Concubine Bao Yulian is pregnant, which is a major event in the Qin Palace. For this reason, Zhu Youzhen dismissed her from her job and let her concentrate on raising a baby in the house. It was precisely because there was no suitable officer in the militia for the time being, Rui'er, who was strong in martial arts, had to be temporarily managed, and there was no one to take care of the chores in the house, so Bao Yulian could replace her for a few days.

Bao Yulian is still a little reluctant, because she has cultivated feelings by seeing doctors for the people nearby every day. But Zhu Youzhen told her that the resistance of pregnant women was already poor, and now it is the turn of spring and summer, the weather is getting warmer and warmer, and various germs have also entered the active period. If you let the patient get infected, it will be terrible.

Zhu Youzhen did not mention the concept of "germs" to others, but told Bao Yulian, who is a doctor.

Bao Yulian also said in disbelief: "Lord Wang, where did you hear these things?" Since 'germs' are not visible to the naked eye, how do you know that they are the cause of the disease? ”

"Anyway, you're right!" Zhu Youzhen didn't have any words, so he had to say perfunctorily, "When will you buy a microscope for your husband, you will know at a glance!" ”

Taking advantage of this reason, Zhu Youzhen began to deploy sanitation work again. First, he began to build several spacious bathrooms, two for men and two for women, that could accommodate at least dozens of showers at the same time.

Of course, in this era, it was impossible for him to make boilers, hot and cold water pipes, and shower heads at once, so he had to replace them with dozens of large wooden barrels hanging above his head. The work of boiling and adding water could only be done manually, for which the Jingyang merchant gang recruited more than a dozen bathroom workers.

It will take a few days for the bathroom to be built, but the new regulations have been notified in advance to all workers, students, businessmen and tuanyong: no matter who you are, you must take a shower after working and studying every day, otherwise you will not be allowed to eat dinner!

As soon as this regulation was issued, it caused an uproar. Shaanxi is located inland, water resources are relatively scarce, and local farmers do not have the habit of bathing often, at most, when the weather is hot, they wipe their bodies with cold water in their yards at night. Over the centuries, the villagers have become accustomed to being filthy and smelly, and everyone is the same, regardless of men, women, and children, and they don't feel so uncomfortable.

But Zhu Youzhen suddenly asked everyone to take a shower in the bathroom at this time, and everyone felt a little unacceptable when they thought of dozens of people living in the same room with bare butts. In particular, some conservative women are even more resolute in refusal.

But Zhu Youzhen was not as polite as usual this time, but directly told everyone: If anyone objects again, he will be expelled from the Jingyang Business Gang immediately!

For the sake of the white flowers, everyone had to reluctantly obey this rule. Of course, Zhu Youzhen also took into account the feelings of the people, and spent a lot of bricks in short supply to divide each shower into a separate room.

The people have not yet eased up, and Zhu Youzhen's second major health measure has been introduced: first, spitting is strictly prohibited, and it must be spit into the straw paper; Second, it is strictly forbidden to defecate in the open, even in one's own farmland and latrines! If you want to relieve yourself during the day, you must go to a designated number of newly built toilets; At night, when you are free at home, you must use the gong bucket provided by the Jingyang Merchant Gang, and then pour the feces into the designated place during the day.

Now the resistance of the common people is even greater. Regardless of men, women, and children, they all vomited phlegm before, and who still carried straw paper with them? There is also a saying that manure is a farmer's treasure, "fertilizer and water do not flow into the fields of outsiders", as long as the villagers are working in the field, the urine and urine are solved on the spot. Moreover, every family has a pigsty, and there are very few pigs that are actually raised, and the main purpose is to use it as a toilet.

Some ordinary people really couldn't figure it out, so they simply came to the door in person and complained to Zhu Youzhen: "Helper, you can't control the shit and fart!" Our Jingyang Merchant Gang has done a lot of good things for the people, but we can't even take care of these sesame grains! ”

Zhu Youzhen persuaded very patiently: "Fellow villagers, of course you have to spit out the first phlegm, and the second manure is farmhouse fertilizer, and I also know this." But did you know that many diseases are transmitted through phlegm and fresh feces? Are you not afraid of smallpox, plague, diphtheria, schistosomiasis, typhoid fever, cholera, and so on? ”

Everyone shook their heads in fright, these diseases are all fatal!

"It's not that I don't let everyone apply fertilizer, but I just want to treat the manure uniformly." "While building toilets, I will also dig several large septic tanks. After the manure is poured in, quicklime is added, and when it is full, the septic tank is buried with soil. After a month or two, the manure is dug out again, and the manure is dry and harmless, and can still be used as fertilizer. As for spitting, it's a bad habit, I hope you must change it! ”

Then the people dispersed their faith in doubt. Zhu Youzhen sighed deeply, thinking that the hygiene habits that have been cultivated for thousands of years cannot be changed overnight. And in the face of stereotypes and bad habits, it is far from enough to rely on lip service propaganda and persuasion, and it is necessary to use iron-fisted means!

So Zhu Youzhen ordered dozens of workers to be selected and set up a sanitation picket team to roam around every household and field. Once spitting and open defecation are discovered, they will be punished severely: the first time they will be fined five taels of silver, and the second time they will be expelled!

