On the first day of Fan Zhongyan's official appointment, he immediately handed Zhao Zhen a notebook, in which he denounced all kinds of drawbacks of the "grinding and surveying" system, so that talented people could not be promoted, and they could only work hard year after year, but let some old and mediocre people get high positions, which can be said to be the biggest drawback of the Great Song Dynasty officialdom and so on.

The wording on Fan Zhongyan's fold is very harsh, almost worthless, but in good conscience, the grinding survey still has a great role in the screening of officials, mainly to prevent officials from being promoted too quickly, so that people can find loopholes, cultivate their own henchmen, etc., and the grinding survey system will also put the appointment and dismissal of personnel into the hands of the emperor, which strengthens the emperor's control over officials, and when the Great Song Dynasty was established, it did help the emperor stabilize the situation in the court.

But this world is constantly changing, if anything does not adapt to this change, sooner or later it will be eliminated by this world, and the grinding system is one of them, it is now not only unable to play its original function, but has become a stumbling block that hinders the progress of the Great Song Dynasty, so it must be moved.

Fan Zhongyan's twist and turn hit a thousand waves with one stone, and soon caused another big shock in the court, although when the Inquisitionist Court was merged into the Ministry of Officials, they already had a premonition that the officialdom of the Great Song Dynasty was about to usher in a huge change, but they didn't expect this change to start with the system of official promotion, which is related to the future of all officials, so they naturally care more than anyone else.

Fan Zhongyan's denunciation of the grinding system also quickly caused a backlash, many officials began to angrily denounce Fan Zhongyan for being ashamed, and more officials even jointly impeached Fan Zhongyan, of course, there are also many officials who expressed support for Fan Zhongyan, such as Song Qi, Han Qi and others who wrote before, it is very interesting that most of the officials who oppose Fan Zhongyan are relatively old officials, and most of the people who support him are young officials.

Comparatively speaking, the seniority of the elderly officials who have endured for many years is naturally higher, and the voice of the official is louder, so at the beginning, the voice of opposition is far louder than the voice of support.

But Zhao Zhen quickly expressed his support for Fan Zhongyan against public opinion, and several important ministers such as Lu Yijian also began to express their stance at this time, and even Wang Zeng on the sickbed asked his son to write on his behalf, expressing his support for Fan Zhongyan's performance, and it was indeed time to change the grinding system.

With the statements of Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others, coupled with the support of Zhao Zhen, the holy decree that opened the reform of the officialdom of the Great Song Dynasty was also issued, and this holy decree was issued to Fan Zhongyan, so that he and the officials of the Ministry of Officials worked together to formulate a new law for the promotion of officials, and the promotion of officials is based on political performance and virtue, and officials with outstanding political performance and virtue can be given priority to be promoted, which also allows more young officials to have the hope of promotion, rather than working hard to improve their qualifications as before.

Two months later, after many revisions to the "examination course" system was finally formulated, the so-called examination course, in fact, the same as the grinding survey, is the former Tang Dynasty for the official assessment system, and even the two names are originally common, Fan Zhongyan They on the basis of the former Tang Dynasty examination course, and designed a more reasonable and complete official assessment system, in which Li Zhang also contributed a lot of strength, after all, he is familiar with the history of later generations, and also has a certain understanding of the assessment of officials.

The new examination system stipulates that every year the official department will evaluate each official, mainly to count the official's political performance, as well as the official's local prestige, personal conduct, age, and so on, and finally give a comprehensive evaluation, and every three years a big examination, that is, the performance of the official in three years to give appointment, dismissal, promotion, and so on, six years later, there is a re-examination, nine years there is a general examination, if two of the three major examinations are not qualified, then the official will be dismissed.

As soon as the examination system was announced, it immediately caused an uproar in the officialdom, although the examination system in many aspects refers to the grinding system, but it has increased the evaluation of officials' political performance, even if the official with outstanding political performance is young, but can also be given priority to promotion, on the contrary, if an official is very mediocre, it is very difficult to mix qualifications as before.

