In the end, this empire is mine alone

At the same time.

In a simple and crude courtyard in the southern district of the capital.

Zhuge Huaijin sat upright before the Eight Immortals table. By the dim candlelight, he looked at the seven or eight simply dressed, solemn-faced officials before him. They were the backbone of the humble scholars in the imperial court, the upright faction who took the fate of the world as their own responsibility.

But at this moment, these upright officials, who were usually impassioned in the imperial court, all looked as if they had lost their parents.

"Lord Zhuge, why is His Majesty so heartless?" A young censor from the Chief Surveillance Bureau had red eyes, his voice carrying deep grievance. "To implement the new policies and establish the Taxation Bureau, how much pressure from the noble families have we withstood? Yet now, His Majesty refuses to put us in important positions, and instead wants to use those inexperienced provincial and county scholars!"

"Foolish!"

Zhuge Huaijin sharply cut him off. This leader of the humble scholars closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, his eyes were full of bitterness.

"Did you really think the Emperor ever trusted us? You are wrong! In the Emperor's eyes, the noble families are a tumor growing on the Great Zhou Empire, and we, the humble upright faction who have already formed a clique, are nothing but a disobedient scalpel. If the tumor is almost completely cut out, he will begin to wash the blood off the knife."

Zhuge Huaijin stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the pitch-black night outside.

"What the Emperor wants is a blank sheet of paper! A group of new bureaucrats who only know how to thank him for his imperial grace, who have no background ties, and who are absolutely loyal to him alone!"

He turned around, staring at his subordinates with a burning gaze.

"But this is also the only opportunity for us humble scholars to completely turn our lives around and crush the noble families!"

"Listen well, everyone. We are not sleeping tonight. Each of you will write a hundred letters and send them to the academies you once attended, to your classmates and juniors in your hometowns!"

"Tell them to sell their fields, sell their land, smash their pots and sell the iron—they must scrape together enough travel money to enter the capital! Those without money should pool their funds and walk together! As long as they pass the exam, even if it is only as a regular ninth-grade official, they can add to our strength!"

Zhuge Huaijin's speech grew faster and faster, a fanatical flame burning in his eyes.

"You must emphasize in the letters: this exam will absolutely not just test the Four Books and Five Classics, or romantic poetry! The Emperor lacks people who can actually do the work! Tell them to put aside those useless poems and songs! Go study water conservancy! Go study agriculture! Go study the Great Zhou Laws! Go study the local tax ledgers! Whoever can write policy essays that solve practical problems will catch the Emperor's eye!"

"As for the court recommendation in three days..." A cold sneer curled the corners of Zhuge Huaijin's mouth. "Zhang Wuji will inevitably release all his mad dogs to bite us. We will not compete with them in seniority or connections. We need to unite with those wavering neutral officials and promise them deputy positions in the new agencies! In addition, immediately mobilize the censors under you and prepare all the memorials regarding the noble families' corruption and land annexation over the years. During the court recommendation, if the noble families dare to snatch the chief positions of key government offices, we will offer remonstrance to the death in the court. At worst, the fish dies and the net breaks; no one will have a good time!"

"Understood!" The young officials, their blood ignited, cupped their hands in agreement and turned to rush into the night.

That night, above the capital, countless carrier pigeons took to the sky. Countless fast horses carrying urgent secret letters broke through the city gates, galloping madly in all directions of the Great Zhou Empire.

The noble families and the humble scholars, centering around the court recommendation and the national exam, began a bottomless life-and-death struggle. Amidst the surging undercurrents, the massive machinery of the entire Great Zhou Empire began to intensely grind and operate, all because of three casually issued imperial edicts from the Emperor.

...

Three days later, in Jiangnan, Jinling Prefecture.

Outside a dilapidated City God Temple, a notice stamped with a bright red seal had just been posted, and the surrounding area was already packed tightly with a dense crowd of scholars.

At the very front of the crowd, a middle-aged scholar in tattered clothes, in his early thirties but already with prematurely gray hair, stared fixedly at the writing on the notice. His body was as stiff as a rock, and even his breathing had stopped.

"...A new provincial exam has been added. All county scholars are eligible to take it. Those who pass will be granted an actual eighth-grade official position..."

He read the words in his heart one by one, as if he did not know how to read, terrified that he was hallucinating from hunger.

Behind him, countless impoverished scholars just like him were gaping, their eyes bulging out of their sockets.

The Great Zhou Empire had enjoyed a long period of peace, and the imperial examinations were like thousands of troops crossing a single-log bridge. Even if one passed the provincial exam, without silver to bribe the Ministry of Personnel, they could only hold a candidate title. They would have to wait three to five years at the shortest, or over a decade at the longest, sometimes dying before ever receiving an actual post! Not to mention county scholars like them, who had an even lower status. Aside from being private tutors in the countryside, they could not even touch the threshold of officialdom!

