Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

Xiaquyang had the largest Jingguan in history, covering an area of ​​more than 50 mu. It was not until the Republic of China period that the people came here to dig soil, and this Jingguan, which was built with the corpses of more than 100,000 people, was razed to the ground.

The old man spoke with a serious air. Although Zhang Ji was a doctor, he was also a true man of the ancients. It was impossible for him to be completely free of the belief in ghosts and spirits. He thought to himself, "According to the symptoms described by the old man, this disease is most likely caused by summer heat and toxicity, which has lurked in the stomach. However, since it hasn't spread widely, we can't conclude that it is a disease. Could it really be caused by ghosts?"

Even Zhang Mo, a modern soul, did not dare to completely conclude that there were no ghosts in the world after experiencing the time travel. She just knew about the ghost fire that the old man mentioned. When she first traveled through time, she used it to create chaos on the official road and wanted to take the opportunity to sneak into the city.

After they left the ancestral hall, Zhang Mo asked, "Master, what do you think about this?"

Zhang Ji twirled his beard. "Perhaps it's true as the old gentleman said. Even if it's haunted by an ungrateful spirit, it's not incurable."

"Master also believes in will-o'-the-wisp?"

"Master has been traveling the martial world for many years and has indeed seen ghost fires a few times. The flames are blue-green and move with the person, which is extremely strange."

Do you want to explain to Master what ghost fire is?

Zhang Mo hesitated for a moment and said, "Master, those aren't actually created by ghosts. Instead, after a person dies, their body decomposes into a substance called phosphorus. This substance is extremely flammable and will spontaneously combust at slightly higher temperatures. That's why people only see will-o'-the-wisp in the summer. Actually... I can create it."

Zhang Ji and Ren Dong looked at her in surprise. Zhang Ji asked, "Can you really make will-o'-the-wisp?"

Zhang Mo nodded and said, "I'll make it for you in the next two days."

Now that all kinds of tools are available, extracting phosphorus from flint is not so difficult. Three days later at night, when a ball of blue-green flame ignited in the open space of the yard, Zhang Ji and others were so shocked that they couldn't close their mouths.

"The eternal lamp in the ancient tomb is actually phosphorus extracted from flint," Zhang Mo explained.

Xu Huang circled the flames twice and sighed, "Amo, is there anything in this world you can't do? You can even create will-o'-the-wisp. If you could create a little ghost someday, I wouldn't think it would be strange at all."

Zhang Mo smiled and said, "Then just wait. One day I will create a million-strong army of devils, and you will be the devil general, leading them to slaughter all around, and beat those disobedient pigs and monkeys to a pulp!"

Knowing she was joking, Xu Huang clasped his fists and said seriously, "As you command!"

"Okay, okay, stop talking nonsense. We are in Yuan Benchu's territory. This guy is very stingy. Be careful that he will catch you first." Zhang Ji said with a smile.

Since the will-o'-the-wisp fire was not caused by ghosts, Zhang Ji suspected that the epidemic here was not caused by ghosts. Now it is the end of March and summer is not far away. If the cause of the disease is found as soon as possible, no one can get sick again this summer.

In the following days, Xu Huang continued to repeat his previous work, going up the mountain to hunt and collect firewood, while Rendong helped look after the little bun at home. Zhang Ji and his apprentice carried their medicine boxes every day to chat with people nearby and collect information on the sick and the dead.

Although the people also believed that it was the wronged ghosts of Jingguan who were causing trouble, they also understood that if the doctor could cure this disease, their lives would be better protected. They cooperated with Zhang Ji's inquiries and told him everything they knew.

The two searched for more than half a month, sorted out a bunch of past cases, and actually found some common points.

For example, every summer, the first people to get sick are those who love to play in the river and often catch fish, shrimps and snails in the river to eat.

The two men went to see the Jingguan where the dead bodies were piled up, and after asking people nearby, they learned that three years after the Jingguan was built, during every summer rainstorm, the soil in some places would be washed away by the rain, revealing the rotten corpses inside. Later, Julu Prefect Guo Dian sent people to rebuild it twice, tamping the soil thicker, so that no corpses were exposed again.

