Within a single day, everything in Southwest County became orderly.
Before the shelters were even completed, those infected with high fevers had to sleep on simple straw mats, covered by quilts donated by ordinary families within the county. Doctors were in short supply, and because the Emperor had long feared that an outbreak would trigger chaos in the Nan'ao Kingdom, the situation had not been publicized. Now that the epidemic had been announced, it was expected that doctors sent from other regions would arrive in the Southwest Region in the coming days.
However, Jiang Yu guessed that not many would come. With an epidemic, those who did come were essentially resigned to death; who would willingly volunteer? Therefore, they had to start recruiting doctors from among the refugees themselves. Village doctors, barefoot practitioners—anyone who knew how to treat a high fever was accepted. They would, of course, be paid a salary, and Xiao Yan further promised that those who contributed significantly—especially those who managed to save infected patients—would receive extra rewards. More importantly, anyone who developed a prescription to treat the epidemic would be directly appointed as an Imperial Physician. That was a promotion from a common doctor to a government official; who wouldn't be tempted by that?
Chapter 167