Chronicles of the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 200, page 199: Artemisia annua Medical Book
After the summer heat completely subsided, a chill gradually settled over Lanchi Palace.

The magnificent sight of lotus leaves swaying in the pond, which once stretched to the sky, now appears increasingly desolate.

Qin Shi didn't actually care.

After all, she was busy every day, handling official business, managing her own plans, and providing the King with ample emotional support and physical companionship...

Taking a walk every day and doing a round of Baduanjin exercises is already a way to maintain good health.

Moreover, her palace was located on Penglai Island in the middle of Lan Pond. Although there was water feature, it was not damp because of the distance.

However, such an environment was extremely unfavorable for Yiming, who often thought of the Queen.

Therefore, she urged the renovation of Ganquan Palace every day, and even asked Qin Shi if he wanted to move back to the Nangong Palace where he had been temporarily staying...

For Qin Shi, it didn't matter where she moved to.

As queen, she only needed to step onto and off the carriage.

But the servants were busy for many days and nights before they could get everything ready.

"take it easy."

She comforted Yiming, saying, "There's not much time left until the New Year. Let's move them after the renovation of Ganquan Palace is completed."

Under royal authority, the renovation of Ganquan Palace actually proceeded very quickly.

The problem was that the fire wall she proposed had to be both aesthetically pleasing and effective at providing warmth, so the craftsmen had to find another side hall and try it out several times before finally coming here.

The dedicated glass workshop has not yet been built and is currently occupying part of the blast furnace in the ironworks, so its production efficiency is not high.

However, in an era when insulation materials were not yet up to par, Qin Shi did not intend to create large floor-to-ceiling windows; glass could not even be made that big yet.

All it takes is inlaying fragments of colored glass, which combines light transmission and aesthetics.

Only with such a tight schedule could the Shaofu (a government agency) promise to complete the project by mid-September.

Now, less than a month has passed.

To appease Yi Ming, Qin Shi quickly changed the subject:

"Do you have any ideas about the use of Artemisia annua to treat malaria that I mentioned before?"

When it came to his profession, Yi Ming immediately became cautious: "The Queen mentioned 'Artemisia annua,' but this servant is not sure which one it refers to."

"Therefore, following the Queen's instructions—'take a handful of artemisia, soak it in two liters of water, squeeze out the juice, and drink it all'—we tried them one by one to confirm the pulse."

This was recorded by Qin Shi from Ge Hong's "Elbow-Side Emergency Prescriptions" from the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and it is now most appropriate to hand it over to Yiming.

The only pity is that because malaria is so contagious and is now considered a plague, she did not dare to search for patients to try the drug. She only tested the drug's effectiveness one by one, which is why the progress was a bit slow.

Qin Shi frowned: "Could this kind of testing damage the body?"

Yi Ming shook his head, his expression gentle: "Your Majesty, rest assured, my clan has a medical book lineage. Although I do not know its origin, it is very useful and is called 'Fifty-Two Prescriptions'."

"Among them are records of artemisia annua being used to treat female moles, which shows that it is a very safe medicinal material."

The so-called "female mole" is what we now call hemorrhoids. As for the "Fifty-Two Prescriptions," it is said that this book was completed during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, but even during the Qin Dynasty, the specific date and author were unknown.

As a descendant of a family of doctors, it is normal for Yiming to have such a collection of books.

Qin Shi patted her shoulder tenderly:

“You are still so young… Training doctors is not easy these days. If there is any danger, you can take my warrant and bring out those death row inmates who are not pardoned to test you.”

Yi Ming's eyes softened even more: "I know that the Queen cares for us."

Qin Shi thought for a moment and realized that there were actually many other diseases recorded in the "Elbow-Side Emergency Prescriptions", such as smallpox. However, these patients were brought from India via Vietnam by captives during the Eastern Han Dynasty, and there was no evidence to prove it now.

Therefore, it was ranked slightly lower on her to-do list.

but……

She glanced at the message from the eunuch: "Princess Xinming of Qi Ba Zi has retched her cough again?"

Since she became queen, Princess Xinming had only visited her once, and since then she had been bedridden ever since.

Because her cough persisted, no one in the palace dared to let her see them easily, lest she infect them.

But the little girl is only 11 years old. She is thin and pale, with a pair of phoenix eyes that are full of water. She looks even more pitiful when she coughs.

She looks exactly like Daiyu.

Even if Qin Shi didn't have the mindset of being a mother, she couldn't help but frown when she saw that the other party was ill every day.

That's it.

She thought for a moment: "Bring my box over, then go and summon Black Eyes."

The box she was referring to was the box she used to store her electronic products.

Qin Shi only opened his phone when he needed to gather essential items, as it contained little data and drained the battery quickly.

However, e-readers do consume exceptionally little power and can download a lot of documents, so they were frequently used for searching in Qin Shi Huang's games.

