Fortunately, this time I went to Tianzhu?
Hearing Zhu Jinsong's shamelessly stated words, Zeng Cheng and other big shots felt as chaotic as if tens of thousands of alpacas had trampled over their hearts.
As the dignified Emperor of the Great Ming, abandoning a large pile of state affairs and the harem, leading a group of killers from the Five Armies Military Headquarters to frolic in Tianzhu, and then saying it was fortunate that you went to Tianzhu, then we would like to ask you, old man, do you still have any face?
While Zeng Cheng and other big shots were secretly grumbling, Zhu Jinsong ordered Ke Zhiming to talk about the matters of Jiugang and Lanfang – Zhu Jinsong, the Emperor of the Great Ming, received intelligence and mobilized resources in Jiugang and Lanfang much faster than Zeng Cheng and other big shots knew.
After Ke Zhiming briefly recounted the matters of Jiugang and Lanfang, Zeng Cheng and other big shots couldn't help but feel a sense of lingering fear.
Unlike the uncivilized people of Ourolopa who linked the Black Death to bathing, the Central Plains have always attached great importance to epidemic diseases. Cao Zhi's "On Epidemic Air" describes plagues: "Every household suffers the pain of the dead, and every room is filled with the cry of grief; some entire families perish, some entire clans are lost."
If Cao Zhi's era was too long ago from the Great Ming, then the Great Plague of the late Ming dynasty, which was closer, was a sufficiently heavy lesson – the Great Plague began in the sixth year of Chongzhen, in Shanxi. In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, it spread to Hebei and, along with Li Zicheng's army, to more regions. In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, it reached the capital, causing "small children in the streets to disappear without a trace, with or without coffins, the Nine Gates counted over two hundred thousand." When the Dog-Eunuch Army attacked the capital, they faced a dead city where "people and ghosts mingled, and people dared not travel at dusk."
Before this, although the Great Ming's national strength had reached a point of strain, the entire court could still maintain the attitude and determination of "all Liao can be recovered," and the government troops could maintain a certain offensive against the Dog-Eunuchs. The complete decay of the situation occurred after this Great Plague, and the Jianlu also took immense advantage of it.
Therefore, when faced with epidemic diseases, whether caused by natural factors or artificial ones, Zeng Cheng and other big shots' first reaction was to eradicate them completely.
However, the rather infuriating thing was that Lanfang and Jiugang were at a certain distance from the mainland of the Central Plains. Even with troops stationed in Lanfang and Jiugang, and with contingency plans for the army and government, they would probably not be able to solve the problem immediately in the face of large-scale corpse disposal by the uncivilized people.
If the epidemic were allowed to spread further, by the time news from Lanfang and Jiugang reached the Central Plains, and the court responded, the situation in Lanfang and Jiugang might have already been completely out of control.
Zeng Cheng and other big shots were well aware that if the situation could not be resolved even after deploying troops to Lanfang and Jiugang, and the situation completely lost control and became irreparable, then Jiugang and Lanfang would have to be completely sealed off to ensure that the epidemic in Jiugang and Lanfang would not spread to the mainland of the Central Plains.
This kind of disaster had happened many times in ancient history – if the epidemic were to spread from Lanfang and Jiugang to the Central Plains, given the population of the Central Plains, who knew what it would mutate into.
Including those historically vanished epidemics, almost all of them disappeared naturally because so many people died, creating a large population vacuum that lost the conditions for transmission. It was very rare for them to disappear due to mild, controllable mutations or because of some treatment.
The plague and smallpox were almost two of the most direct examples.
Fortunately, Zhu Jinsong, the Emperor of the Great Ming, happened to be near Lanfang and Jiugang, so he could make decisive decisions without waiting for the court's approval. He immediately mobilized doctors, medicinal materials, and other resources from Jiaozhi, Siam, Xianglin, Yunguang, and other places, thereby directly containing the epidemic in Lanfang and Jiugang. Those uncivilized people could not stir up any trouble.
It was only when Zeng Cheng and other big shots had not yet had time to celebrate for long that Zhu Jinsong continued, "This time it was better, I was at Jiugang and Lanfang at the time. But what about next time? What if I wasn't there?"
