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

Chapter 496 Unblocking
The nights in the Northeast are really cold, and it’s an era without electric lights, so it’s impossible to continue doing scientific research.

Li Yu and Wu Liande were warming themselves by the fire in the house, feeling warm.

Wu Liande read an English book by the light of the kerosene lamp.

Li Yu glanced at the name and said, "In a world of ice and snow, plague is raging. This book is really suitable for the occasion."

Wu Liande raised his head and said, "Academician Li has also read Boccaccio's "The Decameron"?"

Li Yu said: "I just have a little understanding."

"The Decameron" is actually a book that is not suitable for children. The content is very pornographic and violent. People drive when they disagree with each other, and they often engage in group sports.

Let’s take a relatively small-scale story about an affair: There was a couple in Naples. The husband was a cement worker, and his wife had an affair with a handsome guy nearby.

Every time the cement builder goes to work wearing a green hat, his wife will have a tryst with the handsome young man.

Later, one time, the cement builder suddenly came back early, and his wife quickly asked the handsome young man to hide in the wine barrel.

The cement worker said to his wife: "The wine barrel in our house is useless. I am going to sell it for 5 yuan."

His wife had an idea: "I happened to find a buyer who wanted to pay 7 yuan, and I was looking at the wine barrels in the house."

The cement worker happily ran to see it. The handsome young man quickly jumped out of the wine barrel and said to the cement worker: "I want the wine barrel, but you have to clean the dregs inside."

The cement mason agreed and jumped into the barrel to clean it.

Then his wife stuck her head in and directed the cementer to clean it.

The exciting thing is coming, the handsome guy saw this and launched an offensive from behind.

You can make up your own mind as to what the specific scene is, it’s impossible to describe.

It can only be said that it is too advanced. "The Decameron" was written as early as the Black Death in the [-]th century.

This is only a very small scale among the 100 stories in the book, and there are some that cannot directly distinguish the relationship between the characters in multiplayer sports.

Of course, the book "The Decameron" is actually against the church and breaking through the various shackles of the church.

The medieval church advocated asceticism and suffering and atonement. This idea happened to be beneficial to the rulers and was greatly exploited.

Therefore, the individualistic thought emphasized in Boccaccio's "Decameron" has great value.

Wu Liande said: "There are very few records of plague in the past. I wanted to take a look at Boccaccio's records of the same period."

Li Yu breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "How did he describe it?"

"Come and see," Wu Liande pointed to one of the paragraphs:
"Nosebleeds are a precursor to death. They will first appear as nameless lumps on the inner thighs and armpits, which will soon develop into the size of an egg and an apple, then spread to all parts of the body, and finally dense black spots will appear. Almost all people who develop symptoms will die within three days. .”

Li Yu said: "The description of the death state is different from what it is now."

Wu Liande said: "Yes, and the vaccine against bubonic plague that I brought did not work at all. So I guessed that this time in the Northeast was a new type of plague. In the conversation with Professor Meisny and Professor Kitasato, I called it It’s pneumonic plague. The degree of its spread is even more terrifying than what has happened in the past. I am very worried that once it continues to expand, the entire Northeast will be empty, just like Europe back then.”

Li Yu shuddered when he heard this, and deeply admired Wu Liande's benevolence as a doctor.

Li Yu said: "The only thing we can do is to put it out as soon as possible."

The next day, Zhang Zuolin came to him and said, "Chief Medical Officer, where was the body thrown?"

Wu Liande asked: "New deaths?"

Zhang Zuolin said: "There are too many! There were hundreds of them in just one day yesterday. It's really scary! I never saw so many corpses when I went to suppress bandits. I tell you, Chief Medical Officer, this is not easy to do!"

Wu Liande said: "You have to do it even if it's not easy. Your Majesty, you won't want to back down, right?"

"That's not what I mean," Zhang Zuolin said, "I mean, you have to pay more for this!"

Wu Liande said: "I will report it to the court and issue additional awards to you as appropriate."

Zhang Zuolin said with a smile: "Your Majesty, Chief Medical Officer, thank you. This will make it easier for me to order them around."

Wu Liande said: "Okay, you will take me to see it first."

"Please." Zhang Zuolin led the way.

When they arrived at Fujiadian, soldiers were tying the bodies with wooden sticks and transporting them. There was not even a decent stretcher.

Zhang Zuolin said: "Mr. Chief Medical Officer, this is a thief. He must have sneaked into a house to steal something last night. Unexpectedly, he contracted the plague. He died on the way to escape this morning. He fell ill very quickly."

