For a while, Shaoqing of Ming Taifu Temple realized that the situation was not quite right, he thought to himself; Is it any wonder that I didn't see a large number of people when I went out of the market before? It is estimated that most of them are not hiding from the epidemic? Just fled? Or sudden death in the mansion!

Thinking of this Ming Taifu Temple Shaoqing was a little scared, he hurriedly ran out of the sedan chair and ran back to the house, and when he ran to the door of the house, he also asked the family to invite the best doctor in the capital to be treated, the family was a little afraid to go, and the Ming Taifu Temple Shaoqing gave ten taels of silver as the running fee, which made the family risk his life to go to the street to find the doctor.

When the family went out on the street again, they saw that except for a few main avenues where people lived, the rest of the mansions were either open or uninhabited! Occasionally, I see a few people walking, and the rest of the small streets and alleys are closed, and there are white lanterns hanging high at the door of every house, and there are many charms posted in front of the door to ward off evil and avoid evil, which looks very gloomy!

Frightened, he strode and ran, and when he came to the door of a medical center, he saw seven or eight people lying on the ground, their faces were blue and their eyes were bleeding, and they coughed and said, "Help, help me!" Give me the potion! ”

Seeing this scene, Jia Ding swallowed a sigh of relief, plucked up the courage to walk into the medical hall, and shouted, "Doctor, is the doctor here?" ”

After shouting three or four times in a row, I saw a gray-haired old man walking out with a bowl of soup and medicine, but the old doctor's face didn't seem right? When he took a closer look, he found that black blood was faintly flowing from the corners of the doctor's eyes, and his mouth was also purple, looking extremely frightened.

The timid man hurriedly took a few steps back and turned around and ran towards the door, and said, "I don't want to die, I don't want to die yet!" I'm going to get out of here, out of ....... ”

At this time, in the three cities of the imperial capital, the defenders also began to have symptoms such as vomiting, chills, fever, and body aches, which successively spread to the Gyeonggi area; Five Cities Terracotta Division (Southeast, Northwest, Central. ), the three major battalions of the Beijing Army, the North and South Zhenfu Division, the Pro-Army Jingwei Command Envoy Division, and the Twelve Supervisors (the Celebrant Supervisor, the Internal Official Supervisor, the Imperial Supervisor, the Division Supervisor, the Imperial Horse Supervisor, the Divine Palace Supervisor, the Shangshan Supervisor, the Shangbao Supervisor, the Seal Ribbon Supervisor, the Zhidian Supervisor, the Shangyi Supervisor, and the Metropolitan Governor. ), Shanglin Yuan Prison, Six Ministries (Soldiers' Rites and Punishments. ), the six branches (ordnance and ceremonial punishment. ), the five major temples (Dali Temple, Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple, Taifu Temple, Honglu Temple. ), the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Zhan Mansion, the Zongren Mansion, the Qintianjian, the Guozijian, the Pedestrian Division, the Tongzheng Division, the Wuxue, the Sanglu Division, the Daolu Division, the Jiaofang Division, and part of the palace area of the inner court of the harem.

When this sudden large-scale illness occurred, the Tai Hospital and the Jinyi Guards of the Fusi of the North and South Towns took the lead in dispatching personnel to control the situation, and the Zuo Du Du of the Ming Jinyi Guards also held a token to lead the Jinyi Guards under his command to disperse, and began to check the onset of personnel in all corners of the palace, and once they found that there were sick people, they were immediately sent to the Tai Hospital for treatment.

When investigating the situation of each agency and department one by one, it was found that most of the people (mainly people who have been in contact with outside the Beijing Division, most of them are officials around the fourth grade?). ）

The number of patients received by the hospital that day was as high as 3,000, all of which were uniform diseases! Are they all symptoms of wind chill? This made the medical officers of the Tai Hospital feel very strange, and the senior Ming Tai Hospital envoy: Guan Zhiqing, came to a conclusion after taking a pulse with a face towel a few times?

