Chapter 20: West Pit

In ancient Chinese medicine for treating external wounds, the first step is debridement, generally cleaning the wound with boiled water;

The second is applying medicine, with several established formulas and proprietary medicines specifically for stopping bleeding and regenerating flesh; proprietary medicines are generally powders, convenient for external application;

The third is bandaging; the cloth used for bandaging is best white and must also be steamed;

The fourth is taking internal medicine to promote healing; if conditions permit, the internal medicine will be prescribed temporarily by the Physician according to the injured person's specific constitution; when conditions are not available, one takes established formulas or proprietary medicines.

Except for stitching wounds, the procedure is not much different from Li You's; the problem is that such medical means are quite high-end, used almost exclusively by nobles and wealthy households; these mud-legs have never seen such things, and furthermore, using mold to repel inflammation is an even rarer folk remedy, so their astonishment at Li You's medical methods is quite normal!

Having dealt with Qi Jingkun, Li You was about to begin saving Xiang Ying and Dang Suozhi, but Shi Jiu'en shouted from the side: "Save our people first; let those two mud-legs die."

Li You raised his head, looked coldly at Shi Jiu'en for a moment, and said solemnly, "In my eyes, there are no bandits and slaves!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the eyes of all the mine workers and salt slaves instantly became fiery, and even many had their eyes turn red in an instant.

Li You did not know what kind of joy his words had brought to the mine workers and salt slaves.

"Happiness" is like a snob; in this world, fortune is reserved only for the rich who never lack fortune, while suffering is entirely left to them—endless bitterness and unspeakable hardships until death.

After Li You finished speaking, he began to wipe and disinfect Xiang Ying's left leg; Xiang Ying's leg wound was deep enough to see the bone.

He cleaned extremely carefully, seeing quite a bit of mottled mud and sand mixed with iron ore dust in the wound; if this is not cleaned thoroughly, survival is unlikely, yet without anesthesia, all the pain must be endured.

Apart from the patient's groans, the crowd remained silent; watching Li You finish treating Xiang Ying, he then began treating Dang Suozhi, Lu Yi, and finally the two lightly injured Xu Sanshui and Yan Fengchun.

From start to finish he was meticulous; sweat the size of a bucket had already seeped down his forehead, yet his hands became more and more skilled, and the crowd went from initial astonishment to slowly becoming admiring...

Especially when Li You just forcefully scolded Shi Jiu'en, that had already changed their view of Li You!

Strange to say, since Li You displayed his skills the day before yesterday, and then immediately saved people with divine methods, everyone, whether mine workers or bandits, suddenly became respectful toward Li You.

To pull heavily injured people like Xiang Ying and Lu Yi back from the King of Hell's hall, what else could that be but a living immortal?

You must know that among the hundred-plus people in Longmen Stronghold, whether mine workers or bandits, all live dangerous lives; everyone will eventually suffer a knife wound or catch a cold from wind and chill,

so what it means to have a Physician, and moreover a living immortal who can bring the dead back to life and mend broken bones, is naturally beyond words.

Even Huang Mao, Gu Laosan, and others who previously spoke rudely to Li You began to greet Li You with smiles upon seeing him; as for Zhao Duyi, needless to say, he kept hiding whenever he saw Li You, fearing Li You would seek trouble with him.

Li You felt somewhat uncomfortable at first; after all, surgical bandaging was something almost anyone with basic medical knowledge in that era would know, but since it was so, he might as well happily accept it.

"It's a pity I can't treat diabetes! Otherwise, I would soon gain Wu Zhuge's favor and rise quickly... never mind, this is good enough."

Li You lamented; in this situation, it also counts as accumulating connections for himself.

If Wu Zhuge proves completely unreliable, he can simply take the second path!

As he was gradually accepted, in these two days, besides caring for the sick, Li You used his leisure time to collect a large amount of green mold from mustard greens from Wa Qingyun.

He ground rice into juice and mixed it with juice boiled from yams to create a culture medium, then implanted all this green mold into five ceramic jars, planning to check the results in six or seven days.

After finishing these tasks, this matter could only be temporarily set aside; Li You began actively chatting with everyone he met, whether mine workers or bandits.

In the conversation, he intentionally or unintentionally asked for each person's name and native place, silently memorizing all this information.

Since there was no paper or brush, every day he deliberately recited these several times in his mind; during leisure time when no one was around, he would always squat on the ground talking to himself...

"Mu Qianjun said his hometown is in Anyi County of Pingyang Prefecture; the scope of Anyi he mentioned is so large, and there is also Yao Xian Canal... it should be Yuncheng of later generations!"

Li You muttered, finding a spot on the "Shanxi" map on the ground and drawing a dot; then he muttered again: "Lu Yi said he is a military household from Jingzhou, Xuanwei Wuzhai Office in Huguang; where is this Wuzhai Office?"

Combining the original memories of his body with geographical knowledge from his past life, he continuously pieced together the current map; fortunately, the terrain of the Ming Dynasty differed little from later generations, since most place names in later generations were inherited from the Ming, so Li You verified things extremely quickly.

"Li Xianggong, why are you drawing circles on the ground all the time, what exactly are you doing?"

A round-faced little boy of about twelve or thirteen, staring at Li You who often drew circles on the ground in front of him, couldn't help but speak out.

He was the little boy Li You had saved from Zhao Duyi's hands the day before yesterday; his name was Yu Zhengchun, a native of Tongchuan Prefecture in Sichuan; at five years old, his father died of exhaustion in the fields, later his mother starved to death, his sister also starved to death, and he fled with his maternal uncle.

In the seventh year of Chongzhen, his uncle joined Li Zicheng's rebel army's Front Camp just to drink a bowl of elm-bark soup, but before he could even drink the tree-bark soup, he was blown up during a siege.

At seven years old, Yu Zhengchun, dazed, followed other refugee fugitives northward and fainted from hunger by the roadside.

Finally, he was saved by the old commander Wu Ying, lived in this Longmen Stronghold ever since, staying for six years; he has been with Wu Ying the longest and is the leader of this group of children.

"You melon-headed kid, what do you know!"

Li You, imitating his accent, cursed in Sichuan dialect.

"Heh!"

Yu Zhengchun smiled foolishly; these past two days he had been helping Li You and had already become very familiar with him, and Yu Zhengchun discovered this scholar was very special, different from any scholar he had ever seen before; he had never seen another scholar who could save people like sewing clothes!

Moreover, those scholars, which one of them was not high and mighty?

Looking at them mud-legs and chicken-peckers, they looked at them as if they were beasts!

But this Li Xianggong has an extremely good temper, holds no scholar's airs toward anyone, and even jokes with him, and even does some things that make him feel incredibly unbelievable,

such as washing the feet of Xiang Ying who had a foot injury, and cleaning them extremely carefully, and even joking with him, and even imitating their local dialect to curse, just like a moment ago.

With all these behaviors, how could he look like a scholar? How could he look like a proper scholar?

Yet he clearly knows how to read and write, and can even mention places he has never been to, such as Shuntian Prefecture, Southern Zhili, Tengwang Pavilion, Confucius Temple, Lion Mountain, Chu King's Tomb...

Li You described them as if he were there, which shocked Yu Zhengchun immensely; he remembered the local Juren master probably hadn't been to as many places as Li You, and Li You was far younger than that Juren.

In ancient times, transportation was inconvenient; for those who could understand mountains, rivers, and geographical trends, they belonged to top-tier talent, since at that time, maps and such were extremely precious, even military secrets.

Even in the early years of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, they were not very clear about the trends of mountains and rivers, striking wherever they went like locusts.

"Let's go, today we'll check out the West Pit you people talk about."