Beside him, the general of light cavalry Wei Qing's eyes lit up and he quickly asked, "Is that little girl only four or five years old?"
The messenger said, "Yes!"
Wei Qing then smiled at Qin Yijian, "I probably know who she is. The daughter of the Marquis of Qingzhou, the young mistress of Linghui county, and the closed-door disciple of Doctor Qiu the miracle doctor. I heard that her medical skills are quite remarkable."
Hearing this, Qin Yijian also remembered, "That's right. A few days ago when your boy came back from suppressing bandits, he told us about this. In his words, that little girl was as amazing as an immortal."
"Moreover, those eleven seriously wounded soldiers really did survive. We should accept her kindness. Alright, since she's here, invite her in! It's so cold out and the little girl ran over from so far away. Her thoughtfulness alone is precious."
When they saw the real person, the little girl riding a deer, even Qin Yijian's old face twitched uncontrollably. He said she was a little girl but she really was a "little" girl. She's too small!
As they walked closer, Jiang Yuqing got off the deer and respectfully saluted them. All of them except Qin Yijian avoided receiving a full bow from her.
Although this little girl was of small stature, her status and rank were higher than all of theirs.
Seeing the few carriages behind her, Qin Yijian asked, "Girl, what have you brought in those carriages back there?"
Jiang Yuqing exclaimed, "Oh!" and smiled, "There are 10,000 pairs of sheepskin boots. I was rushed for time so I could only prepare this many for now. The rest will be sent slowly later on."
Upon hearing this, all the generals couldn't help but swallow their spit. Qin Yijian said, "Judging by what you said, there's a lot more?"
Jiang Yuqing shook her head, "Not a lot. Just 100,000 pairs total. Divided evenly, each person can only get one pair without any extras."
"...Are all young mistresses so extravagant these days or is it just this one that's a special case?"
Opening the carriage, they randomly took out a pair. They really were made of sheepskin and went up to the calves.
The outside was waterproof, while the inside was thick and fluffy white sheep wool. Reaching a hand inside, it was soft and comfortable. Such boots must feel amazing to wear on one's feet.
Of course, the price would definitely not be cheap, at least a few taels of silver per pair. 100,000 pairs of boots, that's over 100,000 taels of silver.
Over 100,000 taels of silver is not a trivial amount. It would be an astronomical figure that could bankrupt even the richest noble households.
The Marquis of Qingzhou came from humble beginnings. Although they earned some money selling seeds and grain these past few years, being able to take out over 100,000 taels at once just to give the soldiers boots, such sentiment and boldness is truly precious.
As the commander-in-chief, Qin Yijian was extremely moved.
He bowed deeply to Jiang Yuqing, "I, Qin, on behalf of the 100,000 soldiers of Yumen Pass, thank the young mistress for your great kindness."
Jiang Yuqing was badly frightened and quickly avoided his bow. To have such an elderly general and hero who fought on battlefields his whole life to protect the country bow to her would surely cut years off her life!
The 10,000 pairs of boots were quickly taken away. As for how they would be distributed, it was none of her concern.
Her main purpose for coming today was to provide medical treatment.
Having received the news beforehand, the few generals had all been expecting her arrival. They were very grateful and sent people to escort her to the military hospital tent for the wounded soldiers.
There, she saw over 20 military doctors. The two military doctors who went with her that day were also there. Seeing her suddenly appear in the hospital tent, they were both shocked and overjoyed.
The events of that day had been spread amongst all the military doctors in the camp by the two of them. The others hadn't really believed that such a young child could be that capable no matter how amazing she was rumored to be.
But the fact that all those seriously wounded soldiers survived without casualty could not be refuted. This was the truth.
As the saying goes, amateurs watch for fun while professionals watch for the intricacies. Those who were unconvinced took the chance when changing dressings for the wounded soldiers to personally examine the suture work. Afterwards, they had no choice but to admit that she really was amazing and became convinced, only feeling regretful that they couldn't formally apprentice under her.
