Escort Agency Adventures: The Story of Tongxing

The Escort Road: The Story of Tongxing Gong is a historical wuxia novel set during the Qing Dynasty, from the Xianfeng to Guangxu reigns. It tells the legendary story of the Tongxing Gong Escort Agency in Pingyao, Shanxi, from its founding to its peak.

In the fifth year of the Xianfeng reign, “Divine Fist” Wang Zhengqing founded the Tongxing Gong Escort Agency in the ancient city of Pingyao. He established its reputation on “trust and honor,” and in thirty years the agency never lost a single shipment, eventually becoming the foremost escort agency in North China. Beginning with Wang Zhengqing's son, Wang Shumao, taking over the business, the novel depicts the wisdom and codes of honor that allowed the agency to survive in troubled times. From the dangers of escorting imperial tributes to the strategies of guarding estates; from rivalries with Shanxi merchant banks to feuds and romances with outlaws, every escort job is a life-or-death trial.

In the Gengzi year, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, and Empress Dowager Cixi fled west to Pingyao. The Tongxing Gong Escort Agency generously loaned her three hundred thousand taels of silver and escorted her all the way to Xi'an, earning fame across the land. This historical event serves as the novel's climax, revealing the agency's sense of responsibility and the choices it faced in a time of national crisis.

Blending real historical sources with wuxia imagination, this book offers both the thrill of blades flashing in the martial world and the drama of commercial battles between banks and money houses. It portrays the escort guards' steadfast courage as well as the shifting fates of ordinary people in troubled times. A sweeping portrait of late Qing merchants from Shanxi and the escort trade, and an enduring anthem to honor and trust in the martial world.