System, help me be an empress

Chapter 162 Controlling Cholera
It wasn't until noon on the second day that the group finally arrived outside Beiyuan City. Near the city wall here, it seemed as if they could smell the dry soil floating in the air. When the strong wind blows, it will also bring up sand. Can't see any vegetation.

"Everyone put on their raincoats, put on their gloves, and they're ready to go into town."

Ruan Yuzuo, wrapped in a black raincoat, was counting the number of people. Behind him was a team of 150 people, each of whom was carrying a big bag, and it was impossible to see what was put there. At the end of the team were several steam cars full of goods. .

Xu Zhishu, the lord of Beiyuan City, heard that a hundred people had come to the capital, so he rushed out of the city from his mansion.

Xu Zhishu is in his early fifties this year, but he doesn't show any signs of oldness, his words and deeds are calm, and he looks even more majestic when he wears official robes.

"Is the one coming in front of you an adult from Shangjing?"

Xu Zhishu took a closer look at the leading adult. He was tall and thin, with clear eyes, and he was somewhat upright in his gestures.

Ruan Yuzuo bowed to City Lord Xu: "We are doctors from Shangjing Xinyige and Imperial Hospital. We are going to Beiyuan City to treat illnesses and save lives according to His Majesty's orders."

"My lords, please enter the city!"

Beiyuan City was a wasteland a hundred years ago, or it was an ancient battlefield. When you leave the city, you can see the tombs of countless unknown warriors.Xu Zhishu never expected that so many people would come to Shangjing this time, and the dozen or so rooms that had been cleaned overnight were not enough to sleep in.

In other words, when Xu Zhishu received an urgent message from Shangjing, the city was immediately sealed off, and he even communicated with the officials of nearby cities and counties, and they began to find out if there were any local people with similar symptoms.

"Don't bother, just find us an open space, and we will set up our own tents."

Xu Zhishu's expression was a little guilty: "This... really wronged the adults, so I will go and prepare meals for the adults."

"The city lord is too polite. Your majesty has already prepared the food for our team in advance. During special times, there is no wrong or wrong. City lord Xu must not entertain us as guests." Ruan Yuzuo was extremely polite, "Keep everything simple. , if we encounter problems that cannot be solved, we will definitely tell the city lord."

"The adults, please feel free to do so, the lower officials are always here."

For Ruan Yuzuo's side, he divided the people he brought into three groups, and began to assign tasks according to the plan made on the road before.

Soon, the hundred or so people were divided into several groups and dispersed their actions.

The thirty soldiers accompanying them were all very capable. They immediately sprayed disinfectant on the open space reserved by City Lord Xu for disinfection. After a while, they quickly used tools to set up a tent.

Ruan Huazuo took people from Xinyige to take samples from nearby rivers, soil, and the homes of infected people.

The Imperial Physician, the leader of the Imperial Hospital, followed City Lord Xu to find out the total number of sick people in the city, and prepared to start treatment.

An hour later, the tent was set up in the sterilized place, and the soldiers left behind began to place the supplies on the steam car again.

Among them, a large tent in the most remote corner was used as the laboratory of the New Medical Pavilion. Ruan Yuzuo and others rushed back with environmental samples and immediately began to analyze the bacterial samples.

"Teacher Ruan, Vibrio cholerae! I saw it!" A student at the New Medical Pavilion exclaimed, "Teacher Ruan, come and see!"

"Don't yell in the laboratory!" Ruan Yuzuo looked through the microscope calmly, "Everyone else should come and take a look, and continue to observe other samples to find out which samples contain this kind of bacteria."

Soon, Vibrio cholerae was found in more and more specimens. Ruan Yuzuo's expression became more and more dignified. He asked the assistant next to him to disinfect his raincoat repeatedly before taking it off carefully. After washing his hands four or five times, Only after changing into clean clothes did she dare to write a letter to Xu Youxi.

The letter was sent to Shangjing soon.

In the evening, a group of people sat together and boiled the brought water in a large pot before pouring instant noodles into it.

"Wow, it smells so good, what kind of food is this!"

"Instant noodles are also called deep-fried noodles. When the hot water is boiled, the noodles will be soft. We still haven't put in the sauce. We will add the sauce later to make it more fragrant."

"I feel hungry when I smell it, it must be delicious."

"After eating this meal of noodles, the days ahead will definitely be more difficult, everyone bear with it, Your Majesty said, when we return to Shangjing, please ask the imperial chef to cook us a big table of delicacies!"

……

On the other side, Shangjingcheng.

