Chapter 81 Explosives
Xiao Heidan is a homeless child from Qingshui County, who just turned eight this year. Because he is quite dark-skinned, other beggars gave him this nickname.
He doesn't know who his parents are, and has been wandering the streets ever since he can remember.
There are many children like him in Qingshui County. Everyone has his own territory. Normally, no one will cross the line. Otherwise, when they meet, they will fight like wild dogs, mostly for survival.
That day, he had just begged for food at the back door of Mr. Liu's house and was squatting on the street wolfing down the food when he was suddenly covered by a black sack.
Heidan struggled desperately, but at his young age he was no match for an adult and was held on someone's shoulders, unable to break free.
Little Heidan was terrified, thinking he was going to be captured and sold.
He didn't want to be a slave. He heard that being sold as the lowest slave would not only mean not having enough food, but also being beaten every day. In times of famine, he would be treated as a vegetable and his flesh would be cut off for his master to eat. Little Black Egg was so scared that he cried.
These were told to him by an old beggar from his original territory, who is now dead.
After being bumpy for half an hour, the little beggar was thrown into a house.
When there was no movement in the house, Xiao Heidan opened the sack and looked outside. It was dark here, and it seemed to be a woodshed. He bravely stood up and saw a child squatting next to him.
"Er Gou?"
"Heidan! Why are you here too?" The child called Ergou immediately ran over and the two of them leaned against each other.
Little Black Egg said, "I was put in a sack and carried here."
"Me too!" Ergou is younger than him, but none of the beggars who can survive in such harsh environments are simple characters.
Apart from the initial fear, the two quickly calmed down and looked around the room thinking about how to escape.
Suddenly the door opened, and a fat woman came in, pulling Ergou out. Outside, there was a big pot with steam rising from it.
Little Black Egg was so scared that his face turned blue. Was he going to boil them alive? !
"Let me go, let me go!" Ergou screamed in fear, and Xiao Heidan also grabbed his arm, preventing the fat woman from taking him away.
"Help! Someone is killing someone!" the two men shouted at the top of their lungs.
The fat lady pinched her waist and yelled: "Why are you yelling! You idiot, you are so dirty that it's unbearable to look at you. Go take a shower!"
Taking a bath? The two looked carefully and saw a large wooden barrel filled with water next to it.
The fat lady stripped the two men of their clothes while cursing at them, picked them up one in each hand, and threw them into a wooden barrel like little chickens.
The water in the bucket was neither hot nor cold. The two men were a little confused as they soaked in it. They didn't know why these people captured them.
Ergou bravely asked, "Auntie, you didn't wash us and stew us, did you?"
"Pah! Without two ounces of meat on your body, who will eat you?"
"That's good..." They both patted their chests.
After taking a shower, the fat aunt brought two sets of clean clothes for the two of them to wear, and combed their hair neatly and tied it into a bun on top of their heads.
The two of them had never felt so clean before, as if they had lost two pounds.
After the fat aunt poured out the dirty water, she took the two children into a room and said, "It's time to eat, and then go to sleep!"
Xiao Heidan and Ergou entered the house and found many familiar faces inside, such as Xiao Shitou from East Street, Xiao Huazi from West Street... The atmosphere became lively as soon as everyone saw each other.
"What on earth is going on?"
The children talked at once and told everything they heard.
"We were all carried here in sacks!"
"The fat lady said this is a foster home that specializes in raising unwanted children."
"They said they provide food and shelter here, and they will stop caring about you until you are fourteen."
"He also said he would teach us to read..."
Little Heidan had an expression of disbelief on his face. Could such a good thing happen in the world?
Everyone ate their meal in fear and anxiety, and were once again driven by Aunt Fat to their residence to rest.
The sleeping area was a large dormitory room with a bed on each side. The boy slept on the east side and the girl slept on the west side. There were even quilts on the beds!
Aunt Fat pinched her waist and said angrily: "Go to bed quickly. If you want to pee in the middle of the night, go outside. If you dare to pee in the bed, I will beat your butt into pieces." After that, she tucked in the corners of the quilts for a few younger children, blew out the candles and walked out of the room.
It was the first time for Little Heidan to sleep on a bed. He felt uncomfortable lying on the bed. He felt like sleeping in a cloud. The quilt on his body was very warm. There was a sweet smell of soapberry, just like being in his mother's arms.
Xiao Heidan covered himself with the quilt, and couldn't help but tear up. Beggars like them were like mice on the roadside, and no one cared about the life or death of a mouse.
But the fat aunt not only gave them baths and cooked for them, but also let them sleep in such a warm bed.
Little Heidan sniffed and thought, if this was a dream, he really hoped he would never wake up.
After tossing and turning for half the night, the children were all sleepy, and soon they heard soft snoring from the room.
The fat lady moved away from the window and sighed softly.
These kids have a hard life, but they have also caught up with good times. The government built a place like this to shelter them from the wind and rain. I hope they can survive well.
With free meals, clean clothes and shelter, these children naturally don't want to go out and beg for a living.
The next day, everyone tacitly stayed in the orphanage and helped the fat aunt clean the house, fold vegetables and cook.
Before long, the fat aunt successfully became the fat mom in the children's mouths.
These little kids who are left unattended have never felt the love of their mother since they were young.
Now, someone suddenly cared about them and prepared delicious meals for them. Although the fat mother sometimes had a bad temper and the naughty children would be beaten, it did not stop them from liking this fat woman at all, and they all hoped to stay here longer and longer.
The county also invested money to hire two old students to teach these children to read and write.
