"Get ready for an urgent case! I have an injured person!" Jingting shouted and jumped down from the horse's back. He left the man in the same position—if he'd survived this long like that, it was safest not to move him.
The servants and his family disciples knew what to do, and soon the door was open, and a clean white stretcher was brought up.
"Get him into the Room of Light!" he ordered once more and went to his preparation room.
His family was full of clean freaks. His ancestors had to keep everything clean when treating people, and somehow the cleaner they were, the more people they saved.
And then, sewing really helped with war injuries. Sewing with a boiled silk thread and a heated iron.
Jingting arrived in the room and took a quick dip in the always-changed-by-someone water. It was infused with herbs meant to purify the body before treatment. But that wasn't enough. He put on new, clean, white clothes, washed his hands with special powder his family made, after walking into the cleanest room in the entire empire, the treating room. His disciple called it the Room of Decisions. But the inscription above the pavilion called it the Room of Light. Here, it was decided whether you can be helped and see the light of life. Or you will perish and see the darkness and death.
Jingting put the fabric over his mouth and nose. So he wouldn't breathe in all the smoke from burning flesh, nor would he accidentally get blood into his mouth. He learned this through experience.
The soldier was already there, lying on his side, and Jingting shot a questioning gaze at Binbin. It was enough words for Zhangbin to start talking.
"Multiple wounds on hands, one on his hip, and multiple on both legs. The worst and most urgent is probably the piercing cut through his belly. I think he is as good as dead." Jingting said nothing, just frowned at the last note. Binbin was always really pessimistic when it was about patients in a condition this bad. So when it ends with good results, the better it feels.
Jingting put on his gloves, and so did Bin.
"Cut his clothes. I want to know more," Jingting ordered and took a deep breath through the fabric, knowing it would be a really long day.
After he saw the destruction, scars, and burns on this man's body, he wasn't sure what had happened to him, but he was sure this man had already escaped from death's door many times. So maybe fate wasn't tired and would make him survive once more. When Bin was done, he didn't have to be told to cover the less bad cuts with blood-stopping powder. And when the warrior twitched in pain as Jingting touched the cloth stuffed on this man's cut, Bin automatically gave a pillow full of herbs over his mouth for him to breathe in and some numbing powder on the open wounds.
"The bleeding was that bad?" he asked, not moving the bloodied cloth. Bin shook his head.
"When he was on the horse, it wasn't that bad. The wound was squished down. But once we removed him from the horse, it started pouring," he paused as if thinking. "And the entering wound is on the back. That one is worse," he added. Jingting only sighed. If this man survived, he would have to write it down in the chronicles, because that would be a miracle.
"Let's start then?" he asked Bin. After the minor healing he did, he was now preparing hot iron, while Jingting was deciding what to do and how to save this guy.. Bin went over the hot iron with his hand just to test if it was okay and checked if there was enough guard by the door, cleaned, in case they would need them. All powders, poultices, decoctions, everything was ready-made, the scales were ready too. Jingting was ready to take down the pressure he was putting on the wound when the door opened and Yuhua hurriedly came in, already changed.
"I'll help you, too. They said it looked bad." Jingting just nodded, more hands were only good, and he agreed. It was bad.
"Can you bring that book?" Jingling remembered suddenly. Xuhua opened her mouth and stopped mid-step.
"That bad?" she asked. He only nodded and looked over the pale body.
"He is no longer bleeding from all the wounds. I plan to stitch the deeper ones on his legs and hands. Binbin applied powder, so he is not bleeding from there, but I guess a sword went through his stomach from back to front. I… just want to be sure." Xuhua hurriedly went away, and Jingting looked at Binbin.
"Let's start," he said, and relieved the pressure just enough for him to see once more. It wasn't bleeding that much, the body was already recovering, but it needed help.
With a knife, he made the wound a bit bigger and placed his hands inside the wound, searching for bleeding that was inside. When he took out his hand, the white fabric gloves were dirtied by not blood but the contents of warriors' insides. He remembered that chapter…Jingting motioned for the hot iron. While holding his hand on the cut he found. When he pressed, the man twitched. The man was still reacting. Still fighting. That was something. Not much. But something.
"Give him more sedation," he said, and timely Xuhua came in with the book. She was holding it on a tray where it always stayed in the secret library. Only a few were high enough standing to get there.
"Page eleven, there is a decoction, I don't remember the exact one, but it's for pain from Yan Hu Suo, and prepare also a post-op one for inflammation and pain from Fang Ji, please." His ancestors decided to try out all the recipes and herbs, and poisons on animals and people and detailedly wrote down everything in one huge volume.
"And please look up what to do with ruptured intestines." Jingting was giving Xuhua directions while methodically searching for more ruptures. To his surprise, there wasn't that much. Only two of them.
"Binbin, I need light to stitch it up," he said, and Binbin revealed the pretty amazing torch made with mirrors and smokeless fire made of camellia oil. The mirrors were mounted to the walls and ceiling with handles to direct it right where it was needed. He didn't use it often, but now. He should try everything he knew and needed otherwise, this man was as good as dead.
With a special tool he came up with, he clamped the intestine where it ruptured, and it stopped bleeding and letting out the dirty body fluids. With a thin silk thread, he stitched it up and cleaned all the blood and dirt around.
Now he was happy for Xuhua's help. She was taking care of the guy and continuously taking his pulse, giving him more medicine or a helping hand to Jingting if needed. While Binbin was taking care of every tool, boiled fabric, and boiled silk thread, making sure nothing was left inside, everything was clean, and nothing was used twice. Sometimes he even had to clean Jingting's sweat, which was forming as he was working hard under pressure.
He put a healing salve into the wound before inspecting leakage from both sides. Nothing was leaking, no blood, no shit. That was a time to close the wound. He felt like it took ages to finish. Once, he had to even burn one vessel as it would leak even after he stitched it. But after he closed the muscles and the skin, he applied a healing and numbing paste and put a clean cloth on it from both sides.
When he was done, somehow his legs gave up, and he fell down on his ass, almost hitting his head in the process. Thankfully, Binbin caught him.
"Good work! You did everything possible to save him," he patted Jingting's shoulder.
Jingting closed his eyes. Hopefully, this guy will survive, and if he does, he will be thankful enough not to kill Jingting's family. Life for life.