After determining the pathogen of the silkworm disease and the prevention and control plan, Mr. Zhao convened a joint anti-epidemic meeting named "Operation Spring Thunder" in the conference hall of Jiangnan Building three days later.
Participants included members of the group’s board of directors, strategic decision-making committee, and heads of various departments of the group.
There were also Li Shizhen, the president of Jiangnan Medical College, Ma Yilong, the president of the Agricultural College, as well as the heads of Jiangnan Bank, Jiangnan Textile, the precision instrument factory under Jiangnan Manufacturing Company, and the Jiangnan Pesticide Factory under Jiangnan Chemical.
As well as the heads of development companies from 61 counties in the ten prefectures of Jiangnan, all gathered together to listen to Mr. Zhao’s important speech.
"As the saying goes, there is no idle person in Jiangnan in April. You are all busy people, each of you is in charge of your own business." Zhao Hao said loudly to the more than 100 people in the audience on the rostrum: "Some people must be muttering in their hearts, calling all 55 counties together just for the silkworm disease in only six counties, and giving it such a domineering name, isn't it making a fuss over nothing?"
No one in the audience dared to say a word. Even if they really thought so in their hearts, they dared not show it at all under the gaze of Master Zhao.
"No, this is absolutely not an exaggeration! First, the silkworm disease broke out in only one county two years ago, spread to three counties last year, and six counties this year. If this trend continues, more than a dozen counties will be affected next year, half of Jiangnan will be affected the year after, and all counties will be affected the year after that. So put away the idea of not caring about it and staying out of it!"
"Yes." More than a hundred people in the audience responded in unison.
"Secondly, this is related to the success or failure of the group's fundamental strategy. Jiangnan Group is promoting the integration of Jiangnan in order to divide the work, cooperate, share what we have, complement each other's strengths, and achieve common prosperity." Zhao Hao continued in a sonorous and powerful voice:
"But everything has its pros and cons. The disadvantage of regional division of labor is that the economic structure of prefectures and counties is single and has poor risk resistance. For example, Songjiang Prefecture is mainly engaged in cotton planting and cotton textile industry. If one year, cotton production suddenly decreases or even fails due to pests and diseases, the people in the prefecture will have nothing to lose."
Everyone in the audience, especially the heads of the county development companies, showed solemn expressions. As a small peasant economy that depends on the weather for food, everyone has experienced disasters such as floods, droughts, locusts and hail, and tasted the pain of suddenly losing the entire year's harvest.
Originally, they could buy the common people's land at low prices after the disaster and make a fortune. But after nearly 200 years of the imperial dynasty, the entire land in Jiangnan has been annexed, and they have nowhere to buy land. So they have to bear all the losses themselves...
"We at Jiangnan Group are vigorously promoting integration, not to increase the suffering of the people of Jiangnan. On the contrary, it is to strengthen the ability of the people of Jiangnan's sixty-one counties to resist risks." Zhao Hao said, waving his hand heavily, "So how do we do this? The only way is for everyone to do it, and for everyone to do it! If a county suddenly suffers a loss of 100,000 taels, many tragedies will occur. But if the sixty counties and the group help it share the burden, then all the counties only need to contribute more than a thousand taels, and they can easily help this county to overcome the difficulties when it encounters a disaster!"
"This is what we call when one side is in trouble, all sides come to its aid. Let us unite as one and overcome the difficulties together!" Young Master Zhao's inspiring voice echoed throughout the conference hall.
"We must share both the good and the bad. I believe that nothing in this world can defeat us. The future of our Jiangnan will surely be even better!"
A tide of applause broke out and all the participants stood up and applauded, feeling proud and responsible for being part of the Jiangnan Group, a powerful and benevolent organization.
"Young Master, please give the order!" people said excitedly.
"Okay, then I declare that I, President Jiang, Director Wang, Dean Ma, Dean Li, Uncles Pan and Xiang will form the leadership team of Operation Spring Thunder!" Young Master Zhao announced loudly.
Pan is Pan Shujun, the third brother of Pan Jixun. He is the chairman of Changguang Coal Industry and Wucheng Development Company, and a representative of the Huzhou local faction.
Xiang Yuanqi is Xiang Yuanbian's elder brother. He is the chairman of Jiaxing Development Company and Jiaxing Silk Weaving Company. He is a representative of the Jiaxing local faction.
"This time, if we want to start a big fight in Huzhou and Jiaxing, we must rely on the cooperation of the gentry in the two prefectures." Zhao Hao looked at the two of them meaningfully.
Pan Shujun was a die-hard fan of Zhao Hao, and he immediately said confidently, "Sir, just follow my orders. I will make sure they are carried out. If you fail to complete the task, I will bring my head to you!"
Seeing that the slick old Pan was so determined, Xiang Yuanqi had no choice but to make a firm statement: "I will also issue a military order to overcome all difficulties and resolutely implement the young master's intention to the end!"
"Okay, that's the attitude I want from you two." Zhao Hao nodded approvingly, and then said, "The three counties in Huzhou were less affected this time. If we deal with it decisively and the local authorities can cooperate, we can put an end to the epidemic in time and not affect summer silkworm breeding!"
"Really? Then we must cooperate even more fully!" Pan Shujun's brows immediately lit up with joy.
"The epidemic in the three counties of Jiaxing is more serious, but the group will focus on investing manpower, material and financial resources and will not let you suffer too much!" Zhao Hao said to Xiang Yuanqi again.
