Seeing that Wang Yue had the common people in mind, Xu Xiao smiled and said, "Then Your Majesty had better hurry. I'm afraid I won't be able to keep fighting much longer. I may have to watch you take the world without me."
Wang Yue already had everything planned out. He said happily, "Since Chen Zhibao led his men away from Northern Liang, Fengnian has more or less taken control of the whole region. With him guarding against Northern Mang, there's no need to rush the other matters."
Hearing Wang Yue say this, Xu Xiao felt relieved. He said happily, "Knowing you won't hold it against Fengnian puts my mind at ease. Don't worry. As long as his mother and I are still living in Northern Liang, Fengnian won't let Northern Mang march south through any of its passes."
Seeing how readily Xu Xiao agreed, leaving himself no way to back out, Wang Yue nodded with satisfaction. "In that case, please have Fengnian carry out an equal-field tax reform in Northern Liang."
Xu Xiao was speechless. Wang Yue had singled out Xu Fengnian because he wanted Xu Fengnian himself to deal with Northern Liang's powerful families, sparing Wang Yue from making enemies of them.
Still, following Xia's example would benefit all the people and soldiers of Northern Liang, so Xu Xiao had no objections.
Besides, the state treasury would compensate them with silver later. All they had to do was stop officials from exploiting the people. Xu Xiao thought Wang Yue was already being more than fair; asking for anything more would be insatiable greed.
So he nodded. "Don't worry. I'll go with Fengnian."
There wasn't much farmland in Northern Liang, so this wouldn't be much trouble for Xu Xiao. It was simply a matter of how large the pastures