Escorts Across the World

The Worldview of "Martial Arts Chaos: Escorts Across the Land"

I. Core World Background: The Great Yan Dynasty was in decline, and the Heavenly Order had collapsed.

The unified Great Yan Dynasty lasted for 272 years, experiencing its most prosperous and glorious periods. However, by the time of its last emperor, Emperor Yuan (Xiao Yan), the dynasty was on the verge of complete collapse.

Emperor Yuan was incompetent and negligent in governing, indulging in wine, women, and pleasure, and neglecting state affairs for decades. Within the court, the maternal relatives interfered in politics, eunuchs wielded power, and powerful families formed factions, with these three forces constantly vying for control, rendering the court's laws ineffective. The central imperial army was corrupt and incompetent, its equipment in disarray, its soldiers old and weak, and its paychecks plentiful, leaving only tens of thousands of troops stationed in the capital region, barely able to defend the imperial city and the three surrounding counties, completely losing its ability to control, conquer, and govern the rest of the country.

Imperial authority was swept away, national laws were rendered ineffective, and the land was without a ruler. Millions of refugees fled to the mountains and fields, and droughts, floods, and locust plagues struck year after year. The government offered no relief or appeasement, and the desperate refugees, defeated soldiers, local ruffians, and outlaws gathered in the mountains and forests. In all twelve prefectures of the land, there were bandits in every prefecture and county in every county. Major roads, mountain passes, and river crossings were all controlled by bandits, making it impossible for merchants to travel, for goods to be transported, or for relatives and friends to pass through.

In times of chaos, official order is completely absent, and martial artists and private escort agencies fill the gap, becoming the only viable rules and order in the chaotic world. Martial arts prevail, and martial prowess becomes the foundation of one's livelihood.

Core Rules

"Martial arts cannot offend officials" (only the rules remain on paper), and "the people cannot resist martial arts." In chaotic times, what the government cannot handle, the martial arts of the martial world decide. The reputation, martial arts, and connections of a security escort agency directly determine its life and death.

II. Power System: Standard Chinese Martial Arts, the Way of the Jianghu

Combat Power Level

1. Body Refinement Realm: Ordinary martial artists,镖局 (escort agency) servants, and rural martial arts masters learn basic fist and foot techniques and weapons. Their physique is stronger than that of ordinary people, and they can fight against three or five ordinary refugees, but they have no real combat power. ​
2. Bone Forging Realm: Formal bodyguards and bandit leaders, whose muscles and bones have been tempered and whose skills are proficient, they can fight a dozen villains single-handedly and are the core combat force at the bottom of the martial arts world. ​
3. Condensing Energy Realm: Senior bodyguards, key members of escort agencies, leaders of mountain strongholds, and owners of martial arts schools in county towns can condense their internal energy into their fists, feet, and weapons. Their power can penetrate the body, splitting bricks and breaking stones. They are the backbone of the martial arts world and are capable of holding down a county. ​
4. Profound Realm (Grandmaster, the pinnacle of the mortal realm): A powerful figure, chief镖头 (chief镖头, head of a large escort agency), bandit leader, or reclusive martial artist. They possess abundant internal energy and swift movements, capable of moving swiftly through an army of a hundred men. They can split wood with a single palm strike and pierce armor with a single blade. They are renowned throughout a county or prefecture and are considered high-end combat power in chaotic times. ​
5. Grandmaster (Legendary Realm): Only a handful of people in a hundred years, hidden in deep mountains, powerful families, or secret sects. They can control physical force to injure enemies and defeat them from a distance. They can influence the landscape of the martial arts world, but they rarely take action and are considered legends.

III. The Power Structure of the World: A Three-Way Chaos, and the Self-Government of the Jianghu (Martial World)

1. The power of the imperial court (utterly weak, barely clinging to life)

• The central court: Controlling only the capital region, with an empty treasury and a dilapidated military, it only seeks to defend the imperial city and turns a blind eye to the chaos in the world. It has no power to send troops to quell bandits, nor the authority to govern local areas. Its only role is to maintain the legitimacy of the dynasty and occasionally bestow titles upon local powers and powerful clans in exchange for meager tributes. ​
• Local prefectures and counties: The local governments closed themselves off from the people, refusing to suppress bandits, provide relief to the people, or handle lawsuits. When the people were robbed, wronged, or robbed, the government simply shirked its responsibilities and ignored them, completely losing its function of governing the people's livelihood and retaining only jurisdiction over the cities.

