The Lucky Farmgirl

The first to arrive in the capital was indeed Prince Gong, given that Luozhou isn’t very far from the capital.

However, when he arrived, Zhou Man was confined in the imperial estate, and the vaccination initiative was continuing in an orderly manner. The Imperial Hospital had begun to transfer the technology down to the Imperial Medical Office. Zhou Man and Imperial Doctor Lu each took on five students, starting with learning how to cultivate the cowpox and assess the virulence of the cowpox.

In fact, it’s not very difficult; one can master it after doing it a couple of times.

The students at the Imperial Medical Office also began vaccinating, and once they became immune to smallpox, it would be much more convenient for them to conduct further research on smallpox.

Director Xiao and Imperial Doctor Liu discussed with Zhou Man that after a period, they would gather the pharmaceutical shops and clinics in the capital, and if all went well, the Imperial Hospital would teach them the vaccination technique as well.

This was Zhou Man’s suggestion.

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approached, Manbao couldn’t help but miss her other two apprentices while teaching Liu Sanniang, especially since the Mid-Autumn gifts from Zheng Gu and Zheng Shao had already arrived at her house, making her miss them even more.

Thus, she proposed calling the local medical office personnel back to the capital for training. She said, "Since His Majesty intends for more people to receive cowpox vaccination, this technology surely has to be handed over to the local medical offices."

Director Xiao was naturally aware of this, but he didn’t want to teach it so quickly to the students below him; his plan was to teach it after vaccinating ten thousand people.

But Manbao said, "Once the Imperial Guards are vaccinated, the goal of ten thousand people is not far off, and we’re currently under-resourced."

At the imperial estate, the Imperial Hospital dispatched medical assistants to her and Imperial Doctor Lu, yet the manpower was still insufficient.

Moreover, cultivating cowpox also required a lot of manpower, and this task had always been undertaken by her and Imperial Doctor Lu, taking up a lot of their time.

She said, "Bringing people back also takes time, and it’s impossible for the local medical offices not to leave anyone behind. Bringing them back in batches, or even in more batches, takes even longer, and the round-trip costs are high, so I think that in the long run, the short plans are not as good as the long plans."

Furthermore, since we’d already planned for the long term, Manbao didn’t mind planning even further, saying directly, "The world is vast, and we can’t tread it with just our two feet. There are many people in the world, and we can’t take care of everyone by ourselves, so I believe that if we truly want the vaccination initiative to succeed, we must have people specifically responsible for this matter."

Manbao said, "Moreover, with the world constantly renewing, the national power gradually strengthening, and the population growing faster and faster, there will be a large number of newborns each year. These children, once they reach a certain age, all need to be vaccinated. Therefore, this industry will not decline. Thus, I suggest establishing a Vaccination Department within the Imperial Medical Office, dedicated to learning, cultivating cowpox strains, administering vaccinations, and researching a safer version of cowpox."

Imperial Doctor Liu and numerous other doctors were dumbfounded, and Doctor Xiao was also dumbfounded. After a moment of shock, he finally remembered his proper role—Director of the Imperial Hospital.

He finally began to contemplate the prospects of preventing and treating smallpox. To be honest, he scoffed at the Emperor’s assertion that smallpox would be eradicated in the future, because political stability is very difficult. With each new emperor comes new ministers. He estimated that as long as His Majesty lived, the vaccination effort could be maintained, but in the future...

Director Xiao glanced at Zhou Man. If the successor were indeed the Crown Prince, then continuing this effort would be highly likely, but if the successor were someone else...

In any case, Director Xiao wasn’t inclined to plan so far ahead; he was at most planning for next year.

And his plan for next year concerning the vaccination in the Imperial Hospital was to vaccinate a full ten thousand people and obtain data from ten thousand individuals.

But Zhou Man had already planned several years ahead. She even whispered to Director Xiao, "Imperial Doctor Liu has already told me about your concerns, about how you’re worried about each new Emperor bringing new ministers and that by spreading our efforts too wide now, the Imperial Hospital might face backlash in the future. But you have to know that as doctors, our greatest asset isn’t our role as physicians, but the knowledge we have about treating and saving lives."

"All the things we’ve accomplished using national power and His Majesty’s resources can be passed on. At worst, we give the technology to more people. Even if the Imperial Medical Office no longer exists in the future, or even the Imperial Hospital is gone, our technology will remain, and it won’t be a loss."

Hence, Zhou Man urged Director Xiao to recruit civilian doctors and pass on the vaccination method and the prescriptions and acupuncture techniques for treating smallpox to them.

To be honest, after discussing with Zhou Man, Director Xiao was in a daze. He couldn’t help but gaze at Zhou Man, unable to speak for a long time. It wasn’t clear what he should say, as he couldn’t find the words.

Being colleagues for many years, the two had frequent exchanges and were quite familiar with each other.

Director Xiao knew that Zhou Man enjoyed exchanging medical techniques with others. She had traded some prescriptions and theoretical medical books for a couple of books from him, and over the past two years, his medical skills had also improved.

Although it was called an exchange, sometimes Zhou Man didn’t care about gain and loss. For example, she exchanged acupuncture methods with them, and then she would write them into medical books, publish them directly, and teach the students at the Imperial Medical Office.

Sometimes, when she was teaching a class, if she referred to previous consultations about difficult medical cases, she would also teach the students the things she painstakingly exchanged for from them.

When Imperial Doctors sought her guidance, she never held back.

So, despite calling it an exchange, she seemed more interested in learning from them without really being possessive of her knowledge.

Every Imperial Doctor in the Imperial Hospital now knew this, so they felt conflicted.

If they wanted to learn something from Zhou Man without paying a price, it was simple; they just had to make sure Zhou Man didn’t know they had something valuable.

Because if she didn’t know, and you asked for her guidance, she would likely teach you. If she knew, she would insist on an exchange before teaching or be unwilling to teach others...

Yet, Zhou Man had a wide network and was chatty. She knew everything, from which family had good books, to which ancestors had produced skilled doctors, and all the details were crystal clear to her.

Moreover, if they were to hide these, wouldn’t they then have no strengths to offer?

What were they being secretive about their medical skills for?

It was so they wouldn’t end up teaching their apprentices to the point of starving the master.

But if nobody knew you possessed such skills, how could you even hope to feed yourself?

He knew that with her broad-mindedness and intelligence, no one in the entire Imperial Hospital could match her in the future.

It turned out they had underestimated her. They thought she was a great river, but she was an ocean-like heart, willing to hand over the fruits of two years of hard work to everyone.

Just the mere thought made Director Xiao’s heart ache. He sat in his chair in silence for a long time and finally said, "This matter must be discussed with Imperial Doctor Lu."

Regarding the research on cowpox and vaccination, Zhou Man was the main contributor, but Imperial Doctor Lu was the second most important contributor, especially since the most critical prescription for treating smallpox was given by Imperial Doctor Lu, so his opinion was essential.

Imperial Doctor Lu was naturally unwilling.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!