Corpse! Corpse! In everyone's field of vision, there were all miserable corpses, including strong men, slender women, and many old people and children, but unfortunately these people were all dead, outside the big city they found, there were stinking corpses for miles away, countless vultures and wild dogs shuttled among the corpses, enjoying this rare feast of flesh and blood.

"Gross~" Lu Wan took the crew to see the scene in front of them, a few young people couldn't stand it on the spot, and they vomited on the side of the road, for the crew, the corpses were nothing to be afraid of, and even most of them had killed people with their own hands, but now they saw so many corpses at once, densely piled together, it was no different from the legendary hell.

"How so?" Even Lu Wan was equally shocked when he saw a lot of people, the dead bodies in front of him couldn't be seen at a glance, and looking at their appearance, it seemed that they wanted to enter the city not far away before they died, but because there were too many people, even the road was blocked.

But what Lu Wan couldn't understand was why these people rushed to the city before they died? And why did they die on the road? And so many people died together, it is simply unimaginable, it is impossible for these people to die at the same time, if it were not at the same time, wouldn't the living people escape?

With these questions, Lu Wan sent the doctor of the fleet to come forward and check the cause of death of these people, but the doctor who sent out quickly escaped back, and said to Lu Wan with a frightened face: "Captain, these people are all sick and dead, and it seems that they should have died of smallpox!" ”

The doctor in Lu Wan's fleet was named Xu Fang. was originally a scholar, but because he felt that the imperial examination was hopeless. So I entered Datang Medical College to study, and later came to Taiwan. He also entered the Taiwan Medical College to study, and his medical skills were very exquisite, so he was hired by Lu Wan as a fleet doctor with a high salary.

"Smallpox!" Hearing this name, the crew behind Lu Wan almost turned around and fled, this is a plague, and as long as he is infected, he almost dies for life, very few people can survive under smallpox, no wonder the doctors in the fleet fled back in fear.

However, Lu Wan was very calm. I saw him think for a while and said: "I see, I remember, His Royal Highness King Wu told me that because of our arrival, there was an outbreak of smallpox and other plagues among the natives in Australia and the Americas. And looking at the situation in front of you, I am afraid that the number of deaths is more than rumored! ”

As soon as Lu Wan's words fell, the frightened doctor Xu Fang suddenly patted his head, and said in surprise at the moment: "Haha." Seeing so many dead people, I forgot all at once that I had heard some of my colleagues talk about smallpox outbreaks in Australia and the Americas. Unexpectedly, the mortality rate was far higher than predicted. ”

When Xu Fang said this, he suddenly saw that the crew behind Lu Wan all looked frightened. At that moment, he waved his hand to everyone and said, "Don't worry, all the people in our fleet have already been infected with pox." I also have immunity to smallpox, and I will never get smallpox again for the rest of my life, so this disease is useless to us! ”

Although Xu Fang's medical skills are excellent, he is actually only in his thirties this year, and this is the first time he has participated in an ocean voyage, so in terms of courage, he is not as good as an ordinary crew, so when he saw the dense corpses in front of him, he was frightened by the six gods and no master, and even forgot that his people were not afraid of smallpox, so he seemed so panicked before.

Lu Wan's eyes lit up when he heard Xu Fang's words, and he eagerly grabbed the other party's hand and said, "Doctor Xu, what you said is true?" The cowpox we planted before really worked, don't we have to worry about getting smallpox? ”

"Captain can rest assured, the smallpox epidemic in Australia and America is not a day or two, and many of my medical school students have also gone to the epidemic area to personally observe the onset of smallpox, in addition to the actual effect after the pox, and finally it has been very certain that as long as the person who has successfully planted the pox, even if he eats and lives with smallpox patients, he will definitely not be infected with smallpox!" Xu Fang replied with great certainty, although he was not very bold, his medical expertise was very solid.

"Good! Good! Fortunately, our doctors in the Central Plains have come up with a way to plant pox, otherwise we would not be able to escape the infection of smallpox if we are so close to these corpses! Lu Wan patted his chest and breathed a sigh of relief. The reason why he behaved like this is because when he was young, he once encountered a smallpox bout, and the tragic situation of those who died of illness at that time is still fresh in his memory.

Although they are not afraid of infection, but in the face of so many corpses piled together, no one will feel comfortable, so Lu Wan and they quickly returned to the boat, and the doctor Xu Fang also boiled some decoction for everyone to take, although they were not afraid of smallpox, but after staying in the pile of rotting corpses for a long time, they might get some disease, so it was better to drink some medicine to prevent it.

