No one knew Zhao Mingming was the Crown Princess, but as her friends, they all knew she was very talented and ambitious.

Like-minded people agreed to take the national examination together.

Those recognized by Zhao Mingming naturally had considerable ability. This was precisely the era of a hundred schools of thought contending, so they naturally wanted to achieve something in their official careers. Therefore, after receiving her invitation, they thought briefly and agreed.

Those who needed leave requested it, those who needed to resign did so, and those who needed to pack their belongings packed them. Everyone headed toward Luoyang from all directions.

When everyone met up in Luoyang, Zhao Mingming generously provided a large house to accommodate them.

Those who moved in looked amazed and asked: “How much does it cost to rent this house for a month? We haven’t seen each other for two years—have you become this wealthy?”

Zhao Mingming didn’t mention this was one of her estates, saying instead: “I went into battle several times and gained some spoils of war. Plus I’ve been saving my salary, so I have enough money to rent a house. Feel free to stay without worry.”

Only then did her friends remember to ask, “You’re already an adjutant general and could clearly take the military path. Why would you change course and return to the capital to take the national examination?”

Zhao Mingming replied: “The Kou Manhan kingdom has submitted, and Great Hua is strong. There won’t be any more warfare in the short term. Advancing through military merit is now impossible—one can only rely on training troops, improving military equipment, competing in military contests, or advancing through seniority. I can’t wait that long.”

Moreover, the military was currently undergoing reform.

After the new dynasty was established, there had been frequent conflicts. Over more than ten years of fighting intermittently, the Hua kingdom had recovered all the previously divided territories and even pushed the borders outward.

To ensure the army had no worries when going on campaign and could better settle wounded, disabled, and retired veterans, Zhao Hanzhang had placed many state-owned workshops under military control.

However, in recent years, as various ethnic groups and regions lived harmoniously due to admiration of the nation’s strength, with few military conflicts, various problems in the army became apparent.

The workshops originally meant to settle wounded, disabled, and retired veterans had their profits occupied by military commanders and children of military families. Zhao Hanzhang then began reforming this.

These people had all followed her mother through life-and-death battles. She could already foresee the results of military reform. Although it could be carried out, it would definitely be time-consuming and laborious, with results far inferior to civilian reforms.

She was precisely at the age of fulfilling her ambitions—how could she have the patience to slowly grind away at this with them?

So she still chose to start with civil reform. The reform plan she had once discussed with Fan Lianyin and Zu Daozhong was about to be implemented.

Over the past five years, Zhao Hanzhang had already taken the first step, beginning tax reform.

She incorporated the poll tax into land rent and field taxes, with the main taxes paid in silver currency. The entire country had been busy and bustling for three years before finally stabilizing.

These two years were a consolidation period. Zhao Hanzhang was checking for gaps and filling them, not undertaking new reform projects.

Before returning to the capital, mother and daughter had communicated. The reform plan to abolish corvée labor would be handed over to Zhao Mingming to implement.

Because corvée labor was related not only to population but also to land and property, this could be used as an opportunity to verify population and land acreage again—a continuation of the new tax reform.

If Zhao Mingming could do this well, it would prove she had the ability to handle things independently, and Zhao Hanzhang could consider delegating power to her. If not, Zhao Hanzhang would still need to continue training her and cleaning up after her.

When the Crown Princess returned from her training, the court became as lively as water dropped into a pot of oil, crackling with activity. The already quite active court suddenly became excessively active.

Zhao Hanzhang looked at her ministers with flushed faces and bright, excited eyes, very worried about their physical condition.

So excited—be careful of high blood pressure!

The first task assigned to Zhao Mingming upon her return to the capital was being appointed as chief examiner for the civil service recruitment examination, concurrently serving as Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

This gave her the power to select officials, allowing her to choose talents she favored from this national examination.

Zhao Mingming had been thinking these past years about how to select talents who could cooperate with her reforms. She had long since thought up the examination questions, and no one knew them except her.

Oh, perhaps Fan Lianyin and Zu Daozhong, who had been by her side all along, might be able to guess some of them. After all, they knew her objectives.

But neither of them could participate in this year’s national examination.

