Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 570 Having seen Hua Tuo, the sage who dissected intestines

The next day, Hou Anyuan and his companions walked out of the temporary dormitory, stretched, and then participated in the formation training.

After finishing his morning exercise, Hou Anyuan saw Xiao Sun clutching his stomach and asked curiously, "What's wrong with you? Did you overeat yesterday?"

Xiao Sun twitched his lips slightly: "I guess I drank a lot of cold water after eating the meat. I'm going to the outhouse later."

"Hurry up, don't be late for class."

Hou Anyuan then put the matter out of his mind.

By the morning of the third day, Xiao Sun was becoming increasingly unwell. He was curled up in bed like a shrimp and was unable to get up.

Hou Anyuan then became anxious and quickly reported the matter to the officers of the garrison.

Fu Gongyuan naturally took this very seriously. It wasn't that he thought children were the flowers of the motherland and needed extra care. Rather, it was because military camps, with their large populations, were most vulnerable to epidemics.

If one dies and an entire battalion is wiped out, there will be nowhere to cry.

Fu Gongyuan led the military doctor to the large communal sleeping area in the barracks. He saw Xiao Sun, who was covered in sweat and looked as pale as paper, and frowned.

This is not a rare or difficult disease; on the contrary, this symptom is all too common.

Sure enough, the military doctor lifted up Xiao Sun's clothes, pressed down a few times, asked a few questions, and then nodded in conclusion.

"It's an appendicitis, and the most severe kind."

At this point, the military doctor shook his head repeatedly.

These days, acute appendicitis is almost always fatal.

"My lord!" Upon seeing this, Hou Anyuan immediately knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly, "Please save my brother! He was the top scorer in the end-of-month exam; he can't just die like this!"

Even though he was anxious, Hou Anyuan quickly found his biggest bargaining chip.

Given the Loyal Army's tradition of emphasizing education, surely the military doctors would have some considerations!
"I'll prepare a rhubarb and peony decoction for you first. You can decoct it yourself, boiling three bowls of water down to one bowl, and then have him drink it." The military doctor pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "As for what to do afterward... let me think about it."

This is like trying to revive a dead horse by desperate measures.

"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!"

Hou Anyuan kowtowed repeatedly.

At this moment, Shi Wang also heard the news and rushed in. Upon seeing the scene, he immediately tidied his hair and then cupped his hands to ask, "Sir, may I ask what illness Xiao Sun suffers from?"

The military doctor shook his head and said, "Intestinal abscess."

As the son of a wealthy merchant, Shi Wang was knowledgeable and experienced, and immediately understood the thorny nature of the matter.

But then his eyes lit up and he immediately thought of something: "Sir, the officials from the medical school are in Haizhou..."

The military doctor suddenly slapped his forehead: "I almost forgot!"

With that, the military doctor pulled Fu Gongyuan away with great strides.

Soon, the military envoy rushed out with a document jointly signed and stamped by several military doctors and the general in the garrison, and found the medical school professor who was conducting free medical consultations north of Qushan County.

Medical schools are not only about treating patients, but more importantly, about training new doctors. Therefore, documents have been sent to various places, instructing people to seek help from the nearest medical school faculty and students if they have any difficult or complicated cases.

To put it bluntly, even if the treatment is ineffective, we can still learn something from it, right?
Before afternoon, two professors, accompanied by seven apprentices and escorted by ten knights, arrived at the garrison.

Fu Gongyuan dared not be negligent and personally came to the camp gate to greet him.

Hou Anyuan was anxious and also came to the gate to wait. However, when he bowed from afar, he suddenly realized that one of the two professors leading the group was actually a young woman.

Moreover, judging from her position, this young woman's status was actually quite high.

Xu Erya and Yang Tan happened to be there at the same time. After exchanging a few pleasantries with Fu Gongyuan, Yang Tan took the lead and said, "We can talk about this later. Let's go see the patient first."

"That's right, that's right." Fu Gongyuan didn't dare to be negligent and quickly led the way.

The group arrived at a clean tent. By then, Xiao Sun had been moved there and was curled up on a door panel, running a high fever and somewhat delirious.

Several apprentices put the boxes they were carrying on the ground, then went straight forward and hurriedly tore off Xiao Sun's clothes, and held down his hands and feet.

While directing his soldiers to set up the tables, Yang Tan personally arranged the writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.

Xu Erya put on a white silk mask and washed her hands with hot water before stepping forward to carefully examine Xiao Sun's body.

A moment later, Xu Erya turned around: "What's his name? Where are his family members?"

Hou Anyuan immediately squeezed in and said, "His surname is Sun, but I don't know his given name. I only vaguely remember that his family called him 'Xiao,' so we all just call him Xiao Sun. He has no family left; he lost them when he was seven or eight years old and has been begging on the streets ever since. I, Hou Anyuan, am his elder brother."

Xu Erya was slightly taken aback, then suppressed her emotions: "Then I'll just tell you directly, something is rotting inside his stomach. There's no other way in this situation. Neither medicine nor acupuncture will work. The only solution is to operate and cut out the rotten stuff!"

Hou Anyuan shuddered.

