Although the traversers thought they were mentally prepared for the worst, the situation was still worse than they had imagined.

The day after the Battle of Otumba, a menacing plague began to break out in the barracks due to the spread of a large number of sick prisoners.

Perhaps because of overeating at the celebration banquet and eating something unclean, the first person who appeared in the army was dysentery, who held their stomachs and cried out in pain all day long. Then there is cholera and yellow fever, which is either diarrhea to dehydration, or high fever until death from heat. On the fourth day, even smallpox, malaria, and plague (i.e., the Black Death), which had changed the color of the ancients, began to appear in many people.

In addition, there were some soldiers who were wounded on the battlefield, unfortunately their wounds became infected and inflamed, and they contracted tetanus, and soon became dying - the expeditionary force of the kingdom of Hungshutizgan, which was regarded by the traversers as a descendant of the troops, was of course properly medicated and bandaged after being wounded. But the Allied warriors of other tribes, as well as the enemy prisoners captured on the battlefield, did not have such medical treatment.

In just three or four days, the military barracks in Otumba village became a hospital and crematorium, and hundreds of bodies were carried away and burned every day.

The rapid spread of the epidemic caught the travelers off guard for a while.

The antibiotic pills and ointments they carried with the army, although the treatment effect was very good, could not withstand too many patients, and they were about to run out. In modern time and space, procurement activities have encountered unexpected difficulties.

-- Due to the 24-fold lever of time, the four days of this time and space are only equivalent to four hours in modern time and space. In such a short period of time, to collect enough medicines and medical equipment, and to transmit them to Yishijie, whether it is for the logistics efficiency of modern society, or for Comrade Wang Qiu's transmission ability, it is an extremely severe test.

What's worse is that at this time, it was the middle of the night in modern China, and pharmacies and pharmaceutical factories had long been closed, and there was nowhere to buy medicine even with money!

If we had to wait until six or seven hours after the modern time and space, that is, the next morning, when the pharmacy opened, it would mean that many patients in Central America would have to stay in hospital beds for six or seven days, and a large part of them would obviously not be able to last so long - for the ancients who lacked curative medicine, the above-mentioned plagues were all severe diseases, and the time from the onset of illness to the death of a patient with the Black Death was usually only five or six days.

Fortunately, at this critical moment of crisis, Director Ma's identity and power played a great role -- after he returned to modern time and space, he immediately made more than a dozen phone calls, dispatched a large number of secretaries and attachés under his command to move around, and personally drove straight to the city government compound, and dragged the city's deputy mayor in charge of medical and health care out of bed. Then, after making emergency contact with Beijing, Director Ma even mobilized the city's armed police and garrisons...... As a result, someone soon smashed open the doors of pharmaceutical factories and pharmacies, and opened the strategic material reserve warehouse again, and used large trucks to transport boxes of penicillin, streptomycin, anti-inflammatory potions, and Yunnan Baiyao like flowing water.

Then, thanks to the abundance of modern medicines, at least in the military camp in Otumba village, the epidemic was slowly brought under control.

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“…… Oh God forbid, I'm still alive? ”

Opening his only remaining one eye and looking at his haggard face in the mirror, Navaez suddenly felt like a dream for a while, and couldn't help muttering to himself.

It is true that his physical condition at the moment is not healthy at all, his mind is still diggy, his body is even more sore and painful, and his skin is still swollen, bloody, and gangrene...... But in any case, Navaez is alive now and has not returned to the bosom of the Lord. …,

So, in the next instant, he rolled over and pulled out a letter from under his pillow, and tore it to pieces with great agility.

-- Three days earlier, after discovering that he had contracted the Black Death, Navaez, in despair, had written a will, intending to donate half of his estate to the Church for the construction of a splendid convent......

However, now that he has recovered, he will wait until later to donate his inheritance!

Raising his hand and throwing the confetti into the brazier beside him, he was about to call for his personal servant to come and serve, but then he remembered that the unfortunate man had died of infection and erosion of his wound yesterday, and even his bones were burned to ashes......

Navaez sighed, struggled to his feet, and began to look around the noisy room.