The first batch of children who entered the Fuyou Hall in Qingshui County are about to spend an unforgettable childhood here.
No one knew that many years later, several scholars and juren emerged from here, and one even became a county magistrate!
*
Song Yuzhu, who was far away in Beijing, saw what happened in Qingshui County. Although the county magistrate did not handle his job properly, he still helped these children by accident.
Two flowers bloom, each with its own beauty. Compared with Shuzhou, the Fuyou Hall in Changze County, Zhongzhou is overcrowded.
When it was built, it was expected to accommodate 300 people, but on the day it opened, more than 500 children were sent to the orphanage.
The reason was that the government praised the Fuyoutang too much, and the people here heard that the Fuyoutang would raise children for free, so they sent their young children there. They said they could not afford to raise their children, but in fact they were just there to take advantage of the situation.
Anyway, this orphanage is run by the government, so they don't have to worry about their children getting lost. Not only do they get free food and new clothes here, but they also have people to teach them how to read and write. It's much better than ordinary families.
Poverty breeds evil. The common people think that if they send a child who has no ability to work away for adoption, and then take him back after a few years when he is able to work, wouldn't it save a lot of food?
Some people were afraid that their children would not be able to get in, so they even secretly gave eggs to the officials to get in through the back door.
Problems also arise. The Fuyou Hall was originally intended to take in homeless children, but now it is overcrowded and can't accommodate any more people. As a result, homeless children are still wandering outside, while those who have enough food and clothing occupy the seats.
After Song Yuzhu saw the situation clearly on the map, he immediately ordered Liu Lin to change the admission criteria to Fuyutang.
First, the Fuyoutang takes in orphaned children. (If a child pretends to be an orphan and enters the Fuyoutang, the parents will be punished with thirty strokes of the cane and a fine of twenty strings of silver.)
Second, the parents of abandoned children will no longer be able to recognize each other, and the government will issue a document severing relations.
Third, take in disabled and sick children.
As soon as this order was issued, more than half of the children in the orphanage in Changze County were cleared out, and the remaining children all met the standards. These children will live here until they are fourteen years old.
The establishment of Fuyoutang will bring every benefit to the people and no harm at all, so the Ministry of Revenue officially implemented it nationwide.
*
At the end of September, the Research Department received bad news and good news.
The good news is that Jin Yan, who was in charge of military research, figured out the ratio of explosives. The bad news is that he blew off one of his arms for it.
Song Yuzhu was shocked when he received the news, and quickly asked the eunuch to prepare a car to go over and take a look.
When they arrived, they saw the imperial doctors from the Imperial Medical Garden treating Jin Yan. Less than one-third of his left arm was left after the explosion. The wound was bloody and he was in shock.
Song Yuzhu said: "Others go out, Du Qingzhi stay!"
Du Qingzhi is also a secretary in the Research Department, but he is in charge of the medical department.
"Yes..." The imperial doctors did not dare to disobey the order and quickly retreated, but they felt that Lord Jin was probably in danger.
Du Qingzhi asked in confusion: "Your Majesty, why don't you let the imperial doctors continue to treat Lord Jin?"
Song Yuzhu rolled up his sleeves and wiped his hands, saying, "I want to save him myself, bring the silver needle over here!"
"Ah...ah!" Du Qingzhi quickly handed the silver needle to the emperor.
Du Qingzhi's eyes lit up when he saw Song Yuzhu holding the silver needle and moving it quickly and steadily. It takes more than ten years of practice to achieve such accuracy. I had heard that the emperor was a doctor before, and I thought he was joking. I didn't expect that he really had these skills!
After stopping the bleeding, Song Yuzhu wanted to perform an amputation on Jin Yan. Because the wound was filled with broken flesh and bone fragments, it could not be sutured and would easily cause infection, so he could only saw off the bottom part of the injured area and then suture it.
Du Qingzhi had seen an old doctor sawing off people's legs in the Imperial Medical Garden in the past, but he himself had never done this job and didn't know where to start with the saw in his hand.
Unexpectedly, Song Yuzhu took the saw directly from his hand and wanted to do it himself.
"Your Majesty, this matter... let me do it..."
Song Yuzhu asked, "Can you do it?"
Du Qingzhi swallowed his saliva and said, "I will try my best."
"You can't try. Lord Jin's life is precious. Go get some guards to come in and hold him down so he doesn't move around."
"Hey!" Du Qingzhi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and immediately ran out to call a few strong guards.
The guards held Jin Yan down. Song Yuzhu rolled up his sleeves, picked up the sterilized saw, and started sawing off his arm.
Blood and flesh splattered on Song Yuzhu's face, making his originally handsome face look somewhat hideous. Even the brave guards turned pale and dared not look at him any longer.
Du Qingzhi looked at Song Yuzhu with admiration, he was worthy of being the emperor, probably only a true dragon emperor would dare to do such a thing!
After the wound was sawed flat, it was sutured little by little with catgut. Song Yuzhu also gave him the last bottle of antibiotics, hoping that the boy's wound would not get infected.
During this period, Jin Yan woke up once and then fainted again from the pain.
Half a day passed before he fully woke up. When Jin Yan woke up, he didn't ask about his arm at the first thing, but asked someone to adjust the □□ and try again.
Du Qingzhi sat beside his bed and said with a melancholy look: "Brother Jin, don't think about these things, take care of your health first."
Jin Yan then realized that his left arm was gone. In the prosperous dynasty, disabled people were not allowed to become officials, so his career path was cut short...
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
