Chapter 380: Chapter 368 Rescue
At present, the epidemic has broken out on a large scale in only Yangzhou and the Liangjiang areas, with Yangzhou being the most devastating.
The fifth day under unified management in Yangzhou.
The number of infected people has risen to 80,000. The quarantine zone can no longer accommodate everyone, forcing Xie Xun to move the cordon back and expand the quarantine area once again.
At its peak, 3,000 people died in a single day.
The quarantine zone is filled with restlessness and heightened fear. Fengyu and Xie Xun understand this, but if the quarantine is not enforced, the entire city’s citizens will be endangered.
"Master, there’s a Jiangnan garrison stationed outside the city gates!"
While Xie Xun was comforting the people in the quarantine zone, a report came from the city gate guards. Yangzhou City had become a place with no one entering or leaving; even refugees had ceased arriving. Why would the Jiangnan garrison come here?
He knew that Han Ziqi was currently in the capital negotiating trade with Yuwen Jing. The Jiangnan garrison couldn’t afford to move. If the disease were to spread on a large scale, there would be no troops to defend against a Sannan invasion. His father would have made the same decision as Marshal Fang: The garrison must not be allowed to contract the disease. If one soldier got sick, a third of the army’s combat strength could be lost.
If the epidemic reached Ningzhou, even his Second Brother would never open the city gates to let a single refugee in, risking the Ningzhou Iron Cavalry. It was a matter of sacrifice.
No one in all of Yanyang knew how to prevent this disease. Its contagion was exceedingly potent. For the Jiangnan garrison to come at this time made no sense.
After changing clothes, washing his hands and face in the quarantine area, he asked in a deep voice, "How many people came?"
"Several thousand. The city gate commander dared not act on his own and sent someone to request instructions."
Xie Xun mounted his horse and headed toward the city gates. The Jiangnan garrison had brought medicinal supplies and food. Marshal Fang had sent his Deputy General, who also sought to understand the situation inside Yangzhou City. Xie Xun called over Li Yong and warned, "You will speak with him on the city wall and report the situation truthfully. Do not disclose my presence under any circumstances."
If Marshal Fang learned that he was in Yangzhou, he feared the marshal would not remain indifferent. If the marshal sent troops to Yangzhou, Xie Xun would have to leave.
"Understood, understood..." Li Yong shrank his neck as he agreed. He relayed all the details of the city’s conditions to Marshal Fang’s Deputy General. True to form, Li Yong was cunning, even exaggerating the severity of the epidemic, claiming that 200,000 people in Yangzhou were infected, that medicines and food were in dire shortage, and that the epidemic was nearly uncontrollable. He pleaded with the marshal to send provisions to Yangzhou, warning that if more food didn’t arrive, the citizens of Yangzhou would starve to death.
Xie Xun: "..."
While Xie Xun was negotiating with the garrison at the city gates, Fengyu and Fang Lingjun were delivering medicine to the quarantine zone. As the number of infected continued to rise, the medical supplies were running out.
The food supply was critical, the medicine supply even more so. The grain sent from Jiaozhou would only last for a few more days, and the medicinal supplies were on the brink of depletion. Fengyu directed Housekeeper Su to reduce medicine allocation for mild cases and prioritize saving children. With 80,000 infected, ranging from mild to critical, if it wasn’t possible to save them all, they would have to... sacrifice some.
She wasn’t a deity; she couldn’t conjure medicine out of thin air.
"Is it because there’s no medicine? Why hasn’t medicine been delivered for three days? My mother is on the verge of death! What are you people doing?" A robust man grabbed a doctor by the collar and shouted, his eyes bloodshot. He himself was infected, yet he stayed dangerously close to the doctor.
Fengyu’s face turned ashen. The refugees, trapped and ill, were desperate and panicked. Emotional outbursts were inevitable, and they had been doing their utmost to calm and suppress such unrest. However, with insufficient food, medicine, and doctors, it was nearly impossible to tend to every need. She accepted their grievances as inevitable but was enraged by men like this one, who disregarded his infection and endangered a healthy doctor. If the doctor fell ill, how would so many patients survive?
"Your mother’s condition is critical and irreversible. I have no choice but to focus on saving others. I cannot waste the medicine!" The doctor, straightforward as ever, said this, enraging the man even further. He punched the doctor to the ground and stomped on him, cursing vehemently, "Who the hell do you think you are? Who are you to decide that my mother is beyond saving? I demand that you prepare a concoction and send it to her immediately! If anything happens to her, I’ll make sure you pay for it!"
The doctor’s arm was bruised and nearly fractured. Several nearby city guards surrounded them but, unwilling to offend the man, could only try to mediate.
The doctor, however, stood firm. "There’s no saving her. No amount of medicine will save her. The supplies she wastes could save several others!"
Near the doctor were several patients who were on the verge of recovery. They adamantly defended him, quickly pulling him behind them. These doctors had worked tirelessly, day and night, without rest. Especially the elderly doctors, who hadn’t slept in three days. Manpower was woefully insufficient.
"You dared to curse my mother—I’ll kill you!" The man, crazed, lunged at the doctor again.
Fengyu, furious, ordered her personal guards to restore order. The guards, already at their limits, kicked the man to the ground. The city guards stood in stunned silence.
"You..."
"What’s the meaning of this commotion?" One of the guards swung his sword, pointing directly at him. "Whoever dares to cause trouble in the quarantine zone or assault a doctor, I’ll send them straight to the afterlife with a single stroke!"