Chapter 51

The river, carrying countless toxic cyanide compounds, flowed as usual. The fish in the river were the first to realize that the water was different. Once the cyanide entered the bodies of the organisms, it bound with the metal ions in the respiratory enzymes, rendering these enzymes inactive. Large numbers of fish died, and the plants by the river could not escape either; a large number of plants withered and died. The river water exchanged with the groundwater, and a large amount of cyanide seeped into the nearby wells.

Fortunately, it was just after lunch. If it had been during the time when water was used for cooking, many innocent villagers might have lost their lives.

Xu Feng brought Liu Dazhuang back. Liu Dazhuang knew he had been too rash and kept his head down, not saying a word. After being detained by the Russians for a night without even a sip of water, he returned home and the first thing he did was to draw a bucket of water from the well. Just as he was about to take a sip, Liu Dazhuang's mother shouted, "You still have the nerve to drink water!"

Hearing his mother's voice, Liu Dazhuang quickly put down the ladle. His mother scolded him, and he stood there with his head down, listening. What he didn't know was that the cyanide in the water he drank had entered his stomach, where the stomach acid instantly converted it into highly toxic hydrogen cyanide. Through the bloodstream, the hydrogen cyanide spread throughout his body, causing a large number of respiratory enzymes to lose their activity. Without oxygen to oxidize and provide energy, the cells quickly died.

Liu Dazhuang stood there, suddenly feeling a headache, dizziness, and shortness of breath. It was difficult for him to even stand, and his knees buckled, causing him to squat down and then fall to the ground, feeling as if the world was spinning.

Liu Dazhuang had always been strong and had never experienced a headache or fever. This sudden collapse frightened his mother, who rushed over. Xu Feng, thinking quickly, suddenly wondered, "Why did he suddenly become like this? Could the Russians have done something to him?"

Xu Feng immediately thought of the Japanese using biological weapons in Northeast China. Could the Russians have infected Liu Dazhuang with some acute infectious disease and deliberately let him return to harm the villagers?

Xu Feng quickly felt Liu Dazhuang's forehead, which was icy cold. Xu Feng felt slightly relieved. Severe infectious diseases entering the body would trigger the body's strongest resistance, with the brain ordering a rapid increase in body temperature as a signal for the immune system to produce a large number of immune cells to fight the infection.

Seeing that Liu Dazhuang was not running a fever, Xu Feng knew it wasn't an acute illness. He immediately thought of poisoning. There are three main routes for poisoning in the human body: the skin, the respiratory tract, and the digestive tract. Since they had returned together, if Liu Dazhuang had been poisoned through the skin or respiratory tract, Xu Feng would also have been affected. Xu Feng immediately thought of the digestive tract.

Without time to determine the exact poison, Xu Feng immediately turned Liu Dazhuang's head downward and reached in to induce vomiting, a method to expel toxic substances from the digestive tract. Liu Dazhuang, who hadn't eaten all night, vomited a lot of acidic fluid. As Xu Feng bent down, he caught a faint smell of bitter almonds from Liu Dazhuang's mouth.

"Cyanide!" Xu Feng, with his knowledge of future chemistry, immediately thought of this. He knew the role of cyanide in gold extraction and suddenly understood the purpose of Xiaotao's entry into the church. However, now was not the time to think about that. He immediately thought of the antidotes for cyanide—sodium nitrite and sodium thiosulfate.

These two substances, when introduced into the body, can convert toxic cyanide into non-toxic compounds. However, although Xu Feng knew about these substances, he was at a loss because they were not available in this place!

The pickled vegetable jar in the yard caught Xu Feng's eye. He knew that pickled vegetables produce high concentrations of sodium nitrite during the early stages of pickling. However, the sodium nitrite used for detoxification needs to be injected intravenously. Could the pickled vegetable broth be directly injected into the veins? Even if it were possible, there were no needles available for intravenous injection.

Liu Dazhuang's mother was crying in fear, but unlike her, Xu Feng knew how to treat Liu Dazhuang. However, he was helpless without the necessary materials. Xu Feng began to think about what had poisoned Liu Dazhuang and quickly remembered the water he had drunk.

