A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 829 The Plague
Plagues followed one after another in the late Ming Dynasty. In the 14th year of Chongzhen, plagues were prevalent in Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Zhejiang and other places, and there were many patients.In the 16th year of Chongzhen's reign, a great plague broke out from Shanxi to the capital. Thousands of coffins rose out of the nine gates, and countless people died after closing the gates.

The plague at this time was extremely terrible, and tens of thousands of people died at any time. At that time, it was more serious in the eighth year of Wanli, the 14th year of Wanli, and the few years in the end of Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, the plague is an acute and severe infectious disease, and it is also a Class A acute infectious disease, with a very high fatality rate!

How terrible is this Class A infectious disease?People in later generations are familiar with infectious diseases such as anthrax, AIDS, SARS, bird flu, etc.Therefore, there is almost no need to talk about the incubation period for suffering from Class A infectious diseases. The so-called one person has the infection, and the whole family is infected.

After getting the epidemic report, how could Wang Dou dare to neglect?Immediately return to Guihua City, convene all officials and generals to discuss matters, and immediately start the plan.

He also sent a flying horse to call on Ji Shiwei, governor of Xuanfu, Zhu Zhifeng, governor of Xuanfu, Wei Jingyuan, governor of Datong, Cai Maode, governor of Shanxi, and Wang Pu, Zhou Yuji, etc., to discuss various matters of epidemic prevention.

Finally, an Epidemic Prevention Bureau was established to take charge of epidemic prevention in Anbei, Xuanfu, Shanxi and other places. Wang Dou personally served as the general office, with Wu Youxing as the assistant, and Ji Shiwei, Wei Jingyuan, Zhu Zhifeng, Cai Maode, Wang Pu and others were in charge. , Later Sun Chuanting also joined in, as one of the seats.

In order to prevent and treat the epidemic smoothly, Wang Dou specially dispatched [-] troops as anti-epidemic soldiers. All officers, generals and civilians in the epidemic area obey the arrangements of the bureau's doctors and doctors. Anyone who dares to disobey will be killed.

At the same time, the Xuanfu Times is fully fired, publicizing various things about epidemic prevention and control, and various epidemic prevention points.The "On Epidemic Epidemics" written by Wu Youxing had already been published once before, and it was reprinted at this time, intensively printed, and widely publicized in newspapers.

Not only publicity, but more importantly, action. In addition to a large number of doctors stationed in Yingzhou immediately, the Epidemic Prevention Bureau also mobilized people everywhere to carry out large-scale rodent and flea killing activities, especially house rats, which must be eliminated.At the same time, the streets and alleys were cleaned, garbage was transported, and the general cleaning was vigorously carried out.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the financial collapse caused the environment of many cities to be dirty, with flies and gnats infested, and sewage flowing horizontally.

It was okay under Wang Dou's rule, but the nearby cities of Shanxi and Shaanxi had piles of rubbish and the stench was overwhelming. However, because the Epidemic Prevention Bureau was well-organized and spent a lot of money to mobilize the people, it was a matter of wealth and life. The people are very enthusiastic about this.

However, the epidemic is still fierce. After the outbreak was discovered in Yingzhou, the death toll reached more than 300 people every day, and the spread was very fast, mainly due to the difficulty of isolation.

At this time, it is about "benevolence", "propriety", and "filial piety". If the elders in the family get sick, the younger ones will naturally accompany them in front of the bed, serve them with soup and medicine in the morning and evening, and ask for care from time to time, so that they will be infected.If the younger generation in the family gets sick, let alone the elders are always by their side, they will also be infected.

The plague was so severe that they even helped with the funeral, and those who went to the funeral would get sick and die in the end.Due to such reasons, it is not uncommon for one person to get sick, and the whole family dies, or even hundreds of members of the whole family die cleanly.

The Epidemic Prevention Bureau requires that infected persons be immediately isolated when they are discovered, but there are many people who are reluctant to part with each other and conceal and fail to report.

