Mountain Cloud Boys (山雲男孩)

There are three Triad factions in San Fierro consisting of a set hierarchy with small sets answering to larger sets; the Blood Feather Triad, which would later be slaughtered by their rivals, the Da Nang Boys; the Red Gecko Tong, which is led by Ran Fa Li; and the Mountain Cloud Boys (山雲男孩). The most prominent gang in the group, the Mountain Cloud Boys, is operated by the blind Wu Zi Mu and answers to the Red Gecko Tong.

The sets of the Triads are heavily involved in joint operations. The Mountain Cloud Boys establish an alliance with the Red Gecko Tong. The SF Triads are also allied with the Grove Street Families, and are having problems with the Mafia, and are enemies with the Da Nang Boys. They seem to have problems with the San Fierro Rifa too.

In addition to their bases of operations in San Fierro, the Triads also own and operate a casino hotel venture called The Four Dragons Casino on the southern tip of The Strip in Las Venturas; ownership is shared between Wu Zi Mu and Ran Fa Li. Because of intense Mafia pressure in the city, the Triads attempted to flex their muscles to show the Mafia that they can hold their own casino on The Strip. While the Triad's prime business is gambling, Wu Zi Mu has shown motivations towards robbery and street racing.

The Liberty City Influence

The Liberty City Triads were a start of a revolution, marking the professionalism and ownership of the group at an early stage. They operate out of the Chinatown district in Algonquin as well as parts of Dukes in Liberty City. They are mostly involved with drug shipping. The LCPD database states that there are three different sets of the Triads. The most important group of Triads are under Hsin Jaoming and his son Chan Jaoming. Another group is led by Wu "Kenny" Lee and his nephew Huang Lee. The third group is controlled by Zhou Ming. The Jaoming Family is said to supply most of the street gangs with narcotics.

The Fall of The Triads (2009-2010)

Mr. Lee, father of Huang Lee and top contender to replace the retiring Hsin Jaoming as Triad leader, is murdered under mysterious circumstances in Kowloon. Huang travels to Liberty City in 2009 to deliver his father's sword, Yu Jian, to the new head of the Lee family, Uncle Wu "Kenny" Lee, who intends to present it to Hsin in order to gain favor for the position of Triad boss. Unbeknownst to Hsin, the sword is actually worthless, its tradition having been invented by Mr. Lee after he won it in a card game. As Huang Lee arrives at Francis International Airport, he is ambushed by several mysterious thugs, who steal the sword and leave Huang for dead.

Having fallen out of favor with Hsin for the loss of the sword, Kenny enlists his nephew's help in regaining lost territory and reputation, while Huang continues his search for both the thieves who stole Yu Jian (leaving him for dead) and the identity of his father's killer. He goes on to work for top Triad lieutenants Chan Jaoming, the feeble-minded son of Hsin with a penchant for street races, who often employs Huang to clean up his mistakes - including rescuing Chan from the Irish-American Killers, who have kidnapped him, destroying Chan's contraband before the FIB get their hands on it, and using Huang to wipe out a large number of Chan's entourage in a surprise ambush at Happiness Island after it was revealed that one of his top men was an FIB informant - and Zhou Ming, a narcissist who sometimes displays borderline psychotic behavior and is involved in audacious endeavours, including committing a bank robbery and using a Chinese Red Dragon costume to escape the police, arranging for Huang to hijack an ambulance containing an old friend of Zhou's from Francis International Airport which is then delivered to his club in East Island City, and sending Huang to retrieve the cargo from his destroyed contraband boat. The Algonquin Triads also frequently come under attack by the Spanish Lords, who have long been enemies of the Triads. The Spanish Lords interfere with Triad business in many ways: by turning on Chan and Huang at a drug deal between the two parties in Northwood, by attacking Uncle Kenny's merchandise at his East Island City warehouse, and by sabotaging a speedboat that Chan had stolen from them, leading to an attempt to assassinate him on open water.

Huang Lee later inadvertently sabotages the Triads' truce with the Messina's, after almost killing Jimmy Capra, a made man in the Messina crime family, on Rudy D'Avanzo's orders. In order to redeem himself, Huang assassinates Rudy D'Avanzo.

Immigration

Upon murdering his Uncle, Huang became the head of the family tree, thus making him a high valued target amongst rival gangs. Just before killing his Uncle, Huang had arranged a flight to San Fierro to meet with one of his dearest friends, Shu Xi Xong - who was the follow-up leader of the Mountain Cloud Boys, a group that had dominance primarly in San Fierro and Los Santos. Upon meeting with Shu Xi Xong, Huang was introduced to Wu Zi Mu, the old-head of the gang. Wu Zi Mu was quick to acknowledge Huang's potential however still had doubt as the rumors about him working with the FIB would still roam around. Wu Zi had to prove Huang's loyalty and strength, forcing him to go through the 49 oaths which was relevant and quite new at the time -
it consisted of 10 stages. Upon getting through the 49 oaths, Huang would get assassinated by a rival gang known as the Da Nang Boyz, further fueling the fire and tension between the Traids and Da Nang Boyz.

49 Oaths

The 49 oaths are a newly imported technique used by Triads to initiate loyal members into their gang, it consists of ten stages.

The first stage of the 49 oaths was to plead loyalty to the gang and refer to his fellow members as family, the second stage was to cut ties with any friends and family members so that it would be easier for him to perform certain tasks. The third stage was to carry out a task given by the Shan Chu, which would prove to be extremely difficult seeing the circumstances, no weapons or assistance shall be given out during this task, the individual must finish it in five hours minimum. If he were to fail, he would have to re-do the 49 oaths. The fourth stage was to draw blood from the finger that pulled / is going to pull the trigger, upon doing so, the individual is given a small amount of his own blood, which he must use to sign a contract with. If the individual were to ran out of blood or if the blood drained, he would have to repeat the 49 oaths. The fifth stage would be to set the contract on fire whilst holding it in his hands until the fire burns out - at this point, any signs of pain would be considered weakness, if the individual was to let that become noticable, he would fail the 49 oaths. The sixth stage was to walk through a room filled with cockroaches fully naked, this would serve as an example of what would happen if the individual were to mess up with the gang. It is impossible to fail this stage as it only lasts a minute. The seventh stage included all the higher members to beat the individual with hot metal in an alleyway in cold weather, fully naked. This would serve as another example of what would happen if you were to mess up with the gang. The eight, ninth and tenth stages consisted of reading out the 49 oaths, studying them and performing a ritual where the individual had to drink a glass of chicken blood mixed with every other member's blood. If the individual was to fail the final stage, he would be executed.

The Structural Composition

Numeric codes are used by the Triads to differentiate between the positions and ranks within the organization. The Chinese numerology based on Ching inspires these numbers.

The Mountain or the Dragon Master is coded by 489 and 438 is used for Deputy Mountain Master. So a 438 will denote a Grass Slipper, the Mountain master’s proxy, the Incense Master who oversees inductions and the Vanguard who assists the Incense Master.

The Red Pole or the Military Commander china who oversee the offensive and defensive operations is referred to by the number 426.

A soldier or any rank and file member is known by 49.

The White Paper Fan known by 415 advices on the business and financial front and the Straw Sandal known by 432 caters as a liaison between the different units.

An undercover law enforcement agent or spy from a different Triad is called 25 and is popularly known as snitch in Hong Kong.

The uninitiated members just like the Mafia associates are known as Blue Lanterns do not have any code.