Iron Dynasty

His Royal Highness is recovering from a serious illness, so he should rest in bed.

A burst of hurried footsteps came, and Xiao Ming saw an old man with a round head and big ears, wearing a blue round-neck gown, trotting over and bowing in front of him.

This person is Qian Dafu, the housekeeper of the palace. In his palace, he basically takes care of everything big and small.

Xiao Ming trusted Qian Dafu very much. Before he came to the fief, Qian Dafu was the most trusted bodyguard of his mother, Concubine Zhen. Concubine Zhen sent him to Xiao Ming to have a servant who could be at ease.

Might as well. Xiao Ming waved his hand, The carriage is ready, I'm going to go around Qingzhou City.

This... Qian Dafu hesitated for a moment, but he knew that this prince had always been surly and didn't dare to disobey, so he called his servants to prepare a carriage for Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ming went straight to the main entrance of the palace. A slightly old carriage was already parked at the door. The carriage on the carriage was very small, like a box.

Such a shabby carriage is a bit out of place compared to the identity of King Qi, but Xiao Ming knows that the current financial resources of the palace can only be like this.

His current fiefs govern a total of six states, namely Qingzhou, where the Grand Governor's Office is located, Laizhou and Dengzhou on the peninsula to the east, Yizhou to the south, Cangzhou to the north, and Yanzhou to the west.

The six states seem to be a lot of land, but in fact, the site is not large. The fifth prince Xiao Quan's land in Shu has jurisdiction over sixteen states. Relatively speaking, he is a poor peasant.

Moreover, none of these six states are rich. According to the division of Upper, Zhongzhou, and Xiazhou in the Great Yu Kingdom, only Qingzhou, where his palace is located, counts as Upper and Middle Prefecture, and other places are Xiazhou.

There is a big difference between upper, middle and lower levels, basically equal to the difference between municipalities directly under the Central Government, prefecture-level cities, and county-level cities.

In particular, Cangzhou in the north is visited by barbarians on the grassland every year, and even some barbarian cavalry will go deep into the fief. Three years ago, the barbarian cavalry kept raiding until Dengzhou before giving up.

The people of the fief were poor and weak, and could not farm with peace of mind, so naturally they would not be able to collect taxes. In addition, he still had six prefectures' troops and officials to support, so there was no need to talk about the fief's finances.

Although Xiao Ming was stubborn in the past, he also knew the situation of his fief. If Concubine Zhen hadn't rewarded him with a little silver tael every year, he might have really been drinking the northwest wind.

After leaving the palace, the carriage moved slowly along the streets of Qingzhou City.

Xiao Ming opened the curtains of the carriage and carefully examined his fief...

Qingzhou City is 20 miles from north to south, and 20 miles from east to west. There are four city gates in total. The city is divided into 36 square districts. There are two markets on the east and west sides, namely the east market and the west market.

This square area is similar to the structure of the current community, with a wall and some residential buildings scattered inside, but each square area is the same size, like a block of tofu placed in a box.

King Qi is here, hurry up, hurry up.

The carriage passed a private workshop, and the three youths who were basking in the sun jumped back into the workshop in fright.

Xiao Ming smiled bitterly, these are the people who were bullied and feared by Xiao Ming before.

But now he is not concerned about this, but their worn and patched clothes.

Through the vision of a modern person, the people he sees are basically similar to beggars.

When he arrived at Dongshi, Xiao Ming stopped the carriage and walked towards the market with his hands behind his back.

When Qian Dafu saw it, he followed cautiously and looked around vigilantly.

The East Market and West Market are similar to modern vegetable markets. Walking along the way, Xiao Ming saw very few products in the East Market.

Basically, they are wheat, soybeans, millet, pottery pots, cloth, and bamboo baskets, which are very different from the dazzling array of commodities in Chang'an City.

After strolling in the East Market for a while, Xiao Ming went to the West Market again, basically the same.

And this is the most prosperous Qingzhou city on his fief.

After a whole morning, Xiao Ming basically walked all over Qingzhou City. At noon, his stomach started to growl.

Had to go back to the palace for dinner.

His Royal Highness, the old slave specially prepared vinegared celery and steamed buns for you.

Covering his stomach and being hungry for a long time, Xiao Ming finally waited for lunch. In his memory, such a meal was not bad.

Just by looking at Qian Dafu rubbing his hands and rolling his Adam's apple, he knew how greedy he was.

This is the reality of his fief. There is a serious shortage of living materials. It's not that he has no money, but that he can't buy it if he has money. To be able to eat enough is happiness.

It's okay to eat this kind of food once in a while, but eating it every day is terrible. In fact, even though Xiao Ming is a prince, he is very arrogant, but his standard of living is really not as good as the modern one.

Xiao Ming is hungry now. He usually eats boiled amaranth and boiled spinach. He wants to eat stir-fried vegetables. Sorry, I only have vegetables and can't buy oil.

Today, this vinegar-slicked celery is also rare, otherwise Qian Dafu would have brought it over as a credit.

It's rare, it's rare. Xiao Ming pretended to be very happy, holding the steamed bun and eating vinegar and celery with tears in his eyes.

In modern times, he hated celery with vinegar, and now eating it is a luxury.

I thought it was a pleasure to cross over, but I didn't expect that the landlord's house had no surplus food.

For the next three days, Xiao Ming was not idle, and went to the counties near Qingzhou City, where there were basically a few thatched huts surrounded by an earthen wall.

Not to mention the common people, there are many people who can't get enough to eat, and they can still eat steamed buns leisurely, which is already quite tall.

On the way back and forth, he often saw people digging wild vegetables in the wild to feed their hunger.

When he arrived in Dayu overnight, Xiao Ming didn't have any lofty ideals, but his fief was so embarrassed that he was not as unhappy as the contemporary slums.

When he was in school, he liked to play the game of territory construction. It was a spiritual enjoyment to watch his territory turn from barren to prosperous.

And now that he has a real fief, how can he endure this fief that is still so abject.

What's more, the local nobles are rampant, and the northern steppe barbarians will invade at any time, which is a threat to him.

Driving away the prairie barbarians is a big deal for him now, but he still has to work on building fiefs, fortifying cities, training troops and horses, and hiding wealth for the people, otherwise only the local wealthy family will be enough for him to drink.

Besides, even if it wasn't to get rid of the giants and stabilize the fief, he had to work hard so that he could eat eggs every day and occasionally grill a kebab.

Otherwise, wouldn't he come and suffer.

The three-day inspection gave Xiao Ming a basic understanding of the situation of his fief, and he also figured out the first problem he needed to solve...that was the farming problem.

Most of the common people no longer farm land for the wealthy clan, which can weaken the power of the wealthy clan and unite the hearts of the people.