Fang Chenyan said confidently, "Don't worry, I'll prescribe a few doses of medicine, and the commander will be completely cured and won't be like this again."

"The leader's health is very good now. His pulse has fully demonstrated that he is well-nourished and has sufficient qi and blood."

That's natural. Li Qin put a lot of effort into cooking for the leader to ensure he received adequate nutrition and to make up for the damage to his health caused by fleeing famine.

In such a short time, the leader's skin has become shiny and his face has even gained baby fat.

Thanks to Li Qin's efforts, Shen Xi's body developed rapidly, and she was already beginning to resemble a young woman. Her face had matured, and she was indeed a beauty.

However, due to Shenxi's imposing presence, most people wouldn't focus on her appearance, so no one dared to openly discuss Shenxi's beauty.

Fang Chenyan's words reassured everyone present, reminding them that the leader's health was of utmost importance.

Following up on the various military issues he had discussed with Shen Xi, Qi Xiuwen began drafting documents. Once completed, he would hand them over to Shen Xi, and if deemed suitable, they could be issued for execution.

The appointment of local grassroots officials must be re-examined and investigated, without any negligence, to prevent the emergence of another idiot like Ge Liang.

Where there are shortcomings, we should actively select talent; however, how to select them will need to be discussed again.

Currently, the imperial court employs officials primarily through two methods: one is the recommendation system, where local officials recommend capable individuals, the Ministry of Personnel conducts assessments, and if a candidate is deemed truly capable, they are appointed based on the actual circumstances; the other is the imperial examination system, which allows all individuals, except those of low social status, to participate.

The recommendation system did indeed recommend many talented individuals at the beginning, but later, with the decline in the quality of some officials and the excessive involvement of powerful families, ordinary people could no longer be recommended, and it became increasingly difficult for children from poor families to rise to prominence. The recommendation channels were basically controlled by the major powerful families.

The imperial examination system was designed to counterbalance overly powerful aristocratic families. Those recommended by the families were not as valued as those who passed the imperial examinations. Therefore, even aristocratic families shifted their focus from recommendations to examinations, and young members of these families were required to learn both literary and martial arts.

Unless one is truly incapable of both literary and martial arts, one must resort to connections to get a recommendation and become a minor official.

Such a system was well-intentioned, but because most of the books and teaching resources were still in the hands of aristocratic families, commoners who did not rely on aristocratic families found it difficult to obtain more information and learn from famous teachers.

Although there are state-run schools, the teachers there are not comparable to those in aristocratic families.

Therefore, even if there are highly qualified commoners, if they do not gain the favor of aristocratic families, they will find it difficult to pass the county-level examination and become a provincial-level scholar unless they have the support of aristocratic families or connections to help them.

Therefore, Zhong Ti, the magistrate of Ai County, who came from a commoner background, must have been an exceptionally talented person to appear in the top three. He must have had connections in his family to support him, otherwise it would have been difficult for him to reach that level.

As a successful candidate in the imperial examinations, Song Zhen went through many hardships and put in a lot of effort before finally passing the exams. This was due to both Song Zhen's genuine talent and the appreciation of the chief examiner.

Such an imperial examination system had very little impact on aristocratic families, and the path for commoners to rise in society remained very narrow.

Shenxi has been committed to changing this situation. Now everyone can read books, and even the books of aristocratic families that have been searched out are copied and made available for the general public to study. The main purpose is to cultivate talents from the masses.

After all, if talented people all come from aristocratic families, these families control the lifeline of scholars. No matter how good the selection mechanism is, it cannot compete with the aristocratic families.

Powerful clans wield too much influence over the imperial court, even hindering it. In severe cases, they can control the court and dictate its affairs; in even more serious cases, they can overthrow the dynasty.

Throughout history, the imperial power has made many efforts to suppress powerful families, such as appointing relatives of the empress, appointing eunuchs, and even causing the disaster of the partisan purge. However, no matter which method is used, if they are allowed to grow too powerful, they will threaten the imperial power.

The continuous infighting severely affected internal unity, the national economy and people's livelihood, rampant corruption, and constant factional struggles.

Therefore, we need to prepare in advance for various issues such as how to select and appoint talents, how to prevent powerful families from monopolizing power, and how to prevent scholars from forming cliques and engaging in self-serving activities, so as to avoid having no one available after expanding our territory in the future.

Shenxi's abdominal pain lasted for three days, and of course, it got milder each day. By the third day, there was hardly any pain left. However, when Shenxi wanted to discuss matters with her subordinates, they all advised her to rest, and even Xing Xiuyan forbade her from doing anything.

Shen Xi smiled and pointed at Xing Xiuyan: "Well, you've gotten bolder, huh? You dare to control me now."

Xing Xiuyan smiled slightly, her eyes lowered obediently. As long as Chen Xi wasn't dealing with official business, she was very well-behaved.

"This servant is only doing this for the sake of the leader. The leader has not fully recovered and should not overexert himself."

"It won't be tiring, it's just discussing some things."

"This servant doesn't believe it. The chief was like this before. The more they discussed, the more they talked. If it weren't for Yingxue supervising, the chief would have forgotten to eat and sleep."

Although Shenxi has been trying to control his workaholic nature, he sometimes naturally continues the workaholic spirit he had in his previous life when dealing with official business.

It often took Di Yingxue three or four times to coax Chenxi into going to rest and eat. Later, Di Yingxue started to become "domineering." When it was time to eat and rest, she would directly take away Chenxi's paper and pen and say to her subordinates in a very serious tone, "Doesn't the leader know how to take care of her health? Don't you know how to remind the leader?"

In the end, when Shenxi was busy again, without Di Yingxue's prompting, his subordinates voluntarily resigned when it was time, and asked their leader to take care of his health.

It must be said that her physical condition is getting better day by day. This is partly due to her daily training and Li Qin's dietary conditioning, and partly due to Di Yingxue's attentive care.

Now that Di Yingxue is no longer by my side, a second Di Yingxue has appeared—Xing Xiuyan.

They all seemed like gentle and kind girls, but they were all very stubborn and started to boss her around.

However, Shenxi appreciated this kind of "discipline" quite a bit: after all, their initial intention was good, and it was for her health.

"Alright, I'll rest for another day. Tomorrow, I need to take care of some official business here. After that, we should head back the day after tomorrow. There's still a lot to do in the county."

Xing Xiuyan nodded obediently. Fang Chenyan said that the commander would be fine in three days.

She also knew that the leader had many things to do and couldn't afford to delay.

She must not interfere with the leader's official business while ensuring the leader's health.

Chen Xi chuckled, gently pinching her cheek: "I just can't do anything with you!"