This is a spacious wooden house in the village of Otumba, which originally seemed to be the residence of the aristocracy, with high ground and a relatively dry interior, with good ventilation and lighting. Therefore, after the outbreak of the epidemic, the house was requisitioned by the travelers as a field hospital, mainly housing the high-ranking Spanish allies, namely Navaez and his cronies, so that they could enjoy clean conditions and white sheets.

As for the ordinary Spanish soldiers, they could only lie outside in their tents, listening to the rain dripping from the linoleum while battling the disease.

Even with the "high-class treatment", the environment in the ward is still terrible. Most of the patients, including the guards at the gate, coughed almost incessantly, and some tried to hold back, but the half-muffled cough sounded even more uncomfortable.

Some people were lying in bed with a terrible fever, and they had all reached the point of talking nonsense. Others, who had just recovered, had to hold on to their still very weak bodies to take care of the dying seriously ill and feed them some gruel.

Occasionally, the Indian witch doctors, or priests, would come to the wards, each wearing a mask made of cotton. They brought the Spaniards small white pills taken orally, a viscous ointment applied to the wounds of the wounded, and a decoction brewed with powder and boiling water. The efficacy of each medicine is amazing, but unfortunately it does not work for everyone, and even the witch doctors themselves do not know what specific medicine to prescribe to each patient, so they can only use the same thing for each patient, and most of them are still slowly getting better.

In addition, under the guidance of these men, the floor of the ward was sprinkled with lime, and the remaining lime was applied to the walls. In the center of the ward, a pot of boiling vinegar is boiled in a small pot and a stove, which is boiled from morning to night, so that the room is forever filled with a sour smell...... Navaez did not understand that they were going to do this, but intuitively thought that it was supposed to be an indigenous sacrificial ritual.

Although so many treatments had been used in the barracks that had never been heard of by the Spaniards, and it was true that many people had been saved from the plague, the patients in the wards continued to die. And when they died, there was no clergy who could give the wretched creatures a dying prayer - because several of the priests who accompanied the army all refused to take the medicine provided by the Chinese and denounced it as witchcraft. As a result, after falling ill, these clergy actually died faster than anyone else, and now they have long been in the urn of ashes.

Looking at the long line of empty bunks beside him, Nava Eston looked a little gloomy when he saw that many of the familiar faces had disappeared forever.

This sudden and violent plague was an unprecedented catastrophe for Navaez and his Spanish expedition. …,

Of the 600 soldiers he had brought with him in Port Veracruz, more than 100 had been killed in the Battle of Otumba, and now about 300 had died of illness in one breath, leaving only about 200 barely breathing, and it was not known whether they would all recover.

As for the more than 900 Spanish captives who surrendered from Cortés, their illness was delayed because they were the first to be infected and sick, and they were not treated in time...... As a result, in the midst of this terrible outbreak of the plague, only a few people died at once.

However, it is already very good to be able to survive so many people...... Navaez couldn't help but secretly rejoice in his heartache.

- Cholera, smallpox, diphtheria, measles, dysentery, malaria, yellow fever and the Black Death...... Even in the most tragic and terrifying nightmares of the past, he had never imagined what it would be like to have so many plagues breaking out together.

So, when he saw the barracks turned into a plague museum a few days ago, Navaez thought for a moment that he had seen the end of Shijie! According to his estimates, even if Shijie was not destroyed because of this, at least this army would definitely be wiped out here.

You must know that in the 16th century, these infectious diseases were absolutely incurable, and the only way to resist them was to rely on one's constitution and luck. If someone is lucky enough to survive it, then they can still live; If you're unlucky and don't get past it, you're basically dead.

At that time, not to mention the witch doctors of Indian tribes who only knew about the great god of dancing, or the medieval European barbers who only knew enemas and bloodletting, even the relatively reliable ancient Chinese medicine doctors, in the face of these terrible and fierce plagues, it was difficult for every patient to be cured and rejuvenated.

-- Although Chinese medicine at that time had already figured out how to prevent smallpox by inoculating human pox, it was only a way to prevent it in advance. In the unlikely event that a smallpox patient is being encountered, apart from leaving them to their fate, TCM practitioners also do not have many special treatment options.

Well? Weishenme Ancient doctors had a hard time treating these fierce plagues?

Let's take a look at a few examples of what kind of symptoms they are.

