Chapter 340: The Chaos in the Northwest (Part 3)
In the blink of an eye, Shen Tang had made a decision.
Her first reaction was to turn to Xu Jie and give him instructions.
“Wen Zhu will stay in Fugu for a few more days.”
Xu Jie stood up, embarrassed and annoyed, and said, "What do you mean by this, Lord Shen? Let's not even talk about whether this is an epidemic or not. Even if it is, does Lord Shen assume that the epidemic and its pathogenic factors were brought by us from Shangnan?"
They even wanted to detain him.
Shen Tang countered, "If it really is an epidemic, is Wen Zhu planning to spread the disease around and poison people everywhere?"
The young man, whose appearance already resembled that of a grown man, had a firm gaze and a tone that was unquestionable and irrefutable.
“Xu Wenzhu! If it really is an epidemic, even if we die, we will die in Fugu City!” Before Xu Jie could even process his thoughts or reactions, Shen Tang gently comforted Lin Feng, “Lingde, don’t panic! First, move those people to the empty rooms in the administrative office.”
She then summoned several bluebirds with glossy, shiny feathers.
They gracefully flapped their wings and soared into the sky.
"Pass on my order: seal off the city!"
Shen Tang wasn't sure if it was the plague raging in Shangnan Village, but she figured she could find an excuse—like capturing escaped villains—to lock down the city for the time being. If it turned out she had overreacted, she could quickly let the matter drop.
Ordinary people might not even notice such a detail.
On the way to where the bluebird had arrived, Chu Yao and the others waited for news outside the small courtyard where they had settled.
Before long, two doctors, one old and one young, came out.
Shen Tang stepped forward and asked, "Dr. Dong, how is the situation?"
Yu Zi and the others collapsed, vomiting blood. Lin Feng then sent someone to fetch them. Both men were physicians practicing medicine, not only master and apprentice but also grandfather and grandson. They made a living by treating commoners for minor ailments.
In particular, the older one was an apprentice of a retired imperial physician in his youth. Regardless of the weather, he served the old physician with utmost respect for several years until he won the old physician's heart and learned his true skills. Afterward, he traveled to various places and practiced medicine for many years, honing his skills to a considerable degree.
However, he came from a poor background and had no impressive social standing or family connections. The common people who sought his medical help were also poor and often couldn't even afford a few coins for a consultation. The old man took pity on the common people and would often waive their consultation fees, and occasionally even pay out of his own pocket for a few doses of medicine.
They lived in poverty and destitution.
During the transition from winter to spring, many people fell ill, and Shen Tang discovered that the entire city of Fugu did not have a single decent clinic. Commoners either endured their illnesses or relied on folk remedies.
She slapped her forehead and realized it wouldn't work, so she sent someone to look for a replacement.
Some renowned doctors, upon hearing that it was a poor and desolate place like Heyin Fugu, refused to move there to open their clinics, even when Shen Tang promised to build one for free and give them a courtyard. Just as they were troubled by the lack of doctors for their clinics, Gu Chi returned from a business trip with these two men, a grandfather and grandson, saying that he had found them while drinking tea by the roadside. At that time, the old man was taking the pulse and treating an old beggar woman.
Gu Chi took a liking to him at first sight.
They immediately offered them a job at Fugu City.
Unlike other doctors, Dr. Dong didn't refuse outright. He had dealt most with the poor and common people, and in the past few months, he had often heard from them how Governor Shen of He County loved his people like his own children. Since Governor Shen arrived, He County had been completely transformed.
Only then did he realize why he had been receiving more consultation fees lately, and even had less to pay for medicine...
So it's all thanks to this Mr. Shen.
Upon hearing that Gu Chi was a subordinate official of Shen Tang's prefecture, the old physician Dong agreed without much hesitation. The next day, he was respectfully taken to Fugu by carriage, and the old beggar woman was also brought back along, where she was given a job cleaning and sweeping at the clinic.
