Chapter 273: The Interns of the “Hospital”

Walking through Greywood Town, George was amazed at the simple wooden houses built on the empty ground in just a few days. They used basic wooden frames as the main support and divided the walls with wooden boards about 2 centimeters thick.

‘Looking at the current buildings, it seems very wise to have planned for the long-term development of the Territory by building the walls outside and leaving a lot of empty land in advance,’ George thought, nodding with satisfaction as he looked at the construction.

At first, the craftsmen built these barracks right next to the walls to save costs. This saved the cost and time of building one wall and made the camp more secure by using the brick walls. While these buildings were fine as temporary warehouses or soldiers’ quarters, they were absolutely unsuitable as a medical facility. They were terrible in terms of ventilation, lighting, and drainage. Finally, George ordered them to be torn down and rebuilt.

Because these were temporary structures, only the load-bearing frames were made of wood. The rest of the parts were not made of high-strength hard wood. This saved a lot of costs and shortened the construction time significantly.

In any world, real hard wood and soft wood are both expensive raw materials. Hard wood has a long growth cycle and is difficult to process, so its cost can never be lowered. Besides, in this world, it is an important material for building large ships, war machines, and weapons, making it a true strategic resource.

Soft wood is more like tree bark. It is the outer bark of certain tree species with very developed cork layers, serving as a protective tissue on the surface after the stems and roots thicken. Plants that are at least 20 years old and have a chest diameter larger than 20 centimeters can be harvested for the first time. The bark obtained is called the first strip or primary bark. After that, it can be harvested every 10 to 20 years, and the resulting bark is called regenerated bark, which is more than 2 centimeters thick.

Its unique structure gives cork excellent elasticity, sealing ability, heat insulation, soundproofing, electrical insulation, and wear resistance. Plus, it is non-toxic, odorless, lightweight, soft to the touch, and hard to ignite. Even before his transmigration, no man-made product could compare with it. It is easy to imagine that such a material could never be sold at a cabbage price.

Of course, using cheap mixed wood as raw material also brought troubles. First, the strength was seriously insufficient. Any weapon could potentially cause penetrating damage to it. Two days ago, two wounded men had a conflict and started fighting. After they fell into a tangled mess, they directly broke a hole through the wooden wall. Fortunately, the wall panels with mortise and tenon structures were easy to replace.

Similarly, there was almost no soundproofing, meaning the people here had no privacy at all. At the beginning, due to poor planning, some seriously injured patients were not arranged in a concentrated area. Their intermittent screams made other wounded men very annoyed. This was one of the reasons why the tension in the hospital was much stronger at the start than it is now.

These guys who lick blood from their swords often fight if they don’t agree on something. Although they were afraid their injuries would get worse while resting, adventurers who disliked each other or had conflicts before would still curse at each other even while lying on the wooden boards.

Originally, the arrangement of patients here was to ensure that every Herbalist apprentice could get enough practice. After signing an agreement with the Territory, Daniel Coke, a Retainer of Sir Bart, was quite dedicated in teaching the apprentices.

However, knowledge gained from books is shallow; one must know it through personal experience. These young boys who had finished their basic studies still needed to gain experience through strict clinical internships. It was just like the hospital internship in the fifth year of a five-year medical undergraduate program before his transmigration. Internships for medical students are more important than in other industries because the objects they will face are patients, which relates to people’s health and even their lives.

Although medical students have some theoretical knowledge during their school years, medicine is a very practical science. They must contact the clinic for a long time for their theoretical knowledge to be applied. To contact the clinic, they first need an opportunity from a medical institution, guidance from a supervising teacher, and patients willing to be examined by interns. Often, medical instruments are also needed. Although the Herbalist apprentices here do not sound as high-end as medical students before his transmigration, they are the cornerstone of public healthcare in this world.

Of course, for them, this work brings no pay because it is part of the learning process. Just like the hospital internship before his transmigration, they had to pay tuition to the school and internship fees to the hospital, and often had to find their own place to stay. This is because the medical institution must bear the responsibility for mistakes made by interns during their internship and handle complaints from patients dissatisfied with the interns’ rough operations. Of course, George paying for the food and lodging of those apprentices here can be said to be quite benevolent.

Of course, using these foreign adventurers for practice would have caused some public intellectuals to criticize him before his transmigration. But here, no such brain-dead people exist. As for those adventurers, even if they knew, they would not say anything. Because for them, being able to move to such a good environment for treatment without staying in the previous place full of sewage and stench was already extremely satisfying.

