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

Chapter 495 It’s all the marmot’s fault

Russia and France are now in the honeymoon period, so the Russian prevention and control team invited the Frenchman Mesny.

Mesny is a professor at the Beiyang Army Medical School. He is older than Wu Liande. He has participated in plague prevention and control before and has certain experience.

In a sense, he can be regarded as Wu Liande's predecessor.

In the Russian hospital, Wu Liande held a meeting with him.

Wu Liande got straight to the point: "Professor Mesny, I hope you can inform the Russian side to take isolation measures as soon as possible to prevent the plague from continuing to spread through the droplets coughed by the patient."

Mesni laughed as soon as he heard this: "Droplets? Mr. Wu Liande, you are a doctor from Cambridge University after all. How could you say something so devoid of medical common sense?"

Wu Liande said: "Then how do you explain that in an environment of more than minus 20 degrees Celsius, where rats cannot move around at all, the number of plague cases is still increasing every day?"

Mesny said: "The transmission route of plague has been discovered more than ten years ago, and it is transmitted through rats and fleas. You can't be sure that you haven't read "The Lancet" in these years, right? Such an authoritative team is doing this Why would you doubt a serious paper published in an authoritative magazine? Where is the scientific spirit? Where is the evidence?"

Wu Liande said: "I did not say that there is a problem with this transmission route itself, but I guess there are other transmission routes."

Mesni laughed loudly: "Young people are young people. There are too many whimsical times. You still need experience."

Wu Liande said: "Professor Mesny, now is not the time to discuss age. It will not hurt to take isolation measures. I will find a way to prove the existence of droplet transmission."

Mesny said disdainfully: "Don't you think of this as another doctoral research topic?"

According to the current tradition of many schools in Europe, the doctoral stage does not need to be in school. You can work on the project in any country. You only need to produce a doctoral thesis and pass the doctoral defense after a few years.

Wu Liande said: "Professor, what I respect is the hundreds of human lives every day. How can I be in the mood to do a project?"

Mesni said: "What, you mean I don't respect human life? I came here on my own initiative, not by invitation."

Wu Liande became increasingly aware that if there was no full-power chief medical officer to control the overall situation, no matter what he did, loopholes would inevitably exist.

Wu Liande said: "No matter what, please be sure to take isolation measures and wear a mask."

Wu Liande took out some masks and placed them on the table. After looking at them, Meisny said: "This is unnecessary! I repeat, there is no human-to-human transmission, and there is no need to quarantine. This is a very stupid behavior!"

Wu Liande insisted: "I am a medical officer sent by the imperial court. According to common practice, Harbin's epidemic prevention affairs should be based on my orders."

Mesny said: "Then I will send a telegram to Mr. Xu Shichang to see who is appointed as the chief medical officer."

The meeting between the two ended on bad terms.

Wu Liande also sent a telegram to the Military Aircraft Department.

Then we went to find Shibasaburo Kitasato of Japan. Kitasato was already well-known in the field of microbiology, but he was overshadowed by Yersin in Hong Kong last time. He was very unhappy. This time he must deal with the plague in Harbin and restore his reputation.

When Li Yu and Wu Liande came to Beili's research institute, Beili was dissecting mice.

Kitasato had the same view as Mesny, believing that the Harbin plague was no different from what happened in India and Hong Kong, so from the day he arrived in Harbin, he and his assistants continued to catch rats.

Almost all the Jerrys nearby were caught by them, and their ability to catch mice was amazing.

But after dissecting five to six thousand mice, he still found no Yersinia pestis.

Wu Liande took out the lung slices of a Japanese female innkeeper who had been dissected, but Kitasato asked: "You didn't dissect a mouse?"

Wu Liande said: "The source of infection cannot be rats at all now. In my opinion, this time it is a new type of plague, which I call 'pneumonic plague', which can be spread through cough droplets."

"No!" Kitasato Shibasaburo insisted, showing the unique stubbornness of the Japanese, "it must be bubonic plague spread through rats and fleas."

Wu Liande met many Japanese biomedicine practitioners at the Beiyang Army Medical School and knew them very well. He did not argue with them and just came to fulfill his duty of notification.

After going out, Li Yu said: "Under this situation, we must contact the major consulates as soon as possible and use their influence to implement the isolation policy."

Wu Liande said helplessly: "If even the medical team doesn't listen to us, how can we talk about the consulate?"

Li Yu said: "But it is impossible for us to collect so many isolation rooms."

Wu Liande sighed: "I don't know what to do."

Li Yu suddenly said: "I think there is someone who can help."

