Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 32: The Third Unlucky Guy

Maeda Toshiharu looked to be in his fifties, with a weather-beaten face, gray hair tied in a loose bun, and silver strands on his temples. He was wearing an old plain jacket, a pair of buckled straw sandals, and carrying a bamboo basket on his back. He looked more like an old farmer than a feudal lord who would hang anyone who refused to pay the annual tribute at any time.

As soon as he entered the door and looked at Okumura Iefuku, he began to warmly welcome Yuanye without hesitation. He first praised his extraordinary appearance, then thanked him repeatedly for saving Osong, and introduced his family to him.

His wife, Takeno Yasu, was in her forties. She dressed like a village woman because she was working outside, but she always smiled when she spoke and seemed very optimistic and cheerful.

The eldest son, Maeda Shinichiro Rikyu, was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. He was thin and had a sallow complexion. There was nothing unusual about him in other aspects. Although he was polite and looked well-educated, he did not seem to be good at speaking and had a rather melancholy temperament.

The second son, Maeda Uchinosuke Toshihiro, is not here. He is now in a semi-official status and is a colleague of Oda Danmasatada's family. He is currently serving as Odanobuyo on the front line in Aichi County, which is roughly equivalent to the captain of a modern transport team.

The third son, Maeda and Saburo Yasukatsu, were in their early twenties and seemed a bit wild. Their temperaments were quite similar to that of the "oddball" Maeda Toshiie. However, they did not dare to act unruly in the presence of their father and greeted him politely.

The fourth son, Maeda Masonshiro Toshiie, and the fifth son, Sawaki Tohachiro Yoshiyuki, are both absent. One serves Oda Nobunaga and returned early after his home visit; the other is adopted by the Sawaki family and usually lives in Nafuno Castle. Sawaki Tohachiro's adoptive father is Oda Nobuhide's trusted retainer, who was ordered to support the big fool Oda Nobunaga. He is currently serving as the castellan of Nafuno Castle, which is roughly equivalent to the modern deputy mayor.

The sixth son, Yoshirokuro Hidetsugu Maeda, was not there either; he had gone to school.

That's right, I went to school. It was not easy to become a samurai these days, so I had to go to school. The school was in the temple school next door to the Arako Kannon Temple. Japanese monks also ran the school part-time, teaching literacy, etiquette, Japanese poetry, mathematics, tea ceremony and other cultural and artistic courses. They did not teach martial arts and military tactics. These were usually taught at home or by other teachers.

The daughters were all there, as they didn't have to go to school. Jinchun and Alu were both just over ten years old. The other three daughters, Yudai, Jinshi and Asong, were younger but well-educated and politely greeted Yuanye one by one. The two older ones, Jinchun and Alu, seemed to have less good upbringing. Not only did they keep stealing glances at Yuanye while greeting him, but they also continued to steal glances at Yuanye with red faces after the greetings, and they played and whispered to each other.

Among these daughters, Asong is particularly outstanding, worthy of being the future "one of the Three Ladies of the Warring States Period". Although she is young, she is graceful and friendly. After the greetings, she thanked Yuanye specially and said many nice words in her childish words, showing that she is very close to him. It seems that she wants to have a good relationship with him in case of emergency. She is quite scheming.

Of course, it is also possible that Yuanye has a bad nature and is too suspicious. She sees everyone as a bad person all day long and is wronged. She is just a very grateful little girl.

Maeda Toshiharu waited patiently until all the children in the family had greeted Harano - he did this on purpose, as it was said in the Kojiki that being on good terms with a doctor is a good thing, as it might save your life at a critical moment - only after they had all greeted him did he let them go, and told his wife Takeno Yasu to prepare wine and food, as he would treat Harano well later, and then he would start seeing patients.

After Yuanye's comprehensive examination, he found that Maeda Toshiharu's illness could not be cured.

He suffered from rheumatic joint pain, which is still an incurable chronic disease in modern times, not to mention Yuanye, who is not very good at it. However, it is possible to relieve the pain, as taught in the book.

He spent some time doing acupuncture for Maeda Toshiharu, and left a lot of medical instructions, and prepared to prepare some plasters for him to apply. After the acupuncture, Maeda Toshiharu did feel that his perennially aching joints were a little warmer and swollen, and he felt much better. After listening to the orderly follow-up arrangements made by Nohara, he couldn't help but exclaimed: "Amazing, just like Inuchiyo said, Nohara-sama is really a master of medical skills!"

"No, no, you're too kind." Yuan Ye had heard too many similar words recently, and many people kowtowed to him. He didn't have much reaction. He said a few polite words and turned his gaze to Maeda Rikyuu, asking politely, "Shinichiro-sama, what's wrong with you?"

He finally realized that the person who really needed to be treated today was Maeda Toshihisa.

Maeda Rikyu bent slightly, then half took off his shirt and turned around to reveal his back. There was a huge purple bulge under his shoulder blades with many tiny depressions on it. It looked like the eyeball of Cthulhu, disgusting and scary.

