Chapter 3129 News from the Capital
After Cao Yixuan and Wei Man went to settle down, Zhou Man looked at Zheng Gu and asked, "Did you come here alone?"
"No, there's my wife."
Zhou Man nodded and said, "I have someone clean up the guest room. You don't have to stay at the inn anymore. Stay at home instead."
Zheng Gu agreed with a smile, and Zhou Man then asked, "Is everything okay in the capital?"
Zheng Gu said, "When I left, the Imperial Medical Bureau had already selected a site in Yongzhou to build a pharmacy, and the Eastern Palace had allocated a piece of land in the Imperial Farm for a pharmacy. The two locations are not far apart. According to the Dean, after graduating, pharmacy students can choose to work as pharmacists in various medical bureaus, work in the Imperial Medical Bureau's pharmacy, or work in the Eastern Palace's pharmacy."
Zhou Man tilted his head in confusion. "The pharmacy belongs to the Eastern Palace? Isn't it the royal family's?"
Zheng Gu smiled faintly and said, "My uncle said that when the pharmacy was just about to open, several princes and dukes came to Your Majesty, all wanting to take on this job. Your Majesty was in a dilemma and couldn't make a decision, so he simply pretended to be deaf and dumb, claiming that he knew nothing about it and that it was all the Crown Prince's doing. That's why the pharmacy is now registered under the name of the Eastern Palace."
"While that's true, the ministers and the royal family all know that it was His Majesty's intention," Zheng Gu said. "Penicillin is extremely valuable, and it's difficult to produce these days. Sometimes, a pharmacist can't handle it properly and ruin a whole batch. Besides the military, only the Imperial Hospital keeps some on hand for emergencies."
He said, "But you also said that this medicine is not suitable for some people, so we won't prescribe it unless it's absolutely necessary. Some senior officials, especially generals going to the battlefield, always want to carry some with them, so they keep trying to buy it. The price of the medicine has been driven up to the sky, almost the same as ginseng."
But ginseng takes decades or even hundreds of years to grow, and people have to discover and dig it up. Apart from anything else, the time cost alone is not low, so it is natural that it is expensive.
But penicillin...
The cost of this thing is far less than ginseng, and the price the Imperial Hospital gave to the army was not very high. After all, it was intended for ordinary soldiers to use it as well.
But after changing hands once, twice, this thing actually fetched a sky-high price. Profits are attractive, which is why so many people want to get their hands on it.
The Imperial Medical Bureau runs its own pharmacy and employs its own students and apprentices as pharmacists. Sales can also be directly connected with the Ministry of War, local medical bureaus, clinics and drug stores, so there is no need for outsiders at all.
So everyone turned their attention to the pharmacy under the prince's control.
"Apart from the pharmacy, there is the memorial submitted by my master." Zheng Gu was not qualified to attend the court, so he heard it from his uncle. Moreover, Zhou Man's memorial caused an uproar in the court, and there was discussion in the Imperial Medical Bureau and the Imperial Hospital, so it was not difficult for him to know.
"Most court officials agree with your suggestion, Master, that each state medical bureau should be responsible for administering the county medical bureaus. However, some oppose it," Zheng Gu said. "Those who support it believe that with a pharmacy, the Imperial Medical Bureau will have a steady income in the future. With support from the national treasury and His Majesty's inner treasury, the Imperial Medical Bureau can continue to operate for a long time."
"Those who oppose it think this isn't a long-term solution. The cost of running local medical offices is too high, and it's inevitable that someone will falsify household registration to defraud medical services, or even change a registered household to a lower-ranking one, or vice versa."
Zhou Man twitched his lips, snorted, and asked, "How did Xiao Yuanzheng respond to them?"
Xiao Yuanzheng had no chance to get a word in as they were arguing amongst themselves.
Zhou Man groaned, "Next time you write to Xiao Yuanzheng, remember to tell him that if anyone else says this, tell him to ask, are the officials in the county government, the Censorate, and the Dali Temple all vegetarians?"
If a person who has registered as a household member is changed from a high-ranking household member to a low-ranking household member, you will catch him if he is found, and punish him heavily if two people are found. This will make you truly change from a high-ranking household member to a low-ranking household member, and then see if they will still cheat?
Zheng Gu scratched his head and said, "Master, you are about to give birth, you can't be angry."
"I'm not angry," Zhou Man waved his hand and asked, "Anything else?"
Zheng Gu hesitated for a moment before saying, "Lord Wei is ill, but he was already able to attend court before I arrived. I saw his face and it looked a little off. I asked my uncle, but he wouldn't let me inquire. The Imperial Hospital also confiscated Lord Wei's pulse records and forbade anyone to review them."
He remembered that his master had a good relationship with Lord Wei, and Lord Wei was also a strong supporter of the local medical bureau's product promotion, so he felt that he should tell his master.
Zhou Man was stunned for a moment and fell silent.
Wei Zhi's health was very poor. If it weren't for the pills she gave him, he would probably not have survived until the end of the Liaodong War two years ago.
Seeing her silence, Zheng Gu also fell silent.
After a while, she came back to her senses and asked, "Anything else?"
Zheng Gu smiled and said, "The rest is our personal affairs. Master, Xiao Yuanzheng has asked Third Junior Brother to go to the pharmacy. If nothing unexpected happens, he will be in charge of the pharmacy in the future."
Zhou Man was surprised. "Zheng Shao is young and has only been training for two years. Can Xiao Yuanzheng be so confident?"
He smiled and nodded, "He's a little worse at taking pulses and prescribing medicine, but his understanding of medicine is much deeper than any of us. His penicillin production has the highest success rate. We've tested it, and it's the most effective and stable, so Dean Xiao chose him."
Zhou Man nodded slightly. "When he was in the Imperial Medical Bureau, he was the best at pharmacy and the medicines he made were better than yours."
Zhou Man asked, "Where are Liru and Sanniang? How are they?"
They are so nice!
There are many female doctors in Beijing now. A group of them graduated last year. In addition to a few in the Imperial Hospital, two female doctors also joined the Chang'an County Medical Bureau. However, because Liu Sanniang and Zhou Liru are Zhou Man's disciples, they are more popular.
Facts have also proved that their medical skills are better.
Therefore, the women of the powerful and wealthy families in the capital liked to invite them when they were sick.
Those who are qualified can hire them from the Imperial Hospital, which is quick and cheap; those who are not qualified can hire them privately...
Zheng Gu recalled the lively scene at the Imperial Hospital when he saw various families coming to invite them. He sighed and said, "Compared to us male doctors, they are much more popular."
Zhou Man nodded with satisfaction. What she feared most was that female doctors would be excluded in the capital, and then it would be difficult for the Imperial Medical Bureau to recruit female disciples.
The master and the disciple chatted for a long time and went to have dinner only after being called. Zheng Gu then asked someone to bring out the things that the families in the capital had asked him to bring.
Zhou Man was stunned. "Strange! Didn't my family just ask someone from the palace to bring me something? How come there's still something here?"
Zheng Gu thought for a moment and said, "I was going to tell them ten days before I left. The people from the palace arrived two days in advance and left later than us. They had to leave at the last minute. We met on the road and left together. Maybe they packed it up later?"
Zhou Man asked someone to open the box and see what was inside. He found that it was filled with various children's clothes, shoes, and even half a box of diapers.
She was stunned. "I can see, this really took time and careful preparation."
(End of this chapter)
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