Chapter 44: Cholera Strikes

The dry air was filled with a strong smell of feces. Out of caution, Robinson did not dare to touch them directly with his hands.

He just observed them from a distance.

These patients were emaciated and had already shown varying degrees of dehydration.

Robinson's dull eyes fell on a mother and daughter, whose dehydration symptoms were the most serious among them.

"Doctor, please save her!"

The mother slumped on the ground. Dr. Robinson's medical skills had long been known throughout the gold mining area of ​​Sacramento.

It was rumored that only two people in California could cure cholera, one was Liang Yao, the new king of California, and the other was Dr. Robinson, whose medical skills were said to be miraculous.

Liang Yao is now in San Francisco, and in Sacramento, only Dr. Robinson can cure them.

The mother and daughter ruthlessly pulled out the unbearable memory deep in Robinson's memory.

He thought of his wife and daughter.

In the 1840s, cholera swept across the eastern United States almost overnight, and countless people died from this terrible epidemic.

Dr. Robinson had a happy family, but cholera destroyed everything for him.

His wife and children died one after another in the epidemic, and as a doctor, he was helpless against cholera and could only watch his wife and daughter die in front of him.

His original intention of coming to California was not to pan for gold, but to escape, escape cholera, and escape the painful memory that he could not bear to look back on.

He hoped that in this new place, he could say goodbye to his past self and start a new life.

Unexpectedly, in less than two years, the disease also invaded California.

Is this God's punishment for human greed? Just like the Black Death in the Middle Ages?

"Sorry, I need to calm down."

Robinson turned and hid in his residence, letting countless people behind him call his name and regard him as a savior sent by God.

The employees of the Boston Company kept the patients out to prevent them from harassing Robinson.

Robinson is not only their doctor now, but also the leader of their Boston Company.

Robinson hid in his bedroom and cried with his head in his arms, venting his emotions to his heart's content.

After calming down, Robinson began to open his medical diary.

There had been cholera outbreaks in Sacramento and San Francisco before, but they were sporadic cases. He also cured several cases himself, including Captain Weber.

The only concentrated outbreak of cholera in California was in San Francisco during Christmas, but it did not last long.

This was thanks to Brannan. Although Brannan was a reckless man, he took the simplest and crudest way to end the cholera at Christmas in 1849.

Compared with the eastern region, the cholera here seems to come without any regularity.

The peak period of cholera in the eastern region is from June to September, while California had a large-scale cholera outbreak around Christmas. Only half a year later, cholera came back again.

This made Robinson at a loss and increasingly clueless.

Robinson carefully analyzed the cases he had treated, including Americans, British, French, Germans, but no Chinese.

Unlike the fools in the mining area who regarded cholera as Chinese cholera, Robinson, as a doctor, was very clear-headed. The spread of epidemics does not discriminate between races.

In order to save his wife, he had sought help from several British doctors.

The outbreak of cholera in Britain was earlier than that in the United States. Robinson believed at the time that British doctors must have a way to cure the disease.

It was just that British doctors were helpless about it, but Robinson still learned from British doctors that cholera was the same for British, Americans, Africans, Indians and Chinese.

There have been cases of cholera in these places.

Almost all Chinese people live under the management of Liang Yao, and perhaps Liang Yao knows more about this infectious disease than he does.

Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why all those who contracted cholera were white people, while there has not been a single case of cholera among the Chinese under Liang Yao's management.

Robinson hurried to the riverside pier in Sacramento and bought a boat ticket to San Francisco.

Cholera not only broke out in the gold mining area of ​​Sacramento, but also in the old town of San Francisco, where cholera was rampant due to the poor conditions.

There were also rumors that were unfavorable to Chinese immigrants, claiming that the epidemic was deliberately brought to California by the Chinese, deliberately intensifying the conflicts between Chinese immigrants and immigrants from other regions.

Obviously, these rumors were directed at him, Liang Yao.

"It may be accidental that such conspiracy rumors appeared in only one place, but such rumors appeared in the gold mining area of ​​Sacramento and San Francisco at the same time. I think someone must be secretly working behind the scenes."