Li Yu took Wu Liande to find Horvat, director of the Russian Middle East Railway Administration and commander-in-chief of the Middle East Railway Guard Army, and asked Wu Liande to explain the situation again.

Horvath asked Li Yu: "Academician Li Yu, what this Doctor Wu said is true?"

Li Yu said: "It's absolutely true, we hope you can help."

Horvat was trying to save Li Yu's face: "If it's not difficult to do, I can help."

Li Yu said: "It's not complicated at all. We just need you to provide [-] train cars to be used as isolation rooms."

Wu Liande's eyes lit up. The idea mentioned by Li Yu was very good. The train carriages were far away from residential areas and would not be too cold.

Now that the weather is freezing, Harbin Railway Station has a large number of idle carriages, and it is easy to free up a hundred of them.

Horvath said: "I can temporarily take out a hundred carriages, but you'd better persuade Mr. Mesny to prevent him from reporting to the embassies of various countries. At that time, I couldn't withstand the pressure."

Wu Liande said happily: "I will do it."

In fact, there was no need for Wu Liande to take action.

Soon, the Qing court sent a telegram back, appointing Wu Liande as the plenipotentiary medical officer instead of Mesni.

It has to be said that the prevention and control of plague in Northeast China was almost the last time the Qing Dynasty returned to glory before it died, and some decisions were made quite right.

Xiliang, the governor of the three eastern provinces, also transferred 1000 Qing troops.

Mesni was very unconvinced after seeing the Qing court's order and went to the hospital to inspect the patients in person. He was wearing a doctor's white robe and rubber gloves, but he was not wearing a mask.

This is a bit contemptuous of Yersinia pestis.

Sure enough, he contracted the plague that day.

The news of Mesni's infection shocked the entire Harbin. Although he was still struggling in bed, everyone knew that he would definitely die if he was infected with the plague.

There is really nothing we can do. In the era without antibiotics, if you were infected with the plague, you could only wait to die.Moreover, the onset of illness and death is very fast, ranging from one day to four or five days.

After this incident, Wu Liande became the chief medical officer of Northeast China.

Li Yu suggested to him: "We divide Fujiadian, the most severely infected area, into four areas, and everyone distributes armbands of different colors. Everyone can only move within the areas of the same color and are not allowed to cross areas. At the same time, he ordered the officers and soldiers The checkpoints are guarded and all personnel are prohibited from entering and exiting. Trains entering Harbin are not allowed to leave, and only freight trains carrying supplies can come in." To put it bluntly, Harbin is blocked.

Li Yu is very familiar with this. It should be said that everyone who has experienced the epidemic for three years is familiar with it and can say it casually.

Wu Liande's ideas basically coincided with Li Yu's, but in terms of details, Li Yu had more experience.

The next day, a thousand officers and soldiers mobilized by Xiliang also arrived. Li Yu and Wu Liande went to Binjiang Mansion to meet the army commander. Before they entered the house, they heard cursing inside:
"Mom, what a fool! You really think of me as a recruiter? Let me do such a stupid job!"

The leader turned out to be Zhang Zuolin.

Today Zhang Zuolin has become the commander (brigade commander). When Xu Shichang was the governor of Northeast China, he expanded his troops.

However, Zhang Zuolin ultimately started from scratch. After Xiliang became the governor of Northeast China, he did not particularly trust him and assigned him many arduous tasks, possibly trying to weaken him.

But Zhang Zuolin took this opportunity to expand his influence.

Wu Liande said sternly: "Commander Zhang, it is related to the safety of the Northeast, and he has a heavy responsibility. It is not a 'bird job' as you say."

Zhang Zuolin laughed: "I just complain, even if you think I am Song Jiang, am I still a hero?"

Li Yu said: "It turns out that Commander Zhang is boasting."

"It makes sense!" Zhang Zuolin said, "This little brother is educated and can hear what I want to say."

In fact, it was Li Yu who reconciled him. Li Yu said: "Commander Zhang, if the plague can be controlled, it will be of great benefit to your reputation in the Northeast."

Zhang Zuolin said: "It depends on what you said! What kind of reputation do I want? I love the people as my son, so I come here willingly."

The conversation changed really quickly.

Binjiang Daotai Yu Sixing said: "Commander Zhang, I haven't introduced you yet. This is Wu Liande, who has just been promoted to chief medical officer. He will issue all the recent tasks; this one is the Imperial Master Li Yu. You must Heard something."

"I love learning about culture the most, of course I've heard of it!" Zhang Zuolin said carelessly, "If I hadn't been a bandit back then, I would still be a foreign champion now. Don't you think so, Master Imperial Master?"

