He originally intended to surrender to Wei, so why did he end up restoring Han?

Chapter 98 Chen Deng Treats Illness

Many doctors who come here say they have no interest in a career in medicine; they just want to cure this difficult patient and gain some medical experience. They won't stay here for long.

Liu Bei would never make the foolish mistake of refusing someone's offer; he treated them to good food and drink. Even though the doctor was helpless in treating Chen Deng's illness, as long as he wasn't there to swindle or cheat, Liu Bei treated him with courtesy.

With such a strong appeal, Hua Tuo naturally followed suit, not for any other reason than to see what level his current colleagues were at.

Even if Hua Tuo, who had treated Chen Deng in history, came, it wouldn't mean that everyone else would be relieved of their duties and simply sent back. How could Lu Wan possibly let these people go? Physicians have always been highly skilled professionals. With a renowned doctor on staff, everyone in Xuzhou could work with peace of mind, without worrying about suddenly falling ill and having no one to help them.

In order to retain these renowned doctors, Lu Wan made many preparations. First, she specially designated a large plot of land in the city as the site for the hospital. Then, she asked the construction teams that had finished repairing the roads and were waiting for work to design what the hospital should look like.

Lu Wan's hypocritical thinking started acting up again. He not only wanted to turn this place into a medical and health center, but also wanted it to serve as an academic center for training the next generation of medical professionals.

When he excitedly approached Mi Zhu, eager to share his brilliant ideas, the head steward of Xuzhou simply glared at him and told him to go back and stay put.

Mi Zhu's appearance has changed drastically recently. His eyes are sunken, his eye bags are swollen, and his face has become thinner. Moreover, he is only in his thirties and has already started losing hair. At this rate, he might not even be able to wear a hairpin.

Knowing he was in the wrong, Lu Su slunk away. Mi Zhu had been in charge of logistics for some time now, and was indeed exhausted and mentally drained. Mi Zhu had already made up his mind that if Lu Su came to him again with some new ideas and asked him to immediately mobilize resources, he would immediately go and resign from Liu Bei's position.

If you can't afford to offend them, you can at least avoid them.

Getting back to the main point, Chen Deng's current physical condition is truly frightening. Liu Bei and the others visited him as soon as he arrived, and what they saw shocked them all: Chen Deng's already sallow complexion had become even darker, and he was so thin that it seemed as if only a layer of skin covered his skeleton, with all the rest of his flesh gone.

Seeing his son in such a state, Chen Gui nearly fainted. Although Chen Gui was a cunning and shrewd man, he still had humanity. Seeing his son seriously ill, he transformed from a sly old fox back into an ordinary father. Just as Chen Gui's legs gave way and he was about to collapse to the ground, Liu Bei quickly caught him and helped him to rest.

Chen Dengqiang opened his eyes and spoke weakly, his tone full of apology: "I never thought I would be so easily defeated by illness. Yuanlong has failed my lord's expectations."

Liu Bei immediately came to comfort his old friend who had supported him since he entered Xuzhou: "Yuanlong, don't worry, there's still a long time ahead. Take care of your health first before thinking about work."

"The body is the foundation of battle. You must protect yourself. How can you sacrifice yourself before even going into battle? How can you uphold the Han Dynasty if you do that?"

Liu Bei's words do make sense. If Zhuge Liang had lived to the age of Sima Yi in history, while he might not have been able to successfully restore the Han Dynasty, he could at least have made Shu Han a step stronger than in history.

Hua Tuo, as the attending physician, also agreed with this view: "What Liu Cheqi said is very true. Without a healthy body, even the greatest talent cannot be displayed."

As the most renowned of all the famous doctors who visited Xuzhou, he was naturally chosen as the attending physician and given full responsibility for Chen Deng's treatment plan.

At the same time, his method was the most normal among these people. Some doctors suggested surgery, while others offered some kind of ointment made from unknown ingredients. The most outrageous were those who wanted to take advantage of the situation, claiming that Chen Deng was possessed by a ghost and was there to perform shamanistic rituals. Liu Bei simply chased them all away, as they were clearly unreliable.