With the promulgation of the examination system, the entire officialdom quickly stabilized after the initial chaos, after all, there was strong pressure from Zhao Zhen and Lu Yijian and others, even if someone objected, it could not change the facts, so most people could only accept it helplessly.

However, no matter how good the law is, it also needs to be implemented to be effective, so with the promulgation of the examination system, Zhao Zhen once again ordered the restoration of the functions and powers of the imperial history platform, and the state capitals across the country set up a post to supervise the imperial history, mainly to supervise local officials, and every year the officials' political performance, conduct, etc. should be registered and reported to the imperial court, and then the officials will be graded according to the performance of officials in peacetime.

The Great Song Dynasty also had a royal history before, but most of them didn't care about their own duties, and the power of the imperial history was shared by the officials who gave the matter and the relics to the subordinates, and now the imperial history platform has resumed its powers, and the original giving and collecting the relics have also been transferred to the imperial history.

In addition to the above changes, Zhao Zhen also made a series of transfers to personnel appointments and dismissals, such as Han Qi entered the Privy Council as a deputy privy envoy, Fu Bi also entered the Privy Council, Du Yan went to Shangshu Province, Ouyang Xiu went to the Third Division, etc., these were arranged by Zhao Zhen a long time ago, and now everything is in order.

Han Qi and these people are all young Zhuang factions in the officialdom, and they also have the support of Zhao Zhen behind them, so after they enter the core of the Great Song Dynasty, they will soon be able to influence the direction of the Great Song Dynasty's policies, of course, now is not the time to use them, for Han Qi and these people, the most important thing now is to accumulate experience, and when they really grow up in the future, it is the time for them to show their talents.

With the passage of time, the reform of the officialdom of the Great Song Dynasty has become more and more in-depth, many official positions have been redivided, and the first batch of corrupt officials have been investigated and punished, so as to be held accountable in accordance with the law.

However, just when winter was just coming this year, a bad news suddenly came, Wang Zeng, who had been sick in bed for a long time, finally couldn't support it, and passed away quietly at night, but it is said that he left quite peacefully, and even his children thought he was asleep, until later when he found out that something was wrong, Wang Zeng had left quietly.

For Wang Zeng's death, Zhao Zhen was also very sad, especially when he thought that Liu E was so powerful that almost no one in the court dared to speak up for him except for Lu Daozong and Wang Zeng, but unfortunately Lu Daozong died many years ago, and Wang Zeng also left this year, which also made Zhao Zhen personally go to Wang Zeng's house to mourn under grief.

Li Zhang also sighed when he heard that Wang Zeng died, although he had been mentally prepared, but he still felt very sorry for Wang Zeng's death, thinking that when he and Wang Zeng met for the first time, the other party was already in power, but he was just a little relative who helped Liu E guard the emperor's village, but Wang Zeng still treated him politely, if it wasn't for the wrong time, maybe he might become Wang Zeng's son-in-law.

In addition to the above personal feelings, Wang Zeng's death is also a huge loss to the Great Song Dynasty, especially in the past, Wang Zeng's containment could also balance Lu Yijian's power, and now that Wang Zeng is gone, there is no one to balance Lu Yijian, although Lu Yijian is a smart person, but he has some flaws in his character, that is, he is too domineering, without Wang Zeng's containment, maybe the political affairs hall will become Lu Yijian's Yiyan Hall.

Wang Zeng's funeral was funded by the imperial court, and Zhao Zhen also invited Li Zhang to attend Wang Zeng's funeral on his behalf after mourning Wang Zeng, and Wang Zeng was also posthumously presented as a servant after his death, nicknamed "Wenzheng".

On this day, Zhao Zhen summoned Li Zhang to his imperial study, compared to the vertical arch hall, it is more private here, without Zhao Zhen's permission, even the Empress Dowager Li can't enter, and Zhao Zhen asked people to step back, then frowned and said to Li Zhang: "Cousin, Wang Xiang is gone, no one in the political hall can contain Lu Xiang anymore, I always feel a little unsteady in my heart?" ”

As soon as Li Zhang heard Zhao Zhen's words, he understood what he meant, and it seemed that he wanted to choose another person to contain Lu Yijian, but this candidate was a big problem, so he came to discuss with himself.