got into the way." Yao Jiping has deep feelings. Now the "Internet +" model is developing rapidly, and she often uses WeChat group and QQ to send some advertisements. If a drug manufacturer wants to see how the medicine is, she will send samples by express delivery.

Happiness came very suddenly, and the general manager of Guangdong East Guangdong Pharmaceutical Company contacted her through the QQ group. "at first, the general manager of East Guangdong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. chatted with me. I always thought he was fooling me. Later, he sent messages again and again to cooperate. I sent samples with a try attitude. Unexpectedly, we not only became partners, but also established a deep friendship." When the sample was received, the general manager of East Guangdong Pharmaceutical Company contacted Yao Jiping over the phone to discuss the price, and immediately paid hundreds of thousands of yuan. "I still feel a little foggy when I think about it. I can't believe we haven't even met. I haven't even delivered the goods, so they paid all the money directly." Yao Jiping said. Up to now, the business dealings between the genuine Medicine Cooperative and East Guangdong Pharmaceutical Industry have been contacted by telephone, and the two sides have never met, but it does not affect the development of the business at all.

At present, under the careful management of father and daughter, 6000 jin of land can be produced per mu, and salvia miltiorrhiza can be dried up to 300kg. Their medicinal materials have been exported to Anguo in Hebei, Bozhou in Anhui, Zhendong in Shanxi, Wanronghuakang, East Guangdong Pharmaceutical Industry in Guangdong, and Lotus Pool in Sichuan.

The sales business of his daughter Yao Jiping is booming, and his father Yao Qingze does not relax his management. Yao Qingze always chooses excellent varieties, rotates sowing on time and season, and has sufficient water and fertilizer to ensure the quality of medicinal materials. Over the years, they have encountered a lot of problems in planting. "when the raw land was planted in 2012, the leaves withered seriously after several heavy rains. due to a lack of understanding of the bacteria, nearly 1/3 of the seedlings died after understanding the cause, causing serious losses." Yao Qingze said that for more than 20 years, whenever he encountered problems, he would learn from experienced people with other kinds of medicinal materials to enrich himself. Through continuous summary, he gradually figured out the planting methods of medicinal materials, and was able to solve a variety of problems encountered in the growth process of medicinal materials.

Yao Qingze is good at studying. The traditional machine gives medicine to the medicine slowly and takes a long time. In order to improve the efficiency, he studied and designed the mechanical medicine, which can administer nearly 500 mu of medicine a day. In 2015, he personally went to Shandong to order the automatic sowing machine of Salvia miltiorrhiza in the machinery factory to reduce the labor intensity. For the villagers who help themselves to work, Yao Qingze treats them kindly, making them feel like they are at home. They are tired to rest, thirsty to drink, pay their wages every day, and never default or buckle. For his colleagues engaged in planting around, he also unreservedly introduced his experience, and he also set up a WeChat group to help the surrounding villagers solve practical problems online, teach you some knowledge about the prevention and control of diseases and insect pests in the cultivation of medicinal materials, and won the praise of the villagers.

People are afraid of famous pigs and strong. Yao Qingze really became an expert in the management of medicinal materials in the beach of the Yellow River, attracting all Spaniards. The cost of land contracting in Spain is low. A Spaniard who had previously worked with a Spaniard who rented a lot of land in Spain and wanted to plant medicinal materials invited him to go abroad as a technical expert several times and offered an annual salary of 500000. In the face of the generous reward, he still chose to refuse because he was reluctant to leave his home and the "children" he had planted himself.

Father and daughter always firmly believe that quality is credibility, one inside, one outside, obscure won one side of the "medicine king" status, driving the development of the people on one side. Authentic medicine cooperatives sell nearly 300 tons of medicinal materials every month to Shanxi Zhendong Group and Guangdong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. because of their good quality, they have been listed as inspection-free products by two enterprises. Next, they will choose a site to build a factory, continue to expand the planting area, build new large warehouses and drying rooms, and carry out planning and arrangement, so as to make authentic medicine cooperatives more professional and automated, and strive to build their own brands.