Chapter 25 Chapter 25 The "Side Effect" of the Han-Hungarian War——Plague

It is also a desolate ancient city, and it also once had a shining and great name - Dingxiang. This is Dingxiang, Dingxiang standing in the vast desert of the Mongolian grassland, where the Han army, the Hun army, the Tang army, Wei Qing, and Li Jing came, and there was a bloody battle between nomads and agricultural peoples. In the years of fighting for the front, it was a battleground for military strategists, and it also shouldered the responsibility of enclosing the wall. In the vast history, its name is even louder than in the clouds.The Battle of Mobei, the surprise attack on Yinshan Mountain, and the great martial arts of the Han family were all swallowed up by this desolate small city. Thousands of years later, we still breathe the pride about it.

And what we bury in our hearts is the sadness about it, the sadness that was buried by millennium historians. All the sorrows began in the fourth year of Yuanshou in the Western Han Dynasty (119 BC), the year that made today's Chinese people proud in countless TV dramas about the Han Dynasty. The national situation was really good that year. Sang Hongyang’s New Deal was in full swing, iron farm tools were widely promoted throughout the country, and grain production reached a new high.Outside the Great Wall, the largest long-distance pursuit battle in Chinese history achieved an unprecedented victory. Wei Qing defeated the main force of the Xiongnu Shanyu in Mobei, Huo Qubing defeated the Xiongnu Zuo Xianwang, and chased him to the Langjuxu Mountain where the Huns sacrificed to heaven. The unprecedented victory completely destroyed the vitality of the Huns. After decades of Han-Hungarian wars, the balance finally tilted completely on the side of the Han Dynasty.This is a year of joy and a year of victory. The Han Dynasty, which has suffered huge war casualties, can finally raise the wine glass of victory.

Dingxiang was the most qualified to raise the wine glass in the Han Dynasty at that time. It was the springboard for the Han army to conquer the Huns in the north. The previous expeditions of the Han army all started from Dingxiang and returned from Dingxiang.It bears many responsibilities for the logistical support and material supply of the Han army's expedition, like an unknown wife whose hair has been whitened through hard work.Now the people of the Long March have returned, and the warriors, war horses, and generals have already thrown themselves into the warm embrace of Dingxiang. Amidst the flowers and applause, they savor the joy of triumph, just like the scene of the whole of China that year.

Rewards, celebrations, grape wine luminous cups, very beautiful, but no one expected that with the return of the Northern Expedition army, silent duds had quietly buried in Dingxiang's tired body, and the day of detonation , It will be a catastrophe that lasts for hundreds of years in China. Just in the winter of this year, when the government and the public were already immersed in the joy of the world, an urgent memorial from Dingxiang brought all the singing and dancing to an abrupt end, and Dingxiang was plagued! Plague, a plague like a storm, a plague that blows out the lights of thousands of houses like a hurricane, a plague that spreads from the fortified military camps to urban and rural areas like a flood, and a terrible plague that kills countless young lives in an instant like a ghost plague.Most of the patients with high fever caused asthma and died of shortness of breath within a short period of time, and all those who had contact with the patients were also strangely infected with the virus. Death spread like dominoes in Dingxiang, and soon it spread like ink drops on rice paper In a short period of time, the black terror spread to the whole country.

This kind of plague is called prairie plague in medicine, and it is called typhoid in Chinese medicine. In Western history, it has a death-like name-the Black Death. The culprit who created the god of death was the Huns who had ravaged the side courts of the Han Dynasty for decades. In order to fight against the self-defense counterattack of the Han Dynasty, they used the most extreme method to infect the grassland The plagued livestock were placed by the water source of the river to lure the expeditionary Han army to drink water, or the sick livestock were sent to the border city of the Han Dynasty.They have used this method sporadically before. The unprecedented Northern Expedition of the Han Dynasty in 119 BC provided an excellent opportunity for the Huns to carry out germ warfare. After the triumphant return of those Han troops infected with the plague, the plague broke out and Their foothold - Dingxiang spread rapidly and spread to the whole country.

It was a disaster. At that time, Chinese medicine did not have a particularly good way to deal with typhoid fever. Facing this never-before-seen disease, traditional Chinese medicine, listening and hearing, and conservative treatment were all helpless. The tried and tested doctors could only sit back and watch countless people gasp. Die in agony, watching the plague spread faster than a Jamaican can run a relay.At that time, China had just experienced a great war, and the body that had not regained its vitality was hit by the plague, which naturally made things worse.As a result, countless records have been left in the cold history books: the great epidemic in Shandong, the great epidemic in Guanzhong, and the great epidemic in Hebei...

