Fierce Consort

Chapter 145

Starting on the 23 of December, the Yun Prince Estate started getting lively.

Everywhere was swept clean. The palace maids and eunuchs methodically busied themselves. This was the Yun Prince Estate's first large banquet and there was more involved than expected.

Yan Yan wasn't experienced with this sort of thing. She could only discuss and work with the meal management center's managing auntie. Luckily, this Auntie Liu worked in the palace's esteemed meal department before. Everyone just had to follow her instructions so it wasn't too difficult.

On the 29, the various officials of the Yun Province hurried over to the Yun Prince Estate in an endless stream. The Yun Prince set up the banquet in the Hall of Ascension to entertain the officials. They spent the entire day in a lively manner before going their separate ways that evening.

This year the Yun Prince didn't get summoned back to the capital. The officials were well aware that he wasn't favored, but no matter how out of favor he was, he was still above them. None of them were tactless enough to say anything. Sun Shi Min did say a few words of comfort to Luo Huai Yuan, whose expression was very weird at the time.

One year ended and a new one began.

As time went by, the Yun Prince Estate got into the swing of things. The state affairs all had officials assigned.

Luo Huai Yuan had appointed his own people to several of the most important positions. On the surface they were managed by Sun Shi Min the old pedant. Although he wasn't quite normal, he wasn't a bad person and was also rather capable. He wasn't going to be breaking new ground, but there was no problem in getting him to run things by the book. Especially since this person was particular about loyalty, righteousness and justice. He definitely wouldn't let any corruption squeak by.

After the outside matters were arranged, Luo Huai Yuan started living his freeloader life. All the official matters were thrown to his subordinates while he shut himself in and spent time with his consort.

At first there would be people reporting things to the Yun Prince. After Luo Huai Yuan had his subordinates deal with it themselves several times, people stopped bothering him. Everyone pretty much figured out that this Yun Prince was a lazy person. No wonder he got so large.

Sun Shi Min both lamented and felt gratified by this. He lamented because he seemed to have gone about things the wrong way previously. He was gratified because this sort of vassal prince was one that the court liked. If the person at the top behaved, those underneath would naturally suffer less. Sun Shi Min's weird emotions were truly unsuitable to be spoken out loud.

However, he worked even harder than before, putting his all into it. He fell just short of telling Luo Huai Yuan "highness, leave everything to this subordinate".

Luo Huai Yuan was pleased those underneath were so understanding, allowing him to slack off openly. An idle prince's days should be spent precisely like this. If he needed to worry about doing every little thing, how was he supposed to live?

Of course, Luo Huai Yuan wasn't as uncaring as he seemed on the surface. Rome wasn't built in a day and many things in the vassal state needed time. Furthermore, there were other important things he needed to do at this time.

Managing a vassal state wasn't actually as easy as it seemed.

Once a vassal state was assigned, it would become completely dependent on itself. In times of shortage, the vassal prince would have to make up for the lack of taxes with his own savings. The Yun Province wasn't a wealthy place. The taxes collected every year was merely enough to keep things running.

Luo Huai Yuan looked over the taxes collected within the borders for the past several years. He compared it to the various expenses and came to a conclusion. If he wanted to do anything else, he would have to rely on money elsewhere. Getting money from his vassal state was a pipe dream. Of course, the vassal prince could raise taxes on the commoners, but how could Luo Huai Yuan try to skin these impoverished citizens?