Although the Urad tribe fled back, the score still needs to be settled. But the most important thing right now is to encircle and suppress the bandits in the pass. This account can only be written down in a small notebook first.
In addition, Chai Shihua also escaped from him. No matter how far he fled, this person must be captured and brought back to justice.
From this, Emperor Chongzhen quickly made a conclusion about the battle in Gansu.
Lu Daqi, deputy envoy of Guyuan, was appointed governor of Gansu, and Wang Shichong officially became the commander-in-chief of Gansu. The two of them were stationed in Gansu to prevent the Urad tribe from coming back, or they were entangled with other tribes to invade the pass again.
As for the Hetao he had just laid down, it had been burned to ashes by Hong Chengchou, because according to Emperor Chongzhen's wishes, he had no intention of garrisoning troops there. After all, at this time, the Ming Dynasty still had to adopt a defensive state against the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. Not to mention, there is no danger to defend on the Hetao Plain.
Another reason is that after years of war and natural disasters, Shaanxi's population has actually dropped sharply, becoming a vast and sparsely populated province. Even though the Loop was conquered, there was still no manpower to develop it.
All these reasons add up, and the result is that the Loop is burned, and whoever likes it will take it. When Daming gets stronger later, he can fight again!
After arranging all this, Emperor Chongzhen, together with Zheng Chongjian, the governor of the three sides, led the elite troops of Qin and began to go south to encircle and suppress the bandits, with a total of about 6,000 cavalry and more than 20,000 infantry.
Regardless of the fact that the total number of troops seems to be small, the 26,000 soldiers are all fighting soldiers, and they are not the kind of old, weak and remnant soldiers with a small number of servants and most of them just making up for their numbers. In this way, the combat effectiveness of this army will be very strong. As for the supplies of grain and grass materials, in addition to carrying some with the army, if the emperor comes in person, it will naturally be supplied by cities along the way.
When Emperor Chongzhen just set out to Yan'an, he received the memorial from the capital for the first time.
The first memorial was that Zhang Guowei, the former governor of Tianfu, had arrived in the capital and took office as the cabinet. In this regard, the first thing Emperor Chongzhen gave Zhang Guowei's imperial approval was to ask him to rush to Shaanxi to survey the terrain and build water conservancy projects.
The reason for doing this is firstly because after Emperor Chongzhen personally led the expedition, he believed that there would be no more big Gu Mao thieves, and the various vassal princes’ palaces provided money and food, which could alleviate the food crisis to some extent;
Another reason is that he saw the drought in Shaanxi with his own eyes. Many places were originally grain fields, but they have all dried up, and even the ground is so dry that it is cracked. Only a few grain fields along the river can still be seen growing crops. However, it was probably farmers who tried every means to irrigate their crops to save the few grain fields.
The second memorial was about northern Shandong and southern Hebei. Plague broke out in these areas that had been poisoned by Jianlu, and many people died. Even Fang Fengnian, who was sent to Dezhou Prefecture, did not escape the disaster and died after being infected by the plague.
Generally speaking, officials seldom contract the plague and stay away from it. If you have anything to do, let your subordinates do it. However, when the plague first broke out, Fang Fengnian only asked his family to return to their hometown, while he himself went to the epidemic area to comfort the people, and accidentally died of the infection. When he was dying, Fang Fengnian confessed to those around him that he had failed to live up to his holy wishes and failed to manage Dezhou Mansion well! If there is an afterlife, I will definitely be a responsible person from beginning to end!
After reading it, Emperor Chongzhen suddenly felt that the memorial in his hand was heavy. Thinking of the last time he met Fang Fengnian and reprimanded him, he said to himself: "The guilty minister did not dare. The guilty minister did not take responsibility. He had to live up to the teachings of the saints. I owe you your kindness!"
I remember that I said at that time that I would give him a chance to change his ways. He did not pat his chest and promise, nor was he downcast. He just said to himself gratefully: "Your Majesty's teachings will be remembered by the sinner, and I dare not forget them again."
Now that I think about it, he really took his words at heart and always wanted to be a responsible person. It's just a pity...
Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but sigh.
Then he picked up the ink pen and wrote on the memorial: Fang fulfills his duties every year and pays attention to the people's urgent needs. This is really an example for officials of the Ming Dynasty! What a pity that he died in the line of duty!
