That was right. Ever since Chen Xun had watched Wang Yue manage Taishan Commandery with effortless ease, he'd become an ardent admirer of him.
So, leaving Chen Xun in charge was perfectly safe. He could follow the previous administration's policies without making a mess of the plans Wang Yue had already put in place.
With the eighty thousand elite troops Wang Yue had brought from Taishan Commandery, and with veterans Wang Ping and Wang An, who had both served in the Qingzhou Army, it hadn't taken Wang Yue long to bring the army under his control.
Once he had command of the troops, Wang Yue wasted no time implementing his equal land and tax plan. First, he traded generous commercial quotas for the land held by the powerful families, then divided the land equally among the people.
At the same time, Qingzhou continued taking in large numbers of refugees. It provided them with food in exchange for their labor, putting the idle refugees to work under Wang Yue's agricultural corps on irrigation projects, bridges, and roads.
With grain constantly arriving from Yangzhou, Qingzhou was able to keep taking in refugees to help build its infrastructure.
Wang Yue had also promised that any refugee who worked for a full year would receive land according to the same standards as Qingzhou's residents.
After hearing that promise and seeing Qingzhou's people receiving their own plots, the refugees finally had something to hope for. They threw themselves into their work with enthusiasm.
Of course, some people were lazy and greedy. Wang Yue never indulged them. He simply expelled them and sent their portraits to every county in Qingzhou, barring such refugees from entering.
That measure quickly put the idlers in their place. They no longer dared slack off at work.
As for the more