At the end of September 1654, Ma Wanpeng arrived at Xinhua Port on a tuna fishing boat that he returned from Zanzibar Island. From the moment he arrived at his official office, Pei Suoning, who had been in charge of medical and health work throughout the island, came to the door.

"Captain, there is a very bad news." Pei Suoning, who is nearly 40 years old, touched his Mediterranean-style head and said with a frown: "Recently, the epidemic has begun to cover our heads, especially schistosomiasis and yellow fever. These two terrible diseases have caused some destructive effects in the whole city. This is really bad. Xinhua Health Center has treated many patients with schistosomiasis. They have repeatedly bloated and incredibly painful, but we are helpless; there are also many patients with yellow fever. To be honest, I don't know when and where this disease spreads. Maybe it's Ming people immigrants, maybe Guarani people, maybe foreign merchants, or those damn Muslims. Oh, our people are so diverse. Viruses from all over the world meet here. This is simply..."

Pei Suoning couldn't find a language to describe it for a while, and finally could only complain: "No one can adapt to all the viruses around the world, but there are too many viruses here, and everyone has to adapt to them. I even have some doubts now that maybe in a few dozen or hundreds of years, perhaps all the known diseases in the world will become local diseases and customs in our New China Island."

"What's the use of complaining about so much, Lao Pei?" Ma Wanpeng sat behind the desk with a headache, then looked at Pei Suoning helplessly. "Initially, it was a major outbreak of malaria and dysentery. Cholera was prevalent for a while, but fortunately it disappeared soon. Now it is schistosomiasis and yellow fever, which is really annoying. Is the tropical zone really difficult to conquer?"

To be honest, Ma Wanpeng has lived in Xinhuaxia Island for many years and has heard of various tropical diseases. He knows that foreign colonists, especially those from low-latitude areas, had extremely high mortality rates in the first few years after they came to the tropical areas. There are many reasons. According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, they are not adapted to the local environment, and according to the theory of later Western medicine, the bacteria in their bodies lost balance after they went to strange places. In short, when they faced the bacteria in unfamiliar tropical areas, their bodies' resistance had dropped to a terrible level, and they could not recover without many years of adaptation. But at this time, they heard that two infectious diseases broke out in Xinhua County, which was relatively densely populated. How could Ma Wanpeng not worry?

"Does anyone among the Genoese suffer from these two types of diseases?" Ma Wanpeng suddenly thought of this question and asked immediately.

"No." Pei Suoning shook his head, and just as Ma Wanpeng breathed a sigh of relief, he heard the guy say: "But it is more terrible than this. Some Genoa merchants believe that it is the 'toxic environment' in Xinhua Port that causes the residents to suffer from illness and then die; of course, some of them think that the local hot and humid climate makes people prone to fever and prone to hygiene, so many people will get some diseases that they will never get in cold areas for the rest of their lives. I think... I think some of them are completely scared and may give up their investment plans here because they will feel that the risk is too great."

"This epidemic is really a bad time." Ma Wanpeng said, then leaned on the chair weakly and said helplessly: "I originally wanted to fool some Italians to come to invest in the island, but now it seems that the plan is going to go bankrupt and at least it will be a big discount than the pre-plan. Forget it. Let's not talk about this! Then, Italians don't understand, but you should know the pathogenic mechanism and transmission route of schistosomiasis, right?"

"Yes, sir, although we lack the necessary medical devices to study such parasites, I am sure the report sent by the Ministry of Health is credible. Schistosomiasis is indeed a parasite disease. It is not caused by toxic air or the environment, and we have a preliminary understanding of the transmission route. This brings convenience to prevention and treatment." Pei Suoning said slightly excitedly, "We have now instructed those who have to go into the water to take good protection and try to avoid direct contact between the skin and the water of the epidemic. Patients who have already suffered from schistosomiasis have also been isolated, and their excrement has also been specially treated."

"Tell me about yellow fever." Ma Wanpeng nodded, recognizing Pei Suoning's prevention and treatment of schistosomiasis, and then turned the topic to another epidemic disease.

