Although the weather was severe, frostbite still caused pain and festered, and while not as terrifying as mosquito bites in summer, the physical suffering was unavoidable.
With many doctors having frozen to death themselves, both medical personnel and medicine were extremely scarce. Most of the people rescued by the soldiers who "cleansed the city" were merely brought here to await death, with no one to treat their wounds. Every day, severely injured individuals died, were carried out of the infirmary, and buried.
Upon hearing that Gu Chaobei was a doctor, the patients cried out in pain: "Doctor, save us!"
"Doctor, I'm in pain, so much pain, save me, I don't want to die!"
These patients could barely move; otherwise, they would surely have knelt down and begged for help.
The personal guards handed Gu Chaobei over to Doctor Wu, who managed the infirmary, clearly stating that Gu Chaobei was a doctor personally appointed by Prince Xia and that Doctor Wu was to follow his instructions.
Doctor Wu naturally complied.
As soon as he saw the large number of injured patients, Doctor Gu Chaobei's instincts kicked in.
"This patient has necrotizing frostbite and requires amputation. Without it, he won't make it through tomorrow.
This one has bullous frostbite. Immediately debride the wound and apply frostbite cream..."
As soon as Gu Chaobei arrived at the infirmary, he issued a series of directives.
Doctor Wu responded subserviently, not daring to disobey, but he expressed his difficulty upon hearing the instructions: "Doctor Gu, the infirmary is severely understaffed."
"How understaffed?" Once Gu Chaobei was in doctor mode, he became exceptionally serious and unyielding.
From Gu Qingcheng's perspective, he was even a bit "radiant."
Indeed, working was beautiful, and a man was most charming when he was working.
Gu Qingcheng strongly suspected that her mother had fallen in love with her father because of his demeanor when practicing medicine.
"Only ten people, and five of them are still learning." Doctor Wu said softly.
Doctor Gu exerted an imposing aura, and it wasn't the fault of the people who weren't doctors, but he just wanted to shrink away and not be seen by Doctor Gu.
"Find twenty more brave and meticulous young people to learn from me. We can't teach them from scratch now, so they'll have to learn the basic skills of frostbite care. They'll learn as they go, and once they're done, they'll attend to the patients." Gu Chaobei quickly made his decision.
"Yes." Doctor Wu hurried off to "recruit" people to learn medicine.
The patients' cries of pain and screams never ceased. Gu Chaobei, as a doctor, was accustomed to it, but Gu Qingcheng found the environment very oppressive.
Gu Chaobei, engrossed in his work, completely forgot about his daughter.
Gu Qingcheng realized she was a disappointment to her father's genetic legacy. Seeing the cutting, bandaging, and treatment of wounds made her feel dizzy and nauseous; she couldn't bear it.
So, Gu Qingcheng told Gu Chaobei that she needed some fresh air and would return later, and then she left.
Gu Chaobei was too preoccupied to pay her much attention; he only cautioned her to be careful before throwing himself back into the work of saving patients.
Gu Qingcheng walked out of the infirmary. The air felt fresher, and the cries and screams disappeared. Her mind cleared considerably, but her stomach still felt nauseous and uncomfortable.
She walked to the base of a tree and vomited.
After vomiting, she felt much better.
She took out her thermos from her spatial storage and took a large gulp, rinsed her mouth vigorously, and then drank a few more sips of hot tea. Only then did she feel as if she had come back to life.
But since she was out, she couldn't just do nothing; wandering aimlessly in the city wasn't an option either.
Just as Gu Qingcheng was planning to find an opportunity to scavenge for ironware, she suddenly heard the rumbling sound of a cart being pushed.
Following the sound, she saw two soldiers pushing a flatbed cart. The cart was loaded with something that looked quite heavy and was covered with straw mats.
Gu Qingcheng saw them struggling to push the cart up a small slope and voluntarily stepped forward, saying: "I'll help you push."
The two men were already pushing the cart with great effort, their faces contorted, unable to respond, but their expressions clearly showed their eagerness for Gu Qingcheng's assistance.
Gu Qingcheng stepped forward on her own and gave a strong push, getting the cart up the slope.
The two soldiers breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "I wouldn't have thought it, young sir. You're thin, but you're quite strong."
Gu Qingcheng smiled slightly and said: "Two sirs, what are you pushing? It looks quite heavy."
"Alas, we're clearing out the deceased from the city." One of them lifted the straw mat, allowing Gu Qingcheng to see.
If she hadn't grown accustomed to seeing the deceased in the past few days, she might have been startled to see a whole cartload of them.
She asked with a mild, feigned shock: "Sirs, are you taking them to be buried outside the city?"
"Yes," the soldiers replied. They stopped to catch their breath, which gave them time to answer Gu Qingcheng's question.
"I'll help you with your work!" Gu Qingcheng was bored and suddenly wanted to do something good. Fearing the soldiers might refuse, she flashed her military pass, which granted her passage through the city.
"Oh, so you're from the personal guards' camp." Upon seeing the pass, the two soldiers showed great respect.
Gu Qingcheng looked at the pass and wondered how important this pass was.
Seeing that Gu Qingcheng was just a young man, the two soldiers assumed he was a young master from a wealthy family performing a good deed. With the personal guards' pass, they didn't refuse. They pushed the cart, chattering all the way.
Gu Qingcheng then learned that the two soldiers were actually brothers: the elder was Wang Dapeng, and the younger was Wang Xiaopeng. Wang Dapeng was talkative, while Wang Xiaopeng was relatively introverted.
"The higher-ups have ordered us to clear out the deceased before the snow melts, otherwise, once spring comes and the snow melts, the city might face an epidemic." Wang Dapeng, having gained a companion, became even more talkative.
Gu Qingcheng didn't even need to inquire much to understand the general situation in the military.
Before long, they arrived outside the north gate of the city.
It was then that Gu Qingcheng discovered that to bury the vast number of deceased, the government had ordered the soldiers to dig several large pits. The cleared bodies were placed directly into the pits, layered one on top of another until the pits were full, and then covered with soil.
How to describe the scene? It was a bit eerie!
Gu Qingcheng noticed a pile of gleaming iron armor, seemingly belonging to soldiers, placed next to one of the mass graves. Upon closer inspection, she saw not only iron armor but also javelins and shields.
As she was wondering why this armor was piled up here, a cart carrying a load of frozen soldiers arrived at the edge of the pit. The soldiers unloaded from the cart were all wearing armor. They removed their outer armor and carried the bodies into the pit.
Gu Qingcheng now understood where the pile of armor came from. It seemed that Steward Zheng had been right; many soldiers had also been killed or injured.
Seeing everyone busy and no one paying attention, Gu Qingcheng walked over to the pile of armor and collected the shields and iron armor from underneath. She didn't touch the armor on top; only taking from the bottom. The iron armor was entangled, so it didn't collapse immediately, making it look like nothing was missing from the surface.
Gu Qingcheng was thrilled!