Under Wang Dou's rule, there are many layers of Baojia system, and patients can be easily found, and then coercive measures can be taken, and the implementation is effective.However, the grassroots organizations in other places have long been paralyzed, and the Lijia system does not exist. Most of them are the situation of the gentry's autonomy, and it is too easy to conceal it.

It is best to cremate a sick corpse and bury it deeply, but according to the current concept, cremation is connected with another word: destroying bones and raising ashes, and it is not for those who have a deep hatred.If you dare to burn your relatives to ashes, there are not one or two who will fight with you.

It is the most fundamental ethics and morality at this time, no matter how hostile the two sides are, if they can send the bodies of the dead to each other after the war, it will be the benevolence and righteousness praised by everyone.But destroying corpses and slaughtering corpses is a crime of cruelty and inhumanity.

Even isolating patients and taking away infected people will cause criticism, which is considered to be an obstacle to benevolence and filial piety.

In mid-August, the plague spread to Taiyuan, Pingyang, Datong, and even Xuanfu and Anbei.In view of this, Wang Dou specially published a signed article in the newspaper, calling on the public to face up to this issue.

He quoted the words of Mencius, "If a sister-in-law is drowning, help her with the hand. If the world is drowning, help her with the way." He believed that the rampant plague has already related to the survival of the race, and has surpassed the principles of benevolence, propriety, and filial piety, and promoted it to the level of humanity. Height, in power.

Isolation and cremation are all rights, and I call on the people to help the world with their hands and go to the road together.

Datong General Soldier, Dingxing Bo Wang Pu first responded to Wang Dou’s appeal. In late August, he persuaded Datong Governor Wei Jingyuan to collect more than 1000 infected and dead corpses in Datong City, and piled the corpses into more than 100 piles outside the city. , One hundred corpses per pile, and then piled up with firewood and burned.

At that time, spectators gathered, and all the civil and military officials from Datong City were present. Amid the overwhelming howls of the families of the deceased, these plague corpses were all reduced to ashes.

It is amazing to say that after the incineration of the plague corpses, the number of deaths in the city dropped sharply, and the number of infections became less and less. After five days, there was no death or infection in Datong City.

This news shocked the whole of Shanxi. At this time, because of the sanitation everywhere, the distribution of masks has basically solved the problem of transmission channels. The biggest threat is those dead bodies.There were successful precedents before, and all the cities followed Wang Pu's practice and began to burn the dead bodies, and even the furniture and objects that the patients had touched.

The Epidemic Prevention Bureau also adopted the method of "interrupting traffic and conducting strict inspections" to organize heavy defense lines around some counties and counties where the epidemic was most severe, so that the epidemic did not spread excessively in Shanxi.

Of course, the epidemic is still serious because of the continuous emergence of variants.

At the end of August, the Epidemic Prevention Bureau discovered that not only rats and fleas had become the source of infectious diseases, but even cats and wild dogs had become new sources of infection and hosts of the epidemic focus. Wang Dou ordered all cats and dogs in the epidemic focus to be killed and cremated.

At the end of August, there were villagers who skinned foxes to death in Monandong Township and infected them. Wang Dou ordered the entire village to be quarantined, all the foxes there were killed, and cremated and buried.

In August again, herdsmen in Monan Middle Town got infected by peeling and eating the skin and meat of dead hares. Wang Dou ordered all the hares in the town to be culled, one was found, and the other was cremated and buried.

In early September, the Epidemic Prevention Bureau discovered that a ranch in Monan Zhongzhen seemed to be a new source of infection. Wang Dou ordered that all cattle, sheep and camels in the entire ranch be killed and cremated.

It was September again, and the Epidemic Prevention Bureau discovered that some wolves in West Town of Monan had become new hosts. Wang Dou ordered to kill all wolves on the grassland...

While the plague broke out in Shanxi, plagues were also found in Shandong, Beizhi, Jingshi and other places, and finally broke out again and again.Their financial ability and organizational execution ability are not to mention compared with Anbei, or even Shanxi. After the outbreak of the plague, it can be described as terrible.