Now she looked at the numerous directories in the "Medicine" folder above—

Among them, the "Huangdi Neijing" is still being compiled. It has been going on for one or two hundred years and will probably take another one or two hundred years to be completed.

Together with the "Nan Jing" (Classic of Difficult Issues), it was probably not completed until the Han Dynasty.

Since we don't know the progress of the compilation during the Qin Dynasty, we'll skip that for now.

Also included are three books: Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica, Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases, and Compendium of Materia Medica, with black and white illustrations.

The other two books are "Clinical Traditional Chinese Medicine Internal Medicine" and "The Barefoot Doctor's Handbook" (available online in TXT format).

This book, along with "Military and Civilian Dual-Use Talents," were both books that Qin Shi planned to read roughly after mastering seal script.

But now, she temporarily set aside the last three volumes and started only with the "Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica." Then, looking at Hei Mu standing respectfully below the steps, she sighed slightly.

If only we had 10 or 8 more people like this, who are illiterate yet have an uncanny memory for shapes!
Life at Lanchi Palace was something Hei Mu had always dreamed of.

All you have to do each day is complete a set amount of work at set times, and you get all sorts of delicious food. Even when you're steaming your eyes, wandering around, or relaxing, someone is urging you on.

He felt so privileged that he considered himself a VIP, which made him even more diligent in his work.

He feared that the Queen would be disappointed.

Hearing Qin Shi sigh softly, a childlike, innocent expectation appeared on his face, which was not young at all:

"Your Majesty! I have memorized everything that Your Majesty asked me to remember!"

The servant presented a stack of paper made of bark.

He was blind and illiterate, and when he wrote with a charcoal pencil, he had no structure and simply copied the direction from his memory.

Therefore, bamboo slips could not be used.

Fortunately, although the book-making department had not yet produced high-quality Xuan paper, they could produce a lot of this ordinary paper made from bark.

What Qin Shi had instructed him to memorize was how to make salt.

Qin Shi received it, glanced at it, and then nodded.

If she were to personally copy these things from the e-book one by one:

Firstly, it wastes electricity.

Secondly, it would interfere with a lot of her work. But it's different with Hei Mu; he only needs to glance at each page to memorize it all.

After all, he was a humanoid printer that had personally drawn a world map, so Qin Shi had high hopes for him and was now rewarding him generously:
"A box of gold coins and a honey-roasted suckling pig."

The former is of little significance to Hei Mu, but roast suckling pig—

His face immediately lit up with joy!

Then, Qin Shi handed him the e-reader: "How long will it take to memorize these two volumes from memory?"

The reason it is referred to as the first two volumes is because Qin Shigang only discovered upon opening them that the "Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica" contains more than 10,000 characters, and the "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" and "Synopsis of Prescriptions of the Golden Chamber" together contain more than 80,000 characters.

And so, it has just reached 100,000 words.

For illiterate people, it takes quite some time.

And that massive volume of "Compendium of Materia Medica" takes up so much memory—it's about 1.9 million words long. If you include that, Black Eyes probably won't be able to do anything else for the next five years.

Moreover, the first two books were basically completed in the Han Dynasty, while the Compendium of Materia Medica was completed in the Ming Dynasty, so there was no such urgency.

Black Eyes had already briefly flipped through two pages to determine the size and shapes, and then said, "I can memorize ten pages a day. If I write by candlelight at night, I might be able to write fifteen pages."

With such talent, how could Qin Shi bear to let the other party waste their eyes by holding a candle?

Therefore, without hesitation, he said, "Ten pages are enough."

Black Eyes never slacks off; saying it's ten pages would probably take from morning till night, and she's quite satisfied.

He nodded and said, "Then you should write down the first volume first."

Then the woman laid out paper and ground ink again, placing the previous stack of paper on the desk.

During the Qin Dynasty, it was like copying a musical score; they would refer to the text on it while writing it down in seal script.

It's regrettable that popularizing simplified characters nowadays would take a lot of effort, and the content she copied contains many shameful elements.

Now I have no choice but to do this hard work myself.

Fortunately, my seal script is becoming more and more neat.

She found joy amidst her hardship and began to ponder who would be in charge of the salt-making process.

Previously, it was said that there was no rush, but with the cooperation of merchants, if we can bring sugar and tea to the Western Regions next year, I wonder how many warhorses and supplies we can exchange for.

Therefore, Qin Shi still brought up this matter.

The salt-making method was not complicated; she only needed to make a simple copy before she could arrange for people to do it.

Just then, a eunuch came to report—

"The late Grand Commandant Yan's son, Yan Cong, requests an audience."

Qin Shi immediately found a candidate!
Previously, she had arranged for Yan Cong to resolve the family feud of the criminal [petition], as well as the Wei Wu soldiers involved.

