Prodigal Son of the Ming Dynasty

  Chapter 615 Divine Medicine

   "Ahem..." At this point, Ma Wensheng was also desperate.

  Ping Xihou, you are so sick that you are almost dead, and you are still thinking about this.

   But... Obviously, this move is very effective.

  Even Liu Jian was moved. The hero who guarded the border town had a wish before he died. What's wrong?

Ma Wensheng thought about it for a while, and then continued: "He also said that if His Majesty is willing to approve this marriage, he will be able to rest in peace even if he dies, and the title of Marquis Pingxi would rather be taken away by His Majesty. He also said, This time of great epidemic, the Southwest is bound to be uneasy. As long as he still has a breath, he will continue to patrol the guards while dragging this serious illness. If he dies, his wife Liu will inherit his legacy and calm down for His Majesty. Guizhou, if Guizhou is settled, then the southwest will be settled, and if the southwest is settled, then Ming will prosper. He understands this truth.”

   "In this memorial, there is also Liu's autograph..."

Ma Wensheng sighed and continued: "Mr. Liu said that since she married into the Fang family, she is a member of the Fang family for one day, and a ghost of the Fang family even after she dies. In case of accidents, although she is a girl, she is willing to serve the imperial envoy and die for the imperial court."

   Speaking of this...

  Emperor Hongzhi fell silent. Needless to say, Fang Jinglong's loyalty, even the Liu family is indeed admirable.

  Emperor Hongzhi naturally understood what Ping Xihou meant, but at the same time, he couldn't help but worry about Ping Xihou's physical condition.

  He immediately said: "Immediately ordered the imperial doctor to go to Guizhou immediately, and tried every means to treat Ping Xihou, but the most urgent task at the moment is to cure this disease."

  Emperor Hongzhi couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "The Fang family is a loyal family, which one of them didn't devote themselves to the court and died. If Fang Jifan knew about this matter, I don't know how worried he is."

  He found himself starting to miss Fang Jifan's feelings.

  Obviously what should be more concerned about is the corruption situation in Yunnan and Guizhou.

  The outbreak of such a large plague now means the death of countless people. Daming's ruling power in Yunnan and Guizhou will be weak. Coupled with the current turmoil with Annan, it is difficult for Baonan to take this opportunity to make trouble.

  Emperor Hongzhi stood up, with his hands behind his back, walking back and forth in the hall, feeling very anxious.

   Every outbreak of malaria in the Yunnan-Guizhou area, in the past, meant military failure or the occurrence of a rebellion.

  I hope this time, I can get through it safely.

   Moreover, every time malaria harms the military and guards of Tuntian the most, this means that a large number of Han people were killed and injured, and Ming's rule of the Southwest will fall into an extremely weak situation. By then...

Emperor Hongzhi sighed, then stopped, looked at Liu Jian and the others with piercing eyes, and said word by word: "I want the princess to marry Fang Jifan, the prince of Pingxi, what do you think? "

  Liu Jian and others were silent.

   It is not suitable for a princess to marry a meritorious person. In the eyes of many people, this will increase the risk of foreign relatives interfering in politics.

   But right now...

  When Pingxi gets sick, death is imminent.

  When a person is about to die, if the princess marries, the title of Marquis Pingxi will naturally be taken away.

  At this time, if you object, it is a bit unreasonable.

   This is full of loyalty. Didn’t Daming always advocate loyalty and filial piety?

  Fang Jinglong is getting old. Although malaria is not an incurable disease, the death rate is extremely high. Once infected, at Fang Jinglong's age, it is almost like stepping on the coffin board with one foot.

  Besides, the situation in the southwest is critical, and the imperial court needs to rely on the Liu family and her clansmen to try their best to maintain the situation.

   Otherwise, once the Southwest is corrupted, the consequences will be disastrous.

Emperor Hongzhi added another sentence: "I think back to the beginning, the Duke of Guizhou was ordered to control Yunnan when he was in danger. Emperor Wen married the princess to the son of the Duke of Qian as his wife. There are precedents for me to do this. I only have one daughter. To show the loyalty of the Fang family, why not marry the princess. There are hundreds of thousands of Han troops in the southwest, hundreds of thousands of family members, and many emigrated people, even more so. At this moment, I am concerned about Their safety, and at the same time, also hope that the joy of the princess's marriage can be used to dilute the worries of the southwest crisis. Liu Qing's family, Li Qing's family, and Xie Qing's family, not to mention, in the ancestral law, the princess's marriage Yu Xunchen, it’s all right. But even if there is no precedent in the ancestral law, there is love outside the law. Fang Jifan’s father is dying. Thinking about it, he is also like a thorn in his throat. I bestow marriage and reward loyalty, isn’t it okay?”

  Liu Jian settled down, His Majesty's words really made him unable to refuse: "If Your Majesty makes an order, I have nothing to say."

  Emperor Hongzhi heaved a sigh of relief, and looked at Xie Qian and Li Dongyang.

   Xie Qian said with a wry smile: "Your Majesty is right, extrajudicial is nothing more than human feelings, and I have nothing to say."

