Physician Peng handed her a list. "Physician Lu led two newly promoted physicians to Jiangnan, while the Imperial Physician went to Sichuan with Lord Luo."
"The Imperial Physician?" Zhao Shu thought of this imperial physician and couldn't help but snort coldly. Going to Shu is your bad luck!
At this moment, the judge, who was nearly 500 miles away, sneezed so hard that he almost fell over.
Luo Hu sat on his horse at the front. The horse stopped in a small ravine, and his gaze fell on the stream not far away. There were three people who looked like disaster victims drinking water by the stream.
Among them was a seven or eight-year-old child who, upon seeing Luo Hu and the others, hurriedly clutched the bundle in his arms in fear. Another person was a bit older, about fourteen or fifteen or sixteen years old, and the third person was a woman around thirty years old with her hair tied up in a bun.
Before long, all three of them saw Luo Hu. The woman stood up, took the child's hand, and hid behind the bamboo grove by the stream.
They looked panicked and terrified, fearing the government officials as much as they feared bandits.
Luo Hu dismounted, stopped the Imperial Guards and his subordinates behind him, took out two flatbreads from his pack, and walked towards the three of them.
Upon reaching the stream, Luo Hu saw the three faces clearly. The two children looked somewhat alike, and their features also resembled the woman's. "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you."
He squatted down and handed the pancake forward. The three of them swallowed hard when they saw the pancake, but they looked at him warily and dared not reach out to take it.
The older boy was holding a stone in his hand, presumably because he felt he couldn't escape and that if anyone dared to harm his family, he would surely perish with the thieves.
However, Luo Hu's expression was gentle, showing no malice whatsoever.
"Don't be afraid, I am the Minister of Personnel. I am leaving the capital to manage the floods in Sichuan. May I ask if you are from Jiangnan or Sichuan?" The three men were dressed in tattered clothes, making it impossible to tell which region they came from.
The woman took the younger child's hand and hid him behind her back. She then comforted the older child, telling him not to make any rash moves. She swallowed hard and said, "This humble woman greets Your Excellency. We come from Chu County."
Luo Hu breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. Fortunately, the disaster victims hadn't arrived in the capital yet. "Here you go." He handed over the pancake again. The three of them had their eyes practically glued to the pancake, clearly starving. The young man couldn't resist and snatched the pancake, hiding it in his bundle.
"Can I enter the capital?" Luo Hu stood up and asked in his usual calm tone.
"Our family was flooded. The crops and house were all gone, and his father was swept away by the flood. We had no choice but to go to the capital to seek refuge with relatives. But we were unlucky and ran into bandits. The only valuable thing we had was stolen." The woman saw that Luo Hu had a kind face and was not as fierce as the officials in the city, so she told him all about her recent misfortunes.
After saying this, the three of them embraced and wept bitterly for a long time. The woman, leading her son, knelt before Luo Hu and begged, "Please, Your Excellency, have pity on us, a widow and her orphan, and give us some silver so that we can enter the capital smoothly."
Luo Hu observed that she was polite in her manners and did not speak like an ignorant woman. Moreover, when she asked for a favor, she blushed with embarrassment, lowered her head, and spoke very softly.
Before the natural disaster, life must have been quite comfortable. He took out a silver ingot from his purse, which was about five or six taels, enough for the mother and her two children to eat and stay warm. If they were to arrive in the capital and, like Fei Peng and his brother, they didn't recognize their relatives, they could at least rent a small courtyard to make do for a few days.
"Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir." The mother and her two children accepted the silver and kowtowed repeatedly in gratitude.
Luo Hu had no mind to savor the small sense of accomplishment that came from helping others. Chu County was also flooded. Could it be that the entire Yangtze River basin was flooded?
If this is true, the area affected by famine will expand several times, and it will take at least three to five years to recover. However, aside from natural disasters, there is another question: why did no one report the flood in Chu County?
The thought of a certain possibility sent a chill down his spine, his heart pounding like a drum.
"Go." He beckoned, ordering the Imperial Guards and his men to move the horse over. When the horse was brought before him, he did not mount it. Instead, he took out a bundle containing blank memorials, moistened a brush with his tongue, and began writing the memorials on the ground.
When the memorial was delivered to the palace, Emperor Mingde happened to be discussing matters with his ministers in the Taihe Hall. At that moment, the old imperial physician Peng held up his jade tablet and said, "Your Majesty, this substance is called alcohol. Its production cost is not high and it can be mass-produced. As a medical disinfectant, it is much better than the liquor we usually use. I request Your Majesty's permission to mass-produce it and then distribute it throughout the country, without charging any fees during floods."
Giving it to one or two pharmacies is fine, but mass production and distribution throughout the country would be a huge expense. Immediately, some people were unhappy. Among them, Zhou Lixing, the Minister of Revenue in charge of finances, stood up with his jade tablet in hand and said, "I object. Floods are rampant now, and the national treasury is not full. Silver should not be spent on this alcohol."
"I second that proposal." As soon as these words were spoken, many ministers stood up to object. The old imperial physician Peng had never petitioned these ministers about important matters of state. He was just an imperial physician and had never considered whether the national treasury had enough money.
The Minister of Revenue's words made sense. They had never seen alcohol before, and the old Physician Peng's memorial only stated that alcohol could be used for medical disinfection, but could not cure diseases. If it could not cure diseases, why was it mass-produced and given away for free? Did they think the court's money came from thin air?
Moreover, many ministers privately referred to Zhou Lixing, the Minister of Revenue, as an extremely stingy person!
"Your Majesty, I have practiced medicine for decades and encountered countless patients. Some of them could have been saved, but lost their lives due to later infections. Do not neglect the important matters because they seem insignificant, Your Majesty." He did not know how to quote classic texts, but only submitted this memorial based on the heart of a doctor and his experience.
"Physician Peng, you should just focus on treating the sick and saving lives. Please don't talk nonsense about the flood and disturb His Majesty's decision. This matter concerns the foundation of the nation for centuries, and millions of people are waiting for money to save their lives!" Zhou Lixing walked up to Physician Peng without any politeness, pointing at him and spitting as he spoke, almost calling Physician Peng a sinner for all time.
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