Nineteenth Century Medical Guide

Chapter 262 258. Another Order
After the operation, Carvey basically determined what he might encounter next.

If the Sixth Army blocked the Prussians, his escort and medical team still had a chance to withdraw.If the Sixth Army couldn't stop him, he would probably have to be taken away.The two armies were fighting fiercely, and he, a surgeon from the Prussian allies, had no reason not to help.

In fact, there is a chance, only by two surgical assistants disguised as French journalists.

France stood in the position of a bystander in this war, using a policy very similar to Britain's balance of power policy on the European continent.He will help whoever loses in the two countries. The reason why he didn't make a move is entirely because Austria's losses are not big enough.

However, Mendelstein said that there are many reporter observation groups on the battlefield, and if they go to the military headquarters, they will be very passive if they are found out.

"For a newspaper as big as Le Figaro, there must be a lot of reporters, and it's normal if they don't know each other." Ignatz wrapped himself in a blanket and sat by the fire, warming himself by the fire. "It's mainly the soldiers of the escort team. They must be kept alive."

"Today's operation is considered a success, and the officer already has a good impression of us." Carvey walked up to him and sat down, handed a cup of hot water, "As long as the wounded soldiers are fine, he should not make things difficult for us anymore gone."

"I hope so. After all, they are not wounded soldiers and are not protected by the Geneva Convention."

"Well, it's a big deal to comply with the Geneva Conventions. I thought they would ignore it."

Ignatz did not expect that Carvey would think of the war so darkly: "It was decided after multi-country discussions. Wouldn't it be a breach of faith to ignore the agreement? Besides, we are doctors, and doctors are given preferential treatment when they are captured."

Carvey glanced at him and thought to himself, old Europeans still know the rules.

If the time goes back 80 years and the Prussians change their leaders, things will be very different.Due to the general environment, it was like this all over the world at that time. The island countries in the east and the old beauty in the west were all representatives of unruly.

It didn't take that long. After World War I 50 years later, Europe became a meat grinder, and poisonous gas also entered the battlefield.

What made Carvey even more worried was the Spanish flu that accompanies the First World War
During the three years of the pandemic, 10 billion people worldwide were infected and 5000 million died.Considering the limited channels of statistics in various places and the lack of a complete public health system, coupled with the concealment of reports at all levels, the number of deaths is only a lot more.

At that time, doctors had no concept of viruses. It was not until 1933 that the virus was isolated and named H1N1.

The country is far away from Europe, which is a pot of porridge, but it cannot avoid the ravages of the pandemic. The SH Ministry of Industry Bureau issued many prevention leaflets at that time, and the "News" and "Shenbao" in the same city gave a brief introduction to this sudden epidemic.

Symptoms are nothing more than the familiar process:
[At the beginning, I felt chills all over the body, sore limbs, hoarse throat, and coughing.Immediately after that, the whole body became hot, the day was light and the night was heavy, and the meridians were throbbing, which was extremely dangerous.In addition, there are also people with dizziness, vomiting, cold and heat, diarrhea, fatigue and lack of appetite.]【1】

Even in the SH concession area with the best medical resources in the country, 418 people still died, and the death rate in Pudong alone exceeded 20%.With this degree of infection, the surrounding area is still far behind, and it has become a mildly infected area.

H1N1 infection was called "Dengue Fever" or "Five-Day Plague" at the time, mainly because of the symptoms of body aches and the duration of symptoms was about 3-7 days.

But the time of five days is actually very confusing. There are two recognized changes in the condition at that time.

One is [the pathogen of influenza is not a dangerous disease, but it is more difficult for the elderly and very young to catch it], and the other is [what to worry about, the sick person will go away automatically as soon as the illness subsides and the fever decreases. It is said that Huo Ran recovers and goes out for a walk. Not only has his own epidemic gas not been completely eliminated, but he will spread the epidemic to others, and he is also prone to pneumonia.]

Prevention mainly relies on a very trendy [mask], which is actually a modern mask. 【2】

However, the protection of masks at that time was very low, and few people were willing to wear them. As for Laomei's method of blocking the whole city in 1918, although it was effective, it was quickly rejected.

