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

Six days after the messenger left, the first person died.

The one who died was a member of the scout team, surnamed Shi, twenty-two years old, a hunter by trade, one of the sixty-two people Liu Ye brought out.

He went out on April 14th and returned on April 15th with an arrow wound on his right calf. The wound wasn't serious. The arrow had grazed him at an angle, leaving a three-inch-long gash, less than half an inch deep, and the bleeding had stopped.

While Su Heng was cleaning and applying medicine to him, she remarked, "This spot will heal in half a month."

On April 16th, that leg started to swell.

He died on the night of April 17th.

From the moment he was shot to his death, it took two days and four hours.

Yang Hu arrived early on the morning of April 18th.

The body lay motionless in a separate tent behind the medical team's headquarters. Su Heng stayed by its side, not sleeping all night.

"General, I cannot make that decision," she said. "I dare not dissect him, nor dare I bury him."

"Why don't you dare bury it?"

"I don't know if burying them will result in the same fate as those livestock last year."

Yang Hu squatted down.

The leg, from the knee down, was swollen to twice its original size, the skin taut and shiny. The wound wasn't oozing pus, nor was it red or hot; it was purplish-black, the color spreading outwards from the wound in patches, the edges of which were very clear, as if drawn with a pen.

He placed the back of his hand on it.

It's not hot.

"When did you start talking nonsense last night?"

"At 11 PM, he was still conscious and asked me if he could save his leg. At 11 PM, he started convulsing, and after a quarter of an hour, he passed away."

"What's it like when you smoke it?"

"Bow your body back," Su Heng gestured, "Your jaw is clenched so tightly I couldn't pry it open even with a piece of wood."

Yang Hu stopped.

Clench your teeth.

"Yes."

"Does it get worse if you touch it while you're smoking?"

Su Heng raised her head: "How did the general know? The more we pressed him down, the more violently he was whipped. Later, I had someone turn off all the lamps in the tent, and after a while, he actually relaxed a bit."

Yang Hu stood up and took a few steps inside the tent.

Tetanus. He went over those three words in his mind, then dismissed them.

From the time you're shot with an arrow to the onset of tetanus, it can take anywhere from four or five days to ten days. This one only took two days. Also, tetanus wouldn't cause this much swelling or these purple spots.

They are not the same thing.

They are two different things.

"Bring the arrows."

The arrow was kept by Liu Ye. According to old rules, nothing taken from a person should be thrown away.

The arrow shaft was made of willow twigs and was rough. The arrowhead was made of bone, not iron.

Yang Hu examined the arrow under the lamplight for a long time.

There is a layer of something on the tip of the bone cluster.

It wasn't blood. It was a layer of dark brown, shiny shell, thinly coated on the bone, extending down to the back of the barbs.

"Su Heng, bring me a clean cloth."

He didn't touch it with his hands. He used the tip of his knife to scrape a little off the bone cluster, put it on a cloth, and looked at it by the light.

The powder is dark brown, with some very fine white particles mixed in.

He moved the cloth further away.

"Don't smell it," he said to Su Heng, who was leaning closer. "And don't touch it either."

"General, what is this?"

"have no idea."

The second person was delivered on April 19th.

It was Liu Ye's group that ran into them for the second time. This time, they encountered seven or eight riders, who scattered immediately upon contact, but before they dispersed, a volley of arrows was fired.

Of the three who were hit by arrows, two were superficial wounds, as the arrowheads didn't have that layer. The third was in the right shoulder, and it was hit by the same type of bone fragment.

Yang Hu watched it from beginning to end this time.

Day 1: The wound is neither red nor swollen, and the person is as usual.

The next afternoon: The area around the wound began to turn purple and swell. The person started sweating, but the sweat was cold.

On the second night: his jaw was clenched, his body was arched backward, and he would twitch at the sight of light or sound.

The third day, at the hour of Yin (3-5 AM): Death.

Three days.

An hour is neither too long nor too short.

The military medical team tried eleven things.