Yuanye put on a homemade mask and took a closer look. He then reached out and gently pressed the area around the bulge. He felt that the edge was clear and hard. After carefully taking the pulse for evidence, he asked Maeda Rikyu, "Did you have an injury to your back before? You usually have chest tightness, shortness of breath, fever, chills, and weakness. The back ulcers are sometimes very painful and sometimes cause dizziness?"

Maeda Rikyu was shocked. He didn't expect that what Yuanye said was so true. The melancholy on his face was instantly reduced.

Maeda Toshiharu also showed a happy expression on his face, and answered for him: "That's right, a few years ago he was shot in the back by an arrow, and then he accidentally fell into the water. After he came back to recover from the injury, he developed a big sore on his back. It gets better and worse. We have tried many prescriptions but none of them worked. I wonder... what kind of sore is this?"

"It should be a poisonous flower carbuncle." Yuanye answered, thinking about something in his heart.

Previously, the "Tiger of Owari" Oda Nobuhide used the power of Owari to attack Saito Dosan of Mino. Maeda Rikyu was most likely also mixed in and participated in the battle. As a result, he was not only shot by an arrow at close range, but also fell into the Nagara River while escaping. He was a third-class unlucky guy - the heads of the first-class unlucky people are already part of the "Kyokan", the second-class unlucky people are all drowned, and Maeda Rikyu was lucky to come back alive, so he was a third-class unlucky guy.

However, even though he understood it in his heart, there was no need to expose someone's scars. Yuan Ye did not ask if it was true. He just followed his duty as a doctor and explained the patient's condition in detail to the patient and his family: "There was a problem with the initial treatment of the wound. The dirt in the wound was not cleaned up, which led to the internal generation of damp heat. The Rong and Wei were not in harmony, which went against the flesh, and the Yang Qi was floating. As a result, the heat was excessive and the flesh rotted and pus formed, so it has been difficult to heal."

Simply put, persistent inflammation spreads along the subcutaneous fat to the subcutaneous tissue, and the infected hair follicles and subcutaneous glands fuse with each other to form traumatic sores, which swell into a large abscess.

This disease may not seem serious, but it should not be underestimated. In mild cases, the patient will lose some ability to work and feel uneasy day and night; in moderate cases, it will cause complications such as cervical spondylosis, respiratory infection, and infertility; in severe cases, the back will directly ulcerate, causing large-scale inflammation, and it is normal for the patient to die.

Yuanye's words were too professional, just reciting the text, and mixing Japanese and Chinese. Maeda Toshiharu and his son, and Okumura Iefuku were all confused. After a moment of silence, Maeda Toshiharu carefully asked: "Then this disease..."

Yuanye carefully observed the carbuncle again and pricked it lightly with a needle. He saw yellow fluid coming out but no black blood. It must be an impotence. The danger was not high. He said, "It can be cured. It means taking medicine to slowly purulently and expel toxins. It will take a long time and we can't afford to delay. If we want it to be quick, we can only use surgery, which will be very painful."

As the saying goes, if the sore is as big as a bean, the inside is as big as a fist; if the sore is as big as a fist, the inside is as big as a plate. Maeda Rikyu's sore is now as big as a child's fist. It will take more than a day or two to slowly get rid of such a bag of pus. Moreover, if things go wrong, it may still be festering and other complications may have occurred.

"I'm not afraid of suffering. Please operate!" Maeda Rikyu finally spoke. It seemed that because Yuanye said a lot of Chinese words, he knew that he was a miracle doctor, which gave him confidence. He felt that there was hope of recovery this time. He looked at Yuanye and said sincerely, "With this thing on my back, I can't sleep well, I can't eat, and I can't even ride a horse. I'm like a useless person. Please, Lord Nohara, heal it as soon as possible! No matter what method you use, I really beg you!"

"Please!" Maeda Toshiharu seemed to love his eldest son very much. He immediately sat up straight and bowed his head to beg. Okumura Iefuku followed closely behind him. He did not care that Hara was just a "wandering samurai who came here to stay without knowing what was going on" - no matter how powerful a person is, when his child is sick, he has to be honest and polite in front of the doctor. There is no difference between ancient and modern times.

"I understand!"

Yuanye did not refuse. He had performed cutting on several back sores in Hibitsu Village, so he had some experience. Besides, it was not a dangerous operation and it could be done for about 50 yuan in later generations. Ancient Chinese medicine also required cutting on back sores like this, and the technology was very mature. If it were another operation, he might not dare to do it. He would probably just prescribe two prescriptions to fool the patient and be done with it.

He immediately asked Okumura Iefuku to call a few maids to boil water, boil the cloth, knife and tweezers, and wash his hands repeatedly with hot water and soap. By the way, he picked up a dose of "Sanshen Chuchuang Soup" from the medicine he brought with him and asked someone to boil it first - surgery alone would be useless and it must be combined with a medicinal decoction.

Looking at the surface of the sore, the Maeda family had often used needles to prick the sore and squeeze out the pus, but this only treated the symptoms and not the root cause, and was completely useless.

