When he woke in the early morning, boiled water to wash up, and had finished a simple breakfast, Li Ang asked Chai Cuiqiao to look after the house while he himself, carrying five hundred cents, headed towards East City.
The deficit of one hundred and nine strings of coins was no small sum. It was definitely impossible to gather that amount within twenty days by running a normal dical hall; a different thod needed to be employed.
For instance, responding to a reward notice.
Li Ang weaved through the streams of carriages and people, arrived on the other side of Yizhou Bridge, and stood in front of a wooden notice board that was one man tall and ten feet wide.
On the notice board were neatly arranged sheets of yellow paper, mostly similar in size. The top part listed the rewards offered, followed by detailed descriptions in the middle, and at the bottom were the issuer, the deadline for the reward, the compensation, the contact person, and address, among other details.
This notice board was set up by the Yizhou Governnt and usually guarded in turns by its officials. Only governnt departnts, or individuals of status such as scholars, wealthy rchants, and guilds, were permitted to post rewards on it.
Personal reward postings by individuals, on the other hand, were placed on another smaller wooden board nearby, with content ranging from hiring experienced boatn and selling tiger skins, to peddling fruits, candies, and stationery.
Li Ang had already scouted this place yesterday. He now stood in front of the wooden notice board and, without hesitation, stepped forward, reached up, and tore off the topmost sheet of yellow paper.
Diners at a nearby food stall who were eating breakfast cast curious glances his way and whispered among themselves.
"That must be the reward notice issued by the Yizhou Pasture Supervisory Office, right?"
"Yes, it says a hundred military horses are sick with an eye disease, offering a reward of a hundred strings of coins for a cure. It’s been hanging there for over half a month, and this is only the second ti soone has dared to respond. And he’s just a young man."
"Second ti? So soone responded before?"
"The last one to take the notice was a Jianghu itinerant doctor from out of town. He brewed more than a dozen pots of dicine but didn’t cure a single horse. Instead, he ended up killing two. The Pasture Supervisory Official was so furious he almost broke the doctor’s legs..."
Amidst the low conversations of the patrons, two governnt officials also eating breakfast there heard the commotion and turned their heads towards the notice board across the road.
Li Ang stood beneath the notice board, holding the reward notice, looking composed.
The two governnt officials glanced at each other, took out a few copper coins, tossed them onto the food stall table, and then walked towards Li Ang.
The older official, Wang Yashi, clasped his hands. "May I know who this young master is...?"
Li Ang returned the salute. "I am Li Ang, a doctor from the Security Hall Pharmacy on the other side of the river."
"Security Hall?"
The younger official looked puzzled, while Wang Yashi seed slightly surprised, apparently having heard of Security Hall before. "Is Li Hanquan your father?"
Li Ang nodded. "Yes, he is my father."
The young official asked, "Brother Wang, do you know him?"
"No, only that my older brother has fetched dicine from there before."
Wang Yashi waved his hand and frowned, inspecting Li Ang carefully. "Young master, responding to a notice is no trivial matter. It’s one thing if you can’t fulfill it, but if you ss it up, you might even face a lawsuit."
"Thank you for your kind intentions, Wang Yashi, but I am confident," Li Ang said calmly. "As for eye diseases in living beings, severe pain mostly indicates an excess condition, while mild pain often points to a deficiency condition. If the eye pain is unbearable, accompanied by a red face, bloodshot eyes, a bitter taste in the mouth, irritability, and anger, it is caused by liver fire flaring up. If the eyes are red, swollen, and painful, sensitive to light, and have abundant discharge, these are signs of upward-moving wind-heat, often seen in sudden fire eyes or celestial red eyes. If the eyes are slightly red and intermittently painful, with a sensation of dryness, it is mostly caused by deficient Yin and excessive fire. It is so with humans, and so it is with horses. Just let examine the symptoms, and I can prescribe the appropriate dicine. Please, lead the way."
"This..."
The young governnt official looked hesitant, while Wang Yashi pondered for a mont. He glanced at Li Ang’s determined expression and, without saying more, turned to lead the way amidst the curious gazes of the onlookers.
The Pasture Supervisory Office was located in Southern Yizhou City and was not too far. Soon, the three of them arrived.
Li Ang and the young governnt official waited outside the Pasture Supervisory Office while Wang Yashi went in to announce their arrival. Just then, a voice filled with elation was heard from within the courtyard walls, "Has the person been found? Where?"
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
The sound of footsteps grew louder, and a portly man clad in a dark green official robe, with bloodshot eyes, disheveled hair, and red blisters at the corners of his mouth, hurriedly stepped over the threshold.
Wang Yashi, who had jogged to catch up from behind, bowed to the Yizhou Pasture Supervisor. "Supervisor Xun," he said, introducing Li Ang, "this is the one who responded to the notice, Pharmacist Li Ang from Security Hall Pharmacy."
"You? A pharmacist?"
Supervisor Xun had been looking around the doorway. Hearing Wang Yashi’s words, he finally turned his head to look down at Li Ang, who stood below the threshold holding the yellow reward notice. A flash of astonishnt crossed his eyes, quickly turning into outrage. "Why did you bring a child here? It’s over, it’s really over..."
He lanted, leaning against the doorfra, utterly lacking the deanor of a Standard Eighth Rank official.
Warhorses were vital strategic resources for the Yu Country. To obtain sufficient numbers, the Yu Country established a pasture supervisory system. In so State Mansions, depending on local conditions, upper, middle, and lower-level pasture supervisory offices were established. These offices were responsible for breeding warhorses, saddle horses, and packhorses, as well as other livestock such as cattle, sheep, mules, and donkeys.
The ranking of pasture supervisory offices across regions was solely related to local grassland conditions and climate factors, with no connection to the ranking of the State Mansion.
After the Academic Palace made improvents to horse breeds and breeding strategies, the scale of livestock in pasture supervisory offices nationwide increased. For instance, the Yizhou Pasture Supervisory Office cared for nearly one thousand three hundred warhorses fit for battle, as well as a larger number of mares and stallions.
These horses were mostly raised in pastures about two miles south of Yizhou City. A month ago, the Pasture Captain in charge there reported that an eye disease was spreading among the herd. Over a hundred warhorses exhibited bloodshot eyes and constant tearing. This led to reduced appetite, irritable temperants, and even resulted in several Shepherd Chiefs and group leaders being injured.
If only a hundred or so warhorses were infected, it would still be manageable. Thanks to improvents from the Academic Palace, pasture supervisory offices had ample strategies to address various equine diseases by isolating infected warhorses from healthy ones.
With a total of one thousand three hundred warhorses at the Yizhou Pasture Supervisory Office, losing a hundred was still within an acceptable range—at worst, it would an an "average-low" rating in the annual assessnt.
What truly spelled doom for Supervisor Xun were the fifteen precious stallions among the hundred infected warhorses. Those were horses that several noble families from Chang’an had paid a hefty sum to acquire from the Zhou Kingdom to the south, and had temporarily entrusted to the Yizhou Pasture Supervisory Office for care! Each one was worth hundreds, if not over a thousand, strings of coins! If these valuable horses were to die from the eye infection while under the care of the Yizhou Pasture Supervisory Office, then Supervisor Xun’s fate was sealed.
As Supervisor Xun contemplated his grim future of demotion and transfer, he leaned against the doorfra, incessantly shaking his head and sighing.
Growing impatient, Li Ang clasped his hands. "Supervisor Xun, where are the sick horses? I need to see them first before I can say whether I can treat them."
"They’re inside. Wang Yashi, you take him to see them."
Supervisor Xun, still despondent, waved his hand, signaling for Li Ang to go in and see for himself.
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