In this regard, another imperial edict was issued to reinstate the official Fang Fengnian to his post, and ordered the ceremonial supervisor and the cabinet to draft a posthumous title for Fang Fengnian. He also called on officials all over the world to follow Fang Fengnian as an example, fulfill their duties, and be a responsible parent official.
After doing this, Emperor Chongzhen remembered a movie about the late Ming Dynasty that he had seen in later generations. There were two protagonists, one was Sun Chuanting and the other was named Wu Youke. The theme of the movie was the plague!
At this moment, he truly realized the seriousness of the plague.
In fact, in the original history, the plague was much more serious than he imagined at this time.
According to historical records, at the beginning of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, a plague swept through Daming Prefecture. Fifty-six out of ten people died, and the year was very bad. There was a severe famine in Guangping Prefecture, and people were eating each other. There was a great epidemic in the capital and a great epidemic in Tianjin. There was a major epidemic in Henan Province. Nineteen people died in Yangwu County, Kaifeng Prefecture, and countless others were exterminated. In Rongyang, people live in close proximity to each other, and no one walks on the road in March. Major epidemics occurred in Qingzhou, Jinan, Dezhou, and Tai'an in Shandong. Anhui suffered a major epidemic, with blue flies as big as jujubes. Fengyang Prefecture, Anqing Prefecture, and Luzhou Prefecture were successively attacked by the plague. The death rate reached 90% in the place with the largest number of deaths.
Even the Ming Dynasty fell because of the plague that began to break out in the capital in the 16th year of Chongzhen, and all the defenders were infected. This was also the case, and Li Zicheng's troops easily captured the capital.
There is also another theory that Li Zicheng did not know about this and entered the capital. Basically, all his soldiers were infected with the plague. When they were still in the incubation period, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was introduced by Wu Sangui. At this time, the plague broke out in Li Zicheng's army, so , just like what happened in history, Li Zicheng's tribe had no resistance at all, and retreated again and again, and finally the Qing Dynasty conquered the world.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen immediately recalled the knowledge about the plague in later generations. He even sent a message to Zheng Chongjian, the governor of the three sides, to ask him about the plague.
If you don’t ask, you don’t know. It turns out that there has been an outbreak of plague in Shaanxi. Every time a plague breaks out, a large number of people die, and medicine and stone are ineffective! Not to mention, in the 10th year of Chongzhen's reign, major epidemics occurred in Yulin Prefecture and Yan'an Prefecture counties in Shaanxi Province, and even the dead were scattered in Mizhi City.
When Zheng Chongjian said these things, even Emperor Chongzhen could feel one word from him: Talking about plague changed his face!
If he wanted to cure the plague, Emperor Chongzhen was not a medical graduate, nor did he have the ability. However, he had some common sense of prevention and treatment that could be promoted at this time.
So, he recalled it on the spot and asked Zheng Chongjian to write it.
First, we must pay attention to hygiene and wash hands frequently to prevent diseases from entering through the mouth. Zheng Chongjian had no objections to this and just followed it.
Second, you are not allowed to drink raw water. It must be boiled before drinking. In the same way, diseases enter through the mouth. Regarding this point, Zheng Chongjian had no objection and kept it as written. However, Li Ruolian, the commander of the Jinyi Guards who was waiting on the side, said: "Your Majesty, I have seen that many brothers in the army drink raw water. Will this be implemented in the army in the future?"
The implication is that all soldiers in the army drink raw water, otherwise everything will be fine! If it were stipulated that everyone in the army should drink boiled water, some people might think that the emperor was making such a fuss!
In this regard, Emperor Chongzhen didn't want to show off, but he couldn't explain it, so he had to say: "There are many invisible things in raw water. Some of them cannot be drunk into the stomach. They will cause diarrhea. In serious cases, say It is possible to put your life in danger. And after boiling water, it can kill most things, so drinking it is no problem!"
Li Ruolian opened his mouth slightly when he heard this. This was the first time he had seen this statement. As a warrior, even if he holds a high position, he still drinks raw water from time to time. Doesn't the water look very clear? What's there?
Even Zheng Chongjian was slightly surprised by Emperor Chongzhen's statement. For him, he usually drinks tea and the like, and rarely drinks raw water.
Seeing them like this, Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to say: "It's not possible right now, but in the future, I can let you see with your own eyes how many living things there are in the so-called clear and colorless water! For the time being, the Buddhist scriptures say , one sand and one world. You can imagine similarly, water is actually a world too!"
