Wandering Warrior by Da ChenLuka has been reared for his entire life, eleven years, by his servant, named Atami, who calls Luka "Your Holiness" and tells him that he, Luka, is the emperor of China, as foretold by a prophecy, which says that the one with five moles under each foot will be the greatest emperor. At the outset of this story, however, Atami is only a beggar, and Luka and Atami sometimes go hungry. One day, Luka and his two ragamuffin go to watch beggars at the Mogo garrison, and they see Atami defending a woman's home from being demolished. Luka attacks the Mogo warriors threatening Atami, and Atami is forced to show his real powers, which he gets from Yin Gong, which appears to be a power related to Kung Fu. Atami defeats the warriors, but now that the Mogo emperor Ghengi knows of their presence, he is wary. When Atami tries to do a funeral ritual for a woman, Ghengi and his warriors come in, claiming that they have outlawed the ritual. Atami is captured and Luka tries to hide with a fur merchant. The fur merchant betrays him, and Luka is sentenced to death, suspended for six months so that he can serve as a miner.
Luka goes on to escape with the help of the Yin Gong master who had taught Atami, who had been imprisoned by Ghengi fifteen years earlier. After being taught Yin Gong by his grandmaster, Luka and the grandmaster go to a Wu Xia temple which is doubling as an orphanage because of the number of orphans under Ghengi's rule. Luka goes on to have many more adventures, none of which he really wanted to have, and I won't spoil the ending.
I don't know how much of this book is fact and how much is fantasy and fiction. The Mogos under Ghengi are almost definitely a reference to the Mongols, possibly under Ghengis Khan. I recognize a little of the Chinese from a Chinese class I took, and the author, as it says on the back cover, was born in China near a temple.
Happy reading.