Prefect Shen Jun personally received him.
When has Dr. Dong ever seen such a scene?
He wasn't the Imperial Physician of the Medical Bureau, so this display of power truly left him at a loss and overwhelmed with gratitude.
But Shen Tang did this for a reason.
Dr. Dong and his grandson run a clinic in Fugu City, where their main task is to treat the common people who come to their door.
A doctor could receive a subsidy from the local government office for seeing a commoner, and if he made a house call, he would receive an additional "travel expense" fee, which meant that the local government office paid for the commoners' consultation and house call fees.
The cost of getting medicine still had to be paid by the common people themselves.
Shen Tang also brought a group of children to Doctor Dong.
These are all apprentices.
Chu Yao and several others opposed this action.
They knew that Shen Tang was annoyed because he felt there were too few doctors in Fugu City, and he couldn't find even two despite begging and pleading. So he decided to train them himself. Not to mention how much time and energy it would take to train doctors, just finding Dr. Dong was a huge problem.
The old doctor Dong was an apprentice when he was young. He served the old imperial physician with utmost respect, treating him like his own father. He worked diligently for many years before the old physician finally agreed to let him go, and he gradually learned the old physician's true skills. He wanted to pass on these skills to his grandson.
To put it bluntly, this is a family tradition.
Who would be willing to impart all their knowledge and skills to a group of strangers if they are not blood relatives or even closer than blood relatives? Even master craftsmen always hold back some of their skills when teaching apprentices.
At first, Dr. Dong was also unwilling.
Without saying a word, Shen Tang went to his door that very night to persuade him.
At that moment, by the dim, foul-smelling light of the oil lamp, Dr. Dong saw eyes brighter than the lamp itself and was moved by the boy's sincerity. He pitied the suffering of the common people, and Shen Jun's actions were also intended to benefit more common people.
One small love, one great love.
How could an old man like him be selfish?
Shen Tang was not a stingy boss who liked to take advantage of others. He not only used ideological attacks to occupy the moral high ground, but also used the "catering to his preferences" offensive, such as giving Dr. Dong several volumes of medical books.
Shen Tang doesn't have this, but others do.
Top-tier literary scholars are like portable hard drives!
Both Qi Shan and Kang Shi had pored over fragments of the *Essentials of Agriculture and Sericulture* in their spare time; the former could recite three volumes from memory, while the latter could fill in another volume. Chu Yao, on the other hand, could recite five volumes of the *Essential Techniques for the Common People*, which only has ten volumes and ninety-two chapters in total!
If you shake these literary scholars, you can always find a few medical books that can impress Doctor Dong.
Dr. Dong stepped forward and said, "Greetings, Mr. Shen."
His grandson and apprentices behind him bowed in greeting.
Shen Tang said, "No need for formalities."
Dr. Dong asked, "Mr. Shen, may I speak with you in private?"
Shen Tang's heart sank slightly: "Of course."
Instead of discussing Yu Zi and the others' conditions, Dr. Dong asked her if she knew about the epidemic that had occurred in He Yin.
"Know."
This incident occurred two years before Shen Tang took office, and she remembered it vividly—when dealing with the Zhang family of He Yin, the younger brother of the Zhang family head sent his servants to deceive the suffering common people, falsely claiming that he had a good medicine, but it was missing a key ingredient that required the cooperation of the children in the common people's homes. Using this method, he harmed more than 20 innocent children and got away scot-free, causing widespread resentment among the people.
"Did the two epidemics originate from the same source?"
Dr. Dong's face is becoming increasingly wrinkled.
He said heavily, "Yes, the symptoms are almost identical."
"Almost identical?"
"So you're saying there are still inconsistencies?"
Dr. Dong: "It's even more dangerous than before."
Shen Tang: "..."
Simply put, it's a PLUS version of the last pandemic?
"How were you cured last time? Are there any medical records left?"
