Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 141 Opening a few pharmacies
Speaking of famous doctors in the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Danxi is a figure that cannot be ignored. He is recognized as a leading figure in the medical field.

There are four people in the field of traditional Chinese medicine who cannot be avoided: Hua Tuo, Zhang Zhongjing, Sun Simiao, and Zhu Danxi. Although Bian Que is also very famous, he seems to have left no medical works.

Before Lu Jin traveled through time, he had heard that an archaeological excavation somewhere had unearthed Bian Que's medical books on bamboo slips, but he was not in this field and had never studied it.

But Zhu Danxi was different. He was one of the few medical masters who left behind many works and founded a school of medicine on his own. The famous Warm Disease School in the Ming and Qing Dynasties can be traced back to this "Mr. Danxi".

If you still don't understand, you can regard his position in the medical community as Zhu Xi's position in the Confucian community. Zhu Xi founded Neo-Confucianism, and Zhu Danxi founded the Warm Disease School.

Moreover, the two do have some relationship. Zhu Danxi's Confucian master is Xu Qian, and Xu Qian is Zhu Xi's fourth-generation disciple. So, by this calculation, Zhu Danxi should be Zhu Xi's fifth-generation disciple.

Zhu Danxi's real name was Zhu Zhenheng, with the courtesy name Yanxiu. He was from Yiwu, Jinhua Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. Because there was a stream called "Danxi" in his hometown Chi'an Town, he was later honored as "Mr. Danxi" after he became famous.

Zhu Danxi was smart and studious since childhood, and his family was well-off. When he was young, he was eager to do good, chivalrous, competitive, and liked to stand up for others. He also helped the village repair water conservancy facilities.

When he was in his thirties, his mother fell ill and his master Xu Qian was also in poor health, so Xu Qian advised him to study medicine, saying, "You are so smart, you can learn anything once you study it. Now I am seriously ill and your mother is also bedridden, why don't you learn medicine?"

Then he really gave up Confucianism and studied medicine. He burned all the imperial examination textbooks he had studied before. His classmates thought he was a lunatic. He then went to visit famous doctors everywhere to learn, and visited several masters in succession, and finally learned the true skills.

The most important thing is that he also figured out his own medical theory. He was able to cure patients with just one prescription, and his treatment was very effective. People called him Zhu Banxian and Zhu Yitie.

This person's contribution to the medical community, in addition to creating his own theory of "Xianghuo Theory", advocating nourishing yin, nourishing blood, and clearing heat, opposing the abuse of warming and tonic and blindly attacking evil, and founding the Warm Disease School in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, he also acted as a medical fighter to restore order.

The official court of the Song Dynasty once compiled a medical book, which included various prescriptions, called "Taiping Huimin Heji Jufang", commonly known as "Jufang". This book had a huge influence in the Song, Jin and Yuan dynasties. It can be regarded as an ancient version of the "Barefoot Doctor's Manual". The government regarded it as a code of pharmacy, and doctors passed it down from generation to generation as a family business. Patients took this book to get their own medicine to save their lives, and the people relied on this book as a custom.

To put it simply, the Song Dynasty government compiled a set of formulas for treating diseases. No matter what disease you had, you could identify the disease and prescribe your own medicine.

The original intention was good, as it would make it easier for people who couldn't find a doctor to treat themselves. However, Zhu Danxi believed that this was contrary to the dialectical thinking of traditional Chinese medicine, which advocates that treatment should be based on the disease, the person, and the time. It advocates flexibility, adapting to local conditions, and providing a prescription for each person. Doctors should prescribe the right medicine for the right condition, rather than mechanically applying formulas.

This is why he can cure people with just one dose of medicine.

This feels a bit like ancient Chinese mathematics going astray, using formulas to apply various arithmetic operations but losing the original abstract concepts of mathematics.

The good thing is that there is Zhu Danxi in the medical field to put things right, but the mathematics field is getting worse and worse. Since the Mongols entered the Central Plains, there has been no more brilliant innovations in mathematics. The Ming Dynasty still had a prince Zhu Zaiyu who created the modern music twelve-tone equal temperament. It can be said that the Qing Dynasty did not make any contribution to mathematics and was surpassed by the West in all aspects.

