Chapter 43: Allicin

With Lin Dachuang taking the lead, more and more people stepped forward.

They raised their blades and hacked at the members of the Hou family.

There was no need for Li Xiao to force them at all; once their fear dissolved, they began to take the initiative.

Those with grievances sought their revenge, and those with hatred settled their scores.

For over fifty years, the Hou family had ruled Hou Stronghold, treating residents of other surnames almost as mere slaves.

Animosity had long since accumulated.

Previously, out of dread for the Hou family’s influence, the others in the stronghold had never dared to resist.

Now, a man capable of standing up for them had finally arrived.

Thus, the crowd surged with righteous indignation.

More and more people opened their hearts to denounce the Hou family, enumerating all the wicked deeds they had committed in the past.

Listening to the miserable cries of the Hou clan and watching the turbulent emotions of the crowd below, Li Xiao suddenly felt a sense of surreal absurdity.

He had merely intended to force these people to choose a side, so how had it turned into a grievance-airing assembly?

Li Xiao felt somewhat like Justice Bao, descending to administer justice for the common folk who had long suffered under the oppression of the Hou family.

"Do not kill Hou Wen’s family just yet."

"Slice them slowly for a whole night first."

Li Xiao instructed Lin Dachuang.

Old Man Hou’s family had committed every evil imaginable and were the masterminds who had surrendered to the Karluks and backstabbed Li Xiao’s second uncle.

Of course, they could not be allowed to die an easy death.

That would be letting them off too lightly.

They deserved to be carved with a thousand cuts throughout the entire night.

If they were still breathing by morning, they would be tied to horses and dragged back to Hexi Fortress.

The moment they finally died, their corpses would be left by the roadside to feed the vultures.

Having arranged these matters, Li Xiao walked into a room.

"Dahu, how is Second Uncle?"

As he spoke, his gaze fell upon the man lying on the heated brick bed.

In his thirties, quite tall with a sturdy frame, he should have looked like a robust man.

However, prolonged starvation leading to malnutrition, compounded by the torture of his wounds, had caused his entire body to shrink significantly.

This was precisely Li Xiao’s second uncle, Li Erjiang.

After breaching Hou Stronghold, Dahu had found him in a damp dungeon.

With him were more than twenty others, most of whom were young men from Hexi Fortress who had followed Li Erjiang, along with a small number from places like Hedong Fortress and Tazhai.

Most of these people were in fair condition, merely suffering from physical weakness.

Yet those like Li Erjiang, who had already been wounded and then locked in such a dark, damp environment coupled with severe malnutrition,

found their injuries directly exacerbated.

He was now unconscious and unresponsive.

"My dad’s head is frighteningly hot."

"I called out to him for a long time before he woke up for a brief moment, and then he passed out again."

Dahu said, his voice choked with tears, his eye sockets already red and swollen.

"Don't cry!"

Li Xiao pressed his hand down on Dahu’s head and roughly wiped across his face.

You are a grown man, what is the use of crying?

"Since Second Uncle has woken up, it means the situation hasn't reached the worst stage; this is a good sign."

"There is still hope."

Li Xiao said in a deep voice.

A sudden glimmer of light appeared in Dahu’s eyes: "Really?"

If anyone else had said this, Dahu would certainly have doubted it, given that Li Erjiang’s injuries were exceedingly grave, practically making him no different from a corpse.

Yet the person speaking was Li Xiao.

His most respected elder brother.

Ever since they were little, Dahu had grown up following right behind Li Xiao.

Furthermore, during this recent period, everything Li Xiao had promised eventually came to pass, and his actions had inspired absolute confidence.

Therefore, a spark of faith inevitably ignited within Dahu’s heart.

"Whether it works or not, let's try it first!"

With that, Li Xiao told Dahu to fetch a basin of warm water.

He himself squatted beside Li Erjiang to examine his wounds.

The root cause lay in the three arrow wounds on his body.

One on the chest, one on the left arm, and one on the abdomen.

The arrows had already been pulled out, but the lack of proper subsequent treatment had caused the wounds to fester and become infected by bacteria.

This had triggered persistent high fever symptoms, leading to unconsciousness.

In such a case, his temperature had to be lowered first to prevent the fever from burning out his brain.

Li Xiao had Dahu and Erhu wipe his body with warm water to bring down his fever.

While they did that, he took Teltou and the others to search house by house for the items he needed.

Actually, they were quite easy to find—namely, liquor and garlic.

Hou Stronghold did not lack either of these things.

"Big Brother Dalong? Are we going to use garlic to treat Second Uncle’s wounds?"

In a kitchen, Teltou and Skinny Monkey each clutched a bundle of garlic, gazing at Li Xiao with怀疑 (doubtful) expressions.

Li Xiao walked over carrying a small jar of wine, placed it on the stove, and said with certainty, "Garlic can definitely treat wounds."

"However, Second Uncle’s injuries are too severe; whether he can be cured depends on the heavens' mood."

Li Erjiang’s condition was extremely critical, even worse than the young man from Sanhe Fortress.

His wounds were already showing signs of rot; if it were any other part of the body, amputation would undoubtedly be necessary, but this was on his chest.

"We can only treat a dead horse as if it were still alive!" Li Xiao thought with internal helplessness.

In truth, he dared not guarantee that he could truly save his second uncle.

Although his wounds looked terrifying, fortunately, they had not damaged his internal organs or major arteries, and they had long since stopped bleeding.

The crucial problem was that infection had set in.

In future generations, a few doses of penicillin would quickly cause the wounds to improve.

Regrettably, this was the Song and Jin dynasty era, still over seven hundred years away from the invention of penicillin!

