Chapter 53 There is a kind of friend who can be counted on for life and death

If we say that Miao Xiyong is traveling around, looking for experts, and improving his medical skills, you may think that he has not returned home in the past ten years, but has been outside. In fact, he is not, when he travels around Jiangnan, he often goes home to visit Mother’s, because Jiangnan is such a big place, it’s not far from anywhere. Needless to say, everyone can see that the past ten years have been very important to Miao Xiyong. Because he is bold, modest and eager to learn, his classrooms are everywhere in the vast land, and he can learn new knowledge every day. These contents are not what we can learn in books. The knowledge is brewed and stimulated in his diligent thinking brain, so its weight is inestimable.

When Miao Xiyong was nearly forty years old, he thought that he had achieved the expected results and was ready to end his life of traveling. At this time, he made a mistake, which may make him regret for the rest of his life. The thing is, Miao Xiyong is knowledgeable and talented. Don’t think that he just studied medicine. In fact, he has made achievements in many fields. language), and has some insights on how to build water conservancy; he is also proficient in geomancy (which is now called Feng Shui), and there is a famous book in the field of geomancy called "The Wing of the Burial Sutra" written by our Miao Xiyong; as mentioned earlier, he He still has some unique skills in wine making. In short, this hero Miao Xiyong is a generalist. He always likes to think about some problems and care about the national economy and people's livelihood.

I found that doctors in the past had this problem. According to our thinking, if you take care of your own illness, you can make more contributions to the people, but these ancient doctors always seem to think that this is not enough. I want to do something else besides my job. No, our Miao Xiyong thought about it when he was fine. There is not enough food in the north every year, and it has to be transported from the south to the north by water. The boatman also has to eat. It consumes a lot (this is the actual situation, every stone of grain transported needs to consume several stones of rations for boatmen), paddy fields should be cultivated in the north, so that the big problem can be solved, and the burden on the people in the south will not be so heavy. Isn't it great for the country?

You see, he has already thought about the work of the Ministry of Food and the Ministry of Communications. It's like I am here to see a disease, and suddenly I think that the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway needs to be improved. This is indeed too energetic. Not only did he think so, but he also checked the information and thought it was very reasonable, so he wrote a report, which was handed over to an official named Xu Zhenming. Who is this Xu Zhenming?It turned out that he was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Longqing (and that Zhao Yongxian was a classmate). After being awarded a Jinshi, he served as the magistrate of Shanyin County, Zhejiang. After a few years, he will become a representative of Haihe River water conservancy and leave his own mark in the history of water conservancy in China. name.

At that time, Miao Xiyong talked about his views with Xu Zhenming, and Xu Zhenming also had a sense of responsibility (in fact, the emperor didn't care about it at all), and thought this idea was reasonable. Coincidentally, this Comrade Xu Zhenming worked hard, and was promoted to Beijing as an engineering teaching staff not long after. After he arrived in Beijing, he inspected the geographical conditions around Beijing in detail. He found that the rations of the troops stationed around Beijing were transported from the south , Not only will the loss be great, but if the waterway is blocked, the supply of military rations will be interrupted, which is extremely dangerous. We should follow the example of the south around Beijing, reclaim paddy fields, and build water conservancy to ensure food supply.

So he kept writing letters to the above, and later, the emperor ordered him to conduct field surveys and inspections with some ministers. At this time, he thought of Miao Xiyong, so he sent a letter to Miao Xiyong, saying that this is a great opportunity to do things for the common people, and I hope you can come and help me. After receiving the letter, Miao Xiyong began to feel conflicted. why?It turned out that after Miao Xiyong returned to his hometown this time, he found that his mother was obviously aging, and he went out to see a doctor all day long. In fact, his mother also needed to be taken care of.

Therefore, Miao Xiyong decided to end the ten-year travel, stay by his mother's side, take care of her, and never stay away. In fact, people like to travel far when they are young, but when they reach middle age, they will find that the time you can spend with your parents is only a few years. However, at this moment, Miao Xiyong received an invitation letter from Xu Zhenming. How to do it?Miao Xiyong was very hesitant, he was determined to do this thing that benefited the country and the people, but his mother was aging and needed to be taken care of. At this moment, Miao Xiyong's old mother, Mrs. Zhou, saw what Miao Xiyong was thinking. One day, she called Miao Xiyong to her face.

She said to Miao Xiyong: "Son, do you still remember when you were young, you hung out with young knight-errants, did your mother teach you anything?" Miao Xiyong replied: "I remember, my child will remember it all my life. Mother told me to do things for the people wholeheartedly like my father." Mrs. Zhou: "Yes, reclaiming land in Beijing now is a matter of great merit. How many ordinary people will benefit, you must go. It doesn't matter for your mother's health, but if you lose this opportunity But it's something that I will feel guilty about for my mother for the rest of my life."

