Mawei Station mutiny

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Previous	Fall of Chang'an
Previous	Fall of Chang'an
Mawei Station mutiny
Timeframe	Tang dynasty
Date	15 July 756
Place	Mawei Station, Great Tang
Outcome	Death of Yang Guozhong Golden Turtles was purged
Affiliations involved	Hidden Ones Chinese Brotherhood Order of the Ancients Golden Turtles Tang dynasty Army of Heavenly Warriors Army of Dragon Warriors
Participants	Order of the Ancients Wei Fangjin Wang Chengye Yang Guozhong Hidden Ones Li E Chen Xuanli

The Mawei Station mutiny (馬嵬驛兵變) was the extermination of the Golden Turtles by the Hidden Ones and aggrieved Tang soldiers on 15 July 756 at Mawei Station, a staging post north of the imperial capital of Chang'an.

Prelude

It was the height of the An–Shi Rebellion, an uprising by the jiedushi An Lushan against the Tang dynasty, and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was in the midst of fleeing Chang'an in advance of its fall to the self-proclaimed Emperor Hongwu of Yan. With an entourage which included Crown Prince Li Heng, his favourite concubine Yang Guifei, the prime minister Yang Guozhong, and others of the most important individuals at court, the Emperor hoped to escape to the southwest prefecture of Shu where he would reestablish his government.

Mutiny

By this stage in the war, although the existence of the Golden Turtles was not universally known, Yang Guozhong's machinations had become widely reviled. Surviving soldiers from the Defence of Tong Pass despised him for wrongly executing their commanders Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing for treason and then subsequently forcing their replacement Geshu Han into a suicidal attack against Yan forces, thereby resulting in the collapse of the strategic gateway to the nation's capital. In the northeastern front, the Golden Turtles also sabotaged efforts by loyalists based in Changshan Commandery to link up with the defenders at Tong Pass and flank An Lushan's army from behind. News of the Fall of Changshan and the capture and execution of its leaders, Yan Gaoqing and Yan Jiming, incited the vengeance of surviving family and friends of the Yan family. They regrouped in Pingyuan Commandery to unite their forces with the local governor, Gaoqing's brother Yan Zhenqing, before sending a squad of nine Assassins to Chang'an for the eradication of the Golden Turtles.

The squad was led by the Hidden One Li E and consisted of Jiming's widow He Hong'er, Jiming's elderly caretaker Chen Wu, and Changshan soldiers Qian, Jia Shen, Feng Qian, Zhai Wande, Li Qimo, and Cui Anshi. After arriving in Chang'an, they successfully sneaked into the Emperor's military escort that was protecting him and his family along his escape. Separately, Geshu Han's surviving troops also merged with the imperial guard. The stage was now ripe for an uprising against Yang Guozhong's administration.

On the day that the group rested at Mawei Station, the Golden Turtles held a secret meeting in a bamboo forest clearing just outside its premises. There, they deliberated how to assuage the frustration of the Emperor and the demoralized troops, concluding that they should use the crown prince as a scapegoat. In the middle of their discussion, the Assassins launched their surprise assault, opening with a hail of arrows and crossbow bolts that instantly killed the high-ranking seating Golden Turtles, among them Wei Fangjin; Guozhong's sons Yang Xuan and Yang Xi; Yang Guifei's sisters the Lady of Han, the Lady of Qin, and the Lady of Guo; and the Lady of Guo's son Pei Hui. Li E himself initially missed Yang Guozhong with his flung spear, Jing Ke. Interception by Feathered Forest Great General Wang Chengye gave Guozhong a window of escape but only for a moment. Chengye was swiftly slain by Li E and the remaining Golden Turtle guards were also felled.

As Guozhong fled on horseback in a panic on the way back to Mawei Station, the Tang soldiers he passed by ignored his pleas for help. When it dawned on them that he was the target of assassination, rather than protecting him, they seized upon the moment to vent their long-awaited desire for justice. The Assassins watched from afar as Tang troops surrounded Guozhong from every direction and struck him off his horse before closing in on him to butcher him with their swords. The only surviving Golden Turtle was Gao Lishi, who had skipped out on the meeting for reasons unknown to Guozhong. Yang Guifei was strangled to death while praying at a Buddhist temple situated on site.

Behind the scenes

The Mawei Station mutiny serves as the climax for the manhua Assassin's Creed: Dynasty, but the dating of the event in the story is contradictory. Chapter 37 opens with the date "Month 6, Bingchen (Day 14)", but by the end of the chapter with the mutiny still ongoing, the Japanese poet Abe no Nakamaro writes that it is "Month 6, Day 18". Compounding this issue is that the day of Bingchen (丙辰) appears to be a scribal error originating in The Old Book of Tang (945), which can be deduced because it does not align with its own chronology. This error was subsequently corrected in the Zizhi Tongjian (1084) as Bingshen (丙申), which converts to 15 July 756 in the Gregorian calendar and Month 6, Day 15, Tianbao Year 15 of the Chinese calendar. The preceding chapter correctly gives the date of Emperor Xuanzong's departure from Chang'an the day before as "Month 6, Yiwei" per both The Old Book of Tang and Zizhi Tongjian, and this date corresponds to 14 July 756.

Gallery

Yang Guozhong flees the arrow storm killing the Golden Turtles

Li E and the Assassins descending from the bamboo stalks

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Dynasty