Chapter 3: Even the Landlord’s House Has No Surplus Grain
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“Your Highness, you’ve just recovered from a serious illness—you should be resting in bed.”
An urgent set of footsteps approached. Xiao Ming looked up to see an elderly man with a round face and large ears, dressed in a blue round-collared robe, hurrying toward him. The man bowed deeply before speaking.
This was Qian Dafu, the steward of the prince’s residence. In reality, he managed nearly all affairs within the estate.
Xiao Ming trusted Qian Dafu completely. Before he was sent to his fief, Qian Dafu had been Consort Zhen’s most trusted guard. She had sent him to accompany Xiao Ming so he would have someone reliable by his side.
“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Xiao Ming waved a hand dismissively. “Prepare a carriage. I want to take a trip into Qingzhou City.”
“This…” Qian Dafu hesitated but knew that his master had always been stubborn and temperamental. Not daring to disobey, he called for servants to ready the carriage.
At the main gate of the estate, a somewhat worn-out carriage was already waiting. The carriage was small, little more than a wooden box on wheels.
It was embarrassingly shabby for a prince of his status, but Xiao Ming understood—this was the best the estate’s finances could afford.
His fief consisted of six prefectures, Qingzhou – where the Grand Governor’s Office was located, Laizhou and Dengzhou – on the eastern peninsula, Yizhou – to the south, Cangzhou – to the north, Yanzhou – to the west.
On paper, six prefectures seemed like a lot, but in reality, his territory was quite small. For comparison, the Fifth Prince, Xiao Quan, governed sixteen prefectures in Shu. Xiao Ming was practically a poor farmer in comparison. To make things worse, none of his six prefectures were wealthy.
According to Da Yu’s classification, Upper Prefectures were equivalent to modern-day direct-controlled municipalities, Middle Prefectures were like regional cities, Lower Prefectures were like county-level towns.