Chapter 1125: The Land of Milk and Honey (Second Update, Please Subscribe)
Monks in yellow robes can be seen everywhere on the streets, with their dark bare arms shaking prayer wheels.
Even though it is far away, you can still hear the sound of chanting coming from the temple. It comes from Youning Temple. The sunlight shines on the golden roof of Youning Temple, reflecting a dazzling brilliance.
Gazing at the magnificent temple and hearing the solemn and majestic chanting, Nahdigar's eyes were filled with admiration.
"This temple is truly a work of art! A Chinese art treasure!"
In fact, since crossing the Suez Canal and entering Ming Africa and this vast colony, the most common buildings he had seen in the past two years were Lama temples.
In cities, lamaseries are often the most spectacular buildings, while in wild and barbaric places, lamaseries are also the only modern buildings.
Although he envied the Ming Empire for occupying such a vast land in Africa, on the other hand he had to admit that, to a large extent, yes, I did bring civilization to this wild land. At least here, it is now difficult to see those barbarians with fingers and teeth stuck in their lips.
Whether they like it or not, they have been civilized to a certain extent, and civilization has taken root and sprouted in this land. Of course, this is also what Germany needs to learn in the future.
"In Africa, the lama temple is a symbol of a certain civilization. The lamas of the Ming Empire are like the missionaries in Europe. They go deep into the grasslands and rainforests to preach to the locals and bring them to the embrace of Buddhism. In Europe, the faith is Catholic, while in the Ming Empire, the faith... may be Buddhism."
For Europeans, they could not tell the difference between the Yellow Sect and Buddhism, and of course they could not understand the Chinese attitude of worshipping every god and Buddha they saw. However, during the long period of investigation in the colonies of the Ming Empire, what impressed Nahdigal the most was probably the lama temples that could be seen everywhere in the imperial colonies.
What can be displayed are not only Chinese art treasures, but their existence is also a symbol of civilization, a conquest of civilization over barbarism, and the existence of civilization.
“This land has been changed by them!”
Looking at those dark-skinned monks wearing yellow robes, Nahdigar said with emotion.
In Ming Africa, the natives were very happy to become lamas. Becoming a lama meant that they did not have to perform heavy labor, and they could even get something for nothing - they did not need to work.
Of course, after becoming lamas they can no longer get married, but so what?
The important thing is that lamas do not need to do labor service, they only need to chant sutras to eat. In comparison, everything else is secondary.
Indeed, as Nahdigar lamented, the land has been profoundly changed.
As for what the future of this land will look like, perhaps only God knows.
Of course, there will be a place for God in this land in the future. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of exiled prisoners of war living here. They have long since married, had children, and put down roots here.
Even now, with the demise of Peru and Bolivia, new captives will come here, and they will settle down here and reproduce with the native women.
The chanting sounds from the Lama Temple echoed in the air. On this morning, a group of passenger pigeons like dark clouds flew across the sky over this land that is the "land flowing with milk and honey" that countless European travelers yearn for.
On the balcony of the Institute of Tropical Diseases in Mombasa, Keiji Ito, holding a cup of tea, looked at the flock of passenger pigeons in the sky, thought thoughtfully for a while, and then asked.
"Tanaka, do you remember when these passenger pigeons arrived in Kenya?"
"It should be in March this year! When this group of passenger pigeons flew over, it was even reported in the newspapers."
Tanaka replied.
Passenger pigeons are pigeons introduced by the empire from North America. A few years ago, several flocks of passenger pigeons were introduced into African colonies to kill locusts. Unlike ordinary pigeons which are vegetarians, passenger pigeons not only eat vegetarian food such as acorns and grass seeds, but also eat pests such as locusts and flies.
In the era without chemical pesticides, passenger pigeons were a very effective tool for killing locusts and insects. Although they also ate food, it was within an acceptable range. After all, compared to the loss of all crops caused by locusts, the damage caused by passenger pigeons to crops was within an acceptable range.
This was also the original intention of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to introduce the passenger pigeon. Of course, there was no need to worry that it would become an ecological disaster - the passenger pigeon's meat was plump and easy to catch - by setting up a net, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of them could be caught. The five billion passenger pigeons in North America could be eaten to extinction by Americans.
When the ecological balance is needed, just catch and eat them directly - it's almost like exchanging grain for meat. Even now, many people shoot passenger pigeons for meat. In the Ming Dynasty, many teenagers would bring air guns to add to their family's dishes on weekends. In contrast, the red-billed quelea, which is rampant in Africa, is a pest. Although they also eat pests in their young stages, they will eat a lot of grain when they become adults. As for exchanging grain for meat, it is simply impossible. The meat of a bird weighing only a dozen grams is not enough to fill the gaps between teeth.
"March, let me think..."
Ito Keiji thought for a while, and suddenly, he ran into the office, took out a report, and said excitedly.
"Have you noticed that from March this year to now, the incidence of sleeping sickness seems to have been declining!"
Handing the report to Tanaka Hajime, Ito Keiji said.
"So is it possible that the decline in sleeping sickness is directly related to these passenger pigeons? The incidence of sleeping sickness has dropped by more than 50%. What do passenger pigeons eat?"
"Unlike ordinary pigeons, they are omnivorous and eat everything, including grass seeds, grains, wild fruits, locust larvae, flies, mosquitoes, etc...."
Tanaka recalled the food he found among the captured passenger pigeons.
"That's right! Flies, mosquitoes... Yes, that's right!"
Ito Keiji shouted excitedly.
"So, I think sleeping sickness might be brought by flies or mosquitoes, which have trypanosomes in their bodies..."
Said to his colleague Tanaka Ichi who was beside him.
"Sleeping sickness" is the biggest enemy of the empire's conquest of Africa. Every year, tens of thousands of people are infected with this disease. Not only that, hundreds of thousands of livestock die from this disease every year. This is also the focus of the Tropical Disease Research Institute. Through the dissection of corpses, they have long discovered that this disease is caused by trypanosomes. In the early stage of trypanosomes invading the human body, they parasitize in lymph and blood, causing most of the human body's lymph nodes to swell, spleen to swell, and myocardial inflammation. After several years, in the late stage, some invade the human cerebrospinal fluid after 2 to 4 weeks, causing meningitis. The patient becomes asexual, tremor, convulsion, and finally drowsiness and even lethargy, and usually dies in about 2 years.
Although the pathology was understood, the transmission route was still unknown. However, with the arrival of this group of passenger pigeons, Ito Keiji saw a possibility.
“That’s indeed a possibility!”
Tanaka thought for a while and then said.
"I think flies are more likely. After all, it's unlikely that trypanosomes exist in mosquitoes!"
"Then let's give it a try!"
Dr. Iteng did what he said. That day, people from the Institute of Tropical Diseases saw Dr. Iteng catching flies with a net in the yard. Sometimes a great discovery often begins with an inadvertent discovery. That evening, Iteng found the pathogen of African trypanosomiasis in the body of a local tsetse fly through a microscope.
What does this discovery mean?
This means that the source of the disease that had the greatest impact on Ming's African colonization has been found. Once the source is found, the right remedy can be found. By controlling the environment - reclaiming forest land and burning bushes regularly to reduce the living environment of tsetse flies, the threat to immigrant settlements can be reduced. Eventually, this land will be transformed into fertile soil suitable for human survival...
(End of this chapter)
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