Xu Feng scooped up a ladle of water, smelled it, and detected a faint smell of bitter almonds. He nodded, realizing that the cyanide from the gold extraction process at the Russian camp had leaked.

At this moment, Liu Dazhuang slowly sat up and said, "Why did I feel so bad just now?" Seeing that her son was fine, Liu Dazhuang's mother stopped crying.

Xu Feng sighed inwardly, "How lucky, Liu Dazhuang drank only a little water, and he is a big and strong man, so it wasn't fatal."

Xu Feng quickly called Qiong Sanbei, who had seen Liu Dazhuang's poisoning but, due to his experience as a traveling performer, instinctively stayed away from any trouble. Hearing Xu Feng's call, he quickly ran over. Xu Feng said, "Quickly inform the villagers not to drink the well water and not to use it to feed the animals."

Qiong Sanbei picked up a broken gong and ran out, banging it loudly.

Not being able to drink the well water was a major disaster for the local villagers. They gathered in groups at the village entrance, discussing the situation.

Xu Feng came over and thought about how to handle the situation. He couldn't say that the Russians were responsible, as that would lead to a violent confrontation and many casualties.

Xu Feng told the villagers, "Don't drink the well water for now! The water drawn in the morning can still be used, but use it sparingly." Xu Feng knew that in rural areas, the first task for the wife in the morning was to fill the water jar, and a full jar of water could last at least two days if used sparingly.

As the villagers were discussing, a crying child ran into the crowd and said, "There's a fight at the church, and many people have died!"

Xu Feng quickly asked, "What happened?"

The child, crying, said, "The soldiers are killing people, and many have died."

Xu Feng's village, Liujiacun, was relatively prosperous, so the villagers had three meals a day. However, the villages downstream, Matoucun and Qiaojiaocun, had only two meals a day. When the cyanide reached these villages, it was just when the villagers were drawing water for cooking. These villages rarely had wells and directly used river water.

In one family, while cooking, they added vinegar to the water. The acetic acid instantly reacted with the cyanide to produce highly toxic hydrogen cyanide gas. The person cooking inhaled the high concentration of hydrogen cyanide and died immediately. Others who drank the water also died from poisoning. In these two villages, dozens of people died.

These two villages were the centers of the Boxers. Not knowing what had happened, they instinctively blamed the church. The Boxers from these two villages, driven by anger, grabbed their large knives and attacked the church.

After the priest ordered the cyanide to be thrown into the river, he prepared to deal with the villagers. Everyone in the church, including those who cooked, was armed. When the Boxers from Matoucun and Qiaojiaocun reached the church, they began to attack the gate. The Russians inside opened fire, and the Boxers, who believed they were invulnerable to bullets, suffered heavy casualties.

The sound of gunfire quickly attracted people from other villages, and thirteen villages soon gathered, with over five hundred people surrounding the church.

Soon, the Boxers began to attack the church, using ladders to climb the walls. The walls were long, and the Russians soon could not hold out, so they called for help from the Qing government.

This area was under the jurisdiction of Yanbian Prefecture. The Prefect of Yanbian immediately led several hundred soldiers to the scene, hoping to calm the situation. However, the situation quickly spiraled out of control. The Boxers, seeing that the local officials were not helping them, killed the Prefect in anger, and the soldiers opened fire on the Boxers.

According to statistics, in this day of conflict, 67 Boxers were killed, and the number of injured was not recorded. This day, October 26, 1894, or the 28th day of the ninth month in the lunar calendar, was later referred to by historians as the "September Massacre."

This event brought unpredictable changes to the historical process. Fifteen days later, in a teahouse in Tianjin, the 28-year-old Sun Yat-sen was anxiously waiting for Li Hongzhang's summons. A few months earlier, he had submitted a petition to Li Hongzhang, proposing ideas such as "making full use of human resources and land resources." When he saw the newspaper reports about the "September Massacre," he couldn't help but think, "Can such a government really bring about a revival?"

At this moment, Xu Feng, looking out to the sea, repeatedly muttered a phrase. This phrase, also the first words spoken by Chinese leaders in the 21st century in response to major international events, was "Where are our aircraft carriers?"

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