The Empress remarried, and I retaliated by wiping out the court.

Ye Wudao sat on the dragon throne and said calmly:

"Since you are unwilling to continue, then so be it. I will not force you. It's not that I'm not allowing you to resume your official positions; it's that you yourselves are unwilling!"

Xiao Linyuan remained silent: "..."

A terrible thought popped into his mind.

Could it be that Ye Wudao did this on purpose from the very beginning?

When the officials resigned, Ye Wudao not only did not stop them, but also took the opportunity to have them sign the "Letter of Resignation Without Regret".

At that time, everyone thought that Ye Wudao was forced into a corner and had no choice but to use a contract to save face. But looking back now... that's not the case at all!

Ye Wudao had no intention of stopping them at all; in fact, he was eager for them to resign and then wait for them to come back on their own!

It turns out that Ye Wudao had been planning this day since then!

Xiao Linyuan seemed to have lost all his strength, and roared angrily:

"read!"

"Read them all to me!"

The ministers turned pale.

After a long while, Wu Qingxun finally gritted his teeth and stepped forward.

"I'll do it!"

He took his "Letter of Resignation Without Regret," took a deep breath, and gritted his teeth as he read:

"Your subject Wu Qingxun's child was born without eyes, his wife ran off with another man... and his body was gnawed on by wild dogs..."

By the end, Wu Qingxun's face had turned a deep purplish-red.

"Pfft!"

Ye Wudao couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Minister Wu, are you really ruthless to yourself? Hey, I heard you have a wife and son. I wonder if you swore a solemn oath, will your wife run off with someone else, and will your son have a birth defect?"

Wu Qingxun angrily tore the contract to shreds and slammed it to the ground.

He angrily retorted, "Don't push your luck!"

Ye Wudao raised an eyebrow: "Minister Wu, that's not quite right. You were the one who made that oath, and you broke your promise and went back on your word, yet you're blaming me for it?"

"you……"

Wu Qingxun was speechless.

Ye Wudao looked at the other ministers: "Who's next?"

An extremely eerie atmosphere descended upon the Golden Palace, and no one was willing to step forward.

After all, no one wants to read aloud the oath they once wrote in front of so many people.

Ye Wudao was not in a hurry. He simply sat on the dragon throne and looked at everyone with a smile.

"Nobody's willing?"

"Then forget it. I don't necessarily need you all to come back."

Upon hearing this, Fang Xiaoyi, the former Minister of Personnel, immediately changed his expression.

"I'll do it!"

He picked up the contract and took a deep breath.

"I voluntarily resign and return to my hometown. If I later regret my decision and wish to return to office, then..."

He suddenly stopped reading at this point.

Ye Wudao: "Continue."

Fang Xiao gritted his teeth: "Then... he gave birth to a son who was born without eyes!"

"puff!"

This time, Chen Anyan and his group couldn't hold back any longer and burst out laughing.

Su Wensheng, who was standing next to him, immediately turned his head away, his shoulders trembling violently, clearly struggling to suppress his laughter.

Fang Xiao's face turned ashen: "What are you laughing at!"

Su Wensheng immediately regained his seriousness: "No, I just... suddenly remembered something sad."

Fang Xiaochun: "..."

Soon, in an eerie silence, the officials finished reading the nightmarish "Letter of Resignation Without Regret".

Of course, there are many exceptions.

"puff!"

Fan Yuanshan, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, who was over sixty years old, spat out a mouthful of blood halfway through his reading and fell straight backward.

"Lord Fan!"

The officials next to him quickly helped him up. Fan Yuanshan was pale and his chest was heaving violently.

He pointed to the contract in his hand, his fingers trembling.

"This is outrageous!"

"I... I'm resigning from this official position!"

After saying that, he ripped off his official hat and turned to leave.

"Lord Fan!"

Someone shouted hurriedly.

Fan Yuanshan didn't even turn his head.

"I have studied diligently for thirty years and served in officialdom for forty years, rising step by step from a minor seventh-rank official to where I am today!"

"I would rather die than suffer such humiliation! I'd rather not take this official position!"

Followed by.

"I'm quitting too!"

Zhou Xiaoming, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, suddenly stood up and tore the contract in his hand to shreds, sending pieces of paper flying everywhere.

"In my thirty-seven years as an official, I have never seen anything so humiliating to my court officials!"

"If we sign this agreement today, how will we ever have the face to stand in court again?"

Others followed suit.

"I quit too!"

"I resign from my official post!"

"It's better to quit this official position!"

"This is outrageous!"

One by one.

In just a short while, more than twenty officials had stepped forward.

Some tore up the contracts, some took off their official hats, and the whole hall was in chaos.

Ye Wudao watched quietly, his heart already bursting with joy.

From the very beginning, he never expected that the students of the Imperial Academy he had appointed could truly replace the officials of the Six Ministries.

Cai Jijiu is right. These students of the Imperial Academy are too inexperienced, lacking both ability and vision, and are not capable of winning people's respect.

Ye Wudao knew this from the beginning. He took advantage of these officials' pride and arrogance to force them to resign, and then he could arrange for his own people to take their place!

Only after the last official bowed and left did Ye Wudao speak calmly.

"Is there anything else?"

The entire court was deathly silent; no one spoke.

Ye Wudao nodded. "Since there are none left, issue my decree: all those who wish to resign are permitted to do so!"

"Su Wensheng!"

"Your subject is here."

"Since Fan Yuanshan, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, has resigned, you will take his place."

Su Wensheng cupped his hands and said, "Your subject obeys the decree."

Ye Wudao continued, "Zhao Wenqian, the position of Minister of Rites is vacant. Effective immediately, you will be the new Minister of Rites."

"Chen Kangsheng was appointed as the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites..."

"Pan Anjie was appointed as a secretary in the Ministry of Works..."

In a very short moment.

Ye Wudao appointed twenty-five new officials in one go.

Some of these people entered the Six Ministries, some entered the Censorate, some entered the Court of Judicial Review, and some were directly placed in various key government departments.

Without exception, they were all young people selected by Ye Wudao from the Imperial Academy. They thought it was just a formality, but they never expected that Ye Wudao would actually promote them to the mainstay of the court!

Li Juzheng's expression grew increasingly grim.

A total of twenty-five people!

Ye Wudao was no longer simply adding officials; he was practically flipping the table!

What's even more frightening is that these twenty-five people are distributed among the Six Ministries, the Nine Ministers, and various key positions.

From this day forward, Ye Wudao now possesses his own network within the imperial court!

Li Juzheng stared intently at the young emperor on the dragon throne, and suddenly felt a chill.

From the moment Ye Wudao made all the officials sign the "Letter of Resignation Without Regret," he had been waiting for this day!

This emperor had long anticipated their return.

First, they used the cold weather to deter officials who were physically exhausted, and then they used a "Letter of Resignation Without Regret" to persuade those officials who were too thin-skinned to leave.

In this back-and-forth, Ye Wudao effectively drove twenty-five nails into the court, which was filled with their cronies!

We lost!

They were utterly defeated in this battle!