Liang Yao checked the intelligence collected by the Zhongyi Society's spies from Sacramento and San Francisco. The four words "Chinese cholera" seemed so glaring to him.

"Investigate, you must investigate thoroughly, especially those dishonest gold mining companies in Sacramento, keep a close eye on them.

Whether it is the Zhongyi Society or the Legion, once someone is found to have started a rebellion on this ground, there is no need to be soft-hearted or ask for instructions, just shoot and kill them directly."

Several Zhongyi Society leaders and the captain of the Legion took the order and left.

When Brannan was still around, Liang Yao and these white gold mining companies were able to work together to resist Brannan's tyrannical rule in California.

Now that the common enemy is gone, it is not surprising that a small number of white people have a rift with him. After all, in essence, he and these gold mining companies are in competition with each other.

In the face of these provocations, he must fight back strongly.

All the land in the Sacramento area belongs to him. Those gold mining companies have signed land lease contracts with him. According to the provisions of the contract, he has the right to take back the land at any time. This is his trump card.

When necessary, he doesn't mind killing those gold mining companies that oppose him.

Even if he doesn't take back the land, he can strangle them in terms of food supplies and gold mining supplies.

Liang Yao and Brannan are not fundamentally different. If there is any difference, it is that his control over California is far deeper than Brannan, penetrating into every aspect of Californians' lives.

He renovated the roads, opened up the routes, provided clothes and food, and even built the public toilets for shitting.

Brannan wants to make money in California, Liang Yao not only wants to make money in California for a long time, he wants more than Brannan.

It can be said that California has reached a point where Californians cannot live normally without Liang Yao.

The Astor family's prospecting team, the disobedient white gold mining company, cholera, and so many more troubles.

"Liang Yao, I need your help. You can keep the Chinese away from cholera. You must know a lot about this epidemic."

Robinson, who always pays attention to his image, has messy hair and his clothes are covered with dust and mud. He stands in front of Liang Yao, hoping that Liang Yao can help.

"It's a Californian. We are all Californians." Liang Yao stood up and said to Robinson, "Dr. Robinson, you haven't had dinner yet, wash your hands, and have dinner with me."

"I recalled my experience fighting cholera in Boston in my early years. The peak period of cholera is from June to September, and in California, the outbreak of cholera is irregular. Do you know why?"

After washing his hands and sitting down in the restaurant, Robinson cut a piece of meat with a silver knife and stuffed it into his mouth. He had not eaten from noon to night, and he was indeed hungry.

The meat smelled bloody. It was not domesticated livestock, but fresh moose meat. Liang Yao could always get what the Indians could not get from the white people.

"It's the climate. The eastern United States is hot and humid from June to September, which is more conducive to the spread of cholera. The climate in California is closer to that in southern France and Italy. Although the summer is hot, it is dry. The winter temperature is low, but it is rainy and humid.

So cholera appears to be irregular in California. If you want to cure cholera in California, you can't start from this aspect."

"I don't have this ability." Robinson shook his head. "The person who can cure cholera in the entire California region is not me, but you.

Although you said you are not a doctor and have never studied medicine, you are the person who knows cholera best that I have ever seen. Cholera has also broken out in your hometown, and have you defeated cholera?"

Robinson had to admit that Liang Yao's understanding of cholera was even deeper than that of his peers.

"Of course, don't you call cholera Chinese cholera? It's also a matter of time before Chinese immigrants know more about Chinese cholera."

Liang Yao was not speaking in anger. Cholera originated from the Ganges Delta, the magical holy river in India.

This epidemic has a short incubation period. In the early years, due to the limited level of transportation technology, it has always been limited to India.

It was not until the British arrived that cholera was able to spread to all parts of the world with the British fleet.

American cholera originated from the European continent.

If we must add the first place name before cholera, we will call it "Indian cholera", just as the Spanish flu is actually the American flu.

In the war of conquest of India, the number of British soldiers who died from cholera was as high as 3,000, far higher than the number of British soldiers who died directly on the battlefield.

Cholera also broke out in Guangzhou in the early years, and its source was the sailors of the British East India Company fleet.

While humans enjoy the convenience brought by scientific and technological progress and globalization, they also have to bear the cost of globalization, and infectious diseases are one of them.