This is a blatant overt scheme.

A plan of total extermination! This is meant to sever the very roots of our noble families!

Zhang Wuji's heart roared in madness.

Who among the civil and military officials didn't know? A vast majority of the Great Zhou's local officials, especially those prefects and magistrates, knew absolutely nothing about penal law! Nothing about budget coordination! Nothing about river maintenance!

These high and mighty chief officials, once separated from the advisors heavily funded and secretly planted in the government offices by the noble families, were nothing but a bunch of blind and deaf trash!

Those advisors were the true white gloves of the great noble families used to control local power, the tentacles that did the dirty work!

Now, the Emperor had made a clean sweep, chopping off all the advisors! Even hiring them privately would be treated as a crime punishable by dismissal!

Zhuge Huaijin's face was equally pale as paper. He originally thought the Emperor would rely on the poor scholars, but now he realized in terror that the Emperor's strike had shattered the entire operational logic of the bureaucracy. One must know that a significant portion of these aides, advisors, and accountants were also poor scholars.

Without the advisors, and with so many new government offices established, where will they find people to do the work at the bottom? The various levels of chief officials were already short by sixty percent due to the newly added institutions. Now, by dismissing all the low-level clerks, the Great Zhou's grassroots vacancies will instantly soar to ninety percent! The government will completely paralyze! The world will fall into chaos! How dare His Majesty do this?!

Unease, an unprecedented unease, shrouded the head of every official.

Zhang Wuji bit the tip of his tongue, forcing himself awake with the sharp pain. He was just about to stand up regardless of the consequences, preparing to unite with Zhuge Huaijin in a remonstrance unto death to force the Emperor to retract this chaotic decree. He was certain the Emperor would never dare to bear the blame for paralyzing the empire.

However, Wang Chengen did not give them a chance to speak at all. The third imperial edict crashed down like Mount Tai.

The third imperial edict: In three days at the Grand Court Assembly, a public court recommendation will be held for the chief officials and deputies of all institutions at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels.

To fill the remaining vacancies in the central and local government offices, We have decided to hold a special imperial examination! In three months, the imperial examination system will be reformed into a National Exam, with questions uniformly set by the Imperial Court. Anyone with the rank of Juren may participate. Those who pass will not need to wait for a vacancy; upon passing, they will immediately be granted an actual official position at the secondary seventh rank!

In five months, a new Provincial Exam will be added, jointly organized by provincial government offices and the Ministry of Rites, and jointly supervised by the Censorate, the Eastern Depot, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard! Anyone with the rank of Xiucai or above may apply. Those who pass will fill the local prefectures, counties, and townships, granted actual executive positions from the primary eighth rank to the primary ninth rank!

Respect this!

As the last two words echoed in the grand hall, a sharp crack was heard. The priceless, top-quality jade thumb ring on Zhang Wuji's left thumb was forcibly crushed by his own grip. The sharp fragments pierced his flesh, and blood dripped through his fingers onto the golden bricks, yet he remained completely unaware. It's over... It's all over.

Reforming the imperial examination, clearly pricing actual positions... No need to wait as a candidate, no need to bribe, passing means becoming an official immediately! This is equivalent to firmly grasping the lifelines of millions of scholars across the world who have studied bitterly by the cold window, right in the Emperor's own hands!

Extremely terrifying images surfaced in Zhang Wuji's mind: Once this edict spread across the empire, those Xiucai and Juren who had studied bitterly for ten years, those Jinshi who had waited for over a decade without getting an actual vacancy, would go mad! Whoever dared to stop these three edicts would be smashing the rice bowls of every scholar in the world. That person would be a rebel. The Emperor wouldn't even need to lift a finger; the spit of the world's scholars alone would drown him!

This is an overt conspiracy. The little Emperor is not only pulling all the scholars in the world to back him up, infiltrating imperial power into the grassroots, but he is also using tangible official hats to buy the hearts of the people worldwide! A win-win situation. And that so-called court recommendation...

Thinking of this, Zhang Wuji abruptly turned his head to look at Zhuge Huaijin, only to find the other party's face equally ashen.

Court recommendation!

