Chapter 315 - 311: Scraping Flesh to Cure Wounds_1

Yingbao glanced again at the elder brother standing behind her master, “Alright, I have a thin knife here. Let the elder brother cut it carefully, just avoid injuring the major blood vessels.”

Zhou Hao came over with an expressionless face and ask, “When do I cut?”

“First go and wash your hands clean,” Yingbao addressed everyone in the room, “I would ask all of you to step outside, please.”

It would not do for her to collect things with so many eyes fixated on her.

Because her medicines and surgical instruments are kept in her cave dwelling, even though she has a small medical box, it’s not completely equipped.

Zhou Wuchang led everyone out of the room, and had the elderly Wu to bring another oil lamp into the room for illumination.

Subsequently, Zhou Hao, with clean hands, walked in and saw the little sister holding two thin knives and a pair of scissors over the flame of a candle.

After preparing the surgical instruments and scissors, Yingbao placed everything on a clean cotton cloth for use.

She took a pot of strong liquor and made the patient gulp down a few mouthfuls, then poured the liquor on his shoulder wound.

The patient twitched once but didn’t move again.

Yingbao then had the elder brother start to cut away the necrotic flesh.

The man was steadfast, he only screamed a few times, but he didn’t struggle too much.

After Zhou Hao cleaned the wound, he saw the little sister pouring another bottle of strong liquor on his shoulder.

“Ah~” The man screamed, with some liquid poured into his mouth again.

However, this time it was not alcohol, but sweet-tasting fruit juice.

Then Yingbao handed over a packet of wound medicine powder to the elder brother and asked him to apply the medicine. Afterwards he used cotton cloth to wrap up the patient’s entire shoulder.

The wound processed, the patient peacefully fell asleep.

Zhou Hao was already covered in sweat, too fatigued to even keep his hands steady.

This was his first time dealing with such a wound, his mind felt strung tight like a pulled bowstring.

Only when it was finally done, he nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

No wonder the little sister had asked him to remove the necrotic flesh, this truly was not a job for an ordinary person.

Yingbao cleaned the surgical instruments and scissors and threw a large ball of cotton onto the basin, asking the second brother to take it out and discard it.

This piece of cloth was soaked with pus and blood, the disgustingly putrid smell was unbearable, she definitely did not want to clean it herself.

Zhang Min carried the basin out and asked Cui Hua where to dump it.

Cui Hua glanced at the cotton in the basin and took it, “Let me do it.”

Zhang Min, seeing Cui Hua take responsibility, happily ran back into the room.

The next day, the patient woke up, and his spirits had greatly improved.

The bearded man was so happy he repeatedly thanked Yingbao, “Many thanks to the young doctor for saving my life.”

He thanked Zhou Wuchang, and spoke about their experiences of being in a military base.

It turned out that they were both from a military base ten miles away.

Upon learning that Zhou Wuchang had brought back a divine doctor, they immediately sent the colonel by horse cart for treatment.

“General, we simply cannot survive at the military base anymore, the layers of exploitation from above, the salaries constantly decreasing, and we soldiers getting injured don’t even have medicine.” The bearded big man cried as he spoke, “I… if I weren’t a military man, I wouldn’t want to do it anymore.”

Zhou Wuchang remained silent.

Beginning from the previous reign, the imperial court started favoring civil officials over the military, the Martial Generals were excluded by the entire court without any substantial authority to speak of, even the frontier commanders were treated this way.

Even if foreign invaders attacked, the frontier commanders had to inform the emperor through the surveillance army, and only upon the emperor’s personal decree could the frontier marshal mobilize a small number of troops.

This caused constant enemy harassment at the borders, causing unbearable suffering for the civilians and soldiers in the vicinity.

Not to mention the court often delayed the delivery of military salaries and food supplies, leading to unrest among the military camps.

Thereafter, the unsupervised military officers started exploiting their subordinates, trying all means to amass wealth.

In the end, it is the lower-ranking soldiers that bear the brunt of this abuse.

Many soldiers do not receive a penny during a year, their army food is even worse than pig feed.

Under such circumstances, many soldiers venture out to loot the peasantry, killing and plundering has become commonplace.

