Chapter 12
After a quick stroll, I didn't buy much, so I returned to the courtyard. I grabbed some paper and charcoal pencils and started writing and drawing. At this temperature, charcoal pencils are much easier to use than brushes, though they haven't been widely adopted yet.
"There's no problem with the supply of grain and salt. There's no problem with cloth either," I said as I wrote.
My brother also accompanied me and added, "Charcoal is not a problem now, it would be great if we had coal." The two of us started discussing again. This place is not very far from Shanxi.
"Should we send someone to investigate?"
"That's feasible. Let's look for it first. If we find anything, we can send a letter to Mother and ask her to report it. It's not easy for us to mine it ourselves."
"How about oil? People haven't developed it yet! They just can't refine it."
"Let the Ministry of Industry find a solution."
"There are no fresh vegetables. Do you want to build a greenhouse?"
"It's not our own house, so it's not easy to renovate it."
"Well, let's put this matter off until later."
"The army is short of horses!"
"This won't be easy to do right now. How could we have forgotten about border trade over the years? Let's make a note of it and discuss it with you when we get back and develop it slowly."
"Is there any way to make up for the shortcomings?"
"How about firecrackers and fireworks? I forgot where I saw them, but it would be fine to scare the horses."
"Which genius came up with this use? We can give it a try. No wonder you asked me to prepare these things."
"hey-hey......"
“Is there anything that can be improved now?”
"This is not a good suggestion, what if it's not suitable."
"There are really a lot of things that need to be changed in the Wounded Soldiers' Camp."
"Yes, I'll write down everything I can think of in detail."
······
My brother and I whispered a lot, and the whole afternoon passed like that.
When it was dinner time, the third princess came and took off her cloak as she walked into the house. "Anran, how was your rest?" I almost suspected that I was an invisible man.
The brother quickly stood up and replied, "Hello, Sister Chenxi. You've had a good rest. You haven't eaten yet, right? Let's eat together."
The third princess responded, "Okay." A guard went out to notify the kitchen.
"Sister Chenxi, how about it, can I stay?" the brother asked anxiously.
"Can you bear it? The situation over there is quite tragic." The third princess was still a little hesitant, "If you really want to stay here, stay with me for a while." It seems that she also doesn't want to be separated from her brother.
My brother thought for a while and said, "Okay, I'll go over there occasionally to lend a hand." I guess my brother wanted to retreat in order to advance. If he entered the military camp, the Third Princess would not tie him up with a rope all the time.
At this time, the Third Princess finally saw me, "An Lan, what about you?"
I immediately replied, "Don't worry about me, I'll just follow my brother."
The Third Princess curled her lips and muttered, "Little tail." I rolled up my sleeves in my heart. Don't think I can't hear you just because your voice is low. I'm just pretending not to hear you. My words are not taken seriously, and I am humble.
After dinner, the third princess said before leaving: "Then go to bed early tonight and come with me tomorrow morning." We nodded in agreement.
Before daybreak, around three or four in the morning, I heard the sound of hurried horse hooves outside. I quickly got up and went out to find my brother opening the door. "What's wrong?"
Just then, a guard of the Third Princess came over and presented a token. "Miss, the enemy attacked, and the Third Prince left early. He asked me to give you the token to enter the camp."
My brother took the token and looked back at me, "Let's pack up and go." I nodded, quickly went back to tidy up, casually took a few bites of the pastries that Zhixia brought, and followed my brother to get on the horse and rush to the military camp.
When we arrived, the wounded on the battlefield had been carried to the wounded camp one after another. My brother asked the servants to help. My brother and I had trained the people around us before, and everyone started in an orderly manner.
Immediately, someone started boiling water, preparing sterile cloths (pre-cooked at home), securing the planks, and preparing medicine. My brother and I donned our prepared reverse-dressing clothes and homemade masks and quickly began helping. A military doctor, noticing the Third Princess's guards, didn't intervene.
Zhixia and other guards brought in jars of liquor. The military doctors were a little confused. When they saw us rubbing the liquor on the wounds, the wounded soldiers wailed in pain.
The chief military surgeon couldn't stand it any longer and scolded us harshly, "What are you doing? It's like torture!" The Third Princess's guards couldn't stop us, "This is just nonsense!"
I ignored him and continued to work methodically, even shaking my head. It was a shame there was no iodine. My brother stood up and explained, "This is for disinfection. There's a lot of dirt in the wound that we can't see. If you don't disinfect it, it's very easy for the wound to become infected and fester. In severe cases, you could develop a fever and die."
The chief doctor choked. This was indeed a major factor in the high mortality rate. His voice suddenly became normal. "Will this wine help?"
The rest of us continued to treat the wounded. My brother accompanied the chief doctor to another side where they wouldn't interfere with everyone else's movements. He explained to him carefully, "This isn't just any wine; it's very strong. It can kill a lot of dirt that's invisible to the naked eye. And not only that, the scalpels and towels we use are all boiled in water to minimize the presence of dirt and reduce the possibility of ulcer infection later."
"Does this infected ulcer refer to wound rot?" the chief doctor asked after thinking for a while.
"Yes, the typical symptoms are redness, swelling, fever and pain." My brother explained the invisible dirt and suggested that everyone drink boiled water.
