Emperor of the Red Chamber

Chapter 150: Preparation for War: Missionary Generals and Medicinal Alcohol
On the 16th day of the first lunar month, when many people were still immersed in the atmosphere of the Lantern Festival, Yuan Qingbai, as the emperor, was busy with state affairs as usual.

In the morning, at Yuan Qingbai's summons, four generals came to the palace together and met Yuan Qingbai in the warm room of the Yangxin Palace.

Among these four generals, two were from the northern western army commanded by General Jingbian Wang Ziteng, and the other two were from the western western army commanded by General Ningyuan Yue Zhong.

Three months ago, Yuan Qingbai ordered Wang Ziteng and Yue Zhong to recommend two military generals under their command to come to Beijing, a total of four military generals. They were required to be loyal to the emperor and patriotic, have made military achievements, and have both civil and military talents.

These four generals have been in Shenjing for two months, or to be more precise, for two months of training.

The teachers who trained them were not simple. They included the Grand Councilor Tang Chengyuan and the Minister of the Imperial Household Department Jia Zhu. Yuan Qingbai also specially invited the former twelfth prince Yuan Sijiang, a former general who had made great military achievements in the west, to teach the four generals.

During the two months, Yuan Qingbai even took time out several times to personally teach the four generals.

The content of the training these four generals received is somewhat complicated, but it can be simply summarized in one sentence: learn how to be loyal to the emperor and patriotic, and learn how to preach and educate!

They learned how to preach loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, how to preach the hatred between the Great Zhou and the Dzungar Khanate, how to preach the generous rewards and preferential treatment given by the Great Zhou to the soldiers who went on the Western Expedition, and how to preach the "Great Zhou Newspaper".

All four generals have been promoted.

The four people who were promoted included two missionary generals and two missionary deputy generals.

General Xuanjiao and Deputy General Xuanjiao were military officer positions newly created by Yuan Qingbai based on the official system of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Among them, the general of missionary work is of the first rank, on the same level as the admiral, and the deputy general of missionary work is of the second rank, on the same level as the deputy general.

The so-called missionary work means the imperial decree to preach and educate!

In the war against the Dzungar Khanate, Yuan Qingbai was determined to win. Although he had been on the throne for less than a year, he was diligent in preparations and spared no effort.

He specially trained these four missionary generals with the intention of strengthening the mental education of the two armies in the western border.

Originally, he wanted to train a lot of middle and lower-level military missionaries, but the timing was not yet ripe, so he planned to wait until after the war with the Dzungar Khanate before doing so.

Tomorrow, the four missionary generals will leave Beijing and return to the western camp.

Today Yuan Qingbai specially summoned four people.

"I have specially summoned you today, not for any other reason, but to send you off. I hope you will not disappoint me, and when you return to the western frontier, you will obey my orders to preach and educate the people. Those who are good will be rewarded, and those who are not good will be punished. I am not lying."

After saying this, Yuan Qingbai gave each of the four missionary generals a glass of wine, and he raised the cup to bid farewell to the four.

The four generals were so moved that the emperor toasted them in person in the warm room of the Yangxin Palace, which was a great favor.

"We, the ministers, swear to fulfill your orders and serve you wholeheartedly to repay your majesty's great kindness!"

The four men spoke passionately, expressed their determination, and drank the wine in their glasses.

The next day, the four generals left Beijing together.

A missionary general and a missionary deputy general rushed to the western northern route of the army.

Another missionary general and another missionary deputy general rushed to the western route of the army.

Their departure from the capital also meant that the war between the Great Zhou and the Dzungar Khanate was approaching, and the clouds of war were already covering the western sky...

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The twenty-first day of the first lunar month is Xue Baochai's birthday.

Grandmother Jia and Mrs. Wang knew very well that Xue Baochai had long been the woman Yuan Qingbai had his eyes on. After Yuan Qingbai had finished his mourning period, if nothing unexpected happened, Xue Baochai would enter the palace as a concubine.

