Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 555 The Great Teacher
For Lin Dao, saving Xiang Ling was just a trivial matter that happened on his own.

What he's really busy with now is providing relief to disaster victims.

The Yellow River has been prone to flooding for thousands of years.

The Mother River is like a thorn in her side every year, causing thousands of people to be displaced each time.

Throughout history, any dynasty that achieved something significant invested in river management.

But the mother continued to elbow him relentlessly.

This year, the Yellow River in the Beizhili section once again experienced large-scale breaches and flooding.

The imperial court did make arrangements, allocating a sum of silver for disaster relief.

However, some time ago, there was a rebellion in Huai'an Prefecture.

In order to suppress the rebel Wei Xiaobao, a portion of the disaster relief funds was misappropriated and used for the military expenses of the Beijing garrison.

As for the remaining disaster relief funds, from the perspective of the emperor, who had never left the capital in his entire life, it was simply a matter of turning the disaster relief porridge meant for the victims from something that could be held upright with chopsticks into a thinner porridge.

He knew that both superiors and subordinates would be corrupt, so the disaster relief funds allocated were only enough for the victims to eat rice bran.

The only thing I didn't expect was that the officials of the Great Zhou were so greedy!

The relief funds began to disappear layer by layer after leaving the capital.

When they arrived at the local level, government offices at all levels colluded with large grain merchants to buy old rice bran at the price of buying new rice that year.

What ultimately reached the disaster victims were two bowls of plain porridge each day, enough to reflect their faces.

The kind where you can barely find a few grains of rice in a whole bowl.

This has been the case for thousands of years, and everyone from top to bottom has long been accustomed to it.

After all, as long as the disaster victims don't starve to death, they won't cause trouble.

But this time it was different, because Lin Dao appeared.

"Diarrhea, vomiting."

"Severely dehydrated."

Wearing a mask, Lin Dao examines the patient in front of him and says, "It's cholera."

Everyone around looked terrified, and the patient's family members knelt down and begged the immortal to save their lives.

"Don't make a sound, it can be saved."

Upon hearing this, the surroundings immediately fell silent.

They had all witnessed Master Lin's divine skills firsthand, and they truly trusted him.

Lin Dao knew that cholera in ancient times was actually acute gastroenteritis.

Cholera in modern medicine, however, originates from Vibrio cholerae in India.

Lin Dao took out the medication for treating acute gastroenteritis and instructed his recruited assistants to administer it.

"next."

The next patient was brought in immediately.

"Alternating chills and fever, rambling incoherently."

"This is ghost malaria."

The so-called "ghost malaria" is malaria.

"Let me check the symptoms."

He reached out a gloved hand to gently lift the patient's chin and asked, "Have you been having nightmares?"

"Yes~" The sickly patient, his slightly cloudy eyes filled with a desperate longing for life, pleaded, "May the immortals save me~"

"Ah."

"Mefloquine orally, artemether orally."

Lin Dao took out the medicine and handed it to the patient's family. "If the symptoms do not improve, then come back to me. At that time, we will have to be more careful and administer artesunate injections."

The core drugs for treating malaria are artemisinin-based drugs.

This substance could actually be extracted in ancient times.

However, since Lin Dao was able to purchase various medicines from the modern world—of course, with the help of friends who could help with almost anything—he was able to do so.

For Lin Dao, there's no need for any refining process.

Just buy it directly.

"I've emphasized this to you repeatedly before!"

Seeing a long line of patients with symptoms similar to malaria waiting in line, Lin Dao shouted, "We must drive away the mosquitoes! Drive away the mosquitoes!"

"The environment after a flood can lead to a large proliferation of mosquitoes, which are the vectors for diseases such as malaria."

"If you get bitten by a mosquito, you may get infected."

"We must get rid of the mosquitoes."

Immediately, some disaster victims reported to "Immortal Master~"

"It's not that we're lazy and unwilling to do anything, it's just that there are too many mosquitoes and we can't get rid of them all."

"Hmm~"

Lin Dao habitually touched his chin, but suddenly remembered that he had been seeing a doctor earlier, so he hurriedly put on a new pair of gloves.

Although he is physically strong and not afraid of these things, he still does it out of habit.

"Here's what we'll do," Lin Dao instructed. "After you've finished your treatment, I'll prescribe some TTT, DDD, and DDT for you."

"These are all insecticides; just spray them where there are many mosquitoes."

"I'll get you some more mosquito coils; just light them when you go to sleep."

He waved his hand, "Next."

This is a new symptom: maceration of the hands and feet.

The name may be unfamiliar, but the common name for this ailment is known to everyone: trench leg.

This is a non-freezing cold injury caused by prolonged exposure to cold and damp environments.

To put it simply, it's because it's been soaked in dirty water for a long time.

"This disease is very troublesome."

Lin Dao's words dimmed the light in the patient's eyes.

Fortunately, he continued, "There are still some medications available. I'll prescribe some oral anticoagulants and vasodilators for you."

"Why would you want to soak in dirty water when everything is fine?"

So-called dirty water is typically sewage, as well as water in which the corpses of various animals and even humans are soaking.

The sheer number and variety of bacteria and microorganisms in this water are enough to make one's scalp crawl.

If you have any wounds or injuries~
I can't even imagine it~
"Master," the patient sobbed, tears streaming down his face, "it's not that I wanted to soak in dirty water, it's just that the people in the government forced me, we had no choice."

