Starting with a Wei Wu soldier

Chapter 273 Medical Clinic System

The decree promoting education was like a seed carefully buried in the soil, requiring a long time to sprout. Meanwhile, another livelihood project concerning the current hardships of the empire's citizens was being pushed to the forefront at an even faster pace, amidst Chen Xing's chattering gestures with Lan Fenghuang on his desk.

It was late September of the first year of the Qiming era. The late autumn in Chang'an was already carrying a chill, but a secluded courtyard within the Imperial Medical Bureau was warm as spring. The courtyard was surrounded by a specially constructed fire-dragon wall; though no open flame was visible inside, the air was cozy and inviting. Dozens of potted rare herbs unfurled their lush green leaves on shelves by the window, the air filled with a bittersweet medicinal fragrance, along with a faint, distinctive scent of smoky wood from the Miao region.

This is the "territory" of Consort Lan Fenghuang—the Imperial Medical Academy's Herbal Garden.

When Chen Xing stepped into the courtyard, Lan Fenghuang was squatting beside a huge bamboo strip, intently fiddling with a bunch of wriggling little creatures inside. Today, she was not wearing the elaborate ceremonial robes of a virtuous consort, but only a short, narrow-sleeved blue cloth garment in the Miao style, her hair was tied up with a silver chain, and the cuffs were rolled up to her elbows, revealing two sections of her snow-white and muscular forearms.

"Brother Xing!" Hearing footsteps, she looked up, her eyes curving into crescent moons, her hands still smeared with some kind of green liquid. "You've come at the perfect time! Look at this batch of newly cultivated Golden Thread Gu! The threads they spit can stop bleeding and regenerate tissue, three times stronger than the batch we brought from Miao territory! I was just thinking about how to promote them to the various military medical battalions!"

Chen Xing crouched down to her eye level, carefully examining the wriggling little things for a moment before nodding. "Indeed, quite impressive. Phoenix, you've been in Chang'an for almost a year now. The Imperial Medical Bureau, the Medical Corps, and all these...treasures you've been working on are all running smoothly. I'm thinking, shouldn't I find you something bigger to do?"

Blue Phoenix blinked, scratching her cheek with her fingers smeared with green juice, leaving two comical green streaks: "Bigger things? Is there anything bigger than treating the soldiers' wounds, diapering the palace servants, and caring for these treasures?"

Chen Xing smiled slightly as he looked at her innocent and bewildered expression. He stood up, took out a reviewed memorial from his sleeve, and handed it to her.

Lan Fenghuang took it, struggling to decipher the somewhat official and still difficult-to-understand language, muttering to herself: "...medical clinics in various regions...epidemic prevention and control...medicinal herb reserves...training of medical officers..." She looked up, her eyes wide, "Brother Xing, are you asking me to bring the entire Imperial Medical Bureau system to the whole country?"

"It's not about moving the Imperial Medical Bureau," Chen Xing corrected her. "The Imperial Medical Bureau is the highest medical administration agency of the court, in charge of selecting medical officials, supplying imperial medicines, and treating difficult and complicated diseases. What I want you to do is a different system—a network of government-run medical clinics covering all prefectures, counties, and districts. This will allow ordinary people to see a doctor and get medicine right at their doorstep without having to travel thousands of miles to seek medical treatment or go bankrupt."

Lan Fenghuang was stunned. She looked down at the memorial in her hand; the handwriting was still those difficult-to-read square characters, but at this moment, they seemed to come alive, transforming into the Miao village medical huts she had sketched in her dreams—houses built of bamboo and wood, hung with medicinal herbs, and filled with the fragrance of herbs; long lines of patients outside, and the busy yet composed figures of her Miao medical sisters inside…

That was a dream she had thought about but never dared to hope could come true when she left Miao territory.

"Brother Xing," her voice suddenly became muffled, her head lowered, the silver chain swaying slightly, "this... is too big. I'm afraid I won't be able to do it well."

Chen Xing didn't speak, he just looked at her quietly.

Lan Fenghuang was silent for a moment, then raised her eyes. In those usually clear and bright eyes, there was something new that she hadn't seen before. It wasn't hesitation, nor was it timidity, but rather... a serious assessment of the weight on her shoulders.

"But," she bit her lower lip, "if I don't do it, someone else will do it even worse. I've seen too much of that: the malaria of the south, the frostbite of the north, the post-war plague, the deaths of mothers and babies due to midwives' inability to deliver babies properly... Brother Xing, give me people, give me money and food, give me... give me the authority, and I'll do it!"

Her tone gradually changed from a soft murmur to a firm one, and the last sentence, "I'll do it," was almost shouted out as if she were pounding her chest.

Chen Xing looked at her and suddenly smiled. There was no imperial majesty in that smile, only appreciation and trust for a partner who dared to charge forward once she set her mind on something.