Gu Mao roughly knew the cause of the disease, and spent a few days visiting several villages upstream of Jingguan. He found that there were very few people who were sick here, and the dead were not people who liked to go into the water, but were mostly relatives of several villages downstream.

Combining the above factors, it can be basically concluded that the frequent illnesses and deaths of people nearby in the past few years were caused by this river polluted by rotting corpses.

As to why the disease always occurs in summer, it is probably because summer is hot and rainy, and the epidemic poison from the rotting corpses in the Jingguan is more likely to be washed into the river. People who like to play in the water must have drunk the river water and thus contracted the poison.

However, since no cases had been seen, Zhang Ji could not be sure what kind of disease it was, but it was certain that the disease was not highly contagious. Based on the fact that most of the deceased were from the same family, it was roughly judged that the disease could only be transmitted by sharing tableware.

After finding the root cause, Zhang Ji told his inference to the village head and asked him to restrain the people in the village from playing in the water this summer. At the same time, all food must be boiled before consumption.

The village head was skeptical, but for the sake of everyone's safety, he gathered everyone together, told them Zhang Ji's warning, and then went to several nearby villages to notify them again.

Zhang Ji has treated many patients in the neighborhood in the past few months. When everyone heard that it was Doctor Zhang who ordered it, most of them still believed him.

Believing in doctors is one thing, but it does not prevent them from believing in ghosts and gods. As summer is approaching, every household, even though they have to eat coarse food every day, still pools money to buy tribute paper money, preparing to offer sacrifices to the wronged souls in the Jingguan again. Double insurance is safer.

Outside the Xiahuli Gate, everyone had set up their altars and offerings in the direction of the Jingguan Temple. Before they could even light paper money, a young man hurried over from a distance, shouting, "The officials are coming! The officials are coming!"

Everyone was startled and hurriedly put away the tribute and other items. Old Man Tang solemnly warned Zhang Ji and others, "Don't tell the officials about this, otherwise we will be arrested and punished!"

The four of them nodded in understanding. If the officials knew that they dared to worship the rebels in Jingguan, they would most likely be arrested as remnants of the Yellow Turbans.

By the time I had packed up my things, two officers in plain clothes had already walked out the inner gate.

Seeing that several village heads were here, one of the slightly fat officers was immediately happy, "It's just right, it's just right, everyone is here, so I don't have to inform everyone."

"The county has issued this year's corvée service document. Each household must provide one able-bodied man to dredge the Hutuo River in two days. As usual, those who don't want to serve can pay money to do so."

There were corvée labors every year, either building roads, repairing city walls, or clearing rivers. People were used to it, and after the officers left, they still brought out tributes and completed the offerings that had not been completed.

Zhang Ji was worried that the people who worked on the river would be infected with the disease, and he repeatedly reminded them of some precautions, but he was still worried.

Zhang Mo thought of masks as a magical anti-virus weapon, so she went to the city that day and bought several pieces of cloth with her own money. She asked women from each village to sew masks for the service members to wear, which was better than nothing.

A few days later, Zhang Ji and others still did not wait for the epidemic to come, but instead received news that Yuan Shao, the governor of Jizhou, and Gongsun Zan had started fighting.

This news did not surprise Zhang Mo at all. In the past, in order to seize Jizhou from Han Fu, Yuan Shao had written a letter to Gongsun Zan, inviting him to send troops to the south to attack Jizhou and threaten Han Fu.

Afterwards, Yuan Shao took Jizhou, but Gongsun Zan did not gain any advantage. The two of them became enemies, but it never came to the point of fighting.

Last year, Sun Jian sent troops to take Jingzhou. The Yuan brothers were already at odds with each other, and Yuan Shao did not want to see his younger brother gain power, so he sent troops to take Yangcheng. Yuan Shu sent Gongsun Zan's younger brother Gongsun Yue to help, but Gongsun Yue was shot and killed by a stray arrow. Gongsun Zan hated Yuan Shao even more from then on, so he raised his troops to attack Yuan Shao.

However, in Zhang Mo's view, Gongsun Zan's revenge for his brother was just an excuse, and his real purpose was to take the opportunity to extend his influence into the Central Plains.