Chapter 1574 Summer Heat
The next morning, Bai Erlang came to them angrily and said, "You did it on purpose."
Bai Shan didn't admit it, "What did we do on purpose?"
Manbao said directly: "Are you stupid? You really asked?"
Bai Erlang glared at Bai Shan angrily.
Bai Shan shrugged and did not deny it.
Bai Erlang said angrily: "You are so evil!"
Bai Shan said: "This is called learning from one's mistakes. Don't worry, you won't make such a mistake again."
Manbao nodded with a smile.
The two of them successfully angered Bai Erlang and left, and continued to look for delicious fruits in the farm. Because they had to go home today, they only played in the farm for most of the day, and then set off back to Beijing in the afternoon when the sun was not so strong.
This time, Manbao and his friends did not ride horses. Instead, they sat in the carriage, opened the windows to enjoy the breeze, and dozed off as the carriage swayed.
In order to make the most of the time to play, they didn't take a nap today.
While drowsy, Manbao seemed to hear loud crying coming from outside, and he woke up with a start. Bai Shan also woke up. The two of them pulled Bai Erlang, whose head was still nodding, and went to the window to look out.
I saw a woman on the roadside falling to the ground, slapping her thigh and crying bitterly. County Magistrate Tang and several yamen runners were standing not far from her. Their faces were solemn. Because of the scorching sun, her originally fair face had turned red, so red that it was almost black.
As soon as County Magistrate Tang looked up, he met their gaze. He nodded slightly to them and then turned back to say a few words to the person behind the woman. Then he turned around and left with the yamen runners.
Because there were so many people watching, the carriage was blocked. County Magistrate Tang, who was leading the horse, threw the horse to his subordinates and walked two steps at a time to catch up with their carriage.
Daji was also smart. He immediately got off the car and put down the seat to let County Magistrate Tang get in. Bai Shan poured a cup of hot tea for County Magistrate Tang.
County Magistrate Tang glanced at the steaming tea and said, "Does the sight of steam give me a headache?"
Manbao curiously withdrew his gaze from the window. The road was now open and the carriage was moving forward, slowly passing the woman who was still crying. "What happened?"
County Magistrate Tang sighed, "Her husband went out of town to work two days ago and hasn't returned yet. Her family searched along the road for two days without success, so they reported it to the government office, where the bailiffs found his body at the foot of a hill."
Bai Shan asked, "Did he die from a fall?"
County Magistrate Tang shook his head. "He died of heatstroke. The coroner confirmed that he only had some minor scratches from the fall. They weren't fatal. The real cause of death was the heat. He died from the sun."
Manbao and the other two opened their mouths wide.
County Magistrate Tang said, "Today's case marks the third death from the heat in Chang'an County. The first two were elderly people who couldn't survive the heat, but this one is a young and strong man."
And it is precisely because he was young and strong that it is so sad and his death was very unexpected.
The four of them turned their heads to look at the sunlight outside the car window. Even Bai Erlang couldn't help but say, "This year is so strange."
County Magistrate Tang said nothing.
But everyone was a little worried. They were afraid that there would be natural disasters this year and life would be difficult.
Even they felt this way, not to mention the ministers in the court. Although it was summer vacation, they could not take a vacation with peace of mind.
Even the emperor had to go to the front hall to read the news sent back from various places after resting for three days.
The Crown Prince had reviewed the memorials in advance and gave them to the Emperor in brief, "According to reports, the worst-hit areas are near the capital. Four prefectures, including Yongzhou and Shangzhou, have experienced over a month of no rain, and the heat has persisted. As of today, twenty-three people have died from the heat, sixteen of whom are elderly, four are young men, and three are children."
The emperor stood up with a sullen face and walked around twice. Feeling his throat getting hot again, he turned around and asked in a deep voice, "How is Shengzhou?"
The prince was silent for a moment before continuing, "There's been a siltation in Shengzhou, and a river has collapsed. Fortunately, the situation isn't particularly serious. Reports say it's been reblocked. Not many farmlands or guesthouses have been damaged, but five villages have been left homeless. They've been temporarily relocated to various counties in Shengzhou. The governor of Shengzhou is worried they might gather and cause trouble, so he's been dispersing them."
The emperor looked at the scorching sun outside and said with worry, "It would be better if the two sides were a little more even."
The prince thought to himself that he had always thought so since he was a child, but when he grew up he realized that if everything in the world was so arbitrary, there would be no need for an emperor and ministers to govern the world.
His father is so old, but he is still so naive.
The situation became increasingly serious. Frontline officials like County Magistrate Tang certainly could not take a vacation, and some relevant high-ranking officials also quietly returned to the Daming Palace to work overtime.
It was impossible to control the sun. All the emperor and his men could do was to inform the people to avoid the heat and not to work under the scorching sun.
Let the Ministry of Works work with local officials to find water sources, either by digging wells or tidying up river courses, to ensure that the people have access to water as much as possible;
The Ministry of Revenue also has to make preparations for disaster relief.
However, this year, another measure had to be taken. The Crown Prince said, "Father, the Imperial Medical Bureau is being established. They were originally going to establish medical clinics across the country to deal with the epidemic and the suffering of the poor. Why not take this opportunity to have them go down to the local areas to treat the people and prescribe some heat-relief prescriptions?"
The emperor asked the Ministry of Revenue, "Then should we allocate more money to purchase medicinal materials?"
Minister Liu thought for a moment and said, "We need the East Palace and the Imperial Hospital to jointly come up with a budget."
Now the Imperial Medical Bureau is under the management of the Eastern Palace, and the Imperial Medical Bureau has basically no qualifications to attend court meetings, so he can only ask the prince for it.
How could the prince know about curing illnesses and saving lives? He decided to send someone to find Xiao Yuanzheng later.
Xiao Yuanzheng was staring at the watermelon frost at this moment. After confirming that the watermelon frost really worked, Xiao Yuanzheng found some more watermelons to make a batch, which he had just put in the cool pharmacy.
Then he and Doctor Liu went to see the palace maids who were taking medicine, took their pulse records, and made observation notes.
Because it is a new drug, it must be taken for at least three months to make sure there are no side effects before it can be slowly used.
They didn't know that Zhou Man had already given the medicine to his future mother-in-law, and was still monitoring the situation bit by bit.
But Manbao took Mr. Mo's shortcut, and the procedures for new drugs still have to be followed.
But Zheng didn't know all this. She wondered if Fang was affected by the heat because she had stayed in the kitchen for too long. When she woke up in the morning, her throat felt itchy and sore, and she couldn't help coughing.
Zheng saw it and said, "The watermelon frost Manbao gave me some time ago is pretty good. Would you like to sprinkle some on it?"
Fang knew that her aunt was a good doctor, so she smiled and agreed.
(End of this chapter)
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