Chapter 84: Preparing Supplies

"An urgent report has been sent from Yongning County in Jizhou, thousands of people in the county have been infected with the epidemic, and hundreds have died."

Song Yuzhu said anxiously: "Hurry up and submit the report!"

"Your Majesty..." Qin Fengtu and Liu Lin stopped him. The report was sent from the epidemic area. If it was infected with the disease, it would be very dangerous.

Xu Bing said: "Don't worry, Your Majesty is well versed in medicine and knows what to do."

Only then did Liu Lin dare to present it.

Song Yuzhu took the report and read it word by word. It said that the epidemic started in Tianhe Town, Yongning County.

At first, only a few people suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, but then the number of people suffering from the disease gradually increased until almost everyone in the town was infected with the disease.

The epidemic is divided into three stages. In the first stage, the patient suffers from nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. In the second stage, the diarrhea worsens. In the third stage, the patient begins to have bloody stools and will die.

The epidemic spread very quickly. People in several nearby towns were infected, and people in the county also fell ill one after another. Within a few days, the clinic was overcrowded.

The magistrate of Yongning County noticed that the disease was unusual and immediately reported it to the provincial government.

After receiving the news, the prefect of Jizhou first sent people to treat the disease. However, all those sent were infected with the disease. He was left with no other options, so he submitted an urgent report to the capital.

Song Yuzhu said solemnly: "Liu Lin, immediately order your men to collect medicines and supplies and prepare to send them to Jizhou for rescue!"

"I obey your command!" Liu Lin trotted out of the palace.

"Qin Fengtu, go to the Imperial Medical Garden and gather the imperial physicians. The elders will stay on duty, and the rest of you should pack your bags and prepare to go to Jizhou for support."

Qin Fengtu bowed and said, "I obey your command." Then he hurried out.

"Prime Minister Xu, go inform Zhao Xiao and ask him to dispatch 5,000 well-trained veterans from the army to stand by."

"Yes, Your Majesty. This epidemic is serious. I am willing to go to Jizhou in person to lead the fight against the epidemic."

Song Yuzhu was silent for a moment and then said, "Then I'll have to trouble Prime Minister Xu."

"This is my duty."

After everyone left, Song Yuzhu quickly opened the map and found Yongning County in Jizhou. The screen loaded for dozens of seconds, and what came into view was a corpse!

Song Yuzhu took half a minute to calm himself down, then zoomed in on the image and carefully examined the shape of the corpse.

Judging from the degree of decay of the body, the man had been dead for three or four days. The body was gray and covered with flies and maggots.

The hot summer weather speeds up the decay of corpses. Although he can't smell the stench of corpses in the video, the corpses exposed to the sun will soon become a breeding ground for bacteria. All it takes is a heavy rain to spread deadly bacteria everywhere.

If his dialectic was correct, the plague should be an infectious disease caused by Vibrio cholerae.

Cholera is more common in summer and autumn. The disease is mainly transmitted through water, food and contact with mosquitoes.

Most infected people will experience diarrhea in the first few days, followed by severe cholera symptoms, including severe diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, muscle cramps and high fever.

Once you are infected with this disease, there is no way to recover on your own. In an era without antibiotics and specific medicines, it is almost a fatal infectious disease!

Song Yuzhu studied medicine and knew how terrible this disease was. Even in his previous life when medicine was advanced, there were still countries that had experienced large-scale infections with this virus, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. It was a very dangerous Class A infectious disease!

Song Yuzhu took a deep breath and looked around. The entire street was empty, not even a single person could be seen. The situation was much more serious than what was reported!

He looked around and finally found two living people in a simple thatched hut.

"Dad, please drink some medicine. Your illness will be cured." A girl of fourteen or fifteen years old, with a cloth covering her face, held a bowl of medicine in her hand and handed it to the man.

The man's face was yellow, his eye sockets were sunken, and his lips were pale and bloodless. He looked dehydrated.

"Ni, didn't Dad tell you not to come over here? What if you get over here?!"

The girl's tears fell, wetting the cloth on her face, "I can't just watch you die."

The man sighed, took the bowl of medicine and drank it while suppressing his discomfort.

