The Lucky Farmgirl-Chapter 2076 - 2051: Prescription

Seeing Manbao entering the palace, Doctor Xiao, who had also stayed up for most of the night, looked up from a pile of documents. He glanced around and, noticing there weren’t many people in the Imperial Hospital, waved to call Manbao into his office.

He pulled out a letter, opened it, and took out a piece of paper to give to her, "This is the prescription that Imperial Doctor Lu provided yesterday."

Manbao took it and saw that it was quite detailed, with both internal and external treatments available.

It was much better than the prescription she had worked on day and night yesterday. Manbao was delighted and immediately began to study it carefully.

Doctor Xiao poured himself a cup of tea, took a sip, and said, "During the Later Wei period, the Jinzhou area was ravaged by war and famine, it was chaotic. One day Wei’s army would attack, and the next it would be occupied by the Northern Han. The dead piled up layer upon layer, leading to a smallpox outbreak."

"Back then, the Lu Family was famous for their medical expertise in Jinzhou. This prescription was compiled using people’s names, and even apart from Lu Family’s records, the official accounts stated that of those who contracted smallpox, using Lu Family’s medicine allowed six or seven out of ten to survive."

Manbao clenched the prescription, "This is considered an excellent prescription."

"Indeed, among the prescriptions we can find now, this is the only one with such a cure rate. Others, considering the varying conditions of patients, it would be good if one or two out of ten could survive."

Doctor Xiao looked at the prescription in her hand and sighed. After all, it was a prescription built upon countless lives, and the Lu Family was considered to have saved many. Even though their descendants were not as capable, and there were times when they couldn’t continue, with this prescription, the Lu Family always had a place in the medical community.

This is the blessing of their ancestors, a state that Doctor Xiao, Imperial Doctor Liu, and others aspired to reach.

"Imperial Doctor Lu has gone through smallpox, you and Imperial Doctor Zheng have not. Smallpox tends to infect young and weak individuals. Imperial Doctor Zheng is in his prime, and healthy, but you, being young, I heard you learned medicine because of poor health since childhood?"

Indeed, Manbao was physically weak since childhood, she nodded.

Doctor Xiao sighed, "Then you must be careful."

Manbao solemnly replied, "I will be careful. By the way, Doctor Xiao, I was planning to speak with you. In our medical community, few have contracted smallpox, and during treatment, we have the most contact with patients, so some protective measures need to be taken..."

She rummaged in her sleeves and took out a sealed cloth to show him, "This is for covering the face; it’s called a mask. Let’s have the Ministry of Revenue fund the Ministry of Public Works to produce some."

This was something Teacher Mo found for her last night. Apart from this, there was a complete set of protective gear, including a mask, gloves, eye protection, and more.

He said it was commonly used for epidemic prevention, invented in ancient times, and still used today, but with continuous improvement, its protective effect is now better and lighter.

But the characteristic of protective clothing is that it is not breathable, at most now an internal circulation system is added.

Manbao thought she could use an air purifier similar to Mingda’s, but on inquiry found that while ordinary people can use it to block ninety percent of virus invasion, medical personnel cannot.

Due to their work, they might need to directly contact the virus.

Teacher Mo knew that many things were missing in her world, so he found only the most basic version for her to see what she could use in her world because besides her, there must be many medical personnel there.

Not to mention taking care of so many medical personnel, she would find it difficult to find excuses for wearing these things herself.

Manbao rummaged around and found that only masks could be made, while items like gloves were impossible in the short term because the material didn’t exist in this world.

Even with masks, their production was different. Now she used layers of gauze sewn onto cotton cloth and wasn’t sure how effective they would be.

Unexpectedly, Doctor Xiao touched it and said, "The gauze is cheap, but the cotton is valuable, it’s likely difficult, how about using hemp cloth instead?"

The gauze Manbao used was commonly used by medical professionals for bandaging, with large and sparse holes, so it was relatively cheap on the market, but cotton was expensive.

Doctor Xiao felt it carefully, and it was fine cotton cloth, making it even less affordable.

Manbao hesitated for a moment and said, "It should be possible, but cotton is the best; it uses less material. Can you ask the Ministry of Revenue to allocate more funds? A bolt of cloth can make quite a few."

"I’ll talk to Imperial Doctor Liu about it later, but it might not work," Doctor Xiao said. "Yesterday, the Ministry of Revenue transported the medicinal materials, and today they sent the last batch. Imperial Doctor Liu is leading people to check them. We’ve inquired with the Ministry of Revenue, and they bought three times the required amount as per the medicinal list. Yesterday some pharmacies already raised prices, and today, you came to the palace early, you might not know, but yesterday evening some pharmacies had already increased the prices of certain medicinal materials to more than twice their previous price."

He said, "The Ministry of Revenue will certainly intervene, but the law of this dynasty does not regulate commerce. For the Ministry of Revenue to stabilize medication prices, they need to spend money to purchase medicinal materials from other places to fill the market. Yesterday evening, the Left Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Revenue took people south."

This is to buy medicinal materials from other places, and the subsequent expenses will only increase. Given the Ministry of Revenue’s tendency, they’ll likely spend every penny carefully, and not to mention a few fine cotton cloths, even gauze will require effort to obtain.

Manbao realized this and nodded, "Then take this mask, distribute it to the imperial doctors and medical assistants in the Imperial Hospital, and if there’s an urgent need in the capital... also inform the doctors in the city, if the Ministry of Revenue doesn’t allocate funds, they can make some themselves, as long as they’re properly sterilized."

Doctor Xiao noted it down.

Manbao stayed in the Imperial Hospital until noon, finally waiting for Imperial Doctor Liu and the others, who had gone to check the medicinal materials, to return. She handed over all the prescriptions she had recorded to everyone for review.

Everyone browsed through them. Although these prescriptions weren’t as good as Imperial Doctor Lu’s, several were fairly simple and could be passed on so that some poor families could use them at home.

The prescriptions were not difficult, and after circulating among everyone, most memorized them, while those who didn’t directly copied them.

Manbao put away the original manuscript and went to discuss tomorrow’s exiting of the city with Imperial Doctor Lu and Imperial Doctor Zheng. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Let’s go as soon as the city gate opens," Imperial Doctor Lu suggested. "The Guard Army is ready, they’ll escort us for a while."

Manbao was puzzled, "Why do we need the Guard Army to escort?"

Isn’t the transportation of medicinal materials handled by the officials and clerks of the Ministry of Revenue?

Imperial Doctor Liu explained, "The Guards will accompany us to Yongzhou, where they intend to block the northern road."

Manbao understood, and after confirming the time to leave the city tomorrow, returned home, as did Imperial Doctor Lu and Imperial Doctor Zheng, to have one final family meal tonight.

Returning to Zhou Residence, she saw Yin Huo sitting in the study drinking tea, and on hearing her arrival, he looked up. Seeing Zhou Man, he smiled slightly, "With your departure, can I still get my acupuncture every fortnight?"