As for the cost, did they not have to spend money if they stayed in Broken Halberd Fortress? The Herbalists there did not have a group scale or quantity advantage. Their messy supply channels and the scattered way of working of their soldiers kept their medical costs high.

Moreover, the soldiers in Broken Halberd Fortress, although they had the Divine Arts of Priests, still needed the assistance of Herbalists. So the struggle for medical resources never stopped. In this situation, do you think those newly arrived adventurers could compare with the main violent organs of the ruling class? So the adventurers staying there simply could not get good treatment. It can be said that they were only slightly better than waiting to die directly. Besides, even if some lucky guys hired a Herbalist, the price was expensive due to the shortage of resources, and often it was their apprentices who did the work.

However, since the main focus was on apprentices, even with the guidance of their masters, some mistakes were inevitable during the medical process. Fortunately, most of the adventurers transferred here were not in life-threatening danger, but it was inevitable that they would exchange harsh words when they felt something was wrong.

Also, those young boys who had never left Bolerum Territory could not compare with these adventurers who were at home everywhere in terms of their language skills for cursing others. Besides, among them, few had enough experience to be unreasonable and forceful.

Although apprentices were often scolded until their faces turned red and tears filled their eyes, they basically persisted because they knew how hard it was to master a craft. However, as the hospital continued to run, as medical staff got used to working together, and as communication improved between medical staff and patients, along with measures like centralized management of the seriously injured and adjusting bed positions based on relationships, the situation was slowly getting back on track. The personal experience levels of the apprentices were also greatly improved.

It can be said that under such a huge workload, they received the greatest training in a short time. Just in these few days, the number of wounded they handled and the types of injuries they saw often exceeded the number of other Herbalist apprentices in peaceful areas over several years. In addition, George paid extra money to those experienced Herbalists to organize these apprentices for special explanations and guidance on difficult cases at night.

Through such systematic learning, the level of these apprentices must have improved rapidly. Even more pleasantly, some clever apprentices discovered some small medical tricks. After confirmation, some of these methods were found to be effective. Some were not discovered by predecessors, while others were simply not learned by these apprentices in the past.

After all, the idea that teaching an apprentice starves the master is a concept found in most guilds. It is not uncommon for masters to hold back a trick when teaching apprentices. George would not force them to teach everything they know. This could be a treasure passed down through their families or the crystallization of their own wisdom and sweat. It is a bit like the key formula of Coca-Cola before his transmigration.

However, all the skills just acquired by these apprentices were recorded by George. Because they signed an agreement before entering school, the Lord’s Manor had the right to know and use these discoveries without charge. Because they were actually working for the Lord’s Manor, just like the research results and patents in a private research institute belong to the institute.

Of course, George also gave each of these apprentices with new discoveries a reward of 2 Gold Coins to encourage them to put more effort and research into this field and contribute to the development of Herbalism or clinical medicine in this world. Because the development of clinical medicine often relies not on theoretical researchers but on medical staff rooted in the clinic.

In the world before his transmigration, clinical medicine refers to the general name of various disciplines in medical science that study the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases. Based on the clinical manifestations of patients, it studies the causes, mechanisms, and pathological processes of diseases from an overall perspective to determine the diagnosis, and eliminates diseases, relieves patient pain, restores patient health, and protects labor power through treatment and prevention. Clinical medicine is a very practical applied science, focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

Compared with general applied sciences, it can be seen that the activities of clinical medicine are not limited to the application of known theories. There are many unknown factors in its research objects. The research object of medicine is the highest organism in nature—Humans. Human life activities are affected by various natural and social factors, and their complexity far exceeds that of other natural sciences. So people often complain that human understanding of the universe exceeds their understanding of themselves.

Although medical activities started almost at the same time as human civilization, and modern medicine started with modern natural science, due to the difficulty of the research objects, the unknown fields of life sciences are still much larger than other natural sciences. The same is true for the understanding of diseases; new unknown diseases are still being discovered. Even for known diseases, understanding in many aspects still needs to be deepened. In short, people only know what happens but not why.

However, diseases must be treated, and patients must seek medical help, regardless of whether the doctor has “understood” their disease. Clinical medicine certainly cannot wait for basic medicine to clarify all unknown factors before treating diseases. It can only strive to reduce the influence of these unknown factors and try to achieve the goal of treating and saving people.

