There was light rain falling in the sky, and from a distance, it looked foggy.
On the wasteland, black smoke billowed up into the sky.
"As soon as the summer heat is over, the rain will gradually increase."
Li Ke stood on the side of the road, looking at the thick smoke not far away. After all, it was rain that wet the firewood, which caused it to burn like this.
At this moment, No. 07 came here on horseback.
"Your Highness, the last batch of remains has been burned."
No. 07 stopped reporting.
"Go back to the city."
Li Ke Gujing Wubo's face didn't show a trace of fluctuation, he just nodded slightly to show that he understood.
The sound of horse hooves started and then gradually faded away.
Order in Cangzhou City has been gradually restored, and the people who went out to escape the epidemic are now slowly coming back.
Compared with the depression when they first arrived in Cangzhou City, the city now has gradually begun to smell a bit like fireworks.
Of course, in order to prevent the recurrence of the epidemic, everyone wears a mask on their face.
Naturally, this kind of mask cannot be compared with later generations, but it is still better than nothing and can play a certain protective role.
It also indicated that smallpox was not over yet.
Li Ke rode his horse down the street, and the people all gave way.
But there was no resentment or anger in their eyes.
Instead, he showed gratitude.
"Dad, who was that person who just passed by?"
The child in the man's arms looked towards the direction where the horse disappeared and asked doubtfully.
"That lord is our great benefactor in Cangzhou City."
"Without her, you wouldn't be able to see your father and mother now."
The child's father heard this, touched the child's head and replied.
Small head, big doubts.
A child of several years old had no idea what a disaster he had just experienced.
"Then daddy, should we repay the favor?"
The child thought for a moment and replied.
The man nodded affirmatively and said: "Of course, if His Highness King Wu is in need in the future, dad will do whatever he can to help."
Hearing this, the child also smiled and said: "Daddy, daddy, Yue'er must also repay the favor!"
"Haha, Yue'er is so good, but I have to remember what you said."
County government
"Is Taoist Sun at the county office today?"
Li Ke looked at the two guards and asked aloud.
After this place was turned into an emergency command center and no longer admitted patients, Sun Simiao rarely came here.
Most of the time I stay on the front line.
Li Ke admires this very much. The situation on the front line is extremely tragic. In addition to potential risks, you also have to treat hundreds of patients.
Not too busy at all.
"Back to Your Highness, Taoist Master Sun is at the county office today."
After receiving the answer, Li Ke immediately got off his horse and walked into the county government office.
When you enter the yamen, you can see many people busy. Some of them are officials who have recovered from their illness, and some are young people who have been recruited.
As a pacifier, Li Ke had the task of restoring local order. Therefore, after the epidemic was brought under control, he began to try to restore the basic operations of Cangzhou City.
After a few days, it has already achieved some results.
Otherwise, the city will definitely not regain some smell of fireworks.
"His Royal Highness King Wu."
"See His Highness King Wu."
"I have met His Highness King Wu."
There were words of salute along the way, and Li Ke nodded slightly to make it clear.
Entering the lobby, Dang even saw Sun Simiao sitting there, writing something at the moment.
Seeing Li Ke come in, he immediately raised his head.
"Your Highness, you came just in time. I just have something to ask you."
"What do you want from me, Taoist Master?"
Li Ke became interested after hearing this and walked to the table.
"It's about the smallpox situation this time..."
Sun Simiao picked up what was written on the table, handed it to Li Ke, and then began to explain.
"After many visits and inquiries, I finally found out where the source of smallpox came from..."
Li Ke raised his eyebrows and listened carefully to the other party's explanation.
Smallpox cannot suddenly break out for no reason. There must be a source, which is the first smallpox patient.
The mission of the pacifier also includes traceability, but in his opinion, this task is probably difficult to complete.
First of all, because the disaster relief was not timely in the early stages of the epidemic, many people who had been infected did not receive treatment and died.
All these corpses must be destroyed. When people destroy them voluntarily, if the situation is not reported in time, the information will be incomplete.
Once the survivors also die, it becomes even more impossible to trace the origin.
Of course, it may be possible to determine the source from the disaster situation. After all, the initial area must have been the most severely affected.
"From the collection of patients from various places, I concluded that the place where smallpox first broke out should be a small mountain village."
"Small village?"
Li Ke couldn't help but frowned.
"Yes, it's a small mountain village!"
"There are a total of 135 households in Xiaoshan Village. This time, 35 households were wiped out from smallpox. Although it is not as good as Xiaojiahe Village, the source must be here!"
Sun Simiao said with absolute certainty.
"Please give the Taoist priest a detailed explanation." Li Ke asked after hearing this.
It’s not that he hasn’t seen the disaster situations in various places, but it’s precisely because he’s seen them that he finds them a bit unbelievable.
Because among so many counties and villages in Cangzhou, the losses of small mountain villages can be said to be ranked at the bottom.
In many places, groups were directly wiped out and all accounts were cancelled.
Sun Simiao paused, looked at Li Ke and said, "Speaking of which, I have to thank His Highness for this."
"Thank me?"
This made him even more surprised.
"His Royal Highness once ordered that people should hunt and kill rats in their spare time, saying it was to prevent the emergence of new infectious diseases."
"At first, I was very confused about this, but because I was too busy helping patients, I didn't pay much attention..."
Sun Simiao sighed, with an expression of shame on his face, and then continued to talk.
It wasn't until he accidentally rescued a patient that he discovered that the patient had symptoms of stage one smallpox, but it was much more severe than the others.
After subsequent inspection, it was found that the man's body had traces of animal bites.
Having practiced medicine for decades, he was naturally able to tell that these were wounds left by rats.
In this way, Sun Simiao realized something.
After animals bite people, the human body will have some adverse reactions, the most common of which are fever and colds.
Is it possible that smallpox appeared after someone was bitten by an animal?
In fact, smallpox does not occur naturally in humans.
When Li Ke heard this, he suddenly realized.
He didn't know much about smallpox, but rats could indeed serve as carriers of the virus. Rats were the culprits of the infamous Black Death!
Therefore it is also called the plague!
The reason why he ordered the killing of rats at that time was because he was afraid that after the rats ate the dead bodies, they would develop the plague virus in their bodies.
