Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: Chapter 7: Foothold (1)
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There are various forms of organizations in the martial world.
The most common name is sect.
They cultivate martial arts to build power and pass down techniques to create history.
Strong military might draws people in.
Those who dream of the jianghu crave power. Learning superior martial arts makes one strong. Even a small martial hall sees lines form if a famous martial artist emerges from its graduates.
That is the structure of a sect's growth.
However, for a single sect to rise beyond a mere armed group and flourish as a prestigious house, various elements are required.
Martial arts alone are not enough.
Of course, if one's martial prowess is overwhelming, other factors may follow naturally.
More people bring in more money.
Accumulated funds create scale, and a larger organization develops systems.
But problems can arise at any point in that process.
If bad recruits are brought in or misguided ideologies infiltrate, the sect's quality deteriorates.
No matter the founding master's character, if successors fall to greed, the sect can turn to the demonic path and commit evil deeds.
Thus, people and ideals form the foundation that determines a sect's nature.
To become an upright prestigious sect, one must raise people with firm philosophy.
Martial arts support the greater cause, and wealth is built upon legitimacy.
That is the righteous faction.
The fact that most of the Nine Sects are rooted in deep mountains stems from faith in Buddhism and immortality. Born from such solid ideology, their rise to prestige is a natural progression.
Yet there is another point to note here.
Martial arts, talent, capital, ideology—all are important.
As a fundamental element rivaling them all, one must cite the concept of foothold.
Where it is located.
This may seem easy to overlook at first glance, but in reality, it holds tremendous significance.
Why Mount Song?
Before Shaolin existed, there were Buddhist temples, and before Buddha, the mountain came first.
It was not that Buddha shaped the mountain; the mountain harbored the Buddhist heart.
The grandeur of nature's mountains allowed Buddha's grace to dwell, and within them, Shaolin's 108 martial arts sprouted.
What of Mount Wudang, what of Mount Hua?
The mountains' supreme goodness called to the Daoists, and their terrain shaped the martial arts.
People have said:
How the Yang Clan prospered to become the world's greatest family from the lands at the foot of Mount Song is one of the jianghu enthusiasts' favorite topics, boasted to show off their knowledge.
The same goes for why the Tang Clan came to symbolize Sichuan, and the Murong Clan's path to dominance in Zhejiang is worth analyzing.
...excerpt...
For the same reason, the most intriguing topic today is the Hebei Peng Clan's foothold.
Hebei makes it hard to judge whether it is good or bad for a martial family's prosperity.
Directly to the north lies Shuntian Prefecture.
Shuntian Prefecture is otherwise known as Beijing, where the capital relocation is underway, and Emperor Yongle prefers residing in Beijing over Nanjing's Yingtianshu.
As a location for martial sects, it is poor.
Very poor.
Handan Wuan, where the Hebei Peng Clan is based, is about 1,100 li from Shuntian Prefecture by official roads. If cavalry advances, it takes four or five days to arrive; assuming the Imperial Bodyguards are dispatched, they could strike within three days.
Just as from Shuntian to Handan, the reverse is the same.
From the Peng Clan to Shuntian, the Heaven-Destroying Squad could reach in three days, and if the Peng Clan Lord leads personally, the imperial palace could be breached in two.
In other words, no emperor—not even the warrior-emperor Yongle—would welcome such a powerful armed group at that distance.
No matter how friendly toward the imperial house, situations can change anytime. No one knows power better than Yongle, who deposed the previous emperor and seized the throne, and he knew there is no such thing as absolute loyalty.
Due to the geography allowing the imperial house to eradicate them at any moment, the Hebei Peng Clan had to restrain its own growth. Survival hung in the balance.
Of course, the Peng Clan was not without ways to enjoy glory. Proximity also brought clear advantages.
One path was to have clansmen pass the military exams.
Peng Clan martial artists were strong. They did not merely pass exams; they could oversee them.
Planting kin in central military posts was no great feat.
Despite ups and downs, the Hebei Peng Clan had held its position for centuries, even through multiple dynastic changes. In every era, several Peng clansmen rose to high military offices.
The problem lay in the resulting subjugation to the imperial house.
Becoming military officials and advancing leads to real command of troops. Far from ideal. History is rife with precedents of what powerful generals from great clans could do with military authority. The imperial house's wariness and checks were natural.
From the throne's view, nipping it in the bud was safest.
Even if allowed to persist, absolute loyalty must follow. Loyalty is not shown in words but in deeds and reality. Combat forces like the Heaven-Destroying Squad would be absorbed into the imperial army first. Key retainers would fall under the Imperial Bodyguards and Eastern Depot. That was the assimilation process.