If you cut open someone's stomach and take things out of it, how can they possibly survive?
Xu Erya seemed to sense Hou Anyuan's fear and made her words even clearer: "It's either death or you die now. You decide whether you want to take a gamble or not."

Hou Anyuan hesitated for a moment before asking, "How confident are you, Lady?"

Xu Erya shook her head: "There's a 10% chance of the surgery succeeding, and a 10% chance that he'll survive after the wound is stitched up. All together, it's only a 1% chance."

One point, or one percent. Hou Anyuan trembled violently, opening his mouth three or four times, but ultimately dared not make the decision.

"Big brother..." Just then, a faint voice came from behind, and it was Xiao Sun who opened his eyes: "...Let me give it my all..."

Hou Anyuan could only nod, then kowtowed to Xu Erya again: "Lady, I... I entrust my brother's life to you!"

Xu Erya finally nodded slowly: "Don't worry, I've dug up the corpses of thirty-five Jin traitors in Lianghuai, and I can find where their intestines are."

As she spoke, Xu Erya waved her hand, instructing the students to boil water, prepare sleeping potion, and brew strong liquor. At the same time, she waved for all the onlookers to leave the tent.

Hou Anyuan was also chased away. He saw the sunlit side of the tent being opened, and then doctors were constantly coming and going.

Xu Erya put on a hat to cover all her hair and whispered to Xiao Sun, "Don't be afraid, you'll be fine after a good night's sleep."

As he spoke, the medical student mixed the strong liquor with the anesthetic and poured it into Xiao Sun's mouth.

Soon, Xiao Sun fell into a coma.

"Mr. Yang, are you ready?" Xu Erya took the sterilized knife handed to her by the student and turned to ask.

Yang Tan nodded in agreement, and the documents in front of him were already laid out.

"Okay, let's begin..."

Hou Anyuan watched from a few steps away, his heart pounding. His fingers unconsciously clenched, and soon he had torn a large hole in the hem of his clothes.

At this distance, you can't really see or hear anything. All you see are medical students running back and forth, constantly taking out blood-stained cotton cloths and bandages to wash, and occasionally carrying strong liquor and boiling water into the tents.

Only the continuous whispers drifted out from the tent on the wind.

"...make an incision two and a half inches to the right and below the navel, with an opening of two inches..."

"...Stop the bleeding..."

"Use cotton cloth to stop the bleeding..."

"...open the wound..."

"...I saw redness and swelling..."

"Unlike the Jin traitor's belly, it's much more swollen..."

"I need to have it removed... Buddha, please protect me..."

"Using chicken gut sutures to suture the wound..."

"Quickly, bring me some strong liquor!"

It took all afternoon, until the sun was beginning to set, before Xu Erya was finally helped out by two medical students.

Hou Anyuan immediately stepped forward: "Lady, how is it?"

Xu Erya, exhausted like a warrior who had just survived a battle, shook her head and said, "I've done everything I could. Now come closer and take a look."

Just as Hou Anyuan was about to kneel down and kowtow again, he saw two medical students helping Xu Erya leave quickly.

He dared not delay and went to the tent, where only Yang Tan and his two students were taking care of the patient.

Yang Tan, still writing and drawing, held the documents. When Hou Anyuan entered, he nodded and said, "Young Hou, your brother's intestinal abscess has been removed, but whether he can survive depends on whether his fever can break in the next two days."

"Divine Doctor, please accept my bow!"

"Alright, alright, get up before we talk." Yang Tan waved his hand and said, "No need to thank us, you should thank Zhang Guoan, Li Er, Sun Peng, He Shisan, Zhang Bai..."

Hou Anyuan was taken aback, then looked at the two medical students: "Are these people... these two officials?"

Yang Tan waved his hand again: "They are patients with intestinal abscesses who underwent surgery but could not be saved."

Hou Anyuan's face turned pale instantly: "Dead...five dead?"

Yang Tan shook his head, a hint of sadness in his expression: "No, not five, but seven. He Shisan's parents had him late in life, and after He Shisan died, they hanged themselves..."

Hou Anyuan was speechless.

Yang Tan put away the documents and patted Hou Anyuan on the shoulder: "If Xiao Sun dies this time too, I will tell you that his death was not meaningless. I will record everything that happened and correct the magic until the day we can truly cure intestinal abscesses."

The group stayed by Xiao Sun's side until the next day, when his fever finally broke. By the fifth day, his wounds had not become infected, and he regained consciousness, thus escaping death.

This day was the eighth day of the ninth month in the thirty-second year of the Shaoxing reign of the Song Dynasty.

Bathed in bright sunlight, Yang Tan finished repairing the document in his hand. After closing it, he looked at the medical notebook that contained the stories of seven lives, and suddenly tears streamed down his face.

Cheers erupted from all the medical school faculty and students. Even Xu Erya, who was usually stern, burst into laughter, leaving the garrison soldiers and children somewhat bewildered.

All I did was save a delinquent teenager.
Why are you so happy?
However, they were unaware of this.

The first detailed appendectomy in Chinese history was thus completed.

A new chapter has begun in medicine.

(End of this chapter)