Chapter 622 - Before the Battle (Part Two)
Bad news arrived in rapid succession. First, the High-Wide Shipping Company under the Qiwei Escort Bureau was seized, and over twenty of its twin-masted vessels were commandeered by the government. This wasn't merely a matter of losing ships; the High-Wide Shipping Company's regular Lingao-Guangzhou route was the preferred mode of transport for many small merchants coming to Lingao for goods, as well as the main transport line between Lingao and the Qiongluan and Pearl River Delta regions.
Then came news that Tang Yunwen was intercepting civilian vessels near the Haikou Coastal Defense Battalion, forbidding them from entering the Qiongzhou Strait. Subsequently, a ban was issued prohibiting all vessels from sailing to Lingao. Not only was the channel for importing materials from the Pearl River Delta severed, but the outward shipment of coke from the Jiazi Coal Mine was completely interrupted.
"Fortunately, only the coke supply is affected." Wu De knew coke wasn't an immediately urgent material—iron ore was nowhere in sight anyway—but coal for chemical and power use was the main concern. The latter was shipped from Vietnam and Leizhou. Tang Yunwen's execution of the order to blockade the Qiongzhou Strait was half-hearted—his ships and manpower were only sufficient to block the eastern entrance; he couldn't manage the western entrance, and he was even less willing to meddle with affairs inside the strait.
The Navy stated that breaking Tang Yunwen's maritime blockade would be easy—taking out the Baishui Water Fort's base would be trivial. As long as He Ming gave the order, the fleet would set out immediately. He Ming considered it repeatedly and concluded that displaying the transmigrator group's immense naval power right now might be counterproductive. If the Ming army were scared witless and didn't come at all, wouldn't their elaborate preparations be wasted? In the end, he decided not to break Tang Yunwen's maritime blockade for now—after the Guangzhou Station and High-Wide Shipping Company were successively seized, trade with the Pearl River Delta had stagnated anyway. Many merchants had temporarily halted plans to buy and sell goods in Lingao, taking a wait-and-see attitude. Trade volume had dropped significantly, so this transport line had temporarily become less important.
When Shi Niaoren returned to his office, he was exhausted—this damned all-hands military training was killing him. Shi Niaoren actually had good physical fitness, but the Health Department had been too busy recently; he hadn't slept a full six hours for several days.
The Health Department was short-handed; even indigenous nurses weren't enough. Some had gone to Sanya, and the remaining staff had to handle basic healthcare while stepping up training for indigenous medical personnel. Shi Niaoren was run off his feet. Yesterday Ma Qianzhu had summoned him to produce a medical support implementation plan for the anti-encirclement campaign.
He had actually drafted this plan long ago and continually revised it based on changing conditions. He discussed specific implementation measures, including the army's health organization, establishing field dressing stations, evacuation systems, and setting up field hospitals.
He planned to divide medical service work into two stages of support. The first stage would be handled by unit medics; currently, they had achieved a preliminary level of one per company, though mobilized militia and accompanying laborers didn't have medics yet.
"The medic crash course is still running; giving it another month will allow us to fully staff everyone."
Medics were responsible for daily basic health and hygiene in the army. During combat, they would direct accompanying militia stretcher teams to collect the wounded. The wounded would first be debrided and bandaged at frontline dressing stations, while being triaged according to the severity of their injuries. Depending on their condition, they would receive treatment and evacuation.
Because the Health Department's overall personnel were limited and transport capacity was weak, a three-tier evacuation system wasn't adopted. Field hospitals would deploy directly at the field army headquarters location. Wounded treated at dressing stations would be carried by stretcher or walk to the field hospital for further treatment.
"Of course, ultimately they'll be evacuated to Lingao—after all, Lingao has complete facilities and medicine is readily accessible. Our Health Department plans to open a hospital at Maniao as an army hospital," Shi Niaoren said. "The scale is three hundred beds. Besides treatment, it will also serve for rehabilitation." He added, "It's just that there aren't enough medical personnel."