2. Underworld forces (spreading across the land, the foundation of a chaotic world)

Bandits across the land formed their own independent systems, hierarchically divided and completely monopolizing civilian transportation.

• Mountain Village: A group of several hundred people, entrenched in rural trails and mountain passes, robbing traveling merchants and ordinary passersby. They are the most numerous and can be found everywhere. ​
• Major bandits: numbering in the thousands, occupying key official roads, river crossings, and fortified mountain strongholds, with a bandit leader at the Tongxuan realm in charge, robbing large merchant caravans and raiding villages and towns, and the state and county governments dare not provoke them. ​
• Giant bandit forces: numbering in the tens of thousands, they control a county or even half a state, with complete military equipment and a well-established system, comparable to separatist lords. They are not subject to any control and are the biggest source of chaos in various states.

Bandit rules: only rob valuables, do not indiscriminately kill innocent people (except for a few notorious strongholds), leave a sliver of hope to avoid completely enraging martial artists and forming a tacit balance in the chaotic world.

3. The Righteous Path of the Jianghu (the mainstream in chaotic times, controlling the people's livelihood)

In chaotic times with no officials, the martial arts world governs, and escort agencies, martial arts schools, and sects form the core of the social order.

• Two Royal-level Escort Agencies: Possessing top-tier martial arts and Grandmaster-level combat power, they are aloof from worldly affairs, with unparalleled connections and martial prowess, allowing them to roam freely throughout the land, and few dare to rob their goods. ​
• A first-class, long-established escort agency (one of the eight great escort agencies in the world): Rooted in the capital of a major state, with a profound foundation and several grandmasters at the Tongxuan realm, its network extends throughout the martial arts world, prefectures and counties, and even the imperial court. It monopolizes large-scale cross-province escorts, official escorts, salt escorts, and treasure escorts, and its reputation is outstanding, capable of deterring local bandits. ​
• Small and medium-sized local escort agencies: Scattered throughout various prefectures and counties, numbering in the hundreds, with varying strengths, relying on local connections and meager martial arts skills, they undertake short-distance escorts within the same city or neighboring counties. They are the most basic means of transportation for civilians, but also the most vulnerable group that is most easily swallowed up by bandits or competitors. ​
• Private martial arts schools: popularize martial arts, train grassroots martial artists, supply escort agencies and merchants with bodyguards, and serve as a reserve base for martial arts forces in the martial arts world.

IV. Core Industry: The Escort Agency System and the Rules of a Chaotic World

Escort agencies are the most core, down-to-earth, and promising industry in this world, serving as the only travel guarantee for ordinary people, merchants, and nobles in chaotic times.

The operational logic of escort agencies

1. Core Business: Escorting goods, protecting people on long journeys, transporting supplies, escorting valuables, and delivering family letters, covering all travel needs that cannot be guaranteed by the government. ​
2. Fundamentals of Success: Reputation, Strength, and Connections. Reputation is the foundation of a镖行 (escort agency); a single loss of trust means a lifetime without business. Strength is the trump card for survival; if you can't defeat bandits, you'll lose both your money and your life. Connections are crucial for survival; you need to maintain a delicate balance with the mountain strongholds along the way, the local government, and other镖行 (escort agencies). ​
3. Industry rules: The ironclad rules of the escort agency are: never leave the person carrying the goods, never embezzle the goods, never abandon the escort in case of trouble, help each other, and never kill the defeated. Violators will be blacklisted by the entire industry.

V. Main Character Setting:

The transmigrator's basic identity is that of the head镖师 (chief镖师, a kind of bodyguard/escort) of a small镖局 (镖局 is a kind of security escort agency). They manage and develop the agency, but can also create their own unique identity and forge their own legendary life...