Seeing that the emperor seemed very confident when he said this, both Zheng Chongjian and Li Ruolian couldn't help but look forward to it. They didn't know how to see it?
At this time, they will naturally not refute, just shut up and do as written.
After Emperor Chongzhen pondered for a moment, he continued: "Some disease-causing things are spread through the air. Especially some highly contagious plagues. To take precautions, we cannot just isolate the sick and burn the corpses of those who died; there are People who come into contact must also wear masks, and their clothes must be changed and steamed with boiling water every time.”
His words once again surprised the two listeners.
This time, Zheng Chongjian did not record it directly, but asked doubtfully: "Your Majesty, I wonder what the explanation is for airborne transmission?"
There were living things in the transparent water, which had already surprised them. Now the emperor said that there were disease-causing things spreading even in the invisible and intangible air, which was really hard for them to imagine.
Emperor Chongzhen glanced at them and remembered that in the late Ming Dynasty movie, Wu Youke realized through coincidence that there was actually something in the air.
This is much easier to prove than the statement about water.
Emperor Chongzhen stood up, walked to the window, looked at the sunlight shining in through the gap, found an angle, and then said to the two people: "My dear friends, come and see for yourselves!"
Zheng Chongjian and Li Ruolian were both a little suspicious and didn't know what to look at. Out of curiosity, the two of them moved quickly and quickly walked to the window to see what was there.
Under the guidance of Emperor Chongzhen, both of them changed their angles. Naturally, they saw dust flying in the sunlight. However, from another angle, it cannot be seen.
The moment they saw the dust flying, they were really shocked. Unexpectedly, there was something in the air!
Emperor Chongzhen looked at their shocked expressions, and he was not embarrassed at all. After all, this was common sense in later generations. At this time, he just smiled and said to them: "There are fragrances, odors, etc. in the air. This is obviously because there are different things in the air, which are sensed by our noses. For example, there are also various kinds of things in the water. Regarding the taste, do you think that this water will still be the same? There are still too few things in this world that we can know!"
In response, Zheng Chongjian and Li Ruolian couldn't help but nod their heads. This is the reason! At the same time, they were all very curious. The emperor actually noticed these things that they usually didn't pay attention to, and even connected them to infer some inexplicable plague and possible infection routes!
In admiration, Zheng Chongjian quickly wrote down this item.
Emperor Chongzhen did not return to his seat, but stood by the window and continued to explain: "We must protect ourselves from mosquitoes to prevent mosquito bites and spread through blood. In addition, there are fleas. The same is true, and they are likely to be spread through blood... …”
The ancients were aware of this, so Zheng Chongjian did not have any doubts and immediately copied it. At the same time, he thought to himself, okay, okay, the emperor did not say any more shocking words after all, otherwise, he would have read so many books. I read it and went into the dog’s belly!
However, just when he thought of this, he heard Emperor Chongzhen continue: "Every place must do a good job in eradicating rats to prevent the fleas on the rats from turning to bite us and spreading the plague. This plague is called plague, which manifests as high fever and swollen lymph nodes. Symptoms such as pneumonia, bleeding, etc., as long as they are infected, there is basically no cure!"
In fact, the spread of plague was not just spread by fleas, but also included many other ways, but Emperor Chongzhen, who was not a professional, only remembered this one. Other forms of transmission can also be well prevented if the preventive measures he mentioned before can be implemented.
However, I still have a deep impression about the plague. Because this plague, called the Black Death in Europe, was a great plague that swept across Europe that year. It took away one-third of the population, which is equivalent to the death of one person out of three people. It is no worse than Thanos' golden glove. How much.
Zheng Chongjian was a little confused when he heard it. He had never heard of some of Emperor Chongzhen's words. But he could probably guess it, so he asked: "Is this plague that your Majesty mentioned, is it tuberculosis or tuberculosis?"
This time, it was Emperor Chongzhen's turn to be puzzled. After some communication, he realized that this was the plague.
It turns out that "pimple" was the name people of this era used for the swollen lymph nodes of bubonic plague patients, and bleeding was described as vomiting blood like watermelon water and causing death. In fact, they are all one, the plague.
At this time, Zheng Chongjian finally understood that the source of such a dangerous plague actually came from rats! Although he didn't understand how Emperor Chongzhen came to this conclusion, he had the previous two statements as a basis, and he would rather believe it or not, so he wrote it down immediately without saying a word.
Plague is a thing that does not distinguish between rich and poor, high or low, so it must be eradicated!
