Sixteen Female Assassins Target the Jiajing Emperor

In 1542, sixteen female assassins attempted to kill the Jiajing Emperor, the eleventh emperor of the Ming Dynasty. This was a real historical event, the Ming Dynasty's greatest unsolved case, and the most successful female attempt to assassinate an emperor in a thousand years. It is known as the Renyin Palace Incident. Against the backdrop of the famous mid-Ming dispute over the maritime ban, this story follows the Shadow Guards, led by Wu Yiyao, as they attempt to assassinate Zhu Houcong, the Jiajing Emperor. As early as 1368, before the Ming Dynasty was founded, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had yet to become emperor, forged an alliance with the mysterious Shadow Guards. The agreement stipulated that the Shadow Guards would protect the emperors of the Ming Empire for 200 years. Throughout those two centuries, successive generations of Shadow Guards used their absolute loyalty and ruthless methods to protect the emperors in secret. When the Zhengtong Emperor was captured by the Oirat during the Tumu Crisis, it was the Shadow Guards who chose Zhu Qizhen over his brother Zhu Qiyu, then helped the ministers involved in the Coup of the Palace Gate restore Zhu Qizhen to the throne. After the Zhengde Emperor died, the Shadow Guards also selected Zhu Houcong, allowing him to transform from a prince in the south into the Jiajing Emperor, the eleventh ruler of the Ming Empire.