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Description

China is well-known as a country with a long, complex history. And much of that history has been influenced by the war between the Assassins and the Templars, like when the Assassin, Wei Yu, killed the tyrannical Emperor Qin Shi Huang with a spear in 210 BC. But some of the most famous accounts of Assassin activities in China come from the Ming Dynasty, which was founded when Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang took power in 1368. In 1402, the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di, took power with the help of his Templar allies. As emperor, Yongle had thousands of Assassins arrested and executed, including their leader, Fang Xiaoru. An Assassin named Li Tong managed to escape the purge, and eventually assassinated Yongle in 1424 while he was trying to suppress a rebellion in the Gobi Desert.

In 1521, the Jiajing Emperor and Templar puppet, Zhu Houcong, took the throne. During his reign, a Templar organization known as the Eight Tigers set up the Great Rights Controversy, an operation organized to eradicate all of their political enemies, including the Assassins. The Tigers slandered and/or executed several allies of the Assassin, Wang Yangming, who was able to escape the initial purge with the help of a concubine spy named Shao Jun. Jun would eventually be rescued from the Emperor by the Assassins, and she gladly joined them in order to help free China from the Templars.

But the Tigers eventually grew too strong, too influential, and the Assassin mentor, Zhu Jiuyuan, realized that they'd need to seek help in order to avoid being completely destroyed in China. He and Shao Jun traveled westward in 1524 in order to find the legendary Italian mentor, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Unfortunately, Zhu was killed in Venice by a Templar ambush, but Jun managed to escape. She eventually arrived in Tuscany and found Ezio, who by then had retired from the Brotherhood, at his villa with his family. Ezio was hesitant to take on a new apprentice after settling down, but his wife Sofia managed to convince him to teach Jun. And so Ezio taught Jun the true meaning of the Creed and what it means to be an Assassin, devoting oneself to freedom, kindness, and fraternity. After a few fights with Templar agents, Jun decided it was best to head home with everything she'd been taught. Ezio gave her a mysterious box, a Precursor relic, before she left, telling her never to open it unless she lost her way.

Jun arrived back in China in 1526, meeting up with Yang Wangming to form a plan to take back their nation. Using the Box as bait, Jun allowed herself to be captured by Gao Feng, one of the Eight Tigers. She escaped and killed Feng before meeting again with Wang, who had killed the Tiger, Ma Yongcheng. Jun later tracked down the Tiger who had claimed the Box, Yu Dayong, and reclaimed it after killing him. In retaliation, a Tiger named Qiu Ju burned the city of Macuo to the ground, killing many innocents, much to Jun’s dismay. Three years later, Jun killed the Tiger, Wei Bin, who revealed with his dying breath a plot to kill Wang Yangming and take the Precursor Box. Jun tried to stop this plot, but found she was too late. Jun realized her quest for vengeance had blinded her judgement, and that it was only hurting those she cared about. She cast aside her vendetta, and instead swore to kill the Tigers for the good of China and its people. By 1530, Jun was the very last of her Brotherhood.

Later that year, she was contacted by her old friend, Empress Zhang, who said she had a lead on the leader of the Tigers, Zhang Yong. Unfortunately, she entered the Forbidden City only to find herself walking into a Templar trap, the Tigers forcing Zhang to lure her friend there. Jun fought off the Templars, killing Qiu Ju in the process, forgave her old friend and went after Zhang. She cornered him on the Great Wall in 1532, discovering that he planned to allow the Mongol army to invade China in a last-ditch attempt to reclaim the power that the Assassins had taken from him. Jun killed him during the Mongol bombardment, and learned that he had sent the Precursor Box far away. But Jun didn't care about the relic anymore. She cared about China's people, and vowed to rebuild her Brotherhood and fix all the damage done by the Templars.

As mentor, Jun allowed the Assassins to thrive. The Assassins later recovered the Box, which stayed in their hands for at least a century after Jun’s death, when it was brought to North America on the Manila Galleons. In 1567, Jun had the Jiajing Emperor poisoned with mercury, the latter believing the concoction to be “the elixir of life”.

The Ming Dynasty officially collapsed in 1644, when the Manchu conquered the Ming to form the Qing Dynasty.