Based on his years of medical experience, he analyzed that these patients should have a disease from the plague? Judging from the majority of the patients, this epidemic should have been transmitted into the palace from outside the capital?

So after the envoy of the Ming Tai Hospital finished the pulse, he turned around and asked the subordinates wearing face towels in the Tai Hospital to take the sick outside to bask in the sun, and he said to the medical officers and doctors around him, "This symptom is a plague that has not been encountered in a hundred years!" Since the eighth year of Wanli, the palace has never seen this disease, and the old man has only seen the symptoms of plague in the medical book and their situation, and there is no difference between his wife! ”

(In fact, as early as the Xiaoice Age in the Liaodong Dusi area in the tenth year of Chongzhen, the drying up of the riverbed and the locust plague in the Central Plains, there were three kinds of plague, smallpox, and malaria in Shanxi Chengxuan, Shandong Chengxuan, Shaanxi Chengxuan, Beizhili, Nanzhili, Henan, and Zhejiang!) ）

It's just that there are usually no officials in the capital area who have contact with the local people, after all, the residential areas of the officials in the capital are separated from the residential areas of the people, and they basically can't be contacted! Except for the market entrance.

But it is impossible for ordinary people to go, because most of the people who go are rich people who go to buy things, and ordinary poor people do not have that capital at all, and the epidemic is spread through the people in the village area, so few people can understand what the epidemic is about!

In order not to leak the news and cause chaos in the city, the envoy of the Mingtai Hospital ordered the matter to be blocked, only to announce that the patients had (malaria), and in order to prevent the disease from expanding, the soldiers and civilians of the city were also asked to wear face towels, and isolation measures were taken in various main roads in the palace to reduce casualties.

Therefore, people wearing facial scarves can be seen everywhere in the palace using the old method of expelling the plague to smoke the corners, so that the palace maids and eunuchs are so frightened that they dare not move around at will, and some palace maids whisper, "Have you heard?" Just now Yanqi Palace brought out two corpses, it seems to be Xiaochunzi and Yuelan? Do you think there is some evil spirit in this palace? ”

This was heard by Queen Ming Zhou, who was passing by, and she hurriedly retorted, "What are you talking about here?" They all work for the palace, how can there be any ghosts and gods. ”

After the palace maids were driven away, Empress Ming Zhou planned to go to the East Sixth Palace area, but was stopped by the eunuch who accompanied her and persuaded her: "Ouch! The queen mother is driving away the evil spirit over there now, so she can't go! Empress Mingzhou, who didn't know what she meant, hurriedly waved her hand and asked the eunuch to go to the outer court to see the situation, and the eunuch had to be ordered to retreat.

Here, the Ming Jinyi Guards Zuo Dudu is leading the north and south towns to patrol the inner city and near the outer city, and the Jinyi guards patrolling the street see that the houses on both sides are almost closed, and some houses can still faintly hear someone crying? Some houses are brightly lit and you don't hear any sound from inside?

There are also charms and coffins in front of some houses, and occasionally you can see rats walking on the street, a brocade guard accidentally stepped on a small mouse, he quickly let go of his foot and saw that there were other rats around him running around like a queue to find something?

The streets of Gyeonggi, the once prosperous imperial capital, became uninhabited for a while, and the day was as quiet as day, and the people's wailing voices were also very cautious.

The north and south townsmen planned to go back to recover after walking for half a pillar of incense, but when they went back, two Jinyi guards had dizziness, vomiting, chills, etc., and the Jinyi guards next to them were so frightened that they avoided and didn't dare to step forward to help, so they watched them lie on the ground and roll.

