Chapter 2808 Inquiry (Updated on April 30th)
Zheng Gu thought for a moment and said, "It was a very chaotic day. The yamen runners came in during the lunch break."
He said helplessly, "I was in the backyard at the time, not in the clinic in front, but I could hear them breaking in and trying to arrest someone. I vaguely heard two doctors trying to stop them. I was about to go forward, but from the small gate I heard the yamen runners shoving the patient and his family, saying I was using fake medicine in the clinic and that it had killed someone."
He paused, giving Master Yu and Master Xia time to react, and then continued after a moment, "I had a feeling something was wrong, so I retreated and closed the small door. Then I wrote a letter and gave the two account books to a servant to take away and deliver to Master in the capital."
Lord Yu glanced at Zhou Man and asked, "Why are the medical office's account books in the backyard?"
Zheng Gu said, "In fact, I had the entire year's account books in my backyard study, including every purchase order."
He said, "It's almost the New Year, and the Medical Office needs to review the accounts. The general ledger needs to be submitted to the Imperial Medical Office for review. It's cold out today, and I have almost no time to do this during the day. I do it at night, so I took the account books back to the study in the backyard to do it."
The front is empty, and I need to light an extra fire pot. How can it be as comfortable as the study room at home?
There was only a wall between the front and the back, so Zheng Gu took the things home and made them without distinguishing between public and private.
Looking back now, I don’t know whether it is fortunate or unfortunate.
"So, when this happened, you didn't know where the medicine was?"
"Yes." Zheng Gu paused and said, "On that day, all four of our families, including the servants, were arrested and imprisoned. The next day, I discovered that the pawn medicine was missing from the prison. From what I heard, they had escaped."
This is consistent with what Magistrate Luo said. Magistrate Luo also said that a pharmacist had escaped and was not in the mansion on the day of the arrest. He suspected that Zheng Gu had sent him out.
Lord Yu came back to his senses and continued with the next question, "Master Zheng, please tell us about the fake medicine that killed people."
Zheng Gu sighed and said, "On the third day of November, I received another batch of medicinal herbs. After checking and confirming that they were correct, they were put into storage. Since the beginning of winter, due to the cold weather, the number of people falling ill has increased significantly. There are also people from other counties who come here to seek medicine, but these patients are still a minority."
He said, "Although the Medical Office is located in Luoyang, it is the Luozhou Medical Office. You also have responsibilities for the other eight counties. Therefore, I will take medicinal materials to other counties every once in a while to provide free medical treatment to the poor people who are suffering from colds."
"I remember those five sick families. Three of them were tenant farmers outside Luoyang City, and two were farmhands east of the city. They weren't well-off," Zheng Gu said. "Their children started falling ill in early October, all suffering from colds caused by insufficient diet, weak constitutions, and exposure to wind. Because they sought medical treatment so often and had so many children, I remembered them."
Zheng Gu described it in great detail, even more than what was recorded in the files. At least Lord Yu and Lord Xia didn't know that he had treated their children.
Zheng Gu continued, "In November, around mid-month, the elderly in their family probably caught a cold due to the cold weather and physical weakness, and there was also a sick person at home. I examined them, and those who could receive acupuncture received it. Only the Mu and Huang families, because their elderly wives were ill, were unwilling to receive acupuncture, so they only prescribed medicine."
Zheng Gu said this with a hint of regret, "I always prescribe three doses of medicine, one dose per day. I was out of town right after I wrote the prescriptions, and when I came back, they came back for another consultation. Their condition hadn't improved, but had gotten worse. I felt their pulses and felt their cold symptoms had worsened. I suspected their home wasn't keeping them warm, or maybe there were other reasons, which aggravated their condition. So I prescribed three more doses."
Zheng Gu paused here, his voice lowering. "But they hadn't finished using the medicine yet. Two days later, they came to my house, saying that their elderly family member was too ill to get out of bed, and begged me to go and see him. So I went."
"When we got there, we found their family was indeed poor, but the elderly man's bedding was still enough to keep him warm. The medicine shouldn't have caused his condition to deteriorate this much. When I felt their pulses, it didn't seem like they'd taken the right medicine. Instead, it seemed like they'd taken some cold medicine. That's why I had to check the medicine residue and the medicine they brought back."
Zheng Gu paused for a moment before saying, "The schizonepeta in the medicine was replaced with mint, and the poria was replaced with kudzu root."
Lord Yu didn’t understand so he asked directly to Zhou Man across from him, “Is it serious?”
Zhou Man nodded and said, "Schizonepeta dispels wind and dispels exterior pathogens, while mint dispels wind-heat and clears the head. It is a spicy and cool substance."
She said, "Nepeta tenuifolia, mint, and sedge are all similar in appearance. It would be fine if he had used sedge, but the medicinal properties of mint are completely different."
I've never heard of using mint to treat colds, but...
Zhou Man frowned slightly. "Although both nepeta and mint have aromatic scents, there are differences in aroma. Are they covering up the scent of mint?"
Otherwise, how could the medicine boy who dispensed the medicine not see it?
Zheng Gu nodded. "They used sulfur to fumigate it, so the smell is much lighter. If you don't smell it carefully, it smells similar to nepeta tenuifolia."
As for Poria cocos and Pueraria lobata, they are even more similar. Even the guys in the pharmacy who handle medicinal materials all year round will sometimes be fooled by them.
If someone were to make them look more alike, they would be even harder to tell apart.
Lord Yu asked, "And then?"
Zheng Gu took a deep breath and said, "Out of five patients, three survived after I changed the dressings and used acupuncture. The remaining two... were too seriously ill, and no medicine could help."
He said, "I knew something was wrong with the pharmacy, so I went back to investigate and found some fake medicine. I checked it, and if I was mistaken, it must have been the batch of herbs that came in on October 15th."
"Why not the batch on November 3rd?" Wasn't the latest batch of medicinal materials on November 3rd?
“Because that batch of medicinal materials were basically used in other counties, I have verified that there is no problem with that batch of medicinal materials.
Zheng Gu did not bring many people to other counties. Usually, he acted as both a doctor and a medicine boy to dispense medicine. He was sure that the medicinal materials that passed through his hands were not fake.
But this group in the Medical Department...
Because there are not only two doctors in the medical office, but also a pharmacist and five apprentice pharmacists to help, he is basically not needed for things like dispensing medicine.
"What did you find out?"
Zheng Gu said with a serious face, "I can confirm that I would never mistake Schizonepeta tenuifolia and Poria cocos. Therefore, this batch of counterfeit medicine was not purchased by me. Someone must have brought it in and replaced it."
"The amount of counterfeit medicine we found was not large. It was sealed in the pharmacy at the time. The fake Schizonepeta tenuifolia only weighed 15.6 jin (approximately 200 grams) and the fake Poria cocos only weighed 28.9 jin (approximately 200 grams)."
"Could it be that your pharmacy dispensed the wrong medicine, mistaking mint for schizonepeta, or kudzu root for poria?"
See you tomorrow
(End of this chapter)
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