In feudal times, battles between armies were almost always fought hand-to-hand. After a single engagement, the number of wounded could be several times higher than those killed outright. Because medical conditions were primitive, the mortality rate among the wounded was extremely high. This was especially true in summer, when poor camp hygiene made infection all too likely. Once infection set in, survival depended entirely on luck.
Some soldiers had their bellies slashed open, intestines spilling out, yet still pulled through. Others suffered only a small cut on the arm and died of fever. Such cases were far from rare.
In one battle, perhaps only a few dozen men died on the field, but several hundred might perish later in the tent hospital. If the death rate among the wounded could be cut by half, it would mean everything to Great Kang.
That was why Ninth Princess was so agitated that she forgot all decorum and grabbed Zhou Jin’s arm.
“Little girl, is it truly possible to let half the battlefield wounded live?”
Zhou Jin, thoroughly frightened, stammered, “It… it’s the surgical medicine Master taught me!”
“Surgical medicine?” Ninth Princess turned to Jin Feng. “May I ask, Mister, what is surgical medicine?”
“Your Highness, please release Jin’er first.”
Jin Feng smiled and pointed at Zhou Jin’s arm.
Only then did Ninth Princess come to her senses and hastily let go.
Zhou Jin, terrified, hid behind Jin Feng and refused to come anywhere near the princess again.
“Jin’er, Her Highness is not a man-eating tiger. What are you afraid of?”
Jin Feng patted Zhou Jin’s head with a laugh, then glanced at the sky. “Your Highness, it looks like rain. Why don’t we continue this in the clinic?”
“As Mister wishes,” Ninth Princess answered with a smile.
The group walked to the clinic.
Xie Guang’s former residence covered a fair amount of ground. When Qing Munlan had lived here, many tents had been pitched in the courtyard. Now that the female soldiers had moved to the rear mountain camp, a large space stood empty.
After the village’s barefoot doctor Old Tan took over the clinic, he turned the spare ground into two small plots: one for vegetables, the other for experimental medicinal herbs.
When Jin Feng and the others entered the courtyard, they saw two old men hoeing the soil. It was Wei Wuya and Old Tan.
Seeing Jin Feng, Wei Wuya quickly set his hoe aside. “Mister Jin, you’re finally back!”
“I came down from Wulang Mountain, then went to the ferry to welcome Her Highness, so I was delayed a few days. I’ve kept you waiting, Doctor Wei.”
Fearing Wei Wuya might offend the princess the same way Zhou Jin had, Jin Feng took the initiative. “This is Her Highness the Ninth Princess of the realm.”
Wei Wuya had lived most of his life in the prefectural city and was a man of the world; he knew exactly what a princess signified. He froze for a moment, then hurriedly brushed the dirt from his clothes and bowed to Ninth Princess. “This old man Wei Wuya pays respects to Your Highness!”
On the way to the clinic, Jin Feng had briefly told Ninth Princess about Wei Wuya’s deeds.
She had a very favourable impression of him and raised a hand with a smile. “Doctor Wei need not stand on ceremony. On the road here, Mister Jin told me how you risked your own safety to treat malaria victims and stopped the epidemic in time. ThisThis palace greatly admires you.
Were it not for your great benevolence and righteousness, the malaria might have raged unchecked. This palace thanks you on behalf of the common people.”
Wei Wuya, steeped in traditional Great Kang thinking, was deeply moved by praise from a member of the imperial family and bowed repeatedly. “Many thanks for Your Highness’s kind words. This old man merely did his duty.”
Learning that Jin Feng had spoken well of him before the princess, Wei Wuya returned the favour. “In truth, containing the malaria was entirely thanks to Mister Jin’s guidance and his generous donation of supplies.”
“Mister knows how to treat malaria?” Ninth Princess turned to Jin Feng.
Malaria had always been an intractable disease, highly contagious. Every year Ninth Princess saw memorials about malaria outbreaks. The scenes described in those reports were horrifying even to imagine.
If malaria could be solved, the significance would be immense.
“I once heard a little about malaria. I only know how to prevent it. For patients already infected, I have no particularly good method yet,” Jin Feng replied.
“Knowing how to prevent it means the disaster can be controlled before malaria spreads widely.”
Doctor Wei added, “This time, had Mister Jin not enlightened me, this old man would have been utterly helpless.”
“I already knew Mister was accomplished in craftsmanship, poetry, and the art of command,” Ninth Princess said with a smile. “I never expected you to have achievements in medicine as well.
Mister, is there anything you cannot do?”
“Indeed, compared to Mister Jin, this old man has lived all his years for nothing,” Wei Wuya nodded in agreement.
“Mister, where did you learn so many skills?” Ninth Princess asked curiously.
“When I was young I was playful and often skipped lessons to roam the mountains. There I met an old gentleman with the air of an immortal. Most of what I know came from him,” Jin Feng answered casually, inventing a master on the spot. “Unfortunately, I was too young to appreciate it and only learned the barest surface before the old gentleman wandered off again, destination unknown.”
In feudal times, superstition was the best excuse.
Wei Wuya believed Jin Feng completely.
Though Ninth Princess had her doubts, it was not proper to press further, so she tacitly accepted the story.
“Mister Jin, was this surgical medicine also taught by that old gentleman?” Wei Wuya asked.
“Yes,” Jin Feng replied. “The old gentleman told me that in dark, damp places, tiny worms breed that the human eye cannot see. Some of these worms drink blood, others gnaw at the internal organs of people and animals.
Normally our skin keeps them out, but once the body is wounded, the worms can enter through the injury and wreak havoc.
Malaria is actually caused by such worms. They are simply too small for us to see.”
“That makes sense. Living long in dark places inevitably brings illness,” Wei Wuya nodded approvingly.
“But if the human eye cannot see these worms, how did the old gentleman know of them?” Ninth Princess raised a sceptical point.
“The old gentleman said he once saw a mirror called a microscope. When you look through it, things appear much larger. When they become large enough, you can see the worms.”
“Such a treasure exists in the world?” Wei Wuya exclaimed in wonder.
“If the treasure is truly as miraculous as Mister says, wouldn’t one or two silver looked at through it become several liang?” Ninth Princess, far more rigorous, remained doubtful.
“This kind of mirror only makes things look bigger and clearer. It does not actually enlarge the objects themselves,” Jin Feng explained.
“I see,” Ninth Princess said, enlightened.
“That is still remarkable,” Wei Wuya, however, was not concerned with such details. He tugged at Jin Feng’s sleeve. “Mister Jin, if you ever obtain this treasure in future, you must let this old man come and witness it.”
Hearing this, Jin Feng could not help smiling.
This was exactly the opening he had been waiting for.
