Chapter 301 A Scholar Must Be Resolute and Persevering
The sudden deaths of four people in Ping'an County have caused widespread panic.
If medicine can kill a person, who would dare to trust doctors anymore?
Two doctors from Rendetang, along with doctors from three other medical clinics, gathered in the inner hall to study the prescription together.
This is a fever-reducing formula passed down through generations. They can write down the prescription and dosage without thinking. But now, so many patients are taking this medicine at the same time, and not a single one has recovered. The first person to fall ill has been sick for four days. Logically speaking, after four days of taking the medicine, even if he is not completely cured, he should be much better. How come he is so seriously ill?
The old doctor stroked his beard: "This illness is probably not a common fever; we need to find the cause."
"The patient's sudden high fever is due to only a few reasons: catching a cold or the pathogenic heat being released externally. For catching a cold, use ephedra, cinnamon twig, and notopterygium root; for catching a heat, use bupleurum, cimicifuga, and mint... I believe there is nothing wrong with the prescription..."
"If there's no problem, why are the people in the city suffering from chronic illnesses, and some even dying suddenly?"
"This is a plague... there is no cure!"
"All those who are sick must be buried alive, or the entire Ping'an County will be wiped out!"
"..."
The doctors in the room looked terrified.
Plague is not an unfamiliar word. Just over a decade ago, during a border war, so many people died that the bodies couldn't be disposed of in the sweltering summer heat, and a plague broke out.
The plague spread, wiping out village after village, until all the infected people had died. Only then did the plague end...
"Stop talking nonsense!" Shen Zheng entered from the doorway and threw the prescription on the table. "From now on, brew the medicine according to this prescription. The six of you will be responsible for all the people in the city, and the two of you will come with me to the outskirts of the city!"
The old doctor picked up the prescription: "This...this is a prescription for treating livestock, how can you..."
Every medicine has some degree of toxicity. Prescriptions that directly target the therapeutic effect, regardless of the cause of the disease or the tolerance of the internal organs, are acceptable as long as they work. If side effects occur, then another prescription can be given to treat the side effects... Traditional Chinese medicine does not advocate this kind of shortcut treatment.
How could Shen Zheng understand these things? He only knew how to unconditionally support Aunt Zhao.
He sneered, "If you continue treating people like this, who knows how many will die? You're treating people like livestock, saving as many as you can! Besides, this prescription was written and presented by a divine physician. That physician travels the world and has extensive knowledge. Your shallow understanding naturally won't allow you to understand the wonder of this prescription. Stop sitting there in a daze, hurry up and brew the medicine!"
He was the magistrate's only son, so naturally no one would disobey his orders.
Although many of them disagree with using this formula, are there any better formulas if not this one?
We had no choice but to try anything, even if it seemed hopeless.
Shen Zheng, accompanied by four constables and two doctors, went outside the city.
It was afternoon, not yet time to cook porridge, and the large pot was just empty.
Shen Zheng ordered a fire to be started, and immediately began to brew medicine. As soon as the fire was lit, many refugees gathered around, all thinking that he was cooking porridge.
"If it's not porridge, what are you cooking?"
"They're not going to cook wild vegetables and tree bark for us to eat, are they?"
"Being able to drink hot tree bark porridge is not bad at all; it's better than starving."
The refugees huddled together, whispering among themselves.
Shen Zheng stood on the chair and said loudly, "This is medicine, a medicine specially made to treat illnesses. Drinking it can save lives. Come and collect your medicine in half an hour. People who are not sick should not come and crowd in."
The displaced people were in an uproar.
"The magistrate of Ping'an County is too kind. He not only provides two meals of porridge a day, but also medicine."
“I heard a long time ago that Ping’an County had a bumper harvest. The county government must be very rich, otherwise how could they afford to buy medicinal herbs for us refugees to drink?”
“Yesterday, the refugees from Huzhou said that Huzhou only provides one bowl of porridge a day, which is just plain water porridge. After drinking it, your stomach is full of water. The prefect of Huzhou is too poor. Ping'an County is the richest. We have come to the right place.”
"I also heard that the richest village in Ping'an County is called something like this: a person there was granted a title by the Emperor and was rewarded with countless gold and silver treasures."