Upon hearing Zhu Jinsong's words, the already somewhat pleased expressions of Zeng Cheng and others immediately turned grim again.
It was indeed as Zhu Jinsong said. Given the madness of those uncivilized people, if Zhu Jinsong, the Emperor of the Great Ming, had not happened to be in Jiugang and Lanfang this time, even if Jiugang and Lanfang could have resolved this epidemic, they would definitely have paid a considerable price.
Without mentioning anything else, the Great Ming's national treasury would definitely have to bleed a lot.
However, the thought of this made Zeng Cheng and the other big shots somewhat displeased – if it weren't for Emperor Zhu wanting to fish, and specifically asking the troops stationed in Jiugang and Lanfang to slow down, they would have resolved the uncivilized people before they caused trouble. At the very least, they wouldn't have given the uncivilized people a chance to use the tactic of burying corpses and poisoning.
So, does this Emperor of the Great Ming bear no responsibility at all?
After a period of silence, Zeng Cheng finally spoke, "Reporting to Your Majesty, I believe that if similar situations occur in the future, the local garrison and guard posts should be mobilized immediately to kill those who need killing and arrest those who need arresting, so as to give the uncivilized people no opportunity to dig up and dispose of corpses."
Zhu Jinsong's face immediately darkened.
What did that mean? Was it that his desire to fish had caused problems?
However, on second thought, Zhu Jinsong felt that it was indeed his own fault.
If it weren't for his desire to fish in Jiugang and Lanfang this time, and to recruit more laborers, the troops stationed in Lanfang and Jiugang would indeed have resolved the problem long ago.
Thinking of this, Zhu Jinsong felt even more displeased, and when Zhu Jinsong was displeased, Zeng Cheng and the other big shots would naturally be even more displeased.
Zhu Jinsong snorted coldly and said, "The Great Ming does not have garrisons in all places. If a plague breaks out in Ourolopa or the barbarian small countries like the United States, and someone brings the plague to the Great Ming, wouldn't that be a great disaster?"
"Not to mention anything else, take Yin Di'an for example. The indigenous people there, except for those whose scalps were removed by the descendants of the Anglo-Saxon bandits of the United States, a large part of them were also killed by the plagues brought by those Anglo-Saxon bandits."
"Some epidemic diseases may not be much for those Anglo-Saxon bandits, but for those Yin Di'an indigenous people, they are fatal."
Upon hearing Zhu Jinsong's words, Zeng Cheng and the other big shots also looked displeased.
After a long while, Zeng Cheng said cautiously, "Since that is the case, the doctors and medical clinics of the Great Ming should be increased. Only when there are more doctors and medical clinics can we solve such situations more easily in the future."
Zhu Jinsong grunted, "That's also a way."
"Currently, the Great Ming has only one doctor for every three thousand people on average. Although it is much better than the situation in Ourolopa where there are very few doctors, when it comes to a critical moment, this number is not even a drop in the bucket."
"My requirements are simple. The medical branch of the Royal Academy will split off a discipline to analyze the medicinal properties and principles of action of various medicinal materials, striving to synthesize some common drugs in the future."
"For example, when people catch a cold or have a fever due to external factors, they can just buy some ready-made Chai Hu Tang or Ma Huang Tang and drink it with water. I believe this is not difficult."
Zeng Cheng nodded and said, "This is indeed not difficult. However, doctors in treating diseases always pay attention to inspection, listening, inquiry, and palpation, and emphasize personalized prescriptions. Different people and different conditions require different medications. According to Your Majesty's words, although it is convenient, is the effect not necessarily good enough?"
Zhu Jinsong shook his head and said, "I don't require the effect to be very good, only that these prescriptions are universal."
"If one in ten thousand people catches a cold, and more than half of them are effective with Ma Huang Tang, then Ma Huang Tang has universality. It can be prepared in advance, made into a medicine that does not require decoction and does not distinguish between civil and martial fire, and can be drunk by simply mixing it with boiling water, and placed in pharmacies or medical clinics. The more the quantity prepared, the cheaper the price, and the more convenient it will be for the people."