"Yes, please rest assured, sir. We will firmly obey the arrangements!" Xiang Yuanqi also nodded heavily.
"Okay." Zhao Hao nodded and turned his gaze to the others. To show his importance, he personally announced the specific tasks.
"In order to prevent the spread of the silkworm disease, isolation is the top priority. I order that from now on, all silkworm houses in the six affected counties must be closed immediately. Silkworm eggs, mulberry leaves, silkworm feces, silkworm pupae, white silkworms, raw silk, silk and all other silkworm-related items are prohibited from leaving the six counties." After a pause, he said in a deep voice: "This matter will be completed by Pan and Xiang, who will lead the Six County Development Company, and the local government will be asked for support as appropriate."
"Understood!" The two of them responded again.
"The above-mentioned items, as well as all mulberry trees, the houses, clothing, farm tools, and all items in the homes of silkworm farmers must be uniformly and thoroughly disinfected." Zhao Hao continued in a deep voice: "For this matter, a total of 500 agricultural technicians from the development companies of each county, 300 students from the Agricultural College, and 800 warriors will be dispatched under the leadership of Dean Ma to carry out collective disinfection!"
"Understood." In such a serious occasion, Ma Yilong couldn't ruin Zhao Hao's performance, so he responded loudly.
"The silk produced in the six counties will be purchased by the textile group and purified with sulfur before being put into storage." Zhao Hao instructed Liu Zhengqi in a deep voice.
"Yes." Liu Zhengqi hurriedly shouted.
"Jiangnan Bank will count the losses of each bank, calculate the compensation amount, and handle loan reductions. The group will be responsible for all losses." Zhao Hao said to Jiang Xueying again.
"Understood." President Jiang responded crisply.
"The next step is to deal with the silkworm rust disease in the three counties of Jiaxing." Zhao Hao cleared his throat and said to Li Shizhen:
"The most critical work of identifying diseased moths is undertaken by Dean Li and the medical students of the medical school."
Even if you want to see a fluttering moth, you need a microscope to see the black particles. The expensive microscopes in the medical school cannot be used by agricultural technicians. And even if they are taught, mistakes are inevitable when they first start. It doesn't matter if you kill a fluttering moth in vain, but if a moth slips through the net, all your efforts will be wasted.
So for the sake of caution, Mr. Zhao handed this key task to Jiangnan Medical College.
The medical school also has the strength to shoulder this heavy responsibility. The three giants are all great doctors of the time, and even their disciples are well-known doctors... Wan Mi Zhai has ten sons who are all doctors, including internal medicine, surgery, gynecology and pediatrics.
When Li Shizhen's father was alive, he was upset and did not allow his grandsons to study medicine, so his four sons are currently in Yufeng Academy. However, he has ten disciples, including Pang Xian and Pang Lu, who have followed him for many years.
Li Lunming is a little younger and also has six outstanding surgical disciples.
In addition, there were several younger famous doctors such as Miao Xiyong, who either joined the hospital because of their reputation or were recruited by the three men to join Jiangnan Hospital.
In short, there are more than thirty famous doctors in Jiangnan Hospital now, and each of them has ten disciples, which means more than three hundred medical students.
This luxurious lineup is almost catching up with the Imperial Hospital.
Several prefectural governors strongly invited Jiangnan Hospital to open the second and third Jiangnan hospitals in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jinling, etc. However, the three giants insisted that the introduction of science would have too great an impact on traditional medicine. From the theoretical system to the diagnosis and clinic, all aspects must be adjusted drastically.
Therefore, we should not distract our attention rashly. We should first focus on completing the reform and cultivating qualified scientific and medical talents before doing anything else...
The qualified talents naturally refer to the three hundred medical students.
Medical students were required to forget medical books and all their previous experiences, and learn human anatomy from scratch and observe cells, tissues and germs with a microscope... So after more than a year in school, all they did was play with knives and deal with microscopes.
However, Jiangnan Hospital and Medical College only have a total of 100 microscopes, and some have to be reserved for daily use in the hospital, so the number is far from enough.
So Zhao Hao ordered the precision instrument factory to stop all work, go all out and work overtime to produce simple microscopes - to look at moths, one that can magnify a hundred times is enough.
For this kind of magnification, there is no need to grind a very small lens, two ordinary 10x lenses can be combined. There is no need to install a stage, just make it into a monocular telescope style, and it can also zoom through the telescopic lens tube... The Precision Instrument Factory produces a large number of monocular telescopes for the Tamra Security District and the Gangnam Security Group, so there is a sufficient supply of materials. According to Mr. Zhao's instructions, if we switch to production at full capacity, we can produce hundreds of them in a short time.
In addition, Jiangnan Chemical's pesticide factory also had to prepare enough lime slurry, sulfur, wood spirit, alum and other disinfectant ingredients in the shortest time possible and transport them to the six counties for on-site configuration by Ma Yilong's team.
Finally, each county must collect as much silkworm seeds as possible to make up for the losses of the six counties and help them resume production as soon as possible.
After the meeting, all the troops left as ordered. The Jiangnan Group, a growing machine, started to work, mobilizing manpower and material resources from the ten prefectures and counties in Jiangnan, and continuously poured them into the six disaster-stricken counties...
p.s. Let’s leave it at that for today. Go to bed early and try to start writing in the morning tomorrow.