The girl quickly took out a piece of maltose from her pocket and put it into her father's mouth to help him suppress the bitter taste.

After a while, the man suddenly vomited violently, lying on the straw and vomiting all the medicine he had just taken. Then he started to defecate, and what he excreted was foamy and watery feces.

The girl wanted to help her father change the straw.

The man protested and yelled, "Just go inside and leave me alone."

"father……"

The man's eyes were red: "If you don't leave, I will kill myself here!" He has already lost his wife and three children, and now he only has a daughter left. He can't let her be infected with the disease.

The girl had no choice but to go into the house, kneel on the ground and kowtow towards the north.

"God, please save my father..."

The man in the straw hut was already in the middle and late stages of cholera. He was severely dehydrated and basically beyond help.

Sure enough, when the girl finished kneeling and went to check on her father, the man had already gone into shock and fainted.

"Dad! Dad, wake up!"

The only response she got was dead silence.

The girl cried out heartbreakingly: "Oh God, please open your eyes, this is the only relative I have left!"

Song Yuzhu couldn't bear it anymore and suddenly pulled away from the picture. He supported himself on the table with both hands and gasped violently. The cold sweat soaked the clothes on the back.

No, I must go to Jizhou. If the epidemic cannot be controlled, not only the entire Jizhou, but even Shangjing will be affected.

"Yuzu, I heard from Prime Minister Xu that there is an epidemic in Jizhou?" Zhao Xiao hurried back from the military camp.

"It's a very serious plague. I'm going to go there myself."

Zhao Xiao held Song Yuzhu's shoulders and said, "I'll go for you. You teach me how to do it."

"No one can do this for me." He has studied medicine for two lifetimes and is proficient in both Chinese and Western medicine. He dares to say that in this era, no one can be better than him in medical skills.

Seeing that he insisted, Zhao Xiao could only compromise: "Then I'll go with you."

Song Yuzhu shook her head: "Ah Xiao, I need you to stay in Shangjing..."

Zhao Xiao was anxious in an instant: "Song Yuzhu, who do you think I am? I am not your concubine, nor am I a weak woman who needs protection. I am the general who assists the country, and I am your man! If I can't even protect you, I might as well die!"

"I don't……"

Zhao Xiao said without hesitation: "You can't stop me from doing this. If you want to go, I will go!"

Seeing that he was determined to follow, Song Yuzhu had no choice but to talk to Xu Bing and ask him to stay in Shangjing to take charge.

When Xu Bing received the news, he shook his head helplessly, knowing that he could not stop these two people.

"Madam, don't pack your luggage. The emperor asked me to stay in Shangjing."

Wang Tingyue was already seven months pregnant, and she was directing the servants to pack up while holding her big belly. When she heard that she didn't have to go, she was naturally very happy.

"Why doesn't His Majesty allow you to go again?"

"The Emperor will go there in person."

"Ah!" Wang Tingyue covered her mouth, having an indescribable feeling in her heart. The Emperor of Daqi was different from the emperors of the previous dynasty.

The emperor, a precious daughter, actually went to fight the epidemic personally for the people. No wonder my husband always praises the emperor every time he mentions him. It is truly a great blessing for the world.

*

Before providing disaster relief, Song Yuzhu first went to the Imperial Medical Garden to see the imperial physician. There were a total of forty-five medical officers in the Imperial Medical Garden. Except for seven older medical officers who stayed behind on duty, the rest had to go.

For a highly contagious disease like cholera, prevention is better than cure. We must protect those who are not infected. We should try our best to treat those who are infected. Whether they can be saved or not depends on man's plan and God's disposition.

Song Yuzhu told them about the current situation in the epidemic area and what to do after arriving there.

After making the arrangements, he asked again: "Are there any of you who don't want to go? I allow you to stay in Shangjing."

Going to an epidemic area is no different from going to a battlefield. Both are extremely dangerous, and it is natural for some people not to want to go.

The medical officers shook their heads at the same time. Whether they were sincere or not, they had to go.

Your Majesty has gone there in person, how dare they stay behind? Wouldn't that mean they would be ruining their careers?

Song Yuzhu looked at these medical officers and felt like he was saying goodbye to his colleagues.

"Protect yourself and come back soon."

