Of course, making a vaccine was absolutely impossible, but he could use the most primitive method: cut off the smallpox scabs, grind them into powder, and blow the powder into the noses of smallpox patients, which could greatly curb the infection of smallpox.
Lu Tu will absolutely not let this guy go; he's a ready-made smallpox cure!
"May I have your name?"
The thin man knelt on the ground, his face covered in snot and tears: "Your Excellency, my name is Mo Zhou, and I have never done anything immoral in my life. I really am not lying to you!"
Lu Tu pointed to a spot: "Go and stay there. Someone will bring you food later, but you are not allowed to have any contact with anyone!"
Upon hearing this, Mo Zhou's eyes flashed with surprise, and he kowtowed repeatedly, saying, "Thank you so much for sparing my life, my lord! I promise I won't let anyone get near me!"
Nie Yun couldn't help but step forward and ask in a low voice, "Brother, why is this? His body is covered in scars and scabs, it looks disgusting."
Lu Tu shook his head slightly: "He still has a great use for me. I'll explain it to you later."
Things went much more smoothly after that. The vast majority of the refugees were healthy, which was within Lu Tu's expectations. After all, if they had been infected with smallpox, they wouldn't have been able to rush here from Baoma Village overnight.
It seems that those infected with smallpox have been excluded without being noticed. Now that the misunderstanding has been cleared up, Lu Tu will naturally keep his promise and take them in.
However, smallpox has a 7-day incubation period, during which Lu Tu will not allow them to enter the village.
"Listen up, everyone. You will be staying here for the next ten days. Since you've come to my place, you must follow my rules. If anyone dares to break my rules, then I'm sorry, but I'll kill them without mercy!"
The refugees present all nodded repeatedly, not daring to resist in the slightest, after all, they had just heard that Lu Tu was going to give them food.
“I, Lü Tu, always keep my word. You will all have a full meal soon, but I will only give you one day of rest. Starting tomorrow, everyone will have to work to earn food.”
"ah?"
These words immediately provoked dissatisfaction among the people present.
"Lord Lü, that's not what you said before you came. Didn't you say you were going to provide disaster relief?"
"Yes, Lord Lü, we're starving, how can you bear to make us work?"
As a minority grew dissatisfied, their emotions quickly spread to a large number of displaced people, and their previous excitement subsided.
Lu Tu was extremely experienced in dealing with such situations.
With just a wave of his hand, Nie Yun, Liu Yang, and the others understood what to do.
Immediately, more than a dozen people stepped forward, drew their knives, and killed the troublemakers in the crowd on the spot, without any regard for reason!
This scene truly terrified the refugees present. Those who had been urging everyone to let Lü Tu give them food for free were now beheaded.
Everyone was secretly relieved that they hadn't followed suit, otherwise their newly acquired good days would have been over.
Besides, at worst, it's just work. As long as you have food to eat, everything else is trivial.
The young man feared authority but not morality. Lü Tu's method was the simplest and most efficient. Among the crowd, very few were literate, and trying to reason with them would be like casting pearls before swine.
Seeing that everyone was obedient and docile, Lü Tu continued, "It's not just you, everyone who comes to me for help will be treated the same, even my fellow villagers, they must work every day! Each able-bodied adult will receive 1 jin of millet per day, and women and girls will receive 7 liang per day!"
Hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up again. One pound of millet per person per day! As long as you add more water, one pound of millet is enough to feed a family of three! What's more, women and girls also get food for working. Where else in the world could you find such a good thing?
Everyone knelt down on the ground, expressing their gratitude to Lü Tu: "Thank you, Lord Lü. We will definitely work hard."
Lu Tu nodded: "Let me make this clear from the start: there's no such thing as a free lunch. If anyone dares to slack off, they will be kicked out and forced to continue wandering outside! After all, the food is earned through everyone's hard work, and you don't want to waste everyone's hard work because of one bad apple, do you?"
These words have already connected everyone present into a collective. Even though they haven't done a single task yet, they have already felt the power of the collective and have identified with the group.
Upon hearing this, they all said indignantly, "Don't worry, sir, we will definitely keep an eye on each other and never let any slackers steal the fruits of our labor!"
"Good, very good! Starting today, you will live on the outskirts of this village. I will bring you some tools later so you can build a simple shed and get ready to eat."
When the words "meal is served" reached the ears of the refugees, they were immediately met with cheers and cries of joy. The people had not had a decent meal in far too long, and they had heard of Lü Tu's reputation before they came—he was absolutely a man of his word and loved the people like his own children.
Without further ado, Lü Tu immediately ordered Liu Yang to bring over 150 jin of millet, enough to feed these guys.
These 1,500-plus refugees haven't created any value yet, so Lu Tu naturally won't provide them with as much food as the villagers. A small amount of millet porridge per person is enough to fill them up, at most they'll just urinate a little more.
After doing all this, he left dozens of people to guard the place and headed towards the warehouse. Nie Yun asked curiously, "Brother, did he really have smallpox? Couldn't he have been infected?"
Lu Tu shook his head: "Maybe, but the smallpox scabs on his body are very useful and can be used to treat smallpox."
Upon hearing this, Nie Yun was greatly surprised: "Brother, how did you know? Is this the legendary 'fighting poison with poison'?"
"This is what Doctor Zhang Miao told me. Actually, I didn't believe it at first, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I don't know how serious the situation is in Wuchuan right now. You'll take some people to Wuchuan to buy a lot of grain later, but be careful. Try to avoid physical contact with people. Before entering the village, you must disinfect with quicklime and wood ash."
"Yes, sir!"
Lu Tu went to the warehouse to check on the penicillin he was cultivating. He saw that Ban Yingying was following Lu Tu's instructions and had been burning a charcoal stove in the warehouse to maintain the temperature in the room.
He praised her, saying, "Yingying did a good job. Try to stay here as little as possible from now on. I'll have someone bring you your meals."
"Yes, sir. But I'm so bored. Could you let Sister Qin Qianqian come over too?"
Lu Tu thought for a moment and said, "Alright, you go and tell her."
"Hehe, thank you, sir."
As soon as they left the warehouse, Xiao Zhong hurriedly pulled them aside, exclaiming in alarm, "Sir, a plague has broken out in our village!"
"What!?"
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