Chapter 474 Pox Prince
The son fell asleep with a bunch of gems in his arms. Yu Xiao wanted to take the gems away, but the boy held them tightly with each hand.
"Let him go, he'll be right after a while." Qin Lang said dotingly.
Yuxiao was helpless, "Sanlang is also tired, go wash up, I will take Jun'er to sleep and watch him."
Qin Lang chuckled, "The child is so old, it should be weaned, let Mrs. Xian take care of it, and you rub my back."
Yu Xiao understood Qin Lang's smile, but said, "You're tired from the journey back, so you should take a good rest."
"You won't accompany me? We've been separated for so long, don't you want to be your husband, so let him love you for a night."
"Sanlang, if you want, I'll let younger sister Youwei accompany you. I still have Jun'er to accompany you these days when you're not around, but she is much more lonely. She usually likes Jun'er very much and wants to have a child a long time ago." Woolen cloth."
"You are so generous!" Qin Lang sighed.
"Go quickly." Yu Xiao pushed him out.
Yu Xuanji had been looking forward to him long ago, and after a while, she had already gone back to the house to touch up her makeup. Even though it was night, the light makeup was very attractive.
"Sanlang, the water is ready, let the slave serve Sanlang to take a bath!"
Qin Lang knew that she was a secret agent sent by Li Shimin's Baiqi Division, and was tasked with monitoring the Duke of Wei's mansion, but even if he knew it well, he could only accept it tacitly.
"Okay, I will trouble you."
······
"During the time I was away from Beijing, what happened in Beijing, please tell me."
Qin Lang was lying in the bath, enjoying the comfort of soaking in the warm soup. The pores all over his body seemed to be opened, the steam was thick, and Yu Xuanji's graceful body loomed, making him more and more alluring.
Instead, he closed his eyes, relaxed his body, and enjoyed her moderate kneading and massage.
"In June, Li Zhi, the ninth son of the emperor, was born. He was the third son of the eldest grandson empress. The emperor was very happy, and he feasted on the officials..."
"Frost and cold in early autumn, many crops died, many states and counties had no harvest, people sold their sons and daughters more, and the government had no food for disaster relief..."
"Your Majesty and the Queen took out the gold and silver treasures of the inner government, redeemed the sold children and returned them to their parents..."
"The famine is getting worse, His Majesty ordered the officials in the pass to allow the people in the state to leave their hometowns and eat outside the pass."
"Your Majesty and the Empress let the three thousand people from Chang'an Taiji Palace and Xinggong out of the palace, and asked them to betroth Guanzhong government soldiers, or return to their hometown to marry..."
Qin Lang listened quietly. In fact, although Qin Lang was away from home, he already knew about these things through his own news channels.
But hearing Yu Xuanji say it, it was another feeling.
Especially whenever she talked about a major event, she would inevitably add some reactions from the people in the capital, and even the reactions from her and the people in Duke Wei's family. Qin Lang listened carefully to these.
Overall, this year has been an eventful one.
The first half of the year was fine. During the summer harvest, most of the north had a bumper harvest, but the second half of the year was miserable. First, there were heavy hailstorms in many places, which destroyed many crops and houses. Then came the early frost, which caused a disaster, and a large number of immature crops froze to death, resulting in no harvest.
The government treasury has been empty in recent years. Although the tax reform has been carried out in the past two years, the income of the government has greatly increased, especially Yifo, who has beaten a big local tyrant.
But the most terrible point is actually the problem of insufficient food reserves. The imperial court’s fiscal revenue has increased, but the food cannot be changed all at once.
In the event of a catastrophe, there is a shortage of food in the imperial warehouse, and there is no surplus food in the people's homes. This is the predicament after the catastrophe. Neither the court nor the people have overnight food surplus. When a disaster occurs, there will be famine.
No one can change this situation. Under normal circumstances, it takes three years of abundance to have a certain amount of surplus grain, and nine years of abundance can be truly prosperous and peaceful.
The great famine in the first year of Zhenguan was also thanks to the locusts. Originally, the drought was accompanied by locust plagues, which was the most terrifying, but because of the timely launch of the movement of catching locusts and eating locusts, these locusts became relief food, which relieved a lot of disasters for a while. .
Locust powder, dried locusts, and locusts to make porridge, so that the people can at least live.
But there was another disaster last year, and they barely survived. This year, if they are hungry again, it is already unsustainable. The people don't even have locusts to eat.
In Guanzhong, Henan, and Hebei, when there is a large-scale famine, it becomes more and more difficult. Unlike the mountainous areas, where food is gone, you can rely on the mountains to eat, rely on the water, and get some animals, fish, shrimp, shells, etc. To satisfy our hunger, let's get some wild vegetables and fruits.
On those great plains, once the land is barren for thousands of miles, after the harvest is cut off, the dense population will not even be able to grab the bark to eat, but can only eat soil.
The imperial court and the emperor actually have money in their hands now. The problem is that the money can't be turned into food.
The imperial court allocated money to the disaster-stricken areas for disaster relief, and the price of food has not been lowered everywhere. Whoever has the ability to get food can be as high as it is, but the problem is that the gap is too large, and it is too difficult to transport it from the south.
In the end, the imperial court could only let go and allow everyone to leave their hometowns for food. To put it bluntly, the imperial court was at a loss what to do. They left the keyboard with both hands and let the people operate by themselves.
To eat is to beg for food.
