That's it, and then he smelled a stench in the fragrance of soy milk - Liu San was already very familiar with this smell. This is the smell of stables where large animals are raised. There is a small door next to the shop, which opens into a small courtyard. There is a shed in the courtyard, and a small donkey is tied up and grazing on the trough. Not far from the donkey trough is a stone mill, with the bean juice and bean skin left over from grinding the soy milk early in the morning.
Apparently the soy milk used for the crystal-clear tofu on the chopping board outside is made from soy milk ground in this small yard filled with the smell of donkey manure.
Liu San thought to himself, fortunately, the soy milk must be boiled before making tofu. Now he feels more and more how "right" it is for the general office to provide special provisions for the elders.
He was about to go out when suddenly he glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw a figure squirming in the corner of the shed. He was so frightened that he took a few steps back and said loudly: "Who is it?"
It didn't matter that he drank. The followers gathered outside immediately rushed in and shouted: "Who is it? Come out quickly!"
This time, a trembling little girl came out from behind the barn. Her face was smeared with stove ashes, and there were straw stalks hanging from her messy hair.
A Xie Cong shouted loudly: "Who are you? Why are you hiding here?" They were all veterans of the fast class. It is a basic quality to show off one's authority in front of the people. The little girl suddenly burst into tears, and her tears fell instantly. The ashes were scattered all over the place, making a big painted face.
The lady boss of the tofu shop who registered at the shop quickly came over to say hello and said she was his daughter.
"Your daughter? Didn't you say she went to her uncle's house and wasn't at home?" asked the police officer in charge of registration.
"About...approximately...I came back just now..." The boss was very embarrassed and quickly took out a bunch of money, "This is a small token of appreciation. Let the servants take it to have a cup of tea."
The police waved their hands and said, "We don't want the money. You must cooperate with the government census honestly! Your daughter is obviously at home, why do you say she is not at home? This is deceiving the government!"
The owner of the tofu shop bent down and bowed his head repeatedly: "Yes, yes, it's just a temporary obsession." He secretly complained in his heart. Today, an Australian came to check the household registration. He didn't know the route, and he was afraid that the overseas barbarians would see what happened to his daughter, so he asked his daughter to hide in the animal shed and lied about not being at home. I didn’t expect that this Australian was so meticulous in his work that he would even come in and take a look at this smelly livestock shed! This mistake was caught by the errand, but the lion opened his mouth. I don’t want hundreds of dollars, it seems I have to use silver.
With a frown on his face, he took out a tael of silver from his waistband and stuffed it into the hand of the leading policeman, but was rejected again. Liu San looked out coldly, and the eyes of several associates almost burst out with fire. I couldn't help but be secretly amused.
Liu San asked the boss to take him to see the well, but the boss was puzzled. However, when I saw that the Australian express team repeatedly refused to accept money and did not deliberately make things difficult, I was surprised and felt a lot more at ease. Liu San wanted to see the well, so he took him to see it.
The well is in the kitchen behind the shop, but it uses a wooden well rail. This was the first time Liu San saw it. Liu San asked him to fetch a bucket of water and tested it with his hands. The water temperature was very low - this is a characteristic of high-quality water. He did not have biochemical equipment at hand, so he could only rely on visual inspection. He took out water samples in glass test tubes and examined them in the sun: the water quality was clear and transparent, with very few suspended solids. I tore off a strip of litmus paper I carried with me and measured the pH value, which showed it was slightly alkaline. Overall, the water quality is not bad. He thought it was no wonder that some people said that to make tofu, you must have good water. In ancient times, there was no running water, so a good well was essential.
The boss watched him fiddling with it. He didn't know what he was doing and didn't dare to ask more questions. Suddenly I heard this Australian Express asked:
"When did you get this well?"
"It's been handed down from our ancestors..." The boss didn't know that he was suddenly interested in the well. "This tofu shop has been handed down to the fifth generation." The boss said it very proudly.
Liu San nodded, no wonder his family can make tofu.
"Your water is pretty good," Liu San asked. "How do people on this street use water for drinking?"
The boss didn't understand what he meant and said: "Some families have their own wells. Those who don't have water wells must either go to the public well to get water or buy water."
Some public wells were dug by the government, but more often they were dug by citizens raising funds or wealthy families "doing good deeds". The water quality is not necessarily good or bad, but there is no charge for using water. It's so good that the well can be used to make tea, but it's so bad that it can't be used except for washing clothes.
The water we bought was picked from the Pearl River by watermen. Although the river water was turbid, it was living water and not as "heavy" as most well water. It could be used after being purified with alum. Even if there are wells available, many people buy river water because the quality of the well water is not good.
The next level up is the mountain spring water transported into the city by water trucks from Baiyun Mountain, Yuexiu Mountain and other places, and is specially delivered to the city's big teahouses, courtyards and dignitaries for tea and cooking. Ordinary people cannot afford it.
