Ma Jianguo (17 March 1617 – 22 June 1722) was the Mentor of the Chinese Assassins from 1645 to 1722. His tenure as Mentor saw the Manchu Dynasty conquer the Ming Empire of China and the Templar Order puppet Wu Sangui lead the Manchu into China before attempting to seize power himself. Jianguo died at the age of 105.
Biography[]
Ma Jianguo was born on 17 March 1617 in Yangzhou in the Ming Empire. His father Ma Jianling was a member of the Assassin Order, and he trained Jianguo in the arts of the Assassins as a child, educating him on the history of the order. Jianguo learned how to use stealth and how to perform leaps of faith at the age of ten, and he learned how to use hidden blades at the age of 13. As a young man he mastered the arts of the Assassin, which would prove critical to his future involvement in crises around the country.
In 1634, when he turned seventeen, Jianguo was sent on his first assassination. Ji Shenguan, a visiting eunuch who had sway over Emperor Chongzhen, was in the city of Yangzhou to inspect a wine festival. Jianguo's father told him to carry out his assassination as he had taught him to: silently and without open conflict. Jianguo was able to enter a private room when Shenguan was escorted there by a courtesan, killing the two guards outside before stabbing Shenguan inside of the room. Shenguan's death was critical to the Assassins' short-term victory, as the Templars no longer had the emperor in their pocket. However, the Templars decided to overthrow the Ming and install themselves in control of the country after a civil war.
Over the next year, Jianguo continued training with his father to become an even better assassin. But in 1636, things took a turn for the worse. The Manchu Dynasty to the north invaded Manchuria and was able to proclaim the Qing Dynasty with the help of local officials who had deserted from the Ming cause. One of these men was Dong Fanchu, a brutal warrior-turned-barrister. Fanchu lived in a heavily-guarded castle in the Manchurian city of Harbin, so Jianguo needed a little extra stopping power. Fortunately for him, he learned that an English mariner named John Weddell was arriving in China, where he gave eyeglasses to the people in a trade. Jianguo hurried to meet him, and he told Weddell (formerly an Assassin associate) of his problem with the Templars. Weddell agreed to give Jianguo the recipes to European firearms and bombs in exchange for helping him solve problems with his ship, which was damaged by the Portuguese and the Templars in Canton. Jianguo was given a musket as well, and was able to test it a few times before Weddell left him to his own device.
Now armed with a weapon and the knowledge of how to create more, Jianguo set about dealing with the castle. He succeeded in infiltrating the walls and killing the guards there, spiking the cannon that the Manchu obtained from the Portuguese. Now that the cannon were gone, Jianguo could escape easily. In order to distract the guards, Jianguo set off a series of firecrackers on the eastern wall, luring the guards away. With the guards drawn away, Jianguo was able to climb the castle to the third floor, where Fanchu was located. Fanchu had little time to recognize the Assassin before he was shot with a musket and killed. Jianguo proceeded to steal a horse and escape the castle, killing many guards in the process; the loud bang! that shook the castle with the musket shot was heard by many. Jianguo was able to escape from the castle and avoided the guards, losing them in the city. Jianguo then searched for a way that he could remain in the area to continue his hunt. Fortunately, he was able to take refuge in an Assassin Den in the city, where he wrote to his father, telling him that he planned to eradicate the Templar Manchu threat before coming home.
Jianguo lived in peace for two years, planning out his next moves. In 1639, the Templars conquered Korea, forcing the Choson Empire to become a vassal state. The leader of the Qing army was Yu Jianshan, a gruff member of the Templar Order who wanted to become a powerful Chinese ruler with their help. His successes on the battlefield were unparalleled, and he was considered by the Manchu as a suitable heir to the dynasty. In 1640, Jianguo found out that Yu Jianshan was planning an invasion of China alongside a large army of Manchu warriors. Jianguo teamed up with local Qing forces to hold the Manchu back at the Shanhaiguan Pass. The Manchu were held back due to the experience of the Qing units and Jianguo's leadership, and he was able to strike at Jianshan with a crossbow. Jianshan was hit in the chest with a bolt and fell to the ground, and Jianguo finished him off with his hidden blades. His death weakened the Templar invasion of China, but it was far from over.
With Jianshan dead, the Manchu were held back temporarily. However, in 1641 a large disease struck China along the Grand Canal, from Beijing to Jiangnan. In some places, 90% of the populace died of the illness. Jianguo was able to survive this, leaving Shanhaiguan for the his home of Yangzhou again. There, he was able to talk with his father again, having not seen him in five years. Jianguo told him about his targets and about what he had found out. With the Ming regent of China dead in 1634, the Ming were weakened, as a bad regent was better than an infant emperor. The Templars turned to the Manchu, but their administration in Manchuria was weakened with the death of a pro-Manchu traitorous official. The Templar general was killed and his army routed in the major pass that controlled access to China. However, the problem of internal decay still remained. Jianguo discused these matters with his father, who told him that he had to watch his back; the water epidemic was not the only illness that affected China.