This made both Lady Jia and Mrs. Wang pay more attention to Xue Baochai.

Both Lady Jia and Mrs. Wang wanted to give Xue Baochai a grand banquet and a play to celebrate her birthday.

Unfortunately, Emperor Chengtai's state mourning period had not even lasted a year, so Rongguo Mansion was not allowed to hold banquets or music.

Even so, Lady Jia and Mrs. Wang still had to hold a banquet, and each picked out a precious item to give to Xue Baochai as a birthday gift.

Yuan Qingbai naturally would not participate in Xue Baochai's birthday this year, nor did he have the intention to pay attention to such trivial matters.

That afternoon, there was a drizzle in the sky of the capital city. The drizzle contained both the chill of the late winter and the freshness of early spring, as if it meant that winter was over and spring was coming.

Yuan Qingbai once again went out incognito, and together with Jia Zhu and Lu Yuanshi of the Imperial Hospital, they left the imperial city, and then went out of the inner city through Zhengyang Gate to the outer city.

The carriage that Yuan Qingbai was riding in stopped at a factory in the outer city.

The factory was under a militarized blockade, and even nearby residents had no idea what it was producing.

In fact, it is a pharmaceutical factory!

One day last year, Yuan Qingbai summoned Jia Zhu and Lu Yuanshi of the Imperial Medical Bureau, told them the idea of ​​medical alcohol, and ordered them to develop and produce medical alcohol.

At the same time, Yuan Qingbai ordered that a building in the outer city be converted into a pharmaceutical factory, which was placed under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Household Department and named the Imperial Household Department Pharmaceutical Factory.

Yuan Qingbai came to the Ministry of Internal Affairs Pharmaceutical Factory for an inspection today.

The director of the Imperial Household Department Pharmaceutical Factory was Lu Qian, who was originally an official of the Imperial Household Department. Because of his integrity and ability, he was recommended by Jia Zhu and promoted by Yuan Qingbai to be the director of the Imperial Household Department Pharmaceutical Factory.

The Imperial Household Department's Pharmaceutical Factory is still rudimentary at present and mainly produces medical alcohol.

As early as nine thousand years ago, the earliest artificial winemaking technology appeared in China.

Later, Chinese alchemists invented the distiller, which led to the emergence of distilled liquor, which allowed the concentration of alcohol to be purified. Subsequently, highly distilled liquor was found to be able to kill bacteria and prevent infection.

In Yuan Qingbai's previous life, in the early nineteenth century, medical alcohol began to be used for treatment in Europe, especially in surgical operations.

It was still the seventeenth century.

Thanks to Yuan Qingbai's "invention", the scientific researchers, imperial physicians, and craftsmen of the Great Zhou Dynasty jointly developed and manufactured medical alcohol with a 75% ethanol content!

With the current technological level of the Great Zhou, developing this thing is not difficult.

Use spirits to distill multiple times to distill out alcohol with an ethanol content of more than 95%, and then dilute it with distilled water to 75% ethanol content.

At present, the Imperial Household Department Pharmaceutical Factory has also produced a lot of medical alcohol, which has a very good disinfection effect.

Jia Zhu and Lu Yuanshi were both amazed by this and felt that Yuan Qingbai, Emperor Tianlong, was truly the "Son of Heaven" who was appointed by Heaven and had extraordinary talents. He had invented the hot air balloon when he was young and now he had invented medical alcohol.

Only Jia Zhu and Lu Yuanshi knew that medical alcohol was invented by Yuan Qingbai himself, and they only announced to the outside world that the medical alcohol came from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The main point is that medical alcohol is not a miracle drug, it can only be used for disinfection. If it is claimed that it was invented by Yuan Qingbai himself, and many people die after using medical alcohol, it is inevitable that there will be voices blaming and resenting Yuan Qingbai.

