The silk weaving industry is the pillar industry of Jiangnan. Because of its high profits, the people of Jiangnan can live a basic life of food and clothing. It is also because of its high profits that the big households and farmers in Jiangnan have abandoned rice and planted mulberry trees. According to the survey, among the 61 counties in the ten prefectures of Jiangnan, the mulberry fields in 40 counties have exceeded the area of ​​rice fields, and almost every household is raising silkworms and reeling silk.

Not to mention the more than one million weavers who have completely separated themselves from the land and make a living from the silk weaving industry.

It is not an exaggeration to say that "when silkworms are safe, Jiangnan is safe; when silkworms are in danger, Jiangnan is in danger." The best proof of this is that the market conditions have been bad in the past few years, and even the county magistrate was so anxious that he begged Jiangnan Group to cover the loss and collect the silk.

Now that the Jiangnan Group has finally opened up overseas trade, the sales of silk are no longer a problem. Silk societies, silk houses, silkworm farmers, and weavers in various counties are all gearing up and working hard to expand production in order to make up for the losses of previous years.

Unexpectedly, a silkworm disease broke out...

Seeing the silkworms that were still healthy yesterday die in large numbers overnight, the silkworm farmers were in tears and felt like the sky was falling.

The big households that opened silk cooperatives were also anxious. As mentioned before, the silkworm farmers first borrowed money from the silk cooperatives to raise silkworms, and then repaid the money with raw silk with interest after reeling. In order to encourage silkworm farmers to expand production and to earn interest rate differentials, many big households borrowed money from Jiangnan Bank and then lent it to silkworm farmers.

If the loss was too great and they couldn't even repay the loan, the land and houses they mortgaged would be taken away by the bank. So the silk cooperatives in the six counties affected by the disaster appealed to the Jiangnan Bank, hoping for some grace period.

In fact, even if they didn't ask for help, Jiangnan Bank itself would be able to find the problem. Mr. Zhao summarized the 400 years of experience in the banking industry and formulated a very complete internal control system for Jiangnan Bank. In addition, Jiang Xueying personally served as the president, so the implementation and supervision of the system were naturally effective.

Jiangnan Bank has a vice president in charge of risk control in each branch, as well as a credit department responsible for pre-loan investigation, loan review, and post-loan inspection. In particular, the credit department will send specialists to visit borrowers regularly to check their loan usage and operating conditions.

According to the contract, the borrowers must cooperate with the inspection and give truthful responses. This is the price they pay for low-interest loans. If they resist the inspection or falsify information, they will be blacklisted by Jiangnan Bank and will never be able to borrow a penny again.

Soon, the credit specialists of the six counties reported the risk, which triggered the early warning mechanism of Jiangnan Bank and was immediately reported to Jiang Xueying. After studying and judging with Liu Zhengqi and others, Jiang Xueying concluded that there might be a large-scale outbreak of silkworm disease. He authorized the subordinates to postpone the loan interest-free according to the actual situation, and quickly reported to Zhao Hao, asking him to make a decision.

Zhao Hao was speechless that it was Jiangnan Bank that issued the warning first, rather than Jiangnan Textile or the development companies in the six counties. He went to class at Jiangnan Institute of Technology... no, during class, he severely criticized the executives for their carelessness and their corrupt style of reporting good news but not bad news.

However, he also has responsibilities. He brought half of the senior executives of the group and various companies to Jiangnan Institute of Technology for full-time courses. The remaining half can barely maintain the daily operations of the company, so how can they take care of so many things?

So Mr. Zhao started to criticize himself again and said that he would personally take charge of the matter.

Then he came to find Ma Yilong...

However, Ma Yilong's answer could not satisfy Mr. Zhao.

"One of these two silkworm diseases is white muscardine disease. It is recorded in the Shennong Herbal Classic and is a common silkworm disease. It can be prevented and treated with sulfur fumigation." Ma Yilong said solemnly, "But it cannot be cured and often flares up again. Moreover, not many silkworm farmers can master this technology. If you are not careful, all the silkworms will be fumigated to death."

"What's more troublesome is another disease. I have never seen it before, and I have found nothing in all the ancient books." Ma Yilong sighed and said, "God is really playing tricks on us. He has sent down so many plagues to destroy all living things in the world." He was angry for this reason. He was worried.

"This has nothing to do with God. It's caused by bacteria." Zhao Hao shook his head and smiled.

"Germs, what are those?" Because he had too little contact with Master Zhao, Ma Yilong currently knew nothing about the microscopic world.

"It's hard to explain in a few words." Zhao Hao smiled and said, "Why don't we go to Jiangnan Hospital tomorrow?"

“That’s a place for treating humans. How can it also treat silkworms?” Ma Yilong asked in confusion.

"In fact, from a scientific point of view, the similarities between humans and silkworms far outweigh the differences." Zhao Hao kept it a secret and said, "You will know when you go there."

"Okay..." Ma Yilong had no choice but to agree. Every day was precious to him and he didn't want to waste it.

~~

The next morning, Mr. Zhao came by boat to pick up Ma Yilong. Kunshan Agricultural College was built by the water, with a pier connecting it to various places in the city.

Ma Yilong finally changed out of his farmer-like attire and boarded Mr. Zhao's boat accompanied by his son Ma Zhenbo.

The boat left Kunshan City and arrived at the Loujiang River, which had already been expanded.

As part of Hai Rui's Taihu Lake flood control, the Loujiang River widening project was divided into four sections, which were managed by Wukaisi, Changkaisi, Kunkaisi and Taikaisi respectively.