Merger into the imperial house was hardly welcome for the Hebei Peng Clan. They had seen the Song Dynasty struggle against Jurchen invasions and witnessed the Yuan, which devoured heaven and earth, collapse. Just as Jianwen Emperor was deposed by Yongle, they knew even emperors were not eternal.
Thus, the Peng Clan wished to keep a proper distance from the imperial house.
Far enough that 1,000 li did not feel close.
Far enough that 1,000 li felt sufficiently distant.
To that end, the Peng Clan needed to remain moderately strong.
Not enough to irk the emperor's eyes.
Not so weak as to be despised by the jianghu.
That was the fate of the Peng Clan, dictated by its foothold.
...excerpt...
Hanbaek Martial Forest Record, Incomplete
From Hanbaek's Diary
Being born into a good house was a blessing.
There had been a time when he thought otherwise.
It was a misconception.
Of course, as a child, it was understandable to think so.
Growing up without parents was not easy, even in a great house.
In the Heaven-Earth Pavilion, many adults and maids played the role of mother, but none were a real mother.
The Grand Matriarch was kind.
She was the highest elder in the Heaven-Earth Pavilion and mother to all the children.
She greatly cherished talent.
Naturally, she doted on Cheonwi.
It was inevitable.
Cheonwi was different from other children from the start.
He memorized everything taught at a glance.
It was not just good memory. His physical application was perfect too.
No matter what form a martial instructor demonstrated, he reproduced it without the slightest error.
A five-year-old child, wielding a wooden sword not even a chi long, executed the Northern Blade's sixteen forms and the Golden Blade's twenty-four forms in a single day.
He was a child born for martial arts.
He perfected three form sets in three months. By six months, he was employing variations that patched form flaws. Meanwhile, other children who started at the same time could barely mimic the Northern Blade's sixteen forms.
The Grand Matriarch was overjoyed.
Whenever she saw Cheonwi, she called him over and stroked his head.
She favored exceptional children. Having seen young talents for so long, she quickly spotted them in Oho and Danmun after Cheonwi. She never missed their potential.
That said, her favoritism was not overt. She always tried to show fair interest in all children. Even those lacking martial talent received praise for innate gifts she found. Still, it was clear she held Cheonwi especially dear.
The Grand Matriarch was among the highest in the vast house.
Even in the Wa Emperor Pavilion, no one ignored her word.
Growing under her protection meant bearing heavy responsibilities later. This was not unique to the current Grand Matriarch. Previous ones had been the same. She had always been such an existence.
Cherished and adored by such a great elder.
Cheonwi naturally became a very important child.
His young world was filled with goodwill. He was acknowledged for his mere existence and emotionally abundant.
In wealthy houses with much to pass to the next generation, competition over inheritance is inevitable. But that applies to ordinary rich families.
The Peng Clan was a colossal house.
In the Peng Clan settlement of Wuan County alone, over two thousand bore the Peng surname. Fewer than half resided in the main compound, but its permanent population easily topped three thousand.
Whether bearing the Peng name or not, all in Wuan County were connected to the Peng Clan without exception. Even the county magistrate was a Peng who passed the exams, and the Handan Prefecture deputy above him was Peng-born. It was no exaggeration to say the entire city was the Hebei Peng Clan.
In other words, its scale differed fundamentally from typical noble houses.
Over twenty children entered martial training at the Heaven-Earth Pavilion each year at similar ages. That meant over two hundred martial artists produced in a decade.
Children's potential was objectively evaluated through ongoing reviews by training instructors.
No matter parents' status in the clan or blood proximity to the current clan lord, none of it mattered.
Comparisons like "my child is this way, yours that," or envying one while scorning another were not tolerated. Even hints led to the Grand Matriarch's outrage, and it was explicitly stated in the Peng Clan's forty-eight great clan rules.
Of course, as with anywhere people lived, parents in competitive positions sometimes engaged in subtle rivalries over their children's achievements. But it never escalated to discord.
They were members of a powerful martial house.
They knew a child who underperformed could save their own, or a superior one could fall to mishap. No one knew what situations anyone might face. Thus, that child must be their child's fine comrade, and theirs the blade guarding that child's back.
Even if a child stood out and earned the picky, impartial Grand Matriarch's favor, resenting it was foolish. Such exceptional talent raised their own child's survival odds in the jianghu. That was the lesson, and largely true.
This was a stark difference from ordinary noble houses.
It fundamentally differed from a clan lord with three wives and four concubines, where a dozen or more children waged succession struggles burdened by their mothers' ambitions.