The plagues at the end of the Ming Dynasty continued one after another, and many people knew what the so-called pimple plague was, which was a terrible plague that prevailed in many places in the Ming Dynasty.

In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Shunde Mansion, Hejian Mansion and Daimyo's Mansion all had this kind of epidemic, and it was an epidemic of virulent infectious diseases, plague infection, and eight or nine out of ten people died.

In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, the epidemic further developed, prevailed in the Daimyo Mansion, five or six out of ten people died, the age was fierce, the proportion of the dead population was quite high, and the people fled overnight, and the city was empty.

Since July of last year, this epidemic has been transmitted everywhere with Li Zicheng's army, called "pimple disease", and the people of the time recorded: "In the summer and autumn epidemic, people give birth to a fat bulge and die immediately in a few moments, which is called pimple plague, and everyone suffers from this in the fourteenth and fifth five-year periods, and in the spring, there are people who vomit blood, or several people in a family die together." ”

Hearing about the pimple disease, Zhu Cihong thought for a long time, and suddenly had a flash of inspiration and exclaimed: "Plague! ”

This "pimple" is supposed to be the name of the swollen lymph nodes of bubonic plague patients, and the patients will suddenly have a "small scrofula" between the limbs of the patient's body, and then "eat and drink, dizzy and hot", and vomit "like watermelon rotten meat".

As long as one person is infected, the whole family will be infected, and even some "die behind closed doors", regardless of whether they are rich or low, the whole family will die.

The most terrible thing about the plague is that death happens in an instant, and there is no time to diagnose and treat!

AIDS, atypical pneumonia, and Wuhan pneumonia coronavirus, which were talked about in later generations, all belonged to Category B, while the plague at the end of the Ming Dynasty belonged to Category A acute infectious diseases, with almost no incubation period, and the fatality rate was very high.

Zhu Cihong knows that the plague was rampant in the late Ming Dynasty in history, and the more serious ones were the eighth year of Wanli, the fourteenth year of Wanli, and the few years at the end of the Ming Dynasty, resulting in ten rooms and nine emptiness, which was unbearable, and even the nine doors of the Beijing division "sunrise and ten thousand coffins".

"Chongzhen Record" recorded: "The great epidemic in Beijing, the number of death days is tens of thousands. ”

Although there is a lack of accurate statistics, historical records show that the great plague at that time was extremely serious, and the mortality rate in Beijing was about 40%, or even more!

to the point where the death pillow is empty, ten rooms and nine empty, and even all the households are wiped out, and no one is to collect them.

Knowing that it was the plague, Zhu Cihong dared to go up, and hurriedly took the masks and other things prepared by the accompanying imperial doctor and left the barracks.

Returning to the forbidden wall of the central capital, Zhu Cihong immediately convened all the generals in Fengyang City to discuss and activate the emergency plan.

Zhu Cihong first asked about the situation of the front-line soldiers, are there many people with high fever and vomiting? Yang Yufan didn't dare to hide it, and answered them one by one.

Fortunately, the medical soldiers in the Anwu army realized that the plague was extremely contagious, and they had already quarantined the soldiers who were infected with the plague in the army.

This measure of prevention against the plague was a common method in ancient Chinese marches, and it proved to be very effective, otherwise an army would automatically be wiped out if only one person was infected with the plague.

Zhu Cihong immediately ordered the Anwu army on the front line to be fully screened and forcibly quarantined soldiers infected with the plague.

He was still not at ease, and transferred 5,000 men and horses from the Tianxiong Army as epidemic prevention soldiers to the front line to prevent the epidemic.

All the branches of the Huangming Times in Fengyang Prefecture went all out to print and publicize the defense against the plague, and at the same time published Wu Youke's "Treatise on the Plague".

When Chongzhen was ten years old, the sanitation department set up in Fengyang Mansion was immediately put into operation, and a comprehensive cleaning of Fengyang Mansion was carried out, and rats were eliminated on a large scale, and they were burned and buried.

Fengyang Mansion is Zhu Cihong's earliest chassis, both in terms of construction and organization, it is very good, and now the crown prince came to Fengyang in person, and personally issued a notice, and the people who are gradually getting better naturally respond positively.

For a while, all the streets and alleys of Fengyang Mansion took action, and soldiers or civilians wearing masks cleaned up garbage and sprinkled lime along the streets.

At the end of February, the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River began to report that there were plague patients in the local area, and Zhu Cihong hurriedly returned to Nanjing to take charge of the overall situation.

On the way, he ordered people to urgently summon the governors of various places with 800 miles, and Wu Youke and other famous doctors entered Beijing to discuss epidemic prevention matters.

As soon as he returned to Nanjing, Zhu Cihong held a court meeting, established the Ministry of Environmental Sanitation in court, and appointed Wu Youke as Shangshu in charge of epidemic prevention.

At the court meeting, after deliberation, Zhu Cihong issued a series of decrees:

1. Establish isolation areas to control the spread of the plague.

Zhu Cihong ordered a blockade of the Yangtze River, prohibiting people from the north from going south, and at the same time sealing off cities and roads in various prefectures and counties near the Yangtze River, and defending the passes and intersections with troops.

The provinces south of the Yangtze River under Zhu Cihong's rule have long since restored and strengthened the Lijia system, and under layers of monitoring, sick people can be easily found, and then compulsory measures are taken to isolate.

The Ming Dynasty was not as good as later generations, the population flow was limited, the death of a place was not widely spread, and the plague was transmitted from the north.

However, in the northern provinces, the Lijia system has long collapsed, and most of them are the situation of gentry autonomy, and it is too easy to hide it, which makes Zhu Cihong quite a headache.

2. Comprehensively exterminate rodents, strengthen local sanitation management, and do not place garbage casually, but those who abandon the ashes will be fined or caned, and those who are untidy and unclean will also be punished!

3. Disinfection treatment, to prevent the spread of the plague, the use of vinegar or lime in various places for treatment, all those who enter the city, their cars and horse harness need to be smoked by fire to disinfect and prevent the epidemic.

Fourth, the use of herbal medicine, acupuncture and other means for patients to actively diagnose and treat.

According to Wu Youke's research, the incubation period of plague is generally about two to eight days, with a sudden onset, obvious chills, fever, and other symptoms of toxemia, as long as the measures are appropriate, the epidemic can be effectively controlled.

However, in the case of septicaemic plague, the incubation period is shorter, and the disease may develop within a few hours!

Under a series of operations, the epidemic prevention and plague treatment went smoothly.

However, the epidemic is still ferocious, far worse than expected, and in January, the number of deaths reported everywhere is shocking.

Anqing Mansion and Luzhou Mansion near the Yangtze River were successively attacked by the plague, and the death toll of Luzhou Mansion was as high as more than 300 people every day.

Not only South Zhili, but also Zhejiang, Shandong, and North Zhili, there are many people who are affected, or they are infected by the closed door, and the transmission speed is very fast!

After Jinyiwei's unannounced investigation and feedback from the local yamen, the main reason for the spread of the epidemic is the difficulty of isolation.

It's easy to control in the army, but in ordinary places, it's very difficult to isolate yourself!

Even the illiterate people also pay attention to filial piety, etiquette and exchanges, there are elders in the family who are sick, as the younger generation naturally has to stay in front of the bed in the morning and evening, every day to take care of the decoction, in the era of no medical surgery and N95 masks, this is bound to be infected.

Similarly, when the younger generation is sick, the parents and elders are even more accompanied, and they dare not leave the beard.

There are also marriages between relatives and friends, or funerals, such large-scale gathering places, the infection is more prevalent, often the whole family dies, and even hundreds of people in the whole family are infected and killed!