Chapter 141: The Plague

"The plague?" Hearing this word, even with Li Zhen's calmness, he couldn't help but change color.

In ancient times, the most terrible thing to say was not a drought, not a flood, not a locust plague, but a plague.

Although the three plagues of floods, droughts and locusts are terrible, there are traces to follow after all, and the government can also provide relief, even if the government does not act, at least the people can flee the famine, and there is a glimmer of life after all.

But plagues are different, they start silently, and by the time they are discovered, they are often already on a scale.

Moreover, plague does not refer to a single disease, but to all malignant infectious diseases. In ancient times, when medical technology was not developed, doctors often could not determine the type of plague at the first time, and if they could not determine the type, they naturally could not prescribe medicine to cure the disease...... By the time they had decided on the type of plague, it was too late.

Even the plague may have changed, and they have to redetermine...... This leads to a vicious circle, which eventually leads to a catastrophe.

Compared with the three plagues of floods, droughts and locusts, although the power is amazing, as long as the rescue is effective, the dead are only a few after all.

The plague is different, once it breaks out, the power will be extinct, whether it is men, women or children, rich or poor, once it is contaminated, it will be nine deaths and one life.

There are not many records of famous droughts, locust plagues, and floods in history, but the recorded plague outbreaks abound:

The Spanish flu at the end of World War I infected one billion people around the world (the total population of the world at that time was only 1.7 billion, including the Big Three were infected to varying degrees), and the death toll was 40 million - you must know that the entire World War I was only 40 million wounded and killed, and the deaths were only 10 million. This means that the four and a half years of World War I killed at least a quarter of the people killed in the two years of the Spanish flu (the Spanish flu outbreak was divided into three waves, starting with the first wave in a military camp in the United States in the spring of 1918 and ending with the last case of the third wave in Hawaii in March 1920). This was still the beginning of the 20th century, when science and technology had developed to a considerable extent, and more than 40 million people still died, which shows the horror of this flu.

More than 2,400 years ago, a disease destroyed almost all of Athens. For more than a year, the citizens of Athens lived in a nightmare where strong, healthy young people would suddenly develop high fevers, their throats and tongues would become bloodshot and give off an unusually foul smell.

When the plague reached its peak, the number of deaths in Athens was so high that people did not have enough time and energy to bury the dead. "Burning sites have been set up in all districts of the city, especially those crowded with refugees, even in sacred areas. People threw dead bodies into incinerators, and sometimes many of them were not completely incinerated because the bodies were pressed against them. In order to provide enough wood for the incineration site, some special squads were even formed. Some incinerators stayed overnight, and the eerie smoke and foul smell covered the sky over the city, blackening the white marble of the buildings. "One-third of the population of Athens died in the plague.

More famously, in the Middle Ages, the Black Death broke out in Europe, and within a century, half of the people in Europe died......

……

In China, the plague is also a terrible change, which has accompanied the Chinese for thousands of years and has become our nightmare.

In the winter of the twenty-second year of Jian'an (217), an epidemic occurred in the north, and Cao Pi, who was the crown prince at the time, said in a letter to Wu Zhen in the second year: "The relatives died of many disasters, and Xu, Chen, Ying, and Liu all died. ”

In addition to Kong Rong and Ruan Yu's early deaths, five of Jian'an's seven sons died of infectious diseases. Cao Zhi's "Speaking of Epidemic Gas" described the tragic situation of the epidemic epidemic at that time, saying: "In the twenty-second year of Jian'an, the epidemic of warp was prevalent, and every family had the pain of zombies, and there was crying and mourning in the room. or die with the door closed, or lose the family. ”

Wang Can, one of the seven sons of Jian'an (not the previous Wang Can), also recorded in "Seven Mourning Poems": "...... When you go out, you can't see anything, and the white bones cover the plain. There are hungry women on the road, holding their children and abandoning the grass. Gu heard the crying sound and waved his tears and refused to return it. I don't know where I died, how can I finish both? drove the horse away, and could not bear to hear this. ……”

In the first year of Emperor Guangxi's reign (306), Emperor Hui of the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Northern and Southern Dynasties: "Ningzhou was plagued by frequent hunger, and the number of dead was 100,000. Wuqinyi was strong, the state soldiers were repeatedly defeated, and the officials and people flowed into Jiaozhou. ”

In the first year of Zong Guangde of the Tang Dynasty (763), there was a great epidemic in Jiangdong, and more than half of the dead died. 'In the year of Xin Chou (762), there was a great drought, and the three Wu were very hungry, and people were cannibalistic. Next year's epidemic, the dead will be seventeen or eighteen, the city will be empty, and the survivors will have no food, and the dead will have no coffins to mourn. Probably although his parents and wives also ate his flesh, and abandoned his remains in the field, supported by the bones of the road, the pillow is 2,000 miles, and he has not written since the Spring and Autumn Period. ’

……

There are countless types of plagues, whether it is smallpox, cholera, the Black Death (plague), typhoid, tuberculosis, anthrax in ancient times, or SARS, avian flu, swine flu and Ebola in modern society...... The plague has never been far from us.

It is also one of the reasons why Li Zhen's face changed greatly after hearing about the plague - in fact, Li Zhen would rather encounter a major drought and flood than encounter a plague.

Not only did Li Zhen's face change, but Fang Yiai's face was even pale-as an authentic "native", his fear of the plague was far above Li Zhen.

"Have you found the cause? What are the symptomatic traits? Swallowing and foaming, Li Zhen asked with some trembling, after all, there is experience in the afterlife, if you know the name of the disease, then maybe there will be a solution.

"It's the plague."

As soon as Baili Changsheng finished saying this, Fang Yiai was a swayer, and he almost fainted - the plague, which was one of the almost unsolvable and fierce plagues in ancient times. The biggest culprit in the history of Europe's halving population, almost unmistakable, is the joint number one human killer with smallpox, even more terrible than the sky - at least smallpox can survive, you will never get sick again for the rest of your life, but even if you can get away with the plague, you will still get sick in the future.

Li Zhen also had a pale face, unlike Fang Yiai, who thought that the plague was unsolvable, Li Zhen knew that the plague could be cured, but unfortunately, the plague happened to be that he didn't know how to cure the plague.

Seeing this, Baili Changsheng hurriedly comforted: "Your Highness, don't worry, this time because it was discovered in time, the scale is not large, only more than 5,000 people are infected, and the subordinates have already isolated all of them before the strength of the subordinates, and the imperial court has also sent doctors and medicines, so it will not be a big problem." It's just that after all, there was a plague, and the people in the army were panicked, and the soldiers had no heart to fight, so General Manager Liu didn't move, not that we were unwilling to recover Yuzhou immediately. ”

"5,000 is still small...... Hehe. Li Zhen smiled faintly, but he also knew that there were only 5,000 infected people out of 100,000 people, which was indeed not a large-scale in ancient times, so he was going to say something.

(End of chapter)