"This disease causes much more harm than schistosomiasis, and it can also cause panic to residents." Pei Suoning said this, sweat also fell on his forehead. It was half hot and half nervous. He continued: "We also communicated with the local Ministry of Health half a year ago. They believed that this was a disease transmitted by mosquitoes, just like malaria. I agree, because I have seen a healthy person who had just seen a second bite of a mosquito that was bitten by a sick person and soon suffered from yellow fever. Therefore, we can now assert that yellow fever is also transmitted by mosquitoes."

"How can people and animals not be bitten by mosquitoes in such ghost places in tropical areas?" Ma Wanpeng said anxiously. Even in places like his house and office, mosquitoes can still come in from time to time, not to mention ordinary people who need to work during the day or even at night. It can be said that in Xinhuaxia Island, if someone has not been bitten by mosquitoes all day, then this person must be very lucky, because the probability is approaching zero. In such an environment, even if people on the East Coast do everything they can to prevent and treat, a large number of people still suffer from various diseases transmitted by mosquitoes every month or even every day. In the past, malaria was used to be, but now there is a yellow fever.

"Sir, more than 200 people have been ill this month, and most of these people will actually die in the end." Pei Suoning said sadly, "There are many people who die in the new China area almost every day, but we are powerless to do anything about it. The introduction of Jinjina tree has not been successful for so many years, and now yellow fever is also on the rise. This is really frustrating, really."

"We can only strengthen prevention and control." After a long silence, Ma Wanpeng sighed softly and said, "The swamps near the city continue to drain. In the past, the water in the small ponds that used to facilitate water supply and beautify the city also dried up. In addition, we must reduce the static water bodies in the city as much as possible. In short, we should try our best to limit the number of mosquitoes. In the past, we might be able to tolerate malaria alone, but now we have the same fatal yellow fever, and I think we must take some action. Even if it will have a certain negative impact on our daily production and life, we can't care about it now. After all, this is better than losing our lives in a confused way."

Pei Suoning could only accept it after hearing this. After all, their current medical methods are actually very limited, and many diseases cannot be treated at all. Since they cannot cause diseases, it seems that prevention will rise to the top.

After sending Pei Suoning away, Ma Wanpeng thought about it over and over again and decided to meet the representatives of the Italian investment group that had been in Xinhua Island for a while and see what they were thinking.

Italians are now living in the best state-owned guesthouse in Xinhua Port. What is different from Ma Wanpeng imagined is that these Italians were not scared by the sudden epidemic in Xinhua Port. On the contrary, they still went out normally and came back to discuss behind closed doors. Everything was as usual. This made Ma Wanpeng feel a little admiration for these people. The tenacity of these Italians is above the average level. Could it be that they ignore everything else for money, right?

In fact, this is because Ma Wanpeng is not thinking about it. In fact, in the old continent (including China) at this time, the epidemic of plague is common, and it is common for residents to die in large numbers due to illness. People have long been accustomed to or even adapted to it. Therefore, although they are worried about the outbreak of Xinhua Port, they are not afraid to go out. It was purely because Ma Wanpeng thought too much before. What's more, the Genoa people are indeed very interested in the super-large tropical island of Xinhua Island.

Since I am interested, it is actually easy to say. In the following days, Ma Wanpeng brought his secretary and followers to discuss with the Italians in the guesthouse, constantly responding to Italians' questions or suggestions, and also constantly promising various conditions or preferential measures. In short, there is only one principle, that is, to try every means to attract Italian merchant groups mainly Genoese to come to Xinhuaxia Island to invest in sugarcane, tobacco, and pepper plantations. These three products have the largest profit in Europe.

Speaking of which, Italian merchants are quite pitiful. In addition to top companies such as St. George's Trading Company, which can have a certain size plantation in Peru and New Spain, and can also set up trading stations in the Port of Cadiz to resell specialty products from the New World, other Italian merchants have basically launched the Spanish market since 1627. Even if they did not launch it on their own initiative, their business has deteriorated. The market share has been constantly embezzled by Portuguese Jews, Dutchers and a small number of Spanish merchants, and their lives are very difficult. Therefore, their impulse to find new sources of goods is very strong. Although the marketing network is slowly disintegrating, the backbone network still exists. As long as there are sufficient tropical goods at this time, it is not impossible to restore these marketing networks.

In this way, the East Coast people and Italians have a deep foundation of cooperation. In this matter, even the terrifying tropical disease cannot be completely given up. (To be continued)
Chapter completed!