Time flew by.
As the war in the Northern Territory gradually subsided, Ling Province surprisingly began to show signs of stability.
The growing population recorded in the Prefecture Magistrate's Office's household registers was the best evidence of this.
To facilitate taxation, Xuan Yang required everyone to be registered and assigned a household status. During times of war and chaos, however, many commoners would flee deep into the mountains to live off the record, only re-emerging after peace was restored.
Aside from a small number of people from the Outer States, most of the new additions to the household registers were actually refugees who had previously fled into the mountains.
The attitudes of various government offices toward these people differed greatly.
In the Central Plains, where governance was strictest, these refugees would have certainly been branded with a lowly status or even convicted of serious crimes.