Wu Liande said: "I would like to trouble Commander Zhang to transport all the family members who have cases at home to the train carriages near Harbin Railway Station."

Zhang Zuolin wanted to contact the Russians anyway, so he agreed immediately.

Li Yu gave Wu Liande another idea to record the number of deaths on that day in a conference room every day and draw a curve.

After filling in today's data, Li Yu said to Wu Liande: "Doctor Wu, the turning point still hasn't appeared."

"The turning point?" Wu Liande asked, "Does it mean the number of deaths decreases?"

"Now there is no momentum to even reduce the growth rate." Li Yu said.

"That would be strange," Wu Liande said. "Could there be invisible carriers? But the plague occurs so quickly that this is impossible."

It didn't take long for Wu Liande's doubts to be solved, because he discovered a big loophole: the thousands of corpses that died in Fujiadian were all piled up together.

——So many people died that there was no time to get coffins.

These corpses must be burned, otherwise they will be a breeding ground for bacteria.

However, according to folk tradition, the body must be buried for peace, and the common people would definitely not agree with cremation. Wu Liande could only hope that the imperial court would issue an imperial edict.He sent a telegram advising of the necessity of burning the body.

Wu Liande knew about the existence of the microorganism Yersinia pestis, but the people in power in the Qing court did not, so burning corpses was a very troublesome thing for the court.

The regent Zaifeng convened a group of ministers for discussion, but after a long discussion, no one dared to make a decision. The important ministers of the royal family just put forward various random suggestions without any results.

It was obvious that they wanted Zaifeng to make the decision.

Of all the people, only Shi Zhaoji, the Right Prime Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, strongly supported the burning of corpses.

Shi Zhaoji once studied at Cornell University in the United States. He is relatively knowledgeable. He is also the son-in-law of Tang Shaoyi and has a strong voice in the Beiyang Department.

But the regent Zaifeng really couldn't make a decision and decided to discuss it another day.He was following Ci Xi's example, asking his subordinates to formulate a definite opinion and not allowing himself to bear the responsibility alone.

Shi Zhaoji sent a telegram back to Wu Liande informing him of the court's opinion.Li Yu and Wu Liande immediately jumped when they saw it. Hundreds of people died here every day. Even Zhang Zuolin's soldiers died every day. There was no way it could be delayed any longer.

The two people quickly sent another telegram to Shi Zhaoji, explaining that the matter had become extremely urgent.

Shi Zhaoji had traveled to various countries and learned about the horror of the plague in India. On the night he received the telegram, he hurried to the Regent's Palace.

Zaifeng was listening to the play, and Shi Zhaoji had been waiting in the living room.

After listening to the play, it was already late at night. Zai Feng walked out slowly and saw Shi Zhaoji waiting. He was surprised and said: "My dear, why do you need to report overnight? Could it be that the envoys from Dongjiao Minxiang are up to something?" "

Shi Zhaoji took out the telegram from Li Yu and Wu Liande: "Prince Regent, urgent telegram from Harbin. If the bodies cannot be cremated as soon as possible, the plague will not be eradicated, and hundreds of people will still die every day."

Zaifeng's scalp was numb, why is this happening again? He replied: "You also know that burning thousands of corpses at once has never been done before in our Qing Dynasty. Furthermore, the plague can be cured by cremating the corpses." Well? This matter needs to be considered in the long run and a meeting will be held."

The meeting was bound to be a quarrel with each other, so Shi Zhaoji immediately knelt down and said: "Prince Regent, hundreds of people die every day in the Northeast, and Japan and Russia are watching. This matter concerns the country, the country, and if the plague still cannot be cured after burning the corpses, I would like to Take all responsibility.”

Zaifeng was a little anxious because of him, and seeing his sincere words, he finally agreed: "Go ahead and draw up the decree."

This shows that Zaifeng is still relatively soft in character.

Shi Zhaoji was afraid that he would go back on his word, so he drafted the edict overnight, stamped it, and sent someone to Harbin by train.

After receiving the imperial edict, Wu Liande asked Zhang Zuolin to lead the troops to read it and then burn it.

Not only that, Wu Liande even ordered the graves of those who had been buried because of the plague to be dug up and burned together.

There were so many corpses that it took several days to burn them.

It was from this day that the turning point of the epidemic appeared.

The Russians and Japanese no longer persisted. They followed suit and began to burn corpses and implement quarantines.

The number of new deaths is getting fewer and fewer, and by the time the Chinese New Year is approaching, they have been basically cleared.

This is more than a month faster than in history, and the death toll is more than 1 fewer.

A few days before the Chinese New Year, Wu Liande issued an order to lift the lockdown.

