Chapter 50 Smallpox and Vaccination(1/2)
Su He heard that Wang Zhongce agreed to join his team and rebelled with him.
He immediately stepped forward and held Wang Zhongce's hand, and said excitedly: "Sir, you are like a tiger with wings, just like Liu Bang got Xiao He, Liu Bei got Zhuge Liang."
Wang Zhongce said modestly: "I dare not compare myself with Marquis Fou and Marquis Wu."
"Mr. Wang, there is something I have been hesitating about whether to kill King Zhu Changhao of Rui or not.
This man deserves to die, but his identity is too important. Once he is executed, the Ming court will fight tooth and nail.
We haven't stabilized Hanzhong yet, and I'm afraid we won't be able to withstand the imperial court's attack."
Su He read the testimony given by King Rui Zhu Changhao.
This was completely different from the Ming Dynasty vassal king in his impression.
He didn't do many evil things, but he only occupied more than 100,000 acres of fertile land and forced thousands of people to death.
This crime was enough to kill King Zhu Changhao several times.
Su He also knew that Wang Zhongce had a good relationship with King Rui and wanted to see if he was sincere in joining him.
"Commander Su, just call me by my name. You don't have to call me Mr. Wang.
Whether to kill Rui Wang Zhu Changhao or not depends on what Commander Su wants to achieve.
Zhu Changhao appropriated fertile land and used the money to build temples.
He indulged his evil slaves, persecuted the people, and robbed the women of the people.
If you want to maintain a simple criminal law and believe that only those who commit serious crimes should be killed, then enforce the law.
But there is no need to rush to kill, you can wait until Hanzhong is stable before killing.
In the early stage of sealing Hanzhong City, I forged some official documents, so the Ming court could not detect it in a short time.
When the time is right, Zhu Changhao will be tried publicly, the news will be passed to the capital, and the Ming court will mobilize the army.
This will take a long time, at least about half a year."
Wang Zhongce was very familiar with Zhu Changhao. It was through discussing Buddhism with Zhu Changhao that his relationship became so close.
Zhu Changhao is obsessed with Buddhism and Taoism.
In order to believe in Buddhism, he did not sleep with the princess, and he still has no children.
Wang Zhongce once had the idea of marrying his sister to the vassal king or the royal family.
After discovering that Zhu Changhao believed in Buddhism to such an extent, and thinking that the Zhu family often had strange emperors, he gave up on this idea.
After listening to Wang Zhongce's analysis, Su He adopted his opinion.
"Wang Zhongce, I have a private question to ask you.
You are so old, why haven't you married yet?
If your family runs such a big medical clinic, it’s not like you’re short of money.”
Su He didn't marry a wife at his age because his family was really poor before and no one came to talk to her about matchmaking.
Wang Zhongce glanced at Wang Wenjun, sighed and said: "There is nothing we can do. My parents passed away one after another, and I have been keeping filial piety to my parents for the past six years.
While I was in Dingyou, I was not allowed to take wives and concubines.
I have been engaged to be married this year. I have decided to get married with my in-laws after my marriage ended this year. I am planning to get married on New Year's Day. She has been waiting for me for six years.
My brother-in-law cannot talk about marriage because he is filial to his parents.
I missed the age to get engaged, and I haven’t decided to get married yet.”
"It's okay, I'm only eighteen years old, I'll get married sooner or later.
I’m already twenty this year and I haven’t gotten married yet, so I’m not in a hurry.”
Su He's tone was relaxed and he said it without caring at all.
"Wang Zhongce, you will temporarily serve as the prefect of Hanzhong to stabilize the situation in Hanzhong.
Train subordinate officials, recruit some officials who are willing to join us, and manage the counties in Hanzhong well.
At the same time, we released the news that we are preparing to open courses to obtain academic qualifications to stabilize the hearts and minds of students."
Wang Zhongce didn't even expect that he would become a prefect just after joining.
He has been working in the Ming Dynasty for half his life, and he probably can't even get involved in a branch line.
Su He turned to look at Wang Wenjun again and said, "Mr. Wang Jijun, I heard that your medical skills are very superb.
Do you know about the technique of variolation? It is to prevent smallpox."
Every time he saw Su Xiong's pockmarked face, Su He would be reminded of the most dangerous thing in this era - smallpox.
The smallpox epidemic that year took away half of the village's population, but their family was fine.
Su He is very worried about himself now.
He has no antibodies to the smallpox virus and will only be infected if he gets smallpox.
Then you have to fight for physical fitness, as it is too easy to die.
Smallpox killed more people than all wars combined.
Smallpox virus All living beings are equal, whether they are common people or princes and nobles.
As long as you get smallpox, you can only rely on your body to carry it. If you can't survive it, you will die.
According to unofficial records, Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty was taken away by smallpox at a young age.
Kang Mazi was able to sit on the throne of emperor only because he had survived smallpox.
Su He knew that there was a way to eradicate smallpox, and that was to vaccinate against smallpox.
Smallpox vaccine, also called cowpox vaccine, was discovered by British doctor Edward Jenner more than a hundred years later.
This is the first time in human history that a virus has been defeated.
Su He bought a lot of cows, but none of them had cowpox.
Su He didn't know whether this cowpox virus was unique to Britain.
I understand that some doctors now know how to vaccinate against smallpox.
Su He was going to be vaccinated against smallpox first to gain an immune barrier against smallpox.
If you really can’t find cows with cowpox, then you can buy European cows through Red Hair Man, and you can always encounter cows with cowpox.
The advent of the cowpox vaccine allowed everyone under the vaccine to gain an immune barrier to smallpox.
When Wang Wenjun heard about human pox, her eyes were filled with tears and her face looked sad.
"My father is a master of variolation. Our brothers, the clerks at the medical clinic, and my father's apprentices were all vaccinated against variola by him.
During his lifetime, he vaccinated 7,000 to 8,000 people, and only 42 people died from malignant pox.
It's a pity that my father passed away just after middle age, and I'm not good enough to vaccinate others during normal times."
"Damn it! This success rate is too high."
Su He opened his mouth wide, he was really shocked.
This mortality rate is very different from the 30% mortality rate of smallpox.
Su He was very puzzled as to why vaccination, such a good technology, had not been popularized.
He asked directly: "Mr. Wang Jijun, vaccination can effectively prevent smallpox. Why has this technology not been promoted?"
Wang Wenjun carefully controlled her voice, making her voice rougher.
"Commander Su, the technique of vaccination is not difficult, but the method of cultivating the vaccine is very difficult. It all depends on talent.
The vaccine used for vaccination needs to be cultivated on people for seven or eight rounds before it can greatly reduce the probability of malignant acne.
To cultivate vaccinia, someone needs to pay the price with their life, and who wants to be the price?
Before there was a mature vaccine, the number of people who developed malignant acne was too high, and it was not much different from being directly sick.
The method of vaccination originated in the Song Dynasty. Over the past few hundred years, my father has been able to cultivate vaccinia to a level that can be counted on one hand.
My current level is considered to be the ultimate level that ordinary people can practice.
The probability of developing acne after vaccination is about five out of 100 people.
The usual practice in our medical clinic is to vaccinate people temporarily when smallpox appears nearby.
In this way, some people will die from vaccination, and the people will accept it.
Another point is that some quack doctors directly use serum from patients to vaccinate people without cultivating it.
As a result, malignant pox appeared in the whole village. This kind of thing happened frequently, and the people were very afraid of vaccination.
And the most important thing is that ordinary people can’t afford it.
My father charges ten taels for vaccination.
Except for the gentry, no common people can afford it.
To be continued...