Old Doctor Dong shook his head and revealed a chilling truth: "No one has been cured; not a single one who contracted the disease survived. Of the doctors who came because of the official documents issued by the prefecture, seven out of ten have died..."
The two villages where the epidemic broke out were sealed off by the county government, and only the healthy people were allowed to leave alive.
Dr. Dong did not participate in that recruitment.
The specific details were told to me by the surviving doctors.
He was certain that this epidemic was related to the last one; perhaps the pathogen from that time had been dormant for two or three years and had returned with a more severe and rapid onset. Shen Tang, as the prefect, needed to make a decision quickly and consider the well-being of the people of the city.
Shen Tang took a deep breath.
She said, "I understand."
The authorities ordered a search for targets that Yu Zi and her group had been in contact with, and divided Fugu City into several isolated areas, each with its own boundaries, prohibiting anyone from moving freely between them. Armed soldiers guarded the crossroads. Those who had already fallen ill were placed in the treatment center, those who had been in contact with them were placed in another observation area, and the rest continued their lives as usual, preventing them from contacting newly arrived refugees.
Fugu has four city gates.
Close both gates.
One was used for the daily comings and goings of ordinary people, and the other was used to transfer ordinary people who had already shown signs of the epidemic into the epidemic area.
Despite the current limitations of medical technology, the hardworking and resourceful people have gradually developed a set of epidemic prevention methods, such as burning grass to drive away insects and pathogens, fumigating with mugwort, washing hands, and even after an epidemic is discovered, they know to centralize and isolate patients from healthy people, and to deploy personnel in the affected areas to prevent infected people from wandering around...
Doctors will do what they can to save lives.
Unable to save him—
The only solution is to seal off the affected area and wait for the pathogens to kill off all the hosts.
Having been in contact with the patients, Dr. Dong knew that as a doctor, he could not leave this place, so he was unmoved. However, seeing that Shen Tang had no intention of leaving and was instead preparing to enter the house where people were being housed, he stopped him, saying, "Shen Jun should not stay here."
Shen Tang's attitude was firm: "As the Prefect of Heyin County, if I don't stay in the capital to take charge of the overall situation, where should I stay? At least scholars have the protection of their literary spirit. If the epidemic is so dangerous that even I can be abandoned, then I certainly cannot leave!"
"Can……"
"I'll go in and take a look!"
They stopped before even stepping inside.
She turned to Lin Feng, who was following behind her, and instructed him: "Lingde, go to the warehouse and count how much kudzu and hemp there is, and get it all out! Then send a message to the general store to find Master Yang and ask him to get the kudzu and hemp there as well... If that's still not enough, go to the common people's homes to collect more!"
Hemp was a common fabric used by ordinary people for making clothes.
If a family is slightly wealthier, or if the women in the family are skilled in handicrafts, they can manage to scrape together a few bolts of hemp.
"What does my lord need so much kudzu hemp for?"
Shen Tang: "To make face masks."
Who knows how this disease spreads?
Put on your mask first.
"Face mask?"
Lin Feng didn't understand what this was.
Based on the literal meaning, it's probably similar to a veil? Except a veil covers the face, while this thing is used to cover the mouth?
Shen Tang said, "Doesn't the Book of Rites say, 'Cover your mouth, lest your breath touch others?' Masks are meant to isolate and filter the air between people. Otherwise, if the foul air exhaled by a sick person is inhaled by a healthy person, the healthy person will also get infected."
Dr. Dong's eyes lit up, and he exclaimed in surprise, "Many years ago, I came across a fragment of a scroll, which contained records from ancient sages—those suffering from plague are affected by the plague qi of heaven and earth, the amount of which varies with the year, the thickness of which varies with the location, and the prosperity and decline of which varies with the four seasons! When this qi comes, regardless of age or strength, anyone who comes into contact with it will fall ill, and the evil enters through the mouth and nose! Mr. Shen's idea of using a mask to block the plague qi is indeed feasible!"
(End of this chapter)
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