Chapter 106 Free Clinic at Shanggangpo
The stone bridge was washed away, meaning that the only option from now on is to take a detour.
As they looked at the village so close by, complaints began to rise from the group. Many people lost their spirits and their legs gave way, causing them to sit down on the ground.
"Director Chen, please take a half-hour break."
Seeing this, Squad Leader Ye took the initiative to scout ahead, allowing Chen Yun and the others to rest where they were.
"It's only half a mountain away from Changsun Village. I reckon we'll have to get there next week."
After resting for a while and finally catching his breath, Duan Yun strolled around the river twice before returning to tell Chen Yun.
“I heard from an old comrade who stayed in the same dormitory last night that our free clinic this time is going to be difficult to organize,” Jiang Changjun suddenly reminded him, making sure everyone present could hear him clearly: “Changsun Village is xenophobic, especially men from other villages; no one is allowed to enter the village.”
Among the group was a nurse named Jiang Lan, who had arrived in Mengding County a few years earlier than Duan Yun. As soon as she heard everyone talking about Changsun Village, she immediately started talking.
"Changsun Village is more than just difficult to deal with... We have to be careful when we go in, and we absolutely cannot ask around..."
Chen Yun heard from Duan Yun that the former village chief of Changsun Village was a bandit.
Jiang Lan's account was much more detailed, starting with a description of the village model of Changsun Village.
Changsun Village was built almost like a bunker, with sentries on duty at night, and no man, young or old, could even think of entering it.
At the village entrance, a stone gate as tall as two people was built, with a watchtower on top, making it no different from a bandit stronghold in the old society.
Several years have passed since the reform and opening up, and Jiang Lan heard that the cadres sent by the township government still haven't figured out the specific situation in the village, how many people there are...
“I heard…” Jiang Lan clicked her tongue twice, raised her finger and pointed to her temple: “There are homemade guns in the village, left over from the wars of the past, and even a homemade cannon!”
Although these were all just rumors, the closed-off and arrogant attitude of Changsun Village instantly increased the credibility of these rumors.
Chen Yun took the water that Zuo Lingling handed her and drank a sip. As the group chatted, a sense of foreboding gradually crept in.
I haven't felt this way for many years.
But today, these words have appeared frequently in Changsun Village, and the sentiment is growing stronger... This free clinic is not peaceful, and it is definitely related to them.
“If the men are not allowed to enter Changsun Village, we will give up the free clinic in the village and go directly to the next village.”
"..."
Chen Yun paused, then continued under everyone's gaze: "Not entering the village is my decision, and I will bear any consequences."
After another moment of silence, Duan Yun spoke up first to support Chen Yun: "I support Director Chen. How could a few of us women dare to go in?"
“I support Director Chen,” Zuo Lingling echoed.
The doctors and nurses from Beicheng Hospital all chose to support Chen Yun. They felt that it was better to take a beating than to risk going to an unknown place and facing unknown dangers.
Before Ye Jian returned, everyone had already finished discussing the matter.
"Director Chen, there is a mountain road behind us. We may have to take a detour of half an hour on the mountain road and go around the mountain pass in front of Changsun Village."
Chen Yun and Duan Yun exchanged a glance.
"Let's go," Chen Yun decided.
This is a good opportunity to verify whether Chen Yun's premonition is related to Changsun Village.
The team set off again.
As the sun grew stronger, everyone was drenched in sweat, their steps heavy and extremely slow.
Ye Jian kept glancing at the doctors and nurses in the team, whose fair skin clearly indicated a lack of exercise.
To his surprise, after walking for almost four hours on the mountain path, not a single person fell behind; everyone gritted their teeth and persevered to keep going.
In particular, Chen Yun, who was leading the group, was the only woman carrying the heavy load. Her basket contained a total of forty-eight bottles of alcohol and medical supplies such as gauze.
He was impressed by the resilience of the women.
"Keep going, everyone! Changsun Village is just ahead!" To encourage everyone, Ye Jian pointed to a wall that appeared not far away: "After passing Changsun Village, it'll be there in another ten minutes!"
Following the direction of the finger, everyone looked up into the distance.
A fortified village built on the mountaintop came into view, with a winding stone staircase leading from the wooden gate to the roadside. The words "Changsun Village" were painted on the gate.
Changsun Village was indeed built to resemble a fortified village.
Chen Yun's heart pounded harder as she got closer, and she felt dizzy and unsteady, even finding it difficult to breathe.
"Director Chen."
Chen Yun's face instantly lost all color and turned deathly pale. Ye Jian hurriedly lowered his hand and supported Chen Yun's swaying body.
"It's nothing." Chen Yun smiled weakly and waved to the others, "I'm probably just dehydrated. I'll be fine after a couple of sips of water."
Chen Yun knew that this feeling, which was like a warning, would soon pass.
"How about we go into the village and rest for a while?" Ye Jian was not familiar with the situation in Changsun Village, and after weighing the options, he tentatively suggested.
"No need," Chen Yun quickly waved his hand. "Let's rest at the hilltop."
Ye Jian was puzzled, but then he heard others echoing his sentiments.
"Give me that basket, let's keep going."
Ye Jian didn't know whether they were stubborn and inflexible or if there was some hidden reason, but seeing that everyone's faces were not good, he didn't insist anymore, took the basket and directed the team to continue forward.
The dizziness passed quickly, and Chen Yun gulped down half a pot of water before catching up with the group, supported by Duan Yun and Zuo Lingling.
Who are you?