Facing this kind of infection, the wounded person was left with only one outcome: waiting for death.

Seeing his second uncle’s complexion devoid of blood and his descent into a high fever and unconsciousness, Li Xiao could be certain that without effective treatment, his second uncle would not last another few days.

Although Li Xiao understood the principles and manufacturing methods of penicillin, the conditions were simply lacking.

Cultivating bacterial strains was extremely troublesome; the slightest carelessness could cause the strains to mutate, worsening the wound infection instead.

Moreover, cultivating penicillin strains required at least ten days, which was far too late.

While producing penicillin was unrealistic, Li Xiao thought of an alternative.

Allicin!

This was also an antibiotic, and the simplest kind to produce.

As is well known, garlic possesses certain bactericidal and anti-inflammatory properties, primarily driven by the allicin contained within the garlic.

It could kill certain bacteria and fungi, mitigating the severity of wound infections.

However, compared to the bactericidal and anti-inflammatory efficacy of penicillin, allicin’s functionality fell far short.

When confronted with severe wound infections, allicin would be powerless.

Yet the advantage was that allicin was easy to extract, required very little time to produce, and could be made in large quantities.

The raw materials consisted solely of garlic and high-purity alcohol.

Both of these items were easy to obtain.

Even so, one vital tool was still needed: a distillation apparatus.

Such devices had existed since the Han dynasty and were basically made of copper.

However, a place like Hou Stronghold certainly did not possess one, and forging one on the spot was out of the question.

Li Xiao had no choice but to build a simple distillation apparatus himself.

"Skinny Monkey, peel all the garlic, wash them clean with running water, and leave not a speck of dirt."

"Then pound them all into a mash."

"Teltou, go look around the nearby courtyards for any hollow ox horns. Also, find a clean piece of sheepskin and a clean cloth."

"Understood!"

Hearing Li Xiao’s instructions, the two nodded gently. Though they didn't understand what Li Xiao intended to do, they obeyed instinctively.

"Garlic, distilled wine, distillation apparatus..." Li Xiao mused inwardly.

"Let's hope this works out!"

This was Li Xiao’s first time using such a crude method to make allicin, and he lacked strong confidence, forced once again to treat a dead horse as a living one.

After all, his second uncle’s condition was grave, and if they didn't try something, he truly was near death.

Soon, Teltou brought back the ox horn, sheepskin, and cloth that Li Xiao had requested.

He then squatted down to help Skinny Monkey peel the garlic skins.

Li Xiao’s purpose for wanting the ox horn was quite simple.

The ox horn was large and hollow on the inside.

It would serve perfectly as a distillation tube.

One only needed to place the wider end of the hollow ox horn over the mouth of the wine jar, sealing it tightly with sheepskin, and a rudimentary distillation apparatus was complete.

Li Xiao then placed this entire jar of wine onto the stove, lit the fire, and began distillation.

The wine of this era contained too many impurities and had far too low an alcohol content.

Extracting allicin required high-proof spirits; ordinary wine simply would not do.

Nearly an hour passed as Li Xiao distilled three large jars of wine, ultimately yielding only a small half-jar of strong liquor.

From this, it was evident that the wine of this era had a pitifully low alcohol concentration.

Drinking a thousand cups without getting drunk was by no means difficult.

During this process, Skinny Monkey and Teltou tended the fire beside him, watching with their own eyes as droplets of liquid trickled out from the ox horn.

With astonished expressions, they asked, "Is this water?"

Li Xiao shook his head and said, "Strong liquor."

"This is the strongest liquor in the world."

Teltou and Skinny Monkey widened their eyes.

When they leaned in to sniff it, they cried out in surprise: "It really is wine!"

"The scent is so potent."

They had secretly tasted their fathers' wine before, but none of it came close to the potency of the liquor before them.

Li Xiao offered no further explanation, turning his attention instead to the wooden basin beside them.

At this moment, it was brimming with the mashed garlic the two had pounded, filling the entire room with a pungent aroma of garlic.

"What do we do next?" Skinny Monkey asked.

"Let it steep for an hour first," Li Xiao said.

The mashed garlic was to be immersed in the jar of alcohol.

Stirred thoroughly and covered with a lid.

They would wait about an hour for the allicin within the garlic to infuse into the alcohol.

Then, the remaining garlic and impurities would be filtered out, leaving behind alcohol infused with allicin. By using distillation once more, the alcohol would be boiled away.

What remained would be the simplest form of allicin.

Allicin produced through this method had a very low purity and carried a pungent garlic odor along with residual alcoholic smells.

Its bactericidal and anti-inflammatory effects were average, falling far short of modern penicillin.

Still, every little bit helped; in the absence of penicillin, allicin was the best antibiotic available.

Even if it could only reduce the risk of amputation and infection-related deaths for soldiers by a fraction, this allicin would still render monumental service.

At the very least, if efficacy was lacking, quantity could compensate.

After all, the cost of producing allicin was low, and it could easily be made in large batches.

The sole drawback was that the manufactured allicin had to be used as quickly as possible.

Because at room temperature, it retained its activity for only three hours.

The longer it sat, the weaker its bactericidal effect became.

"Let it steep for now."

"Keep an eye on it, and I'll be back in an hour."

Li Xiao told Skinny Monkey and the other before leaving the room, as Luo Meng had just arrived to report on matters concerning the Hou family.

The hands of those residents in Hou Stronghold were now stained with the blood of the Hou clan.

The Hou family members were essentially wiped out, leaving only women without sons such as Huang Xiuer, alongside a few masterminds like Hou Tiancai who awaited death by a thousand cuts.