He Province, Tian'an Commandery, Dayuan Village.
The villager Wang Dalong felt as though he had dreamed an incomparably long dream, one from which he seemed destined never to wake.
Every day in that dream, Wang Dalong felt happy.
In truth, life in the dream was little different from before.
Every morning, he went to work in the fields, and at sunset, he returned to bed to plow his wife's field. He lived just like an old ox.
If anything was different, it was that he was happy every day now, and life felt easy.
As for why life felt easy, or why he was happy, Wang Dalong could not say.
Perhaps it was because he lived under a sage king, with light labor obligations and taxes, and life kept getting better?
It was said that after the Imperial Court's last crushing defeat at the hands of the Southern Rebels, the reigning emperor had abruptly seen the error of his ways and devoted himself to good governance. He had also made great efforts to punish corrupt officials, finally reviving the Great Ning Dynasty's fortunes and extinguishing the southern rebellion over half a year ago.
Now, in Great Ning, the rivers ran clear and the seas were calm. The nation prospered and its people lived in peace, returning once more to a flourishing age.
Yet Wang Dalong often felt doubtful.
Many things puzzled him, such as his family's grain jar.
If this was a flourishing age, why was there no grain left in his family's jar?
Less than two months had passed since the autumn harvest.
How had all the wheat he had toiled so hard to harvest already been used up?
The Imperial Court's taxes were clearly very light. Reportedly, they had returned to the levels of the dynasty's founding. The