Gao Feng

"How naive, thinking you can retrieve the box. Thinking that killing me will achieve anything."

―Gao Feng to Shao Jun in his final moments, 1526.

Gao Feng (高鳳; died 1526) was one of the Eight Tigers, a group of powerful Templar eunuchs who controlled the Ming imperial court during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor. With the ascendance of the Jiajing Emperor in 1521, he played a role in the Great Rites Controversy, an event that saw the near-extermination of the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins.

Despite being one of the lesser Tigers, Feng was granted jurisdiction over the Gansu province. He also served as the warden of the Templar prison in the Maijishan Grottoes, formerly the headquarters of the Chinese Brotherhood. It was here that Feng was eventually slain by the Chinese Assassin Shao Jun in 1526, becoming the first of his compatriots to meet his end at the Assassin's blade during her quest for vengeance.

Biography

Warden of the Maijishan Grottoes

Feng: "Why continue to resist us? Look around you. No one is coming. We wiped out your Order. There is no escape from here."

Jun: "Why would I want to escape? I am exactly where I want to be."

—Gao Feng and Shao Jun exchanging words during the latter's imprisonment, 1526.

Though not as influential as the other Tigers, Gao Feng was still valued for his ability as an agent. He was competent and knew how to exercise discretion, and for this, he was given charge of the Gansu province by the Jiajing Emperor. There, he presided over the Maijishan Grottoes, turning the former base of the Assassins into a secret prison for the Templars' enemies.

Gao Feng interrogating a captive Shao Jun

In 1526, Feng's forces captured Shao Jun, one of the last surviving Chinese Assassins, and imprisoned her in the Maijishan dungeons. The Templar seized the prized Precursor box that she held, but to his frustration, it was empty. Concluding that it was incomplete, he interrogated Shao Jun for answers, but she refused to relent. Feng therefore left her in her hanging cage, intending to have her tortured by his fellow Tiger Ma Yongcheng later.

As he left the chamber, Feng was greeted by another Tiger, Qiu Ju, who had come to verify his claim that he had captured an Assassin. Feng proceeded to explain who Shao Jun was and how she had originally been a concubine in the court of the Zhengde Emperor, before dismissing her as being no major threat to them. The two Templars then discussed the Precursor box, which they believed to be the key to achieving the Order's vision of a New World Order, before Qiu Ju decided to return to Beijing, leaving the situation in Feng's hands.

Death

"You are the first of the Tigers to fall, but you will not be the last."

―Shao Jun to a dying Gao Feng, 1526.

Though Shao Jun had hinted at it earlier, Feng did not realize that the Assassin had intended to be caught. This not only allowed her to learn what the Templars understood about the box, but also to infiltrate his base and kill him. As soon as he had left her alone, Jun escaped from her cage and, after retrieving her equipment, made her way to the edge of a cliff, where Feng stood in solitude, gazing out at the landscape before him.

Gao Feng's final moments

Struck from behind by the Assassin's jian, Feng was taken by surprise and, though he attempted to fight back, he was quickly overpowered and stabbed through the back, then the heart. As the Templar lay dying, Shao Jun taunted him for falling into her trap while Feng in turn mocked her with the knowledge that she would never find the Precursor box, as he refused to disclose its location.

However, the Assassin already suspected that the box had been given to one of Feng's Tiger brothers and vowed to hunt down each of them until she recovered the artifact. With that, Feng passed away and Shao Jun made her escape, leaving his body to be discovered by the guards.

Behind the scenes

Gao Feng is a historical character featured in the 2015 video game Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China as the first assassination target. Although the game depicts Feng's death as occurring in 1526, historically he died 14 years earlier, in 1512.

His name as written in Chinese is 高鳳. The surname Gāo (高) means 'tall, high' while his personal name Fèng (鳳) is the term for a male phoenix.

In Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun, the 2019 manga adaptation of Chronicles: China, Gao Feng's death is portrayed slightly differently. After his conversation with Qiu Ju (which is not depicted in the game), Feng returns to Shao Jun's cage rather than head to the cliffside, only to find it empty and several dead guards lying around. He is then struck from behind and knocked to the ground by Shao Jun and, after an exchange similar to the one from the game, the Assassin ends Feng's life with a stab through the heart.

Gallery

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  Gao Feng holding the Precursor box
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  Shao Jun standing over a deceased Gao Feng

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun

Non-canonical appearances

• Assassin's Creed: The Ming Storm
• Assassin's Creed: Turbulence in the Ming Dynasty