Thirteen years later, Xuanbei City.
Once a border city plagued by incessant warfare, it had now become a bustling trade metropolis. Tea houses and pubs could be found every few steps down the street. At dusk, the streets were brightly lit, the singing in the tea houses, the sound of guessing games in pubs, and the clatter of peddlers waving rattle drums as they shouldered their goods intermingled, all evoking the prosperous atmosphere of a time of peace.
Ever since the empire became unified, Emperor Duanmu Chen vigorously implemented new policies, reducing taxes, promoting the cultivation of new food crops in the barren north, and developing sericulture in the south. The days when the common people couldn't afford food had truly come to an end.
However, while peace was real, so were wicked individuals.
