Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 38 How to implement it
Yang Chen sometimes feels very strange.

What made Empress Ma and Zhu Yuanzhang so confident in themselves that they all believed they must know the exact location of the smallpox outbreak?

It took him a long time to explain that the Ming Dynasty was six hundred years away from later generations.

A lot of things have changed during this time.

Except for some famous ancient cities, such as Xi'an, Xianyang, Jinling, Nanjing, etc., the rest of the places have undergone earth-shaking changes.

It's already amazing that I can remember in which direction the smallpox broke out.

Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted Yang Chen's explanation.

At this moment, he only felt upset and his mind was replaced by a ball of black lines.

It was supposed to be a good day, but at first, she thought her son was on the side of a corrupt official.

Want to take the initiative to strive for salary increase for corrupt officials.

Then he quarreled with his son.

This thing is the smallest thing today.

He originally thought that his wife came to him to have a good talk about the relationship between them.

As a result, he was taught a lesson as soon as they met. The key point was that he didn't dare to talk back and could only take the scolding.

The process first involved finding out that his son was forced to death by him, and then a strange man lived in the harem for an entire night.

Then when they met, Queen Ma was present, and he couldn't speak loudly to Yang Chen.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt as if he was bound at this moment.

When he turned around, he found that the person who had bound him was Queen Ma, and he could not do anything.

Now, he knows that his grandson might get into trouble in the future, and it may be caused by smallpox, but he can do nothing about it.

This was the day when Zhu Yuanzhang felt most helpless. As an emperor, he had never felt this way before, and it made Zhu Yuanzhang exhausted.

"Since you don't know where the smallpox outbreak occurred, my sister just said that you have a way to cure smallpox. What is it?"

When he got the chance to speak again, Yang Chen picked out the most important parts and started talking.

"Your Majesty, I have to correct you first. My method is not to cure smallpox, but to prevent it."

As a former commander-in-chief of the rebel army, Zhu Yuanzhang knew best the harm of smallpox.

A war in which more than one-fifth of the casualties are caused by casualties can be called a heavy loss.

If handled improperly, not only will your team lose morale, it is also likely to cause a disaster.

Generally speaking, after a war, all corpses must be disposed of within a short period of time.

Their method of dealing with it is very simple. Either dig a hole and bury it, or burn it all.

Most people choose the latter because it is convenient and simple.

Except for a few people who were lucky enough to have intact bodies, the bodies of most people were just broken limbs.

It is impossible to find a familiar person among thousands of corpses and bury him intact.

Once smallpox breaks out and spreads uncontrollably, the only way to eliminate it is through time.

As the saying goes, a long epidemic will not last more than three years. If you are lucky, it will disappear in a year. If you are unlucky, it will take two or even three years.

Having learned the lesson from explaining to Queen Ma and others just now, Yang Chen found it much easier to explain cowpox this time.

Most of the words used are vivid vernacular words.

After hearing about the cowpox vaccine cultivation, a look of doubt gradually appeared on Zhu Yuanzhang's face.

After Yang Chen's explanation, he naturally understood the principle of cowpox preventing smallpox.

"Sister, do you think what this boy said is true or false?"

Many times, when Zhu Yuanzhang was undecided about certain things, he would ask Queen Ma for her opinion in a roundabout way.

That's it for now.

Empress Ma, who had experienced this once before, was sitting on the Diaoyutai. She answered without hesitation:

"This matter does have a root cause that can be traced back to the Song Dynasty, when a prime minister did this to save his son from disaster.

I think what Yang Chen said is true."

After getting the answer from his wife, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that this was almost certain.

But there was also a look of difficulty on his face.

He opened his mouth slightly and said with some hesitation:

"Sister, we also agree with this method, but as Yang Chen said, the symptoms of being infected with cowpox are similar to those of being infected with smallpox.

Millions of the people in our Ming Dynasty are illiterate farmers, and they are extremely afraid of smallpox.

If we tell them that being infected with cowpox will protect them from smallpox, what if someone discovers that the symptoms of cowpox and smallpox are similar?

In the end, won't there be rumors that we, the Ming Dynasty, let them be infected with smallpox in order to harm them?"

In fact, Empress Ma had also thought about what Zhu Yuanzhang said.

However, after recovering from the vaccination against cowpox, one can indeed avoid being harmed by smallpox.

But being sick is definitely being sick, and that cannot be changed.

Among the people in the Ming Dynasty, there were very few educated people, and the majority were illiterate people who farmed the land.

These people have no knowledge at all, to put it bluntly, they are stupid.

People are easily agitated by the slightest sign of trouble and easily follow the crowd.

Yang Chen also said that cowpox can prevent smallpox, but this thing is not 100% safe.

If you are unlucky, people will still die.

Once someone dies, and someone deliberately does something bad, the people's trust in the court will instantly disappear, and it is not impossible for an uprising to break out.

Empress Ma agreed with Zhu Yuanzhang's opinion and directly pointed out the troublesome aspects of the matter.

“Zhongba is right, this cowpox treatment method is something that needs to be weighed against the pros and cons before it can be approved.

But if arrangements are not made in time, and smallpox breaks out in the future, how can we distinguish between cowpox patients and smallpox patients?
Yang Chen, you later discovered that cowpox could defeat smallpox, so how did you handle it at the beginning to prevent the people from panicking? "

As a virtuous queen, Empress Ma deserves this title not because she only has a heart that cares about the people.

Or because she was able to help her husband during certain difficult times.

When Zhu Yuanzhang learned about the smallpox, Empress Ma could sense that he really wanted to resolve it.

But this guy was too proud to ask Yang Chen.

Therefore, she had to act as the middleman.

As long as you can get the other party to tell you the solution in the end, smallpox is not an unsolvable problem.

Seeing that his wife understood his difficulties, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly felt tender in his heart.

"It turns out that my sister understands me. I know that only my sister can take care of me in this world!"

Zhu Yuanzhang only said this in his heart, but he didn't dare to reveal a word.

"My Queen, this is a little difficult to explain.

Let me put it this way, the methods used in later generations are completely different from what you think.

The spread of the news alone is enough to kill the Ming Dynasty in seconds. I wonder if the Queen still remembers the clairvoyance and super hearing that I mentioned.

No matter what happens in the future, it only takes a little bit of effort to spread the news thousands of miles away in advance.

Therefore, with the help of technology, people also became enlightened and literate, and medical techniques became more advanced.

People believed the words of the court and doctors, and after realizing the benefits of vaccines and the harms of the disease, most people would obediently seek treatment.

There is little opportunity to use force to enforce it.”

(End of this chapter)