Description

China is well-known as a country with a long, complex history. And much of that history has been influenced by the war between the Assassins and the Templars, like when the Assassin, Wei Yu, killed the tyrannical Emperor Qin Shi Huang with a spear in 210 BC. But some of the most famous accounts of Assassin activities in China come from the Ming Dynasty, which was founded when Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang took power in 1368. In 1402, the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di, took power with the help of his Templar allies. As emperor, Yongle had thousands of Assassins arrested and executed, including their leader, Fang Xiaoru. An Assassin named Li Tong managed to escape the purge, and eventually assassinated Yongle in 1424 while he was trying to suppress a rebellion in the Gobi Desert.

In 1521, the Jiajing Emperor and Templar puppet, Zhu Houcong, took the throne. During his reign, a Templar organization known as the Eight Tigers set up the Great Rights Controversy, an operation organized to eradicate all of their political enemies, including the Assassins. The Tigers slandered and/or executed several allies of the Assassin, Wang Yangming, who was able to escape the initial purge with the help of a concubine spy named Shao Jun. Jun would eventually be rescued from the Emperor by the Assassins, and she gladly joined them in order to help free China from the Templars.

But the Tigers eventually grew too strong, too influential, and the Assassin mentor, Zhu Jiuyuan, realized that they'd need to seek help in order to avoid being completely destroyed in China. He and Shao Jun traveled westward in 1524 in order to find the legendary Italian mentor, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Unfortunately, Zhu was killed in Venice by a Templar ambush, but Jun managed to escape. She eventually arrived in Tuscany and found Ezio, who by then had retired from the Brotherhood, at his villa with his family. Ezio was hesitant to take on a new apprentice after settling down, but his wife Sofia managed to convince him to teach Jun. And so Ezio taught Jun the true meaning of the Creed and what it means to be an Assassin, devoting oneself to freedom, kindness, and fraternity. After a few fights with Templar agents, Jun decided it was best to head home with everything she'd been taught. Ezio gave her a mysterious box, a Precursor relic, before she left, telling her never to open it unless she lost her way.

Jun arrived back in China in 1526, meeting up with Yang Wangming to form a plan to take back their nation. Using the Box as bait, Jun allowed herself to be captured by Gao Feng, one of the Eight Tigers. She escaped and killed Feng before meeting again with Wang, who had killed the Tiger, Ma Yongcheng. Jun later tracked down the Tiger who had claimed the Box, Yu Dayong, and reclaimed it after killing him. In retaliation, a Tiger named Qiu Ju burned the city of Macuo to the ground, killing many innocents, much to Jun’s dismay. Three years later, Jun killed the Tiger, Wei Bin, who revealed with his dying breath a plot to kill Wang Yangming and take the Precursor Box. Jun tried to stop this plot, but found she was too late. Jun realized her quest for vengeance had blinded her judgement, and that it was only hurting those she cared about. She cast aside her vendetta, and instead swore to kill the Tigers for the good of China and its people. By 1530, Jun was the very last of her Brotherhood.

Later that year, she was contacted by her old friend, Empress Zhang, who said she had a lead on the leader of the Tigers, Zhang Yong. Unfortunately, she entered the Forbidden City only to find herself walking into a Templar trap, the Tigers forcing Zhang to lure her friend there. Jun fought off the Templars, killing Qiu Ju in the process, forgave her old friend and went after Zhang. She cornered him on the Great Wall in 1532, discovering that he planned to allow the Mongol army to invade China in a last-ditch attempt to reclaim the power that the Assassins had taken from him. Jun killed him during the Mongol bombardment, and learned that he had sent the Precursor Box far away. But Jun didn't care about the relic anymore. She cared about China's people, and vowed to rebuild her Brotherhood and fix all the damage done by the Templars.

As mentor, Jun allowed the Assassins to thrive. The Assassins later recovered the Box, which stayed in their hands for at least a century after Jun’s death, when it was brought to North America on the Manila Galleons. In 1567, Jun had the Jiajing Emperor poisoned with mercury, the latter believing the concoction to be “the elixir of life”.

The Ming Dynasty officially collapsed in 1644, when the Manchu conquered the Ming to form the Qing Dynasty.