But now... the Emperor was actually giving out real posts directly? As long as they passed, regardless of their family background and without needing to give gifts, they could take office immediately?!

Thud!

The middle-aged scholar's legs gave way, and he fell heavily onto his knees on the muddy bluestone slab. His entire body trembled violently, and two streams of muddy tears burst forth like a broken dam, mixing with the dirt on his face.

"Vast is the imperial grace... vast is the imperial grace!"

Suddenly, like a madman, he beat the ground frantically with his hands and howled at the sky, his voice so hoarse it changed pitch. "The heavens have eyes! His Majesty is wise! I, Li Changgeng, have studied bitterly for fifteen years. Even when my parents died of illness, I did not dare sell those few tattered books... Finally, finally, I have endured until this day!"

"My studies were not in vain! His Majesty has not abandoned us!"

Following his wailing cry, it was as if some emotion had been detonated within the crowd.

"No more waiting as candidates! We do not have to act like subservient grandsons to those noble scions anymore!"

"Passing means a regular eighth-grade rank! We are saved!"

"This is an opportunity! A once-in-a-millennium opportunity! Even if I have to crawl, I will crawl into the examination hall!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Hundreds and thousands of scholars, whether they were white-haired old men or youths who had just come of age, fell to their knees in unison toward the direction of the capital, like wheat being mowed down.

They knocked their heads heavily against the hard stone slabs, completely oblivious even as their foreheads bled.

"Long live the Emperor! Long live!"

"A wise ruler has descended upon the world!"

Such a frenzied scene was currently taking place in every prefectural office, every county town, and every remote village across the thirty-six provinces of the Great Zhou Empire!

Countless lower-class intellectuals who had completely given up hope in the imperial court and were filled with resentment had their souls completely ignited by these three imperial edicts at this moment. The seeds of a corrupt and incompetent court that the noble families had once planted in their hearts were uprooted by the Emperor himself using real power and official caps! Replacing it was an almost religious fanaticism!

The news swept across the world like a storm.

...

Meanwhile.

Atop the highest corner tower of the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

The night wind howled, blowing Wang Hao's bright yellow dragon robe so that it fluttered wildly.

He stood with his hands behind his back, looking down from above at the massive, heavily guarded, yet undercurrent-filled imperial city. From beyond the distant palace walls, the faint but continuous shouts of Long live could still be heard. It was the destitute scholars in the capital kowtowing toward the imperial city.

Behind him, Commander of the Imperial Guards Pei Jingzhe knelt on one knee: "Reporting to Your Majesty, noble families such as the Zhang and Wang clans dispatched thirteen consecutive urgent expresses last night, mobilizing all their clan resources to prepare for the exams. At the same time, merchant houses across the lands have received secret orders to tighten their silver lending to scholars from humble backgrounds. The pure-stream faction led by Zhuge Huaijin is not to be outdone; they are currently networking with neutral officials, preparing to fight to the bitter end against the noble families in today's court recommendation."

Wang Hao listened to the report, his deep eyes showing not the slightest ripple of emotion.

"Networking? Fighting to the bitter end? Buying out inns? Cutting off travel funds?"

Wang Hao sneered in his heart.

"Zhang Wuji, Zhuge Huaijin, do you really think this imperial examination reform is as simple as just recruiting a few more people?"

"Do you truly believe that I let you fight until your heads bleed in the court recommendation just to balance the power between your two factions?"

Wang Hao reached out his slender right hand and slowly clenched it into a fist, as if grasping the entire world in the palm of his hand.

"Let them fight like dogs. The more they scramble for the positions in the court recommendation, the more thoroughly they will expose themselves as the enemies of all the newly minted scholars. When those 'Great Zhou civil servants', who have passed the exams through My grace and after enduring untold hardships, enter the government offices, they will be faced with these aloof, scheming noble officials and the sly old foxes from humble backgrounds..."

Wang Hao turned around, a cold glint bursting from his eyes. His voice was so light it sounded like a murmur, yet it carried the domineering aura of one who controls life and death:

"The clash between the old and the new will inevitably be as incompatible as fire and water. The old bureaucratic clique has rotted to the core. Therefore, I will personally select a batch of 'new Great Zhou civil servants' through the imperial exams—people with no foundation, who entrust solely their lives and loyalty to Me."

"I do not need them to be extremely clever. I only need them to be My sharpest knives, to carve the flesh off those noble families and strip the skin off those pure-stream officials, cut by cut!"

"This world of the Great Zhou..."

Wang Hao flicked his sleeve forcefully, his gaze piercing through the night sky to look directly at the endless empire.

"...is ultimately My world alone!"