Zhu Ying looked at the data in the memorial, and her face began to drip with gloom.

The data here is very confusing, not just one memorial, but all the memorials added together.

The reported number of most memorials is not very high, and occasionally the number of memorials with only one or two appears to be even lower.

However, Zhu Ying has been familiar with most of the conditions in Daming County over the past few days.

When they don’t understand anything, they will directly ask Bingbi eunuch Guo Zhong.

If Guo Zhong doesn't know, he will look it up himself and then come back and report it to Guo Zhong.

Among these memorials, there was a small county where nearly 2,000 people died due to the plague.

It does not seem to be much, and the number of deaths in a county under the plague seems to be normal.

But Zhu Ying happened to have learned before that the population of this county was very small, only about 4,000 households.

In other words, when the memorial was reported, half of the families in the county had died from the plague.

The delivery of memorials is naturally done at inns, and for a delivery like this, although it cannot be expedited for 600 miles, the daily journey is at least 300 miles.

This also means that what Zhu Ying saw happened ten days ago.

Prior to this, when the plague broke out in Henan, the imperial court had arranged for officials to go there to deal with it. Zhu Ying also sent almost all the doctors from the Qunying Chamber of Commerce who knew how to treat the plague there.

In addition, many rules have been set up regarding epidemic prevention measures. These rules are issued through the imperial court and are naturally spread widely.

Because of the low population mobility of ancient plagues, even if they spread very quickly, they would still have a lot of time to respond.

Unlike later generations, it spread more quickly because of the speed of traffic.

Today's Ming Dynasty, under Zhu Yuanzhang's rules, is generally restricted to the local area and is not allowed to move around at will. Even if you have to go far away for something, you have to get approval from the government and obtain a road guide before you can pass the checkpoint.

There is no doubt that such measures have greatly limited the spread of the plague.

Therefore, from the emergence of the plague to the present, this matter has not caused much fluctuation in the court.

Ordinary plagues occur almost every year, and the ancient sanitary environment can easily cause them.

Nothing to be surprised about.

Although Zhu Ying wanted to curb the plague more, under the circumstances in ancient times, he could only do his best.

But this time, things seemed to be completely different.

"That's not right. Historically, there was no large-scale plague in the early Ming Dynasty. Why is it happening now?"

"Could it be the butterfly effect?"

"No, the plague thing has something to do with the butterfly effect. Or maybe I don't read much and haven't seen any related records in the classics."

Zhu Ying pondered in her heart. Although she did not graduate with a history major, men are still very interested in history.

Especially the Ming Dynasty.

Of course I don’t know the details clearly, but some big things must still have some impression, and the general scope is also there.

After thinking for a long time, Zhu Ying took out a piece of white paper and began to organize the records.

This looks more intuitive and makes it easier to investigate the actual situation of the plague.

According to the time of the memorial and the scale of the plague, Zhu Ying simply marked these cities, similar to a map.

On which day it started, how many people were there, and then on which day the plague began to appear in the next city.

Listing them one by one in this way, more than thirty counties and cities were soon marked.

After more than half an hour, Zhu Ying looked at the complete annotation in front of him, and his whole body felt a little numb.

The number of plagues has almost risen in a straight line, and it is spreading very quickly.

The slowest propagation process among them is only about twelve days, and the shortest propagation process is only three days.

This is theoretical, but in practice it is definitely faster.

Because when people get sick, they will never go directly to see a doctor. Instead, they insist on waiting for a day or two before talking.

This is especially true in today's Ming Dynasty.

Most people are not from a wealthy family, and when they encounter minor illnesses, they rely on their bodies to force themselves through it. Only when they really can't stand it anymore do they go to a doctor.

"Guo Zhong, come here quickly."

The next moment, Zhu Ying shouted loudly.

The door was pushed open immediately, and Guo Zhong appeared immediately.

"Go and find out what kind of plague the plague is in Henan Province."

"I obey the order."

Guo Zhong seemed to be quite young, and he usually walked lightly, but when he sensed His Highness Changsun's somewhat anxious tone, he turned around and deliberately slowed down, and then started running at a very fast speed.

This speed is completely inconsistent with his age.

Watching Guo Zhong leave, Zhu Ying murmured in her heart: "It must not be the plague!"

Perhaps few people know that it is now, right now.

When the Ming Dynasty was first established, Europe was suffering from the Black Death.

Europe, which had an extremely sparse population, had already lost one-third of its population to the plague at this time.

The Black Death is the plague.

The plague during this period was almost invincible.

Once infected, death is almost certain.

For now, the Black Death in Europe has just come to an end and has come to an end.

This situation in Daming made Zhu Ying extremely worried.

This is no joke.

If you understand how the Black Death in Europe came to an end, you won't think so.

This is completely different from the concept of war.

The Black Death in Europe did not disappear, but all those infected died.

All people in areas infected with the Black Death were quarantined and allowed to disappear naturally as time passed.

In this way, currently about 25 million people in Europe have died directly from the Black Death.

"Probably not. How could the plague spread in the early Ming Dynasty? It obviously didn't appear until the end of the Ming Dynasty, nearly three hundred years ago."

Zhu Ying looked a little anxious while waiting.

There were many factors that led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty, but the plague could be said to be the last straw that overwhelmed the Ming Dynasty.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the global climate experienced a Little Ice Age, which caused a major blow to agriculture, and a large amount of farmland lost its harvest.

Some people made a living out of the grain stored in rat holes. Later, some people began to eat rats. At that time, many of the rats eaten were not cooked, and half-cooked was considered good.

I was so hungry that I ate a lot of them raw.

Rats originally live in a messy environment, and they carry all kinds of germs beyond imagination.

This is how the plague broke out.

At the same time, droughts and epidemics have caused a large number of people to become refugees, and the mobile population has made it impossible to control the epidemic.

The plague started following the refugees and spread throughout the Ming Dynasty.

In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, the plague spread to Daming Prefecture in Beijing. In addition, there was not a drop of rain in Daming Prefecture that year, and eventually up to 30% of the people died of illness and starvation.

When Li Zicheng's peasant uprising army arrived in Beijing, the city waiting for them was already riddled with wounds from the plague. Only 50,000 of the three battalions of troops who originally guarded the capital survived the plague.

about.

Each of these remaining defeated generals had to defend three crenels on average.

And they all managed to survive the plague, and there is a huge gap in physical fitness compared to before.

At that time, the soldiers guarding the capital were sitting on the ground weakly, unable to whip their whips, and had no will to fight.

Li Zicheng's peasant uprising army had no ability to resist.

Li Zicheng successfully took over the city of Beijing and changed the country's name to Dashun. However, Li Zicheng hurriedly withdrew from Beijing the day after proclaiming himself emperor.

Li Zicheng was able to invade Beijing largely because of the plague, and the reason why Li Zicheng withdrew from Beijing was equally simple, that is, his rebels also suffered from the plague and were unable to withstand the Qing cavalry.

The Qing army had close contact with Li Zicheng's army, so why didn't they suffer from the plague? Later, people checked historical records and found that only the cavalry escaped the great plague in Europe.

Therefore, historians believe that the fleas that spread the plague may not like the smell of horses, and the Qing army was mainly composed of cavalry, so they would naturally not be infected with the plague.

"Perhaps, a large number of horses can be mobilized to prevent the epidemic."

Zhu Ying had a sudden idea.

Of course, we do not rely on horses to control the plague, but a large number of horses can protect the lives of epidemic prevention personnel to a large extent.

If it is really the plague, in this case, maybe we can really give it a try.
To be continued...