Since this poor Daoist had already fallen, naturally the fellow Daoists couldn’t benefit either. So they didn’t say anything outwardly, silently watching their friends enter the examination hall in complete ignorance.

After this national examination ended, examinees emerged from the examination hall with lifeless expressions: “Why were the policy essays so difficult this year?”

“Ruined, ruined, I’ve ruined an entire test paper. Was this examination really set by the Crown Princess?”

“Why are the questions set by a young person so difficult?”

“Precisely because she’s young, she dares to set such questions. She directly asked us to discuss Her Majesty’s new policies.”

But if the Crown Princess dared to ask directly, they also had to dare to answer directly!

If they said everything was good, it would seem to lack originality and would be hard to stand out. If they said it wasn’t good, wasn’t that contradicting the Emperor?

The best approach was to say it was good while also finding flaws in the new policies, or being able to propose some continuing reforms.

But how many examinees had such insight?

Which of the court officials wasn’t smarter than them? Who didn’t have greater vision than them?

Most examinees were dejected, feeling they had failed this examination.

But there were also some confident people who felt this examination question was exactly what they wanted to express. They had been watching the new policy reforms of the past five years.

The new policies were naturally good, but when implemented locally, there were always various problems.

The Emperor resided in the capital and probably didn’t know about the chaos below, still thinking the new policies were flawless. Now let them tell her about the actual state of the new policies in local areas.

The court, which had been trending toward calm, became lively again because of the new policies.

After handling government affairs, Zhao Hanzhang also came to join the excitement. She casually picked up an examination paper and saw that half of the policy essay section was blank, while the written portion was mostly flattering her. She glanced at the answers to other sections, found that the other parts were answered quite well, then casually tossed it aside. She flipped through other papers and asked: “Are there any good papers?”

Zhao Mingming eagerly brought over several papers: “Mother, look at these.”

Zhao Hanzhang took them and read carefully.

Some obliquely criticized her new policies as wasteful and burdensome to the people, while others openly praised the new policies and then gave some practical suggestions.

She read them all carefully.

“Those criticizing me say that because the people must pay taxes in silver currency, they need to sell grain and cloth to merchants to obtain silver to pay taxes. In some places, grain and cloth prices are depressed very low every summer and autumn harvest time. Whether the harvest is good or poor, the people suffer.”

“Clearly, the court’s work in stabilizing prices is still inadequate,” Zhao Hanzhang asked Zhao Mingming: “How should this matter be resolved?”

“First, order local county offices to set minimum grain and cloth prices during summer and autumn harvests, purchasing grain and cloth with government funds to stabilize prices. Second, strengthen supervision and severely punish merchants who manipulate or forcibly depress prices.”

After pausing, Zhao Mingming said: “Your Majesty, I suggest the court organize censorate inspection teams to tour local granaries, ensuring granaries are well-stocked and examining local granary account books.”

Hearing this, Zhao Hanzhang laughed heartily: “That you can think of inspecting granaries shows your years of training outside weren’t wasted.”

Correct—when problems appeared in price stabilization, one must inspect the granaries. What use was just watching the county offices?

If the grain in the granaries and the account books were fine, how could the common people’s grain fail to fetch a good price?

Local granaries had to rotate old stock for new every year.

Zhao Hanzhang said: “I’ve heard that Fan Lianyin’s mathematics is even better than her mother’s. Since returning to the capital, she’s been idle at home. Now that you’re Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, let’s leave this matter to you to handle.”

Zhao Mingming’s lips curved upward. She lowered her head in acknowledgment, then sought an official position for her other companion: “Your Majesty, there’s also Zu Daozhong. Censorate inspections are dangerous—who knows when they might encounter bandits and brigands.”

Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze darkened. She nodded: “Very well. Appoint Zu Daozhong as Imperial Guard Lieutenant and order him to assist the Ministry of Revenue and the Censorate.”

Fan Lianyin was hired as Department Director of the Ministry of Revenue to assist Zhao Mingming.

Fan Ying also came under Zhao Mingming’s command. For this inspection tour, she assigned several capable censors to specifically assist Zhao Mingming.

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