A doctor who travels through two eras

Upon hearing Lin Sanqi's sudden question, County Magistrate Jin remained calm and instead replied with a smile:

"Minister Lin, you may not know this, but our Andu County is officially called Andu Yao Autonomous County. 70% of the population in the county are ethnic minorities, so the policies are relatively free and not as strict as those in big cities."

We are poor enough here. We have no industry and our agricultural production is not good. It is no exaggeration to describe us as extremely poor.

Minister Lin, as you can see, our Andu County is full of mountains.

The key issue is that this mountain is a karst landform, with depressions and continuous rocky mountains throughout the county. Rocky mountains account for 90% of the total area, and the per capita arable land is less than half an acre.

"It's too difficult to support a whole family on just this half-acre of land. If we don't allow ethnic minorities to do small businesses, ordinary people won't even be able to afford salt, and that will lead to chaos."

Lin Sanqi understood.

The areas where ethnic minorities are concentrated are often deep in the mountains and forests, where conditions are the most difficult.

If we don't give them special treatment and make an exception, ordinary people won't be able to make a living, and society will become unstable.

When people are poor, they think of change. For people in coastal areas, this meant going to Southeast Asia or Europe to make a living.

"It's good to be able to do business, even if it's just a small business, haha."

Lin Sanqi was now even more relieved. As long as he could do small business, he wouldn't starve. If he got sick, spending a few cents or a few dollars wouldn't be a problem.

This solved the problem of income for barefoot doctors.

Even without money, there are plenty of cute little animals in these vast mountains. A wild rabbit, a pheasant, or a wild goat would be enough to cover the consultation fee and medicine cost.

After walking several hundred meters, the group arrived at a dilapidated temple with a cross hanging at the entrance.

County Chief Jin pointed and introduced:
"Minister Lin, this is our Andu County Hospital, which is also the only hospital in the county. It used to be the county's City God Temple, and it was converted into a hospital after liberation."

Lin Sanqi had already seen the sign next to him and thought to himself that temples these days are really in a terrible state, either being converted into schools or hospitals.

Because no prior notice was given, the forgery incident in Lintong County, Shaanxi Province, did not occur.

When Lin Sanqi entered the courtyard, he found that there were quite a few patients, all of them groaning.

You can even see many simple stretchers made of bamboo chairs, which are obviously for people from the surrounding towns who have come to seek medical treatment.

County Chief Jin called out to the house several times, "Old Dan, Old Dan!"

Then I saw an old man in his sixties rush out of the house.

Lin Sanqi took a look and saw that he was wearing glasses, dressed in a worn-out Zhongshan suit, and barefoot, and did not look like the director of a county hospital at all.

The other deans were all intellectuals, and they wished they could wear three or four pens in their breast pockets to show off their status.

Dan Guangming ran into the courtyard and, upon seeing that it was the county's top official, bowed and scraped, saying:
"County Chief Jin, what brings you here? Are you feeling unwell?"

County Chief Jin quickly introduced, "Old Dan, this is Vice Minister Lin Sanqi from the capital. He's the inventor of the quadruple therapy for tuberculosis that you mentioned last time."

Upon hearing this, Shan Guangming's eyes lit up, and he quickly reached out his hand:
"So you're Minister Lin! Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you. I didn't receive any prior notice and wasn't prepared at all. Oh, I'm so sorry, my hands are all dirty."

After their hands separated, some black, sticky substance remained on Lin Sanqi's hands.

Lin Sanqi's lips twitched slightly. Doctors are often a little bit fastidious, but this was definitely not something she could show. Instead, she pretended to be relaxed and said:

"Dean Shan, hello. Are you treating a patient? And what's that in your hand, some kind of plaster?"

The black, sticky substance still had a strong odor, so Lin Sanqi certainly didn't suspect it was a pile of excrement.

