Chapter Forty: The Beggar Sect

After a few people exchanged comments, Grand Lama Wang proceeded with his inquiries.

"We wish to understand the situation in the northeastern territories of the Ming Dynasty," he said. "His Majesty and the ministers are very interested in the information you possess. If you can provide useful intelligence, the Imperial Court will surely reward you handsomely."

Zhao Liang bowed in gratitude and replied, "I am happy to serve the country, and I do not covet rewards. However, I have recently been plagued by trouble and hope that the Imperial Court might uphold justice for me."

"What happened?" Guo Kang asked.

"I have always been a law-abiding man. Every day, aside from driving carriages, I spend my time at the guild hall training horses and maintaining equipment; I have never provoked anyone. Previously, when people from the Tang Sect came to stir up trouble, I swallowed my pride and waited for the Chamber of Commerce to mediate," Zhao Liang complained. "But recently, the Beggar Sect has come knocking at our door."

The Beggar Sect is one of the five major martial arts factions in Rome. These people mainly come from the Rus region in the north, hence they are known as the "Northern Beggars." They are not true beggars; they are simply viewed as such by the local Greeks because they linger in the lower strata of society.

Although the Rus are not particularly skilled in warfare, they are hardworking, courageous, and fierce. Their performance in the various gang brawls within the city is quite notable. Their leader is adept at using a long staff; it is said that back in his homeland in Rus, he could kill a bear in the woods with a single strike, earning his style the name "Bear-Slaying Staff Technique."

While these people are rampant and frequently cause trouble, their organization is a resource that the city can utilize, and they maintain some contact with the authorities. When my foster father was defending Dadu, he was short on troops, so he mobilized the Rus of the Beggar Sect to help defend the city walls, which ultimately saved the city.

Because of this, when members of the Rus gangs commit offenses, local officials often give them leeway and do not pursue them excessively. Consequently, they remain as arrogant as ever, holding even the other factions in contempt and frequently engaging in fights.

"What did they do?" The Guo family had also encountered these people and knew they were reckless, so he quickly asked.

"They were engaged in a gang war with the Tang Sect, and we were caught in the crossfire. Some of them assumed we were also a Tang Sect business. No matter how we explained it, they wouldn't listen. In the end, they smashed up the guild hall and injured my brother," Zhao Liang replied.

Guo Kang asked a few more questions to clarify the situation.

It turned out that Zhao Liang and his associates were newcomers and, unable to join the famous carriage fleets of Constantinople, had to rely on a Venetian merchant's trading house. The merchant, impressed by their driving skills, provided them with sponsorship, making their relationship quite amicable.

Recently, however, the Venetian merchant seemed to have suffered a failed investment and owed money to a Jewish merchant. Unable to collect the debt, the Jewish merchant grew desperate and hired the Beggar Sect to smash up the shops and forcibly collect the debt, threatening to carve the flesh off the Venetian merchant as compensation if he did not pay.

When the Tang Sect incident was being mediated earlier, the merchant had established some contact with them. Seeing another gang attacking, the Tang Sect came to investigate. Unexpectedly, the members of the Beggar Sect were unreasonable; seeing the Tang Sect arrive, they assumed they were there to seize the spoils of war and attacked immediately. The Tang Sect was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses.

The Beggar Sect concluded that the shops and the neighboring carriage stables were Tang Sect property, so they took the opportunity to ransack the place, stealing everything of value.

Zhao Liang had been away at a horse farm in Bulgaria selecting racing horses at the time and was spared, but his good friend Wanyan Gou had suffered.

Wanyan Gou was left behind at the guild hall and was chased around by a crowd of fierce Rus savages. He was nearly beaten to death and only escaped by hiding in an underground reservoir. Since then, Wanyan Gou has been traumatized and has had difficulty speaking, a condition from which he has yet to fully recover.

The dispute remains unresolved, and the local officials have completely ignored it. This was why he risked coming to appeal to the authorities, hoping the Imperial Court would intervene.

Guo Kang had not expected there to be such a complicated case behind this. He glanced at his foster father and felt that with their intervention, it should not be difficult to resolve. But this was not the time for adjudication; he could only agree for now and discuss the official business first.

Grand Lama Wang seemed to share the same sentiment.

"I will contact the relevant authorities to help you resolve this matter," he promised. "Attend to your business, and I will naturally help where I can."

Zhao Liang nodded in gratitude.

"I heard from Javanese merchants that the Zhengdong Province has expelled the Ming garrisons stationed along the Shuidada Road and reclaimed the main production areas for northern pearls, so many pearls are now flowing into the market through them," Grand Lama Wang said. "Please introduce the situation there to everyone."

"Certainly," Zhao Liang replied, taking over the conversation. He pointed to the northeast of the map and said, "My ancestral home is in the former Shangjing of the Jin Dynasty. I still have relatives living there, operating a fur trade. During the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Shizu quelled the rebellion of Nayan and others and established the Liaoyang Province; since then, it has been under the jurisdiction of officials. The administration of the Jurchen Shuidada Myriarchy is located there. Ever since, the Imperial Court has sent officials to manage the region, and many of those structures remain in use today."

Guo Kang also looked at the map.

"Dada" was the term used by the Yuan government for the various Mongol tribes. The "Shuidada" were the Shiwei people who had remained in the northeast, living primarily by fishing and hunting. The territory of the Jurchen Shuidada Myriarchy roughly encompassed what would later be the lower reaches of the Songhua and Heilongjiang rivers, extending to the sea.

That region was originally the territory of the eastern Mongol princes. Later, because the Yuan central government attempted to implement the provincial system, it came into conflict with the enfeoffed princes. Consequently, the prince Nayan of the northeast region allied with the princes of the northwest and the northern desert to launch a rebellion.

The northern Mongols had always been the greatest enemies of the Yuan Dynasty, and the Imperial Court had always been vigilant. After the rebellion broke out, Kublai Khan immediately decided to lead the imperial expedition himself. He commanded the Han army guards to march north, capturing and executing Nayan, which severely crippled the power of the eastern princes. Since then, the Yuan Dynasty has consistently managed the area through officials, so it is no surprise that its influence persists to this day.

"The current Zhengdong Province originated from here," he said, pointing to the river mouth on the map. "The route taken by Emperor Shizu to invade Japan was very misguided; he was likely deceived by the Goryeo people—or perhaps the Goryeo people were simply clueless themselves, as it has always been the Japanese crossing the sea to attack them, and one has never seen them cross the sea to strike back."

"This time, however, they found local Jurchen tribes familiar with the sea conditions to serve as guides," he pointed to the vast coastal region. "The Jurchen here have long sailed the seas to raid Japan and are very familiar with the shipping routes, hydrology, and wind directions. Hearing that the grand army was to set out, the local great clan, the Hesheli, took the initiative to lead the way. That is why this expedition went relatively smoothly, and since the war, we have maintained contact with the Zhengdong Province through this northern route."