If Lu Jin wants to set up a Ministry of Health, then Zhu Danxi is definitely the most suitable candidate for the position. He has sufficient talent and prestige in the medical community. Unfortunately, he is already in his early seventies and will die in a few years.
Another person recommended by Chi Renping was Ge Kejiu, a famous doctor in Suzhou. He was very famous in the medical community. His father, Ge Yinglei, Chi Renping's master, was also very famous. He was an official medical professor in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions of the Yuan Dynasty, but he had almost no influence in later generations.

The reason why Chi Renping recommended him was not just out of favoritism, but because his master Ge Yinglei was a rare educator in the medical field.
Ge Yinglei's family has inherited medical skills from generation to generation, and he is well-known throughout the country. He is good at orthopedics and has written a book called "Medical Enlightenment". He is not very fond of treating diseases, but he is very good at teaching apprentices and guiding medical students.
Lu Jin said he hoped to run a medical school like the Imperial Academy, so who could be more suitable than Ge Yinglei? This man was a natural medical professor, but unfortunately, his apprentices were all in their forties, and Ge Yinglei had died long ago, so Chi Renping recommended Ge Yinglei's son Ge Kejiu.

His senior brother Ge Kejiu is also a freak. When he was young, he liked to wield swords and sticks. He was extremely strong and had a pair of unicorn arms that could draw a strong bow. He might be the most powerful doctor in history. It would be a pity if he didn't become a general.
Moreover, this person had great achievements in medical skills. His father was good at orthopedics, but he himself was good at treating asthenia, pulmonary tuberculosis, and he wrote "The Divine Book of Ten Medicines". Some of the prescriptions in it for treating lung disease and coughing up blood are still used in modern times.

It's a pity that this great man was about to die, probably because of internal injuries he suffered from practicing martial arts when he was young. Historically, he died in 1353. He had at most one year to live. He was only in his forties when he died. He was one of the few short-lived doctors in ancient times.
Chi Renping recommended two medical masters to him, but both of them were dying. However, Lu Jin didn't know this, and he didn't know these famous doctors from the Yuan Dynasty. Except for Zhu Danxi's name which sounded somewhat familiar, he had never heard of Ge Kejiu at all.

After Chi Renping introduced the two men's deeds to Lu Jin, Lu Jin was overjoyed and wrote down their names to see if he could recruit them for his own use after crossing the river in the future. Chi Renping also agreed to help write letters to contact them.

Next, Lu Jin discussed medical skills with Chi Renping. Of course, Lu Jin did not understand medical skills, but he knew some modern medical theories that he could communicate with Chi Renping.

Lu Jin first explained the concept of homeothermic animals, then took out a thermometer to show Chi Renping, which opened Chi Renping's eyes. He then asked Lu Jin about the principle of thermal expansion and contraction.

The two talked from biology to physics, from physics to chemistry, from chemistry to microorganisms, and finally to disease control and prevention.

"Can the Marshal make Ma Fei San? How effective is it? Have you tried it on patients?"

Chi Renping became very curious. It was said that Zhonghua Tuo's Ma Fei San had been lost for a thousand years, but there were still people who could make it now?
Lu Jin explained, "That is not the legendary Ma Fei San. I don't know the ancient recipe of the great doctor Hua Tuo. It's just that this substance also has the effect of anesthesia. We Gongshujia classify it in the field of chemistry and call this substance 'ether'.

"You need to use anhydrous ethanol, which is highly distilled wine, and concentrated sulfuric acid, and then purify it to make ether. Anyone who smells it will faint and fall into a coma. They will not feel anything even if their stomach is opened."

"Hiss——" Chi Renping took a breath of cold air when he heard it.

Lu Jin waved his hand and said, "Sir, don't spread it easily. This thing is extremely powerful and slightly poisonous. If it is obtained by a bad person, it can easily make people unconscious, which may cause endless harm. In the future, even if you want to use it, you must put it in a hospital controlled by the government."

Chi Renping was stunned when he heard this, and immediately nodded, "Marshal, you have thought carefully, and what you said makes a lot of sense. From what you said, perhaps the Ma Fei San back then was lost because of this."

