Da Ming: Father, step aside, I'll be the prime minister!

Chapter 375 You've cultivated evil paths, kid? Gentlemen, it's time to get going!
Zhang Juzheng's face was somewhat stiff. He turned to look at Zhang Yunxiu beside him, his eyes carrying a questioning tone.

Didn't you say you weren't practicing any immortality techniques? But Li Shizhen's actions sound like he was practicing some kind of evil magic.

They dissect and dissect the human body, then study the limbs and flesh, and even dissect the brain to find out what's inside.

Is this kind of research, this kind of scholarship, really legitimate scholarship?
Even the thought of those images sent a chill down Zhang Juzheng's spine.

But Li Shizhen seemed completely oblivious, and continued speaking with great emotion.

"How nerves transmit internal energy, how the elements of yin and yang harmonize the breath and balance the internal system, and how blood vessels cause the qi and blood to surge and flow throughout the body—if these can all be explored and explained, then the miracle of the Duke of England coming back from the dead will no longer be just wishful thinking!"

It's no wonder Li Shizhen was so excited; since he began studying medicine, he had come into contact with the subject of "anatomy."

He read and read the Western book "On Human Beings" repeatedly.

He treats patients regularly and is willing to perform surgery, so he has a good understanding of various human anatomy.

But he was, after all, an ancient man, who had been taught traditional poetry, books, rites and changes since childhood. Even when he had to study human anatomy to treat patients, he only scratched the surface.

To many renowned physicians of the Ming Dynasty, dismembering a living person into eight pieces, like a butcher carving up an ox, cutting off all the internal organs for study, was essentially no different from being a demon.

From the very beginning of the clinic's establishment, a special anatomy room was set up for students and doctors to study and research.

However, Zhang Yunxiu had too many things to do, and after giving Li Shizhen and the others a brief reminder at the beginning, he didn't pay attention to this matter again.

It wasn't until Zhang Rong fell ill that Zhang Yunxiu suddenly realized that while the clinic's medical skills had indeed advanced by leaps and bounds, its expertise in human anatomy had stagnated.

Fortunately, the treatment of Zhang Rong became an opportunity, through which Zhang Yunxiu intended to get the doctors in the clinic to break free from the shackles of traditional ideas.

Utilizing experience in dissecting the human body allows for a deeper understanding of its structure, which is beneficial not only in surgery but also in routine diagnosis.

Li Shizhen was naturally the first to try this approach. After participating in Zhang Rong's surgery, he became completely absorbed in the miraculous effects of the surgery.

After Zhang Rong's condition stabilized, he immediately immersed himself in the research in the dissection room, dissecting objects with his assistant for a whole day and night.

During the dissection, the young and energetic assistant could not withstand the enormous shock and even fainted.

Li Shizhen was completely absorbed in anatomy, recording everything himself and performing the surgery alone. He consulted the illustrated manual on human anatomy from the West, as well as the key points hand-drawn by Zhang Yunxiu.

The more he dissected, the more he discovered the mysteries of the human body, from the throat where he operated on Zhang Rong, to the intestinal paralysis that Zhang Yunxiu had pointed out, and finally to the seemingly simple symptom of hemorrhoids.

The causes of all these difficult and complicated diseases can be found by examining the human body.

In Li Shizhen's eyes, it was as if a vast and boundless scroll had been unfolded, and the answers to questions that he had spent his entire life trying to find were all within it.

Seeing the other person's slightly "crazy" appearance, Zhang Yunxiu felt a little embarrassed.

He had taken the opportunity to treat Zhang Rong earlier and gave him a special boost, but he didn't expect that this "strong medicine" was too much and made Li Shizhen "go mad".

Zhang Yunxiu's lips twitched. He noticed Zhang Juzheng's unpredictable expression beside him, coughed twice, and spoke to Li Shizhen.

“Mr. Dongbi, we must not rush into this dissection. We must respect the cadaver. Besides, your body can't take it anymore. You should prioritize your health in the future.”

Li Shizhen frowned and said with strong disagreement.

"Shiyuan, you are mistaken. We have been too slow. This is my fault, Li Shizhen. If we could have abandoned our prejudices and conducted the dissection experiments earlier, the Duke of England's treatment would not have been so difficult, and the clinic would have saved more lives."

This is absolutely urgent!
Go find me a few more cadavers; this old man can still fight!

Zhang Yunxiu looked at his father again and found that Zhang Juzheng's face had turned black.

He immediately spoke with righteous indignation.

“Mr. Dongbi! There’s a procedure for cadavers. We can’t just grab anyone to do an autopsy. It’s not that easy to find someone who volunteers. We also need to give cadavers a certain allowance!”

