Rome must fall.

Chapter 349 Solving Fertility Problems
"Of course." Maximus said confidently, picked up the two items, and patiently explained them.

In his previous life, Maximus discovered the gadget called forceps in the options of modern medical technology when he was illustrating the game Civilization. There was a special note under the picture saying "The emergence of forceps is a major advancement in the history of human reproduction."

Curiosity prompted him to look up information about forceps, from which he learned that forceps had been used in childbirth for a long time, and there were records of them in ancient Egypt and ancient Rome. However, due to their low success rate, they were not widely promoted. The emergence and development of modern forceps are mainly related to the Chamberlain family.

This 16th century French midwife family created a curved forceps with holes that fit the shape of the baby's head in their long-term practice, which greatly improved the success rate of women's childbirth. They kept this secret and made a fortune from it. It was not until the 18th century that it was popularized.

Maximus also watched an animated video introducing forceps, and learned about the fetal vacuum extractor. These two small instruments, used in conjunction with each other, are powerful tools for successful delivery in modern obstetrics.

Maximus tried hard to recall the demonstration in the video of his previous life. He tried to demonstrate with the vacuum extractor and forceps while stammering as he explained.

It was indeed very embarrassing for a man to explain how to use instruments to assist women in childbirth. Even though his wife was the only spectator, Maximus still felt very uncomfortable. However, in order to improve the tribe's fertility success rate, he still gritted his teeth and finished explaining it.

Finally, he said: "...the basic usage of forceps and vacuum extractors is like this. It seems simple, but if you want to use them in women's childbirth and successfully help them give birth, doctors and nurses need to practice continuously and find a set of successful experience in using them."

"Doctor? Why do women in our tribe need a doctor to give birth?" Nessia asked in surprise.

Maximus was stunned.

This is indeed the case. For the Knicks, giving birth is a family matter. No one will take a pregnant woman to the hospital to give birth. They will only go to the hospital for help if they encounter danger during childbirth, but by then it is already too late.

Later, Horace learned from his mistakes and recruited more than a dozen tribal women with rich childbirth experience to become midwives in the hospital after training. Whenever a woman gave birth, they would be assigned to assist in the delivery... There were indeed no specialized doctors to take charge of childbirth. On the one hand, all the doctors in the Nix tribe were men, and no one wanted to do this kind of work and be gossiped about. On the other hand, the tribesmen were also unwilling to let a man help their wives give birth.

"Actually, there's no need for a doctor. Just teach the nurses how to use these two instruments..." Maximus changed his words.

But before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Nessia: "Since the goddess Danu gave you such a revelation in the dream, I hope our tribe can have a doctor who can use the magical instruments she gave to help pregnant women give birth smoothly. But our hospital doesn't have them now, so why don't you let me learn how to use these two magical instruments and become a doctor who specializes in helping women give birth in the future!"

The reason why Maximus asked the craftsmen to make these two instruments and did not call Horace directly, but told Nessia first, was because he thought it would be more convenient for Nessia to tell the medical department about such matters related to women's childbirth, but he did not expect Nessia to make such a request.

Maximus saw Nessia leaning forward slightly, her mouth tight, her hands clenched, as if trying to control her emotions, but her bright eyes could not hide her inner nervousness and anticipation, so he reminded her hesitantly: "Nessia... you are no longer a nurse who cleans and bandages the wounded, but the adjutant of the medical department. It is your responsibility to assist Horace in managing the medical care of the entire tribe and improving the health and well-being of all the tribesmen—"

"I don't want to be the adjutant of the medical department anymore." Nessia interrupted him softly and asked sincerely, "Since I became the adjutant, I have nothing to do every day. It is far less fulfilling than when I was the head nurse and led the nurses to rescue the wounded... Chief, I really want to be a doctor who specializes in helping pregnant women give birth. I think I would be very happy to see them give birth smoothly!"

Facing his wife's deep, longing gaze, Maximus felt her determination and firmness, and he suddenly understood why Nessia made such a request: it was precisely because she was infertile that she wanted to help other women have their own children and turn her regret into hope for others.

