The war on the battlefield stopped, but Murong Jie and Prince Zhenguo both knew that their battle lines had officially been drawn.
This was a battle between the pro-war faction and the pro-peace faction in Northern Desert, except that the pro-peace faction had joined forces with an outsider, Murong Jie.
When Prince Zhenguo returned, he angrily said to Prime Minister Fang: "Murong Jie is a country bumpkin, and he is too arrogant. He is not polite at all when speaking in my Northern Desert. Does he really think that I dare not touch him? If I do, he will die without a burial place."
Prime Minister Fang remained silent. He knew that Murong Jie was not being arrogant today. As the prime minister of Beimo and the leader of the pro-war faction, he had naturally investigated Murong Jie.
This man's methods were neither cruel nor ruthless, but he was very efficient in his work. He was a warrior, but he was good at scheming and his conspiracies were foolproof.
During his tenure as regent in the Great Zhou Dynasty, he vigorously cracked down on corrupt officials with his skillful means and removed them one after another. Even the Emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty did not have such means and courage.
For an emperor, courage is very important.
"What? Do you think that country bumpkin can make some kind of splash?" Prince Zhenguo glanced at Prime Minister Fang unhappily.
Prime Minister Fang tapped his thigh with his fingers and said, "Your Majesty, Murong Jie should not be underestimated. You'd better be careful in dealing with him."
"What can he do in my Northern Desert? You are only boosting others' morale and destroying your own prestige." Prince Zhenguo said unhappily.
Lord Fang shook his head. "No, Your Majesty, I am not saying this to encourage others. Did you see the expressions of Xia Zian and Murong Jie just now? They seem to be confident about the epidemic. Once they cure the plague, they will have a certain reputation in Beimo. Don't forget General Qin Zhou's family, who are now infected with the plague. If Murong Jie and his wife save General Qin Zhou's family, will General Qin Zhou..."
Prince Zhenguo narrowed his eyes. This was something worth worrying about.
Qin Zhou is a person who values her family very much. If Xia Zian really developed a prescription to cure her family, she might really show some mercy.
Women are really troublesome, and Qin Zhou must not be soft-hearted.
He thought for a moment, grabbed the reins and stopped, calling the guards to come forward, "Is the man in charge here called Su Mu? Bring him to see me tonight."
"Yes!" the guard replied.
Before Murong Jie went down the mountain, Zi'an finally confirmed the condition.
She had had some suspicions before, but because she had only been exposed to the disease for a short time and the disease was extremely dangerous, she didn't dare to jump to conclusions.
However, after seeing a patient die in the West District just now, she knew that her diagnosis was probably correct.
There is no way she can cure this disease by herself.
"I hope I'm wrong. I suspect it's plague."
"Plague?" Murong Jie had never heard of plague. "You mean, this is a disease brought to humans by rats? Is it serious?"
"According to documents, there have been three major plague outbreaks in the world... and in several countries combined. The death toll is equal to the total population of our countries combined," Zi'an said solemnly.
"So serious?" Murong Jie was stunned for a moment, "Didn't you say before that it was just an ordinary virus?"
"No, it's not," Zi'an said, looking worried. "I didn't dare to diagnose it at the time because I didn't come into contact with many infectious diseases. However, after a few days of observation and medication, plus the rising death toll, all the symptoms combined, the possibility of plague is very high."
"Oh my god!" Murong Jie couldn't help but be shocked. "Is it so serious? Is there no cure for this plague? How can a disease transmitted by rats be so severe?"
Hearing him say this, Zi'an could conclude that there had never been an outbreak of plague in either the Great Zhou or the Northern Desert.
This is a devastating infectious disease.
The plague can be transmitted through breathing, so the west area was isolated. Zi'an appreciated Su Mu's approach. If he had not divided the areas early, more than half of the people in Muzhai would have died.
Of course, it doesn’t mean that you will be infected if you come into contact with a plague patient. It depends on your resistance.
But, in general, it is highly contagious and extremely dangerous.
There have been three pandemic plague outbreaks around the world. The first was in the sixth century and originated in the Middle East. Almost all countries were infected at the time, killing 100 million people.
The second time was in the 14th century, which also caused the death of a large number of people, no less than the first time.
The third outbreak originated in Yunnan, China, in the mid-nineteenth century and spread to all parts of the world via Hong Kong. Within six years, there were reports of deaths from plague in more than 60 countries. This plague lasted for a long time, and the death toll, according to incomplete statistics, was between 13 million and 25 million.
This was a terrible disease known as the Black Death.
Zi'an is not from the infectious disease department and has done very little research on infectious diseases.
However, even if there is research, modern research on infectious diseases is almost useless here, because there are no modern drugs for plague here.
Zi'an knew some prescriptions for treating plague, and he had given them to the patients over the past two days. Their condition had stabilized slightly, but there was no sign of improvement.
This proves that these prescriptions cannot completely cure the plague.
Moreover, even in modern times, most people with early symptoms can be cured, but if the condition is serious, large amounts of antibiotics are needed to treat it, and it is not 100% curable.
In ancient times, when medicine was backward, treating plague was even more difficult.
Moreover, it is also very difficult to control the epidemic. After the earthquake, the corpses were not handled in time, and snakes, insects, rats and ants gnawed on the corpses, causing the epidemic to spread.
"Then is there no way at all?" Murong Jie asked immediately after being shocked.
"There is no good solution for now. We can only hope that this is not a pandemic. Therefore, we need to inform the emperor of our Great Zhou and ask him to issue an order to eliminate rats and insects throughout the country and prohibit people from the Northern Desert from entering our Great Zhou."
During the three pandemics, plague broke out in some places, but none of them became an epidemic and the death toll was relatively small, which shows that the epidemic was well controlled.
Zi'an hopes to eliminate the source of infection, otherwise, once the plague spreads, it will cause devastating damage.
"I understand. I will go down the mountain immediately." Murong Jie knew that Zi'an would not talk nonsense. Since she said it was the plague, it must be the plague.
"You're going down the mountain? Well, there's no other way. Take the medicine first and then go down the mountain. Try to avoid contact with people as much as possible." Zi'an was actually scared in her heart because she had no medicine.
Zi'an asked the people in Muzhai to quickly make a lot of masks, and everyone had to wear them.
Moreover, they prepared a potion and used it to sterilize and disinfect a large area of the wooden village. All the dead bodies were burned, as well as the belongings of the deceased patients.
Zi'an kept changing the prescription, hoping to curb the spread of the disease.
When the plague broke out around the world, not much was known about it at the time, so it caused the deaths of a large number of people. Zian hoped that he could rely on his knowledge of the plague and traditional Chinese medicine to prevent this plague from becoming a large-scale outbreak.
If God wanted to punish the Emperor of Beimo, he should not punish the people. Moreover, once the plague spreads, it knows no borders and all countries will be affected.
(End of this chapter)