This is actually the scariest thing, which means real disaster.
Leaving their homes and begging along the road, how many people will starve to death?
The most terrible thing is that in this eventful autumn, there was a great epidemic when there was a great hunger. Bean sores suddenly broke out in Beijing.
The so-called bean sore is also called Lu sore, which is smallpox.
It is said that the smallpox virus in the Central Plains was first introduced from Jiaozhi. During the Han Dynasty, the Zhengfang sisters in Jiaozhi rebelled, and the imperial court sent Ma Yuan to lead troops to fight against the rebellion.
Ma Yuan pacified the Jiaozhi Clan Rebellion and returned to the court. Half of the soldiers on the Southern Expedition died, most of them died of miasma. Later, the doctor Ge Hong argued that most of the soldiers on the Southern Expedition at that time were actually infected with bean sores, because they were conquering barbarians. So this bean sore is also called Lu sore.
The Central Plains has always been afraid of wild places such as Lingnan, saying that there are many plagues. In fact, the most important point is that there is smallpox virus in Lingnan. Once an outbreak of infection occurs, it will cause great harm. Many armies who marched south in the Central Plains fought the barbarians with little effort, but in the end, more than half of them often died. Most of them were outbreaks of epidemics in the army, and many of them were sores.
Smallpox began to be introduced to the Central Plains after the Mayuan expedition in the Han Dynasty, and it would break out from time to time after that, making people change color when they heard the sores.
No one knows why the sores broke out in Chang'an City this time.
Some people say that it was brought by Feng An and other Nanman children to Beijing.
Some people even suspected that when Feng An entered Beijing last time, he deliberately brought patients with Lupus or things used by patients with Lupus to spread it.
These are of course unfounded guesses, but many people in Beijing believe them.
Lupus spread quickly in Chang'an. King Zhou was not the first to be infected, but he was the one with the highest status who died.
In fact, the entire pass is now spreading Lupus.
But at this time, because of the famine, the people were forced to go out to flee the famine, which further increased the way and speed of the spread.
Now the imperial physicians have come up with two methods for diagnosing and treating pimples. One is to apply honey all over the body, or boil cohosh with honey, and then drink it frequently.
The second method is to boil Cimicifuga with water, and then apply the sore surface with dipped medicinal liquid, or soak Cimicifuga with wine to smear the sore surface.
Although these two prescriptions are proven prescriptions, they have certain effects, but the effect is not strong. Especially the second prescription, smeared with wine soaked medicine, will make people feel overwhelmed with pain.
Because of the outbreak of acne, now everyone's face changes when they hear the acne, but they can't do anything about it. Even the princes and princes are infected one after another.
In order to pray that their children can escape acne, the folks have begun to spontaneously raise money to build acne temples.
Someone even invited the statue of King Qin Lang from the Temple of Heavenly Kings who had contributed to exterminating the locusts into the temple of acne, and actually gave Qin Lang a part-time job as the **** of acne.
Because of this, people come to Pingkangfang Weiguo Mansion every day.
Because Qin Lang was not around, Wei Guogong had no choice but to close the door. Otherwise, it is estimated that someone would come to Qin's house with a child with acne to seek medical treatment.
Later, I don’t know who spread the rumors, saying that the soil at the root of the wall of the Duke of Wei’s house was dug, mixed with egg white, mixed well, and then applied to the sores, it would be useful.
So every day someone came to dig the corner of the Qin family, but they couldn't stop them.
Even the price of eggs in Chang'an City skyrocketed.
Later, another prescription came out, which was said to be from the tiles of the Qin family. It was boiled with vinegar and then ground into powder for consumption. It was effective.
Then the tiles of the Qin family were robbed a lot, and the vinegar of Chang'an was looted.
Hearing that he had become a acne god, Qin Lang couldn't laugh or cry.
In order to prevent and treat acne, everyone really does everything they can.
Qin Lang has made great achievements in fighting locusts and exterminating locusts, which is also based on the method of imperial examinations to control locusts, but he is not a doctor, so how does he know how to deal with locusts?
Qin Lang asked about the data of Lusou, and was shocked to learn that the death rate of acne in Guanzhong has reached 80 to 90%. Once infected with bean ulcer, at most 20% of them can survive, and there may be half of them. Although some people take their lives, they will also leave marrows on their faces.
Because after the outbreak of the acne, the Duke of Wei quickly followed the advice of the medical officer, and took isolation measures like the royal family, but it was fine for the time being.
Duke Wei’s Mansion has long closed its doors, especially Qin Jun, who was isolated and closed in a courtyard in the backyard. Every day, even food was delivered through small windows, and no one was allowed to enter or leave.
"When I was in Lingnan, I also heard that Chang'an had acne, but I didn't expect it to be so serious!" Qin Lang sighed. Although he is not a doctor, he also knows a little about infectious diseases.
When encountering an infectious disease, the most important prevention method is isolation.
Isolation can prevent large-scale spread of infection, otherwise repeated cross-infection will make the epidemic uncontrollable.
Once out of control, it really can only be resigned to fate.
From the Han Dynasty to the present, so many years have passed, and doctors of all dynasties have not been able to find an effective way to cure acne, which makes isolation the most critical method.
However, there was a great hunger this year, and the people were forced to leave their homes and go out to flee famine to beg for food. This made the spread of acne more difficult to control. Maybe, the outbreak of acne this year was caused by the large number of hungry people.
Headache!
(end of this chapter)