Ask Sword

Suzhou, a land of prosperity and a land of fish and rice.

In the past New Year, the city should hang high lanterns, firecrackers, the streets full of pedestrians, cars and horses like dragons, temple fairs one after another, the whole city is immersed in the joy of the New Year.

The so-called many rides under the moon, Rao looks at people in front of the lamp. The joy is boundless, and the singing and dancing reach the morning.

However, at this moment, Suzhou City seemed extremely deserted.

On the walls of the pavilions on both sides of the street, half-hanging colorful flag lanterns remain.

Passers-by are in a hurry and dare not stay in one place for too long.

In the busiest canal in the past, ships from all corners of the country came and went, few of them docked at the shore, but instead drove away at a faster speed—as if there was something dirty and filthy that could not be seen in the city.

Li Ang and Shen Tuyu landed outside the city, rode their horses, and drove into the city of Suzhou.

I only came to Suzhou once a few years ago. At that time, I felt that Chang'an and Luoyang were no less prosperous and prosperous.

Shen Tuyu sighed and said: I didn't expect it to be so destitute because of water poisoning.

Infectious diseases are fiercer than tigers. Those who were able to leave Suzhou City and seek refuge with their relatives all left, and those who stayed were those whose family property was here and who could not leave.

Li Ang glanced across the street merchants with closed doors, and frowned deeply.

If profit-seeking businesses can give up their profits and stop their business, the situation in Suzhou City will be worse than he imagined.

The two drove to the prefect's mansion,

The prefect of Suzhou passed the worms in advance, knew that they were coming, and had already hosted a banquet to receive them, and even lowered his posture, personally greeted them outside the mansion.

It's a pity that Li Ang didn't have much leisure time to make friends with courtiers, so after dealing with it, he immediately asked to go to the sickroom.

You two please follow me.

Suzhou Sima, whose official position is from the fifth rank, dared not put on the slightest official airs in front of Shen Tuyu, the imperial enshrinement, and Li Ang, who was the tour guide of the academy, and led the way honestly.

Due to Suzhou's financial wealth and large population, the Suzhou Infirmary was also built in a grand manner, covering a huge area.

It's just that the influx of too many patients has exceeded the upper limit of the ward's capacity.

Beds were placed in the rooms and yards, and the surrounding houses were also contracted for requisition.

The patients were lying on the bed with swollen abdomen, yellow complexion, and thin limbs. Many of them were coughing violently, coughing up thick bloody sputum.

The staff in uniform and masks boiled herbs, or ran between beds, carrying basins of water—they were not infected, but their physical condition was not much better,

The overload of work made their eyes bloodshot.

Leave a way! Make a way!

A middle-aged nurse hurried across the courtyard with a spittoon, accidentally tripped over a stone, and leaned forward involuntarily.

Seeing that the spittoon was about to be spilled on the ground, a wave of thoughts was released from the air to stabilize the nurse and the spittoon in his hand.

The faces of Suzhou Sima and the person in charge of the ward were livid with fright. If the spittoon was spilled, the smell would reach the two noblemen from Chang'an

Suzhou Sima was about to step forward to scold him, but Li Ang raised his hand to stop him.

The ward is understaffed, so it's normal to be overwhelmed.

Li Ang turned his head and asked the trembling nurse, How do you deal with the excrement in the spittoon?

ah

The nurse froze for a moment, Just put it in the dung bucket.

Is there no one to collect it?

Li Ang asked again.

Due to the development of manure technology, some folks in Yu country specialize in collecting urban manure, composting it into manure and selling it to farmers, making a lot of profit. In some places, there are even so-called Yexiang guilds.

It used to be, but it's gone now.

The nurse replied honestly: The patients here have severe diarrhea, bloody mucus in their feces, and no one comes to collect them.

We don't have enough manpower, so we can only dump it in big dung buckets. Send it out of the city every few days.

That's good, keep it up.

Li Ang nodded, no matter how inexplicable the words sounded to others, he strode across the ward, came to the file room, and checked the medical records.

Previously, under his suggestion, wards all over the country had the habit of recording patient information. After checking, they could know the patient's time of illness, initial test status, disease progression, attending physician, medications taken, and other information.

Li Ang quickly flipped through all the information, his brows became more and more wrinkled, and he suddenly raised his head and said to Suzhou Sima, Please Sima find me some maps of Suzhou.

River map, water network map, farming map. The more and more detailed the better.

A guide who is familiar with the surrounding villages in Suzhou is also needed. I'm going out of town later.

Without rigorous investigation, there is no right to speak.

However, the results of the investigation were particularly terrifying.

In the seven counties around Suzhou, 70 of the more than 100 villages and towns are endemic for schistosomiasis.

In the most serious villages and towns, the infection rate was more than 80%, and more than half of the people were parasitized by schistosomiasis. Nearly a thousand people died one after another, and there were new tombs everywhere.

Even more desperate are the villages.

The children in the whole village all suffer from ascites, their bellies are as big as wax gourds, their complexions are yellow and emaciated

Their parents are also infected with schistosomiasis, so I don't know if they can still farm this year.

For the villagers, the land is their only source of livelihood,

If you can't cultivate food because your body is weak, it means that you have no money to buy medicine, myrrh cures the disease, you can't engage in production, and you fall into a vicious circle.

Get sick because of poverty, and return to poverty because of sickness.

Every village will literally become a village of extinct households. In the next few years, it will be completely wiped off the map.

If the cruelty on the battlefield is blood-stained yellow sand, shrouded in horse leather, full of generosity and heroism,

Then the cruelty of the water-poison-infested area is silent misery and desolation.

The walls of the village are covered with vines and weeds, and in the uninhabited thatched huts, the wind is shrill, like a ghost crying.

Even the skinny wild dogs on the side of the road dragged their heavy bellies—their bellies were so swollen that they dragged on the ground for a long time, and the hair on their abdomen was bald.

Shen Tuyu took Li Ang and the guide with a flying sword, and quickly surveyed the surrounding villages and towns.

The bloody investigation results suffocated him who had always been lazy,

On the way back to Suzhou City, I couldn't help muttering: Why is this happening?

He is a sword master in the Candle Sky Realm, and even in the face of the most dangerous first-level alien beast, he is confident in beheading it with the three-foot green sword in his hand.

But where should he swing his sword in the face of an invisible enemy? Where can it go?

Water poisoning disease has existed since ancient times.

Li Ang said gloomily: Based on the medical records in the ward and the information provided by the villagers, people in their village have always suffered from ascites. But it has never been taken seriously in the past.

Until recently, it suddenly broke out.

What causes the spread of schistosomiasis?

temperature? rain? Species invasion? Or a mutation?

Li Ang was puzzled. All he can do is race against time to suppress the schistosomiasis epidemic.

only

Is it really possible?