The quota for the imperial examination was handed over to the emperor. This time, Xiao Li asked Song Junzhan to arrange two rounds of screening in advance. There were tens of thousands of people who registered, but just like the literati in Yizhou, there were a lot of inflated people. In the end, there were only a thousand people left.

Xiao Li is not so eager for talent now, so she doesn't care much about how many outstanding talents there are. The only thing she wants to know is how many women there are.

The people in the court could more or less guess what the empress was thinking, so they specifically pointed out the quota for women.

This time, Wang Yizhuo is no longer the only one crossing the single-plank bridge.

In addition to Wang Wanqing, the name Xiao Li clicked on, there were twenty other women's names.

The older one is thirty-seven, and the younger one is the same age as Wang Wanqing, only in his early twenties.

Looking through their resumes, they came from merchant families, declining aristocratic families, and scholarly families. They had all been married before, some had lost their fathers, some had divorced, and of course, there were also some whose families were still relatively harmonious, like Qiao Ruyan.

Xiao Li looked through the final review of the information, and at the top was Song Junzhan's name. These people were all reviewed and submitted by him.

Just at this moment Song Junzhan walked in.

"His Majesty."

His eyes fell on the list in her hand, and he instantly understood what she was looking at. "This year, a total of 130 women registered. I personally screened them without favoritism or suppression, achieving absolute fairness. In the end, only these 20 were selected."

He knew that the empress wanted women to serve as officials, but he understood His Majesty, and the prerequisites for women to serve as officials must be ability, wisdom and perseverance.

The empress took care of women, but her court did not keep useless people.

She allowed men and women to sit together in the court, not to suppress men, but to strengthen the backbone of women.

So he gave these women fairness and allowed them to reach the end based on their own abilities.

Xiao Li did not doubt him, closed the list and asked casually.

"When you were obsessed with the imperial examination, did you ever think that women could also take the imperial examination and enter the court?"

Song Junzhan said bluntly: "No."

His eyes fell on Xiao Li: "Just like I didn't expect that the monarch I would eventually serve would be a female emperor."

When he realized Xiao Li's identity, he thought of asking the princess to help persuade the previous emperor, and never thought that the princess could also become the emperor.

But Xiao Li made everything impossible possible.

He accepted Xiao Li as emperor because of her strength. Similarly, if a woman is capable, why can't she serve as an official in the court?

Of course, Xiao Li being the emperor is the only and necessary prerequisite. If he had not been convinced by the shock she gave him, he would not have had such an idea.

Compared to these, it is actually normal for him to have feelings for the empress.

She is so strong and beautiful. He has followed her until now, admiring her, being impressed and surrendering to her. He wants to give her everything. It would be strange if he didn't have any feelings for her.

His gentle gaze fell on Xiao Li, and beneath his calm eyes lay an extremely turbulent emotion.

Now that he is in this position, trusted by Her Majesty, by Her Majesty's side, and together with her, he will establish a new dynasty and leave his mark in history. In fact, he is already very, very lucky.

But human hearts are always greedy. As long as they see a little possibility, their greed will grow like weeds, devouring their rationality at all times.

------

When the imperial examination begins, none of the six ministers can slack off and must all come out to mark the papers.

It is still the previous system, where the papers are graded and screened in public, so cheating is impossible, there is no missing questions, and it is absolutely fair and just.

Although the process took three days, it took three months in total.

When the final results came out, there were two women in the top ten, ten women in the top one hundred, and the lowest ranking of the remaining nine was within three hundred, so they were all kept.

The top ten were ultimately chosen through blind voting.

Finally, the first place was chosen, and the moment the name was revealed, Xiao Li smiled.

"First place, Wang Wanqing!"

In the crowd, Wang Wanqing was escorted out by everyone and bowed with confidence.

"Your Majesty, I am Wang Wanqing. I pay my respects to you." Although she tried her best to restrain herself and appear composed, the upward curve of her lips was hard to suppress.

She finally stood before His Majesty with dignity.

The Empress raised her hand: "Stand up."

Xiao Li had selfish motives, but did not show favoritism. Wang Wanqing finally grew up to be the person she expected.

"Second place, Jiang Zhou!"

Jiang Zhou grinned and stepped forward to salute.

"Your Majesty, I, Jiang Zhou, pay my respects to you."

Although he had fewer votes than the female devil, the difference was not too big. In the future, Jiang Zhou would be able to bring honor to his family.

He didn't choose to be an official, but after serving as an official for the empress for a while, he became addicted to it.

For the sake of his not-so-good dad and that crazy brother who is nowhere to be found, he will definitely become this official!

"Third place, Xin Yuan!"

"Fourth place, Li Yunhao!"

......

"Tenth place, Qiao Ruyan!"

According to the previous rules, the rankings were announced, and they were paraded through the streets on horseback before entering the Golden Palace to be conferred titles.

Wang Wanqing was the top scholar in the imperial examination, which was originally a sixth-rank official position, but because of his previous achievements, his initial official position was fifth-rank.

Jiang Zhou also made contributions before and was promoted to the sixth rank.

Although he was previously appointed as the acting Langzhong of the Ministry of Rites, the acting official position was different from the current one. It seemed to be a demotion, but in fact it was a promotion.

The third was the previous seventh-rank editor, and the rest were granted seventh-rank official positions according to previous rules.

Then training is of course essential, and the rest of the people are all rolled up according to the previous rules.

There is no need for Xiao Li to take action this time. No one understands training and is better at squeezing than the officials in the court.

A group of 'old' officials looked at the young new officials with such loving smiles.

Welcome to the DPRK, let's roll up together.

Let you also taste the suffocating feeling given by the empress, and experience the despair of being on a pirate ship but unable to get off.

Except for Wang Wanqing who was already there and Jiang Zhou who knew a little about the situation, the others didn't know that their nightmare was about to begin.

Of course, before being turned into cattle and horses in the officialdom, they could still enjoy the empress's banquet in comfort.

At the top is the empress, followed by officials of the third rank and above. The top ten have the opportunity to sit with a group of bigwigs, and the rest are ranked at the back according to their ranking.

With the existence of Wang Yizhuo, Wang Wanqing and Qiao Ruyan are not so special.

Wang Wanqing has always been by the side of the empress and has been rotated among the six ministries before. Her abilities are obvious to all. To be honest, it is not surprising at all that Wang Wanqing can become the top scholar.

They had long witnessed Wang Wanqing's abilities, and they also tacitly accepted that Wang Wanqing was destined to serve in the same court as them. It was at most a matter of rank.

Although Qiao Ruyan came from far away, her husband Han Bin came from the Empress and Princess's Mansion, so he could be considered a semi-acquaintance.

In addition, Qiao Ruyan is indeed capable, so there is naturally nothing wrong with her.

Today, there will no longer be any talk in the court about hens crowing at dawn or women serving as officials being against the will of heaven.

This is the benefit of Xiao Li's killing his way through the court and reshaping Chao Gang.

Without those stubborn, greedy and pedantic old folks, young people would be much more receptive.