"That's unknown." Lu Jin shook his head and felt sorry for the loss of Hua Tuo Ma Fei San.

Then the two talked about disease prevention and control, Chi Renping reminded.

"Marshal, the method of vaccinating people against smallpox is not perfect yet. The smallpox seeds are collected from the human body and are highly toxic. They can easily infect the vaccinated person and even spread. If you want to vaccinate everyone in the world, I'm afraid it will be difficult."

Lu Jin said, "I, Gongshujia, have a solution. We can use cowpox instead of human pox to eliminate this bad policy."

"Cowpox?" Chi Renping immediately became interested.

"That's right." Lu Jin immediately made up a story, saying that a shepherd would not get smallpox after his hands were infected with cowpox while milking.

If you encounter a smallpox patient, you can first collect smallpox seeds and smear them on the cow's tongue to infect the cow. After the cow becomes infected, you can artificially vaccinate other cows. After six or seven generations of infection, it becomes a attenuated "vaccine". Then use the seventh generation of smallpox cows to vaccinate people, and no adverse reactions will occur.

Chi Renping was stunned and asked immediately, "Is it really okay to take cowpox and vaccinate people?"

"No!" Lu Jin insisted, and then said, "If you don't believe me, you can bring someone to try it." "How can anyone be willing to try it?"

Lu Jin smiled when he heard this, "There are many evildoers in this world, whether they are death row prisoners or foreign enemies, I can kill them all, just like the Japanese pirates who invaded the coastal areas. If I really catch them, I can use them to test medicine."

"." Chi Renping was so shocked when he heard this that his back went cold. He suddenly remembered that the commander in front of him was a murderous rebel leader. He really didn't take human life seriously.
Seeing that Chi Renping was obviously very frightened but did not dare to show it, Lu Jin said again.

"Sir, please don't misunderstand me. I am not a bloodthirsty person, but the prisoners on death row are people who deserve to die. If we kill a few of them, the people of the world will no longer have to worry about smallpox. Isn't that beneficial to the country and the people? Sir, you should understand which is more important, right?"

"Understand."

Lu Jin's sword is hanging on his waist. He has tens of thousands of soldiers. He can kill anyone he wants. How dare Chi Renping not understand?
"But I'm still worried. Using livestock as medicine for human vaccination, how did they come up with this idea in the first place?" Chi Renping still found it hard to understand.

How did they come up with this idea? We need to ask about the European bloodletting therapy. Those European doctors not only knew how to bleed, they also tried blood transfusions on people. They used chicken blood, sheep blood, and horse blood. It was really outrageous. They dared to try anything on humans.

Especially the famous tetanus vaccine, which is divided into equine tetanus and human tetanus. The so-called equine tetanus is to first extract tetanus bacteria, then culture the bacteria in large quantities, and then inject them into mice, gradually increasing the dosage to improve the mice's resistance and allow them to produce antibodies until a lethal dose of bacteria is injected. If the mouse is still alive, the mouse serum will be purified and injected into rabbits.

Then, by analogy, rabbits were used to culture antibody serum, and then horses were used to culture it. Why did horses choose horses? Because horses are susceptible to tetanus bacteria, and horses are large in size and can draw a lot of blood, so it is cheap to use it to make serum vaccines.
The first "DTP" vaccine produced independently in New China was also produced in this way. It solved the three diseases of diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus in one fell swoop. All children must be vaccinated with this mixed vaccine.

Although he knew that it was the Europeans who did this, Lu Jin still explained.

“Sir, you should know that it is not my intention to use this method, but some diseases are naturally transmitted between humans and animals. Since livestock diseases can be transmitted to humans, why can’t livestock be used to treat diseases?

“Besides, there are many blood and flesh medicines among the medicinal materials, such as blood charcoal, placenta and the like, so what’s the harm in taking some smallpox seeds from cows?

"Of course, this method cannot be used indiscriminately. It is best to conduct experiments before administering it to humans."

Chi Renping immediately understood what Lu Jin meant by the experiment, but after listening to Lu Jin's explanation, he didn't object much.