"Good." He took out another roll of bright yellow silk from his sleeve. "This is the outline of the 'Plan for the Establishment of Imperial Medical Clinics throughout the Empire' that I have prepared for you. Take a look and see what you can do and what needs to be revised."

Lan Fenghuang took the medicine basket, and this time, she read it very slowly and carefully. When she encountered unfamiliar characters, she pointed and asked; when she encountered medical or administrative terms she didn't understand, she scratched her head and asked Chen Xing to explain. The two of them, one squatting by the medicine basket and the other sitting on the small stool she had brought, asked and answered questions, and before they knew it, the sunlight outside the window had changed from golden to dark red.

---

A few days later, a court assembly was held in the Taiji Hall.

Lan Fenghuang stood slightly to the side of the civil officials' column—this was her first time officially participating in the court meeting as "Consort Xian, Supervisor of the Imperial Physicians." Today, she was wearing the ceremonial robes of a Consort Xian, in accordance with her rank, and her hair ornaments were much more dignified, but the wild and untamed spirit between her brows could not be concealed.

Chen Xing gestured, and Lan Fenghuang took a deep breath, unfolded a memorial that had obviously been polished by Chen Xing, but whose core ideas were entirely her own, and began to present it.

"Your Majesty, Your Excellencies. The 'Strategy for the Establishment of Official Medical Centers throughout the Land,' which I have drafted, is based on eight principles: benefiting the people, preventing epidemics, cultivating talent, and storing medicines."

Her voice was initially a little nervous and trembling, but as she spoke, it gradually became steady, even carrying a sense of certainty and composure as when talking about her most familiar field.

"Firstly, it benefits the people—establishing tiered facilities to help the poor and sick."

"Each prefecture-level city shall establish a 'Benefit-the-People Pharmacy' as a regional medical administration center, responsible for dispatching local medical officials, distributing medicinal materials, and providing consultations for difficult and complicated cases. Each prefecture and large county shall establish an 'Official Medical Hall' with three to five resident medical officials and several clerks, who shall diagnose and prescribe medicines for the people and sell medicinal materials at affordable prices. In remote rural areas, 'Mobile Medical Stations' shall be established, where medical officials from the prefecture and county official medical halls shall be dispatched on a rotating basis to provide medical services or train local folk healers and midwives with basic knowledge of pharmacology, providing them with a small stipend, and responsible for handling routine minor illnesses and emergency treatments."

She paused, then added, "Impoverished people can have their medical consultations waived and their medicine costs halved upon presentation of a poverty certificate issued by the village head; widows, orphans, the elderly living alone, and the bereaved families of the fallen will have all their consultations and medicine costs waived. Any shortfall will be covered by the 'Beneficial Medical Funds' allocated by the imperial court, the surplus funds from local school lands, and subsidies from the imperial treasury."

The Minister of Revenue's lips twitched slightly—another donation from the Imperial Household Department. Consort Su's purse was truly omnipresent. But upon closer examination, however, this was indeed a pragmatic way to resolve the initial financial difficulties.

"Secondly, epidemic prevention and control—routine monitoring and timely containment."

Lan Fenghuang spoke of this with exceptional seriousness: "When I was in Miao territory, I saw too many villages emptied of nine out of ten houses due to an epidemic. The harm of epidemics is more severe than that of war. I request that the official medical clinics of each prefecture and county be required to report the epidemic situation in their respective territories to the Imperial Medical Academy every month—when it started, what the symptoms are, how many people are infected, how many have recovered, and how many have died. Once a specific infectious disease is found to be clustering, the local official medical clinic must immediately seal off the epidemic area, isolate the patients, and report to the court. The Imperial Medical Academy can then urgently allocate special medicines and send medical officers to provide assistance."

"On ordinary days, government clinics need to educate the people on basic hygiene knowledge—drink boiled water, do not eat rotten food, separate humans and animals, and boil the clothes of the sick. This is to prevent problems before they occur, and it is cost-effective."

Thirdly, talent cultivation—training medical officers and passing on the torch.

Lan Fenghuang raised her voice slightly, clearly this was the part she cared about most.

"I suggest that a 'Medical Academy' be established under the Imperial Medical Academy to recruit the sons of renowned physicians throughout the land, or young people who are literate and aspire to the path of medicine. They should be systematically taught the 'Huangdi Neijing' (Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic), the 'Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases', as well as practical skills such as Miao detoxification techniques, wound treatment, and gynecology. The course of study is three years. Those who pass the examination upon completion of the course will be granted the qualification of 'Medical Scholar' and assigned to official medical academies in various prefectures."

She paused, then added somewhat shyly, "I...I can personally teach the classes. In wound treatment and detoxification, the methods from Miao territory are more effective than those from the Central Plains."