……

Plagues broke out again and again in various places in Ming Dynasty. Although the Epidemic Prevention Bureau was unable to go deep into various places in Ming Dynasty, the Xuanfu Times had been widely disseminated at this time, and the epidemic prevention points on it also attracted countless people's attention, especially the medical soups such as Dayuan Drink and Sanxiao Drink were announced on it. Prescriptions to prevent and treat plague.

Newspapers spread out one after another, and countless people with the heart and ability followed the instructions, and finally survived by luck.

In September of the 16th year of Chongzhen, Shengjing, Chongzheng Palace.

Emperor Xuantong Dorgon read the newspapers in his hand intently.

"... Pimple plague, also known as plague, is caused by abnormal qi that moves people. It is neither wind nor cold, neither heat nor damp, nor the evil invasion of the six evils. It cannot be treated as typhoid fever or exogenous diseases. Plague is mostly caused by pollution. , when cleaning streets, houses, ditches, and rivers, supplemented with white ash, so that mice, mosquitoes, and fleas cannot spread. The way to prevent epidemics is to trace epidemic routes, strengthen road quarantine, control traffic arteries, isolate epidemic areas, Cremate the corpses of plague patients, set up hospitals to accommodate patients, use masks when traveling, and drink medical soups such as Dayuanyin and Sanxiaoyin..."

"The prescriptions for Dayuan Drink and Sanxiao Drink are as follows..."

"... Bo Wang Pu of Dingxing responded to the call of the Marquis of Yongning. On August 21, 150 sick corpses were burned in Datong City, and the epidemic in Datong was stopped."

"On August 23, 360 sick corpses were burned in Taiyuan City, and the epidemic in Taiyuan was eased."

"August 24th, Pingyang Prefecture..."

"On August 25, Sun Chuanting, governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, and Feng Shikong, governor of Shaanxi, all civil and military officials burned [-] sick corpses outside the south gate..."

"Urgent report, urgent report, in addition to house mice and voles, wild cats and dogs have become a new source of plague!"

"Urgent report, urgent report, foxes and hares are the source of infection for Xinli again!"

"Do not eat the skin, meat, or internal organs of sick animals, and do not get in contact with their blood or sputum..."

"The Marquis of Yongning ordered to kill all the wolves in the territory, and cull all the hares and foxes in the territory!"

"Shocked, the capital has become a hell, and the nine gates are full of coffins. At the request of Zhou Yanru, the general office of the capital's epidemic prevention, and Chen Xinjia's assistant, a large number of doctors from the epidemic prevention bureau rushed to the capital to help!"

Looking at the reports in the newspapers, Dorgon felt thrilled. After a long time, he put down the newspapers, looked at the University of Hongwen University, Shi Ningwan, and the others, and said, "Has the plague also appeared in Shengjing?" ? Where did it come from?"

Ning Wanwo pouted his head and said: "I searched for the popular route, and found out that the source is a Jialazhuang farm outside the city, but it was the result of eating otters wrapped in clothes. Now many households in the city are suffering from chills and high fever. , and there is blood in the sputum, according to the newspapers of the Ming Dynasty, it is indeed the plague!"

Dorgon slowly closed his eyes, opened them after a long time, and said majestically: "Immediately set up the Epidemic Prevention Bureau, my own relatives will be the general manager, and you will be the assistant to transfer five thousand armored soldiers to the epidemic prevention soldiers. , Anyone who dares to violate it will be shot to death!"

After finishing Ning, I hurried away, and Dorgon looked at his back. In government affairs, Han people are still inseparable. After ascending the throne, Dorgon found that he, like Huang Taiji, needed the assistance of Han civil servants everywhere.

However, in terms of military raids, each of the Eight Banners needs to be full of Mongolian banner owners.

Thinking about the income from the Qing Dynasty's raids on Japan these days, Dorgon couldn't help showing a satisfied smile on his face.

(End of this chapter)