Only three seconds? He's already the Lord of All Realms, so it doesn't matter.

Upon entering Tianshui City, Liu Xiu looked at the three armies that had been marching hastily for several days, and everyone's faces showed signs of exhaustion. He decided to rest temporarily in the city.

Meanwhile, Tianshui County was the first county the new National Army arrived in, and Ye Xuan also intended to use Tianshui City as a central point to implement reforms in the surrounding counties.

He called Liu Xiu to his side and explained to him the key points of "reform"—

"The core of the reform lies not only in overthrowing the many old systems of the previous dynasty, but also in another crucial aspect."

The foundation for resource coordination and redistribution within Chang'an City was to replenish the official treasury by confiscating funds from local powerful families.

Only by doing this can we have sufficient material and financial resources to support the previous theories.

Liu Xiu listened attentively. Since entering Chang'an, he had mainly been responsible for and involved in the reform of systems and regulations, and he obviously did not know much about what the Immortal Venerable had said about confiscating powerful and aristocratic families.

"Wise rulers and virtuous ministers throughout history have all considered this... Xiu dares not presume before the Immortal Venerable."

Liu Xiu's biggest worry was that he might not be able to control the balance in this matter.

As he said, emperors and powerful ministers throughout history have tried similar resource integration, but faced with the risk of potentially shaking the foundations of local rule, they ultimately hesitated and made poor results.

Mortals are mortals after all, unlike the Celestial Immortals who, though confined to a small space, can know everything under heaven.

If powerful local families express dissatisfaction with the reforms and secretly gather their strength, it will cause great trouble for the region.

More seriously, if many local powerful families act in this way, it will lead to division and separatism.

Like in Chang'an back then, in the early stages of the reform, several local powerful families secretly conspired, but Ye Xuan suppressed them with the Heavenly Dao.

Looking at Liu Xiu, who was new to this field, he couldn't help but think of Wang Mang, who had followed him all the way, and said to him:

"This matter needs to be handled by you. You may act boldly without fear. I will observe how things develop from the prefectural government."

Upon hearing this, Liu Xiu was overjoyed. What more could be said?

With a celestial being overseeing things behind the scenes, I can just go for it!

So the next morning, Liu Xiu ordered Liu Chuan to summon all the powerful local magnates and landlords in the city to the prefectural government for a gathering.

Below the main hall of the prefectural government, looking at Liu Xiu, the commander-in-chief of an army of over 200,000 men, these landlords probably all knew why they had been gathered together.

The reforms in the capital city of Chang'an had been known throughout the land since the First Battle of Chang'an.

The landlords who were reformed didn't care, but they were naturally unwilling to put their own money into the government coffers.

"May I ask why General Liu has summoned us here?"

One of them pretended to be confused first, but Liu Xiu merely glanced at him and said:

"You're Yang Guangzhi, the head of the Yang family who's in charge of the cloth business in the city, right?"

When Liu Xiu addressed him by his full name, Yang Guangzhi broke out in a cold sweat, and the other landlords were ashen-faced; it seemed there was no way to fool them.

"Yes, General, this is Yang Guangzhi..."

Yang Guangzhi was now cursing himself inwardly for speaking out first, which had made him the target of everyone's scorn.

Liu Xiu didn't care about any of that. He said:

"You have all heard about the reforms in our capital, haven't you?"

Now that Tianshui County has returned to the new kingdom, it should discard the old ideas of the previous dynasty and follow the new laws.

What is the new law? It forbids anyone from owning slaves, guarantees equality for all, and prohibits the existence of powerful landlords!

Of course, the new country's legal code has a better saying: "When poor, one should cultivate one's own virtue; when successful, one should benefit all under heaven."

Do any of you have any objections to this?

After Liu Xiu finished speaking, he saw that no one in the hall dared to speak. He then pointed out the head of the Cai family, who was in charge of the city's pharmaceutical business.

"Cai Yuanzhen, what do you think? If there are no objections, let's start with your family, starting today."

Cai Yuanzhen was stunned. He thought to himself, "Wasn't it the Yang family who stepped forward just now? Why is it my turn first?"

He quickly replied, "No objection, no..."

