Emperor Ming's grandson

Chapter 79: The miraculous effect of cowpox vaccination shocked the Jiangnan victims!

The flood-stricken areas in Jiangnan are desolate.

After the torrential floods receded, all that was left was devastation.

However, in the midst of the tragedy, there was a group of people going upstream. They were Dai Sigong, the envoy of Taiyuan Hospital, and other doctors who came to provide relief with Cao Guogong Li Wenzhong.

The purpose of Dai Sigong and others' trip was not only to treat those injured in the flood, but also to study the new smallpox prevention and treatment method informed by Sheng Sun - cowpox vaccination.

This group of "well-trained doctors" knew the horror of smallpox, and the traditional prevention and treatment method was variola vaccination. Although it had a certain effect, the mortality rate was extremely high and the risk was extremely high.

After repeated research and experiments, Dai Sigong and others finally proved the feasibility of the cowpox vaccination method. These doctors were ecstatic, thinking that they had finally found an effective method to prevent and treat smallpox. However, what they did not expect was that this method was being promoted However, it encountered huge resistance in the process.

People in the Jiangnan disaster area were full of doubts, even fear, about this new method of smallpox prevention and control.

They prefer to believe in the traditional variolation method. Although it is risky, it is a method they are familiar with after all. However, those professional pox doctors who specialize in variolation are fanning the flames. They claim that the variolation method is evil and will cause harm. By diverting blood, cattle contaminate human blood, but the variolation method is the right way, and it is based on qi.

In fact, the literal meaning is correct. The dry vaccination method is to grind the slurry of human pox into powder and blow it into the nose, while the cowpox vaccination method is to cut the arm with a knife and enter the blood.

In short, ordinary people have no discernment, and after hearing too many such rhetoric, they naturally fear and reject the cowpox method. Even if the government repeatedly publicizes it, no one dares to try it.

It can be said that Dai Sigong and others saw it with their eyes and were anxious in their hearts.

These doctors knew very well that if the public's doubts could not be dispelled, this new method of preventing and treating smallpox would not be promoted, and more people would die by then.

As a last resort, Dai Sigong decided to conduct a vaccinia vaccination experiment in public.

In the disaster-stricken area south of the Yangtze River, the sky is gloomy and it seems like it will rain again at any time.

Dai Sigong stood in front of the temporary tent, looking at the bustling victims in front of him. The faces of these people were full of confusion. The floods destroyed their homes, and the disease took away their relatives. Now they are like rootless people. Duckweed, no direction.

Dai Sigong took a deep breath, knowing how heavy the responsibility was on his shoulders.

He is not only the envoy of Taiyuan Hospital, but also a doctor. As the saying goes, a doctor is benevolent, and it is his instinct to save lives and heal the wounded.

But the people's resistance made Dai Sigong feel very troubled. He knew very well that changing people's traditional concepts and accepting new things would take time and patience, but what was even more important was a persuasive and immediate experiment.

Therefore, Dai Sigong selected some victims who were willing to be vaccinated against cowpox and vaccinated them in public.

During the vaccination process, he explained the principles and precautions of each step in detail to the people watching, making them feel that their lives were respected and giving them a deeper understanding of the new method. As the cowpox vaccination progressed, more and more victims began to gather around the tent. They stood or sat, quietly watching Dai Sigong's every move.

In the following period, he paid close attention to the physical changes of the victims lying in the tent open to the public.

Dai Sigong and others finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that they all passed through the dangerous period safely and without any life-threatening symptoms.

A few days later, the victims were shocked when those vaccinated with cowpox emerged from their tents safe and sound.

They saw that these people looked completely different from the sickly ones they had before. At this moment, they finally believed in the miraculous effect of cowpox vaccination.

The success of this public experiment made people in the disaster area begin to trust the cowpox vaccination method.

They came one after another for consultation and vaccination. Soon, there was a craze for vaccination in the entire disaster area. Moreover, because the mortality rate of cowpox was much lower than that of variolation, almost no people died due to vaccination, and the spread of smallpox also increased. significantly controlled.

The people felt deeply grateful for this advanced smallpox prevention and control method.

In order to commemorate the saint grandson who taught them this method, people in the Jiangnan disaster area began to spontaneously build large and small saint grandson shrines after the disaster to commemorate the contribution made by the saint grandson. Unknowingly, Zhu Xiongying became more and more famous. Many believers.
Then, Zhu Yuanzhang transported all the potatoes and sweet potatoes grown and stored around the capital this year to the disaster areas in the south of the Yangtze River. Although these things were not edible for a long time, they were enough to support the famine in the short term.

But the impact of this flood goes far beyond that, because with the occurrence of the flood, some clues that had been covered up in the past were exposed.

Jiangnan was the heartland of the Ming Dynasty, so Zhu Yuanzhang was very concerned about the flood. In addition to sending Cao Guogong Li Wenzhong to the Jiangnan prefectures to provide relief on his behalf, Zhu Yuanzhang also personally sent a total of 400 people to the three prefectures of Changzhou, Suzhou and Songjiang that were most severely affected by the disaster. Several "grain chiefs" were summoned to the capital. On the one hand, they wanted to provide key relief to the areas that were really affected by the disaster. On the other hand, they also wanted to ensure the collection of autumn grain.

The so-called "grain chief" is a product of the tax and grain collection system stipulated by Zhu Yuanzhang. Starting from the fourth year of Hongwu, it was stipulated that in Zhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang, Fujian and other places, places with a grain payment of about 10,000 dan were designated as one district. The grain chief of a large household is responsible for collecting and transporting grain. In addition, the grain chief also has the power to formulate rules, compile atlases, declare disasters and faults, and report tax evasion.

As the most down-to-earth emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang personally met with this group of people outside the Fengtian Palace and asked them to go back and carefully inspect the damage to the farmland. The grain fields that were not affected by the disaster would pay taxes as usual. In the grain fields that were affected by the disaster, tenants and poor farmers could receive relief. They are required to implement it truthfully and not to play tricks.

Zhu Yuanzhang said this, of course, so that the disaster relief money could be used as much as possible on the people who need relief most. He was born as a farmer, and he knew very well that "every famine is an opportunity for low-level officials to make money." For the grassroots people, If we leave it alone, then the local officials may only write one mu if it is clear that five acres were hit by the disaster. However, the large gentry households may write ten acres if they are clearly hit by one mu. After receiving the relief money and grain according to ten acres, the large gentry and Local officials divided the accounts again and again.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang directly implemented a "B2C" in the modern sense this time, eliminating the middleman link and asking the grain chief to send representatives of the affected people and tenants in the area under his jurisdiction to the capital, and the court paid all the expenses for food, accommodation, transportation and horseback on the way. Bag.

As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang waited in the capital for a full month, but he did not see any disaster victims who came to the capital to see him.

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(End of this chapter)