Xiao Family

Biodata

Power Progression

The following milestones concern family members and protectors, rather than a cultivation realm held by the organization itself.

History

Founding and Frontier Service

The Xiao Family rose through service in helping Great Wei’s founding emperor secure the throne. Its hereditary military responsibilities centered on Shuzhou, where the Marquis of Dingyuan commanded the three military towns established to defend the southern frontier 11 425.

Twenty-five years before the opening events, the family led a five-year campaign against a northward invasion by the Southern Barbarians. The victory inflicted devastating losses throughout Shuzhou and marked the beginning of Xiao Manor’s decline. Later campaigns against the Barbarian Tribe and Poshir continued to cost the family lives and strength 3 119.

Decline of the Main Branch

War left Xiao Yuan chronically injured and ill, while Xiao Xuanshuo suffered injuries that confined him to a wheelchair. Several members of the main branch were reported dead or crippled, leaving Xiao Wan’er responsible for household affairs and Xiao Jinghong carrying much of the family’s military burden 2 5.

Xiao Fengchun and Fu Wanqing were initially believed to have died. Their survival was revealed much later: both had spent five years imprisoned in Barbarian Tribe territory following a conspiracy involving Liu Hong and the Qinghe Cui Family 17 428 517.

Chen Yi’s Marriage and Infiltration

Chen Yi entered the household as Xiao Jinghong’s live-in husband after a failed attempt to flee their wedding. Although his behavior brought punishments and threats of expulsion, the family continued to house him, and Xiao Yuan arranged for him to receive foundational martial instruction 5 32 377.

The marriage concealed a political scheme. Xiao Yuan had hoped an alliance with the Chen Family would ease imperial pressure. Chen Xuanji and the White Tiger Guard instead intended to use Chen Yi as an internal link through which the Chen Family could eventually take over the weakened Xiao Family’s position in Shuzhou 416 417 525 528.

Chen Yi also discovered covert correspondence inside the estate. He initially suspected that the Hidden Guard intended to control or frame the Xiao Family through him, but concealed his suspicions while developing his own strength 10 77.

Conflict with the Liu Family

The Liu Family attacked the Xiaos’ finances through the seizure of medicinal herbs, competition from Linglan Pavilion, and pressure on Hundred Herbs Hall. Xiao Jinghong opposed an immediate armed confrontation, arguing that both the household and the Dingyuan Army needed time to rebuild and that disorder would endanger the Mutual Market 119.

The conflict also exposed betrayal within the family. Xiao Dongchen worked to disrupt the Mutual Market and the summer grain supply, recognizing that a successful market could end the main branch’s predicament. After his death, the Second Branch ceased obstructing the household and was driven out of Shuzhou to Guangyue Prefecture 105 205 351.

The Xiao Family obtained 300,000 taels of silver and forced the Liu Family of Jingzhou to promise to leave Shuzhou. However, an imperial grain-tax penalty and the losses from burned grain consumed most of the financial gain 215.

End of the Policy of Endurance

After evidence emerged of Liu Hong’s collusion with King Landu and the Barbarian Tribe, Xiao Yuan killed him personally. Together with Xiao Jinghong’s killing of Zhu Hao, this ended the family’s ability to maintain its previous posture of weakness and restraint 301 344 345.

Xiao Yuan immediately sent Xiao Shen, Xiao Xuanshuo, and other core members to seek support from Shuzhou’s aristocratic families. The emperor’s punishment amounted to docking the family’s pay for three years—a light response that worried Xiao Yuan rather than reassuring him 346 350.

The affair restored much of the family’s public prestige. Local families sent gifts to repair relations, and guests at a later family banquet brought offerings even more lavish than those presented for Xiao Yuan’s birthday 349 391.

Rescue and Rebuilding

Xiao Jinghong entrusted the rescue of her parents to Chen Yu, one of Chen Yi’s identities. Chen Yi freed Xiao Fengchun and Fu Wanqing by posing as the Cui Family’s guest official Song Jin Jian, after which Jinghong escorted them secretly back to Xiao Manor 428 517.

Their return was deliberately concealed. Rumors nevertheless brought spies and intruders to the estate, including an expert whom Xiao Yuan believed could have overwhelmed the household without Tang Wansha’s presence 524 531 532.

By this stage, Xiao Yuan had regained his health and ambition, Jinghong commanded the Three Towns’ troops, and the family’s finances had improved. Jinghong subsequently proposed training 10,000 elite soldiers in small detachments along the Tea Horse Road, while Fengchun trained selected military elites to gather information in Capital Prefecture and Qinghe 554 587.