At that moment, Maximus' heart was gripped tightly, but he smiled and encouraged loudly: "Since you are determined to become a doctor who helps women give birth, then go for it! I hope that one day the children of the tribe who are born successfully by your hands will respectfully call you 'Mother Nessia' when they grow up!" Maximus' words gave Nessia, who was a little nervous, more confidence. A flower-like smile bloomed on her face, and she responded firmly: "Yes, I will!"

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Since January, the Ministry of Works has been responsible for building the road on the south bank of the Kupa River.

Originally, building roads was the most important matter for Capito, the head of the Ministry of Works. He had engineers such as Spukara make comprehensive plans and measurements for the roads to be built. He also asked Gaius, the adjutant in charge of construction projects, to gather most of the Roman veterans in the tribe to supervise and guide the foreign tribesmen. For this purpose, he also gathered a group of stonemasons to open a quarry in the mountains not far from the original road, expand the scale of the lime kiln, and increase the output of kiln-fired concrete...

Capito organized tens of thousands of foreign auxiliaries, divided into more than a dozen teams, led by Roman veterans and engineers familiar with road construction, to build the road in sections from Snotia to the floating bridge east of Todelidor.

He also asked carpenters to build a wooden bridge on the site of the dismantled floating bridge on the Kupa River, and even persuaded the governors of the three towns of Snotia, Westney, and Todlido to mobilize the people to do some auxiliary work...

Since then, the south bank of the Kupa River has become a large construction site, with tens of thousands of people busy every day, and the daytime is extremely lively and noisy.

Even in the rainy season of March, the huge construction team was still busy every day. In April, when people had to plant seeds in their own fields, some foreign auxiliary people were also transferred to help with farm work, but the number of construction team members did not decrease significantly, because a new batch of laborers joined...

All the efforts of Capito were to build a road that could rival the Roman roads.

In May, the wheat seedlings in the farmlands are growing vigorously. At a glance, the green fields are like two huge emeralds inlaid on both sides of the Kupa River. Wild flowers and bushes begin to bloom on the edges of the fields and on the country paths. Their fragrance and colors add more charm to the farmlands.

The warm weather also made it easier and less labor-intensive to build the road, but everyone did not become lazy. Instead, they worked harder. After more than four months and the hard work of tens of thousands of people, this road, which is about 4 miles long, is almost completed.

On this day, on the newly built road from Snotia to Westene, several Roman veterans who served as foremen and engineers, after repeated inspections, announced in public: the section of road they were responsible for building was successfully completed!
Thousands of laborers danced and cheered loudly, and the foremen and engineers even shed tears.

Yes, it was not easy! You have to know that most of the thousands of laborers were Pannoni captives from the battle last year. Although they had been disciplined for two months, the troublemakers were sent to Aldei, and the rest were relatively obedient, there were still frequent problems during the road construction process. They did not listen to the instructions, and even slacked off, quarreled, and rebelled...

To this end, Capito led the foremen to come up with many ways, including threats, starvation, corporal punishment, and even beheading prisoners who resisted and escaped. At the same time, they also gave some benefits to prisoners who performed well, such as rewarding them with meat, promoting them to captains of construction teams, and considering including them in the list of prisoners to be released (at that time, Desitiatai secretly sent envoys to negotiate a truce with the Nixes). For prisoners who began to change their minds and wanted to join the Nix tribe, they were promised to take one of the quota for the next foreign auxiliary people to be transferred to the reserve tribesmen...

Thanks to their continuous efforts, this huge team of captive construction workers began to be tamed after April. They were willing to obey orders, work hard, and collaborate with others. As a result, the efficiency of road construction was greatly improved, and they were able to complete their task within the time set by the Capitoline.

For the captives, the reason they cheered excitedly was partly because they could finally finish the arduous work of road construction, but more because:
At first, under the pressure of the Nixes, they blindly used iron plows and other tools to loosen the soil on the original road, dig out the foundation of the road, and then laid a foundation made of small stones, mortar and clay on it. Then they used pebbles, small gravel, bricks and concrete to tamp the foundation, and then laid a layer of concrete without any debris on it. They also used smooth and flat giant wooden rollers to repeatedly roll and tamp it, and finally paved the top layer of the road with chiseled and flat stones and gravel... The Nixes also required them to dig drainage ditches on both sides of the road and level the dirt road for pedestrians...

(End of this chapter)