“What a hassle”

Kavey muttered something abruptly, and Ignatz also sighed after hearing this: "This is the case, and we have no other way. It would be nice to save your life, and don't think about it."

"Forehead"

Thinking that what he said to himself was not the same thing, Carvey just changed his mood.

After all, it was still early for the pandemic to appear, and I would be almost 70 by then, so I had to say whether I was there or not: "It's the first time I'm on the battlefield, and I'm just feeling emotional."

"Your response is already very good. I thought I would die here." Ignatz took two sips of hot water and said with a smile, "But what really surprised me was the Sixth Army. It’s been three days, why hasn’t there been any news.”

Carvey also felt strange.

Aleister judged before that with the current strength of the Sixth Army, it is already very remarkable to be able to survive the first day.There are gaps in troops and weapons, but the real gap lies in morale, and the problem can be seen from the number of deserters before.

But now the Prussian First Army did not press forward at all, and Mendelstein, who sent out his messengers, had no intention of leaving, which showed that the battle on the front line was very anxious.

"The Prussians had a meeting in the school all afternoon, and there were fewer people guarding us." Carvey said, "It means that the Sixth Army is coping well, maybe."

"No, no, it's impossible." Ignatz said immediately after having seen many battles, "If the reinforcements from the rear don't come, the Sixth Army will definitely not be able to hold on."

"I'm also wondering, where are our reinforcements?"

"Fifth Army? Tomorrow afternoon at the earliest."

"If reinforcements come, will we have a chance to get out of here?"

"Not necessarily." Ignatz got up and put the teacup away, patted Kavey's knee and said, "You, a surgeon, don't think too much, if you have time to think about it, why don't you tell me more about it?" previous surgery."

"The teacher is the chief surgeon, but I brought them here." Carvey carried the life of the entire medical team on his shoulders, "Go back as you came out."

"Have you eaten all the food today?" Ignatz finally talked about the most troublesome question, "There will be no food tomorrow."

"Yeah, who would have thought it would take so long?"

At this time, in the office of the principal of a primary school in the small town of Otaka, Mendelstein and his soldiers were also full of doubts.

From the afternoon of three days ago, he sent five people to send orders to the front line, but none of them returned.The cavalry artillery who stayed on the road before also lost their traces. According to his inference, they should have returned to the front line, but the direction of the battle made him feel uneasy.

"We can't wait."

Opal's face was covered with gauze and bandages, and the horn tube in his neck had been removed and replaced with two stitches and a closed incision.He just sat on the side, trying to reduce his words, and reduce the pain on his lips and surrounding wounds: "Shall we go or stay?"

"Let's go? Where are you going? Back to the military headquarters?" Mendelstein shook his head. "None of the orderlies came back. The front line must be extremely dangerous. I can't take this risk."

"Keep?"

"Staying is also very troublesome. The dry food is gone, and there is not much food in those guys' carriages. They will run out of food tomorrow." Mendelstein, like Kawei, bears the lives of the remaining soldiers of the cavalry company on his shoulders, and has a headache, " There is not much food in the surrounding woods, and there are no small rivers and streams around."

"If I knew it earlier, I would save some food."

"I thought that we should be able to see our military flag early the next morning, who knows?"

Now Mendelstein's cavalry company is stuck in this small town. If it doesn't matter normally, the investigation is very dangerous, and they are used to it.But now with so many wounded soldiers, it is very inconvenient to move, and the messengers have cut off the news, so no one knows what is going on at the front.

"How about going to other villages to find food tomorrow?"

Mendelstein sighed, and said, "A lot of people went out yesterday afternoon and this morning. There is only one village around, and it's the same as here. You can't find half a piece of bread."

"Stone Road, have you been there?"

Opal's question was very simple, and only his old comrades could understand him: "Are you asking about the horse? I sent someone there before, and the horse should have been taken back by the mounted gunner."

"What should we do now?"

"Considering that we may need to stay here for a while, we have to take back the wheat at the gate of the town." Mendelstein said, "At least we can still eat bread."

When his commander gave the order, the soldiers were very active: "No problem!"

"But that's not the important thing." Mendelstein explained. "The important thing is that the doctors who live in the church have been taking care of them less recently. Tomorrow we go to the fields to harvest wheat, and they might run away. when."

"At that time, we will guard the periphery and catch them by surprise?"