This means that even if the basic theory is not clear, we must try or rely on experience to solve problems in practice. We can call this practice “exploratory practice.” Clinical medicine developed in this practice was earlier than basic medicine in both history and cognition. This is one of the significant differences between it and many applied sciences.

That is to say, many treatment plans are indeed effective but cannot withstand scientific dialectics. Since the newly emerging treatment plans have such and such problems, the traditional Chinese medicine of Tianchao is even more so, after all, there was no scientific dialectics back then. Traditional medicine has both essence and dross, but we must keep our eyes open and not generalize.

In fact, this is the starting point of all medical research before his transmigration. Who discovered the problems waiting for people to explore in medicine? Although the development of basic medicine has its own continuity, ultimately, major problems in medicine are often first proposed by clinical medicine. This is because clinical medicine, in its process of “exploratory practice,” feels most painfully the deficiencies of basic theory.

Those who review the history of medicine can see that all diseases are discovered by clinical medicine (not basic medicine), and the manifestations and changing laws of all diseases on living bodies, known as the “clinical phase,” are also confirmed by clinical medicine—even in the 21st century when basic medicine has a considerable scale. In clinical practice, new diseases are first discovered, and their nature as unknown special types is determined. Then, preventive medicine deeply studies their essence.

People’s understanding of the clinical manifestations (clinical phase) of diseases is always prior to their understanding of the causes and mechanisms of diseases in basic medicine. In fact, many laws of disease manifestations already discovered in clinical work had not been explained by basic medicine before George’s transmigration.

So even in this world now, where there is almost no systematic basic medical theory—the power of magic is too strong. Here, there are almost no diseases that magic cannot treat. But medical technology is indeed developing. For example, 100 years ago, no one could imagine surgery that cuts open the belly. But now, many Priests use them because they can greatly reduce the limited Divine Arts used daily.

‘Maybe a little bit, they or their successors will build their own basic medical system in this world! But for now, I am just planting a seed, and I am afraid I will not see them sprout in my lifetime. However, when these trained apprentices reach wartime, they will definitely play an unexpected role.’ Thinking of this, George looked at those busy apprentices. The youthful energy on their bodies made George quite satisfied.

Outside the camp, an empty ground was paved with fine sand and clay. There were many wounded men there, sunbathing and exercising their muscles and bones. These basic boards belonged to adventurers who had suffered heavy injuries to their upper limbs, such as broken arms. According to them, if they lay in the house every day, it would be better to kill them!

However, such an outdoor activity venue could also make the patients feel happy during their rehabilitation training. In fact, George had not paid too much attention to this point before. It can be said to be an unintended success.

However, since it was a temporary experiment, there was no need to dig a sewer system. The open ditches used to drain waste now are not as hidden and hygienic as underground channels. So the air outside this “hospital” was somewhat bad. Fortunately, the ditches built on both sides of the stone road in the town before could be used, so the truly open sections were not many.

Just then, Daniel Coke, the current person in charge of the hospital, came to George and said softly: “George, among the new wounded today, there is a Magus Warrior. According to your previous orders, I have assigned him to a single room.”

“Great job, Mr. Coke. I will arrange someone to observe him specifically. If we can recruit him, that would be wonderful,” George said with a satisfied smile.

“Okay, I won’t disturb you. I still have some things to handle on my hands. By the way, George, if you really plan to continue this ‘medical point,’ you’d better find a replacement for me quickly. Although I quite like the current work, I cannot always stay here. Once the war starts, I will have to go out with the team.” Daniel Coke reminded George as he turned to leave.

“Another trouble!” George smiled bitterly twice and decided to put this matter aside for now, to be handled when he returned to Poitou City.

Then he murmured to himself: “A Magus Warrior? Another rare profession!”

Some people spend their whole lives studying ancient scrolls and texts to unlock the power of Magic. Some spend all their time perfecting the skills of using their specific weapons to become an unparalleled Master.

Magus Warriors, however, follow both paths at the same time, completely fusing magical abilities with combat skills. They master both the destructive power of Magic and the steel.

As their power increases, Magus Warriors will reveal powerful Arcane formulas to enhance their abilities. When they reach the peak of their skills, Magus Warriors will fuse the Arcane magic and steel swords they possess into one, forging a power that very few dare to oppose.