A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 494 Preliminary Exploration
It is still useful for Li Yu to go to the Northeast, because he is familiar with General Horvat, the Russian army commander in Harbin, and can play a big role.

Most of the officials of the Qing Dynasty in Harbin could not count on it, and even if they wanted to, they were powerless. Harbin was basically under the control of the Russians. Only the suburbs and areas where Guandong intruders gathered were within the scope of their jurisdiction.

There were Japanese people on the train to Harbin.

Li Yu said to Wu Liande: "Be careful of the Japanese, they have the most bad intentions."

Unexpectedly, Wu Liande replied directly: "I know."

"You know?" Li Yu asked.

Wu Liande said: "When I was an assistant (vice president) at the Beiyang Army Medical School, I came into contact with too many Japanese people. The school was founded by Mr. Yuan Shikai according to Japanese methods and recruited a large number of Japanese teachers. Biology, chemistry, pharmacy, internal medicine , surgery and many other important subjects are taught by Japanese teachers.”

Wu Liande still respected Yuan Shikai and regarded him as one of his top talents.

In his early years, he received a doctorate from Cambridge University and first returned to Penang, Malaysia, where he grew up, to become a doctor.

At this time, opium was rampant in Malaysia, and the way to obtain opium was even more convenient than in the Qing Dynasty. Who knows that this place is close to the transit station for opium exported from India to China.

As a medical doctor with a professional background, Wu Liande knew very well what a scourge opium was, so he launched an anti-opium campaign in Malaysia.

His actions offended Malaysian officials and made things difficult for Wu Liande at every turn.

At this time, Wu Liande received a letter from Yuan Shikai, inviting him to work as an assistant at the Beiyang Army Medical School. The salary was very high, 300 taels a month, which was about the same as a supervisor in the Beiyang Army.

There is also the reason for Wu Liande's wife. He and his wife met in Malaysia. His wife is Chinese. She can't stand the hot weather in Malaysia and has long wanted to return to China.

Li Yu asked: "If you want to learn from Japan, it seems that you can only use Japanese teachers."

"That's true," Wu Liande continued, "but during the two years I spent in the military medical school, I slowly discovered that if we follow the curriculum standards set by the Japanese, when students graduate, they will not be able to become a qualified doctor at all. .”

Li Yu was stunned. It is impossible for all medical students to abandon medicine and become Lu Xun.

So I asked: "Is there not enough time to set up the academic system?"

"That's not the case," Wu Liande shook his head and continued, "I had many detailed discussions with Japanese teachers, and later I found out that this was the Japanese's wolfish ambition."

"Ambition!" Li Yu frowned, vaguely guessing the outcome.

Sure enough, Wu Liande said word by word: "Everything is done intentionally by the Japanese. Their goal is to train Chinese people only as senior nursing staff or assistants, rather than real doctors. In this way, they can control China in the future The medical system has made China inseparable from Japan and become a vassal of Japan."

Wu Liande is still very discerning. It is not easy to see the Japanese thoughts in this era.

The key is that his professional skills are excellent.

Li Yu said: "That's why you will go to the Northeast without hesitation."

Wu Liande said: "Yes, before I received the transfer order from Mr. Xu Shichang, I had learned from Mr. Shi Zhaoji of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the imperial court was coerced by Japan and Russia in this matter. If we cannot shoulder our responsibility in epidemic prevention, then They will be able to legitimately control Harbin."

Li Yu fully understood that the prevention and control of infectious diseases would also be a top-level state matter in later generations.

The Harbin plague this time is also not a simple plague eradication mission. It has the impact of the Russo-Japanese War. The situation in Northeast China is special, and the competition between several parties has long risen to the political level.

Japan has always wanted to send troops in the name of epidemic prevention.

In addition, Japan has been migrating overseas Chinese to the Northeast in recent years. The purpose is obvious: if there are enough Japanese overseas Chinese, they can also send troops to "protect the overseas Chinese" in this name.

Wu Liande added: "At first, the court chose Dr. Xie Tianbao, but the settlement allowance he proposed was unacceptable to the court, so Mr. Shi Zhaoji recommended him to Xu Zhongtang."

The request made by the man named Xie Tianbao is actually understandable.After all, when it comes to epidemic prevention in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, the plague was still the most lethal plague in the world. The risk of death was too great, so there was nothing wrong with leaving some money for the family.It is estimated that the amount of money he proposed was a bit too high and the Qing court could not afford it. After all, they had just held the funerals of Cixi and Guangxu and spent a lot of money.

Li Yu took out a few masks from the box, "These things may come in handy."

