The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 330 Toad Plague

Another 60,000 laborers were subsequently sent to Hami New City.

In addition to the more than two thousand patients who were quarantined.

The remaining 100,000 immigrants have been assigned to six garrisons, excluding Hami and Huozhou.

Each garrison was allocated more than 30,000 people.

Don't tell me yet.

With the arrival of these immigrants, commerce in the Kansai region was immediately revitalized.

The markets set up in each garrison were bustling with business.

The only two commodities under the jurisdiction of the garrison were salt and ironware.

The Yugur people of Anding, Quxian and Aduan are all beaming with joy lately.

They had never been able to buy and sell things so conveniently right at their doorstep.

Salt and large iron pots are essential items for their lives.

The price we sold it to them was also very reasonable.

Meanwhile, the millet and wheat they brought to the market were very popular with the Han people!
No matter how many live sheep you drive there, you won't have to worry about selling them.

Even the sheepskins and wool blankets that families had stored up in previous years were snapped up.

In previous years, the Yugur people's biggest fear was not being able to process all the excess livestock before the snow fell.

It sold out very early this year.

There are also clever people like Arahunsali, a minor leader of the Yugur people in the east.

They not only sold their own tribe's livestock, but also planned to take their people to visit other tribes before the snow fell.

For the past six months, they have been helping Guazhou Wei graze sheep, and in the past few days, due to the arrival of immigrants, the number of grazing sheep has been visibly decreasing.

If we don't add some new sheep to the current flock, we might not be able to eat next spring.

Nowadays, the young men of the Eastern Yugur tribe love to wear the standard armor and clothing of the garrison.

They even copied the hairstyles of Guan Jun.

He speaks fluent Mandarin.

If you don't look closely, you might not see much difference between yourself and a Han Chinese when you go outside.

These local ethnic minorities have integrated very smoothly with the Han people.

But at this moment, inside the garrison of Guazhou, a dozen senior doctors were filled with unease.

They misdiagnosed!
Just three days ago.

Three hundred and twenty-six children under the age of ten have been experiencing persistent symptoms such as high fever, fatigue, and headache.

Initially, they were all diagnosed with typhoid fever.

After drinking the herbal decoction for three days, not only did my condition not improve, but I also developed a new symptom—swelling and pain in my parotid glands.

It is what is commonly known as the toad plague.

The oldest doctor explained in a low voice:

"The disease gets its name from the swelling of the cheeks that resembles a toad when it occurs. It is caused by wind-heat-dampness-phlegm and is highly contagious among children; adults who come into contact with the infected child are also at risk of infection."

This is very scary.

The children have been in contact with their families and these medical staff.

And they were constantly providing medical consultations to the immigrants.

Human-to-human transmission?
One bout of toad plague can wipe out a large number of people.

Every year, hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the region die from this infectious disease.

Compared to the dozens of women diagnosed with venereal diseases, the plague among the common people was something that made people turn pale at the mere mention of it.

The senior doctors were filled with regret:

"We were careless, so careless! This toad plague always tends to break out in spring and winter, and we really didn't think of this disease at first."

"In the end, it's still our medical skills that are inadequate!"

What's the point of saying all this now?

The centurion of Guazhou Guard felt his vision go black and his breathing become rapid.

I can't imagine what it would be like if all the children of the families of the Guazhou garrison soldiers were infected with toad plague.

Moreover, adults who have been in contact with the infected person may also be infected.

He ignored Gan Minglan's expression and asked in a trembling voice:
"Doctors, do you have any effective remedies? No matter what medicine is needed, as long as you can prescribe it, we will try our best to prepare it for you." The doctors smiled wryly.

"If we had such a miraculous cure to save the world, we would have been hired by the Imperial Medical Academy long ago. Right now, all we can prescribe are some decoctions for clearing heat, detoxifying, reducing swelling, and relieving pain."

"The general direction is correct, but the reason why this toad plague is so troublesome is that the swelling occurs on the parotid glands, and in the later stages, the inside will become infected with pus."

Gan Minglan frowned as she processed the news she had just heard.

She wasn't afraid of any of that.

Using superpowers to treat this disease is naturally a given.

But everyone knows it.

All she knows how to do is kill pigs, cows, and people.

How could a butcher possibly treat illnesses?
The symptoms of this toad plague sound similar to those of mumps.

She was quite familiar with mumps.

In my past life, when I was in the third grade, more than half of the students in the whole school had this disease.

Medical treatments in the 1990s were also very simple and crude.

The adults would crush the cactus and apply it to the child's face, then wrap it with gauze.

I haven't heard of any injections or medications needed, and it seems none of my classmates have died from this disease.

So, cactus!
We need to use this medicine!
But I don't remember ever seeing this thing before.

No, she does.

On the windowsill of her kitchen, there is a large potted cactus displayed as a bonsai.

Those things are easy to raise.

It blossoms and bears fruit every year.

The fruit has a sweet and sour taste and contains seeds smaller than sesame seeds, somewhat similar to dragon fruit.

Yes, prickly pear is what we eat this season!
Think about this.

She told the doctors, "I once heard about a good remedy for this toad plague in Shangdu."

"very?"

"General Gan, please tell us quickly! Did you hear it from the imperial physicians?"

“Everyone knows that I bumped my head when I was a child. My parents took me to Shangdu to find a famous doctor. Later, they spent a lot of money to invite an old imperial physician from the palace to examine me. He mentioned a prescription, saying that a kind of medicine called cactus could be crushed and applied to the swollen area to relieve and reduce the symptoms.”

"What kind of palm is a cactus? Where can I find one?"

Gan Minglan: We're still on the other side of the world.

What came out of his mouth was:

"It is a medicinal herb that grows in the desert or in rocks where it is extremely hot all year round. It is named after its shape, which resembles a hand with fingers together, and because it has thorns."

"Ah! Is there really such a miraculous medicine? I've never heard of it before!"

"Otherwise, how could it be called a cactus!"

The dozen or so doctors were very excited.

In their minds, imperial physicians were the pinnacle of medical skills.

Since this medicine is said to be effective, we must use it.

"General Gan, please tell us where we can find this cactus?"

"An extremely hot place?"

"That must be Lingnan!"

"A trip to Lingnan can take several months to come back, and the toad plague can't wait that long."

The hope that had just been ignited was quickly dashed again by the thought of how far the journey was.

Gan Minglan asked confidently, "Do you think the Flaming Mountains of Huozhou meet this condition?"

The Western Regions are not lacking in deserts.

But I've never heard of cacti growing in the deserts of the Western Regions.

She thought it over and over.

The only place with a suitable environment for planting, and relatively close by, is the Flaming Mountain in Huozhou.

The centurion of Guazhou Garrison clapped his hands: "General, I'll have to trouble you to make this trip again."

(End of this chapter)