Xu Youxi opened the letter from Beiyuan City with gloves on. At this time, several ministers from the court rushed to the palace, waiting anxiously for the news.

"Ruan Yuzuo found Vibrio cholerae in the vomit, soil samples, and some water samples of the sick. According to the preliminary statistics of the Tai Hospital, about 82 patients in the city have been confirmed to be infected with cholera, and 12 have died. People, the infection status of those refugees outside the city is still uncertain.”

Xu Youxi put the letter on the fire and burned it, and at the same time took off his gloves and began to wash his hands.

"The Tai Hospital has placed all the infected people in separate camps, and the Xinyi Pavilion gave emergency infusions of saline and antibiotics to the sick patients. It is a pity that nearly half of them are allergic to penicillin and cannot use it."

Xu Youxi's heart is heavy. You must know that cholera spreads very fast, and the current number of infected people will continue to increase every day.

"Your Majesty, do you want to close the city temporarily?"

Xu Youxi pondered for a moment: "Wait another two days and see. Arrange the imperial guards to search for all the people who came to Beijing from Beiyuan City and nearby cities and counties within ten days, and arrange independent residences for compulsory observation."

"Su Huaihe, Liu Jiye is still out of town during this time, so you have to work harder. The article on 'cholera' must be written today and sent out early tomorrow morning. You go to Xinyi Pavilion to find Hu Qi and ask him to tell you Concerning the symptoms of cholera and preventive measures, the key points should be consolidated and written into articles and recorded in newspapers, and try to focus on explanations, so as not to cause panic among the people.”

Su Huaihe has been taking notes with a pen and paper. He was called to attend the meeting this time, and his task was to write an article for "Ganbao": "The minister obeys the order."

"Bao Shoufu, all the local officials should be mobilized. If it doesn't work, all the Beijing officials will be assigned to the localities to be responsible for the prevention and control of cholera in each locality. When the epidemic situation in Beiyuan City is under control, the outer cities and counties will not have to be so strict in the later stage. Now, call them back."

"The minister obeys the order."

"This matter should not be careless. The reason why less than a hundred people have been infected is because Xu Zhishu, the lord of Beiyuan City, reported it early. If he reported the matter a month and a half later, the number of patients would have risen to at least tens of thousands, or even tens of thousands. Anyone can do it. According to the current death rate of cholera infection, once it becomes popular, it will be a disaster for Dagan.”

Xu Youxi asked everyone to disperse after he gave the task, except for Du Zhiyi to stay for a while.

"Lord Du, this year's summer tax will start soon. It just so happens that the court is not going to court early recently, so I asked Jin Yiwei to arrange carriages and horses, and send you to Jiangnan for inspection first."

"Your Majesty, cholera is the most important issue in the court at this time, and I am willing to share the suffering with Shangjing." Du Zhiyi immediately expressed his determination, "If Your Majesty needs it, I can go to Beiyuan City to appease the local people at any time."

"Professional things should be done by professional people. The New Medical Pavilion and the big hospital are ahead of the charge and will arrange the matter. If Beiyuan City is really serious enough to appease the people, I must go there in person. Why? It’s not up to Mr. Du. Besides, controlling the plague is important, but taxation and court reforms are equally important. Could it be that the people don’t need to live when the cholera outbreak breaks out?”

"Yes, I understand." Du Zhiyi nodded, "When will I leave?"

"Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow are fine. You can contact Jinyiwei Commander Yu Xuejing by yourself. He will escort you to various places. You can tell him if you have any needs."

"Yes."

Seeing that Du Zhiyi had also left, Xu Youxi took a short rest.

In the afternoon of the third day, Xu Youxi received a second letter from Beiyuan City.

The number of infections in Beiyuan City has increased to 160, with a total of 22 deaths.

At the same time, several towns near Beiyuan City also found sporadic infected people one after another. The local doctors are completely helpless against this disease, so they can only rely on the new doctors in Beiyuan City to go out of the city and go to the local area for treatment. Treat the infected.

On the fourth day, the third and fourth letters arrived in Beijing one after another.

The number of infected people in Beiyuan City has reached 220, and the death toll has increased sharply to 49. Among them, the elderly and the weak are the main ones who died; although most young people suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, they still had salt water, even if they did not improve. The trend will basically not continue to deteriorate.

The fourth letter said that there was a sudden rain in Beiyuan City, and a lot of salt was melted by the rain, making it temporarily unusable.Ruan Yuzuo wrote a letter begging to go to Beijing to transport another batch of salt supplies.