However, after returning to the ship, a few bold crew members suggested that the Mayan temples had a large number of gold utensils, and that the city in front of them was surrounded by dead bodies, and that smallpox must have broken out inside the city, and that it was likely that the entire city was dead, so they might as well send someone into the city and bring out the gold from the temple.

The proposal of these crew members sparked a debate, one group of crew members who were either bold or blinded by the gold all agreed, but the other group of crew members, led by Xu Fang, firmly opposed, these crew members thought that the city in front of them was full of dead bodies, even if they were not worried about contracting smallpox, but what if they contracted other plagues? So there's no need to take the risk.

In the end, this matter was caused by Lu Wan, and the result made Lu Wan very embarrassed, he remembered that when he was in Chola City, the gold stored in the temple of the other party weighed more than a ton, and the scale of the city in front of him was larger than that of Chola City, and the gold in the temple must be only a lot more, and because of smallpox, even if the people in the city did not die, they would definitely not be able to transfer the gold, so seeing so much gold and not taking it out really made Lu Wan a little unwilling.

Another point is that when passing through the Atlantic, their fleet had to abandon the small and medium-sized ships of the fleet when it encountered a storm, although these ships were loaded with some ordinary goods, such as cotton, low-grade porcelain and silk, etc., but if these things were transported to the Americas, they would definitely be worth ten thousand gold, plus the value of the ships themselves, so for the fleet, the storm had already caused the fleet to lose a lot.

It was precisely with one point in mind that in the end, Lüvin summoned all the members of the fleet to make a statement, and the results showed that the seafarers were indeed the most adventurous of the group, in other words, they asked for money rather than their lives, and finally agreed to enter the city with an overwhelming victory. Seeing this situation, Xu Fang's conservatives could only reluctantly agree.

Now that the decision had been made, Lu Wan quickly selected a group of bold crew members from among the crew and entered the city with the anti-epidemic medicine that Xu Fang had prepared for them, but the people on the ship waited anxiously for a day, and these people finally returned with the gold, and they also brought back a surviving Mayan.

After these people came back, according to Xu Fang's requirements, they immediately took a bath with medicinal water, and all the clothes on their bodies were burned, and then they were immediately quarantined, and the people of the fleet were sent to the designated place for three meals a day, mainly because they were worried that they would be infected with other plagues, so they needed to be isolated and observed for a period of time.

It was also during this period of quarantine that the crew finally understood what was happening in the city and why all the Mayans were desperately trying to squeeze into the city by asking about the surviving Maya.

It turned out that just half a year ago, smallpox finally spread from the west coast of the Americas to the Yucatan Peninsula, which is the area with the highest concentration of Mayans, so the spread of smallpox was also extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye, there were smallpox patients around almost all cities.

The city in front of them was called Karui City, the largest city within a hundred miles, and unlike Chora, the city was completely ruled by the sacrifices of the temple, and the divine power was far above all else.

When the priests of Karui learned of the smallpox around the city, the temple priests were unprepared and did not react until the surrounding villages had died of disease. It's just that the Mayans didn't have a special doctor, and all diseases were cured by the temple sacrifices, and the healing methods were also very primitive, mixed with a lot of witchcraft and sacrificial methods.

For example, the priests in Karui believe that the cause of smallpox is that the sick people there offended the gods, so the gods sent down this disease as punishment, and in order for the gods to stop this punishment, they must sacrifice these sick people to the gods, and all those who participate in this sacrifice will be protected by the gods!

In the eyes of outsiders like Lu Wan, this statement of sacrifice in Karui City is simply bullshit, and they did not isolate those smallpox patients, but even transported them to the densely populated cities, which is simply because they thought that smallpox was infected too slowly, and they were looking for death!

Unfortunately, the Mayans around Karui City were very devout to the gods and believed in the words of the sacrifices, so all the villages that were notified rushed to Karui City with their families, which is why Lu Wan and they could not find anyone in the surrounding villages.

All the smallpox patients that could be found were sent to the temple in the city, and on the day of the sacrifice, these patients were cut open and then dried their blood in the prayers of the priests, and the Mayans who arrived were very devout to pray to the gods, hoping to be protected by the gods. It's a pity that this is in response to a famous saying in later generations of China: feudal superstition kills people! (To be continued......)