When everything was ready, he stuffed a piece of cloth into Maeda Toshihisa's mouth and asked Maeda Toshiharu, Okumura Iefuku and Aqing to hold him down, just like slaughtering a pig, and then they held Maeda Toshihisa down and started cutting his sores.

Well, he didn't have any anesthesia, he just cut it like that, it was very brutal.

A light touch on a carbuncle would cause deep pain, not to mention cutting it. Maeda Rikyu was sweating profusely from the pain, and he couldn't control his body twisting. Yuanye was not polite either, and while shouting at Maeda Rikyu, A Qing and others to hold him tight, he squeezed out the pus with all his might.

He first squeezed out the yellow water, and then began to squeeze out a large amount of white paste with a very strong fishy smell, as well as a small amount of dirty blood. He did not squeeze out anything anymore until he reached in with tweezers and forcibly pulled out the broken cyst skins that were wrapped in the dirt, causing Maeda Rikyu to twitch in pain, almost like he was electrocuted.

These things sound quick, but are actually very slow to execute. My wilderness skill level is not high enough, and my techniques are half-baked. It took me almost two hours to finish.

A simple minor surgery in later generations was made to be like slaughtering a pig for him, especially the second half when he was cleaning the dirt from the cyst skin. He used small tweezers to pick out all kinds of flesh and blood. Maeda Rikyu was bleeding and almost fainted from the pain. It was probably equivalent to having seven or eight teeth pulled out without anesthesia in modern times. Only those who have experienced that know how it feels.

Yuanye doesn't care. He is the only "miracle doctor" in Donghai County. He has a monopoly on technology and he doesn't need to care about customer experience.

In his impression, Maeda Rikyu seemed to have no children, or he had a daughter in his early years, but could no longer give birth after being injured. The future heirs would be brought by his wife from her ex-husband's home - that is, Maeda Keiji, whose full name is Maeda Keijiro Rita, known as the "No. 1 Strange Person in the Warring States Period". The Japanese in later generations made their own illiterate comic "Hanano Keiji" and forcibly changed his name to Maeda Keiji.

The reason why Maeda Toshihisa can't have children is most likely because of this carbuncle. Now that he is in pain and bleeding, if he knew history, he would kowtow to Yuanye.

After the carbuncle was treated, Yuanye carefully cleaned the wound and applied his homemade "antibacterial and anti-inflammatory powder" and hemostatic powder. By now the "Sanshen Chuchuang Soup" had also been prepared, so he made way and let someone feed the medicine to the drowsy Maeda Rikyu.

Maeda Toshiharu was also sweating profusely, and asked him with concern: "Sir Nohara, how is Shinichiro? Can this cure him completely?"

He was now very glad to have invited Yuanye to come, even though the disease had not been cured yet. But just because he dared to cut open such a large sore, pick through the flesh and blood, and still showed sufficient confidence and was sure that he could definitely cure it, no one in the entire Owari could do it.

He is definitely a medical expert, 100% a medical expert!
Yuanye took off his mask, asked someone to change the hot water, and washed his hands carefully with soap nuts while whispering, "It should be fine. The situation should start to improve tomorrow. Just take the medicine for a while, and there will be no more effects in the future."

Maeda Toshiharu heaved a sigh of relief and exclaimed: "That's great! That's great!"

Maeda Rikyu was his heir and eldest son, and they had the closest relationship. However, he had a big sore on his back. He had tried various folk remedies in the past few years, and even drank urine. As a result, the more he ate and drank, the more depressed he became, and he almost became a useless person. If he could really recover as before, it would really relieve him of a big worry.

After expressing his gratitude, he ordered the maids to keep a close eye on him and quickly invited Yuanye to the banquet to treat him well. After all, he could barely be considered Maeda Rikyu's "0.5 savior" and the one who saved Maeda Rikyu's "samurai career". He and Okumura Iefuku also tried to keep him, hoping that he could stay in Araki Castle for a short period of time to prevent Maeda Rikyu's illness from recurring.

Yuanye didn't care. If it was just a delay of one or two days, it wouldn't be a big deal. Anyway, he had Aman and Yayoi at home, so he felt relieved.

As a result, the atmosphere between the host and the guest became better, and if Yuanye had not insisted on not drinking, the atmosphere would have been even better.

After the mess, Yuanye felt that there was nothing to worry about, and was about to ask for a room to rest and relax, when a man from the Arako Maeda family came in quickly, knelt down and reported to Maeda Toshiharu: "My lord, Master Zhiru is here."

"Oh, what is he doing here? Please ask him to come in!" Maeda Toshiharu asked in confusion, then turned to Yuanye and explained, "He is the apprentice of Master Hai Xin, the abbot of Arashi Kannon Temple. Master Hai Xin probably asked him to come here because he has something to do."

Yuanye nodded and said nothing, but he was a little curious. He had been in medieval Japan for more than a month and had never seen an ancient monk!

(End of this chapter)