"My family runs a pharmacy business in the city, and we should naturally have the heart of a healer."

Regarding the general and the immortal's proposal to save the world, I, Cai, am willing to fully support it!

Seeing that he was so sensible, Liu Xiu disregarded whether he had any ulterior motives and immediately praised him:

"Good! What a compassionate doctor! Seeing how decisive Patriarch Cai is, why don't you all give your dues now?"

The group of landlords below the hall looked as if they had eaten a dead centipede, desperately trying to hide their gnashing teeth.

"Yes, we are willing to support the General and the Immortal Venerable, and support the reform in the city."

Liu Xiu was quite satisfied and dismissed the group of landlords. The confiscation of their property would begin the following day.

He sent people to the mansions of major landowners to reclaim their surplus fertile land and grain, as well as a large number of slaves and servants.

Like the people in the city, each household received land according to the number of people, leaving behind only some family property passed down from their ancestors, such as mansions.

At the same time, taxes on these landlords' properties were increased... In just two days, the major landlords in Tianshui City, apart from their ancestral mansions, were practically extinct.

However, Ye Xuan, who was observing the changes in the entire Tianshui City, saw that these landlords were only superficially flattering him, while secretly acting against his wishes.

On the eve of the seizure operation, everyone gathered at the Yang family mansion and discussed it extensively.

"What kind of nonsense is this? How can our large family possibly feed ourselves on just a few acres of land!"

They had long harbored resentment, but dared not speak out because of the more than 200,000 New National Army troops stationed outside the city.

Yang Guangzhi suddenly proposed:

"My lords, I have a plan."

Several people brushed the ground and turned to Yang Guangzhi, "Oh?"

Yang Guangzhi, with his large, fat face jiggling, squinted and said:

"You may wish to consider this: the new National Army has more than 200,000 men, yet for the past few days they have been encamped outside my Tianshui City."

They set out from Chang'an, and with such a battle line, the army relied entirely on surplus grain supplies from the counties and towns they passed through…

Having said that, everyone understood and smiled at each other.

They momentarily forgot that the intention of this new army was not limited to Tianshui County; they would continue their march into the Qiang region in the future.

If we simply make a false report and secretly hide some land and servants, then bring them back to the army after they withdraw from Tianshui County, wouldn't that be wonderful?

Quietly recapture Tianshui City...

At that time, they will still be the landlords and powerful families of that carefree county town!

"Master Yang has devised a brilliant plan."

Several people couldn't help but praise it, exclaiming in admiration.

So the next day, before the sky had even begun to lighten, they secretly sent people to take the servants out of the city and forged land deeds that were partly true and partly false.

As they had envisioned, the outcome was largely as expected. Although the army did not set off quickly, Liu Xiu did not trust the local officials and entrusted the matter entirely to the civil officials accompanying the army.

The vast Tianshui Prefecture, besides Tianshui City, has many other areas, and there simply aren't enough people to go around in a short time.

Thinking they had gotten away with it, the group gathered at the Yang family mansion one night.

"Haha, I laugh at that useless Liu Xiu! The Heavenly Dao Immortal Venerable is a false god!"

They drank and made merry, completely unaware that their mansion was surrounded by countless new Nationalist soldiers.

"I thought these carefree and happy days were coming to an end..."

"Haha, ha, huh?"

With a loud bang, the door to the inner room was kicked open by several members of the New Nationalist Army. Yang Guangzhi's large body was startled and he fell to the ground, along with the swaying mahogany chair.

"Gentlemen, you're in high spirits, forging land deeds, harboring slaves... and you still have the mood to drink and make merry here?"

Liu Xiu arrived in person and stared intently at the landlords who were sneaking around in the room.

"According to the laws of the new nation, take all the heads of the families away and execute them in the marketplace of the city at noon tomorrow."

Liu Xiu offered no further explanation, his words chillingly cold. In the past two days, he had been worried about the unruly landlords in other areas. Even without Ye Xuan's reminder, he had long anticipated that the landlords in Tianshui City would not behave themselves.

Looking at the group of terrified landlords, he sighed:

"One should act with conscience. If you were unwilling in the first place, why pretend to comply while secretly going against your conscience?"

Now is the perfect time to make an example of someone and warn others!