Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 197 Medical School
The incident of "The Peacock Flies Southeast" came to an end with the "surrender" of Gao Ming, Qin Gu and others. Although their specific punishment is still to be examined by the Ministry of Justice, it has no impact on the overall situation.
The final result is undoubtedly Bai Tu's great victory...
Not only did the people of Lujiang County welcome the new policy, but Bai Tu remained "arrogant" in the face of feudal etiquette. At the same time, Kong Rong's saying of " the benevolent love others " also gained ground among the people.
Wang Lang's son, Wang Su, also began to emerge and was considered a new generation of Confucian scholars...
After this incident, Jiao Qing was promoted to the new chief clerk of Lujiang Prefecture's Office. Considering that Lujiang Prefecture's Lu Kang had not actually taken office, Jiao Qing's power was quite great.
Of course, Jiao Qing was just a minor official before, and even if he was somewhat intelligent, he might not be able to adapt to this position all at once.
But it doesn’t matter, Zhou Yu hasn’t left yet. During this period, Jiao Qing can not only ask him for advice, but Zhou Yu will also be in charge of Lujiang’s military and political affairs for the time being.
As for the Gao and Jiao families, Bai Tu did not say much to the Ministry of Justice. He just handled the case according to the law...
This was how they treated the Xu family before, so the crimes of these people are far less serious than Xu Gong’s.
Although many people believed that the punishment for Xu was too light, and even except for the eldest son who was actually involved, even Xu Gong’s widow and young son were not implicated...but Bai Tu did not regret this decision.
Not long ago, when Bai Tu was assassinated and chased by the criminals to the bank of the Qin River, he was assisted by several not very friendly archers and retreated to the other side.
Bai Tu still doesn't know the identities of those people, and it's obvious that they have no intention of coming to surrender, but... Bai Tu already has some guesses.
Because on the arrows that "drove" him across the river, the Wind Catcher found a clue - arrows of official shape, specially loaded for the War Armor bow.
Those sharpshooters not only had excellent archery skills, but were also extremely elusive when shooting their arrows. They seemed to be good at assassination, so they did not use pure laser arrows.
This type of standard arrow of the Han army has not been used in Jiangdong for a long time. The General's Office of Chariots and Cavalry has adopted new technology. Moreover, these arrows are old models before the Yellow Turban Rebellion and are rare.
However, not long ago, a large number of these bows and arrows were discovered in Jiangdong - in Xu's warehouse, so they were also charged with the crime of privately storing military equipment!
Therefore, Bai Tu suspected that those people were Xu Gong's followers.
This would also explain why they discovered the whereabouts of the Yuan assassin in advance - it is very likely that the latter took the initiative to contact them for cooperation!
However, for various reasons, Xu Gong's followers not only did not cooperate with them, but even helped Bai Tu.
Of course, the other party was obviously not interested in Bai Tu, which was why Bai Tu felt "confused" before.
On the one hand, he was taking risks to assist Bai Tu, but on the other hand... not only did he have no intention of surrendering, he even showed no respect for Bai Tu.
After finding out this, Bai Tu also asked the Feng Buwei to stop. After the other party "helped others for fun", he insisted on not leaving his name, so Bai Tu didn't need to pursue him...
By this time Bai Tu had returned to Shouchun, and the malaria had been completely under control. No new patients had been found for more than ten days, and other patients had all recovered... or died.
The malaria that swept across half of Jiujiang County ultimately killed only dozens of people, and most of them happened before the emergence of artemisinin medicine. This was undoubtedly a miracle in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Bai Tu was lobbying Zhang Zhongjing personally at this time...
Originally, after malaria was under control, Zhang Zhongjing was preparing to leave and continue traveling around the world and practicing medicine, but Bai Tu cordially invited Zhang Zhongjing to stay in the General of Chariots and Cavalry's Mansion...to be precise, to stay in the medical school founded by the General of Chariots and Cavalry's Mansion.
"Medical school? Is it an office under the General's Mansion? Well... Thank you, Mr. Bai, for your hospitality, but I am still better at treating patients." Zhang Zhongjing thought that Bai Tu wanted him to be the head doctor.
For ordinary doctors, being able to serve as an official is naturally more promising than practicing medicine. However... Zhang Zhongjing was a true doctor who did not even care about his position as a prefect and directly resigned from his official position to practice medicine!
"It's not a government office, but I want to set up a school to train doctors." Bai Tu said.
"A school? How many people will it take? If Mr. Bai has any good talents, you can introduce them to me. They can travel with me and come back to serve me after they have learned enough in a few years... This is different from reading and writing. If it's like a private school, there will be dozens of people. I'm afraid I won't be able to do it." Zhang Zhongjing said.
This is also why Mr. Zhang had a very good impression of Bai Tu. Otherwise, how could ordinary princes have received such treatment?
However, Mr. Zhang was wrong. He thought Bai Tu just wanted to find a private doctor, and he knew that Zhang Zhongjing would definitely not stay, so he took a roundabout way.
"No, Mr. Zhang misunderstood what I meant... It's not just a dozen or dozens of people. I hope that in the future, medical schools will be able to produce hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of doctors!" Bai Tu said.
Zhang Zhongjing was stunned when he heard this. Before he could say anything, Bai Tu added, "I have checked the livelihood data in various cities and found that during the heyday of the Han Dynasty, the average life expectancy of the people was 45 to 50 years old..."
The average life expectancy in the Han Dynasty was actually the highest in the "broad sense" of ancient times, even exceeding that of the Ming Dynasty, and the best in "ancient times".