Shan Guangming said embarrassedly:

"Yes, a patient fell down the mountain. I was making a plaster for him, but I forgot in my excitement, hehe." Lin Sanqi nodded and asked again:
"Dean Shan, I came to Andu County this time to conduct research. I would like to ask, how many doctors and how many people are there in your county?"

Shan Guangming glanced around the room and gritted his teeth, saying:

"Minister Lin, I still have patients here. I'll report back to you after I'm done with them."

Lin Sanqi quickly clasped his hands together in apology:

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry, you should go see a doctor right away. Patients come first."

Dan Guangming quickly ran into the room. Lin Sanqi looked around the county hospital and found that it was just an ordinary courtyard house with a relatively small area.

However, there were quite a few patients, almost filling the courtyard; there were at least 30 people on site.

Minister Jin was still grumbling in his heart about Shan Guangming's stubbornness. When a high-ranking leader came to inspect, he could have just handed the patient over to other doctors. Why did he have to run away?

So he offered to help introduce them:
"Minister Lin, our Andu County currently has a population of 180,000 and six doctors. They were all originally local folk healers who were recruited into the county. This includes Dr. Shan Guangming. He is a traditional orthopedic surgeon, and the Shan family is quite well-known in Andu."

More than ten minutes later, Shan Guangming jogged over again and invited everyone to the dean's office.

It's called an office, but it's really just a room that looks like a stilted building, all made of wood, with a few bamboo chairs and a wooden desk that looks like it's going to wobble.

Dean Shan personally brewed several cups of tea and brought them over:

"Dean Lin, these are wild tea leaves we picked ourselves. There's nothing good in the countryside, so please have some tea."

Lin Sanqi didn't take it to heart. He had experienced even more difficult conditions during the three years of natural disasters, and nothing had been more bitter than that time.

"Dean Shan, what was the condition of the patient you just treated?"

Shan Guangming sat up straight and answered seriously:
"The patient is from Longwan Township, which is 30 miles east of the county seat. He fell off the mountain yesterday while farming and broke his ribs and forearm. His injuries are quite serious."

Because the patient is only 29 years old and the able-bodied man in his family, his family pooled together some money and brought him to our county hospital. Normally, other people wouldn't be brought to the county hospital.

Lin Sanqi was slightly surprised:
"Huh, you mean only able-bodied men are eligible for medical treatment, while the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled are not treated?"

Shan Guangming nodded with a wry smile:
"Although it sounds cruel, that's how things are, especially for the elderly and children. If they die, they die. They can only blame their bad luck."

Like this fracture patient, the registration fee is 2 cents. Although the treatment uses Chinese herbal medicine, the total cost of medicine after several courses of treatment is 5 yuan.

This amount of money is equivalent to the price of three chickens for city dwellers. For an average worker, who earns 30 yuan a month, 5 yuan is not a huge sum.

But for the people in the mountains, the work points they earn throughout the year aren't even enough to feed themselves, let alone afford medical care. Five yuan is something 99% of farmers simply can't afford.

Lin Sanqi pondered for a moment and thought to himself that in the 1960s, the North was indeed richer than the South.

For farmers in Changping County, 5 yuan is an amount that most families can afford.

Even during festivals, they could go into the capital to buy things. Except for the three-year period, they could usually eat well and no one starved to death.

But in the rural areas of Xiguang Province, poverty is absolute poverty, the kind where people can't even get enough to eat, and it's not uncommon for people to starve to death.

This situation is also very common in southern Zhejiang, Fujian, and eastern Guangdong. It is precisely in these places that overseas Chinese often become hometowns, forcing ordinary people to leave their homes and go abroad to make a living.

Ultimately, it comes down to the lack of farmland.

In places like Andu County, the average arable land per person is only 0.5 mu (0.067 hectares), and the limestone soil is too barren, resulting in very low grain yields, making it impossible to feed more people.

Lin Sanqi looked at Wang Jin beside him and asked:

"Old Wang, you're from Andu County, tell me about your hometown?" (End of Chapter)