Duan Ziguang
Duan Ziguang (段子光; died 756) was a member of the Yeluohe, the elite forces of the An Lushan Rebellion. He was a messenger tasked with coercing the restive commanderies still loyal to the Tang into surrendering to An Lushan's new regime, the Yan. In this endeavour, he met his demise in Pingyuan Commandery when he was ambushed by the revived Chinese Assassins while meeting with the grand protector Yan Zhenqing.
Biography[]
On 18 January 756, after An Lushan captured Luoyang, he ordered the beheading of Li Cheng, Lu Yi, and Jiang Qing, the highest-ranking officials in Luoyang, and spread word of their deaths to all the commanderies in Hebei Circuit to intimidate them into submission. As the envoy of Lushan, Duan Ziguang brought the heads of these three officials to Pingyuan Commandery to force its grand protector Yan Zhenqing to swear allegiance, adding further that his brother, Grand Protector Yan Gaoqing of Changshan, and nephew Yan Jiming had been brutally executed—the former by lingchi.[1]
Unbeknownst to Ziguang, a new group of Assassins formed by survivors from the Battle of Changshan had already arrived earlier to seal an alliance with Zhenqing.[2] Among them was a young woman named He Hong'er posing as an attendant behind Zhenqing. As soon as Zhenqing gave the command, Hong'er rushed Ziguang and cut him down in an instant. In the same motion as she unsheathed her sword, she had delivered a blindingly swift slash upwards from his abdomen through his neck. His corpse slipped down onto the floor, stunning his guards. Before they could react, Chen Wu led six men from Changshan through the doorway behind them. Trapped, all of Ziguang's men followed him to death in the ensuing mêlée, failing to kill even one of the ambushers.[1]
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