Turning the tide in the Red Chamber

Chapter93
When they arrived at Yangzhou Xunyan Yushi's Mansion, Lin Ruhai's butler brought Jia Chen into the backyard.

The front yard of Xunyan Yushi Mansion is the Yushi Yamen, and the back yard is the residence of the Lin family.

At this moment, Lin Daiyu was sitting beside Lin Ruhai's bed.

Jia Chen's footsteps caught her attention.

Lin Daiyu turned her head, and the two looked at each other.

Jia Chen's heart tightened slightly, Lin Daiyu's eyes were red and her face was stained with tears, obviously she had just cried.

"Sister Lin, are you okay?" Jia Chen frowned slightly, and asked, feeling a little distressed.

Lin Daiyu looked sad and said:
"I'm fine, but my father is terminally ill, and there is no cure for the medicine stone."

Jia Chen used to help Shi Xiangyun sober up with acupoints, and he wondered if he could also help Lin Ruhai with a diagnosis and treatment.

At this moment, Lin Ruhai was lying on the sickbed, dying, and his life was hanging by a thread.

His face was flushed, his forehead was sweating, his breathing was difficult, and he was confused.

It stands to reason that Jia Chen is an imperial envoy, so Lin Ruhai must stand up and salute.

But now Lin Ruhai is delirious, struggling to open his eyes wide, and unable to speak, so he can only lie in bed and wait for death.

Jia Chen asked: "Master Lin is seriously ill and bedridden, what are the symptoms?"

Lin Daiyu said:

"My father has dizziness, fever, frequent thirst, saliva, dyspnea, muscle cramps, and some skin ulcers appear on his body."

Jia Chen frowned slightly, contemplated for a moment, and suddenly his eyes lit up and said:

"This is a symptom of salt poisoning. It seems that someone gave Mr. Lin poisonous salt."

Lin Ruhai claims to be an upright official, but Jia Chen knows that it is impossible for him not to be greedy at all.

Lin Ruhai also acted according to various rules in the officialdom when he was appointed as the censor of salt inspection in Yangzhou.

He doesn't need to ask for bribes from the salt merchants, as long as he follows the historical practice, the salt merchants will take the initiative to contribute.

In other words, if Lin Ruhai didn't understand the rules, or didn't follow the rules in the officialdom, he wouldn't be able to be the inspector of salt for so many years.

But Yangzhou patrol salt censor is a fat job, I don't know how many people miss it.

It is reasonable for some political opponents to want to kill Lin Ruhai.

Of course, it is also possible that some salt merchants hated Lin Ruhai's uneven distribution of spoils, so they secretly plotted.

Hearing Jia Chen's words, Lin Daiyu hurriedly asked:

"Brother Chen, do you know how to cure salt poisoning?"

Jia Chen said:
"I have strong medicine, but it's a little disgusting."

Jia Chen wanted to lavage Lin Ruhai's stomach and relieve his bowel movements, but in this era without advanced medical equipment and medicines, he could only take a sideways approach.

Lin Daiyu urged:

"My father's life is at stake, and I don't care about nausea anymore. As long as I can save my father's life, even if I eat shit and drink urine, I have to treat it!"

Jia Chen said:
"Sister Lin is half right. Originally, she wanted to feed Master Lin with excrement, but there is another way to induce vomiting, that is, to feed Master Lin with flavescens juice."

In "Drinking Zhengyao Volume [-] Food Poisoning" written by Hu Sihui, a physician in the Yuan Dynasty:
"If you don't know what is poisonous after eating, and you are upset and depressed, fry the juice of sophora flavescens and drink it, and make you spit it out. Or boil rhinoceros horn juice and drink it, or boil it with bitter wine or good wine, all good."

This is the use of sophora flavescens juice to induce vomiting.

Jia Chen continued:

"I also need to prepare nine crotons, peel and remove the heart, boil the black to remove the oil, mash it into a puree, then mash it with half a tael of Chuanbei and croton puree, mix it with the powdered platycodon root, and wash half of it with boiling water. Bowl, feed Master Lin, this is for laxative."

Before Lin Daiyu could speak, Jia Lian on the side lost her voice and said:

"Master Lin vomits and diarrhea, and his stomach is empty. I'm afraid it's not good for his health."

Jia Lian uttered Lin Daiyu's question, and Lin Daiyu stared closely at Jia Chen, waiting for his explanation.

Jia Chen said:
"In order to detoxify, we can only expel the toxins stored in Mr. Lin's stomach first."

Lin Daiyu hurriedly ordered Xueyan and Zijuan to do so.