Li Yu said: "If Harvard knew that it had lost such an academic pearl like you, it would definitely regret it and cry bitterly."

Zhang Zuolin asked: "What is Harvard...?"

Li Yu joked: "Harbin Buddhist College."

Zhang Zuolin gave a thumbs up and said: "The Imperial Master is really good at judging people! Although I have been a bandit and now a soldier, I have always been kind-hearted. If I become a monk, I must be... what is that?"

Li Yu said: "The six roots are pure and the root of wisdom is unique?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Zhang Zuolin said, "You have unique wisdom, you have unique wisdom!"

Li Yu said: "If you are really smart, you will definitely realize that plague occurs from Yersinia pestis, and you need to use isolation methods and wear masks to eliminate the source of infection."

Zhang Zuolin said: "That's right! Just tell me why you sent me here, because only I have the most wisdom and can control those who are disobedient."

Xiliang Bacheng felt that he looked like a soldier. This kind of task of forcibly maintaining law and order would definitely be better accomplished by Zhang Zuolin who came from a rough background.

Nowadays, ordinary people do not have much public health knowledge and will not be particularly cooperative unless they make achievements so that they can see the results.

Li Yu's words were very useful to Zhang Zuolin.

Of course, he also wanted to take this opportunity to get in touch with the Japanese and Russians. Although Zhang Zuolin had a low level of education, he was very good at playing both sides and balancing things.

He knew that if he wanted to continue to expand his power, he could not do without the support of Russia or the Japanese.

Li Yu said: "With Zhang Commander's troops, Japan has no excuse if it wants to send troops again."

Zhang Zuolin said: "You tell me what I want my soldiers to do, and I will arrange it right away."

Wu Liande took out a map and pointed out various checkpoints to him: "Commander Zhang dispersed his troops in these places, and sent another part to maintain law and order."

Li Yu took out the mask: "There are also these. Since we are in an epidemic area, be sure to wear them."

Zhang Zuolin asked in surprise: "Why are you wearing this bird thing? If you cover your face, will you still be a robber?"

Li Yu explained to him: "If you don't wear it, you may get the plague and then go to the Lord of Hell to rob it."

"I'm not a monkey, I can't rob the Lord of Hell," Zhang Zuolin took the mask, "Hey, I just listen to your advice! Kids, if you don't want to die, wear it!"

Zhang Zuolin was very good at leading troops, and his orders were passed down and implemented very well.

Wu Liande added: "Commander Zhang, in the cold winter, I heard that there is also a plague in the cottages in the mountains and forests. They may go down the mountain..."

Zhang Zuolin waved his hand: "What I am most familiar with is the thieves' operation. Don't worry, I will jump on whoever dares to go down the mountain."

"That's not the case," Wu Liande said. "What I mean is to inform them of the masks and prevention and control measures."

"Ah?" Zhang Zuolin's head was big, "Chief Medical Officer, why can't I understand what you said? You still want to help the thieves? Aren't you afraid of the court's prosecution?"

Wu Liande said: "If the plague cannot be eradicated, everything we do here will be meaningless. I don't need to say more about the horror of Yersinia pestis."

Zhang Zuolin said: "Then you have to tell me, where did this bird thing come from, and why is it so powerful? I can tell my soldiers and reassure them. Also, I heard that the Japanese and Russians killed Tens of thousands of mice, but not one or two were found.”

Wu Liande said: "According to my anatomy and information tracking during this period, a lung infection was discovered after the first patient was dissected. The identity of patient No. [-] is very special. He is a fur trader."

Zhang Zuolin said: "Fur trader?"

Wu Liande said: "My guess is that he caught marmots and then used the fur to sell it instead of mink."

"These are naughty things!" Zhang Zuolin yelled, "I just said there was something wrong with the mink fur jacket I bought before. It turned out to be made of marmot fur!"

Wu Liande and Li Yu were both ashamed. It turned out that this was the point of his anger...

By the way, the marmot is the marmot, the animal that shouts "Ah!" in the emoji.

Mink coats from the Northeast are now a status symbol, even worn by military ministers like Yi Kuang.

However, the number of sables is very rare, and there are simply not enough of them, so some fur traders thought of using marmot skins instead.

Later, all the prairie dogs in the Northeast were caught, and the fur traders went to Russia to catch them. One of the prairie dogs carried Yersinia pestis, which was brought back to the Northeast and triggered the fall of the entire Harbin. 6 people died due to the plague.

Shibasaburo Kitasato and others in Japan have been dissecting mice and have never thought about prairie dogs.

(End of this chapter)