The two chatted a lot, especially about the field of microorganisms, which interested Chi Renping the most. Lu Jin also showed him the high-power telescope. When he learned that a microscope could not be made for the time being, Chi Renping felt very regretful.

The two had a very pleasant conversation. Chi Renping agreed to help Lu Jin write a letter to see if he could help him recruit Ge Kejiu and Zhu Danxi. Lu Jin also promised that he could come to discuss biology with him in the future, and gave Chi Renping several handwritten copies of the Gongshu Secret Classic.

After sending this man away, Lu Jin looked at the two letters left on the table and immediately called Bao Yu over.

"Marshal, what are the arrangements?"

"Yes." Lu Jin nodded, pointed to the two letters on the table, and said immediately.

"This is the handwriting of the doctor Chi Renping. His master is the late famous Suzhou doctor Ge Yinglei. One of the letters is to his senior brother Ge Kejiu, who is a contemporary famous Suzhou doctor. The other is to Zhu Danxi, a famous doctor in Yiwu, Wuzhou Prefecture.

"Isn't Lu'an a place that produces medicinal herbs? You can organize a group of spies, pretend to be medicinal herb merchants, use these two letters as an introduction, set up a station in Suzhou and Wuzhou respectively, open a medicine shop, and take root there to prepare for the future."

Bao Yu's eyes lit up when he heard this. "Great! The commander-in-chief still has a plan. He even summoned the doctor and didn't forget to send the spies. I understand."

Lu Jin glanced at him and asked, "I just came back yesterday and saw your brother handed me a note saying that you withdrew 500 taels of silver from the Ministry of Finance. I already sent the approval document yesterday. How are you doing?"

Bao Yu immediately reported, "General, please allow me to report. I have selected the candidates and sent three groups of people. They will all pretend to be merchants and open shops as you said. One group will be sent to Anqing, one group will be sent to Xuyi, and another group will be sent to Gaoyou. When they find a place to stay, they will send someone to report.

"These people's families are all in Luzhou. They have homes and businesses. They are all controllable people. Don't worry, Marshal.

"I haven't found the few people the Marshal is looking for in Xuzhou yet. A fight will break out there soon. I'm afraid it's not a good idea to open a shop there. I've only sent a few people to inquire there. Once I get news about those people, I'll send more people to lurk there.

"Jiangdong has not taken action yet, but this time the Marshal has given the medicinal materials merchant this opportunity, and with the relationship with the famous doctor, I will be able to build the site quickly."

Lu Jin nodded and immediately affirmed his work.

"Well done. Xuzhou needs to hurry up. There will probably be a war in half a year at most. We don't have that much time. As for Yangzhou Road, Anqing and Jiangxi, and Jiangdong, we need to proceed steadily and gain a firm foothold. Don't expose your identity easily. Those who open shops can only serve as stations and cannot directly participate in collecting intelligence. Do you understand?"

Bao Yu immediately said, "We should keep the lines separate and try not to cross each other. I understand. Please rest assured, Marshal."

"That's good. Do it as soon as possible. Tell me if you need money."

"Yes."

By now, the financial system at the end of the Yuan Dynasty had collapsed, and all kinds of paper money had basically become waste paper. At this time, a few hundred taels of silver worth of spot precious metals were still very valuable. Five hundred taels of silver could buy several hundred war horses, which was no small sum, and was definitely more than enough to open a few stores.

Fortunately, Lu Jin has now occupied the iron mine in Lujiang, where gold and silver are also produced, so he should be able to make a lot of money in the future.

After dealing with the intelligence station and Zhang Yunxiu's pregnancy, Lu Jin made some preparations and led his men to the iron factory on the outskirts of Feixi early the next morning. The output here was the key to the upcoming war. Whether the Shengwu Army could be armed quickly depended on the Feixi iron factory.

Leaving aside firearms, as long as the armor rate of the Shengwu Army can be raised and the weapons can be updated, even without muskets and cannons, Lu Jin has the confidence to withstand the suppression of the Yuan court next year.

Especially the armor coverage rate, how to quickly make armor is really a technical job.

(End of this chapter)