"The government?" Lin Dao asked, puzzled. "Why would the government force you to get involved?"

“Immortal, you may not know this,” someone explained from the side, “but there are furniture, jewelry, grain sacks, jars and the like in the water.” “The officials forced us to go into the water to feel and pick them up.”

Lin Dao suddenly realized.

The government offices of this era were truly capable of committing such heinous acts.

For those people, it's not like they're the ones going into the water; finding something is a bonus, and nobody cares about the lives of the disaster victims.

"Dog thief!"

Lin Dao spat, "He deserves to die!"

"Yes, they should be killed!" The group of disaster victims were filled with righteous indignation, cheering and shouting.

They lost their homes and their loved ones.

The disaster victims, reduced to a state of being neither human nor ghost, were further exploited and humiliated by the government.

He had been holding back his anger for a long time.

Lin Dao quickly calmed everyone down and did not take the opportunity to lead them to kill officials and rebel.

It's not that he's changed his mind, but rather that the time isn't right yet.

The people of the Central Plains are quite patient.

The best time will be when they are completely cornered.

For Lin Dao, doing this kind of thing was already second nature.

He continued to treat patients.

During the treatment process, we encountered a variety of symptoms.

Including but not limited to respiratory infectious diseases such as influenza and tuberculosis.

Intestinal infectious diseases such as bacterial dysentery, contact-borne infectious diseases such as acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, and vector-borne infectious diseases.

As the old saying goes, a major disaster is followed by a major epidemic; this is something that has been experienced with countless lives lost.

"Team One, clean up the trash."

"Second team, spray insecticide."

"Team Three, dig dry toilets."

"Fourth team, set up the tents."

"Fifth team, maintain order!"

"Women's team, boil water and set up the pot, get ready to eat!"

The experienced and well-stocked forest road, based on a wealth of resources, uses the story of a divine healer saving lives as a guiding principle.

They organized different action teams in a manner similar to that of a militia.

Hundreds and thousands of disaster victims were working in an orderly manner under his organization.

This level of organizational ability would be equivalent to that of a general commanding troops in the military.

The reason why the disaster victims were willing to follow Lin Dao's arrangements was partly because Lin Dao treated their illnesses regardless of cost.

In the midst of a major disaster and epidemic, what kind of doctors would come to such a place to treat the victims?

Undeniably, there were indeed miraculous doctors like Sun Simiao who were dedicated to serving the people, but their numbers were far too small.

For the vast majority of doctors, it's essentially a profession to earn money.

There's no need to idolize them.

Just like those investigations into students' family backgrounds, the wealthy and powerful are fawned over, while children from ordinary families are treated as objects of humiliation and corporal punishment by so-called teachers.

They're all just professions for making money.

Lin Daolai treated the disaster victims without charging any consultation fees or even medicine fees!

This act of saving someone's life is truly remarkable in this day and age.

It doesn't seem like it... Never mind, let's not talk about it.

In addition, Lin Dao performed a miracle in front of everyone, conjuring up food out of thin air and distributing it to the disaster victims.

Such a miracle, in this era, is equivalent to the power of a nuclear bomb.

Unsurprisingly, Lin Dao once again brought a large amount of food from the modern world.

Although it wasn't the first time they'd seen him, the disaster victims still bowed deeply to him, calling him a sage who had saved the world and delivered all living beings.
Lin Dao simply waved his hand.

"Have a meal!"

No magic is more important than filling your stomach.

The people of the Central Plains are simple and honest. If you can fill my stomach, I will risk my life for you.

The things Lin Dao brought mainly consisted of rice.

They also brought dehydrated vegetables and seasoning packets ordered from an instant noodle factory.

He bought enough; with orders totaling tens of thousands of bags, he should be able to make enough meat for a whole cow.

Vegetables and seasoning packets are used to make soup.

The water purified by the water purifier is boiled and bubbling, and the aroma of the seasoning packet and vegetables is so enticing that it makes your mouth water.

The selected able-bodied men, armed with sticks, shouted orders to maintain order.

The disaster victims were very cooperative and lined up to receive the aid.

You can't refuse to cooperate; at the beginning, it was all a scramble for the goods.

The result was that he was subjected to corporal punishment.

Those who resisted were not only beaten up, but also kicked out completely, with no chance to receive food again. They could only go to the porridge kitchen set up by the government office, where the porridge was so clean that their faces could be reflected.

Several miles away at the porridge kitchen, these people stared at the thin porridge in the broken earthenware bowls.

Thinking back to the full meals they had before, most people felt regret, regretting not following the rules.

However, some people were jealous and resentful, and complained to the yamen runners who were guarding the soup kitchen.

"Immortal?"

"Talisman water?"

"Distributing grain?!"

Upon hearing these descriptions, the head constable of the local government broke out in a cold sweat.

Heaven have mercy, he was just a lowly constable in the imperial system.

Every day, on this desolate riverbank, they earn a meager amount of money for drinking by skimming off a tiny bit of old rice bran and wheat bran.

At most, they would just call on some disaster victims to salvage supplies from the water.

How did I end up in such a life-threatening situation!
The first thought that crossed the mind of the hunter was to offer water and food to the immortal.

Great and wise teacher!

(End of this chapter)