Shanghai Rite of the Templar Order
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- "The Assassins claim they protect the innocents. Let us show them that their actions have consequences. Arrest everyone! Burn all the ships to ashes and find me the Assassin!"
- ―Qiu Ju after the murder of Yu Dayong, 1526.[src]
The Chinese Templars were the members of one of the autonomous factions comprising the Templar Order in China.
History
In the 3rd century BCE, Chinese Templars supported the reign of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China under the Qin Dynasty, and his Templar backing ensured the realization of his reforms and constructions, such as the Great Wall of China.[1] The Emperor was later killed by the Assassin Wei Yu in 210 BCE.[2]
In 1402, the Templars played a key role in the ascension of the Yongle Emperor, who started his reign with a purge of the Chinese Assassin Brotherhood, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Chinese citizens including the Assassin leader Fang Xiaoru. In 1424, one of the purge's survivors, the Assassin Li Tong, killed the Emperor in the Gobi Desert.[3]
By the reign of the Zhengde Emperor, the Chinese imperial court was ruled by the Eight Tigers, a group of powerful Templar eunuchs.[4] In 1524, after Zhengde was succeeded by the puppet Jiajing Emperor, the Templars manipulated him into initiating a purge of the Chinese Assassin Brotherhood. Subsequently, the Templars sent squads of Chinese soldiers to hunt down the rare survivor who was scattered throughout the world, even to Europe.[5]
Two years later, the surviving Assassin Shao Jun, returned to China to rebuild her Brotherhood and exact revenge on the Tigers, tracking them one by one. In retaliation for her killing Yu Dayong, Qiu Ju ordered his men to set the port of Macau ablaze to show the Assassin the consequence of her actions.[4]