"Aren't there too few beds?" Ma Qianzhu commented.
Three hundred beds not enough? Shi Niaoren was somewhat surprised. By his estimate, Army casualties would be at most one or two hundred; preparing three hundred beds already accounted for future Army expansion scenarios.
"Put it this way: the focus of medical work in this operation is how to treat surrendered Ming soldiers," Ma Qianzhu explained. "Save as many as possible. Understand? People traveled all the way to Hainan Island by ship, and we injured them; as long as they're not beyond saving, we must try our best to keep them alive. Even if they're disabled, it doesn't matter; missing an arm or a leg doesn't stop them from working—we're short of people!"
Shi Niaoren suddenly understood; so that's what "not enough beds" meant. However, he indeed hadn't considered the treatment of prisoners. He thought for a moment and asked:
"I really can't estimate this. How is the Ming army's combat effectiveness? Will they rout at first contact or fight to the death? There's a substantial difference, making it hard to estimate how many wounded we'll need to treat."
"According to He Ming's estimate, we'll probably capture over twelve thousand prisoners in the end. There shouldn't be too many wounded; there will always be over a thousand light and severe casualties. We mainly use firearms; those heavily wounded probably won't survive, so mainly consider the lightly wounded."
"Alright, I'll go back and create a specialized treatment plan for wounded prisoners."
"You need to discuss this with Yang He. He's organizing the POW camp, preparing to take in prisoners. Even if there aren't many wounded, the purification and health work for so many prisoners is a huge task. Everything must be prepared in advance."
"Understood." Shi Niaoren nodded. Of course he didn't have time to discuss things with Yang He personally; he would let He Ping, the Health Department's office director, handle it. "Where will the POW camp be located?"
"Also over at Maniao," Ma Qianzhu said. "The Maniao Peninsula is now our forward base. He Ming has even moved his headquarters there."
Looks like I need to send someone to Maniao quickly, Shi Niaoren thought. Not just to handle the POW camp and field hospital matters, but because thousands of troops had already gathered there, and laborers and militia conscripted from the county were still streaming in. With ten thousand people eating, drinking, and defecating in such a confined space in hot weather, it was a critical moment for epidemic prevention.
They needed to install several sets of water purification equipment; otherwise, with over ten thousand troops gathered at Maniao without clean drinking water, an epidemic of enteritis or even cholera would break out immediately. Since Ma the Governor said Maniao would be a base, might as well install a large fixed water purification unit directly.
He also thought about the medical student training class, which was still two months from graduation. Could they catch this campaign? Regardless, Shi Niaoren decided to pull all intern medical students and nurse trainees to Maniao when the time came, adopting a policy of replacing study with combat practice.
Lingao's Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners had all been concentrated; a few could be selected to serve at Maniao.
Shi Niaoren had been sleepy, but thinking about these matters energized him. After repeated consideration, he decided simply not to let He Ping return and to hand over all matters at Maniao to him, coordinating all health work for this operation. Though He Ping didn't know medicine, he was intimately familiar with the Health Department's situation and workflow, so coordination would be easier.
Just as he was thinking about this, Zhao Yanmei came to discuss the pharmaceutical factory's production increase plan.
Regarding pharmaceuticals, the Health Department's inventory was quite sufficient. Since the coal chemical plant went into production, crude sulfanilamide had gradually formed a stable supply. The pharmaceutical factory used crude sulfanilamide as raw material to further purify and process it into oral doses and external anti-inflammatory powder. Indigenous production of kasugamycin and oxytetracycline had also taken shape, providing preliminary guarantees for the most crucial antibiotic supplies.
Because of the impending war, Zhao Yanmei intended to shift a significant portion of the factory's capacity to manufacturing medical instruments and first-aid medicines. Demand for surgical first-aid supplies like cotton, gauze, tourniquets, bandages, and splints would be high. Reserves of alcohol, disinfectants, and saline also had to be increased.