Wu Liande said: "When I was looking through the information last night, I guessed that it might be human-to-human transmission, rather than the previous transmission of rats and fleas. I was considering designing a cheap and convenient mask. Now that I have seen the actual mask designed by Emperor Shi, it is indeed advisable. , Master Di is worthy of being someone who has achieved so many patents in the United States, and his design ability is something I admire."

"We don't fight unprepared battles," Li Yu said. "It's quite simple. It's just two pieces of gauze sandwiched with a layer of lint. The cost is only about one cent."

One million masks is equivalent to 100 silver yuan, which is almost equivalent to 7000 taels of silver.

Li Yu can still get this little money, and when it comes in use, the Qing government will definitely reimburse him.

The production efficiency of the textile factory in Shanghai is much faster and the cost is much lower than Wu Liande's temporary production in Northeast China. Historically, Wu Liande's cost of making such masks was two and a half cents.

After arriving in Harbin, Wu Liande and Li Yu first visited Binjiang Daotai, that is, Harbin Daotai in Sixing.

Binjiang Daotai was the highest official of the Qing government in Harbin, but in fact he did not control many areas. Key places such as train stations were left to the Russians.

When he arrived at Daotai Mansion, Binjiang Daotai Yu Sixing was playing with a stove. He heard that the capital had finally sent someone, and he hurriedly called in: "Finally, I've been waiting for you to come."

After a brief greeting, Wu Liande asked directly: "Yu Daotai, how is the situation in Harbin now?"

Yu Sixing said: "Thousands of people have died in Fujiadian, the worst case. The situation is not optimistic. Those who are sick will not survive more than seven days. I don't care if it's scary or not. Evil spirits are causing trouble, evil spirits are causing trouble!"

Wu Liande said: "Judging from the situation, it should be plague. It happened in Hong Kong more than ten years ago and now in India."

Yu Sixing said: "It is true that the people sent by the imperial court are capable and what they say is of a high standard."

Wu Liande had no time to listen to his compliments.

This plague is considered one of the stages of the third plague pandemic in the world.

It is said that the origin of the third plague pandemic was indeed China. Around the 1850s, more than 200 million people died due to plague in Yunnan.

Later, it spread to Hong Kong around 1894. At that time, Hong Kong was already an international city and attracted international attention. Two more powerful scientific research teams came, one was led by the French Yersin, and the other was the Japanese Kitasato. Led by Shibasaburo.

Yersin came from the institute of Pasteur, the top pioneer of microbiology;

Kitasato Shibasaburo is also not simple. He comes from the research institute of Koch, another microbial super boss.

Kitasato was faster and first isolated a bacterium, claiming that it was Yersinia pestis.

Not long after, Yersin also isolated bacteria.

It was confirmed that what Yersinia discovered was Yersinia pestis, so another name for Yersinia pestis is Yersinia pestis.

Later, the plague spread to India, killing more than 1000 million people.

In Mumbai, India, another researcher at the Pasteur Institute, Simond, finally figured out the transmission route, namely rats → fleas → humans.

That is to say, there is an intermediate agent, the flea.

The process is actually not complicated. The flea sucks the blood of the mouse and becomes infected with Yersinia pestis.Yersinia pestis then multiplies in the flea's stomach, blocking the flea's stomach.When the flea sucks blood again, its stomach is already full and cannot absorb it, so it vomits the blood back into the host's body, causing the spread of Yersinia pestis.

That’s why the disease spread so seriously in Europe during the Middle Ages, because the Middle Ages at that time were so dirty, with feces all over the streets, and people didn’t pay attention to personal hygiene at all.

Western medicine at that time firmly believed in ancient Greek medicine and believed that bathing would open people's pores and allow evil spirits to enter the body, so bathing was not allowed.In addition, many devout believers were so dirty that they formed lumps on their bodies. Medieval Europeans believed that anyone who was dirty was a devout believer.

Very weird idea.

At the beginning of the Black Death, European clergy were the first to blame the Jews for the spread of the plague and killed many Jews because they were the only ones who did not suffer from the plague. In fact, the habits of the Jews were different from those of traditional Christianity. They had cleanliness habits. .

Wu Liande asked again: "Yudaotai, are there any sick people among the Russians?"

Yu Sixing said: "Then I don't know."

Wu Liande was surprised: "You are Binjiang Daotai, how could you not know?"

Yu Sixing said: "I can't speak Russian, and the Russians won't report to me."

Wu Liande was speechless after hearing this, and then asked: "Where is the gathering area for Japanese people?"

As soon as he asked the question, Wu Liande realized that he was asking too much.