Organization and Members

Family Branches

Key Personnel

Rules and Household Customs

• Restricted martial instruction: Chen Yi initially receives only foundational training. More advanced techniques require achievement or meritorious service, and ordinary servants cannot observe instruction 5.
• Ancestral-hall privilege: At Xiao Yuan’s birthday observance, only the legitimate children of the Main Branch accompany him inside. Xiao Xuanshuo, the Second Branch, and Chen Yi are excluded 58.
• Disciplinary authority: The Disciplinary Hall handles conduct considered damaging to the family’s reputation. Proposed punishments include heavy-staff beatings and banishment 32.
• Treatment of servants: Chen Yi observes that the household generally treats its servants well, contrasting its conduct with the harsher treatment he believes other clans would impose 2 5 258.

Military and Intelligence

Dingyuan Army

The family’s hereditary command covers Shuzhou’s three military towns: Iron Wall, Azure Wolf, and Black Armored Army 11.

• Deployment restrictions: Mobilization requires the combined tiger tallies of the Xiao Family, the Vermilion Bird Guard, and the Shuzhou Commander’s Office. The family cannot lawfully deploy the Three Towns’ soldiers on its own 275.
• Reconstruction: During the Liu Family conflict, the army has only recently restored its structure and still needs time to recuperate 119.
• Later command: Xiao Jinghong commands the Three Towns’ troops as the family’s position improves 554.
• Expansion plan: Jinghong proposes training 10,000 elite soldiers along the Tea Horse Road despite the risk of imperial displeasure 587.

Shadow Guards and Dark Hall

• Shadow Guards: Xiao Jing’s intelligence network covers Shuzhou. Its reach requires substantial recurring expenditure and remains far smaller than the White Tiger Guard’s 275.
• Infiltration: Improved finances allow agents to penetrate the Wan Family, Liu Family, and local government offices 275.
• Dark Hall: Reports on Xiao Wang’s return to Shuzhou and his intended business at the Wushan Mutual Market 572.
• Limitations: Outside Shuzhou, the family has prestige but cannot reliably obtain practical assistance or official conveniences 556.

Holdings and Income

• Limited land accumulation: Xiao Jing explains that the family’s modest landed holdings reflect unwillingness to buy up farmland, rather than an inability to do business 261.
• Political vulnerability of trade: Critics attack the Mountain Tribe partnership, while the new Surveillance Commissioner’s accusations against the tribe also serve to undermine the Xiao Family 446.

External Relationships

• Chen Family of Jiangnan — Marriage ally through Chen Yi, but also part of the original plan to replace the Xiaos in Shuzhou. Chen Xuanji later confirms that the takeover became unnecessary once the Xiao Family’s circumstances improved 525 528.
• White Tiger Guard — Co-organizer of the takeover scheme. Chen Yi later seeks its assistance to protect the family, with Chen Xuanji making his help conditional on a chess match 528.
• Qinghe Cui Family — Principal enemy behind schemes that nearly destroyed the household and left Fengchun and Wanqing imprisoned. The Xiaos seek evidence against the Cuis while avoiding an immediate open confrontation 517 587 600.
• Liu Family of Jingzhou — Rival that attacks the family’s medicine trade and finances. Its Shuzhou position collapses during the wider conflict surrounding Liu Hong 119 215 391.
• Zhang Xuan and the Duke of Qianguo’s household — Connected by marriage to the Second Branch. Zhang Xuan promises grain and silver, while Xiao Yuan later offers to repay expenses incurred by the displaced branch 50 261 351.
• Mountain Tribe — Partner in the Wushan Mutual Market. Their trade agreement becomes both a source of prosperity and a target for political criticism 119 351 446.
• Wind and Rain Tower — Publicly recognized as having close ties with the family. Banquet guests regard its many martial experts as a valuable source of support 397.
• Zhao Lie, Marquis Zhaowu — Visits after Zhao Yi’s death. Rather than blaming the Xiao Family, he attributes his son’s fate to hostile schemes and seeks an explanation from the authorities 600.

Reputation

• Regional dominance: Deep military, official, and marriage connections lead outsiders to describe the family as Shuzhou’s “local emperor” 165.
• Public loyalty: Residents credit the family with defending Shuzhou. After Liu Hong’s crimes become known, townspeople praise Xiao Yuan’s response to grain-price manipulation and epidemic poison 89 349.
• Restraint toward civilians: Yang Ye distinguishes the Xiaos from corrupt local departments, observing that they have neither broken faith nor brought disorder to their region 366.
• Prestige versus strength: After Liu Hong’s death, outsiders interpret the family’s decline as a deliberate disguise. Xiao Yuan privately acknowledges that its actual strength still falls short of its former position as a household with two marquises and several Upper Three Grades martial artists 345.

Notable Quotes

“A conflict between the Xiao and Liu Families in Shuzhou benefits neither Shuzhou nor our Xiao Family.”
— Xiao Jinghong 119

“From here on, whether thunderbolts or rain and dew fall, this old man must bear them. Our Xiao Family... no longer has any road of retreat.”
— Xiao Yuan 345

“Senior, I am in the Xiao Family now. Naturally, my heart is with them.”
— Chen Yi 528