I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 569 The problem of the prince’s early death

Early the next morning, Zhu Youxiao got up early, told Zhang Yan to take good care of the baby, and then took the dragon chariot to the Qianqing Palace for work.

It's just that Zhu Youxiao has been preoccupied since yesterday, even when he arrived at Qianqing Palace.This made Zhang Chang and others who were waiting on the side confused and didn't know what to do, for fear of making the emperor angry.

The reason why Zhu Youxiao was worried was mainly because he thought about the situation of the descendants of Emperor Tianqi in history. He had a total of three sons and two daughters. He had many offspring, but unfortunately they all died young.

Queen Zhang Yan was indeed pregnant once, but she was stillborn.The reason recorded in the history of the Ming Dynasty is that Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka family conspired to kill him, but there is doubt about it.But regardless of whether someone was obstructing it, judging from the final outcome, the fate of Zhu Youxiao's children in history really worried Zhu Youxiao.

Although the current situation is different from that in history, he naturally does not have to worry about Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka getting in the way.

But the lessons of history make Zhu Youxiao worried. Even if his child is born, will he be able to raise him to adulthood?
Because the rate of premature death of princes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was extremely high in history, and it was difficult for many children to survive to adulthood, Zhu Youxiao didn't sleep all night last night, thinking about the reasons.

However, he was not a miracle doctor. Based on the knowledge of later generations, all he could think of was the environment and disease.

One is the heating problem in the Forbidden City, which Zhu Youxiao mentioned in a book he read in later generations.

It mentioned that the charcoal used for daily heating in the Forbidden City was called Hongluo charcoal. This charcoal was made from mountain hardwoods in the Yizhou area and was extremely easy to use.It can be said that the air is warm and durable, gray but not explosive.

However, this kind of charcoal fire is too hot and can be harmful to people. It often makes people dizzy, comatose and vomiting indoors. Especially sometimes, when the charcoal is very moist and not dry, it is easy to burn and create smoke.

This is actually carbon monoxide poisoning caused by charcoal heating. Under normal circumstances, adults can still tolerate it.But the young princes, princesses and pregnant women couldn't bear it.Princes and princesses often get poisoned and often fall ill and die young.

Zhu Youxiao knows this kind of thing very well. He has been using this kind of charcoal for the past two years. Sometimes it is really smoky when burning, which is very pungent. If the combustion is not sufficient, it will even produce carbon monoxide, which can easily lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. .

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao sighed secretly in his heart. He could only avoid this kind of thing by reminding him more in winter.

Because he knew that in the final analysis it was not a problem with the charcoal, but a problem with the structure of the Forbidden City.

Because of the wooden structure used in the Forbidden City, brackets must be erected for the sake of beauty and royal dignity.Therefore, all high-grade charcoal is used for heating in the Forbidden City, and there are no chimneys to exhaust smoke.

Moreover, there are tall walls in the palace that separate many courtyards. These walls were built for safety and protection against severe cold.

Therefore, when it was built, the walls and roof were very thick, so the thermal insulation effect was good. In winter, the doors and windows were sealed tightly so that the cold air from outside would not easily come in, but this also made it difficult to remove the carbon monoxide inside.

So if you want to avoid it, use less charcoal for heating in winter.But if you don't use charcoal for fire, what should you use for heating? Should you use underground fire tunnels for heating?

Although this method is very good, there is indeed an underground fire tunnel under the Forbidden City.In winter, a fire is burned in the indoor floor heating, and the heat is transferred to the indoor floor through the fire channel. Not only is the heat uniform, but there is no smoke pollution indoors, and the effect is similar to today's floor heating.

However, due to the high cost of doing so, the large Forbidden City only has the residences of emperors and empresses such as Qianqing Palace and Kunning Palace. There are no residences for other concubines and princes. They must use charcoal for heating. There is no other way.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao was quite helpless. He couldn't just renovate the Forbidden City and install all underground fire tunnels.

Therefore, not only for the issue of heirs, but also for the safety of the Forbidden City, when winter comes, he must open more windows in the harem and palace for ventilation to prevent the problem of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Or he could think of a substitute that was even better than Hongluo Tan.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but start thinking. After a while, he seemed to have thought of something, and an imperceptible smile appeared on his face.

Then Zhang Chang was asked to pick up a pen and paper. After a brief memory, he wrote a few steps on the paper.

"Zhang Chang, you will send someone to copy this paper into two copies later. Give one to the Inner Court Salary Department and ask them to copy it. Send someone to give it to Huang Dong and ask him to make it according to the process. If it is feasible, Just make it and sell it.”

Zhang Chang took the paper after hearing this. He glanced at it briefly, but he didn't know what he meant. He only knew that a lot of coal was used in it.As the emperor's personal attendant, he naturally knew that the emperor had many whimsical ideas, so he naturally didn't care and immediately nodded in agreement.

Although carbon monoxide poisoning is a major reason for the early death of princes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this can be avoided as long as you are careful.

But another reason is difficult to avoid, it is the life and death crisis that everyone must encounter.Whether they are civilian or royal children, they must go through this test.This is smallpox, which is one of the only three major Class A infectious diseases along with the plague (Black Death) and cholera.