A murmur of discussion arose in the hall. To have Consort Xian personally teach the students? This was unprecedented. But upon reflection, it didn't seem so bad—it was certainly better than her spending her days in the Imperial Medical Bureau fiddling with those wriggling Gu worms, wasn't it?

Fourth, medicine storage – reserve of medicinal materials to stabilize drug prices.

"Each state's official medical clinic must establish a pharmacy, maintaining a year-round stock of thirty to fifty kinds of commonly used medicinal herbs to meet unforeseen needs. In the event of famine, war, or plague, the pharmacy can supply medicines to the people at low prices or free of charge to prevent unscrupulous merchants from hoarding and speculating. The required medicinal herbs can be procured and distributed uniformly by the Imperial Medical Bureau, or they can be cultivated and purchased by local government officials. The Imperial Household Department's merchants are located throughout the country, and I can assist in facilitating procurement channels."

After she finished speaking, she closed the memorial, stepped back, and bowed to Chen Xing.

The hall was silent.

This strategy, far less grand and complex than land redistribution, the imperial examination system, or tax reform, possesses a simple yet powerful force. It doesn't concern itself with grand narratives of governing the country and benefiting the people; it focuses on each specific prefecture and county, each remote village, and each sick person who cannot afford medical care. And this power is particularly moving precisely because of its "concreteness."

Jia Wen stepped forward first, his old eyes gleaming with a complex light: "Your Majesty's plan is practical and feasible, demonstrating benevolence and skill, and benefiting the world. This old minister has no objections."

The Minister of Revenue followed suit: "The policies of establishing tiered institutions and storing medicines to stabilize prices can complement our department's financial and grain allocation and the Ever-Normal Granary system. I have no objection."

The Minister of Rites pondered for a moment: "The training of medical officers is under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Medical Academy and originally had nothing to do with the Ministry of Rites. However, the establishment of the Medical Academy can be regarded as a supporting foundation for the 'Ming Medical Examination' in the imperial examination. I have no objection."

Dissenting voices were scattered and weak. Even when conservative officials thought that "the official medical clinics are too expensive," they were rebuffed by their colleagues with the retort, "His Majesty is willing to repair even the official roads. Repairing roads is beneficial to the people, but is treating illnesses not beneficial to the people?"

Chen Xing sat upright on the throne, watching the rare policy discussion in the hall, which was almost unchallenged. He then looked at Lan Fenghuang, who was standing in the ranks, trying to appear dignified but unable to suppress a slight smile. A strange sense of satisfaction welled up in his heart.

"Since all the ministers have no objections," he began, his voice carrying the weight of a dynasty, "the 'Outline for the Establishment of Imperial Medical Institutes throughout the Realm' shall be promulgated to the entire realm effective immediately. The Imperial Medical Bureau, in conjunction with the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Ministry of Works, shall formulate detailed implementation rules, and a pilot program shall be launched in Chang'an, Luoyang, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Taiyuan within three months. Your Excellency—"

Lan Fenghuang immediately responded, "I am here!"

"You will be in charge of overseeing the implementation of the strategy as the Imperial Physicians Supervisor, and will also be responsible for the establishment of medical academies. Any necessary personnel, materials, and funds can be requested from me, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Imperial Household Department at any time. Within five years, I want to see public pharmacies in every prefecture and county, and government-run medical clinics in every state and county. Within ten years, even remote villages and towns will have regular mobile medical services. Can you achieve this?"

Blue Phoenix looked up and met the calm and trusting eyes on the throne.

She didn't pat her chest and shout "Leave it to me!" as she used to. She simply took a deep breath and then, solemnly and slowly, performed a standard palace curtsy.

"Your Majesty, I will do my utmost."

---

That night, Lan Fenghuang didn't return to Fangzhixuan. Instead, she plunged into the Herbal Garden. Amidst a pile of medicinal herbs and Gu worms, she spread out a huge sheet of white paper and began sketching—it was her ideal layout for a medical school: a lecture hall, a herb garden, a specimen room, a practical training room…

She drew slowly, pausing frequently to bite the pen and stare blankly. As she drew, she suddenly leaned on the table, buried her face in her arms, and her shoulders trembled slightly.

The door opened gently. Murong Mingyue stood quietly behind her, holding a bowl of warm white fungus soup.

She didn't ask Lan Fenghuang why she was crying. She simply placed the white fungus soup on the corner of the table, gently stroked Lan Fenghuang's hair, and then turned and left.

Lan Fenghuang raised her head, her eyes red-rimmed, watching the dignified figure disappear through the door. She sniffed, then lowered her head again to continue drawing her medical museum.

Outside the window, the late autumn moonlight bathed the courtyard.