Miao Xiyong: "This..." Mrs. Zhou: "Don't hesitate any longer, I order you for my mother's sake, and set off immediately!" The old lady of the Zhou family lost her parents in her early years and became an orphan. However, she understood the righteousness. Even at such an old age, she still did not forget to educate her children. It is really Miao Xiyong's luck to have such a mother. In this way, under the instruction of his mother, Miao Xiyong set off for the capital. Before leaving, he was worried about his mother living alone, so he entrusted her to his good friend Kang Mengxiu, the one we mentioned earlier that Miao Xiyong and Wang Kentang treated illnesses together.

Kang Mengxiu was already a bosom friend of Miao Xiyong at this time, and he promised Miao Xiyong: "Brother Miao, your mother lives here with me. As much as I am filial to my mother, I must be more filial to Miao Xiyong's mother." , I only regard her as my mother, please rest assured!" Later, he really fulfilled his promise to his friends. Miao Xiyong gratefully held his friend's hand, unable to let go for a long time. Finally, he embarked on the road to Beijing. In Beijing, their work was very effective. Since Miao Xiyong was good at investigating geographical mountains and rivers (it is estimated that he learned from Fengshui practice), they drew a large number of geographical maps of mountains and rivers in the suburbs of Beijing, and after careful design, they began to reclaim paddy fields. , Construction of water conservancy.They stayed up all night and worked hard. With such hard work, within half a year, nearly 40,000 mu of paddy fields were reclaimed in Pinggu, Sanhe, Miyun, Jizhou, Zunhua, Fengrun, Yutian and other places.

Today, many fertile fields around Beijing are still cultivated by them. However, just when Xu Zhenming and Miao Xiyong were about to show their grand ambitions, the emperor issued an imperial decree to abolish the reclamation.It turns out that their reclamation policy is that whichever commoner reclaims the land will belong to them. However, a group of eunuchs and nobles in the court occupy a lot of idle land in the suburbs of Beijing. If they are all reclaimed as paddy fields, whoever reclaims them will own them. up.So, whenever they had a chance, they slandered the emperor. Of course, the emperor was also a fool (he didn't know how his head grew), and he also felt that it was inappropriate to cultivate paddy fields and water conservancy.So everyone's patriotic blood was finally completely cooled by the emperor. At this time, something happened to Miao Xiyong's family. It turned out that Miao Xiyong's mother lived well in Kang Mengxiu's house, but she suddenly became inattentive and contracted dysentery, which made the old lady diarrhea. It was really painful. Kang Mengxiu and his wife have indeed fulfilled their promise to their friends. According to literature records, they took care of Miao Xiyong's mother in every possible way, and served him day and night, just like their own biological mother. (Mengxiu and his wife have tried their best to worship, morning and evening, like a daughter-in-law) However, none of them are doctors, and Wang Kentang is not here at this time, so he invited some other doctors, but none of them worked. At the end, the old lady of the Zhou family called Kang Mengxiu to her face and said farewell to Mengxiu: "Although my son traveled north, there is a father, just like my son, my eyes are closed!" After speaking, the old lady passed away. Kang Mengxiu cried bitterly and knelt down towards the north, begging his friend's forgiveness in his heart. A few days later, Miao Xiyong, who was far away in Beijing, received a letter from Kang Mengxiu. After reading it, he knew that his mother had left him. He did not expect that the conversation between himself and his mother that day would be the last time. As a doctor, he has saved countless people in his life, but in the end he couldn't even save his own mother from illness. How sad it is! At this time, Miao Xiyong looked at the half-cultivated field, feeling sad. Kneel down to the south, kowtow, and cry loudly. After a long journey, Miao Xiyong returned to his hometown and met Kang Mengxiu. Kang Mengxiu felt extremely guilty. He knelt down to Miao Xiyong and said that he had no face to see his friends again. With tears streaming down his face, Miao Xiyong stepped forward to support Kang Mengxiu, and said, "My good friend, life is full of life, old age, sickness and death. You have fulfilled the duty of a good friend. How can I blame you?!" Then, Miao Xiyong buried his mother in Yangxian Mountain, a few miles away from the cemetery of his father and his eldest wife, Mrs. Sun.Then, he also gave himself a place beside him. This year, Miao Xiyong is already forty years old, and after forty-one years, this will be the place where he will accompany his mother forever. Mr. Xu Zhenming, who together with Miao Xiyong reclaimed 40,000 mu of fertile land for Beijing, was extremely disappointed, and angrily resigned from office and returned home. Four years later, he died of depression. Today, the surrounding areas of Beijing are densely covered with reservoirs, criss-crossing rivers, and countless fertile fields. The grain output has surpassed that of the south of the Yangtze River. However, we cannot forget the efforts made by those simple ancestors to enable the common people to live a good life.