"It's called Dahe Village. There was a peasant woman who was given the title of Sui Ruren because she discovered regenerated rice."
"I heard that their village harvested rice twice, so they must have a lot of grain..."
A group of refugees were discussing this.
The conversation reached a group of men gathered there. They were also refugees, and among them, they were considered the leaders.
The three or four people looked at each other, and then laughed at the same time.
They've been together for three or four months and have developed a tacit understanding. They don't need to communicate; they know what the other is thinking.
A large pot of medicine was quickly boiled, but with as many as four or five hundred refugees, more than a dozen pots needed to be boiled to meet the demand. Each person drank a bowl of medicine, and even if they didn't see any immediate effects, it was enough to put their minds at ease.
Porridge was served twice a day, and medicine was taken three times a day. The large pots set up inside and outside the city never stopped cooking.
Shen Zheng was so busy with everyone that he felt dizzy and lightheaded.
Even when his father abandoned him in Dahe Village and forced him to do the autumn harvest, he wasn't this exhausted.
But he didn't stop. As he handed bowls of porridge and medicine to the refugees, a sense of responsibility inexplicably rose in his heart.
A scholar must be resolute and persevering, for his burden is heavy and his journey is long.
Is it not a heavy responsibility to take benevolence as one's own duty?
To die before one's task is complete, is that not a long way off?
For the first time, he understood the meaning of those words in the book.
By the morning of the next day, good news came from the city: the body temperature of many patients with high fever had gradually subsided. Although they had not recovered, at least they saw hope.
Magistrate Shen still didn't sleep all night. Now that there was a direction for the treatment of the illness, he could put it aside for the time being.
However, the granary was almost empty.
He put down his pen and said slowly, "Master Yuan, take my seal and go to Ping'an County to invite all the merchants here. Each one must send a representative. Anyone who dares to disobey, just tie them up and bring them here."
Master Yuan asked in surprise, "Sir, do you mean..."
“Ping’an County is in trouble, and these wealthy merchants should give something back.” Magistrate Shen sighed. “Although doing so will incur the jealousy of the merchants, we have no choice but to do it… We can’t just stand by and watch hundreds of disaster victims outside the city starve to death.”
Master Yuan understood immediately.
The situation in Huzhou is even more complicated, and they certainly can't rely on anyone else. The only option is to make the merchants suffer huge losses and shift the pressure of food shortage onto them.
Although this approach is somewhat underhanded and not conducive to future management of merchants, it must be admitted that it is currently the only effective method.
Master Yuan turned around and went to handle the matter.
The city is now in a state of panic, with constables patrolling around the clock. Everyone is filled with fear and unease. Even wealthy merchants are afraid of contracting the plague and dying suddenly. Many merchants want to move their families elsewhere to avoid the plague, but the city gates are closed and they cannot leave.
These people also wanted to find out what the magistrate's next plan was, so when Master Yuan went to invite people, the merchants came without saying a word.
The main hall of the government office was filled with merchants, numbering as many as sixty or seventy people.
Each of the shopkeepers had a gauze covering their face... They didn't understand why they had to cover their faces with this; they just saw that the yamen runners also had something covering their faces and were imitating them.
After everyone had arrived, Yuan, the clerk, went to the study to invite Magistrate Shen.
He had just stepped outside when a constable rushed over: "Sir, that Manager Gao, he says he's confessed, he's confessed everything..."
Master Yuan thought for a while before he remembered who Manager Gao was.
The shopkeeper who tried to forcibly buy the soap recipe from Lady Sui was none other than Gao, an outsider who came to Ping'an County specifically after hearing rumors. Before he could even start doing business, his servant leaked the story about buying the soap recipe... The superior sent him to investigate, and he easily found out that the first thing Shopkeeper Gao did in Ping'an County was to forcibly take a widow... So, he immediately arrested Shopkeeper Gao and threw him into jail.
I've been so busy dealing with the refugees lately that I've completely forgotten about Manager Gao.
As far as he knew, this Manager Gao was quite wealthy, so why not rip him off?
Although the methods were somewhat despicable and vile, Yuan had a clear conscience as long as the money was used for the disaster victims!
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