What should have been a matter of two or three days has been delayed for some reason, as Yangling is not far from Xianyang.

She still remembers the other person's unyielding and righteous attitude when he said in the carriage, "The Qin laws cannot be violated."

With such character, wouldn't it be perfect for her to find someone who neither mistreats the salt workers nor embezzles their money?
As for that criminal [status] – although the other party was suspected of assassination, it could also be said that he was deceived by evil people.

He also had a family feud, and he was willing to die to avenge it.

That means he has good character.

I wonder what his current state of being under punishment is. If he proves useful, I'll arrange for him to go on a trip to the Western Regions next year. His martial prowess, honed by the Wei infantry, should be of great use.

……

Meanwhile, at Zhangtai Palace, the Imperial Censor Wang Xueyuan also traveled a long distance from Dongjun to report back.

At the same time, it also brought forth the culprit behind the "meteorite inscription".

"Your Majesty! Your subject, Wang Xueyuan, has not failed Your Majesty's trust!"

At the foot of the jade steps of Zhangtai Palace, the Imperial Censor Wang Xueyuan bowed deeply.

His face no longer possessed the demeanor and spirit he once had when he was one of the three highest officials in Xianyang; instead, it was dark and shiny, showing signs of weathering.

Ji Heng had long learned of his actions from the memorial submitted by the governor of Dongjun, and now he had been waiting for him to meet the emperor for quite some time.

Although Wang Xueyuan looked weathered, when she looked up to report, she was full of energy and her eyes were bright, clearly indicating that she had gained a lot from this trip.

Now, as Ji Heng listened to his detailed explanation, his eyebrows lifted, clearly showing great satisfaction.

If Wang Xueyuan was initially depressed and did nothing more than follow the established procedures, then...

But after arriving in Dongjun, he unexpectedly met Wuyou and Madam Ba, and with some clues, the rest of the matter fell into place.

"I dispatched troops to track them down, but found their trail in Yangling—"

He was able to hold one of the three highest positions before, so he was certainly not someone who held a position without doing any work.

Although the mountain people mostly said that the other party was a mountain demon, with a hideous and grotesque appearance, and described it as a person howling and running away, covered in blisters...

This immediately reminded Wang Xueyuan of the blazing firelight of a falling meteorite.

It should be noted that if someone could carve words on a meteorite before the local soldiers could quickly go to investigate, the person who carved the words would surely be burned by the raging fire and scorched by the high temperature.

The reason why no one could be found within a five-mile radius was twofold: firstly, no one had burns, and secondly...

Thinking of this, Wang Xueyuan couldn't help but feel excited.

"I never imagined that the person who carved the inscription was actually a Wei Wu soldier who had been lost for many years!"

The legendary Wei Wu Zu were the royal tutors of the Wei Kingdom and were once the most powerful military force in the Wei Kingdom.

The mighty Qin army never fared well against their opponents, and individual soldiers could travel a hundred miles a day, appearing and disappearing unpredictably, making them incredibly powerful.

After carving the inscription, the other party fled quickly, traveling through the mountains and forests to other places. In just one or two hours, they had already traveled far away from several post stations.

With the prefect sealing off an area of ​​ten miles, how could they possibly find the culprit?
But by a twist of fate, Wang Xueyuan, who had only intended to befriend the merchants in hopes of future use, unexpectedly gained something from their relationship at that very moment.

In Yangling, the arrest wasn't initially so swift, but it was unclear why the other party had a feud with their neighbor.

The skilled and strong man roared and smashed things in his own home before rushing into the other party's house!
Even though the other party was covered in blisters and had not yet received treatment, and was already on the verge of death, he still had an extraordinary burst of power and almost killed the strong man again!

Just then, Yan Xiaolang, who was also incredibly skilled in martial arts, appeared and assisted in capturing the man.

Now, the other party has been urgently treated with herbal medicine by Wang Xueyuan's order, and is barely clinging to life. They have made their way slowly from Yangling to Xianyang Palace.

Originally, Yan Xiaolang should have reported back to him as well, but the other party was stubborn and inflexible.

It was said that this matter was entrusted by the Queen, and it was also related to the crime of the brave warrior who fought in the battle...

Therefore, he insisted on going to Lanchi first.

Now, Wang Xueyuan can only enjoy the limelight.

Ji Heng raised his eyebrows and sighed, "No wonder the Queen once said that the youngest son of the Yan army was upright and unyielding, and should become a gentleman of our Qin state, and will surely be given an important position in the future..."

"Now it seems that it is true."

Wang Xueyuan, waiting in the audience for the king's reward: ...

Why doesn't Your Majesty praise me? Perhaps I haven't personally told Your Majesty about the hardships of the Destiny Stone Tablet!
How did it turn out that young man Yan got to reap the rewards?!
(End of this chapter)