"Correct."

Seeing him like this, Opal still had a different opinion: "They are doctors."

Mendelstein nodded, stepped forward and said to him: "I know they are doctors, and I also know that they are probably not Italian doctors. Although they have been justifying that the bullets and military uniforms on the carriage are not theirs, but I I have a hunch that they are Austrian military doctors."

"They saved me," Opal said, looking at him.

"I know they saved you, and I'm grateful to them, but as you can see, their surgical skills are superb." Mendelstein said, "It's a blow to us to have such a surgical team in Austria. Don't worry, I'm not trying to harm them, they can commit themselves to the Prussian army and continue their great cause."

The three days of isolated life not only confused those people in the small town of Otaka, but also confused Prince Frederick Karl, commander of the Prussian First Army.

The originally conceived quick-fix tactics were not realized, and the declaration of ending the battle within 24 hours was shattered two days ago.He didn't expect that the Austrian Sixth Army, which had suffered two consecutive defeats, would withstand his own indiscriminate bombing despite a bad start.

"That's 220 pieces of artillery!!!" Prince Karl raised his hand and slammed the table: "I gathered all the pieces of artillery from the three armies, how could they still have the strength to resist?"

"That's the truth, Your Excellency." The chief of staff at the side also felt very strange, "This is not at all like the Sixth Army we encountered before. The morale and counterattack momentum are very strong, and our assault troops have suffered a lot. .”

"We ran out of shells after our eighth round this morning."

"Where are the supplies?" The prince looked at the general beside him, "Let the supply transport team catch up as soon as possible!"

"Replenishment also takes time," said the chief of staff.

"This bone cannot be gnawed, and our battle line will be blocked at this position." The prince turned to look at the map on the wall, and said, "Look at Kischin in the rear, if reinforcements from their Fifth Army arrive, our Three days of hard work will be in vain!"

The chief of staff of the army shook his head, and disagreed with this statement: "Your Excellency, you still overestimate the opponent's athletic ability."

"How to say?"

"Based on observations these days, the movement speed of the Austrian infantry is not fast. It takes at least three days to walk from Kiscin to here." The chief of staff said, "So I think that we should directly form an encirclement circle, block the connecting road, and then come to help. Blocking on the road should have good results."

Prince Karl pondered for a moment, let out a breath, shook his head and said, "Why don't you think they retreat?"

"Maybe it feels like retreating will be defeated."

"Before, they retreated as soon as they hit, so it would be much easier for us to pursue, and maybe we could push all the way to Kiscin. As long as Kiscin is captured, the barrier to the west of Austria will be completely broken! In this case, If we attack the northern line again, we will definitely receive very good results!"

"It's a pity!!!" Carl kept tapping the map with his fingers, and said, "Okay, just do as you said, and completely surround them in this place. Those who don't surrender will be killed!"

"Yes!"

Just when the chief of staff got a new order, a guard's voice came from the door: "Your Excellency, a letter from the headquarters!"

"Letter? Whose?"

"Chief of the General Staff!"

"Bring it quickly!!!"

This is an order from the Berlin headquarters. It should have been sent two days ago. The text in the letter is not long, but the content is enough to make Prince Karl collapse [3]: "This is too strange and incredible, what happened? Will it be like this???"

"What's the matter? What did the Chief of Staff say?"

"See for yourself."

Carl gave the letter to the chief of staff, and then sat in his chair, feeling powerless from his forehead to the soles of his feet. He didn't even want to look up at the strategic map.

Because even looking at it now is useless.

"Your Excellency, if these are true, we should withdraw our troops now!"

"Yeah, the situation is not good for us, and it doesn't make any sense to spend it with the Sixth Army."

"No wonder the Sixth Army fought so fiercely. It turns out they got the news!"

Carl kneaded his browbones with his hands: "Let me think about it"

"Our First Army has fought for so long and suffered heavy losses. It really needs to rest." The chief of staff stepped forward and continued to suggest, "Besides, this is what the chief of staff means!"

Karl looked up at the generals in the command post, stood up with his hands on the chair, fixed his eyes on Gablenz behind the front line, and gave an order helplessly: "Oh, retreat! Withdraw to Gablenz!"

(End of this chapter)