"Brother Chen, is this all right?" Lin Daiyu couldn't believe it.

Jia Chen said: "Of course it's not enough. We also need to decoct the three herbs of licorice, blue fruit and cohosh into a juice, and feed it to Mr. Lin before meals every day."

Licorice can detoxify all kinds of poisons, "maintain cold and heat in the five viscera and six residences, strengthen muscles and bones, grow muscles, increase strength, create gold, and detoxify";
"Lan Shi, the master detoxifies all kinds of poisons, kills gu and gnats, injects ghosts, and stings poison";
"Chomic cohosh, the master detoxifies all kinds of poisons, kills all kinds of old things and evil spirits, and wards off warm diseases, obstacles, and evil poisons."

Jia Chen continued:
"It's not enough, we need to make mung bean soup and add honeysuckle to it for detoxification.

Then feed Master Lin milk, goat milk, and soy milk to neutralize the poisonous salt in his blood. "

Lin Daiyu said to the other maids and women:
"Do as Brother Chen says!"

"Yes!"

The maids and women responded and hastily followed suit.

Jia Chen said:
"This is all the detoxification methods I can think of at the moment."

Jia Chen didn't say the second half of the sentence, because he couldn't guarantee whether Lin Ruhai could be cured.

Lin Daiyu is ice-snow and clever, she has heard Jia Chen's subtext, and said:
"I believe that Big Brother Chen will be able to rejuvenate wonderfully."

Jia Chen also wanted to investigate the Yangzhou officialdom, and after living in the Lin family for a few days, he bid farewell to Lin Daiyu and Jia Lian, and found Zuo Liangyu, the general in charge of Yangzhou.

This Zuo Liangyu came from a poor background. At the beginning, he was just a small soldier on the border of Liaodong, but he fought many tough battles on the battlefield against Daikin, made many military exploits and won promotions many times.

Later, he was almost investigated for stealing and looting, but happened to be appreciated by Hou Xun, the leader of the Donglin Party, and was exceptionally promoted to the general officer by serving tea and water for Hou Xun.

It is estimated that he felt that the front line of the Nine Sides was dangerous, so he was able to be transferred to Yangzhou through making connections, and served as the general of the governor, that is, the guard of Yangzhou.

This time, I heard that Jia Chen came to investigate Xu Luan, the magistrate of Yangzhou, and Zuo Liangyu didn't want to get involved in order to protect himself, and wanted to pretend that he was not ill, so he muddled it.

But how could Jia Chen give him such a chance?
In Jia Chen's plan, Zuo Liangyu, who is in the same city as Xu Luan, is the key pawn to rectify Yangzhou's officialdom and break the situation.

For the past few days, Jia Chen has been staying at Lin Ruhai's house, not looking for Zuo Liangyu, because he deliberately let Zuo Liangyu hang out in the sun, making Zuo Liangyu uneasy and beating drums in his heart.

A few days later, when Jia Chen came to the door on his own initiative, Zuo Liangyu was as frightened as a bird, and his heartstrings were tense.

At first, Zuo Liangyu wanted to get away with it, but Jia Chen made it clear:

"Lord Zuo, to be honest, Xu Luan committed a heinous crime, His Majesty ordered me to investigate the case thoroughly.

You and Xu Luan were officials in the same city, and you should have supervised and constrained each other, but you sat idly by and didn't participate in the performance according to the facts.

To put it mildly, you are dereliction of duty, and to put it more seriously, you are a complicit, colluding, and deliberately covering up!

Now His Majesty ordered me to be an imperial envoy, and asked Jia Yucun, the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, to assist in the investigation, and did not mention your name at all. This is clearly treating you as an accomplice.

In a word, you are in great trouble, understand? "

Hearing these words, Zuo Liangyu completely panicked and didn't dare to continue playing tricks.

Seeing his complexion changed drastically, Jia Chen raised his lips slightly, and said persuasively:

"There is often only a thin line between merit and demerit. You should understand what I want most now."

"Your official understands!" Zuo Liangyu was a smart man, took over Jia Chen's words, and told a past event that he personally handled with conclusive evidence, which was enough to bring down Xu Luan.

On the other side, Jia Yuanchun and Wen Tiren, Minister of Rites, rushed to Shanhaiguan.

Before entering the pass, I heard bursts of shouts of killing, the sound of weapons colliding, and the roar of artillery fire from outside the pass.

Puffs of gunpowder smoke rose and scattered, filling the top of the pass.

Obviously, it is Dajin's Eight Banners army that is attacking the city!

(End of this chapter)