Lately, Pan Long had been puzzled by something.
Where did the constables of Donghua County get the nerve to twist the Imperial Court's orders?
The core of Di Luonan's Reform was to investigate the assets of the various powers across Great Xia, then weaken them selectively to consolidate wealth and power. Every policy revolved around that goal, either to safeguard it or to be carried out after it was complete.
It was no exaggeration to say that the success of the entire Reform hinged on this task. If it faltered at the outset, then even if Di Luonan produced enough evidence to leave the ministers speechless, it would all be for nothing.
...He could hardly go through Great Xia persuading one county after another.
Pan Long actually thought that if Di Luonan really did debate and persuade each county before carrying out the Reform, it might not be a bad approach. It would certainly take a long time, but at least things would be less likely to go wrong.
Di Luonan clearly had no wish to spend that much time, though, and neither did the emperor of Great Xia.
Starting with trials in Xia Province and Qing Province before gradually extending the Reform to all Nine Provinces of Great Xia was already the result of the ministers' hard-won efforts.
What they were doing now was the preliminary work: verifying assets.
Only by learning the true holdings of Great Xia's various powers could they take aim and truly begin the Reform.
Yet in Donghua County alone, the constables were brazenly twisting the Imperial Court's orders. When assessing the common people's assets, they haggled over every last coin and valued everything as high as they could. When assessing the great houses... oh, there was no "assessment of the great houses" at all.