What is "the Martyred"?

I have read up to pg. 88 in Richard Kim's The Martyred; up to this point in the story I have started to question more and more: Who is/are "the martyred" in the story? The term martyred leads me to believe that it must be an action of some kind, but this is not quite right because usually a martyr is a person. I also think that martyred  in a sense is non-descriptive because at this point I'm not sure if Kim intends for us to believe that "the martyred" is one person or multiple. Usually my association with a martyr is someone who died for their religious cause, or at least some cause.

However, from where I have read up to even Colonel Chang has said that all 14 ministers are martyrs, even though two of them survived. But what else is Colonel Chang hiding? What is his hidden agenda? I find him the most confusing because his ideas seem to go in many directions. He is a hard character to know what he really believes, and how much of an act he puts on.

 How do the 14 ministers fit into the title of the novel? In the end will all of them be recognized as part of "the martyred"? Or will this take on another meaning as the story progresses? At the moment I am leaning more towards Kim creating a different meaning that goes beyond a dictionary definition of martyr, and thus "the martyred." But how will this happen? And how great of a role will Captain Lee fit into the uncovering of "the martyred"?

At the moment I want to believe that the term "the martyred" will some how connect Minister Shin and Captain Lee together in some inexplicable way because so much of the story thus far has focused a lot of energy on these two characters. This is why I believe that my concept of martyr and then my connecting it to "martyred" will somehow change once I read further into the story.