Qin Official

As armies gradually gathered on the border between Qin and Chu, and the atmosphere of war became more and more intense, far away in Xianyang, Guanzhong, Li Xin also completed the ceremony of swearing an oath to go to war.

With the sound of bells and drums, Li Xin's horse and chariot crossed Baqiao and began to march eastward. Tens of thousands of Guanzhong's disciples will gather at Hangu Pass to wait for General Li, who will fight with a large army for the first time.

Among the crowds farewelling Li Xin on the north bank of the Weishui River, Ling Xia Wuqi, the imperial doctor with gray temples, just sat on the An chariot and watched the scene from a distance. He did not join in the cheers of the crowd, but because of the occupational disease of a doctor, he shook his head at the good sons of Guanzhong who were slowly walking away, full of ambition and pride.

"I don't know how many people died from injuries, wounds, and sores..."

He had been in the Qin Dynasty for thirty years, and this was the first time he had seen the army march eastward. Naturally, he was used to watching the disabled soldiers with broken limbs and feet being loaded on cars and transported back to Xianyang after the war. .

"I have a rest today. I don't have to go on duty in the palace. I just go home. I'm afraid Wu Jiu has been waiting for me at home for a long time."

After telling the coachman to go home, Xia Wuji closed his eyes. I don't know since then, the population of Xianyang City has become more and more popular, the accents have become more and more complex, and the way home from the suburbs has become longer and longer. It seems like he The road traveled over the years is average.

Xia Wuqie was not a native of Qin. He was a Korean and a member of the distant branch of the Queen Mother Xia who married King Xiaowen of Qin many, many years ago.

Although they were descendants of aristocrats, they had learned medicine, so since Xia Wuqe was young, he wanted to join the Qin Dynasty. The Qin country could not compare with other people in the Central Plains, but it was unique in medical skills. For hundreds of years, famous doctors emerged in Qin in large numbers, their skills were almost Taoist, and their skills were divine. They left many stories and legends in the history books of the princes.

As far as Xia Wuji knew, Yi Huan during the Qin Huan Gong era and Yi He during the Qin Jinggong era were invited by the Jin State to treat Jin Jinggong and Jin Pinggong respectively. At that time, Qin and Jin were no longer good friends of Qin and Jin, but enemies with constant conflicts. Jin could hire doctors from enemy countries to treat its own monarch, which shows that Qin's doctors had a good reputation...

In the time of King Qin Huiwen, the doctor also rushed to Qi State to "cut acne" for King Qi Xuan and cured the disease. King Qi Xuan was also very grateful for this.

After the last doctor, Bian Que, died and the family of doctors disappeared, Qin became the region with the most developed medical skills in the world, and Xia Wuqie also yearned for it. So he came to Qin when he was twenty years old. It happened that the Queen Mother Xia's son, King Zhuangxiang of Qin, succeeded to the throne. I got a job as an imperial doctor in Xianyang Palace.

The Queen Mother Xia liked him very much, as a member of her family. Whenever the elderly lady got sick, she would ask Xia Wuqie to come and diagnose her pulse, and then talk about some common things...

But there were some words that Xia Wuqi didn't dare to answer. Not only did he not dare to say them, he wanted to cover his ears and not even listen to them!

For example, there are rumors about Zhao Ji and Lu Buwei, about the young King Qin who succeeded to the throne, about King Qin’s younger brother and the Empress Dowager Xia’s most beloved grandson, Chang’an Jun...

Fifteen years ago, Xia Wuji had a deep memory. In that year, comets visited Qin three times, causing great panic. Many people thought that the world was going to collapse.

In the end, nothing happened. The disappearance of the comet only took away the life of Queen Mother Xia.

A few years of chaos followed. The last supporter of Xia's relatives in South Korea, Chang'an Jun Chengqi, turned against him. Empress Dowager Zhao took the opportunity to instruct Lao Ai to carry out a large-scale liquidation. Xia Wuji was also imprisoned at that time.

It was not until a few years later that the Queen Mother Zhao and the Lao Ai clique were eliminated because of their rebellion and intent on regicide, and he was released.

Together with many people who were released, he waited with fear for King Qin's judgment.

The King of Qin actually remembered Xia Wuji's name and did not drive him away. Instead, he allowed him to continue working in the Qin Palace.

"Wuji is a good pediatrician. When I was young, he diagnosed and treated me, and the medicine cured my illness. Now that I have my eldest son, Xia Wuji, you can stay here."

