Chapter 1236: Poisonous Insects
Chapter 1236: Poisonous Insects (Additional chapter 3 for leader Yu Yuanchuyu)
The wheel ruts passed over the accumulated water, startling a swarm of mosquitoes.
Ji Shihe slapped his arms, flicked the flattened mosquito away, then wiped the sweat off his face and walked towards the city gate.
At this moment, the sound of drums gathering troops suddenly rang out from a military camp somewhere outside the city, followed by waves of noise that grew louder than the last.
Ji Shihe waved his hand and asked his nephews and nephews to escort the military rations into the city, while he stayed outside.
"Grandpa." Xuancheng Ling Ji Cheng walked over and saluted.
Ji Shihe glanced at his son and smiled.
It was mid-July, the hottest time of the year, but my son wore his official robe meticulously, as if he was not afraid of the heat.
Thinking of this, I felt a little sad. Don't blame the Ji family's children for being like this, they are really happy.
He was the prefect of Xuancheng, and his son Ji Cheng was the magistrate of Xuancheng. It was a great win for the family to have two official positions. This laid the foundation for the Ji family of Xuancheng to last for a hundred years. Future generations will be grateful to them.
"What are you running around for? How important is your position as the head of a county? Don't miss out on military and national affairs." Ji Shihe scolded with a stern face.
"Grandpa is right." Ji Cheng accepted the advice humbly, and then said: "The food and supplies needed for the army to go out have been distributed, enough for a month. Grandpa just needs to load the newly transported food into the mansion."
After that, he asked in a low voice: "Is there enough food and grass?"
"We can still manage." Ji Shihe also replied in a low voice: "The people in Jiangbei have surrendered in droves, and next month grain and grass from Henan will be delivered. We must be patient for now. It's already this time, and we can't make any mistakes. If we provoke the envoy to get angry, our two officials may not be able to keep their jobs."
After hearing this, Ji Cheng nodded seriously and said, "Grandpa is right."
If they hadn't invested, it would be fine, but the Ji family had already invested so much, not only money and food, but also the lives of their soldiers and farmhands, the accumulated favors, etc., the value was inestimable. As long as they could keep the two positions of prefect and county magistrate, they could slowly make it back, and even possibly improve their status.
The Zhou family of Yixing, the Shen family of Wukang, and the Qian family of Changcheng had been struggling for hundreds of years but had not been able to obtain anything, but now they had already obtained half of it.
The other half requires continuity, that is, at least three consecutive generations of officials. The family also needs to have some cultural heritage, otherwise you can't join that circle, you can't get to know the county Zhongzheng, you can't get to know the state Zhongzheng.
If you don't know these people, no one will speak well of your family, and no one will flatter your children. How can they be included in the county genealogy and be listed among the nobles?
"Is it okay for this group of people to go to the expedition?" Ji Shihe said, pointing at the soldiers who were lining up to leave the camp.
"The Silver Spear Army will send several hundred people to support us, so it shouldn't be a big deal." Ji Cheng said.
"Why just a few hundred people?" Ji Shihe frowned.
"The commander is reluctant to let them go." Ji Cheng said, "These are soldiers who have recovered from illness. They seem to be from several tribes, temporarily transferred and organized, led by a tribe leader named Tang Xiang. There are more than 3,000 soldiers in Xuancheng, about 1,000 of them from my family, and 2,000 from the other families."
In fact, Ji Cheng was right. This was indeed the Silver Spear Soldier who had recovered from his illness.
The so-called recovery was actually mainly "mild symptoms" such as fever and diarrhea, which occurred one after another in the few months after crossing the river, reaching a peak in June, and have eased this month.
Neither the army doctors nor the local doctors invited from Xuancheng could clearly explain what disease they had. In the end, they could only summarize it as "inadaptability to the local climate and water".
It looks very crude, but there is no way around it, medical knowledge is like that. "Endemic Diseases" has already listed many types of diseases, but compared to the number of diseases that actually exist in the world, it is still a drop in the bucket.
Many people suffer from acclimatization problems, accounting for about half of the population.
Some people recover after a few days, some take ten days or half a month, and some remain sick and weak for two months. Of course, some do not make it.
As for those diseases that were clearly listed in the "Endemic Diseases" catalogue, such as malaria and diarrhea (dysentery), there were quite a few of them, and many people died.
While the Ji father and son were talking, several people came out of the city.
The leader was Tang Xiang, and he was accompanied by an official who had recently come from Jiangbei and looked quite young.
Ji Shihe had never seen them before, but Ji Cheng stepped forward and saluted, saying, "General Tang, Doctor Wang."
Ji Shihe also stepped forward and saluted, and the two returned the salute.
After the greetings were completed, Tang Xiang glanced at the Ji family father and son and said, "Please do as you please. I have something else to do."
The Ji father and son then took their leave.
Tang Xiang looked at "Dr. Wang" again and said, "Don't just think about writing a book, think of a solution."
"Okay." Dr. Wang responded.
His name was Wang Jin. He was the son of Wang Bing, the internal historian of Wuyuan, and a member of the Wang family of Donghai.
He is not young anymore, already over 30, and has been staying in his hometown doing nothing.
Of course, this is not entirely correct.
This man had a quirk, that is, he liked to treat people for free. But there was one thing, he did not follow the old method at all when treating people, but completely followed his own understanding, sometimes he would come up with a method on the spur of the moment and then follow it.
If you can accept this, he will treat you for free. If you can't accept it, he will watch you die without even frowning.