"Although these things are easy to make, consumption is high. Without sufficient reserves, shortages will occur when the time comes," Zhao Yanmei said. "We need to prepare for treating at least three thousand person-times of casualties from both sides, plus first-aid kits for the expanded troops—that's also a large number."
"What's the current holding quantity in the troops? How much inventory?"
"The Army has about ten thousand first-aid kits. We have less than a thousand in our own inventory," Zhao Yanmei said. "Actually, some first-aid kits are early manufactures and don't meet current standards. They've been around a long time; it's best to recall and dispose of them."
That was far too few. Shi Niaoren hadn't been a soldier, but he could do the math: this meant each soldier in the Army only averaged two kits.
"He Ming told me first-aid kits get used up fast. Hold off on scrapping and recalling; wait until after the war. I'll notify the Army to prioritize using new products. Keep the old ones for emergency use."
"Alright." Zhao Yanmei nodded. "My documents for adjusting capacity and applying for raw materials—"
"Arrange production as you see fit; no need to run everything by me." Saying this, he signed the documents Zhao Yanmei had brought—she had applied for many materials controlled by the Planning Institute.
Zhao Yanmei was very pleased to receive full authority from the Minister. She had many ideas for the pharmaceutical factory's production, and with his support, she felt much more motivated.
"One more thing: this is the latest version of the medic's medical kit." She placed the medical kit she had brought onto the table. "Take a look—anything need adding? If there are no issues, I'll order mass production."
Shi Niaoren opened the medical kit with reinforced corners—this was a kit for medics, emphasizing portability, so it wasn't made of wood but of multi-layered aged cowhide or donkey hide. The interior was scientifically partitioned, with various items categorized. Wooden stethoscope, simple surgical instruments, disinfectants, first-aid medicines, antibiotics, and dressing materials. Almost everything was manufactured by the Health Department's pharmaceutical factory. No wonder Zhao Yanmei looked proud when showing it to him.
Compared to two years ago, the first batch of medical kits for nurses had contained almost nothing besides alcohol, stethoscopes, dressing materials, and a few locally made patent Chinese medicines. Now they even had painkillers and antibiotics.
"With this, a medic is a miracle doctor in this timeline." Shi Niaoren sighed, half-joking.
"Just missing syringes—if we had syringes, it would be complete."
"Soon. Rolling needle tips is skilled work but not high-tech; after the war, we can definitely mass-produce them." Shi Niaoren checked the medicines inside one by one and thought some medicines for common ailments should be added.
"Stock more effective patent Chinese medicines like Zhuge Field Powder. Medics can't just think about combat; soldiers get headaches and fevers in daily life too."
As Zhao Yanmei was about to leave after discussing business, Shi Niaoren stopped her. "I need to borrow your husband for a few days to go on a business trip."
Zhao Yanmei tensed. "Is he going to the mainland?"
"Of course not. I want him to inspect the Maniao base as the Health Department representative."
"Then just send him; we aren't newlyweds who need to be glued together every day," Zhao Yanmei said with a smile. After leaving, she immediately rode her electric scooter back to the pharmaceutical factory—a pile of work was waiting for her there.
The pharmaceutical factory had trial-produced a batch of new drugs for the war, using up all the opium purchased from Macau. In the past, she had used this batch of opium to make cough syrup, painkillers, and astringents for diarrhea, which were very popular. For the war, she had refined most of the remaining opium into morphine hydrochloride injection. To facilitate use by medics without syringes, she had also made oral painkillers from opium.
However, she worried about making morphine. Its addictiveness was far stronger than the coca leaves and opium preparations currently used by the Health Department. And these drugs would be distributed into medics' kits—Zhao Yanmei doubted whether these hastily trained medics could appreciate the terrifying nature of this drug.
