The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

After a moment's thought, Xie Yuzhen added, "Since Zeng Fu has been dismissed, there is a vacancy for this year's Xiaolian. I think Miss Zeng... should be called Miss Ai now. Miss Ai is very filial to her mother, so why not give this quota to her? What do you think, Your Majesty?"

Of course the emperor thought it was a good idea.

The couple sang the same tune and put Ai Suqiu on the list of filial and honest officials, who it was not known whether they would continue to exist after the reform. By now, the court officials had completely seen that the emperor and his wife were determined to allow women to serve as officials in the court.

Even if we don't count the foreign female officials who had existed in the past, from Jun Yuexin, to Lin Qiao, and then to Ai Suqiu, they all took the most upright path, rather than the nepotism that was easily criticized... Even if one wanted to stop it, one could only find excuses based on their gender.

But if they want to make trouble from this point, they have to first deal with the tough Queen Xie Yuzhen. Those who wanted to cause trouble for the Queen have all been executed. Even the officials who hate to see women in the court have to think about it first - is it really worthwhile to gamble their entire family's lives to fight Queen Xie and her followers?

There are still only a few people like the old Duke of England who are so cruel and crazy as to be willing to sacrifice their entire family for the sake of their ideal of "loyalty to the emperor".

So the question they had to think about became: Princess Yuyi, does she really have the opportunity and ability to sit on the most honorable position in the world?

The emperor is in his prime.

Princess Yuyi is still young, and the Queen is at a good age for women to give birth. Who knows, once she gives birth to a prince, she might naturally give up the idea of ​​forcing the princess to the throne?

Some court officials thought with a smile on their faces that outsiders did not know that Xie Yuzhen had used her skills to stop her menstruation, and at least she would not consider having a second child until Lu Weiyuan's position as crown prince was secure.

Even in every future deduced by the Lord God, she only had two daughters. Except for the eldest daughter who became the empress, the second daughter was born after the emperor passed away. Some unofficial histories even secretly said that the biological father of this daughter was not the emperor at all.

But these are all things for later.

The things that Xie Yuzhen wanted to do most at the moment - to promote reforms to the imperial examination and official selection system so that women could enter the court as officials through legitimate channels like men, and to further crack down on the opposition of the Xie Party in the imperial capital - have all been preliminarily achieved.

Next, it is time to start planning to establish roots in various prefectures outside Beijing...

Xie Yuzhen had his eyes on the candidates who had just experienced two imperial examinations. Those who had taken the exams twice and were still on the list under such harsh conditions were all top-notch in terms of knowledge, mentality, and physical fitness. And judging from the performance of everyone when the incident happened that day, several candidates had good intentions towards Lin Qiao, a woman. These candidates were all good talents who could be won over and contribute to his plan.

First, ask them to study in the Hanlin Academy for a period of time, and then carefully select them and assign them to the six ministries, or send them to serve as officials elsewhere.

This process may be a little long, but what Xie Yuzhen, who is not yet 26 years old this year, has the most is time. She has the patience and confidence to wait for the seeds of power she has sown to grow slowly.

After killing this batch, it is indeed time to slow down and spend more time with my daughter.

It's really different from Xie Wei's leisurely style.

Zeng Fu, who was taken out of his original cell and imprisoned with everyone in the Zeng family, kept talking about wanting to return to his original world.

As convicted officials and their families, the Zeng family members were assigned cells much worse than those of the scholars who were causing trouble.

Zeng Da, who had been sentenced to beheaded, was just hanging on to his last breath. He had been poisoned by Madam Zeng before, and before he could recover, he was arrested by the police from Jingzhao Prefecture and thrown into jail. Not only did he suffer half his death, but he had not been in jail for long before he was locked up in the lobby of Jingzhao Prefecture and confronted Ai Suqiu face to face.

At that time, Zeng Da could only stare with his eyes wide open, and kept cursing "rebellious daughter". However, he had only cursed for a few words when Ruan Xiang'e arrived with the decree of the emperor and empress. He saw that his rebellious daughter was not punished for suing him, her biological father, but was granted the grace to return to her mother's home, and even became an official...

Zeng Da spat out a mouthful of dirty blood on the spot, which made Ai Suqiu, who was covered in wounds beside him, look even more jubilant.

Although Lord Hu, the prefect of Jingzhao Prefecture, felt some sympathy for Ai Suqiu and specifically hinted to the runners who were beating her with the boards to go lighter, Ai Suqiu was still beaten to a pulp with a hundred boards. Fortunately, the runners who were beating her with the boards were all veterans, and the hundred boards only injured her flesh but not her bones. It looked horrible, but in fact, there was no damage to her foundation, and she would recover after a period of rest.

Zeng Da, who was dragged back to the cell from the lobby of Jingzhao Prefecture, was in a coma and seemed to be close to death. But he was an important prisoner after all, and before the execution, a doctor came to keep him alive.

When Mrs. Zeng saw her husband like this, she knew that her family was really doomed - she helped deal with the body after Da Ai's death, so she was regarded as an accomplice to the murder and was also sentenced to death.

After realizing her situation, Mrs. Zeng cursed everyone in the Zeng family, using extremely vicious words. At the end, she did not forget to tell Zeng Da that it was she who poisoned him, and before she poisoned him, she had given his only precious son a sterilization drug.

Zeng Fu, whose evil deeds were exposed, naturally denied them one after another. The family quarreled and made a fuss. In the end, the jailer, who was afraid that Zeng Da would be angry to death before the execution, could not bear it anymore, so he separated these people and imprisoned them, and the situation calmed down a little.

The jailer has no choice. If the person inside is not a criminal and his life and death are not related to his salary, he would not bother to care!

The doctor who was hired by Jingzhao Prefecture to keep prisoners alive came several times, cursing and swearing. The last time he came, he was followed by a young apprentice who looked quite young.

This apprentice was Fu Qingsu in disguise.

Thanks to the miraculous symbiotic relationship between her and Ai Suqiu, all of Ai Suqiu's injuries healed without medicine the moment she took over the body. After the two tried switching several times, they found that letting Fu Qingsu take charge of the body not only prevented her from being affected by the stick injuries, but also allowed Ai Suqiu's injuries to heal faster.

So these days the two of them pretended to be recuperating from their injuries, but in fact it was Fu Qingsu who was walking outside.

Today, they bribed the jailer and doctor of Jingzhao Prefecture after specifically asking Xie's mother if it was feasible. They wanted to see Zeng Fu again. After all, Fu Qingsu was different from the former. She couldn't treat human life as worthless after traveling through time. In her opinion, Zeng Fu was at least half a fellow villager of hers. Seeing him and providing him with some hospice care would also make her feel more at ease.