The vice-prefect (zhizhou) is basically the prefect's (zhifu) right-hand man, or you could say, his successor. Depending on the prefect's attitude, he can manage anything—or nothing at all.
Maybe it’s because Ian Song helped Bruce Summers get revenge, but Bruce’s attitude toward him has gotten much friendlier lately. Of course, Bruce still can’t kick his old habits—he dragged Ian into a one-hour chat about essays before finally getting down to business.
You could tell Bruce Summers didn’t care much for power. If it were any other prefect, they’d probably keep Ian Song hanging as a figurehead, just for show. But Bruce actually handed all the affairs of Frostmarch Prefecture over to him.
Ian Song couldn’t help but feel both amused and a little helpless.
Most people are drawn to money and power, but Bruce Summers doesn’t care about either. No wonder he got sidelined and sent to this remote frontier.
Now that he had real authority, Ian Song didn’t call an official meeting at the yamen. Instead, he started by digging into every book he could find about Frostmarch Prefecture.
Ian was a fast reader. In just half a day, he’d finished every book on Frostmarch.
Frostmarch Prefecture had three counties under its jurisdiction: one mid-rank county and two lower-rank ones.
The mid-rank county was called Westwind County. The two lower-rank counties were Dragonhill County and Harvestplain County.
Westwind County had about 110,000 people, Dragonhill County a bit over 50,000, and Harvestplain County just over 30,000.
So the total population of Frostmarch Prefecture is just about 600,000, not even close to a million.
Frostmarch Prefecture is a frontier city, bordering the Black Eagle Tribe, the Red Wolf Tribe, and the Tigerclaw Tribe.
Of the three major tribes, the Black Eagle Tribe is the strongest, with over three million people. The Red Wolf Tribe comes next, with more than two million, and the Tigerclaw Tribe has just over a million.
Among the three tribes, the Red Wolf Tribe is the most aggressive, often raiding into Frostmarch. The Black Eagle Tribe does some farming themselves, so they’re less predatory, but they still send troops at least once a year.
The Tigerclaw Tribe lives in the forests and are experts at taming wild beasts. They often use beast-soldiers in battle, so even the Red Wolf and Black Eagle Tribes don’t dare provoke them lightly.
The Tigerclaw Tribe rarely attacks Frostmarch. But three years ago, a corrupt merchant bullied some of their people, and they showed up with beast troops to besiege the city. In the end, Bruce Summers had to send someone to hand the merchant over to the Tigerclaw Tribe to calm things down.
So out of the three tribes, the Red Wolf Tribe is Frostmarch’s biggest threat, Black Eagle Tribe comes second, and Tigerclaw Tribe is almost no threat at all.
Before he knew it, a few days had already passed.
During these days, Ian Song summoned all the officials at the yamen, and got a handle on this year’s taxes and the state of the prefectural treasury.
To Ian Song’s surprise, more than sixty percent of this year’s taxes still hadn’t been collected. The treasury was so empty you could practically let mice run wild in there. Put simply, Frostmarch Prefecture’s administration was weak—and broke.