novelraw Chapter 567: The Little Cannon Fodder of the Three Kingdoms (9)
Chapter 567: The Little Cannon Fodder of the Three Kingdoms (9)
Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, after spending a total of less than two days together, the two parties reached the time to part ways.
An Ning's destination was originally the area most severely affected by the epidemic, so it was natural that she and the two men were not traveling together, and parting here was logical.
It's just... seeing the young lady on the other side turn and leave with such decisiveness and ease, without the slightest hesitation, even though Guo Jia had a sense of what to expect, he still couldn't help but feel a slight pang in his heart for a moment.
Xun Yu on the opposite side gave him a thoughtful glance.
Meanwhile, on the other side, An Ning's group had already reached their destination, which was near Fang County, where Zhen Yu, the eldest young master of the Zhen Family, was located.
As expected, it seemed this epidemic was indeed as serious as they had heard.
Despite it being morning, the time when the flow of people should be at its peak, the city gates were now tightly shut. Outside the city were fully armed soldiers and guards, standing ready and vigilant, clearly indicating a state of complete lockdown.
The morning sun had just risen, a time that should have been bright and brilliant, yet at this moment, it inexplicably evoked a sense of desolate silence.
The entire city grew increasingly quiet and still.
As a prominent family and a scholar-official clan of Ji Prefecture, the Zhen Family carried some weight, so An Ning's group naturally passed through without obstruction.Upon entering the city, that feeling of desolation not only remained but grew even stronger as they ventured deeper. On the streets, not only were there no small vendors doing business as usual, but every household had their doors tightly shut. Along the way, one could see, besides the scattered and disorderly corpses, long queues forming outside the few remaining medical clinics in the county town.
On the ground, one could see commoners everywhere with faces covered in red rashes, constantly moaning in pain, or pedestrians with vacant eyes, moving like lifeless zombies.
As for the wealthy households in the city, apart from the unlucky ones like Zhen Yu who had contracted the illness early and were now immobilized, most had already packed their belongings and fled the area with their families and some servants as soon as they sensed something was wrong.
Who would have thought it had become this severe in such a short time? Third Sister Zhou subconsciously shuddered.
Her gaze paused on An Ning, who remained as calm as ever before her. Remembering the pills distributed to them just before entering the city, Third Sister Zhou finally let out an almost imperceptible sigh of relief.
Inside the county government office, the situation was equally grim.
The constables were either sick or had fled. If not for Zhen Yu's noble background and the capable servants by his side, the situation would likely have been even worse.
Seeing that An Ning had come in person, Zhen Yu, who had been holding on for so long, finally breathed a sigh of relief and spoke in an almost hoarse voice:
"Thank you, young lady, for braving the danger to come and assist today. In the future, should you ever have any request, I, Zhen, will absolutely not refuse!"
"Young Master is too kind!" An Ning returned the courtesy with a bow.
The facts proved that his expectations were not misplaced. Thanks to years of experience, after just one encounter, An Ning already had a good grasp of this epidemic. After taking his pulse, she was even more certain—it was nothing more than a common type of plague.
Under the expectant gazes of everyone, in less than half an hour, a prescription was already written on paper.
The first to use it were naturally the sick constables within the county office. Since medicinal herbs were not lacking at the moment, in just over half a day, the persistent high fevers that had lasted for days had mostly subsided.
Zhen Yu, who took the medicine afterward, showed the same improvement.
Seeing the effect, everyone was overjoyed to the point of tears.
When lives are at stake, news always spreads quickly. Upon hearing there was a cure, it didn't take long for the area outside the county office to be tightly surrounded, layer upon layer, by the crowd.
However, this was no longer An Ning's concern. After categorizing the patients into mild, moderate, and severe cases and providing separate prescriptions, An Ning soon left Fang County with a few trusted followers.
Although she had spent most of her time with the Zhen Family, she hadn't been idle during these three years. In an era where even a single steamed bun could save a life, casually training a few trusted subordinates wasn't a difficult task.
The group soon arrived at their destination for this trip—Qu County.
The plague outbreak naturally endangered more than just one county. However, unlike the earlier Fang County, where Zhen Yu had been infected early but, thanks to the medicine An Ning had left earlier, could barely maintain his senses and keep the county office running on a small scale, the situation in other more severely affected counties was different. Their magistrates were either unlucky enough to have been infected and perished, or they had long since fled with the city's wealthy families, disappearing without a trace.
