It had been several days since he last entered the Imperial Capital. When he came back this time, sitting in the carriage, Yan Liqiang discovered that just after he entered from the west gate of the Imperial Capital, there were two long queues on the streets of the Imperial Capital, several hundred meters long, bustling with people. There were men, women, young and old in the queues, from old men in their seventies or eighties to children of three or two years old.
Because there were too many people, the order of the team was inevitably a little chaotic. People in the team rushed to the front, and from time to time someone cut in line and quarreled with people in the team. Several criminal police officers in the Imperial Capital City were standing next to the team to maintain order, holding iron rulers and shouting loudly, "Don't cut in line, come one by one, come one by one, everyone has a share, whoever breaks the rules, be careful of the iron ruler..."
As the detective was speaking, he saw a figure sneaking into the team ahead. He immediately walked over and pulled the figure out of the team by the collar, "Zhu Lao Ba, what are you doing?"
Zhu Laoba was a scoundrel in the Imperial Capital. He was arrested but he was not afraid. Instead, he smiled and cupped his hands, "Brother Hong, I was just standing in line here. I went to the toilet. Didn't I just come back?"
"Get out of here. When will you make trouble for me again? If anything goes wrong, be careful or I'll break your dog legs. Go line up!" The detective glared at the young man, waved his hand, and threw him directly onto the street. Like a vicious dog, he fell down in a mess. The young man didn't dare to make a fuss. After standing up, he patted his butt and hurriedly ran to the back of the queue in the distance to line up.
"Eunuch Li, what are these people doing?" Yan Liqiang asked in surprise to "Little Li" who was sitting next to him.
Because it was Eunuch Liu who summoned Yan Liqiang, Little Lizi took the trouble to personally send Yan Liqiang to Eunuch Liu's residence. Yan Liqiang could not refuse, so he had to come in Little Lizi's four-wheeled carriage.
Little Li squinted his eyes and looked at the scene on the street outside the car window. The expression on his face was a bit like that of Eunuch Liu squinting his eyes, which made him look much more mature. When he heard Yan Liqiang's question, Little Li turned his head and said, "Is this the imperial court giving vitality soup to the people of the Imperial Capital?"
"Vitality soup?" Yan Liqiang was surprised. "What is this?"
"Hasn't the White Lotus Sect been making trouble these days? They've been throwing bloody corpses everywhere and spreading rumors of corpse plague, causing panic among the people in the capital. The emperor and the ministers in the court are also anxious, so they asked the Imperial Hospital to find a way to see if there is any soup medicine to prevent and treat corpse plague. I heard that the doctors in the Imperial Hospital searched through ancient books and discussed for several days before finally coming up with the recipe for Yuanqi Soup. It is said that as long as you drink this Yuanqi Soup, you will have the ability to resist corpse plague, so the government ordered the people to line up on the street and go to those drinking points to drink Yuanqi Soup. No one can be missed..."
Yan Liqiang nodded. This vitality soup, from the name, seems to be able to enhance immunity. Yan Liqiang doesn't know whether this thing is useful in the face of corpse plague, but it is better to have it than not. The most important thing is that looking at the queue, it can at least make the people living in the Imperial Capital feel at ease. However, the queue is too long. "Can ordinary people make this vitality soup at home? Why do they have to queue up here to drink it?"
"I heard that the process of making this Yuanqi Soup is not easy. Some of the medicines in the recipe are not available in ordinary pharmacies. Only the warehouse of the Imperial Hospital has a lot of them. Your Majesty is sympathetic to the people, so he directly asked the Imperial Hospital to make it and then distributed it to the local officials to organize the people to line up to drink it!"
"Oh, that's how it is!" As he was talking, the carriage had already arrived at the front of the team on the west gate side. Yan Liqiang saw several officers in official uniforms placing a table in front of a tavern. On the table was a large wooden barrel as big as a bathtub, and the barrel was full of dark brown medicine. There were people queuing here. Among them, several petty officials used small bamboo tubes to continuously draw a bucket of medicine from the large barrel and poured it into a row of bowls for the people queuing here to drink. Countless people drank from that bowl, but at this time, ordinary people didn't care about these.
Next to the table with the huge barrels of soup, someone was holding a box of red ink and making a mark on the back of the hand of the person who drank the Yuanqi Soup. "Remember, don't wash it before it dries. You have to check it after two days. People who don't have this mark on the back of their hands have not drunk the Yuanqi Soup and are most likely to be infected with the corpse plague. If you are seen on the street by the criminal police, be careful or you will be arrested and beaten..."
Listening to what the clerk said, the middle-aged man drank the vitality soup and made a mark on the back of his hand. He nodded timidly with a smile on his face, "Sir, can you give me another sip? That day, I lived not far from where the bloody corpse was found. If I drink a little more, I won't be panicked!"
"Hurry up, hurry up!" The official distributing the vitality soup waved his hands impatiently and drove the man away. "Do you think this vitality soup is the carrot soup you cook at home? Drink as much as you want. The adults in the Imperial Hospital said that one jar is enough for one person..."
Seeing the situation outside, Yan Liqiang frowned slightly, feeling that the court's measures seemed too harsh. However, thinking of the current situation in the capital, it seemed understandable. At this time, if he was not strict, big mistakes might occur.
After passing this place, Yan Liqiang had not walked a few steps when he passed by a group of people under the banner of the Imperial Horse and Infantry Division on the street. The group of about 500 people were escorting more than ten four-wheeled cargo carriages. The carriages were loaded with large wooden barrels. The large wooden barrels were exactly the same as the large wooden barrels seen at the medicine distribution place just now, and there were also the marks of the Imperial Hospital on them. The group was rushing out quickly towards the west gate, apparently to deliver the medicine in the barrels to the outside of the city...
"Eunuch Li, are we going to send this vitality soup outside the city?"
"It looks like it should be sent to Huizhou City first, so that the garrison troops and officials there can drink it first, so as to calm people's hearts. It will probably take another two days for the vitality soup outside the Imperial Capital to be distributed, so we should take care of the people in the city first!"
"Besides Imperial Capital, is this Yuan Qi Soup also available in the four suburbs?"
"Of course there is. Who knows where this corpse plague will break out!"
Yan Liqiang stopped talking!
Walking along the street, Yan Liqiang could see a medicine distribution point for drinking Yuanqi Soup that was surrounded by crowds of people or had long queues almost every few hundred meters. It seemed that all the people in the entire Imperial Capital City had rushed to the streets today, lining up to drink the Yuanqi Soup that could prevent and treat corpse plague.
Newsboys were also waving newspapers in the streets, shouting, "Extra Edition, Extra Edition, the Imperial Hospital has brewed a vitality soup, which is distributed for free by the court. People who drink it will not be infected by the corpse plague. Everyone, hurry up and line up to drink it. If you go too late, be careful, it will be gone..."
The night watchmen also came out in broad daylight, beating gongs, running through the streets, and shouting words similar to those of the newsboys.
The air in the Imperial Capital, which has already warmed up, is now agitated by the vitality soup. The people of the Imperial Capital are so grateful that they line up to drink the vitality soup found by the Imperial Hospital, bringing their elderly and children with them...
(End of this chapter)