The main reasons are the abundance of material resources, adequate nutrition, and great development in medical care, especially during the Western Han Dynasty, when ordinary people could eat meat every now and then, and the per capita nutritional level was so high that it was unmatched by other feudal dynasties.
Whether in terms of average life expectancy or average height, the Han Dynasty can be said to be the best, so there is a saying in the Western Han Dynasty that "one Han is equal to five Hu" - the Han people at that time were much stronger than the Hu people, and they were superior in all aspects from IQ to physique to equipment...
The second is the Ming Dynasty, and then the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
It was probably because the heyday of the Tang Dynasty was too short, and... the rapid population growth also limited the growth of life expectancy in terms of nutrition. After the Ming Dynasty, a large amount of high-yield crops flowed in, which increased the average life expectancy again.
“However, it has been less than forty years since the Yellow Turban Rebellion… In addition to the displacement of people due to the turmoil and the shortage of food due to famine, the decline in medical standards and the reduction in doctors are also important factors,” Bai Tu said with emotion.
If you can’t even get enough food, it will naturally be more difficult to see a doctor.
"Mr. Bai has such a loving heart and is worthy of the title of 'benevolent man'. I am naturally willing to do my part! But... Mr. Bai may have thought this matter was too simple. With my ability, I can only train two or three apprentices in seven or eight years. But with hundreds or thousands... I am afraid that human power is limited." Zhang Zhongjing said regretfully.
"No, that's why I want to set up a medical school. I'll select suitable people from the county school as students, and then have other doctors as teachers to teach them layer by layer...Mr. Zhang doesn't need to do everything himself. He just needs to teach other teachers, write textbooks, and then be responsible for the teaching of future doctoral students in the medical school." Bai Tu blushed slightly.
This is already the work of several people!
Sure enough, after hearing what Bai Tu said, Zhang Zhongjing looked a little hesitant. However, Zhang Zhongjing's concerns were obviously different from Bai Tu's. He didn't feel that the burden was too heavy, but...
"If this is the case, how can we ensure that students can learn something? Medicine is different from other skills. If you don't master the skills, it's better not to learn them," said Zhang Zhongjing.
As a famous doctor at the time, what Mr. Zhang hated most was people without medical ethics, and the second most was mediocre doctors who misled people.
"I have a different opinion on this point... Medicine is extensive and profound. It's rare to find someone like Mr. Zhang who can cover all aspects. In this case, why not classify them and teach different people different diseases, trauma, heart and lung damage, poisoning, octogenarian diseases, etc." Bai Tu asked in return.
"If this is the case, wouldn't it be terrible if we meet patients whose diseases we don't understand?" Zhang Zhongjing worriedly said.
"In fact, after the students of the medical school finish their studies, I plan to set up county hospitals in all counties , with dozens of doctors, each with their own specialties. In the villages, there will be some mobile doctors. They only need to know the basics and treat minor headaches and fevers. Those with serious illnesses can come to the county hospital, or even the larger county hospital." Bai Tu said.
In contrast, nowadays, even if there is more than one doctor in a medical clinic, there are usually only two or three apprentices and descendants, and after the apprentices have completed their training, they will usually set up their own business.
After all...the desire to monopolize knowledge exists not only in the narrow sense of "learning", but also in doctors.
However, Zhang Zhongjing did not have such concerns. If there was a suitable candidate, he would like as many people as possible to learn it. But before... Zhang Zhongjing was influenced by "common sense" and believed that a doctor must be "all-round", so he had never found a suitable candidate.
"In this case, do medical students also have to become officials?" Zhang Zhongjing still had concerns.
"A hospital is not an ordinary government office. The doctors there are supported by the government, but they generally do not need to be granted official positions, and they do not need to be concerned with government affairs other than medical care." Bai Tu knew what Mr. Zhang was worried about.
The idea that those who excel in their studies will become officials has been popular for hundreds of years, along with the Confucian idea of Confucian scholars governing the country, and has become deeply rooted.
However, in Zhang Zhongjing's view, it was a waste to spend so much effort to train a doctor if he wanted to become an official.
Bai Tu later told Zhang Zhongjing about his idea of a battlefield doctor system - a certain proportion of medical soldiers should be equipped in the army. At the same time, in large-scale battles, temporary field hospitals can be set up to give priority to treating friendly forces... When resources permit, captured enemy troops can also be treated!
In the short term, these are just a waste of money, but Bai Tu does not think this is simply "charity".
How much benefit could be created if a 40-year-old farmer could live 10 years longer?
How much combat effectiveness can be created if a 30-year-old veteran serves for five more years?
"It's difficult." Zhang Zhongjing said finally.
"It's indeed difficult." Bai Tu nodded.
Bai Tu was no longer worried about whether he would succeed in persuading Zhang Zhongjing, because... when Zhang Zhongjing said "it's difficult", his expression was firm.
Sure enough, Zhang Zhongjing then said, "If the general is determined, I am willing to work with him to move forward."
Seeing that he had convinced Zhang Zhongjing, Bai Tu couldn't help but feel very happy. He had quite a few medical paper materials, but... Bai Tu himself couldn't understand it, and it wasn't appropriate to add more burden to Pang Tong.
With Zhang Zhongjing's willingness to join, the medical school that had been under preparation for a long time could finally get on track.
Moreover, Zhang Zhongjing not only represented himself, but also made it clear to Bai Tu that he would try his best to recall several of his early students, as well as some old friends who he considered to be famous doctors, to join in the event!