Manbao Baishan and Bai Erlang saw Yin You and Liu Huan at the palace gate. The five of them looked at each other, then lowered their heads and followed the chamberlain who came to greet them into the palace.
Man Bao and Bai Shan held something in their hands. The guards were about to open it for inspection. Man Bao said, "This is a record about cowpox."
As for the box in Bai Shan's hand, he said: "This is our New Year's gift to Your Majesty and the Queen."
The guards glanced at them, then opened the box and checked to make sure there were no sharp objects before putting the person in.
As soon as they left, the guards couldn't help whispering, "You're really rich."
The chamberlain also knew that they had brought gifts to the emperor, so when they were halfway there, he reminded them in a low voice: "Your Majesty is in a good mood. His Royal Highness Prince Gong and the princesses are having breakfast with him."
Man Bao immediately became alert and glanced at him gratefully. Bai Shan even stuffed a purse into his hand.
The chamberlain refused. Everyone in the palace had received favors from Zhou Man to some extent. Even if they couldn't use it now, they would need it in the future. Therefore, unless the master explicitly made it difficult for the other party, they would not want to embarrass Zhou Man.
Bai Shan could only take back his wallet and follow the waiter to the Tai Chi Hall.
The emperor is not in the main hall, but in the study at the back.
As soon as Manbao and the others entered, they found that Prince Gong was also there. He was sitting on a table writing. Manbao and the others glanced at it and secretly felt that he must have been punished to write.
Prince Gong also raised his head to look at them, then lowered his head and continued writing.
The five people quickly looked away and knelt down to salute the emperor.
The emperor raised his eyes from the desk and glanced at them. He glanced at the two boxes on the ground and snorted softly: "It came quite quickly. I thought I might not see you until evening if I called in the morning."
Woolen cloth."
Man Bao immediately took the lead in pleading guilty and said: "Your Majesty has called you, how dare you neglect me?"
"Then tell me how you went on this trip to the Western Regions." The emperor thought of something and stopped them talking: "We won't talk about going, we will only talk about coming back."
"Are you going? You have a lot of reasons. Did you go there to find out the prescriptions along the way? I know, when you come back, how did you manage to arrive in Shazhou with General Ashina and set off from Shazhou on the same day, but you are so different from each other?
He is late...how many days?"
He turned to ask Gu Zhong.
Gu Zhong bowed and whispered back: "Twenty-six days."
"You did this so that you arrived in the capital twenty-six days later than General Ashina? This is enough for one person to make another trip to the Western Regions."
Man Bao added: "At most we can only go back and forth to Shazhou."
The emperor was angry? "Isn't Shazhou westward enough? You walked from Shazhou to the capital for more than thirty days? This is more than two trips. How dare you talk back?"
Everyone lowered their heads and knelt down honestly. Bai Shan apologized and said, "Is it because I was delayed on the way? This time I returned to Beijing and brought veterans who had been vaccinated with cowpox. They may be injured? Or they are old and weak, and they are riding
It’s a bullock cart, so the speed is much slower.”
The emperor frowned. "Is there no one in Anxi? How can we use a group of veterans to vaccinate?"
Man Bao explained: "The war was going on at that time? And vaccination with cowpox was considered a matter of life and death? People must be willing to do it."
Although the emperor still wanted to scold them, he felt that business was more important. So he reluctantly raised his hand and asked them to get up and answer. He asked: "How is the cowpox incident going?"
Man Bao immediately opened the box, took out two booklets and a thick stack of paper and began to report on the work.
The emperor heard that there were no deaths, and that they were all immune to smallpox. He was overjoyed and asked, "Really?"
Manbao responded with a yes? Hand over the booklet and information.
The emperor flipped through it. He couldn't understand the pulse conditions recorded in the book, but he could look at the symptoms. For example, he could understand the words fever, high fever, low fever, and acne.
The emperor looked at the experimenters' household registration and experience, and couldn't help but knock on the table and asked: "Are you bringing these people back to keep them under lock and key?"
Man Bao: "...it's not like we should keep it closed. It's been more than three months since the vaccination. I want to observe it for another three months to determine whether there are any sequelae."
She said: "It would be great if they can stay in the capital. If they don't want to stay and return to their hometown, it's okay. Later, it's okay to ask the local officials to bring a doctor to consult them and confirm their pulse and physical condition."
The emperor waved his hand and said: "Why is it so troublesome? Let the people in the inner treasury make arrangements for them. Since he is a veteran, he should be able to raise horses and do farm work. I will arrange for him to go to the imperial manor."
Bai Shan couldn't help but said: "Your Majesty, they are injured and have been discharged from the military."
"I didn't tell them to continue serving as soldiers. We will stay in the Imperial Mansion to see the situation. The cowpox issue is of great importance and cannot be ignored."
Once it is confirmed that cowpox can be vaccinated, people in their country may not get smallpox in the future.
Bai Shan did not object anymore.
The emperor then asked them about their return journey again, "You can go slower with more people, but tell me, how did you manage to go twenty-six days slower than General Ashina?"
He has been slow for five or six days, which is the limit. After all, although General Ashina is working hard, he is not made of iron. It will take time to come back, okay?
This time, the five of them stopped making excuses and lowered their heads to admit their mistake.
The emperor snorted coldly and stared at them for a long time before looking at the other box and asked: "What is this?"
Bai Shan immediately picked up the box and said: "These are some native products that I collected in the Western Regions and brought them back to Your Majesty and Your Majesty. It happens to be the New Year, so I want to donate them to Your Majesty and Your Majesty as a New Year gift.
"
The emperor glanced at Gu Zhong, who immediately went down with a smile, picked up the box, and opened it for the emperor to see.
Inside are spices and gems, packed in small boxes.
The emperor didn't like musk very much, he liked styrax. At this time, there was a whole piece of styrax in the box. As soon as he opened it, a faint fragrance slowly came out.
The emperor's face looked much better and he asked: "I heard someone said that you went to the Western Regions and participated in the Conquest of the West, and got a lot of trophies, right?"
Bai Shan immediately said that all the trophies had been handed over to General Ashina for registration and collection into the treasury. He paused and explained: "In order to boost morale when we re-attacked Kucha King City, the Lieutenant General for the first time
The spoils collected were distributed among the soldiers to encourage them to attack the city."
He said: "Because the soldiers were fighting with their lives, the ministers could not break their promises, so they were not asked to hand it over again, and this part fell into the hands of the soldiers."
These General Ashina had all reported back. The emperor nodded slightly, and then asked, "Where did you get these gems and spices?"
Bai Shan and others answered confidently, "I bought it!"
"Really?" The emperor looked at them suspiciously, "Do you have so much money?"