The Great Zhou World.
The former capital of Dingzhou Prefecture, now home to the imperial capital, Jingyang City.
The streets teemed with people coming and going. Shops stood row upon row, and cries of vendors rose and fell. It was a truly lively, bustling scene.
Eight years had passed since the former King Ding, Wu Zhi, ascended the throne, founded the Wu Kingdom, and changed the era name to "Ding Wu."
In the fifth year of Ding Wu, after a period of recovery and rest, the south had been pacified. Wu Zhi personally led an army of five hundred thousand on the Northern Expedition. In a single battle, she destroyed King Wu Ji Quan, and the thirty-six vassal lords of the north all submitted. From then on, the realm was at peace, and all nineteen provinces of the former Great Zhou lay in her grasp.
After pacifying the realm, Wu Zhi changed the era name to "Kun Yuan," took in refugees, and comforted the people. The entire Central Plains once again entered an era of peace.
An ancient text said: "Kun is the earth!"
Kun Yuan referred to the virtue by which the earth nourished and brought forth all things. It was also the counterpart of Qian, and a term used to represent women.
Wu Zhi chose Kun Yuan as her era name for two reasons. First, it signified feminine virtue presiding over the court, with her ruling the realm under Heaven's mandate. Second, it established the nation's policy: to recover and let the people rest.
Sure enough, by the third year of Kun Yuan, with the wars at an end and the population growing, the flourishing age of blossoms embroidered upon brocade and oil boiling over a blazing fire was already on the horizon.
Yet amid such bright prospects,