After reviewing several options, Liu Bei found Hua Tuo's plan the most suitable. Therefore, he appointed Hua Tuo as the chief physician.

Unlike Liu Bei, who trusted his subordinates implicitly, and Lu Wan, who was knowledgeable about history, Chen Deng, though he had heard of Hua Tuo's legendary medical skills, had never actually witnessed such abilities firsthand, and was still a little apprehensive: "Mr. Hua, this medicine—"

"Don't worry, it's just using a medicinal soup to force these insects out, and the medicinal materials used are all common ingredients."

""

Hua Tuo treated a large number of patients, many of whom were paranoid due to threats to their lives. Hua Tuo respected their opinions and subtly guided them to change their minds during this process. For example, if a patient felt that replacing certain ingredients in a prescription might be faster, Hua Tuo wouldn't directly disagree. Instead, he would offer a different explanation that the patient might find unacceptable, such as that other ingredients were more expensive, or that the patient couldn't eat refined grains for a long time after taking the prescription.

So far, Hua Tuo has not encountered any medical disputes. While preparing the various medicines to be used next, Hua Tuo said to Liu Bei, "General of Chariots and Cavalry, there is no need to worry too much. Prefect Chen's condition does seem very serious, but it has not yet reached the point of threatening his life. However, after treatment, he should not eat raw food such as sashimi, otherwise he will inevitably relapse."

Upon hearing this, Chen Deng closed his eyes. He knew he would never be able to eat the delicious food he wanted again, which made him feel a little sad.

Lu Wan chimed in, "Yuanlong, it's good to eat less raw food. If you really want to eat it, you can eat sea fish. Although some sea fish have worms, at least they won't crawl into your internal organs."

Hua Tuo looked up at Lu Wan in surprise and asked, "How does Mr. Lu know these things?"

"My hometown is a place with a dense network of waterways, and there are quite a few people who get sick from eating raw fish. However, most of them die from other causes before the parasites have a chance to manifest. This is the first time I've seen someone like Yuanlong who has been afflicted to this extent by the disease alone."

Hua Tuo nodded, but then he had another question: If that's the case, how did Lu Wan know that eating sea fish is less dangerous than eating river fish?

Although he was very curious about the answer to this question, there was still a patient waiting for treatment, and his medical ethics as a doctor made it impossible for him to leave the patient aside to do his own thing.

The medicinal soup was quickly prepared. After filtering out the dregs with gauze, a bowl of dark brown medicinal soup was placed in front of Chen Deng.

"Don't worry, Prefect Chen, just eat this first, and then you'll be able to vomit up the worms in your stomach."

Chen Deng nodded with a complicated expression. He had never heard of this treatment method before. He took the soup bowl and drank it all in one gulp.

Bitterness—that was Chen Deng's first reaction.

Then came a feeling of nausea and vomiting, as if I had eaten something stale. I felt acid reflux rising from the back of my tongue, and something churning in my stomach. I was about to vomit!

The other doctors who were also involved quickly handed over a small ceramic jar to prevent the contents of his stomach from spilling out unsightly. Chen Deng took it and began to vomit. Seeing Chen Deng vomit like this, the others in the room, except for the experienced doctors, also felt a little nauseous and gagged a few times.

Before long, Chen Deng vomited up all the medicinal soup he had just drunk. Hua Tuo, seeing that he was done, picked up the jar and used a small dagger to pick up a small piece of something.

"Please look, everyone, this is a shad."

Upon closer inspection, everyone discovered that it was a small, reddish-brown worm wriggling on the knife, which disgusted them.

After demonstrating to everyone what the pathogen was, Hua Tuo put down the items in his hands and began to clean his hands.

"General Liu, Prefect Chen's illness will improve soon. However, please be careful to continue taking the medicine as you are taking it today. Only after you have made sure that all the worms in your body have been expelled can you stop taking the medicine. Otherwise, the illness will relapse sooner or later."