Just as they passed the wooden gate of Changsun Village, which resembled a bunker, someone on the city wall suddenly shouted to stop them.
Ye Jian looked up, his expression instantly turning serious.
The man on the city wall had a homemade gun slung over his shoulder, with one hand on the gun, ready to attack at any moment.
"We are doctors from the town's central hospital. We're here to provide free medical services in Shanggangpo," Chen Yun answered loudly, pointing to the white coat draped haphazardly over his shoulders. "The bridge to Shanggangpo was washed away by the flood, so we have to take a detour this way."
"oh!"
The man's expression remained wary, perhaps because he saw that most of the people in the group were women, and he ultimately said nothing.
But his gaze fell directly on a group of five people in green military uniforms.
"Let's go," Chen Yun said to Ye Jian.
Ye Jian nodded solemnly, now he finally understood why everyone had been avoiding Changsun Village like the plague.
The group passed through Changsun Village quietly.
Once they were out of that hostile gaze, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"We need to report the situation in Changsun Village to our superiors. The presence of weapons in the village poses a significant threat to the surrounding villages..."
During the disaster relief operation in Mengding County, perhaps due to its location as a border city, the troops discovered that many villages possessed homemade guns and artillery.
This is a legacy issue, and it is very difficult to resolve.
However, most villages would choose to hand over the weapons after being persuaded, and the phenomenon of armed patrols like in Changsun Village was extremely rare, or even nonexistent.
At least when that man saw Ye Jian and his men's green uniforms again, his eyes showed wariness rather than friendliness, and very little at all...
"Let's get to the post first and then talk about the problems."
After being questioned like that, all the fatigue vanished instantly, and everyone was eager to leave this terrifying place as soon as possible.
Shanggangpo is a completely different, peaceful village.
The houses are scattered on the mountainside, and many villagers are already planting seeds in the fields this spring.
Due to the flooding, the village's only landline phone was no longer working, and the village had not received any notification from higher authorities to provide free medical services.
However, upon learning the medical team's purpose, the village chief showed a very warm welcome.
"Director Chen, please rest at my house for half an hour. I'll bring some people to clean up the ancestral hall at the entrance of our village so you can stay there tonight."
"Thank you so much, Village Chief." Chen Yun thanked him repeatedly and handed the loudspeaker brought by the medical team to the village chief: "I would also like to trouble you to inform the villagers... We plan to stay in Shanggangpo for about a week."
"Okay!" the village chief readily agreed.
The village chief went door-to-door to notify them, and after resting for a while, Chen Yun and the others also got moving.
The medicines brought in were organized, and a team of medical workers was arranged to provide free medical consultations.
"Dr. Jiang, you're in charge of pediatrics."
Jiang Changjun, being a pediatrician himself, was the perfect choice for pediatrics. Zuo Lingling took on the gynecology and gynecology duties, while Chen Yun served as the general assistant, coordinating all treatments.
That night, the medical team dispersed to stay overnight in the homes of various villagers.
After a good day of rest, the free clinic officially began the next day.
The village head and secretary of Shanggangpo Village are both warm-hearted people. They not only notified the villagers but also notified individual families scattered in the mountains in the dark.
Most of those people had fled into the mountains due to the war, making it even more difficult for them to go down the mountain to see a doctor.
Upon hearing that a doctor was coming to the village to treat patients, almost every household that received the news set off for Shanggangpo before dawn. Those who lived far away even set off overnight with their elders or children on their backs.
So when Chen Yun and the others arrived at the village entrance, they found it so crowded that there wasn't even room to put their feet down.
Seeing this, the village chief of Shanggangpo Village borrowed Chen Yun's loudspeaker and shouted loudly around the crowd: "Villagers of Shanggangpo, come out first, let the villagers who came from the mountains see first. We are close by, if it doesn't work tomorrow, we can see it the day after..."
He kept shouting around the crowd for several minutes before villagers from Shanggangpo finally responded to the call.
Chen Yun breathed a sigh of relief, took the loudspeaker, and told the remaining people to start lining up.
"Those bringing the elderly to see a doctor, line up here; those bringing children to see a doctor, line up in the middle; and as for our women comrades... they'll be over there where the white cloth is set up. We have a doctor here today who specializes in treating women's diseases."
With this arrangement, the crowd finally became orderly.
Chen Yun randomly selected some people and asked them what was wrong, pointing out the correct line to those who had been in the wrong line.
"There are so many people in the pediatrics department."
Several lines were set up, and the number of people in the pediatric ward was several times greater than in the other lines, with children ranging in age from infants to seventeen or eighteen years old.
Upon seeing this, Chen Yun immediately decided to join the ranks of pediatricians.
The makeshift pediatric clinic consisted of a wooden board covered with a white sheet, with a tractor covered with straw serving as the examination bed.
Chen Yun lifted the curtain, and Jiang Changjun immediately came forward, looking somewhat anxious: "The children we treated earlier all had roundworms in their stomachs, and we're afraid we won't have enough deworming medicine."
Jiang Changjun discovered that not only children had roundworms in their stomachs, but adults could also be diagnosed with roundworms after being questioned.
Faced with such a high rate, the deworming medication brought by the medical team was clearly insufficient.
"You go see a doctor first, I'll go talk to Squad Leader Ye," Chen Yun said.
The Mengding County government completely underestimated the village's severe lack of medical care. Not to mention deworming medicine, Chen Yun estimated that it would take at least ten days to half a month for the free clinic to be completed.
There are just too many people...
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