Handcannon guard

A handcannon guard

A handcannon guard was a soldier of the Ming dynasty armed with a type of early firearm known as the hand cannon. They were a significant unit in the security detail of the Eight Tigers, a group of eunuchs who led the Chinese Rite of the Templar Order.

History

In 1524, a handcannon guard was among a team of Templar soldiers dispatched to hunt down the Assassins Zhu Jiuyuan and his apprentice Shao Jun after they escaped the purge of their Brotherhood. The team tracked their queries from China all the way to Italy. In Venice, they managed to kill Jiuyuan, but his pupil survived to meet the retired Assassin Mentor Ezio Auditore da Firenze at his villa in Tuscany, where she hoped to undergo further training.

The Templars launched a surprise attack on the villa at night, during which the handcannon guard took aim at Shao Jun while she was distracted from killing one of his squadmate. Ezio noticed this in time and pushed her out of the way of the blast. They then leapt out a window to take the fight outside the house. Although the hand cannon guard demonstrated fortitude by continuing to fight even after Ezio stabbed his eye with a short blade, he perished after rushing headlong into his foe's sword while trying to pin him to a tree.

Under the reign of the Jiajing Emperor, handcannon guards were a regular presence in Ming cities and fortresses, providing them with heavy security. They were posted at gates like the one in Nan'an that Shao Jun had to sneak through on her mission to assassinate Wei Bin, one of the Eight Tigers. Wei Bin himself had a security team of three handcannon guards protecting him, but they all fell to Shao Jun. Likewise, they served as the closest bodyguards to the Eight Tigers Qiu Ju and Zhang Yong, but all failed in protecting their masters from Shao Jun.

Appearances

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