This was the reason why King Qin kept Xia Wuji. Wuji was grateful. Over the years, Xia Wuji had been taking care of his eldest son Fusu conscientiously. Whenever he had a slight illness, he would immediately rush to him with the medicine box. Gradually, in addition to Fusu, Xia Wuqi was often called to practice medicine by King Qin. After he turned thirty, King Qin, who was burdened with government affairs, would suffer from ailments from time to time. There were not many doctors who could reassure him.

When accompanying the king, Xia Wuqie was even more cautious. When he was in the palace, he did not dare to show off his temper until the audience two years ago.

The medicine box in his hand hit Jing Ke, the assassin who was chasing King Qin! The Poria, Angelica dahurica, Tianqi and other medicinal materials in the medicine box fell to the floor, paving a road to wealth for Xia Wuji...

Two hundred yi of gold, and he was promoted to the rank of imperial physician. Xia Wuji became prosperous, and his disciples also improved. Those who could only go to public hospitals to see doctors can now enter the homes of the five doctors. This is all thanks to Xia Wuji. blessing.

Among the few disciples of Xia Wuji, Chen Wujiu is considered to have a relatively poor life. Now he can only rely on the golden sore medicine passed down to him by Xia Wuji to treat the leader and five hundred generals in the army. It seems that Chen Wujiu is not his son-in-law, nor does he have much talent, so his achievements in this life may be limited.

But at this moment, Chen Wujiu gave Xia Wuji a big surprise, which made Xia Wuji look at this incompetent disciple in a new light...

…

When Xia Wuji returned home and changed into loose clothes, a servant came to report that Chen Wujiu was indeed waiting in the hall.

Xia Wuji thought for a while and said, "Let him come directly into the inner room to see..."

When Confucians describe disciples’ learning, they often use the words entering a hall or entering a room. Isn’t this a reflection of the close relationship between disciples and their master?

In the past, Chen Wujiu was just an inconspicuous one among the seven or eight disciples of Xia Wuji, who could only attend the hall. Now, Xia Wuji directly let him come into the room to see him. This made Chen Wujiu very happy. When he came to the inner room, he prostrated in front of the master, paused and said: "I have seen the master, General Li's army is sent away." Already?"

"Um."

Xia Wuqe took the pottery cup and rinsed his mouth with water, and only responded vaguely. Chen Wujiu paused again and said: "So, Master has also written a letter to your Majesty to ask General Li to implement the proposal on the front line? "

Xia Wuji spit the water in his mouth into the copper basin.

"This has never happened before."

He waved his hand and asked someone to hand over a silk book and handed it to Chen Wujiu.

Chen Wujiu took a look at it and realized that this silk book was not something he had thought hard about, perfected Hei Fu's advice on "battlefield rescue", and then handed it over to Master Hei, asking him to read it and write to the King. Why are you still here!

Xia Wuji said: "I have already stood in front of the king and General Li with this silk letter in my arms, but after thinking about it, I still didn't submit it."

Chen Wujiu looked a little anxious and asked puzzledly: "Master specially called me back from Wei and asked me to demonstrate the method of binding wounds and stopping bleeding presented by the little village chief. Didn't I praise him full of praise? He also looked at the discussion between the two of us. Don’t you also strongly agree with the proposal of battlefield rescue, saying that it is a good strategy to save people and govern the country?”

Xia Wuji nodded: "That advice is very good. In addition to saving lives and healing the wounded, motivating soldiers to fight without worries, it can also greatly enhance the status of our doctors in the Qin State."

The famous doctor of the Qin State, Yihe, once said: The superior doctor heals the country, the second is the sick person, and the inferior doctor heals the disease.

It is true that Xia Wuqi is now rich and powerful, and it is inevitable that he has some thoughts of being famous in history. It is not enough to just throw Jing Ke's medicine bag. He also wants to leave his name as a doctor and become a "shang doctor". ".

This suggestion is a good opportunity. Once implemented, it will definitely be a major reform. The doctor is responsible for training personnel who specialize in emergency bandaging and then assign them to the army. This will undoubtedly increase the power of his imperial physician.

Xia Wuji affirmed the foresight and sagacity of that suggestion, but based on his understanding of his disciple Chen Wujiu, Wujiu probably couldn't come up with such a good idea. It was probably the leader of the small village in Anlu County named "Hei Fu" credit.

Chen Wujiu was even more puzzled: "In this case, now that the king has sent General Li to attack Chu, and the war in the east is rising again, it is the time when this proposal can show its power, why..."

"Because there's not enough time."