Because Loujiang River not only has the function of discharging floodwater from Taihu Lake, but is also the most important transportation channel between the four counties, the governors of the four counties and the development company worked very hard to complete the demolition of residential houses and shops along the coast on schedule, and the project was completed in full at the end of March.

Today, the Loujiang River has been widened from less than ten meters wide to a full thirty meters, and water sources such as Yangcheng Lake and Qingqiupu have been introduced to ensure sufficient water even during the dry season.

Therefore, although the traffic in Loujiang River is becoming increasingly busy, the phenomenon of ship jams no longer exists.

This made Ma Yilong sigh with emotion: "When I was the prefect in the past, I wanted to do something, but the counties passed the buck and it was impossible to accomplish it. Now the counties in Jiangnan have worked together, and such a huge project has been completed in an instant. The Jiangnan Group is really great."

"Hey, we are just doing some business, how can we be so capable? It's all because of Lord Hai's decisiveness and Lord Cai's good leadership." Zhao Hao said with a modest smile.

"Hehe." Ma Yilong smiled faintly. Although he didn't believe his nonsense, he didn't argue.

He had worked in both the imperial court and the local government, so he knew that power did not lie in how high your official position was, but in how many people were willing to listen to you and how much power you could mobilize for your own use. Judging by his standard, the power of the Jiangnan Group had probably already surpassed that of the governor of Jiangnan, not to mention a prefect...

Of course, he knew what Zhao Hao was concerned about, but Jiangnan Group was like the elephant in the room. Was it possible not to attract attention?

Anyway, Ma Yilong felt that it was in jeopardy. Especially with the current powerful Gao Ge Lao, who was an iron-fisted prime minister who could not tolerate any sand in his eyes, how long could he tolerate the expansion of Jiangnan Group?

Ma Yilong only hopes that day will come later...

As they were talking, the two of them took a boat out of the Lou River, passed through the increasingly prosperous town of Xinhe, and came to the Jiangnan Hospital on the banks of the Xiaoxin River.

Wan Mizhai's eldest son, Wan Bangzhong, director of the laboratory of Jiangnan Hospital, and Li Shizhen's eldest disciple, Pang Xian, director of the laboratory of Jiangnan Medical College, were waiting for the arrival of Master Zhao at the dock with several students.

If it were somewhere else, upon learning that Young Master Zhao was coming to inspect, all the leaders would definitely put down their work and greet him with open arms. But the three giants of Jiangnan Hospital would not waste time flattering him... Originally, Li Shizhen could have welcomed him. But with Dean Li's current status, he already had sufficient funds and connections to publish "Compendium of Materia Medica", so naturally he was too lazy to do superficial work.

In fact, this was all Master Zhao's own fault. When Jiangnan Hospital was first established, he asked them not to flatter the rich and powerful, and he would take the blame if they got into trouble. Otherwise, this nobleman would ask them to see a doctor, and that lady would ask them to go for a follow-up visit, which would delay the normal work of the hospital.

As a result, over time, the three miracle doctors became more and more arrogant than each other, and even he, the founder of the group and the founder of scientific medicine, was too lazy to come out to greet them.

"This is a good thing..." What else could Zhao Hao say? He could only smile at Wan and Pang who were confessing their crimes and said, "Focus on climbing the peak of medicine, which will benefit the present and future generations."

"Young Master is indeed considerate." Wan Bangzhong said with an apologetic smile: "That's how it is. Ever since you introduced the microscope to us,

My father and the two uncles Li have gone crazy. Now, if they are not seeing patients, they will stay in the laboratory. They even think eating and sleeping are a waste of time. "

Ma Yilong was confused. What was this "microscope"? Why did the three world-famous doctors become so obsessed with it? What did it have to do with silkworm disease?

With a lot of questions in his mind, he and Zhao Hao came to Jiangnan Medical College, which was separated from Jiangnan Hospital by a wall.

The medical school covers an area of ​​50 acres and has a beautiful campus, gardens, teaching buildings with pink walls, black tiles and glass windows, laboratory buildings and school buildings.

Wan Bangzhong told Zhao Hao that both the hospital and the medical school have laboratory buildings, not for the purpose of squeezing the group's funds, but for different functions.

The former is mainly used for medical research, while the latter focuses on teaching research. In addition, some experiments that are not suitable for hospitals with many people and eyes, such as human anatomy and animal experiments, are placed in the laboratory building of the medical school.

The reason why they all need to be built into a building is not for the sake of grandeur, but because the climate in the south of the Yangtze River is humid, and the higher the building, the better the experimental environment...

Seeing his nervous expression, Zhao Hao couldn't help but laugh secretly. This is the difference between being an official and not being an official. Look at Mr. Meng He. The cost of the Agricultural College is three times that of the Medical College, but he doesn't even blink.

On the first floor of the laboratory building, everyone changed into white cotton hooded lab coats, put on shoe covers, rubber gloves, masks and goggles.

It was the first time for Ma Yilong to wear these things, so he was naturally not used to them, and felt like he was in mourning. But his attitude towards science was very humble, which was completely different from his attitude towards Zhao Hao, so he put on his clothes in silence and followed him up to the second floor.

He discovered that their destination was separated by a wall and was not connected to the other laboratories. On the wooden doorplate were written five black Song-style characters: "Germ Laboratory".

Ma Yilong suddenly remembered that Zhao Hao had mentioned that silkworm disease was caused by bacteria. He thought, could the answer be found here?