At this moment, seeing the little medical immortal appear in the medical tent, they immediately swarmed over to greet and pay their respects to her, exceptionally enthusiastic. Jiang Yuqing also smiled and returned their greetings.
After the pleasantries, Jiang Yuqing entered work mode.
Half a month had passed since the battle with bandits. The lightly wounded soldiers had recovered and returned to their posts. What remained were those who had been seriously injured that day.
Seeing their lifesaver once more, the soldiers were extremely excited and wanted to get up to bow to Jiang Yuqing. She stopped them.
A young soldier named Zhuzi said, "If not for the little doctor goddess that day, I would've lost my little life there. Death doesn't scare me, Zhuzi, but dying at the hands of bandits would be too aggrieving!"
His words elicited kindhearted laughter in the tent.
Jiang Yuqing examined each of them and found their recovery was decent without any inflammation or infection. This could be attributed to the widespread use of penicillin and allicin.
Although there were two braziers lit inside the large tent, it was like a drop in the bucket and basically useless in such a big space. It was extremely cold inside the tent.
The ash-covered blankets on the soldiers, although made of cotton, were also badly hardened from having not been changed for many years and were utterly lacking in any warmth retention. Many people's hands and feet were covered in severe chilblains, red, swollen, cracked open, and revealing bright red flesh.
Jiang Yuqing asked if they were in pain.
They grinned foolishly and said it was fine, they were used to it.
At that moment, Jiang Yuqing felt a painful tightness in her heart.
Inside the tent, various personal items were scattered around haphazardly. Unused stretchers were piled randomly here and there. There was also quite a bit of garbage strewn on the ground. The surroundings of the tent also had large patches of black ice.
This was likely the result of dirty water being splashed around carelessly.
It was still winter now so things were passable, but who knew what kind of mosquitoes and bugs would breed come summertime. For injured soldiers, these frightening little creatures would be nothing short of a disaster.
Right now there weren't many people in the military hospital during peacetime, yet it was already so dirty and messy. If war broke out and the hospital filled up with people, the chaos would be unimaginable!
Jiang Yuqing's little brows furrowed tightly. Seeing her like this, the military doctors accompanying her internally started cheering.
King, the military doctor who worked with her during the raid on bandits, carefully asked, "Little immortal doctor, is something the matter?"
Jiang Yuqing said, "There are lots of problems!" She pointed out the issues she just noticed one by one, "Look, the ground is covered in trash. Stuff is piled and scattered everywhere. The area outside the tents is full of sewage. And there are still many scattered areas I won't get into specifics about.
All of these will breed large amounts of pathogens, increasing the chances of infections for the wounded and sick."
Everyone listened blankly. One military doctor couldn't help but ask, "What are these pathogens?"
Jiang Yuqing said, "Pathogens exist everywhere but our naked eyes have trouble seeing them. Let me give a simple analogy. Buddhists say a single drop of water contains 48,000 worms. You can understand these 'worms' as pathogens."
Hearing her explanation allowed them to understand.
Because it was extremely cold outside, the doctors invited Jiang Yuqing into the tent they worked in. Although it was still cold inside, it was much better than the exterior.
Seeing everyone's thirst for knowledge, Jiang Yuqing began teaching them some fundamental medical theory and pathogenic principles. She spoke continuously without stopping.
At lunchtime, a few generals gathered together to eat. Qin Yijian suddenly recalled something, "Oh right, where did that little rascal go?"
An orderly reported, "The little immortal doctor is giving the military doctors lectures. They're listening enraptured and extremely attentively."
Qin Yijian guffawed loudly, "She can subdue that bunch of old fogeys, looks like she really does have skill."
He instructed the orderly again, "Tell the supply sergeant to prepare some delicious food to send over. The little girl ran over from so far just to bring us stuff and teach us for free. We absolutely can't be impolite to her."
The orderly chuckled, "No need for you to order that, General. The brothers over at supplies, even took out the prime pork elbows they hid away to stew."
