Chapter 449

Time flows leisurely. More than fifty years had passed since Shen Ping returned to Jizhou after his discussions and consultations with Patriarch Ji. Aside from the first decade, during which the Jizhou army occupied six prefectures, the remaining forty-plus years had seen no military movement. Jizhou focused on steadily developing the livelihood and economy within its jurisdiction, rebuilding the Suppression of Demons Office, pacifying evil spirits, and governing the localities, allowing the prefectures under its control to present a thriving scene. Meanwhile, although the remaining territory of the Great Xia Dynasty appeared much calmer, internally it was even more chaotic. The aristocratic families in every prefecture saw that the fortune of the Great Xia Dynasty was exhausted, so they completely disregarded the lives of the common people in their jurisdictions, recklessly accumulating wealth to cultivate the strength of their direct bloodlines. This caused the number of monsters to multiply, and some prefectures and counties were left as barren land stretching for a thousand miles.