  Li Dongyang hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Emperor Hongzhi said: "In this case, let's make a decree. What happened today, there are joys and sorrows. I hope that the country will be peaceful and the country will be peaceful and the people will be safe. Now my daughter Zhu Xiurong is waiting in her boudoir. Now that she has heard of Fang's loyalty, she will be released to the palace." In the middle, marry Fang Jifan, the son of the Fang family..."

  ...

  Xishan.

  Fang Jifan has received a letter from home.

   Looking at the family letter, Fang Jifan frowned.

This is not so much a family letter as it is a will. I hope that Fang Jifan can guard the family business in the future. From then on, he must not be absurd. When doing things, he must look forward and backward. He must not be as self-willed as before, and he must take good care of his sister. and so on.

  Dad...has malaria.

  And... since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the ninth malaria outbreak has occurred in Yunnan and Guizhou.

  Malaria has swept across the three provinces, and almost all the military guards have been infected. In severe cases, the entire military camp has reached the point of mourning.

   Panic has spread, a large number of officers and soldiers have begun to flee privately, and the people have begun to bring their families with them, hoping that the farther away from the origin of the epidemic, the better.

  The originally stable frontline of Yunnan and Guizhou began to stir again.

   After reading this family letter, Fang Jifan couldn't help feeling melancholy, feeling very uncomfortable.

  My dad... an afterthought.

   It was only at this time after he proposed marriage that he proposed to the palace about the marriage between the princess and himself.

  Although he complained a lot in his heart, Fang Jifan knew that the epidemic was like a fire, and if it was out of control, then he did not know how many people would die, even including his own father.

  Fang Jifan was in a hurry. Malaria can be regarded as an intractable disease in this era. Now it is critical to control the disease and treat the disease to save lives.

  He found Zhang Xin in a hurry.

The cultivation of cinchona trees has started since Xu Jing brought back the saplings and seeds the year before last. It has high requirements on the environment, and Zhang Xin has probably figured out their habits. Large-scale planting.

Planting cinchona trees requires a very high cost. At the beginning of the village, there were too many tree species and crops to be cultivated, and he was unwilling to invest too much cost. If Fang Jifan didn't pay attention to it, Zhang Xin would not be interested in this cinchona tree. .

In the past two years, a series of greenhouses have been set up at the northern foot of the Western Mountain, and cinchona trees have been extensively planted. However, most of the cinchona trees are not yet 'adult', and they are not tall and strong. Right now, the tree is only as tall as a person, and the trunk is only as thick as a water cup.

  Originally, the growth cycle of this tree takes six years to grow. From the perspective of economic benefits, if you start to scrape their bark now, the income is not high, and it is very easy to cause the cinchona tree to die.

When Zhang Xin heard that Fang Jifan wanted to take the bark of the cinchona tree, he was immediately a little unhappy: "Qianhu, in order to plant these trees, hundreds of manpower were used in the field. This tree requires extremely high temperature and soil. It also requires a lot of water for irrigation, and it is very pampering, and it is not easy to build a greenhouse, and the cost is huge."

  What he didn't say was that this cinchona tree cost him countless painstaking efforts.

  Although he didn't say it, Zhang Xin's voice could hear his reluctance.

At this time, Fang Jifan couldn't control so much, saving people is the most important thing, so he said to Zhang Xin very solemnly: "At this time, saving people is the most important thing, right now the bark medicine is desperately needed, compared with human life, no matter how much this tree costs How much is it worth in silver?"

  Fang Jifan suddenly felt that when he uttered these words, his waist was very straight. What is the three views and what is called serving the country and the people? Fang Jifan is just that.

   "Harve the bark immediately, as much as you can harvest."

Fang Jifan personally walked around the contiguous cinchona tree cultivation base at the northern foot. Here, thousands of cinchona trees occupy hundreds of acres of land. In order to create a tropical rainforest environment, this large piece of land, All have been specially remodeled.

  Fang Jifan gave an order, even Zhang Xin could only reluctantly pass on the order.

Hundreds of households began to work with special knives for bark extraction. They carefully scraped off the bark of the cinchona tree, and then packed it in a dustpan. On the next day, dozens of baskets of cinchona bark were transported. into a specialized pharmaceutical workshop.

In the last life, people extracted cinchona cream from the bark of the cinchona tree, which became the first generation of anti-malarial special medicine; after that, with the development of the pharmaceutical industry, people used the ingredients of cinchona cream Among them, quinine was produced.

  This specific drug is extremely effective against malaria and is a rapid blood schizont killer.

  It is actually not easy to make quinine, but...with cinchona bark, the original quinine is much easier.

In South America, where the rainforest environment is similar to that of Yunnan, Guizhou and the Western Ocean, which are also in the tropics and subtropics, the Indians discovered the cinchona tree, dried the bark of the cinchona tree, and ground it into powder for treatment. malaria.

But that's not all, for Fang Jifan, it's obviously more than that. He ordered people to harvest more bark, even if he didn't care about the survival of the cinchona tree, as much as he could search, he ordered people to start preparing pharmaceuticals.

  (end of this chapter)