Bringing out all high-level official positions for public election! This meant that the personnel power the Ministry of Personnel could originally operate privately and manipulate in the dark was directly taken back by the Emperor and made public. Want to be an official? Fine, debate with real swords and spears in the imperial court, and let the civil and military officials vote!

How was this a bestowal of grace? This was clearly tying a dog chain around the necks of the noble families and the poor scholars, and then throwing a bloody piece of meat in front of them, forcing them to bite each other like mad dogs, while the Emperor sat on his high dragon throne, watching coldly.

My lords, receive the edict, Sun Li put away the imperial edict and said with a fake smile.

Inside the grand hall, there was a deathly silence.

After a long time, Zhuge Huaijin and Zhang Wuji slowly knelt on the ground, their voices as hoarse as two pieces of dead wood rubbing together: This subject... receives the edict and thanks His Majesty for his grace.

...

Night fell, and the prosperity of the capital was shrouded by an invisible, chilling aura of murder.

The Zhang Manor, secret room.

The air was thick with the scent of calming incense, yet it could not suppress the restless anxiety of over a dozen high-ranking imperial officials. The Left Vice Minister of Personnel, the Minister of Revenue, the Chief Minister of the Court of Judicature and Revision... nearly half of the bigwigs in the Great Zhou's imperial court were now like ants on a hot pan.

Elder Cabinet Member! The Emperor is trying to drive us to extinction! The Left Vice Minister of Personnel's forehead was covered in cold sweat, his voice trembling. By clearing out the advisors, our hands are cut off; by reforming the imperial exams, our roots are dug up! At the court recommendation in three days, if that bunch of poor sour scholars truly take the chief official positions, combined with the newly recruited hotheads, where will there be any foothold left for our noble families in the local regions of the Great Zhou!

Shut up!

From the main seat, Zhang Wuji slammed his hand on the table, causing the teacups to jump violently. Tea splashed onto the back of his hand, but he didn't even furrow his brow.

On that old face, the panic from earlier in the day was gone, replaced by a ferocious expression of a man forced into a corner.

What are you panicking for? The sky isn't falling! Zhang Wuji's sinister eyes swept across the crowd, his voice as low as a sharpening blade. The Emperor wants fresh blood? Fine! But he shouldn't forget that this Great Zhou is propped up by our noble families!

He stood up abruptly, his hands planted on the table, like a fierce tiger ready to devour someone.

The Emperor thinks he can get rid of us with the National Exam and Provincial Exam? Naive! What do exams test? Knowledge! Who controls the best academies in the world? Our noble families! Whose homes hold tens of thousands of volumes of rare and secret manuals? Our noble families! Who can afford to hire the great scholars of our time for day and night tutoring? Still our noble families!

Pass down my orders! A glint of cold light flashed in Zhang Wuji's eyes. Immediately use the eight-hundred-mile expedited courier to write letters to the patriarchs of the major families in Jiangnan and Jiangbei!

First, tell them to take all the youths in their families between the ages of twenty and forty, as long as they hold a scholarly degree, and even if they have to tie them up, they must drag them to the capital to prepare for the National Exam! The provincial exams in every province must also be completely stuffed with people from our noble families!

Second, investigate for me! That bunch of poor, sour Xiucai and Juren will definitely lack money to travel for the exams. Notify the banks and merchant houses everywhere: they are not allowed to lend a single copper coin of travel expenses to the poor scholars! I want to make sure they can't even touch the gates of the capital city!

"As for the court nominations three days from now..." Zhang Wuji sneered, turning to the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. "Go and dig up all the dirt on the officials under Zhuge Huaijin's faction! Even if it was just owing three taels of silver for drinking at a brothel years ago, I want it turned into ironclad evidence! At the court assembly in three days, I will make sure that every single candidate Zhuge Huaijin puts forward is utterly disgraced! We must secure eighty percent of the chief official positions! As long as the department heads are in our hands, no matter how many of their people pass the imperial examinations, they will all have to obediently do as we say!"

"Brilliant, Vice Grand Secretary!" Upon hearing this, the crowd felt a great sense of relief. They all accepted their orders and dispersed to carry them out.