Xu Youxi also felt helpless looking at the letter. The quality of this kind of salt to be injected into the human body needs to be strictly controlled. Xu Youxi did not dare to requisition the kind of salt mixed with impurities that ordinary people eat at home.

Ever since she transferred all the salt reserves in the palace, Emperor Chongjiu often came to Xu Youxi to complain about the bland and insatiable food.Facing his father's complaints, Xu Youxi had no choice but to spend a lot of energy before he brought a batch of salt from nearby.

result?

There is no result.

This batch of salt didn't even enter the gate of the imperial palace, and was directly diverted and transported to Beiyuan City.

On the seventh day, the number of infected people in Beiyuan City stopped rising. The total number stabilized at 360, and the death toll stayed at 58. Most of the patients' symptoms improved significantly.

It's the tenth day.

There are more than 50 patients who have been completely cured. Before leaving the camp, these patients knelt down to the doctors including Ruan Tongzuo, crying and expressing their gratitude.

Ruan Yuzuo was relieved to see them recovered, but on the other hand, he still had to face a few little lives whose symptoms were getting worse and worse, and he was at a loss what to do.

At the same time, all the people in the New Medical Pavilion have become more and more determined that when they go back, they must devote themselves to researching drugs. If they now have different types of antibiotics, will those who are allergic to penicillin also have medicines available?

Xu Youxi paid close attention to the situation in Beiyuan City every day in Shangjing, because the environment was disinfected every day, and if the cholera virus could not be detected in places other than water sources.

If the problem of water source is to be completely solved, the group of refugees outside the city must be dealt with properly, but the infection situation of the refugees is obviously much more serious than that inside the city.

Ruan Yuzuo wrote to ask Xu Youxi if they wanted to save the refugees outside the city.

However, treating these people is not self-protection?

"Save, but protect yourself first!"

……

In mid-June, on the streets of Shangjing.

"Look, what happened to the cholera in Beiyuan City!"

The two civilians holding dry newspapers were communicating with each other, and passers-by continued to surround them.

"Great, there are still no new cholera patients in Dagan today."

Someone beside him couldn't help but tease: "If the cholera is about to end, can the Supreme Emperor finally eat salt?"

"It's true, it's fine if you can't buy salt in the market, why is there a shortage of salt in the palace?"

"Didn't you read the newspaper a few days ago! The treatment of cholera patients requires a lot of salt to cure the disease, so His Majesty moved all the salt bags from the entire palace. Later, two batches of salt were transferred from other places to Shangjing one after another, but Without even entering the palace gate, they were all sent to Beiyuan City."

"There is no salt in the palace! It's not just that the emperor has no salt, does your Majesty have no salt? I still have a jar in stock at home, can I send it to the palace for your majesty?"

"Forget it, the third batch of salt will be transferred to Shangjing today."

"Is this cholera coming to an end? It hasn't increased for several days. Don't we need to be vigilant about those who come to Beijing from outside every day?"

"It's not over yet! It is said that Dr. Ruan of the Xinyi Pavilion is still treating refugees outside the city. According to the newspaper, almost all the refugees outside the city have been infected with cholera. It's just that some of them developed cholera early and some later. There are dead bodies everywhere."

"The plague was brought by these foreigners. Fortunately, the city lord of Beiyuan City refused to open the door to let the refugees in. If these refugees ran away and ran to our upper capital, you and I would not be able to escape at all. Fortunately, the city lord Xu It’s too early to write a letter asking for help, His Majesty replied overnight, and also arranged hundreds of people from Xinyi Pavilion and Imperial Hospital to go to Beiyuan City for treatment, even though so many doctors passed by, many people still died.”

"Xinyige made a great contribution this time. It is said that those patients infected with cholera suffered from vomiting and diarrhea and could not drink traditional Chinese medicine at all. So many lives have been lost."

"Will the status of the New Medical Pavilion surpass that of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital?"

"Not necessarily. Now a lot of people go to Chinese medicine hospital to name a doctor and say that they hope to be treated by a new doctor. Guess what?"

"Healed?"

"Of course not. After the new doctor simply asked about the condition, he replied directly that he couldn't cure it, so let these people see Chinese medicine. This shows that even though there are many miraculous things about the new medicine, it is still inseparable from the doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. "

The common people can be said to be talking about cholera. If it is said that when they first learned about it, they were still more afraid, but now they are more admiring for the empress and the court.

If it hadn't been for the court's quick response, the consequences...would have been unimaginable.

(End of this chapter)