Su Yi and the Mu siblings arrived at the wounded soldiers' camp. As they approached the entrance, Mu Jin suddenly stopped them.
"You two wait outside the tent, I'll go in and check the situation," she said, taking out a handkerchief from her own body, tying it around her mouth and nose, and about to step inside. However, Su Yi and Mu Yan both blocked her way.
At first, Mu Yan thought Su Yi and Mu Jin were being overly cautious, but now, the soldiers who had collected the bodies of the Dongyue soldiers had all returned to camp with high fevers and fainted, which was quite unusual.
After all, on the battlefield, collecting corpses was a daily routine for these soldiers, and there had never been a case where all of them suffered from high fever and fainting after collecting a corpse.
Mu Yan's expression was solemn as he said, "A Jin, let your elder brother go in. It would be inconvenient for you, a woman, to enter this barracks full of dirty and smelly men."
Mu Jin frowned: "Brother, at a time like this, why worry about the difference between men and women? You don't know anything about medicine, so going in would be useless. Besides, last year I took care of people suffering from the plague outside the capital. The environment there was more than ten times worse and dirtier than this. This is nothing."
Su Yi frowned: "Does A Jin suspect they've contracted the plague?"
Mu Jin shook her head. "If it's a plague, it'll be easier to handle. After all, we have experience treating plagues in the capital. And plagues don't show symptoms so quickly. I'm afraid it's an unknown virus."
“Then you absolutely cannot go in,” Su Yi stopped him. “Let’s wait for the military doctor inside to finish his diagnosis before making any plans.”
Mu Jin and Su Yi looked at each other. After a moment, Mu Jin gave in and said, "Okay!"
Several military doctors rushed out of the wounded soldiers' tents like startled birds. Upon seeing Su Yi, they didn't even bother to salute him before running to the side and vomiting uncontrollably.
Su Yi and Mu Jin exchanged a glance, both frowning deeply. After the military doctors finished vomiting, they hurriedly ran to Su Yi, knelt down, and begged for forgiveness, saying, "Your Majesty, please forgive us. We were truly unable to control ourselves just now."
"Alright, get up and answer." After thanking Su Yi, the military doctors stood up.
The leading military doctor said in a trembling voice, "Your Majesty, we just went in to check on the soldiers who brought back the bodies from the valley last night. Their condition was exactly the same: their faces were completely bloodless, and their breath smelled terrible."
"The smell was like...like the smell of a rotting corpse."
Hearing the army doctor's words, Mu Yan asked doubtfully, "Could it be that they accidentally got infected with the corpse aura when they were moving the bodies of those East Vietnamese soldiers who were shot to death last night?"
The military doctor shook his head: "The weather has been cool lately, so even if someone dies a day or two ago, there won't be a strong smell, let alone someone who just died last night, there won't be any stench of a corpse."
"Where did the stench of death come from on them?"
The leading medic said, "We don't know. Perhaps something else happened on their way back after they dealt with those Dongyue soldiers."
Mu Jin asked the military doctor, "Are any of the soldiers conscious at this moment? Can they answer questions?"
"They are all unconscious and their breathing is very weak." The military doctor replied with some guilt, "I have been practicing medicine for thirty or forty years and have never encountered such a disease before. I really don't know how to treat them."
Mu Jin said, "I'll go in and take a look, and then we'll make a decision when I get back."
Su Yi pulled Mu Jin along, saying with some worry, "I'll go in with you too."
Mu Jin frowned and said somewhat sternly, "As the ruler of a country, you should stay here and not go in and cause trouble. Otherwise, you might get sick too, since the people inside haven't been cured yet."
The imperial physicians exchanged bewildered glances as they watched a deputy general rebuke their emperor, who showed no displeasure whatsoever.
Mu Jin rolled her eyes at Su Yi, then turned and borrowed a bag of silver needles for acupuncture from the military doctor before stepping into the wounded soldiers' camp.
Although her mouth and nose were tightly bound with a handkerchief, the entire wounded soldiers' camp was still filled with a strong, nauseating stench of corpses, a smell so pungent that it stung her eyes.
If it weren't for the faint rise and fall of the wounded soldiers' abdomens that could still be seen from afar, Mu Jin would have thought she had entered a morgue.
She walked to the nearest hospital bed and saw that the wounded soldier's lips had turned an eerie dark green, and his pale face was slowly turning green at a visible speed.
Mu Jin was taken aback. She unfolded the acupuncture bag she had just borrowed from the military doctor, which was filled with densely packed silver needles of all sizes and thicknesses.
She drew one out and, with practiced skill, stabbed it precisely into the wounded soldier's exposed chest.
To Mu Jin's surprise, no bright red blood flowed out when the silver needles were inserted into the wounded soldier's skin; the needles turned completely black after being pulled out.
Mu Jin went further inside and examined several wounded soldiers. Their conditions were exactly the same. She had a bad feeling and hurriedly left the wounded soldiers' camp.
As soon as Mu Jin left the wounded soldiers' camp, Su Yi tried to approach, but she shouted sharply, "Don't come any closer!" Then she yelled, "Quickly! Send people to seal off the wounded soldiers' camp! Isolate everyone else who came in contact with those who returned last night."
"In addition, have everyone in the camp cover their mouths and noses with cloth and take plague-preventing medicine! If anyone shows any abnormalities, isolate them all."
Mu Yan asked in a panic, "A Jin, why are these wounded soldiers sealed off? If they're sealed off, how can the military doctors get in to treat them?"
Mu Jin frowned and said, "Their condition has progressed extremely rapidly. When I went in just now, their faces were only pale, but in an instant, their lips and skin turned dark green."
Mu Jin didn't know how to explain to the people in front of her that her expression was just like that of the zombies in those horror zombie movies she had seen in the real world.
"I inserted silver needles into their skin, but not a single drop of red blood came out. Now they are like the living dead, and neither I nor the other military doctors know how to treat them. In case the situation changes, the only thing we can do now is to seal off this wounded soldiers' camp and then make further plans."
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