A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

Yang Hu did not leave when he was ordered to be transferred to a sentry post thirty miles away.

The epidemic was real, but the deadly trap at Qing Shi Kou was also real. He only claimed that the wounded soldiers' camp had many seriously injured soldiers and could not be left alone, so he would delay for a while. But secretly he instructed Qin Ying, who was disguised as a medicine boy, and the clerk Su Heng to be careful in everything and not to leave each other's side. He also instructed them to keep the roll of military reports close to their bodies.

Just as the stalemate was at its peak, the barbarians once again stormed the city walls.

This time, the barbarians changed their tactics. Besides rolling logs and stones, they threw jars of quicklime and kerosene onto the city walls. The quicklime exploded in the wind, creating a white mist; the kerosene, when poured on, burned, producing thick smoke. The defending soldiers were caught off guard, their eyes stung by the quicklime and their faces burned by the smoke and fire, screaming in agony.

After a bloody battle, among the wounded soldiers carried into the wounded camp, there was a group of people who were covering their eyes and rolling on the ground in pain.

"Dr. Yang! Please save their eyes!"

An old soldier helped a young soldier in. The soldier covered his eyes tightly with both hands, and murky tears were streaming out from between his fingers. His eyelids were so red and swollen that he could not open them.

The military doctor who was standing around looked at the soldier through his eyelids and shook his head repeatedly.

"This lime has burned their eyeballs, leaving them completely white," an old doctor sighed. "Eyes are the most precious thing; once burned like this, even a god couldn't cure them. These people will probably be blind with their eyes open for the rest of their lives. Take them away and nurse them back to health."

"A blind man with open eyes?" Yang Hu's eyes suddenly darkened. He stepped forward, pried open the soldier's eyelids, and examined him closely. "Lime burns the eyes, but he's only been burned for a short time; his eyeballs aren't completely damaged yet. Lime is a poison that dissolves in water. As long as you immediately rinse the lime out of his eyes with plenty of water, remove the lime residue, and protect his eyeballs, he can retain most of his vision!"

Ordinary people, upon seeing such an injured person with lime burns and white film covering their eyes, would simply assume that their eyes are ruined and they are destined to go blind.

When lime gets into the eye, the burn is relentless and penetrates deeper. To save it, you must flush it continuously with plenty of clean water before it burns through the eyeball, thoroughly diluting and washing away the burning lime. Then, remove any remaining lime residue and foreign objects from the eye, protecting the vital outer membrane of the eyeball. The faster and more thoroughly you flush, the more of the eye will be saved.

In this moment of intense lime scorching the eyes, every second of delay means one more step blinder.

There is no room for hesitation.

"Quick! Bring plenty of clean water! The more the better!" Yang Hu ordered sternly. "One by one, open their eyelids and rinse their eyes repeatedly!"

Qin Ying, disguised as a medicine boy, had already brought over several large buckets of clean water and found clean bamboo tubes. Having followed Yang Hu around these past few days, she had long since learned this method of emergency treatment, and now she was assisting him with quick and efficient movements.

"Rinsing the eyes is the most important thing; you can't rush it or be too slow," Yang Hu said in a deep voice as he worked, his eyes filled with a certainty that seemed to understand life and death. "The water should flow down the corners of the eyes, carrying away the burning lime little by little. If you rinse too quickly, you might damage the eyeballs; if you rinse too slowly, the lime will burn deeper. You have to rinse it slowly and steadily for a while to get it clean."

Yang Hu pried open the soldier's eyelids and had Qin Ying scoop up clean water with a bamboo tube, slowly and continuously rinsing the soldier's eyes, which were covered in white film from the burns. Tube after tube of murky lime water flowed down the corners of the eyes, and gradually, the white film on the eyeballs faded. The soldiers guarding nearby held their breath, watching as the young physician painstakingly used clean water to save the soldier's burnt eyes, bit by bit.

After rinsing away the lime, Yang Hu used a thin skewer wrapped in soft cloth to carefully and steadily remove the few grains of lime stuck to his eye and the burnt eyelashes. This step was extremely demanding, requiring the skewer to be only a hair's breadth away from the eyeball; too much pressure would cause injury, too little would leave it unclean. Yang Hu's hand remained perfectly still. After removing the foreign matter, he applied a layer of herbal ointment to soothe the eyes, relieve pain, and promote tissue regeneration, and then lightly covered the injured eye with a clean, soft cloth.

Eyes pounded, one after another, and one by one, they were rescued. Long lines formed in the wounded soldiers' camp, with each wounded soldier covering their eyes, anxiously waiting for the young medic to restore their burned eyes.

The accompanying physicians were all dumbfounded. They had never heard of such a method of treating eyes—rinsing them with water without any direction and then using a stick to pry open their eyeballs. The old physician stood there, mouth agape, speechless for a long time.

Half a day has passed.

The young soldier who had been judged to be "blind" had his eyelids gradually swelled up after applying medicine and resting for half a day. His tightly closed eyes slowly opened a crack.

"I can see! Dr. Yang, I can see!" The soldier was both surprised and overjoyed, tears mingling with the ointment streaming down his face. "Although it's still blurry, I can really see you!"

Many eyes that had been nearly blinded by lime and deemed "doomed" were restored to sight thanks to Yang Hu's efficient method of washing, removing the residue, and applying medicine. Those with mild burns recovered after a few days of rest; those with severe burns, though left with some blurriness, were not completely blind and could still see.

The army doctors who had previously said the wounded soldiers were "definitely blind" were stunned as they watched the wounded soldiers regain their sight. Their faces showed a mixture of shock and shame.

Having practiced medicine their entire lives, they had always simply shaken their heads and sighed, letting people go blind when they encountered eyes burned by lime. No one had ever dared to rinse them with water or try to remove the blemishes with a skewer, and no one believed that such burned, white-eyed eyes could be saved. Who could have imagined that these burned eyes could be cleansed and treated in this way, that the light could be forcibly snatched back from the lime? The old doctor, who had previously so resolutely sentenced them to death, now looked at the pairs of eyes that could see again, his old face flushed with shame.

"Dr. Yang's skill is so amazing that he can even make the blind see again." No one asked him where he learned this skill anymore.

Yang Hu did not answer. He had no way of explaining this method of burning with lime and rinsing with water to the people of this era. He only knew that this method could save lives.

And those who were saved were pairs of eyes that could climb to the top of the city wall and draw a bow and shoot an arrow.

Soldiers who have lost their sight can no longer hold their bows or aim at the barbarians. Once their eyes are saved and healed, they can once again stand on the city walls, keeping watch on the barbarians beyond the pass for Qing Shi Kou. In this bloody battle to defend the isolated city, saving a soldier and restoring a pair of eyes is a contribution to the fight. Whether the city walls can hold depends first on whether the wounded soldiers' camp can hold.

He tucked the object into his sleeve without saying a word.

The disaster caused by lime and kerosene on the city wall, and the ferocity of the barbarians, were ultimately caused by the hand hidden in the central army that stole and sold weapons to the enemy.

The roll of military reports hidden close to his body, the few old files he'd unearthed, were gradually closing in on the outline of that hand. And its luring order, the trap that was closing in the shadows, was finally about to collide with him head-on.

The soldier's eyes were saved. As he was helped out of the tent, he kept turning back to look at himself, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say.

The more people he could save, the less he wanted to let that hand leave the city alive.