When preparing to return to the palace, Song Yuzhu saw her cousin Song Yumin at the back of the crowd, waving at her excitedly. She stopped and asked him to come forward to ask questions.

This child has been training in the Imperial Medical Garden for two years and is now sixteen years old. His appearance has not changed much, he still has a round face and big eyes, and two dimples when he smiles, but he has grown very fast and is now half a head taller than Song Yuzhu.

"Your Majesty!" Song Yumin knelt down and kowtowed.

Song Yuzhu pulled him up and said, "Call me brother."

"Hey! Third brother."

Song Yuzhu asked, "Are you going too?"

"Yes! I will go with my master." His master is the current head of the Imperial Medical Academy, Bai Ning. In fact, the two are old acquaintances. Bai Ning is the apprentice of his father Song Lin.

"Go to Jizhou and listen to your master. Be careful."

"Why!"

This time when we go to Jizhou, we not only need to bring a large amount of Chinese medicine, but also sugar and salt.

Sugar and salt water is the simplest electrolyte water. Many people infected with cholera die from severe dehydration. Timely replenishment of electrolyte water is also one of the ways to treat cholera.

In the evening, Song Bai entered the palace.

"Dad, why are you here?"

Song Bai said: "Yumin said there was an epidemic in Jizhou, what's going on?"

"It's very serious. Nine out of ten households in Yongning County are empty."

Song Bai said with a heavy face: "The epidemic is rampant, corpses are everywhere, and lives are in ruins. I remember your grandfather once told me that there was a great epidemic during the Wu Dynasty, and countless people died."

"At first, the dead could be put into coffins and buried. Later, when all the coffin boards were used up, they were wrapped in mats. Finally, when there were no more mats, the dead were thrown into the open space. The bodies were piled up like a small mountain. The court could not control the epidemic, so Emperor Wu ordered the city to be burned down. The whole city was burned to ashes..."

"Don't worry, Dad. I won't let anyone burn the city!"

Song Bai nodded, "By the way, what is the prescription for the medicine you sent to Jizhou?"

"The Sini Decoction prescribed by Imperial Physician Yuan Yuanshou contains eight slices of aconite, one and a half liang of dried ginger, and two liang of licorice. It has the effect of restoring yang and rescuing the patient from the adverse condition, treating cold limbs, curling up in bed, abdominal pain and diarrhea, and vomiting without thirst."

This prescription is an old prescription from "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" and is specifically used to treat cholera.

Song Bai stroked his beard and said, "Yes, your father has a folk remedy. I wonder if it can be used. It's called aged mustard greens stew."

Song Yuzhu was stunned for a moment, and suddenly remembered that he had heard his teacher mention stewed mustard greens when he was in college!

In ancient times, many people would bury mustard brine in their homes to treat tuberculosis.

The method of making aged mustard greens stew is not difficult. Just store the mustard greens in a large jar, expose them to the sun and dew at night, and green hairs will soon grow on them.

When the green hairs grow to two or three inches, the jar is buried in the ground and dug out after ten years. At this time, the mustard greens have already turned into soup, which is almost a simplified version of penicillin.

Song Yuzhu was ecstatic. He was worried about antibiotics. "Dad, you helped me a lot!"

*

The epidemic situation was serious and could not be delayed. Early the next morning, the doctors from the Imperial Medical Garden took the first batch of Chinese medicine and boarded a carriage to Jizhou.

There were also 5,000 officers and soldiers traveling with them. These soldiers were there to protect the medical officers and medicines and to prevent the local people from looting and mutiny.

Song Yuzhu did not leave for the time being. He was waiting for the Medical Engineering Department to refine alcohol. Alcohol can be used for disinfection and sterilization, and is one of the most indispensable supplies in the epidemic area.

All the liquor from restaurants in Shangjing was sent to the Ministry of Medicine and Engineering, where simple distiller worked non-stop for twelve hours to extract high-concentration alcohol.

Song Yuzhu also sent people to look for aged mustard pickles in the city.

The officers and soldiers collected dozens of jars of old mustard brine in the city, plus more than ten barrels of alcohol from the Medical and Engineering Department.

Song Yuzhu and Zhao Xiao finally set out on the journey to Jizhou.

(End of this chapter)