When things get out of hand, the Imperial Court will send troops to suppress it, killing off a significant number of martial generals and soldiers, which makes many harbor resentment against the Imperial Court, even colluding with foreigners, massacring villages and border markets.

Under such chaos, border soldiers have no heart to guard their posts and foreigners even more so treat this land as their own.

Zhou Wuchang sees all this but is helpless to remedy it.

He too faced such circumstances in the past when the Imperial Court held back the army’s food and pay, resulting in discontent amongst the soldiers, with some of his own generals itching for action, later pacified by him.

However, not long after, his parents passed away one after another, both tragically in accidents, which left him devastated and forced him to return home to investigate the truth.

His investigation led him to the Imperial Teacher, but he could find no evidence.

Without evidence, the Ministry of Justice could not open the case.

Despondent, Zhou Wuchang embraced Taoism and became a wandering Taoist.

The Emperor, for reasons unknown, bestowed to Zhou Wuchang his own purple-gold dagger, indicating that he could use it to kill corrupt officials above, and oppressive nobles below.

Zhou Wuchang held the sheathed dagger, its golden sheath inlaid with jewels of five colors and a gold dragon coiling upwards.

This long dagger could also be considered a short sword, its blade already sharpened by him, incomparably sharp.

Last month, he had used this sharpened short sword to cut off Pei Shixian’s right hand.

“Master, dinner’s ready!” Zhang Min called out from outside the door.

Cui Hua had steamed buns and cooked three chicken eggs with a large pot of rice porridge this morning, the aroma wafting.

After scooping the eggs out of the porridge, Cui Hua washed them in cold water, cut each into four, and placed them on the plate.

She then scooped out a handful of pickled vegetables, washed them slightly, cut them into shreds, and put them into a pottery bowl.

She subsequently brought the food and rice porridge to the main room and set it on the table.

Noticing her younger sister Cui Lan eyeing the eggs longingly, she quickly pulled her into the kitchen, scolding her, “Those are for the guests! Don’t embarrass dad.”

Cui Lan pouted unhappily, sitting at the worn-out table in the kitchen and biting into a coarse black bun.

Upon entering the kitchen, Yingbao saw this scene and felt confused seeing the two sisters sitting at the small kitchen table, eating these mixed-flour buns.

This mixed flour bread, made mostly of wheat husks and bean flour with a slight amount of flour, hardly becomes soft even after fermentation.

“Why don’t you join us at the big table?” Yingbao asked.

Cui Hua laughed and said, “We’ll just have a bit, doctor, you should quickly eat, or the porridge will get cold.”

Yingbao placed two big white buns from his hand on the table and said, “From now on eat with us. If you don’t want to waste those coarse grains, just mix them in with the white flour and cook.”

As soon as Cui Lan heard that, she immediately picked up a white bun and took a bite. The bun was soft and sweet, exuding a fragrance of wheat.

“White buns indeed taste better.” Cui Lan exclaimed satisfyingly.

If only she could have white buns every day.

Cui Hua glared at her sister and picked up the other bun and put it into the bamboo-made cupboard.

Seeing that Cui Hua insisted not to eat, Yingbao could only return to his master’s side.

Sitting beside the table were Master Zhou Wuchang, eldest and second martial brother, old Mr. Wu and his son Wu Yi, and Wu Yi’s son Wu Xiaodou. The bearded Colonel was also there.

Eating his meal, Mr. Wu made small talk with Zhou Wuchang.

“All the arable land around us was taken by the nearby military camps, but we still have to pay taxes. Sigh, our village originally had thirty to forty households, now there are only twenty or so left, those ten or so households all fled to the south.”

“Some even went to foreign lands, they said that they would rather serve the foreigners, than stay here being exploited by the government and nearby military camps, living this hopeless life.”

Jujube Tree Village is located in the hills and naturally, there isn’t much fertile land. Now only some rocky land remains.

Those fields can’t even grow weeds, let alone crops.

Zhou Wuchang was drinking his porridge quietly, silently listening to Mr. Wu’s complaints.

Imperial Court negligence and indifference towards border citizens will surely lead to great chaos.