The first is cholera, which is usually caused by unhygienic diet, that is, eating unclean things or drinking unclean water, which causes extremely violent vomiting and diarrhea, which is excreted every few minutes, and can only sit on the toilet all day, and then makes the patient quickly dehydrated and faint.

If you are in a modern hospital and want to replenish water for critically ill patients who are on the verge of dehydration, the most convenient way is naturally to inject infusion. However, with the sad level of craftsmanship before the Industrial Revolution, no one in the East or the West could basically create a decent hollow needle, and naturally there was no way to infuse and replenish water - therefore, a considerable number of cholera patients with weak constitutions often failed to last more than three days after the outbreak of the epidemic, and they had already exhausted their circulatory circulatory and lost their legs.

Then there's smallpox, which is even more terrifying and can be spread through droplets, making it difficult for many people to prevent it. The smallpox virus has just infected people without any symptoms, usually on the 12th day, and the first hurdle after the onset is a high fever, and many patients die after not being able to survive this link.

Even if you survive a high fever, you will still have a high chance of developing cells, ulcers, and even sepsis, which will cause the patient to die within a month - in the era of antibiotics, a small wound infection can kill people!

Even if smallpox patients were cured, they would all be permanently left with spots on their bodies, and they would become pockmarked and pitted—for example, the famous Kangxi Emperor had this very ugly pockmarked face—and some would be permanently blind and blind. …,

Then there is yellow fever, which occurs mainly in the tropics and is transmitted by mosquitoes like malaria, but is more deadly and difficult to treat than malaria - the patient first has a fever of more than 40 degrees, severe pain and jaundice, and many people die before they can survive the first hurdle.

Then, the virus will invade from the bloodstream to the internal organs, causing a wide range of tissue lesions, causing the patient to vomit blood, blood in the stool and even internal bleeding, and the internal organs will be severely weakened. Even if a patient is lucky enough not to die, the yellow fever virus can cause permanent damage to their organs, especially the liver. As a result, people who have had yellow fever appear weak and often do not live for a long time.

Zuihou is the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death or hemorrhagic fever, a plague that terrifies Europeans and is spread by fleas on rats. Patients usually have a fever to the point of insanity, and then large black patches appear all over the body, and the pain is unbearable. Zuihou, the patient's skin will quickly fester, and a staggering amount of bruise and pus will seep out...... Usually it doesn't last more than two days, and it will be a whimper, and there are very few people who can get away with it.

According to Navaes's usual understanding, the presence of any of these plagues anywhere would be enough to turn a thriving city into desolate ruins in a matter of months, and send an invincible army to the grave in an instant...... Not to mention the outbreak of so many kinds of plagues together! In this situation, it is already great luck to have one person survive!

With the development of immunology and antimicrobials, many infectious diseases that have plagued mankind for thousands of years have been conquered in the twentieth century. In the modern society with advanced medicine, the only infectious disease that can really make people feel frightened (cancer is not an infectious disease) is generally AIDS.

But in ancient times when medicine was backward, almost every virulent infectious disease could bring the ancients as much fear as AIDS did to modern people!

When the Black Death broke out in Europe in the 14th century, the streets were littered with dead people overnight. In just two or three years, almost a third of Europe's population died, and many famous cities became ghost towns. Even the healthy citizens fled to the countryside, quarantined themselves, and waited for the plague to subside - and it was just the Black Death!

Therefore, seeing that after experiencing such a super compound plague comparable to the Last Judgment, there are still so many people in his team who can persevere, especially if he did not die because of this, Navaez in the hospital bed is already ecstatic.

However, when he struggled to call a Spanish soldier on duty, intending to thank the Chinese, and by the way, to see if he could purchase some special drugs to stock up and bring them back to Europe for sale, he received an unexpected answer.

“…… Report to the sir, those noble Syris nobles have been carrying medicine to the surrounding villages and towns to treat diseases and save people for the past few days! ”

The young soldier said with admiration, "...... Although they are heretics, they look almost like a group of saints......"

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Note: Doctors in medieval Europe, especially surgeons who performed surgery, were often employed part-time by barbers. A red, blue, and white cylindrical sign is often placed at the entrance of modern barber shops, which originated in medieval Europe, and the blue and red represent veins and arteries respectively.