In truth, Kongming's question to Zhang Zhongjing could also be considered a form of teasing.
Zhang Zhongjing's fate now had already diverged completely from what the later generations described.
There was no need to retreat to Lingnan. With Liu Bei present, he had become the greatest shield for the Divine Physician to write and establish his teachings.
Because of this, Kongming had already examined the Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases. With Zhang Zhongjing's consent, he had selected several prescriptions with simple ingredients and obvious effects to spread and promote.
For example, during this campaign from Yong and Liang into Guanzhong, the army prepared not only Cinnamon Twig Decoction, but also Ephedra Decoction for those without sweating but with aversion to cold, Bupleurum Decoction to disperse wind and relieve exterior syndromes for aversion to wind and fever, White Tiger Decoction for intense heat with flushed face, sweating, and aversion to heat, and Green Dragon Decoction to resolve stream toxin with alternating cold and heat.
Because of this, in the campaign to pacify the Three Qins, the number of soldiers who died from illness could be counted on two hands. This in turn caused morale to surge even higher.
Medicine powder carried in one's robes, decoctions prepared within the army, and a divine physician guarding the rear. What greater fortune could there be?
Even with Kongming's teasing, the gazes others cast toward Zhang Zhongjing were still filled with barely concealed shock.
A man destined to be canonized, and he was right beside them?
Even the usually lively Ma Chao fell silent. Those who marched and fought understood better than anyone the value of physicians. He simply had not expected that under Lord Xuande's banner there would be such an extraordinary figure.
Before Lord Xuande arrived, while drinking with Zhang Fei, this burly hero had even lamented Hua Tuo's reputation to him.
A generation's divine physician unjustly killed. How short-sighted Cao the bandit was. Truly inferior to Lord Xuande.
Zhang Fei, however, always looked at matters from an unusual angle. Upon seeing the line "In the year 273, a great epidemic in Jianye killed one hundred thousand," his first reaction was to sigh sorrowfully.
"So Brother Ten Thousand died of pestilence?"
The feeling was sincere, the tone mournful.
But one glance at Zhang Fei's exaggerated expression made it clear he was once again teasing his elder brother-in-law.
Liu Bei scolded him helplessly. Ma Chao asked curiously. Jian Yong, never afraid of stirring trouble, remarked that attacking Jiangdong this way would not that mean they even had righteous justification.
A Ten Thousand Rescue Plan, truly.
Amid the noisy banter, Zhang Zhongjing finally let out a breath. He did not like being stared at with the reverence one reserved for ancestral tablets in a shrine.
After all, he was still alive.
Praise and affirmation from later generations was already an immense consolation to him.
In comparison, Zhang Zhongjing was more worried about the future more than a thousand years away.
"Plague killing seventy-five million people?"
It was a number that made one's heart tremble.
What was the maximum population of the Han dynasty?
Kongming had casually estimated it before while chatting with the others.
In the third year of Yongshou under Emperor Huan, there were over ten million households nationwide, with fifty-six million people recorded.
Yet at that time, countless villagers were attached to powerful clans, with many hidden households. If dependents, clan members, retainers, private troops, and servants were all counted, the total population should have exceeded sixty million.
This was already an astonishing figure.
Yet a single Black Death could wipe out the population of an empire, perhaps even more?
Savoring this number in their hearts, everyone gradually understood why Zhang Zhongjing was called a sage.
Zhang Zhongjing's expression, meanwhile, became unprecedentedly grave.
He had thought he was already giving epidemics the utmost attention with all his strength. He had not expected their power to be so terrifying.
One hundred and fifty years of devastation. Nearly one hundred million dead. What misery for the survivors.
Thus, Zhang Zhongjing wrote the words "theory of epidemics" on the paper before him, and also recorded the four words "routes of transmission."
The later generations had only offered a few brief phrases, but to Zhang Zhongjing, who had pursued epidemics and treated them for over twenty years, it was no different from pointing out a direction of inquiry.
This direction might still not allow him to completely defeat epidemics, but it would at least be far better than what history books recorded later.
A few fewer lines in the annals meant tens of thousands more people surviving.
For Zhang Zhongjing, that alone was worth rejoicing in.
…
In the Ganlu Hall, Sun Simiao looked at the light screen's evaluation of Zhang Zhongjing with open admiration.
Then he turned his head and met the Emperor's expectant gaze.
By now, Sun Simiao understood this emperor's thoughts perfectly. Put plainly, he was jealous.
Last time, the appearance of Cinnamon Twig Decoction on the light screen had caught Li Shimin completely off guard. Now he also knew of Zhang Zhongjing's immense posthumous reputation.
The result was obvious. The emperor's competitive spirit had flared up again.
Sun Simiao was not afraid of this at all. He simply turned his back on the emperor.
Taking out his little notebook, Sun Simiao also wrote down those new terms he had seen, intending to ponder them carefully later.
Compared to others, he was indeed not especially skilled at treating epidemics. But if Great Tang were to pursue maritime policies in the future, they would inevitably interact more with foreign peoples. At that time, foreign diseases might enter the Central Plains. Without precautions, it could very well become another Black Death.
After all, that foreign attitude of lying flat and waiting for death to end the disease was truly frightening.
Seeing no response from the Medicine King, Li Shimin felt a trace of regret, but did not take it to heart. He instead turned his attention to the consequences brought by the Black Death.