Debridement, wound widening, bloodletting, cupping, moxibustion, administering mung bean soup, administering licorice soup, administering the yogurt given by the old man, applying calamine lotion externally, and applying two prescriptions from Su Qing's book "Northern Substitute Medicines" externally.

Eleven things, and none of them worked.

The third person died on April 22nd.

That evening, Yang Hu summoned the leaders of the military medical team to his tent.

Fourteen people sat in a circle around the table. On the table were three things: the bone-tipped arrow, the scraped-off powder, and a booklet recording every hour from when the three men were shot until they died.

"explain."

Su Heng spoke first.

"General, I've thought of three things these past three days," she said. "The first one isn't a single poison, but two mixed together."

"speak."

"Swelling and purplish discoloration is one thing, and lockjaw is another," Su Heng said. "Swelling and purplish discoloration develops earlier and spreads outward from the wound. Lockjaw, on the other hand, develops later but comes on more aggressively. If it's the same poison, it won't spread in two separate ways."

"And the second one?"

"It won't act unless it bleeds," Su Heng said. "I tried it with the scraped powder."

Everyone inside the tent looked at her.

"Where should we test it?" Yang Hu's voice deepened.

"It was from the dead sheep," Su Heng quickly said. "It wasn't a person. Don't worry, General."

She described the method she tried: if the powder was applied to the unbroken areas of the sheep, there would be no problem for a day; but if it was applied to the cuts, the sheep would swell up the next day.

"A third item?"

Su Heng lowered her head.

"The third one is something I can't solve."

No one inside the tent responded.

"I've written down everything I've thought of these past three days." Su Heng pushed a stack of papers to the center of the table. "Eleven methods, each with its own testing time, dosage, and results. It's all here. If the general wants to think of something else, this stack can save you eleven detours."

Yang Hu took the stack of papers and flipped through two pages.

The notes on the paper were extremely detailed. They even specified the time of each test and who was testing it.

"Remember that."

The fourteen military doctors were the best fourteen selected from the Third Battalion over the past two years. Some of them could set broken bones on the battlefield, and some could suture intestines in the dark of night.

With these fourteen people sitting together, there's nothing anyone can do.

"General," a young medic sitting at the end of the table couldn't help but ask, "Should the scouts still go out?"

The moment that question was asked, the atmosphere inside the tent changed instantly.

Liu Ye sat on the side by the door. She hadn't uttered a single word all day.

"Get out," Yang Hu said.

"But General..."

"If we don't go out, we're blind." Yang Hu picked up the bone-tipped arrow. "These past two weeks have revealed seven sweet springs, and eleven thousand people have been drinking from them. Who's going to go find them?"

The young military doctor remained silent.

"Willow leaf".

"exist."

"The scout teams will continue to be dispatched as usual, but starting today, the number of dispatches can be changed to three."

"Please speak, General."

"First, anyone going out must wrap three layers of thick felt around their calves and forearms, even if it means walking slowly. Second, if shot with an arrow, do not remove it yourself; have the medic remove it upon your return. All arrows must be brought back. Third..."

He paused for a moment.

"Third, anyone who has been hit by a bone-tipped arrow shall not be allowed to enter the camp after returning to camp, but shall set up a tent one hundred paces outside the camp."

Liu Ye raised her head.

"General, that means leaving people outside to die."

"Yes."

The people inside the tent all lowered their heads.

"I won't hide it from you," Yang Hu said, "Right now, I can't cure this poison. Since I can't cure it, I can only keep it out for now."

He put the arrow back on the table.

"Three days," he said. "From the time he was shot until he died, it was three days. During those three days, he was conscious. He knew he was going to die, he knew how much time he had left, and he knew we were watching him from outside, unable to get in."

You could even hear the crackling of the charcoal fire inside the tent.

"But this is not a long-term solution."

"The general means..."

"It means I have to untie it."

He raised his head and scanned the fourteen faces inside the tent.

"Starting tomorrow, the medical team will be divided into two shifts. One shift will continue to manage the camp as usual, and the other shift will follow me."

"What are you doing with the general?"

"Testing for poison."