Having been in this timeline for a long time, she knew the lack of medicine here was shocking. Although the county town had the Runshitang Medicine Shop and there were a few herbalists in the county, the vast majority of people had neither doctors nor medicine when sick, leading to a belief in witch doctors. Anything from a witch doctor was treated as a panacea for all ailments. Thus, fast-acting drugs like opium and morphine could easily be treated as universal cures and abused.
Zhao Yanmei really had no confidence whether the medics could appreciate the potential danger of the drugs in their hands.
The factory was bustling. To expand production, they had not only added formal workers but also transferred many women from villages and communes as temporary labor. Under newly built mat sheds, pots of cotton were being boiled with caustic soda to degrease. The smell was pungent; female workers wearing masks constantly fished out the boiled cotton to rinse in clear water, then dry.
After degreasing and drying, the cotton and rolls of gauze from the textile mill were taken to the sterilization workshop for sterilization and packaging. Some dressing materials didn't need sterilization; after washing and rinsing with soapy water in the mat sheds, they were dried directly in the yard. Bandages and triangular bandages fluttered on racks everywhere in the sunlight.
Seeing her enter, the female workers stopped and stood respectfully. They hadn't been at the factory long and were amazed that a young wife like Zhao Yanmei managed such a big medicine shop that could make so many "miracle drugs." Seeing her rush in on a mechanical mule made them crane their necks as if watching a peep show.
Zhao Yanmei was used to such gawking. Smelling the pungent odor in the yard, she frowned deeply. This dressing material workshop needed expansion; open-air production was unhygienic and polluted heavily.
She asked a technician in charge of production. The technician said there were no technical problems, but raw materials were intermittent. Cotton supply was particularly tight. At this rate, absorbent cotton production would halt.
"Didn't the Planning Institute approve a cotton quota?" Zhao Yanmei was puzzled.
The technician shook his head. Zhao Yanmei realized the technician only managed production and knew nothing of material allocation. She hurried back to her office.
On her desk were several newly trial-produced drugs: belladonna injection for first aid, and a new ginseng injection—said to have excellent effects on tissue recovery and regeneration for the wounded, though unfortunately the pharmaceutical factory had little ginseng in reserve. The ginseng had been borrowed from Runshitang. Liu San's Chinese medicine factory had also provided several new patent medicines, all for stopping bleeding and removing stasis, especially a Golden Sore Medicine said to be from an ancient book formula. Liu San himself didn't know if it was truly that miraculous, but had still manufactured a batch for trial on the battlefield.
Zhao Yanmei didn't have time to examine them closely. She summoned her secretary to ask about material allocation. Only then did she learn that the cotton quota allocated by the Planning Institute had to be used not only for absorbent cotton but also for gauze. Gauze, triangular bandages, bandages—these were entrusted to the textile mill for production.
"Minister Mo said: The textile mill needs a cotton quota to produce these orders; otherwise they don't have cotton to use either."
"Cotton supply is this tight?" Zhao Yanmei was surprised. Although the transmigrators didn't grow cotton themselves, sporadic cotton planting on the island wasn't insignificant. Cotton was a major product exported from the Li regions, and most of the transmigrator group's cotton cloth was imported, so they didn't need much raw cotton. The textile mill mainly spun yarn to make various knitwear; demand for cotton itself wasn't huge.
"Chemical disinfectants aren't quite sufficient either," the secretary reported.
"Alright, make a list of shortage materials affecting production for me first; I'll solve them one by one." Zhao Yanmei remembered she hadn't checked the newly set up oxytetracycline fermentation tanks in the workshop, so she hurried off to examine the mycelium growth.
While Zhao Yanmei was frantically busy, He Ping accepted the mission to inspect Maniao. Besides inspecting health conditions, he was responsible for opening a hospital there.
Shi Niaoren gave him the title of "Health Department Plenipotentiary Representative." He Ping spread his hands. "Letting me handle this is fine, but what about doctors? I don't know medicine, let alone how to act as a doctor."
(End of Chapter)