And Dingxiang was the initial outbreak point of this great plague. In the face of the first germ warfare of mankind, Dingxiang was the first to suffer a painful loss.From the smoky sea of ​​memorials in the Han Dynasty, the memorials of the local officials in Dingxiang were found, which clearly stated that the population of Dingxiang was "eight out of ten", and Dingxiang was the first place where the first large-scale plague outbreak was recognized medically. This great plague, like the first hand of the dominoes, strongly changed every aspect of Chinese people's lives. Because they believed that the plague came from the "poison spell" of the Huns wizards, the Chinese people at that time hated and feared the Huns' voodoo art. , reaching the apex.Because of this, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used extreme methods to treat his own son after he believed in the "Prince Gu Case".The helpless common people don't know how to save themselves. In the face of the plague, the government is unreliable, doctors are unreliable, and Confucius is unreliable. Who should we trust?

So Taoism, Buddhism, and even all kinds of bizarre religions, I will come on stage after you sing, and tell everyone in the plague: I am your savior.The belief of the Chinese people has been severely impacted. What followed the plague was the intensification of social conflicts, the destruction of countless people's homes, and then civil unrest and riots. In the ultra-left era, all of these were called "peasant uprisings". However, this kind of movement of killing one's own people is not progress. It's a tragedy. What directly tells us the tragedy is China's population. Before the Han-Hungary War, China's population reached the peak of 60 million people in history. The soldiers who died directly in the battle, the population lost by this germ warfare in 30 years is still as high as tens of millions. It has passed through the numb history and has continued to this day, which is still shocking enough.

Then Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty passed away. Before his death, he issued the "Luntai Edict" to reduce the burden on the people and stop the war against the Huns.After that, Zhaojun went out of the fortress, and the Han and Huns made good connections. After the Eastern Han Dynasty was established, the Huns fled westward, and the beacon fires at the border were temporarily suspended. However, the plague is still a plague, like a sleepy monster, restless, still tormenting the land of China. The characteristic of typhoid fever is the periodicity of outbreaks. Every 50 years or so, there will be continuous outbreaks. What is even more frightening is that every time an outbreak occurs, new lesions will be produced. This periodic toss, from the Han Dynasty to the The Southern and Northern Dynasties have never stopped for a hundred years.A very shocking figure is the population of China. It was not until the era of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty more than 600 years later that it recovered to 60 million people, which barely reached the figure of the prosperous era of Wenjing. In the past 600 years, apart from the wars, there were plagues.Related to the plague are riots, killings, and the spread of religion like mushrooms after rain.

The Great Plague of ××, a few simple words, today few people think that this is a test of history for our nation, just like hundreds of years later, the same plague killed three-quarters of the population of Europe , during those 600 years, it tortured us too. But we have finally withstood this torture. When many ordinary people who worshiped the gods tried to get help from the gods, there were also some people who did not believe in fate. They only believed that they would be able to find the key to resolve this disaster. The key was found, and there was only one word: cure! In the face of this disaster, the wisdom of the Chinese nation has been activated again. Many smart people have found a way to overcome typhoid fever through countless brushes with death and endless search, leaving behind a group of A collection of brilliant tomes.Their contributions still haunt us today.

For example, Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor in the Eastern Han Dynasty, according to his records, two-thirds of his family members were infected with the plague, and typhoid fever patients accounted for as much as 70% of them. , Every household has the sound of wailing", covering up the memory, and it still makes people cry. But he didn't believe in fate, and he didn't prostrate at the feet of the gods like most fearful people. He started a long road of searching, visiting famous doctors and experiencing it personally. Disease Treatise was published, which is the first Chinese medical treatise with the most comprehensive records and the most practical methods in the history of Chinese medicine, and it is the first key for human beings to overcome typhoid fever. Then came the advent of traditional Chinese medicines such as Wushi San and Hanshi San. Famous and unknown doctors, with the same tireless heart, stubbornly challenged the terminally ill courage and practiced the duty of "the heart of a doctor's parents".The aristocrats who ate the five-stone powder wore loose clothes and sleeves, and talked lightly about the metaphysics of life and death. The officers who ate the five-stone powder were full of blood, attacked the city, and established great achievements. Emperor Wu, worshiping under the tall Buddha statue, thanked the gods for blessing him in good health. He didn't know that it was not the numb sculpture above his head that blessed him, but countless humble and unknown people behind him. Doctors are not a good job in feudal society, and they are not elegant.In those years, Liu Guanzhang danced happily with swords and spears, Xie An and Tao Yuanming's Wei Jin style passed leisurely, and countless famous and unknown doctors became silent warriors of that era. History. Thank them, because of them, Dingxiang City, which is already in ruins, has not become a dry city.Physicians’ parents’ hearts, these words may be preaching today, but in those days, those famous and unknown doctors were indeed the reborn parents of a nation. We can no longer test the names of those pioneers. Only Hua Tuo, who scraped the bones and cured poison, and Zhang Zhongjing, who was a doctor in the government office, are left in the annals of history. They are the epitome of those pioneers. The ancient city of Dingxiang is still dilapidated, but I personally think that a row of statues should be erected for these doctors on that ancient city. It is a testimony of the suffering of our nation and our indomitable ideals.