The current Qu County was somewhat luckier. Although the magistrate had fled early, a deputy surnamed Zhang was still somewhat responsible.
Hearing that the visitor was a physician, and a formidable one at that, daring to travel freely in areas ravaged by the plague, Chief Clerk Zhang, along with the few remaining people, hurriedly came out to greet her without needing further explanation.
Moreover, the moment he saw An Ning, he showed no skepticism due to her gender or age. Without a word, he decisively knelt heavily in her direction:
"I beg the divine physician to show mercy and save the people of my county!"
Zhang Huai before her was only in his thirties, but perhaps due to excessive worry and overwork during this period, his hair already showed noticeable signs of graying, and his official robes were equally wrinkled and disheveled.
An Ning let out an almost imperceptible sigh:
"I naturally have the prescription here, but as for the medicinal herbs..."
A county's population numbered at least in the tens of thousands. Delayed until now, at least one-third of them had contracted the illness. No matter how wealthy the Zhen Family was, the amount of medicinal herbs they could gather in a short time was limited.
To be honest, the medicine brought this time was already more than enough to cover the needs of the single county where Zhen Yu was located.
As expected, upon hearing her words, Chief Clerk Zhang's expression turned as bitter as if he had swallowed coptis root.
The few constables behind him also couldn't help but show some anger.
"Young lady, you may not know this, but as soon as the epidemic broke out and seemed to be gaining momentum, those people began hoarding grain and medicine on a large scale. Finally, seeing the situation turning unfavorable, they simply abandoned the city and fled, taking everything with them without a second thought," Chief Clerk Zhang sighed.
If he hadn't sensed the danger and managed to stop and secure a portion of the grain with his men, the situation would only be worse now.
As for the imperial court or the higher-ranking officials... forget it!
No one cared about the lives of people like them.
Raising his head to glance at the noble lady who seemed to be deep in thought, Chief Clerk Zhang bowed deeply once more, his voice earnest:
"Noble lady, please give your orders. Whatever can be done, this humble official will not utter a word of refusal!"
'This humble official,' not 'I' or any other form of address—this indicated his willingness to cede command authority over the government office.
"Our master indeed didn't choose wrong. This person is truly clever," seeing this, Si Yin and Si Qi beside An Ning couldn't help but exchange a glance.
After brief consideration, An Ning then tentatively spoke:
"If I recall correctly, Qu County is surrounded by mountains on three sides. Moreover, it's currently autumn. While the mountains may lack other things, there should be at least some medicinal herbs available, more or less!"
"As for the prescription, I can also make some adjustments as appropriate. Although the effectiveness might not match the previous one..."
"It's fine, it's perfectly fine! At a time like this, just having a cure is already extremely good. Please, young lady, wait a moment. This humble official... this humble official will go organize manpower right away."
"Everything is at your command, young lady."
Without even waiting for An Ning to finish speaking, this chief clerk hurriedly ran off to gather people.
Following that, personnel were assigned, isolation zones were established, and various areas were organized. While reducing the increase in patients, the remaining able-bodied adults were organized to continuously search for medicinal herbs, and the city's physicians were ordered to uniformly process and brew the decoctions...
With An Ning's orders issued one after another, in just a few days, the originally chaotic county town quickly regained order.
Especially after discovering that, although only some cheap medicinal herbs were used, everyone's condition was indeed improving.
Noticing this, in less than a month, the previously lifeless Qu County quickly regained its vitality. There were even surplus medicinal herbs, which were made into various pills and sold to various places by the merchant caravan she contacted, greatly making up for the earlier shortage.
Naturally, along with this came the personal authority of An Ning herself.
After all, it was visibly clear that she currently lacked nothing in terms of wealth, ability, and connections.
Realizing this and knowing his own limitations, Chief Clerk Zhang let out an almost imperceptible sigh before quickly taking a step back and respectfully presenting the magistrate's seal, which he had secretly kept, with both hands.
Not expecting this turn of events, An Ning couldn't help but feel pleased as she looked at the seal before her.
Excellent, she wouldn't have to go through extra trouble now!
Indeed, no matter the era, dealing with clever people makes things easier.
As for the other obstacles within the county... isn't that normal? Everyone is human; who doesn't have their own little thoughts? If everyone were harmonious and amiable, she'd think she had fallen into a trap!