When Liu Bei saw that Hua Tuo had eliminated the insects that had tormented Chen Deng to the point of near-humanity with just a few strokes, he immediately bowed to him and said, "Thank you, Mr. Hua, for treating Yuanlong. I have no way to repay you but to ask that you be appointed as the chief physician of Xuzhou. I hope you will not refuse. Here is a small amount of gold, which I hope you will accept as a token of my respect."

Hua Tuo waved his hand and smiled at Liu Bei, saying, "General Liu, why be so polite? You flatter me. General Liu and Prefect Chen have worked together to save countless lives of refugees. You are truly rare benevolent men in the world. I am already very satisfied to repay you with these medical skills. Why would I need such a reward? Please keep these safe and use them to reward the meritorious soldiers when the Han Dynasty is restored."

"this----"

Hua Tuo had already laid out all the possibilities, so what other angles could Liu Bei possibly use to persuade him?

Seeing that Liu Bei's attempt to recruit Hua Tuo seemed to have failed, and noticing that Liu Bei was constantly giving him meaningful glances, asking him to help keep Hua Tuo there, Lu Wan immediately stepped forward and said to Hua Tuo, "Mr. Hua, please wait. I have something I would like to say to you."

Hua Tuo, now with some free time, let the question that had been nagging at him resurface: "I happen to have some questions for Chief of Staff Lu. You seem to have a deep understanding of medicine. Why do you think sea fish are safer than river fish?"

Lu Wan then repeated her explanation of Liu Bei, adding, "This is a very strange phenomenon that I once observed. You know, river fish cannot survive in seawater, and similarly, seawater fish cannot survive in rivers and lakes."

"Then why don't we extend this a bit further? If river fish can't survive in seawater, does that also mean the parasites inside them can't survive in seawater either?"

Hua Tuo had never heard of such a concept before, and couldn't help but ask curiously, "Chief of Staff Lu, don't you think these insects are some kind of evil spirit possessing the body? According to you, these insects, like fish, are living beings, but where do these things come from? In all my years of practicing medicine, I have never seen where these insects come from."

At this point, it's normal to think these parasites are some kind of supernatural phenomenon. After all, there's no mature observation equipment available now, and the eggs can't be observed with the naked eye, so naturally, we can only explain it as supernatural phenomena.

Lu Wan also had her own explanation for this: "Mr. Hua, you see, these fish sashimi can only cause illness when eaten raw, but when they are made into porridge, not a single person who eats them gets sick."

"This means that something disappears during the heating process, and this disappearing thing is very likely the culprit that causes worms to appear in the human body."

"While I cannot prove whether it is alive, we can draw an analogy with other things in the world. Other animals, after being heated for a period of time, become cooked, lose their souls, and cease to move. Doesn't heating these insects also mean cooking them, eliminating them, and ultimately preventing those who eat them from getting sick?"

Everyone in the room put down what they were doing and began to listen attentively to Lu Wan's deductions. Even Chen Deng, who was bedridden, was the same. He didn't want to know how it came about; he just wanted to know how the parasite disappeared.

"A rather novel idea! But this still doesn't explain where this insect came from." When it came to professional issues, Hua Tuo's eyes lit up with excitement. Seeing that Lu Suo's theory could not perfectly explain the problem, he hurriedly raised his own doubts.

Lu Wan nodded, agreeing with Hua Tuo's question: "Indeed, but what we saw today shows how small this insect is. Are its offspring even smaller? I even think that the larvae of this insect might be so small that they are invisible to the human eye, so naturally, we cannot detect their existence."

"But when heated, these larvae hidden in the fish meat are cooked to death, and these dead larvae can no longer survive in the human body."

Everyone, including Hua Tuo, was very surprised by this statement. Some diseases were not caused by miasma or evil spirits entering the body, but by these invisible insects that quietly entered the body without the person's knowledge, causing illness.

"So, does that mean as long as these things don't enter the body, a person will never get sick?"

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