And when he went back to restore his life, Ming Jinyi Wei Zuo Du Du also found that the number of people was not quite right? Significantly less than ten people? (Actually, some brocade guards went to the mansions of rich merchants who were unoccupied to steal things!) Naturally, he died in the house! Others fell ill on the road. ）

Feeling deeply in danger, he hurriedly entered the palace to find His Majesty the Emperor, when they entered the Daming Gate, they were blocked by the Ming Army guarding the city and the deputy envoy of the Huimin Pharmacy of the Ming Tai Hospital: Wang Qiujin, and they said: "From this moment on, everyone who enters the palace must be checked, and they must wear a face towel, otherwise they cannot enter the inner city!" ”

Some of the excited brocade guards pulled out (embroidered spring knives) and said, "Why? You're just an uninvetted hospital official, and you dare to stop us, Lord Zuodu? Is this living impatient? Do you want to go to Beizhen Fusi Prison for a walk? ”

Seeing that the Jinyi guards under his command were about to make a move, the low-key Ming Jinyi Guard, Zuo Dudu, spoke, "Stop!" How can the Son of Heaven do it at will in the land of Gyeonggi? Since the medical officer of the Tai Hospital asked to wear a face towel, it must have a strange effect? It doesn't hurt to wear it. ”

In desperation, the rest of the brocade guards put away the embroidered spring knives, took the scarves in the hands of the guards one by one and wore them into the city and walked to the palace.

The Ming Mansion Military Guard on duty: Deng Zhaofeng, when he saw the generals of the Palm Seal North and South Zhenfu Division coming to inquire, he reported in horror, "Lord Qiqi Zuodu, Your Majesty is reviewing the folds in the Yangxin Hall of Yuehua Gate!" ”

So the Zuo Du Governor of the Ming Jinyi Guard immediately went with ten of his cronies Jinyi Guard, and the rest of the Jinyi Guards were dismissed back to the Fusi Yamen of the North and South Towns.

When he came to the Yangxin Palace, Ming Jinyi Wei Zuo Du walked into the palace in a dashing manner, and reported all the housing conditions around Gyeonggi to the Son of Heaven. The Jingshi plague is ten rooms and nine empty? There are still no people who have no one to converge in? ”

His Royal Highness's Ming Jin Yiwei Zuo Du Du nodded, and Ming Yizong continued: "Before, when Zhou Yanru was not dead, he also reported that the plague in the capital was eliminated? How can such a bad situation happen now? Could it be that the disaster relief money I issued was embezzled by them? These damned ministers, come to the ministers of the Messenger...! ”

At this time, the eunuch of Mingji and the eunuch Bingbi hurriedly stood up and persuaded him: "Your Majesty, please dissipate your anger!" This minister believes that it is not intentional, of course, Zhou Ge Lao swallows the matter of annexing materials? I don't know, but the old slave knows that the top priority now is not the time to hold accountable! Instead, we need to find a way to solve this matter as soon as possible! Otherwise, once the matter becomes bigger, the entire Gyeonggi will lose its defenses, and if the Liukou takes the opportunity to attack, then it will be the death of the heavens! ”

His Majesty the Emperor, who had always been sensitive to this, felt that there was some truth, and he immediately asked, "Wang Chengen, how much have I asked them to donate money so far?" Let's take out some silver taels to bury the soldiers and civilians in Gyeonggi first! lest they infect the people in the palace, and there is also the matter of locking down the epidemic! No one shall be allowed to reveal the slightest violator. ”

The embarrassed Ming Si Rite Supervisor Bingbi Eunuch said hesitantly: "Back to Your Majesty, a total of 196,000 taels of silver and 300 taels of gold have been donated!" ”

When he heard the number, Ming Yizong almost fainted! He thought to himself; The dignified Ming Empire once owned one-third of the world's silver and had the richest empire in the East, but now it is so poor! It's really 30 years in Hedong and 30 years in Hexi!

The sky soon darkened, all the living residents on the streets inside and outside the capital were crying and mourning, the poor people pushed the cart and covered the corpses of their families with white cloths, and pulled them to the mass graves outside the gate of the West Market to bury them, and the rich people used coffins to let the family carry them out of the city, and the streets were full of white paper money all the way through, and the rich and noble people also specially hired a mage to drive away the evil spirit while walking, but in the end the bamboo basket was empty.