Zheng Gu thought for a while and said: "It was too chaotic that day, when the yamen guard broke in, it happened to be a break at noon."
He said helplessly: "At that time I was in the backyard, not in the medical office in front, but I heard that they broke in and wanted to arrest people. At that time, I vaguely heard two doctors coming to stop them. The next official was going to go to the front. But standing at the small gate, I heard the government servants pushing the patients and their family members saying that I used fake medicines in the medical office, which killed people.”
He paused for a moment, leaving time for Master Yu and Master Xia to react, and continued after a while: "My intuition was wrong, so I retreated, closed the small door, wrote a letter, and sent the two This account book is handed over to the servants to take it away and send it to the capital for Master."
Master Yu glanced at Zhou Man and asked, "Why are the account books of the medical department in the backyard?"
Zheng Gu said: "Actually, I had an account book for the whole year in my backyard study at that time, including every purchase list."
He said: "The Chinese New Year is approaching, and the medical department needs to make accounts, and the general ledger has to be reported to the imperial medical department for review. If it is cold today, I hardly have time to do these things during the day, and I do them at night, so I brought all the account books back. Do it in the study in the backyard."
The front is empty, and you need to make an extra pot to make a brazier. How can you have a comfortable study in your own home
And there was a wall between the front and back, so Zheng Gu took things home and made them "regardless of business and private interests".
Looking back at this moment, I don't know whether it was luck or misfortune.
"That is to say, when the incident happened, you didn't know where the classic medicine was?"
"Yes." Zheng Gu paused and said: "The four of us, including the servants, were all arrested and imprisoned that day. I found out that there was no code of medicine in the prison the next day. I heard from them that they ran away."
This is actually in line with what Luo County Magistrate said. Luo County Magistrate also said that he ran away with a code of medicine. The code of medicine was not in the mansion on the day of the arrest. He suspected that Zheng Gu sent him out.
Master Yu came back to his senses, and continued to the next question, "Master Xiao Zheng, let's talk about the fake medicine that killed people."
Zheng Gu sighed and said: "On the third day of November, I brought in another batch of medicinal materials, and put them into the warehouse after inspection. Since the beginning of winter, due to the cold weather, the number of sick people has increased a lot, and people from other counties have come to ask for medicine. , but such patients are a minority after all.”
He said: "Although the medical department is located in Luoyang, it is the Luozhou medical department, and you have responsibilities to the other eight counties. Therefore, every once in a while, I will take medicinal materials to other counties to treat poor and cold people for free."
"I remember those five patients, three of them were tenants outside Luoyang city, and two were long-term workers in the east of the city. They were not rich," Zheng Gu said: "The children of their family lived in ten They fell ill one after another during the month, all due to lack of food, physical weakness and cold syndrome caused by the wind, because they seek medical treatment more times and the population is also large, so I remember."
Zheng Gu explained it in detail, even more detailed than what was recorded in the dossier, at least Master Yu and Master Xia did not know that he had treated their children.
Zheng Gu continued: "By November, around the middle of the month, the elderly in their family may have contracted the cold because of the cold weather, physical weakness, and sickness at home. I showed them that it is possible to prick with needles." Only the Mu family and the Huang family took the medicine because they were old ladies who were sick and they didn't want to get the needle."
Zheng Gu was still a little regretful when he said this, and said: "I prescribe medicine, and I always prescribe three doses of medicine, one dose a day. At that time, I went out to other counties after I prescribed the medicine. When I came back, they came to see the doctor again, but the condition did not improve. , but it became more serious. I felt their pulses and felt that the cold symptoms were getting worse. At that time, I suspected that their home environment was not good, so they couldn’t keep warm, or other reasons, which made the condition worse. I gave them again. Three medicines were prescribed."
Zheng Gu paused here, and his voice became low, "But they haven't used up the medicine yet, and they all came to the door two days later, saying that the old man in the family was too sick to get out of bed, and begged me to take a look." .I just went."
"When they arrived at the place, their families were indeed poor, but the bedding of the old people was still barely enough to keep them warm. Taking medicine would not cause them to deteriorate like this. When I felt their pulse, it didn't seem like they had taken the right medicine, but they seemed to have taken it. The medicine looks cold, so I have to check the medicine residue and the medicine they caught."
Zheng Gu paused for a moment before saying: "The nepeta in the medicine has been replaced with mint, and the poria cocos has been replaced with kudzu root."
Master Yu asked if he didn't understand, and directly asked Zhou Man on the opposite side, "Is it serious?"
Zhou Man nodded and said, "Schizonepeta detoxifies the exterior and expels wind, while peppermint dispels wind-heat and clears the head. It is a pungent and cool thing."
She said: "Schizonepeta, peppermint, and sorrel are all similar in appearance. If he replaces it with sorrel, it will be fine. If he replaces it with mint, the medicinal properties are exactly the same."
I have never heard of taking mint to cure wind and cold, but...
Zhou Man frowned slightly, "Although nepeta and mint smell both fragrant, there is a difference between the aromas. They cover up the smell of mint?"
Otherwise, how could the drug boy grabbing the medicine not see it
Zheng Gu nodded, "They have been fumigated with sulfur, and the smell is much lighter. If you don't smell it carefully, the smell is similar to Nepeta."
As for Poria cocos and kudzu root, they are more similar. Even the guys in the medicine shop who have been dealing with medicinal materials all the year round are sometimes fooled.
If someone with a heart makes them a little more similar, it will be even harder to tell them apart.
Lord Yu asked: "And then?"
Zheng Gu took a deep breath and said, "Of the five patients, three survived after I changed the dressing and added acupuncture, and the other two...they are too sick to be effective even with medicine stones."
He said: "I knew there was a problem with the pharmacy, so I went back to check it and found fake medicines. I checked it. If I was really wrong, it must be the batch of medicinal materials that came in on October 15th."
"Why not the batch on the third day of November?" Isn't the latest batch of medicinal materials on the third day of November
"Because those batches of medicinal materials are basically used in other counties, I have checked, and the batch of medicinal materials is fine.
There are not many people who go to other counties to bring Zheng Gu, usually he is both a doctor and a drug boy to collect medicines, after passing through the medicinal materials in his hands, he is sure that there will be no fake ones.
But this group in the medical department...
Because there are not only two doctors in the medical department, but also classic medicines, and five drug boy apprentices to help, basically he is not needed for things like picking medicines.
"What did you find out?"
Zheng Gu said with a serious face: "I can be sure, I will never mistake Nepeta and Poria cocos, so I did not purchase these fake medicines, someone must have brought them in and replaced them."
"The amount of counterfeit medicine we found was not much, and it was sealed in the pharmacy at that time. The fake nepeta only weighed 15 catties and 6 taels, and the fake Poria cocos only weighed 28 catties and 9 taels."
"Could it be that your pharmacy picked up the wrong medicine, mistook mint for Nepeta, and kudzu root for Poria?"