"More importantly, if an epidemic occurs somewhere, and a certain prescription is effective, it can be directly deployed on a large scale. It is only beneficial and not detrimental to the prevention and treatment of epidemics."
Upon hearing Zhu Jinsong's explanation, Zeng Cheng and others also felt that this method was reliable.
In fact, local governments of the Great Ming also had reserves of medicinal materials specifically to deal with potential epidemics.
It was precisely because of this that Zeng Cheng and the other big shots had some confidence when they heard about the issues in Jiugang and Lanfang.
However, it was undeniable that the quantities of medicinal materials reserved by the local governments of the Great Ming were not large, and they were all in bulk. Thinking about it carefully, it was indeed less convenient than the method Zhu Jinsong proposed.
Thinking of this, Zeng Cheng nodded and replied, "I will discuss with my colleagues on how to best resolve this issue."
Zhu Jinsong grunted and nodded, then changed the subject and said, "By the way, George III and Louis XVI had previously promised in Tianzhu that England and France would send some troops to Tianzhu to help our Great Ming recruit Tianzhu barbarians as laborers. They would clear out the barbarians there and use those barbarians to mine copper for our Great Ming."
"In addition, England has a copper mine in its colony in Sri Lanka. The specific reserves are not yet clear, but George III also promised to sell copper ore to the Great Ming at a low price."
"This means that the Ministry of Personnel does not need to rush to select officials to go to Tianzhu, and the Ministry of Revenue also does not need to rush to select civilians to migrate to Tianzhu. They can wait until the steam locomotives and telegraphs are repaired before selecting them."
"In addition, after the incidents in Lanfang and Jiugang, I have another idea, which is to spread telegraph lines throughout the Great Ming. This way, if similar incidents occur again, the court can be immediately informed, and will not delay military affairs due to the time taken for travel."
As soon as Zhu Jinsong finished speaking, Zeng Cheng and the other big shots entered a state of awkward consternation, looking at each other.
Spreading telegraph lines throughout the Great Ming seemed to have no difficulty. After all, it only required preparing more copper wire, solving the waterproofing problem, and then burying the lines. Telegraph machines capable of sending and receiving telegrams would need to be set up in every city.
It was like the line from the Royal Academy to the Forbidden City. The only difference was that it would be more complicated, and the Royal Academy might need some time to complete it.
The problem was that such things were only easy to talk about, but very difficult to do. First of all, there was the problem of copper mines.
Although George III and Louis XVI had promised to recruit laborers for the Great Ming and to mine copper for the Great Ming with those laborers, it was not as simple as turning copper ore into copper wire.
Even if the problem of copper wire was solved, and the problem of waterproofing was solved, wouldn't it still require digging pits and burying lines?
Therefore, the problem returned to its origin – the Great Ming needed a large number of people to dig pits and lay lines.
Of course, this problem was not the most troublesome. After all, a large part of the telegraph could be built along with the railway. It was not very difficult to have those laborers dig a pit and bury a line while building the railway.
The real problem was that these copper mines did not belong to the Great Ming. If Sri Lanka were directly taken, the cost of mining copper and making copper wire would be much lower. Now, Sri Lanka still belonged to England, so the Great Ming would have to spend money to buy copper from England.
If this was the case, wouldn't England still make money?
If England made money, wouldn't that mean the Great Ming lost money?
Liu Huaiwen said with a displeased expression, "Your Majesty, it's not that I'm stingy, but Sri Lanka was a port used for rest during Zheng He's voyages. How can it be that it has always belonged to those barbarians?"
Zhu Jinsong chuckled and said, "I heard a great sage named Lu Shuren say that whenever someone says something is not about money, it is mostly about money."
Liu Huaiwen's face stiffened, and he argued, "This is really not about money!"
Zhu Jinsong chuckled again and said, "Alright, alright, I don't care if it's about money or not."
"Allowing the English barbarians to make some money now is also unavoidable. You, as the Minister of Revenue, should know exactly how many registered households the Great Ming has. Even if Sri Lanka is occupied now, can you conjure up enough people to migrate there?"
"If you can, I can send troops to Sri Lanka now, and even force George III to give Sri Lanka to the Great Ming."
"If you can't..."