The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 707 - 696: Free Clinic (1)

Chapter 707: Chapter 696: Free Clinic (1)

Zhou Silang prepared to return to Qili Village the next day. He had already signed a contract with County Magistrate Tang, and he needed a large quantity of seeds; he had to head back early to make purchases throughout the village. Otherwise, if people sold all their wheat seeds or ate them, where would he find so many for them?

So, early in the morning, he climbed out of bed, put the leg of lamb he had wrapped up the night before onto the cart, and after packing some steamed buns and pastries from the kitchen, he set off.

Manbao and the rest had also gotten up, and seeing this, they bid him goodbye as usual. "Silang, have a safe trip," they waved.

Zhou Silang waved back at them.

With Zhou Silang gone, Zhou Lijun found herself with nothing to do, so Manbao enthusiastically invited her, "Lijun, come with me to see patients outside the city."

Zhou Lijun thought about it. Since she had nothing else to do that day, she nodded in agreement, "Okay, I’ll assist my cousin."

Bai Shan and Bai Erlang had to go to school, leaving only Mr. Zhuang and his niece Manbao to head out of the city together.

By the time they arrived, County Magistrate Tang was already there, busily directing people to guide the huddled masses of refugees to queue in front of the various medical tents.

Seeing Mr. Zhuang arrive, Tang immediately went up to greet him with due respect, "You really helped a lot yesterday. I should have come then, but I was delayed by some matters."

Mr. Zhuang indicated that it was nothing.

The previous day, he had heard the secretary complain about issues with the medicinal herbs donated by various families, leading to County Magistrate Tang losing his temper and then rushing to handle it.

Seeing that County Magistrate Tang looked fine today, it seemed the issue had been resolved, and Mr. Zhuang also felt relieved. He said, "Lord Tang, please give me any orders you have."

"How could I dare? It’s just the medicine center; I would ask for you to be in charge," County Magistrate Tang said. "You just observe, and let Principal Clerk Ding handle the rest."

He added, "Aside from you, Sir, the county has also invited two other respected elders to supervise. There are quite a few coming for treatment and medicine today, but there are always some who will try to take advantage of the chaos. That’s when we’ll need the discerning eyes of you gentlemen."

Mr. Zhuang acknowledged that he understood.

Once Mr. Zhuang and the others were settled, County Magistrate Tang finally turned to Manbao and her niece with a smile, "You’ve arrived early. I had people select some women from among the refugees. Do you want to go have a look first?"

Manbao nodded.

There weren’t many women queuing for medical treatment among the refugees, and of the few present, most were either children or the elderly. There were hardly any young women or girls.

When County Magistrate Tang saw this earlier in the morning, he sent two strong maidservants to pick out those women from the queues and bring them all to queue in front of Manbao’s tent, while all the men queuing there were moved to other lines.

He had decided that for this round of charitable medical treatment, Manbao would see female patients exclusively.

To make sure people wouldn’t take Manbao’s young age as an opportunity to bully her, County Magistrate Tang also placed two strong maidservants in front of her tent, borrowed from his own household.

Manbao looked around her own medical tent and was quite satisfied; she then glanced at the long queue forming outside it.

At the very front of the line stood an elderly woman, disheveled and dirty-faced. It was still cold in the morning, and perhaps because she was chilled, she was now watching Manbao with her cloudy eyes.

After glancing at the woman’s face and hands, Manbao turned to the maidservant and instructed, "Go fetch some hot water."

"Yes," the servant replied.

The one thing there was no shortage of on this open stretch of land was people waiting to take orders; they were all recruited from among the refugees, with the promise of three meals a day as compensation.

County Magistrate Tang looked over the busy, somewhat chaotic crowd, uncertain whether they could be put to good use and feeling a bit worried.

Principal Clerk Ding couldn’t help saying, "My lord, these refugees are clumsy and often disobey orders. Some of them don’t even understand the instructions. Wouldn’t it be better to recruit some people from the county instead?"

County Magistrate Tang frowned with concern. "There’s no money."

Principal Clerk Ding,"... My lord, didn’t the county just collect some tax revenue?"

County Magistrate Tang glanced at him and said, "That money is needed for other purposes in this county."

He paused and then continued, "The provincial governor’s office is nearby, would you dare to misappropriate those funds?"

Principal Clerk Ding agreed with a nod, then respectfully retreated.

County Magistrate Tang sighed.

This idea of using refugees as labor was taught to him by Yang Heshu, but the number of refugees in Yizhou City was far greater than in Luojiang County, and one wrong move could cause chaos.

The other doctors had yet to arrive for the charitable treatments, but Manbao didn’t wait for them. She washed her hands, then took out the writing brush, ink, paper, inkstone, and pulse pillow from her basket. Zhou Lijun prepared the ink while Manbao sat down at her station and beckoned the elderly woman with a smile, "Come on up."

The old woman’s mouth dropped open in disbelief, and it took her a moment to come to her senses. She asked, "Where’s the doctor?"

Zhou Lijun said, "My little aunt is the doctor."

Not only the old woman, but everyone queued up behind her and even the refugees in the neighboring tent looked at Manbao in disbelief, wide-eyed with astonishment.

Clearing her throat, Manbao spoke with a serious tone, "Come on up, quickly. I’m pressed for time."

Zhou Lijun immediately put on a stern face and added, "My little aunt is from Jishi Hall. Even Doctor Ji has praised her skills. Do you want to be treated or not? If not, we’ll move on to the next person and not waste any more time."

With the two of them saying so, the old woman was reluctant to leave. She looked at the people standing in front of the other medical tents and saw that the line stretched as far as the eye could see.

If she had to requeue, she might not have her turn for two days.

The only reason she was at the front of the line was that she was the first to be picked out by the two maidservants, and because they saw her age, they placed her at the front.

The old woman gritted her teeth and still came forward with her registry book.

This was a temporary census issued by the County Governmental Office.

What is a refugee?

It is someone who has abandoned their household registration to avoid paying taxes and wanders from place to place, not listed in the census. Once registered, they must pay annual taxes and perform corvée labor.

The number of refugees in Yizhou City was always high; it was originally their homeland, but they had fled to other places due to floods. When the floods subsided, they returned gradually.

But upon their return, if they had no home or land left and went to the government office to reclaim their former fields, they would be told that their lands had been dealt with as unused plots.

Additionally, they would be put on the census, obliging them to pay annual taxes and perform corvée labor.

Without land, they found it hard to sustain themselves, let alone pay taxes or perform labor.

Therefore, many who returned avoided re-registering at the government office, even hiding from the Land Officers and government officials; they would rather remain refugees than re-register.

This time, it was only because County Magistrate Tang had announced that refugees who registered would be allocated two acres of land and exempt from taxes for two years that they agreed to do so.

This registry was temporary, and once they were settled and allotted land, they would receive an official one. For now, this makeshift registry would be used for medical treatment.

Each registered refugee had two chances to seek medical attention during these five days.

Once a doctor confirmed that they could prescribe a treatment, they would sign their name on it, counting as one use of the available opportunities.

Manbao carefully took the woman’s pulse, then asked her some questions, examined her tongue coating and complexion, and then stood up, "Come inside, I’ll examine your belly."