When he is tired, exhausted or in a bad mood, he will go out to enjoy the scenery or chat with others. He is a typical scholar who is extremely bored and tries to find some fun in life.
When Shao Xun asked his attendants if there were any talented people in Donghai, someone recommended this fellow villager, so he was discovered and joined the Imperial Medical Bureau. He followed the army southward, recording the epidemic situation in the army and improving the "Fengtu Disease" - this kind of book must be updated regularly because new diseases are added at any time. "You said yesterday that the Wu people were alive with worms, which is a fallacy." Before leaving, Tang Xiang turned around and said.
"It wasn't me who said that. It was the emperor who said that." Wang Jin replied expressionlessly.
Tang Xiang choked.
Wang Jin sneered and said, "The emperor also said that some Wu people may have malaria-causing parasites in their bodies, which can be passed on to others after being sucked by mosquitoes. I collected a bowl of blood and looked for it all day, but I didn't see any malaria-causing parasites. Do you believe what the emperor said?"
Tang Xiang was speechless.
Wang Jin laughed and said, "I do believe it a little. Before coming here, the emperor was talking in the Bixiao Palace. When discussing the common malaria in the south of the Yangtze River, he mentioned the four words 'living with the worm'. The implication is that many people in Wu had malaria and recovered later, but the poisonous worms were not completely killed and were still alive in their bodies. Therefore, some people will still have malaria, but it is very mild (mild symptoms), and some people will not have malaria again (no symptoms). However, if mosquitoes suck their blood and then bite northerners, northerners may not be able to withstand it."
Tang Xiang sighed. There was nothing he could do about the little poisonous insect!
Even if you put dozens of Wu soldiers in front of him, he would still dare to rush forward alone, but since the poisonous insects are invisible and intangible, he can do nothing about them.
In fact, there is some truth in the idea of malaria carriers (asymptomatic but carrying malarial parasites, i.e. not completely immune). The refugees from the north who went south were swept by malaria, and a large number of them died, but many others survived. Are there poisonous parasites in their internal organs and blood? It's hard to say.
"You should concentrate on writing your book." Tang Xiang said, "Last time I saw you write down several different types of malaria, which made me shudder. This time you were really bitten by poisonous insects, and it will be better if you live in the city. Now I'm leaving, please don't see me off."
Wang Jin bowed and indeed did not give it to him.
******
On July 22, the sun was shining brightly and the heat was unbearable.
However, in the past seven days, the team of three to four thousand people led by Tang Xiang has experienced the baptism of two rainstorms.
The tents were completely useless. They were soaked when they slept. Many people had fevers and even talked nonsense. They had to be placed in the baggage train and asked the young soldiers to take good care of them. In fact, the conditions in the wild could not be much better. Whether they could recover depended entirely on their luck.
The outline of Wuhu city appeared in the distance ahead.
When he climbed up to look, Tang Xiang found that the road seemed to be completely flooded.
Shicheng Wei Liu Xiaoshu led 500 men as the vanguard and advanced with difficulty in the yellow mud.
The mud completely covered the trouser legs and the soles of the straw sandals were covered with mud.
Five hundred people approached the city wall in a very slow and funny way, and Liu Xiaoshu's heart was in his throat.
If someone shot arrows from the top of the city at this time, they would be sitting ducks.
The south gate of Wuhu seemed to be opened, and a large group of people walked out.
Liu Xiaoshu touched the hilt of the knife, and his followers also became alert.
Fortunately, the defenders stopped at the door. After a moment, several people stepped forward and shouted, "Is it the Daliang King's Army?"
"That's right." Liu Xiaoshu straightened his chest and responded loudly.
"Finally you're here." The leader on the opposite side seemed relieved and said, "If you don't come again, someone will rebel again."
Liu Xiaoshu quickened his pace, and muddy water splashed everywhere.
When they reached a high ground, he stamped his feet vigorously and asked, "Where is Shan Xia?"
"He left." The man replied, "If he doesn't leave, it will be inconvenient for us to surrender."
"Why did you leave? Where did you go?"
"He was supposed to hold on, but he was sick and dazed. His staff became discouraged and carried him onto the ship and returned to Jianye."
"How many people were taken away?"
"There should be eight thousand people."
"How do you know?"
"The people from the Ruxu Navy said that many of them also returned to Jianye. The rest were mostly from Huainan, Lujiang, and Xuancheng. They didn't want to go to Jianye, so they gathered in Wuhu and surrendered to Daliang with us."
"What a crushing defeat." Liu Xiaoshu sighed, then waved his hand and said, "Let everyone in the city line up and hand in their weapons."
"Yes, sir." The person on the other side responded and went back to convey the order.
Liu Xiaoshu trotted back to where Tang Xiang was standing and reported the matter.
Tang Xiang nodded and said, "No wonder Jiangbei's attack on Dongguan and Ruxuwu was so smooth. It turns out that they are two empty cities."
After saying that, he looked up at the blazing sun in the sky and said, "Your mother and maid! After marching for several days, dozens of people have fallen to the ground due to the heat. We have finally arrived."
On the 22nd, Liang's army took control of Wuhu.
After resting for several days, a messenger came from Wanling, reporting that the navy of Jingzhou had won a complete victory, Wang Bin and his family burned themselves to death, and the counties of Jiangzhou surrendered to Zhuge Hui one after another.
Yang Qin intended to advance to Jianye after the weather turned cooler in mid-to-late August, and ordered Tang Xiang to recruit the surrendered people in Wuhu to cooperate with the advance.
(End of this chapter)