The so-called smallpox is a severe infectious disease caused by smallpox virus infecting people. Once infected, the mortality rate of the sick person is as high as [-]%.The course of the disease is also very short, only more than [-] days.It is so menacing that it makes people "frightened to hear it".After recovery, it would also leave pockmarks on the face, hence the name smallpox.

Because the transmission rate and fatality rate are so high, in ancient times, people talked about acne.

Zhu Youxiao heard a proverb among the people, that is, giving birth to a child is only half of the child, but catching smallpox is the whole child.Only those who survive smallpox can be considered complete children. This is enough to show the serious harm of smallpox to children.

In history, many princes of the Ming and Qing dynasties died due to smallpox. It can be said that it is impossible for anyone to avoid it.

In the late Ming Dynasty, when disasters continued, the smallpox virus continued to wreak havoc with the plague, cholera, etc., unscrupulously, and no one could cure it.In the end, after the Manchus entered the customs, they had to avoid cowpox-infected areas for fear of spreading the disease to themselves.

However, although Zhu Youxiao is worried about it, he is not helpless.

After all, smallpox is the only major infectious disease that has been eradicated by humans, and its prevention method is also very simple, that is, vaccination.

The so-called planting beans is based on the principle that people who have had smallpox will basically not relapse.The smallpox virus with attenuated infectivity is transmitted to people who have not had smallpox in advance, so that they can get sick and produce antibodies.To put it bluntly, this is a preventive method of fighting poison with poison. The principle is to artificially induce low-intensity smallpox, causing patients to produce antibodies.

When Zhu Youxiao thought of this, he asked Zhang Chang to immediately call someone familiar with smallpox from Tai Hospital to inquire about the situation.

After a while, Yao Yingsu, the imperial doctor of Tai Hospital, was called over with a medical box. He originally thought that the emperor was not feeling well.Unexpectedly, after kneeling down and worshiping, Zhu Youxiao began to ask him about smallpox vaccination.

Yao Yingsu was slightly startled when he heard this, and for a moment he didn't know what the emperor's intention was.But he didn't dare to neglect the emperor's inquiry. After thinking for a while, he began to reply.

"Your Majesty, the method of vaccination has been around for a long time. It was first introduced to Wang Dan in the Zhenzong Dynasty of the Song Dynasty, and was taught and accepted by everyone thereafter, with Huguang people the most. During the Longqing period of our dynasty, someone in Taiping County, Ningguo Prefecture (today's Taiping, Anhui Province) obtained the Yiren Dan. The family of disciples spread the method of vaccination all over the world, and most of the people who grow flowers today are from Ningguo."

Zhu Youxiao was very surprised when Yao Yingsu said this. It seemed that he was ignorant.

"Then how to vaccinate? It seems that there are not many people in Beijing getting vaccinated."

"Your Majesty, there are many methods of vaccination. As far as I know, the most common methods at present are the pox dressing method, the pox pulp method, the drought seedling method, etc. Among them, the pox dressing method is to wear the patient's underwear to the vaccinator, and then Although the patient was infected, the disease was mild. The acne pulp method is to stuff the patient's acne pulp into the nostrils of the vaccinated person to protect them from infection. The dry seedling method is to grind the patient's scab into fine powder and blow it into the nostrils of the vaccinated person, and the wound will come out. Acne is also milder.

However, although the method of using smallpox is effective, it still comes from people who have already been infected with smallpox.Therefore, its toxicity is still strong, and even if it is "diluted", it is still dangerous, with a [-]% chance of death. Therefore, many people are still unwilling to vaccinate, for fear that their children will get sick.

Moreover, this variola comes from a person infected with smallpox. It needs to be vaccinated immediately after it is removed. It is not easy to preserve.Therefore, promotion depends on time and region, which is a bit troublesome. "

Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but nod when he heard this, secretly saying that the knowledge of the ancients was indeed infinite, and they had actually discovered the prevention method long ago.

However, what Yao Yingsu said makes sense. This type of variolation does still have some dangers, so it is difficult to promote it.

However, this is easy to solve. You can use cowpox vaccination instead of variola vaccination.

The so-called cowpox vaccination method was actually invented by the British doctor Jenner after the Chinese variola vaccination method was introduced to Europe and improved by Europe.

He was originally a British country doctor who was also troubled by smallpox frequently.But one time he stumbled across the milkmaid's discovery that cowpox could prevent smallpox.Finally, after more than 20 years of research and experimentation, the cowpox vaccination method was invented.

The cowpox vaccination method has great advantages over the variolation method.

Not only is the safety of eating greatly improved, because in addition to causing mild lymphadenitis after a person is infected with cowpox, it will not cause acne, and it will not be fatal.

And it is easy to obtain, because cowpox is an infectious disease of cattle. It also existed when there was no smallpox epidemic in humans, so that there was always a source of the virus in the era of backward technological conditions.More importantly, it is easy to inoculate. Use a small blade to dip a small amount of cowpox slurry, then make a one to two centimeter long wound on the arm, and the inoculation is successful.

(End of this chapter)