"Is the water from the public well here good?" Liu San asked. Traditional tofu making has very high requirements for water quality, so tofu shop owners have considerable ability to identify the quality of water.
"The water from several public wells on Huifu Street can be used for washing and cooking at home, but it cannot be used to make tea." The boss said.
Liu San nodded. He couldn't make tea, which meant that the mineral content in the well water was high. Guangzhou is located on the Pearl River, and there are springs from Yuexiu Mountain and other mountains to the north, so the groundwater is very rich. However, superficial groundwater is susceptible to pollution, especially in ancient cities with incomplete sewage facilities. Sewage discharged by a large and dense population seeps into the groundwater, which can easily cause groundwater pollution. This is an important reason why some large cities in the north had to be relocated every time they were rebuilt.
Guangzhou has abundant water resources, which is much better in comparison, and Chinese people have the habit of boiling water before drinking it. Therefore, the hidden dangers in water supply are not particularly prominent.
When he returned to the shop from the kitchen, he saw that the young woman had washed her face and combed her hair. Account registration is being filled in. Liu San took a look and saw that she had a childish face and looked about fourteen or fifteen years old. She was probably born in a tofu shop and consumed more protein than the average person. She had fair and delicate skin and a round and round appearance. For some reason, he thought of his son who stayed in Lingao, and then of Xuanchun, and his heart moved.
Liu San followed the census team around the city for several days and got a general understanding of Guangzhou's public health situation. A more comprehensive picture can only be obtained after the census team compiles the data. Liu San returned to his office first.
Guangzhou Special City does not yet have a health bureau. He came to Guangzhou with the title of "Commissioner of the Health Department of the Ministry of People's Welfare and Labor", and his office was temporarily located in Lin Baiguang's Comprehensive Management Office.
After returning to the office, Liu San began to sort out the information collected, especially what he had seen and heard these days. According to his opinion, Guangzhou's public health is seriously unqualified. However, under such dire circumstances, there is no record of a "big epidemic" in the collection of materials provided by the Great Library. Could it be that the ancients lived in a harsh environment and had strong resistance?
Liu San came to Jia Jue to inquire. Jia Jue said that every year when he "returns to the south", there will be "epidemic" in the city, and many people will die; in summer, there will be the so-called "sha". But most of the dead were poor people, so few people cared. As for small-scale epidemics, it is not uncommon in the city. In other words, if an epidemic breaks out in this time and space and kills hundreds of people, no one will take it seriously.
Liu Sanyou wanted to ask more carefully, but Jia Jue was not a doctor and could not provide much information. He said that if Liu San wanted to know more, he could ask the county medical officer.
Medicine is the state and county medical administration and government hospital. The person in charge of medicine in the state department is called the Code Department, and the person in charge of the county department is called the Training Department. Each has a number of medical personnel under his command. Since he is a member of a government-run institution, the common people call him a "medical officer".
China has had a tradition of providing local government-run medical services since the Tang and Song Dynasties. In the Ming Dynasty, every county had a "medical" establishment. On the one hand, it handled medical administrative affairs and provided publicly funded medical care for county officials and workers. On the other hand, it also provided medical treatment and even house calls for the public. When Hai Rui was the magistrate of Chun'an County, he wrote the "Regulations on the Reform" about rectifying the functions of the government and changing the work style. There was a record of "Four Doctors" under the heading of "Routines for Medical Officers".
Guangzhou Prefecture is an important thoroughfare and the capital of a province. There are more than a dozen medical officers in one prefecture and two counties. When Liu San read the reference materials compiled by the Ministry of Urban Engineering, he knew that the medical officer's business was very prosperous. Because among the medical officers, except for those who hold the seal, namely Dian and Xun, no one has a salary, and their income comes from the medical fees for treating people.
Although there is no salary, there are many people vying for this position, and even paying bribes is required. Hai Rui also said in the "Regulations on the Revolution": "Medical officers examine the pulse of the disease and understand the properties of the medicine, so as to cure the disease in a county, and pay a lot of money for it, in order to make a profit..." In fact, among the medical officers, there are only those who hold the seal. That is to say, there is no salary outside of training and training, and all income comes from the medical fees for treating people. Because the common people always believe that public hospitals are more reliable than charlatans, medical officers' business is booming. But the truly capable doctors disdain this, and conversely it is not difficult to imagine the skills of most medical officers.
When Liu San entered the city, he met the medical officers of the county and wanted to see if he could organize a simple traditional Chinese medicine hospital. As a result, we talked about some common must-read books for doctors at that time. Some of them were dumbfounded and couldn't answer a single sentence. Some people simply haven't read the "Mai Jing" and don't know the basic medicinal properties. However, immediately after the meeting, he was presented with several books such as "The Yellow Emperor's Heart Sutra". There were also people who offered aphrodisiacs... which made Liu San very annoying.
Fortunately, some of them are quite talented. Lin Baiguang asked people to invite them to talk. (To be continued ~^~.)