The chief doctor said, "Then I'll observe it first." Then he asked curiously, "Where did you learn this from? This theory is the first time I've heard of it."
My brother smiled and said, "Master is a free and easy person. He doesn't allow us to spread our name to outsiders."
The doctor nodded, figuring it must be some unknown miracle healer. My brother simply smiled and said nothing. After a while, he separated from the doctor and came over to help. Before leaving, he recommended a mask and gown to the doctor.
I raised an eyebrow at my brother, who smiled and shook his head, and we each went back to our own business. Now really wasn't the right time to talk.
They were busy until the afternoon, when the battle outside came to an end. At this time, someone came hurriedly and asked the chief doctor to take people to the third princess.
My brother and I were both startled and stopped what we were doing. My brother called for someone to take his place, and I followed him in taking off my gown. I told Zhixia to grab the first aid kit and follow the head doctor and the others.
The third princess's guards were leading the way. When they saw us, they seemed to want to say something, but for some reason they kept their mouths shut.
After following the chief doctor into the tent, I saw that the third princess had already taken off her outer robe while cursing, exposing her upper body. There was a wound running from her shoulder to the middle of her back, about half a centimeter deep. Although it was not very serious, a lot of blood had been lost.
The guards of the Third Princess knelt on the ground. Although the killing was brutal, it was the guards' dereliction of duty to let the princess suffer such serious injuries.
"Get out, get out. What are you kneeling for? It's not normal to get injured on the battlefield. Everyone, get out. Stop being an eyesore. Go and take care of your own injuries."
She turned around and saw us coming in. She seemed a little shy when she saw her brother, "Hey, Anran, why are you here?"
After the chief physician finished asking about my well-being, he choked when he heard the Third Princess ask this. I could really understand her feeling of being ignored. My brother had already walked over naturally. "Is this the only place?"
The group of elf guards of the Third Princess had already quietly left, leaving only a few of those who usually stayed by her side. The chief physician was in a dilemma as to whether to leave or not.
My brother turned around and said, "Doctor, I'll bandage the wound first and you take his pulse." Then he stood next to the third princess. I handed the things to my brother in an orderly manner.
As soon as the wine jar was opened, the Third Princess' eyes lit up and she said, "Good wine." She went to get it.
The brother slapped her hand away and said, "It's not the drink. Just bear with it for a while." Seeing the third princess's face begin to turn red, the brother quickly poured wine on the wound, "hiss."
The red faded visibly, giving way to white. After the Third Princess uttered a cry, her teeth clenched, her forehead muscles bulging, and she uttered no more sound.
"Miss Yu..." The captain of the guards couldn't help but open the door and stepped forward. I stopped him and said, "Disinfection."
After a pause, the Third Princess raised her hand and said, "It's okay." Her brother continued to clean the wound, sprinkled the powder on it, and then bandaged it. "The wound is not shallow. Don't move it for the time being. I'll change the dressing tomorrow. If it doesn't heal well, you may need stitches." Her brother gathered his things and stepped aside, turning back.
The guards hurried forward and followed the third princess to the back of the screen to change clothes.
I wanted to look, but my brother stopped me. I glanced at my brother, and he pinched me. Fortunately, the chief doctor was still there, otherwise I would have been slapped on the head. I always felt like my brother was blushing when I looked at him.
After the Third Princess came out, the Chief Physician took her pulse and prescribed some medicine, and then my brother and I took our leave. Of course, the Third Princess wanted to stay, but she didn't.
The guards led us to the tent that had been packed up early, which was next to the third princess' tent. We went to my brother's tent together, had dinner first, and then went back to the wounded camp to work for a while. We didn't come back until the evening, extremely exhausted.
"Brother, if you have anything, just shout, I'll be there." I was still a little worried, and told Kong Qing and the others to be smart when they went to bed at night. After all, they were all men, so I was really worried.
The elder brother couldn't help but smile, "Is my place safe? It's either you and Sister Chenxi or the royal guards around here. What's there to worry about? Go back and rest. You're exhausted today."
I kept looking back as I walked back to my tent. The conditions here were no better than in the city, so I simply washed up and went to sleep. During the night, Zhixia got up to add charcoal, and I dozed off for a while before falling back asleep.
The next day, I woke to the sounds of soldiers groaning and groaning as they trained. It was freezing cold, and I really didn't want to leave my blanket. I forced myself to get dressed and get up, but the moment I stepped out of the tent, I was frozen. Zhixia happened to arrive with some food.
The food in the military camp was very simple, but this one had one more dish than the ordinary soldiers. It was probably because of the princess's help.
After dinner, I went to my brother's tent to check on him. He was gone. I turned around and went straight to the wounded camp. The chief doctor saw me and came up to me with shining eyes. "Miss Yu is here."
I looked inside and saw that my brother wasn't there either. "You're looking for the eldest daughter, but she hasn't come yet," the head doctor said with a smile.
"Mr. Doctor, you can just call me An Lan. I came over to see if there is anything I can do?" I replied politely.
"Oh, the wounded soldiers you treated yesterday had much less fever than others. Let's change the dressings later and then check the condition of their wounds together." The chief doctor was very excited.
After that, the chief doctor stayed with us the whole time. He became more and more excited as he watched, and the light in his eyes almost scared me.
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