Qin Yijian lowered his head to look at the mixed grains and vegetable buns topped with pickled cabbage in his bowl. The best item was a small plate of fried pork slivers with dried vegetables. He helplessly shook his chopsticks and self-deprecatingly said, "Turns out I'm not worthy!"
Laughter once again rang out in the big tent.
At lunchtime, seeing the white steamed buns and pork elbow the size of her own head before her, Jiang Yuqing's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
Then looking again at the mixed grain buns with pickled vegetables that the other military doctors ate, she immediately understood that this was the big guys specially preparing a separate stove for her.
Jiang Yuqing took a bun, put a piece of pork elbow in it, and divided it among everyone because she couldn't finish it herself. Seeing the military doctors scrape up even the last drop of oil in the bowl, Jiang Yuqing felt indescribably complex and sorrowful.
The soldiers of this era are really suffering too much.
In the afternoon, Jiang Yuqing took everyone to the field hospital to do a major cleaning. Things that should be cleaned were cleaned, things that should be tidy were tidied, and things that should be disinfected were disinfected. After a whole afternoon, the entire hospital looked refreshed, and the air was much fresher.
In the evening, Zu Di and Wei Lingjun returned from their missions. Upon hearing that she had come, they both ran over to see her. They even took out the "private goods" they had hidden and couldn't bear to eat and gave them to her.
The next day, she personally went to headquarters and applied for them to conduct a battlefield first aid drill because she wanted to see their actual first aid level.
"Is there any need for drills to save people? If someone is injured, just pull them down!" Although Qin Yijian was somewhat unwilling and felt she was meddling too much, considering the 100,000 pairs of boots, he generously dispatched 300 men to her and even had several generals personally sit in to observe.
Of those, 100 people acted as wounded soldiers, and 200 were responsible for carrying stretchers. After the drill started, the "wounded" soldiers lay on stretchers shouting and screaming, while the soldiers responsible for carrying stretchers ran extremely fast.
It was precisely because of the excessive speed that the "wounded soldiers" were jostled near death. Some even fell off the stretchers. Those behind failed to dodge in time and crashed into each other. Instantly men and horses tumbled together.
The military doctors and medical apprentices were also chaotic here. One moment shouting there, the next calling over here, busy like headless flies. The carried stretchers were placed every which way, hampering passage. Accidentally stepping on people happened constantly.
The scene was full of situations - simply a mess. It provoked waves of laughter from the soldiers who came to watch.
By this time, the generals finally realized Jiang Yuqing's intention.
Although the field hospital had been like this at the start of previous great battles, at this moment all their faces looked rather ugly!
Especially the commander-in-chief Qin Yijian, with an ashen face, he loudly rebuked: "Do you think this is some kind of joke, very amusing?"
The crowd instantly did not dare make a peep.
Qin Yijian scolded again: "It really should be laughed at, because this is exactly how you've done things before! Think of those brothers of yours who have died, can you still laugh?"
Qin Yijian passed the ball to Jiang Yuqing: "Girl you come, feel free to train them, train these little bastards well for me."
Jiang Yuqing nodded slightly, used a little spiritual energy to amplify her voice to carry farther, and shouted: "Don't think this is funny, this is a battlefield, you are saving your injured brothers-in-arms and comrades. Those two soldiers--"
Jiang Yuqing pointed at the two who had run too fast earlier, jostling the wounded off the stretchers, and angrily questioned them: "Yes, I'm talking about you two.
The ones on your stretchers were your gravely wounded brothers, not dead pigs. They were already seriously injured, and with you jostling them like that, how could they still survive? Tell me?"
The two didn't even dare let out a breath!
"Among various issues, I won't elaborate on them one by one. I'll just say one thing. Battlefield rescue work isn't just the doctors' business, it's also every one of you here.
As long as you learn even a little basic first aid knowledge, on the battlefield, you or your brother beside you will have a bit more chance to survive, a bit more grasp on defeating the enemy."
