Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 27 The Bottom Line
The old lady has diabetes.

In fact, this is quite normal. After all, people in their 60s are also the period of high incidence of diabetes. In addition, the diet structure in ancient times was simple. Even though their family is not a commoner's family, in troubled times, they can eat staple food as long as they want. Very good, the vast majority of dietary intake consists of carbohydrates.

It's a bad thing, but it's also a good thing.

It is said to be a bad thing because there is almost no cure for this disease. Even modern society can only rely on insulin to survive. Given the conditions in ancient times, it was almost impossible for ancient Chinese medicine to cure this disease.

But this is a good thing because diabetes itself is not fatal. As long as you control your diet, the disease should be able to be controlled to a certain extent.

And he happened to know a lot about this disease, because he himself had mild diabetes in his previous life, so he had consulted a lot of relevant information.

If there was insulin...this disease would hardly be a disease at all.

Zhao Kuangmei is not a medical student. It is of course impossible to make insulin in ancient times, but... what if it is extracted?
As far as Zhao Kuangmei knows, at least before the 90s, the mainstream insulin in China was mainly animal-derived insulin rather than artificially synthesized insulin. It was synthesized through the pancreas of pigs, cows and other livestock.

Of course, because the genes of pigs and cows are different from those of humans, the purification requirements are relatively high. It is not impossible, but it will be more laborious and requires repeated trials. The old lady may be in the advanced stage by the time it is made.

But what if it's...employing people?
What if the pancreas was removed directly from the human body and insulin was extracted from the human pancreas?

Such thoughts suddenly appeared in Zhao Kuangmei's mind, and they couldn't go away inexplicably.

Then Zhao Kuangmei couldn't help but shook her head fiercely, and slapped herself in the face.

This idea is simply a crime against humanity in modern times.

But the problem...this is not modern.

This is the Northern Song Dynasty. No, to be precise, this is still the troubled times of the Five Dynasties. The Zhao family is the emperor!

I was so confused that I couldn't help but squat in the corner alone and thought hard for more than half an hour.

On the one hand, it comes from the ethics and morals of modern people.

On one side is his mother's illness.

The tangled Zhao Kuangmei couldn't help but keep pulling at the young grass in the back garden with her hands until the ground was covered with broken flowers and grass. She still couldn't bring herself to kill someone to get the pancreas. The old lady But he was already awake.

As I get older and still get sick, I sleep almost all the time.

Seeing this, Zhao Kuangmei went into the room to wait on her again. After thinking about it, she couldn't help but ask: "Mom, if there is a medicine that can cure your disease, but it requires killing people, what if the organs of living people are used as the main medicine? …”

"Living people are used as medicine?" The old lady frowned and said, "This must be some demon or demon monk talking nonsense. Did someone tell you this? You should have such a person arrested immediately and clarify the truth. punishment."

"This... no, mother, I mean, what if, what if, someone else's life can be exchanged for your life? We can use death row prisoners. Anyway, death row prisoners will die sooner or later."

"That's not necessary."

"Why is this?"

"Hey, mother, I have lived for nearly sixty years, what have I not seen? Did you know that just 30 years ago, there was a market selling two-legged sheep within less than ten miles outside Kaifeng? Living people were used as medicine, and it was not It’s not a new thing. Eating raw human livers has been popular among the military in the early years. Some generals believe that the shape complements the shape, and they can rely on eating human livers to strengthen their courage. There are also those who eat raw human ears. This kind of thing , I’ve really seen a lot.”

"No one knows whether eating raw human liver can build courage. It's just that what goes up is better than what goes down. Back then... well, even though it was only more than twenty years ago, I don't dare to think about it anymore."

"Once you have a serious reason for cannibalism, you can't stop it. If you've already done this kind of thing, how can it lead to the destruction of etiquette and moral decay? Is eating one person enough? For Will I take ten or a hundred for better medicinal effect?"

"If I can really cure diseases by eating people, what about the other ministers, generals, and governors? Who doesn't have a sick relative? Everyone is vying to eat people. Where will this person come from? Well, are there enough prisoners on death row? If not, will we eat prisoners of war? Once things like eating prisoners of war happen, what will the war itself... mean?"

As he said that, the old lady suddenly put on a proud look and said: "You know, what I am happiest about is not that you and your elder brother are capable, but that although you two are capable, at least They all still think about benevolence."

"Men of our Zhao family are not afraid of killing, and are even good at killing, but at least we cannot like killing. This is the human touch. If the human touch is lost in a person, he is no longer worthy of being a human being. This is the bottom line."

When Zhao Kuangmei heard this, she suddenly felt a little confused.

Of course, extracting insulin does not mean cannibalism, but in fact, from the perspective of ancient people, it is probably no different from killing people and eating their livers.

This is something that really happened in the Five Dynasties, and was even something that the old lady personally experienced. Perhaps the so-called bottom line is not just a forbidden area of ​​behavior for modern people, but an iron rule that cannot be touched throughout the ages?

To be honest, among the many emperors of the Five Dynasties, Zhao Kuangyin was actually not as good as Li Cunxu in terms of fighting ability. In terms of loving the people, he was not as good as Li Siyuan. In terms of talent, he might be slightly worse than Chai Rong. Zhao Guangyi was horizontal among the second generation. The comparison is not good, let alone compared with Chai Rong and Li Siyuan, I am afraid that he is not as good as Zhu Youzhen, Shi Chonggui and others. Why is it that the Zhao family finally settled this troubled world?

Maybe it's because of this human touch?
The Zhao family is good at killing, but the Zhao family doesn't like killing. This may be Zhao Song's greatest advantage. It may be this little advantage that has preserved Zhao Song's power for nearly 300 years.

Seeing what the old lady said, Zhao Kuangmei actually felt relieved. He put on the clothes for the old lady with a smile, put down the entanglement in his heart, thought for a while and said:
"Mom, your disease is called diabetes. In fact, as long as you control your diet, you should be able to get better. Please note that you can no longer eat rice and noodles in the future. You must also avoid greasy food and eat more shrimp, fish, and corn, especially Be careful not to eat sweets anymore.”

"Do you still know medicine?"

"You don't understand, just try to eat as I told you for a few days and see if it has any effect, right?"

"Hahahaha, okay, it's rare for my son to be filial, so I'll make this recipe for you these two days."

(End of this chapter)