Ten Thousand Books, But Only One You

25 Knowing One's Enemy, Knowing Oneself

Chapter 25: Knowing One's Enemy, Knowing Oneself[1]

The smell of blood and sweat was thick in the musty air. Even after stepping out of the tent for a breather, the metallic scent still clung to the back of my throat.

It had been four days since the troops left the encampment under the leadership of General Yi as they headed in the direction of Fanzhou City in the kingdom of Bei Yue. On the second day, a small number of soldiers who suffered minor injuries and symptoms of heatstroke appeared in our makeshift hospital. On the third day, a handful of soldiers with open wounds were carried back to the barracks for treatment. This group of soldiers also informed us that the Bei Yue army protecting Fanzhou City was outnumbered and was supposed to surrender to Da Jin; however, their commander was deceitful and launched a surprise attack when the Da Jin troops had let their guards down. As a result, the Da Jin troops suffered a larger than expected number of casualties.

Today, we were expecting a lot more casualties to be brought back to the camp. The hospital at our base had only three physicians who came with us from Guizhong City. When we arrived at the encampment more than a week ago, there was only Shuzhen stationed at the hospital. A nurse in the modern era, she could only be a physician's assistant at present. But in the face of life and death, who would still be bothered with the archaic feminine virtues?

Even Fu Wanxi had joined in the lifesaving mission as she shouted at groaning patients to listen to her or be prepared to die and scolded the male physicians who felt that we were of no help at all. Shuzhen and I watched with wide-eyed astonishment earlier as Fu Wanxi expertly felt for a patient's pulse before climbing over him to do chest compressions. In another instance, we silently assisted as she sewed shut a profusely bleeding open wound on a soldier's lower abdomen. In yet another example, we squirmed as she performed a simple surgery to remove an arrow lodged in the back of a soldier as he endured the painful extraction without the assistance of anaesthesia.

Shuzhen and I stared at each other in confusion after Fu Wanxi did all of the above and even told us to monitor those patients with serious injuries, to ensure that their wounds did not get infected and did not fester. Somewhere in her instructions to me, she had even dropped the words "sepsis", "sterilisation", "handwashing", "hygiene" and "ventilation".

For Shuzhen, she was probably confused as she did not read the The Eighth Verse before entering the book. The whole time, she had only followed Ji Kai around. However, ever since they arrived at the encampment, she was separated from him and had not seen him since.

As for me, Fu Wanxi's current behaviour was full of anomalies. Since when did she acquire her medical skills? And since when did she start using modern language?

"Zhuang Zi! Stay with us! Don't close your eyes!" Two soldiers dashed past me, one of them carrying an injured comrade on his back. A trail of blood droplets followed behind them. "Physician! Take a look at my buddy!"

I immediately moved into action and headed back towards the tent. As I prepared to dip my hands in the jar of alcohol by the entrance, the sound of urgent footsteps hit my ears from behind. A pair of bloody and dusty hands shoved me aside and plunged straight into the clear liquid.

Turning to glare at the person who had treated me so roughly, I saw Ji Kai's face covered in mud and speckled with blood.

"It's you?" We gasped in unison. But the desperate and pressing cries of the casualties and their comrades distracted us.

"Any clean cloth?" Ji Kai asked breathlessly as he scoured the wooden rack where all our medical supplies were stored; and I handed him one cooperatively. With just the meeting of our eyes, a tacit understanding arose between us. I followed him as he rushed to injured soldier's side and requested for the non-casualties to leave the tent.