Li Shizhen was taken aback. He sensed that Zhang Yunxiu's tone was strange. He turned around and found Zhang Juzheng standing behind him.

He suddenly realized something.

"Oh, oh, oh~ I understand! Of course I understand, I'm not in a hurry, ahahaha~"

Li Shizhen let out a dry laugh.

The two men's back-and-forth banter made Zhang Juzheng frown.

But looking up into the intensive care unit, Zhang Rong, a British citizen, did indeed benefit from it.

Upon careful consideration, this "dissection" sounds shocking, but it seems to be absolutely necessary.

Zhang Yunxiu patted Li Shizhen on the shoulder and said, "It's all for science! Being a cadaver is an extremely honorable thing. These people were heinous criminals in life, some of them were even bloodthirsty barbarians. Being able to contribute to medicine means they won't have to go to the eighteenth level of hell after death!"

Li Shizhen's expression was somewhat strange.

This person was dismembered into eight pieces, and could be said to have died without a burial place. As the ancients often said, our bodies and hair are given to us by our parents, and if we damage them easily, we will go to the eighteenth level of hell.

Zhang Yunxiu noticed the concerns and spoke eloquently.

"This shows that Mr. Dongbi is ignorant. There are other ways to be saved and go to the Pure Land besides burial.

If you ask the Tibetan envoys, you will know that there is no earth burial in Tibet; even leaders are given sky burials.

Sky burial involves feeding a group of sculpted animals with a human body; it is called 'repaying heaven and earth with one's own flesh'.

With the assistance of the masters of Tibet, we believe we can surely help these criminals find peace and salvation.

Zhang Juzheng scrutinized the two men, his gaze towards Zhang Yunxiu carrying a hint of suspicion as he spoke.

"You, Mr. Silent Physician, are you really using a heinous criminal?"

Zhang Yunxiu said helplessly, "Father, isn't having a respectable young man perform the dissection at the clinic just asking for trouble? It's not worth it."

In later generations, dissections were basically based on the principle of voluntary cadavers. In ancient times, however, the situation was quite different. Unless a family was so poor that they needed to become a cadaver to earn a certain amount of subsidies from the clinic, normal families would not be willing to do so.

Therefore, prisoners became the best choice. Coincidentally, Zhang Yunxiu was in charge of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and there were too many heinous criminals in the imperial prison.

Some criminals are destined to be executed by slow slicing, so using them as morticians is a good end for them; at least they die a quicker death.

Zhang Juzheng then questioned, "Is it possible to conduct experiments on living people?"

It wasn't that he didn't trust his youngest son; it was just that Zhang Yunxiu had done too many outrageous things in his life, which made him unable to help but make connections.

Zhang Yunxiu shook his head and said, "Why don't you believe me, Father? My clinic is the kind of place where such heinous things are done?"

Seeing that his father still didn't quite believe him, he spread his hands and said.

"If Father doesn't believe me, you can come with me to the dissection room and see for yourself. The heart, liver, and spleen are all perfectly intact, each one looking lifelike in its glass jar!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Juzheng's face nearly turned green, but he couldn't find any reason to reprimand him. After all, as long as he spoke, Zhang Yunxiu would have something to say: it was all for the sake of science, and besides, they were all heinous criminals.

Zhang Juzheng glanced in the direction his young son was pointing and couldn't help but tremble. He was a powerful figure in the court, but when it came to his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys, he still felt lingering fear.

"Nonsense!"

With a flick of his sleeve, he turned and left in haste.

Li Shizhen and Zhang Yunxiu looked at each other in bewilderment.

Zhang Yunxiu lowered his voice and reminded him, "Be discreet in your actions, don't be ostentatious."

Li Shizhen found the other person's words strange, but still nodded and said so.

"Don't worry, Shiyuan."

He will certainly carry forward and promote this "anatomical" science!

After the Lantern Festival, a number of matters were put on the agenda.

First, the Xishan Daily Chemical Products Workshop officially opened. In fact, the workshop had already opened once during the year-end promotional event, but the production was limited at that time.

After the New Year, when the weather warmed up a bit, all the workshops in Xishan started up again, and the workers recruited by the daily chemical workshops the year before last started working, and production finally caught up.

The Wanli Emperor seemed very enthusiastic, rushing from the palace to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Japanese Chemical Workshop.

The emperor couldn't help but take it seriously; this soap was incredibly profitable. Since the pre-New Year promotional event, soap had become the hard currency of the entire Ming Dynasty.

In the capital, ordinary people could still buy soap at a reasonable price and in limited quantities, but outside the capital, a bar of soap was sold for an exorbitant price.

In particular, wealthy merchants in Southern Zhili had come to regard soap as a symbol of status.

If you are rich and powerful, you must carry a hint of soapy scent to appear dignified.