"Shook the rule of the Catholic Church…"
Thinking again of the Arabs, Li Shimin felt an increasing curiosity toward the systems of distant lands.
[Light Screen]
["In modern times, there is a saying that human civilization's history is also a history of resistance against epidemics.
But in the twenty-second year of Jian'an, Cao Cao standing at the bow of a ship gazing at Ruxukou was certainly unable to realize this.
The rising epidemics within the army had already made Cao Cao consider retreat. Fortunately, Sun Quan sent a letter of surrender, allowing this campaign to have merit to report, so it did not end like Sun Quan's failed attack on Hefei.
During the hurried return journey, the epidemic finally revealed its fangs. With the successive deaths of Sima Lang and Wang Can, the situation worsened.
In ancient times, epidemics were also interpreted as heavenly omens. Such repeated calamities caused the sixty-two-year-old Cao Cao to seriously consider matters after his death.
The long-unresolved issue of choosing a successor was finally treated with gravity.
That year, Cao Pi still followed Jia Xu's advice, being diligent day and night and not violating the duties of a son, carefully putting on airs.
That year, Cao Zhi remained as wild as ever. Drunk, he drove a carriage and unlawfully opened the Sima Gate, barging through restricted roads and violating the law.
The final result needs no elaboration. Cao Pi emerged victorious and was established as Crown Prince.
Because Cao Zhi, relying on his noble status, drunkenly drove into the palace city, the official in charge of the palace gates was executed by Cao Cao. Cao Zhi was eliminated from the succession struggle, and his political dreams were shattered.
The year before the great epidemic, Cao Zhi's father-in-law Cui Yan was unjustly killed due to Cao Cao's displaced anger.
In the year of the great epidemic, Cao Zhi's wife Lady Cui was executed by Cao Cao for wearing overly luxurious clothing.
Cao Zhi's two beloved daughters also both died young. In his grief, he wrote Lament for the Golden Gourd and Lament for the Dead Daughter to mourn them.
From that year onward, the Cao Zhi who dreamed of establishing an eternal enterprise and leaving achievements engraved in metal and stone disappeared.
His poetry remained ornate, but the stirring spirit was gone, replaced by frustration and sorrow.
The victor Cao Pi, in that same year, attended the funerals of five literary friends in succession, witnessed the extinction of the Seven Masters of Jian'an, and personally saw the horrific devastation of the epidemic in Ye City.
Just like the young people who fled to the countryside and indulged in pleasure during the Black Death in Europe, Cao Pi underwent the same psychological transformation.
Games and amusements, indulgence of the palate, banquets and appreciation of women. After ascending the throne, Cao Pi was proficient in all of these.
After his enthronement, Cao Pi's speech also became frivolous and lacking in dignity.
For example, when ministers petitioned to build a mausoleum for him, Cao Pi, already emperor, instead advised them:
'Since ancient times, there has never been a state that did not perish, nor a tomb that was not dug up.'
And at the enthronement ceremony, which was called abdication but was in truth usurpation, the words Cao Pi spoke after sitting on the throne made the ministers' hearts pound:
'I know well the matters of Shun and Yu.'
Considering what the Sima clan later did, Sima Yi must have remembered these words well.
Cao Pi, finding little joy in being emperor, also found a way to realize his life's value in this precarious age.
'Literature is the great enterprise that governs the state, an immortal flourishing affair.'
Relying on Discourses on Literature, Cao Pi achieved his value as a literary figure.
After ascending the throne, he further used the convenience of his imperial position to organize the compilation of the Imperial Reader, pioneering the tradition of large-scale imperial encyclopedic compilations.
This book was the ancestor of Chinese leishu, far earlier than the Ming dynasty's Yongle Encyclopedia and the Qing dynasty's half-completed and half-destroyed Complete Library of the Four Treasuries.
Cao Pi's affected self-adornment ushered in the luxurious and indulgent ethos of Wei and Jin. Aristocratic clans competed extravagantly, exhausting every means of pleasure, and eventually even produced the empty metaphysical discourse of Wei-Jin philosophy.
Yet on the other hand, the anxiety of living from day to day allowed Cao Pi, in his imperial capacity, to shine brilliantly in literature, leaving a heavy mark in history and pushing literature two steps further forward.
The epidemic of the twenty-second year of Jian'an pressed the fast-forward key of history, and in the end, produced an ending that could almost be called a comedy."]
"Living with uncertainty, thus indulging fully in pleasure."
Du Ruhui sighed softly, finding that he somewhat understood this Emperor of Wei.
After all, later generations could only glimpse fragments of Wei-Jin extravagance from historical records.
But for those like them who had lived through Sui and Tang, the empty indulgence and metaphysical talk of Wei and Jin were things they had heard about since childhood.
Now, following the later generation's simple explanation, Cao Pi had lost nearly half his siblings to early death, then suffered a great epidemic, with almost no friends or relatives left. His drastic change in temperament now seemed only natural.
However, when Du Ruhui turned his head, he saw Li Shimin's eyes sparkling brightly.
Almost instinctively, Du Ruhui answered without hesitation.
"It can be done."
Li Shimin showed a slightly embarrassed expression.
"I have not yet said what matter."
Fang Xuanling directly interjected, smiling.
"What else could Your Majesty desire?"
"To emulate the ancients and compile encyclopedias to glorify Tang."
"And at the same time, to leave the bearing of Tang for later generations."
"Of course it can be done."