Zhongqing Prefecture, in Pingliang Prefecture, was a city that stood apart from all the other cities in Shan Kingdom.
One glance at its architectural style made that clear. Most cities in Shan Kingdom were built of brick and stone, plain and imposing, rugged and sturdy, but the buildings here were almost all timber structures with tiled roofs, exquisitely crafted, with something of the flavor of Anhe Water Country.
Had it belonged to Anhe Kingdom, it would have been a thoroughly Jiangnan-style city.
All of Pingliang Prefecture was surrounded by mountains on three sides and bordered by water on the fourth, a typical basin landscape. The three mountainous sides adjoined other prefectures of Shan Kingdom, while Anhe Kingdom lay across the water. Given its geographical position, it was only natural that its culture and traditions should resemble Anhe's.
This had once been Langzhong Kingdom, a country that could scarcely have been smaller. Its unusual terrain had allowed it to survive the first few centuries of the warring kingdoms' turmoil, but in the end, it had still failed to escape being swallowed whole.
It had wanted to be swallowed by the sperm whale that was Anhe Kingdom, only for a twist of fate to deliver it into the jaws of Shan Kingdom, a shark. This had created Pingliang Prefecture's rather unusual circumstances.
Some Pingliang people acknowledged themselves as people of Shan Kingdom, some considered themselves people of Anhe, and others insisted that they were people of Langzhong. Secular administration was troublesome in such a cultural environment, so this was a prefecture controlled entirely by cultivators. Secular authority was very limited, and could not manage it anyway.
The Pingliang people were wealthy. The basin produced abundant goods, its mineral veins were unique, its population was not particularly large, and commerce flourished. All these