Even after the ribbon-cutting ceremony ended, Emperor Wanli still seemed reluctant to leave. He pulled Zhang Yunxiu aside and whispered something to him.

"I have heard that in Guangzhou, soap is selling for a sky-high price of fifty taels of silver per bar, and that is just a small piece cut from an ordinary bar of soap from Xishan."

"It seems to me better to shut down the other workshops and focus all our efforts on producing this soap. We can make a fortune then!"

Zhang Yunxiu was startled.

This damn emperor is trying to convert rice paddies to mulberry fields!

He quickly reminded him, "Your Majesty, you mustn't! Have you forgotten a line from 'The Wealth of Nations': wealth does not appear out of thin air."

The reason why soap is in short supply now is that production has not kept up. Our Great Ming Dynasty is rich in all directions, and the provinces are far apart. The long distances and scarcity of goods naturally make it a luxury item.

However, if His Majesty orders the workshops to produce at full capacity, the price will likely plummet.

"Your Majesty, think about it: do the people of the Ming Dynasty need soap more, or briquettes more?"

Emperor Wanli was a clever man who understood things almost instantly, especially when it came to making money. He was truly "open to advice".

It's no exaggeration to say that if we only consider "making money," the Wanli Emperor could already be compared to Emperor Taizong of Tang and Emperor Wen of Han.

But he was still somewhat disappointed and said regretfully.

"Still not enough? I'm thinking of earning more silver, as shipbuilding at sea will cost a lot of money."

To recreate the grandeur of the Yongle Emperor's voyages to the Western Ocean, the Yongle Treasure Ship was indispensable. Building a Yongle Treasure Ship and equipping it with various new firearms from the Western Regions would cost an astronomical sum.

It was indeed quick to make money in Xishan, but in the eyes of the Wanli Emperor, what was earned quickly was spent just as quickly.

While pondering, the Wanli Emperor's eyes suddenly lit up, and he made a suggestion.

"The Xishan workshop is indeed untouchable, as it is the foundation of the nation. Instead, we should find a few workshops in the Jiangnan region and promote this soap. This way, the people of Jiangnan can also experience the convenience brought by our scientific development!"

Zhang Yunxiu then said, "Your Majesty, have you forgotten? The Jiangnan gentry have already been defeated in just a few months. Jiangnan trade still needs to recuperate, so it may not be convenient to open too many soap workshops."

Compared to something as dispensable as soap, textiles and food production are clearly the top priorities today.

The Wanli Emperor was somewhat annoyed: "This won't do, that won't do, governing the country is really incompetent, not efficient at all."

But he was ultimately reasonable and knew that the livelihood of the people in Jiangnan was more important than anything else.

But he had to vent his anger, so he frowned and remembered something.

"Speaking of which, it's time for the envoys from the vassal states to return home. Let those Jiangnan gentry in the imperial prison prepare themselves; it's time for them to set off."

Wang Xijue and Wang Shizhen are still imprisoned in the imperial prison. According to the court's arrangements, they are obviously to set off in the next few days.

Zhang Yunxiu thought for a moment and then said.

"Your subject is making preparations. Gentlemen, you have worked hard and made great contributions. Although your crimes are too numerous to count, you have all served our Great Ming Dynasty."

Before they set off, Xishan must have prepared a grand gift.

Spring March.

Even though the weather has warmed up somewhat, snow still lingers on the streets of Beijing.

A large entourage marched through the streets of the capital, heading towards the city gates.

The mission had stayed in the Ming capital for nearly three months, and it was time for them to return home.

With tears in his eyes, Korean envoy Li Renxin spoke emotionally to Yu Youding, the Minister of Rites beside him.

"Minister Yu, I don't know when we will meet again after this parting. The prosperity of the Great Kingdom is so delightful that I would rather stay here forever and see His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Ming at any time."

The loyalty of this Korean envoy to the Ming Dynasty goes without saying, but it seems somewhat exaggerated and pretentious.

Yu Youding reminded him, "Ambassador Li, please note that it cannot be something like 'enjoying oneself in comfort and forgetting one's homeland,' which is not a good phrase."

However, Ambassador Li need not be saddened. Our Great Ming Dynasty has already opened its seas, and from now on, tribute will not be paid only every three to five years, but annually. As long as all countries are willing to cooperate with our Great Ming, we will naturally open our doors!

He raised his voice at the end of this sentence, as if he wanted all the envoys to hear it.

Just then, a cry suddenly came from behind.

"Brother Yuanmei! This parting is tantamount to being separated by death! I hope you will take good care of yourself!"

Everyone turned their gaze to the back, where the delegation that had accompanied them on their mission to various countries to spread Confucianism was located.

(End of this chapter)