In 1642, Li Zicheng began an uprising against the Ming in Sichuan Province. The people supported him, but the Ming Empire flooded the city and killed 300,000 people. The brutal repression of the revolt was the work of Xie Jiangjun, a general of the Ming. He chose the tactic to stir up anti-Ming hatred, which would allow the Manchu to take over China as if it were slipping on a glove. Jianguo traveled to Kaifeng in haste, hoping to catch him before he left so that he could find out more of the Templar plot. He failed to catch him in the flooded city, but headed to the capital of Beijing when he found out from an officer there that he was going to meet with top generals. Jianguo overheard a meeting between Jiangjun, general Wu Sangui, medician Xiang Panzhou, Portuguese government official Benicio da Silva, and a few Templar couriers in a castle there. Wu Sangui was to let the Manchu take over China by forfeiting the Shanhaiguan Pass, while Da Silva was to keep foreigners away from China during the Templar takeover. Xiang was ordered to find a cure for the disease so that the Manchu would not be affected by it. The meeting ended with "May the Father of Understanding Guide Us", the Templar motto, and the people left. Jianguo was successful in sneaking into Jiangjun's carriage before he entered, and Jianguo killed him with his hidden blades silently. He silently exited the carriage, and nobody noticed that a murder had taken place.
Jianguo had more names on his list, and he unraveled the conspiracy. However, in 1643 Xiang Panzhou was allowed to become the custodian of the young Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty, whose father Hong Taiji died of natural causes that year. Jianguo set out for Harbrin to deal with this threat, meeting up with the Assassins there. Jianguo learned from Huang Zhen, a local Assassin leader, that Panzhou often took Shunzhi on walks around the palace. Jianguo was able to assassinate Panzhou with a blowpipe dart that slowly killed him. Nobody suspected murder, and Jianguo was able to escape from the palace without attention. Next, he had to focus on Da Silva.
Da Silva, an ordained priest as well as a politician, was corrupt in both duties. He inspected the port of Canton and destroyed all Spanish, Dutch, and English shipping after stealing the goods for himself. Jianguo was able to catch him in the act of one of the inspections and killed him on the deck of a Spanish merchant ship with his sword. Da Silva's death opened the port back up to foreign trade, and the Templars were unable to stop foreign influence from polluting the country. In fact, the Ming general Koxinga used Spanish aid to fight against the Manchu shortly after.
Wu Sangui was the only remaining target, but Jianguo was unable to catch him before the year of 1644. On 25 April of that year, Li Zicheng's rebel forces sacked Beijing and Chongzhen, the Templar puppet, committed suicide. Wu Sangui opened the gates of Shanhaiguan to the Manchu and defeated Li Zicheng's rebel forces, and the Manchu army fanned out across China, while using Beijing as their capital. Shunzhi was enthroned as the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty that ruled all of China, and the Templars seemed set to take over.
Jianguo decided to return to Yangzhou to meet with his father and discuss his next move. With Wu Sangui as a powerful leader and all of the other targets dead, Jianguo needed to find out what to do next. However, when he returned home he saw the army of Prince Dodo massacring the people of Yangzhou. 800,000 people, including his father, were killed in the massacre. Jianguo confronted Qing captain Chen Dongbao and killed him with his own battleaxe as he laughed, getting revenge for his father. On his corpse, he found a letter from Wu Sangui to Prince Dodo, telling him that he was made the regent over China by the Templars, and that Wu would crush the remaining rebels for him.
Jianguo had done most of the work against the Templars by himself, so he decided to expand his network. He created his own rite of Assassins in the ruins of Yangzhou, with around 10 apprentices at first, but it later expanded to 700. Jianguo's large network spread out to Harbin in Manchuria, the capital of Beijing, and Canton. His ring of Assassins reformed the Chinese Assassins and he was made the new Mentor of the Chinese Assassins, leading them into a new era. In 1649, one of his apprentices poisoned Prince Dodo, whose death was caused by smallpox spread by the poison. In the 1650s and 1660s, Jianguo sent his apprentices on missions that took place not only in China, but also spreading to Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and India. The Templar rites in these countries were weakened by the activities of the new Assassins of China, who grew stronger and stronger. In 1661, the Assassins were able to assassinate the Shunzhi Emperor, clearing way for a new and stronger emperor: Kangxi. Independent and young, Kangxi was to prove a great leader of China.
In 1662, Koxinga conquered Taiwan for the Ming, re-establishing Ming control over the island. His rule threatened to overthrow the Kangxi Emperor, so he was poisoned by the Assassins. Jianguo was now 45, and growing older and older, almost too old to take part in the same assassin activities that he did when he was younger. He directed his order in many activities afterwards, but in 1673, he faced a huge challenge.
Wu Sangui, Geng Jingzhong, and Shang Zhixin, known as the Three Feudatories, rose up in rebellion in southern China against the Kangxi Emperor. Now that Wu was no longer affiliated with the emperor and was now a rebel, Ma decided to take his revenge. In 1678, Jianguo headed inland to Hengzhou, where Wu Sangui set up his capital for the Great Zhou Dynasty. Jianguo was 62 years old now, and only a shell of what he used to be. However, Wu was 66 years old and a less-able fighter. Jianguo entered his castle claiming that he carried a message for him, and he encountered him in his dojo. Both of them drew swords, and they began a fight against each other. Jianguo and Sangui dueled until both of them were cut up and wounded, and both collapsed on the floor. But when Sangui told him that he would not live to see the new Templar world that he was going to create, Jianguo rolled over and stabbed Sangui with his hidden blades. Sangui was dead along with the Templars in China.
Now that Sangui was gone, Jianguo was able to return to Yangzhou, which was already being rebuilt. He was still the Assassin mentor, and he directed them in their missions across East Asia. Eventually, he was in semi-retirement, training and giving advice to new assassins, but he was bed-ridden by 1700. He died in 1722 at the age of 105, dying only six months before the Kangxi Emperor. He had overseen the growth of the Chinese Assassins into a strong base of freedom, and died having achieved his goals.