Li Yu was just in time to go back and celebrate the New Year, but Wu Liande didn't want to leave now. He wanted to observe for a while and organize research materials.

There is no need for Li Yu to stay here. He is already in a good mood after being able to help save so many lives.

Wu Liande bid farewell to Li Yu and said with emotion: "Mr. Academician has been a great help. Without the materials and effective suggestions you provided, Wu would not have acted so quickly."

Li Yu smiled and said, "I'm just a helper."

Wu Liande invited: "If a plague conference from all nations is held in the near future, academicians must attend."

There is no doubt that the eradication of the plague in Northeast China is a very successful case in the world. The Qing court has not had a highlight moment for decades, and it must take advantage of this opportunity to shine and publicize it.

The Universal Plague Conference was indeed the first international academic conference held in Chinese history, and it was basically chaired by Wu Liande.

If you have attended academic conferences, you must know the identity of the host, who is an absolute industry leader.

Li Yu is also interested in promoting Wu Liande to win the Nobel Prize in recent years.

Historically, he was nominated, but unfortunately the competition was too fierce that year and he failed to win.Therefore, you must choose a year where competition is less intense in the early stages.

With Wu Liande's achievements, he deserves the Nobel Prize.

-

The railway from the Northeast still has to pass through Tianjin. Li Yu took a rest here to see the situation of Tianjin Middle School.

In school, Li Yu met Yan Fansun and Lin Shu, and there was a middle-aged man with them.

After seeing Li Yu, Yan Fansun said happily: "I saw the situation in the Northeast in the newspaper. The emperor is worthy of being the pillar of the country!"

Li Yu said: "It's all Dr. Wu's credit, but it's a pity that many people still died."

Yan Fansun said: "The total is less than 6. The plague in India kills [-] to [-] people every week. Your results shocked all countries."

Back in the office, Yan Fansun introduced the middle-aged man to him: "This is Lin Changmin, who came to Beijing to attend the meeting of the Advisory Bureau."

Lin Changmin’s daughter is more famous: Lin Huiyin.

During the Republic of China, it was important to have a well-matched family. Lin Huiyin was able to marry the son of the famous Liang Qichao, which naturally shows that the Lin family is not weak.

Li Yu shook hands with him: "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Lin Changmin said: "I have admired the name of Emperor Shi for a long time."

Li Yu asked casually: "Sir, on behalf of Fujian, did you gain anything from attending the meeting of the Advisory Board?"

Lin Changmin said helplessly: "Even Yang Du can't influence the establishment of the constitution. If he is thrown into prison, what can he gain?"

Yan Fansun changed the subject and said, "Let's not talk about these heavy topics."

"Yes," Lin Shu said, "This time Zong Meng (Lin Changmin's nickname) sent a good gift to Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, and Peiyang University."

Li Yu asked: "What kind of courtesy?"

Lin Shu pointed to the large bookcase in front of him: "Several sets of the complete works of Western Aristotle, and they are the latest and most complete editions. It is said that Aristotle is the ancestor of Western philosophy. This set of books covers many subjects. I think it will definitely become a favorite in the library. Books that have been borrowed frequently. In the next few years, I will also do a big thing and work with many people to complete the translation of this set of classics."

In the era before Li Yu traveled through time, Aristotle's existence had begun to be questioned...

Li Yu looked at it and saw that this set of books was all in English. It was thick and large and priced very high. He asked, "I'm afraid it will take a long time to translate it. Master Lin, have you read it?"

Lin Shu said: "I have read part of it and I am quite surprised. It is really puzzling how a person who was a contemporary of our most holy teacher could create such a thick book."

Lin Changmin also said: "Thinking about our hundreds of schools of thought, the thickest one, "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", only has 20 words, Confucius's "The Analects" has only more than 1 words, and the complete works of Aristotle's have more than 300 million words."

Historically, since the early years of the Republic of China when Aristotle's works were first translated, many translators have raised similar questions, and they are not groundless.

Li Yu had not read this complete set and said, "Maybe later generations imposed some works on it?"

Lin Shu said: "I feel the same way. I have translated many novels. According to what I heard, when Alexandre Dumas and others wrote novels, they would have a multi-person team. This is just a novel, and I briefly flipped through it. The complete works of Aristotle touch upon subjects from many professional fields, which is really incredible.”

Li Yu's respect for these masters of the Republic of China has now increased. Many of them do not blindly worship foreigners, but still maintain a serious attitude of pursuing knowledge. Their self-confidence in this turbulent nation has dropped. It was really difficult at the bottom.

(End of this chapter)