At this time, accompanied by Jia Zhu, Lu Yuanshi and Lu Qian, Yuan Qingbai carefully examined the current Imperial Household Department Pharmaceutical Factory.

After the examination, Yuan Qingbai was satisfied and started a meeting in a main room of the pharmaceutical factory.

"We need to speed up production; the current rate is too slow."

This was the first point Yuan Qingbai emphasized at the meeting.

According to his plan, the Great Zhou was about to launch a war against the Dzungar Khanate, vowing to wipe out the Dzungar Khanate in one fell swoop and incorporate the vast land in the northwest into the territory of the Great Zhou.

This battle will be fierce, and there will be many casualties.

With enough medical alcohol, the benefits to Da Zhou are self-evident.

In fact, Yuan Qingbai was eager to invent medical alcohol mainly for the war between the Great Zhou and the Dzungar Khanate. Medical alcohol was another weapon he carefully prepared for this war.

Of course, the uses of medical alcohol are not limited to this. Its early appearance in the Great Zhou Dynasty has benefited the country and the people, and can be regarded as Yuan Qingbai’s contribution to the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

In addition, medical alcohol can also help Yuan Qingbai make money.

Taking the suffering of the people into consideration, Yuan Qingbai did not set a high price for medical alcohol, but he would issue a strict decree that only the Imperial Household Department Pharmaceutical Factory could produce medical alcohol, and other departments and individuals were strictly prohibited from privately producing it, and violators would be punished severely.

In this case, even if the price of medical alcohol is not high, considering the size of the Great Zhou and its large population, this commonly used medical item will surely sell well and make a lot of money.

Yuan Qingbai had already decided that all the profits would go to the Imperial Household Department, which was his private treasury. After the profits went to the Imperial Household Department, they would be transferred out of the department to be used for the innovation and development of the Imperial Hospital, or for other state affairs...

This would benefit his reputation as an emperor and would also be conducive to his further reform of the Imperial Medical Bureau in the future.

As the Son of Heaven, it would naturally be cheaper to use funds from his private treasury to support the reform of the Imperial Medical Service than to use funds from the national treasury to support the reform of the Imperial Medical Service.

"The formula and production method of 'disinfectant water' must be kept strictly secret, and those who know about it must be warned frequently."

This is the second point Yuan Qingbai emphasized at the meeting.

Although the formula of medical alcohol is simple, there is no accurate method to detect alcohol concentration in this era, so it is difficult to know the ethanol ratio of medical alcohol.

One of the reasons why Yuan Qingbai named medical alcohol "disinfectant" was to keep the formula secret. If it was called "medical alcohol", people would know that the formula contained alcohol.

The formula and production method of medical alcohol are also strictly confidential. There are not many scientific researchers, imperial physicians, and craftsmen who know the formula and production method, and they are required not to tell it to anyone. Violators will be punished with serious crimes.

Such secrecy is naturally intended to prevent the private production of medical alcohol for profit.

Yuan Qingbai originally wanted to develop "iodine tincture", which is better than medical alcohol.

However, with the current level of technology in the Great Zhou Dynasty, extracting "iodine" is not an easy task.

In the past, it was not until 1812 that "iodine" was first extracted from algae by a French pharmacist. Twenty years later, people combined iodine and alcohol to invent iodine tincture. Subsequently, iodine tincture saved a large number of lives during the American Civil War and became widely known around the world.

Yuan Qingbai has ordered the establishment of an "iodine tincture" scientific research team, which is composed of a group of scientific researchers from the Imperial Observatory, imperial physicians from the Imperial Medical Bureau, and craftsmen from the Imperial Household Department. They are responsible for extracting "iodine" from algae and are required to develop "iodine tincture" as soon as possible.

Once "iodine tincture" is developed, it will be very beneficial to the future military operations of the Great Zhou Dynasty and will also benefit the people. It will be another contribution made by Yuan Qingbai to the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

There is a long way to go……

(End of this chapter)