Yu Sixing said: "I can't speak Japanese either. The Japanese are more arrogant than the others and difficult to deal with."

Wu Liande covered his head, feeling that his trip was in vain. He didn't know anything about this riverside platform.

Wu Liande could only say: "Yu Daotai, you always know if there are doctors in your jurisdiction, right?"

Yu Sixing asked: "A doctor or a doctor?"

Wu Liande said: "Doctor."

Yu Sixing said: "There are only two doctors who understand foreign medicine."

Wu Liande stood up directly: "I will go find them now."

Yu Sixing said quickly: "Don't worry! I have already arranged the banquet, and the girls will be here to take care of the two adults."

Wu Liande said: "Hundreds of people die every day, how can I have time to relax?"

Walking out of Binjiang Daotai Mansion, Wu Liande sighed and said to Li Yu, "I can't help with anything. I don't even know how to ask about the situation."

"If it's not a waste of help, thank you very much. Fortunately, he can finally provide a house for use." Li Yu had already expected it, and then said, "Why don't you ask the Russian and Japanese medical teams? Looking at the news, the Japanese side sent Professor Kitasato Shibasaburo came, and the one from Russia was the Frenchman Mesny.”

Wu Liande said: "I understand that they are definitely catching rats. However, it is now more than minus 20 degrees in the Northeast. Rats will not move around, and they will not be the ones spreading the plague."

Wu Liande's intuition was terrifyingly accurate.

So the two of them found the two doctors first. Fortunately, they had already made some discoveries during this period. They said to Wu Liande: "We guess that the diseased site should be the lungs."

Wu Liande asked: "Have any pathological slices been taken?"

The two doctors shook their heads: "No chance."

Wu Liande asked again: "No chance?"

The doctor replied: "After the patient died, the family members did not agree to our dissection at all, let alone removing the internal organs."

Wu Liande touched his forehead: "This is difficult to handle."

Li Yu came up with an idea: "You can dissect a dead Japanese or Russian."

Wu Liande clenched his fist and said, "Good idea."

There are many Japanese and Russians in Harbin now, and that day they found a Japanese female innkeeper who had just died.

Wu Liande immediately dissected and did bacterial culture, and quickly determined that there were a large number of Yersinia pestis in the lungs.

Without further ado, Wu Liande came to Binjiang Daotai Mansion again with a petri dish and a microscope.

Binjiang Daotai Yu Sixing looked at the microscope and small glassware in front of him and asked doubtfully: "What are you two doing?"

Wu Liande put the slice on the microscope. After adjusting it, he said to Si Xing: "Master Daotai, please take a look."

Yu Sixing asked: "What are you looking at?"

Wu Liande said: "The bacteria that caused the plague."

Yu Sixing was so frightened that he took three steps back: "Are you kidding me! How can you bring evil spirits into Daotai Mansion?!"

Li Yu could only explain: "Yu Daotai, as long as you don't touch the petri dish, nothing will happen."

Yu Sixing felt that he had indeed lost his composure just now. He slowly walked to the microscope, took a quick look, and then asked, "What's in it?"

Wu Liande said: "These small microorganisms that are invisible to the eyes are the culprits that cause disease."

Yu Sixing then took a step back: "Then what are you waiting for? Burn it and get rid of the culprit!"

Wu Liande explained: "Master Daotai, it's not that simple. Theoretically, anyone infected with the plague bacterium will definitely die."

Yu Sixing asked: "What should we do?"

Li Yu said: "We are here this time to ask Master Daotai for help."

Yu Sixing said: "What do you want me to do?"

Li Yu said: "I hope Master Daotai will send officers and soldiers to guard the checkpoints and provide an isolation area large enough to accommodate a thousand people; all passages in and out of Harbin will also be completely closed."

Yu Sixing shook his head: "It's impossible! I can't find so many houses, and I don't have so many officers and soldiers under my command. As for blocking the roads in and out of Harbin, it is beyond my jurisdiction. The railways are managed by the Russians." .”

Yu Sixing did not lie.

Wu Liande said: "Then please send a telegram to the court. The situation is urgent and officers and soldiers must be mobilized as soon as possible."

Yu Sixing said: "I can write a memorial."

Wu Liande said: "The memorial is too slow, please send a telegram."

Yu Sixing said: "Okay, I will report it to the Military Aircraft Department."

After leaving Daotai Mansion, Li Yu did not recognize Yu Sixing's efficiency, so he took out the radio device he brought and sent a telegram to the court.

Taking advantage of this time, they went to see the situation of the Japanese and Russians.

(End of this chapter)