Xia Wuji sighed: "Even if the king agrees, it will take at least three months to half a year from the implementation of this policy to the implementation in the army. But the situation is urgent. General Li has already led his army to set off, and the army that previously attacked Wei has also stayed in place. Wait. I'm afraid this war will start in September and October. Even if we train immediately, we won't have time to arrange it in every village."

It is not difficult to specifically practice the art of wound binding, but it is not easy to organize a large number of people to learn it and promote it to the grassroots level of the army. If you spend money and effort in the end, the people will be trained, but in the end they will not be in this war. If it comes in handy, wouldn't it be in vain?

Xia Wuji was worried about more than just this. There were some things he couldn't tell Chen Wujiu clearly, that is, he actually didn't have much confidence in Li Xin's attack on Chu this time...

As the saying goes, clothes are not as good as new, and people are not as good as old. In the past ten years or so, Xia Wuqi had seen Old General Wang Jian go on many expeditions and come back victorious every time. No matter whether the opponent is the difficult Li Mu or the easy-to-win Yan army, he is cautious. The more troops he leads, the more cautious he becomes.

But Li Xin is different. This young man has never experienced setbacks, and has never competed with an opponent as powerful as Li Mu. Therefore, there seems to be no problem when deducing military strategies, but when it comes to fighting, it is difficult for anyone to say.

Can this little general who is good at riding horses really lead an army of 200,000 people, and can he really destroy Qin's biggest enemy in one go?

So although Xia Wuji didn't know the final outcome of this battle, he always felt that Li Xin would gain most of Huaibei during this trip. Want to destroy Chu? It's hard.

"Nothing to blame. Let me ask you, how can I become a famous doctor praised by everyone?"

Chen Wujiu raised his head in confusion and said a bunch of clichés that Xia Wuji had taught him back then.

Xia Wuji shook his head and said: "A famous doctor does not depend on how good his medical skills are, but on strictly adhering to five no-treatments. First, he will not treat those who are arrogant, rude, tricky and arrogant; second, he will not treat those who value wealth but not his life; third, he will not treat those who are arrogant, rude, and cunning but do not treat his life. , those who are doubtful and undecided will not be treated; fourth, those who are too weak to take medicine will not be treated; fifth, those who are terminally ill will not be treated."

"Given General Li's temperament, he likes to attack quickly by riding on horseback, but does not like to fight steadily. Even if he offers suggestions, he may not implement them on the front line. This is like a doubtful person."

"In addition, once General Li Xin fails to achieve full success, or even returns defeated, the effectiveness of battlefield rescue will not be conveyed to the king's ears. It will neither demonstrate the goodness of treating wounded soldiers nor prove that this strategy can boost the morale of the soldiers. , What use is it to the country? Just like we treat people's diseases but cannot remove the root cause of the disease, not only will we not get rewards, we will even be blamed for it..."

He patted the silk book on the desk and said: "This strategy requires sufficient time to prepare and must be placed in a foolproof battle. However, the battle General Li Xin wants to fight is not safe..."

When a doctor gets a good prescription, he can't prescribe it hastily. He has to brew the medicine slowly and see whether the patient's constitution is suitable.

"Let's see and wait! When the most appropriate time comes, I will naturally offer advice to the king!"

…

Li Xin traveled very fast. He only left Xianyang in mid-August and arrived at Yangdi, Yingchuan County in early September.

Guardsmen and civilians from Sanchuan, Yingchuan, Hedong, Shangdang, and Hanoi counties also gathered here, totaling 100,000. In addition to the 100,000 troops already deployed on the border of Qin and Chu, he promised the King of Qin that 100,000 All the manpower has been put in place, and the grain harvested from various places have been loaded into the warehouse. Aocang has accumulated more than 100,000 shi of millet. Corn from Guanzhong is still being sent in a steady stream, enough to feed the army...

The Chu State also sensed that the Qin people were not doing well this time. After several unsuccessful negotiations with envoys, the main war faction headed by Xiang Yan was re-appointed by the King of Chu. They also began to prepare for war and deployed heavy troops in Huaibei. Both sides The sword is on the verge of breaking out.

At the same time, Heifu in Yangcheng learned that the coach of the Qin army was really Li Xin, and cursed secretly in his heart.

"I really got on a broken ship. This battle looks like it will be a bad one..."

But the captain who was sent to Yangcheng to command Nanjun's five thousand troops gave Heifu some hope again.

The captain and Li Xin were from a distant family, and their name was Li You. This man was the good son-in-law of the King of Qin, and he had just married the eldest princess of the King of Qin. He also had another identity.

"The son of Tingwei Li Si..."