The reason why Zhu Youzhen attaches so much importance to health issues is because he knows that there have been many serious plagues in history, but in fact, they are large-scale epidemics of infectious diseases, causing a large number of deaths among the people.

Especially in the late Ming Dynasty, plague broke out repeatedly, smallpox and plague were rampant, and the epidemic area was often empty, and countless soldiers and civilians died. This is also one of the important reasons for the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

The epidemic of infectious diseases has a lot to do with hygiene practices. Therefore, Zhu Youzhen made great efforts to improve the sanitary conditions, and even did not hesitate to offend the common people, but also arranged this very important matter.

Of course, Zhu Youzhen has been too busy these days to supervise the construction of bathrooms and toilets in Qinwangzhuang. He only slept with Rui'er in the palace of King Qin for one night, and the next morning he gathered the men of the Jingyang merchant gang, led by Xie Sheng, and began to transport silver to Xi'an City.

Due to the recent purchase of a large number of materials and the establishment of the Yellow Sea Merchant Gang, the silver deposits of the Qin Wangfu were consumed quickly. As soon as the 500,000 taels of silver were moved, the silver deposit was already less than 200,000 taels.

Zhu Youzhen also told Xie Sheng not to concentrate on purchasing in large quantities, but to work hard and piecemeal, and try to make these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver last for three months.

He had discussed with Li Henian before, asking the Shaanxi merchant gang to also greatly reduce the price of salt, iron, coal and other commodities, and pull out the posture of fighting a price war with the three major merchant gangs. Of course, this kind of price reduction is not to dump the goods, if someone really comes to buy, it is necessary to prevaricate as much as possible on the grounds of shortage and other reasons.

In this way, on the one hand, the three major business gangs will relax their vigilance and cannot guess Zhu Youzhen's true intentions; On the other hand, the market prices of these materials will continue to fall, and the cost of Zhu Youzhen's establishment of a strategic reserve will also be lower.

Moreover, Zhu Youzhen also deliberately explained that these three major merchant gangs should also be treated differently. Although the Jinzhong Merchant Gang and the Tiger Roaring Merchant Gang were also vicious, at least they did not find hooligans to commit murder and trouble, so they were not the focus of this round.

As for the Yulin merchant gang, it is necessary to concentrate on the purchase of two major silver. Anyway, the other party is dumping at a low price, and the more you sell, the more you lose. If the Yulin Merchant Gang can be defeated first, it will play a role in knocking the mountain and shaking the tiger, and the other two merchant gangs will also be reined in.

Zhu Youzhen had just finished arranging these things, and Lin Youkun, who had not been seen for many days, just rushed back. Zhu Youzhen was overjoyed, hurriedly waved back left and right, and asked mysteriously: "Commander Lin, how is the work that this king arranged for you to do now?" ”

Lin Youkun hurriedly bowed down and said, "Back to Your Highness, the first thing is that I have asked the deputy commander Yao Muyang to lead the hundreds of people under him to be stationed in Jingyang County. Without my orders, you are not allowed to leave the county seat. ”

"Good!" Zhu Youzhen sneered and said, "Since he is not very obedient, this king doesn't need him." Two days ago, I had already given a recital to Banzai, and I said that the emperor's grace was too vast, and this king deserved it. There are too many people in the Qin Wangwei system, so I implore Banzai to remove half of them, leaving only Commander Lin and five hundred Qin Wangwei. ”

"Will Banzai be gracious?" Lin Youkun doubted.

Zhu Youzhen smiled slightly: "Anyway, this king is a vassal king after all, and it is taboo for a vassal king to have too many troops." Even if Banzai is my own brother, if I want to take the initiative to reduce Qin Wangwei, he will definitely be happy. And long live the Qin Wangwei for this king, Wei Zhongxian, the old eunuch, is already very dissatisfied. Now that I have taken the initiative to reduce my guards, Wei Zhongxian has no excuse to attack me. How's the second thing going? ”

"At the end of these days, hundreds of Qin Wangwei were dispatched to investigate in detail, and some of them have not yet returned, and they have not yet been counted." Lin Youkun said busily, "It has been proved that with Jingyang County as the center, within a radius of 300 miles, there are 35 large bandit cottages, most of which are distributed in the Qinling Mountains in the southeast of Xi'an, and there are also some in the direction of Tongchuan in the northwest. As for the small bandit dens, they are even more scattered, and it is difficult to find out for a while in the distance, and only a few counties near Jingyang have been checked. This is a detailed list, please look at it Your Highness! ”

Zhu Youzhen took the detailed list and glanced at it, and saw that it was full of dense small characters, which recorded in detail the dens of nearby bandits, the names of the leaders, and the approximate number of people.

"Commander Lin, thank you for your hard work! Do you remember when we were in Beijing to help the victims, we once robbed a rice shop? Zhu Youzhen said with great interest.

Lin Youkun also smiled and said, "Of course I remember." His Royal Highness also said something at that time, and the last general still remembers it vividly: thieves eat thieves, and the more they eat, the fatter they get! ”

"That's right!" Zhu Youzhen said murderously, "Now that the national disaster is at the head, and the people are struggling to make a living, these people are gathering in the mountains and forests and blindly killing the people!" This king is now in a tight position to take their ill-gotten wealth and use it for the people! ”