Chapter 183 Chapter 182 Wucheng Emperor Gao Zhan

Gao Zhan is the ninth son of Gao Huan, the younger brother of Gao Yang, the first emperor of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and Gao Yan, the third emperor of the Northern Qi Dynasty.In the first year of Huangjian's reign, Gao Yan launched a coup with Gao Yan, killed Gao Yin, and was named Prime Minister of the Right, leading the governor of Gyeonggi.The following year, he succeeded Gao Yan and proclaimed himself emperor as Emperor Wucheng. In November of the second year of Emperor Jian's reign, Gao Yan passed away, leaving an imperial edict to Guangchang Wang Chengtong.Immediately, Guangchang Wang Gaozhan succeeded to the throne, and changed the second year of Huangjian to the first year of Daning.

At the beginning of Gao Zhan's accession to the throne, there were many crises. Many princes and nobles were dissatisfied with Gao Zhan, and they all waited for an opportunity to rebel.Gao Guiyan, king of Ping Qin, was a veteran of the Five Dynasties. He was good at adapting the rudder according to the wind, and was known as "the tumbler".After Gao Zhan came to the throne, Gao Guiyan was promoted to Taifu and Situ.But Gao Guiyan didn't pay much attention to Gao Zhan, who was still young, and usually brought three trilogy with him when he entered the palace, fully armed.There are often many guests in the house, and the ministers compete to curry favor with each other. For a while, the world does not know whether the emperor is more powerful or the Taifu Gao Guiyan is more powerful.

Gao Zhan knew that Gao Guiyan was a capricious villain, and if he allowed it to develop, it would inevitably lead to disaster.So he secretly negotiated with Wei Shou, Gao Yuanhai and others to remove Gao Guiyan from his central government position and ask him to go to Jizhou as the governor.Gao Guiyan knew that the general situation was not good, so he simply didn't do anything, and led a group of elite cavalry in the middle of the night, and secretly returned to the outskirts of Yecheng.When Gao Zhan heard that Gao Guiyan's soldiers were approaching the city, he lost his voice in shock, and quickly ordered the army to surround Gao Guiyan's troops.Gao Guiyan shouted loudly: "When Emperor Xiaozhao just passed away, I was in control of millions of soldiers from the six armies. If I wanted to rebel, I would have acted at that time. Now I just come to the side of the Qing emperor, and I hope the emperor can take care of him." Gao Yuanhai and other villains have no other intentions to get rid of them." Gao Zhan couldn't help but ordered an attack, captured Gao Guiyan alive, put him into a prison cart, and pinched his cheeks with wooden boards to silence him.Then he was escorted to the execution ground, where Gao Guiyan and 15 of his descendants were slaughtered.

After Gao Zhan became emperor, Gao Yan's son, Gao Bainian, was full of worries and resentment, unable to vent.He always sat alone at the desk all day long, scribbling on the paper with countless "Chi" characters that only the emperor can use.Jia Dezhou, Gao Bainian's teacher, accidentally found a paper full of "Chi" characters and was shocked.He thought to himself that if someone reported this matter, not only would Gao Bainian be decapitated, but he, as Gao Bainian's teacher, would not be able to escape bad luck.That being the case, why don't you take the initiative to report to Gao Zhan, not only can you save your life, but you can also gain a reputation of being loyal.So he stuffed the writing paper in his sleeve and went to the court to report to Gao Zhan.By coincidence, two long rainbows appeared in the sky that day, crossing the blue sky.Gao Zhan thought it was a sign that there were two masters in the world, and when he heard that Gao Bainian was dissatisfied, he was furious and ordered Gao Bainian to be summoned.Gao Zhan asked Gao Bainian to write another word "Chi" on the spot, and then compared it with the piece of paper Jia Dezhou brought, and it was indeed written by one person.Gao Zhan smiled coldly, and ordered seven or eight thugs to rush forward, punching and sticking, and Gao Bainian fled along the corridor, blood splashing the entire corridor red.

On the night when Gao Bainian was murdered, there was lightning, thunder and heavy rain, as if thousands of troops were descending from the sky. Gao Zhan thought it was God's angry condemnation of him, and was so frightened that he knelt in the rain and kowtowed. In the early years of the Northern Qi Dynasty, the strength was always stronger than that of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.Since Yang Zhong, General Yang Zhong of the Zhu State of the Northern Zhou Dynasty came to power, the forces of the East and the West have changed greatly, and the Northern Qi has changed from the former advantage to the passive defense.Every winter when the Yellow River froze, Gao Zhan ordered his soldiers to break the river ice to prevent the Northern Zhou Dynasty from invading.In December of the second year of Heqing (564 A.D.), Yang Zhong took advantage of the opportunity that the Yellow River was frozen and could not be broken. He gathered Turkic Khan Khan, Khan Khan and Khan Buli, and led an army of 200,000 to the Northern Qi Dynasty.In one go, Yang Zhong pulled out more than 20 cities in the Northern Qi Dynasty one after another, and his army approached Jinyang City (now south of Taiyuan City, Shanxi).At that time, it was snowing heavily for several days, and the snow on the flat ground was more than a foot deep.Gao Zhan was in Jinyang City at that time, when he saw Yang Zhong's army pressing down on the city, he got on his horse and wanted to escape from Jinyang.Minister Gao Xiaowan, Duan Shao and others stopped the horse and knelt down, begging Gao Zhan not to leave the front line at a time of national crisis, otherwise the morale of the army would be shaken.Gao Zhan saw that everyone begged hard, so he had to stay in fear, and reluctantly climbed to the top of the city to boost morale.

Yang Zhong's army traveled thousands of miles, and it was snowing heavily, staying in the wild for a long time, which was very unfavorable to the Northern Zhou Dynasty.So Yang Zhong ordered the infantry as the vanguard, and an army of 200,000 launched a fierce attack on Jinyang.Duan Shao suggested to Gao Zhan: "The strength of the infantry is limited, and with the heavy snow covering the sun, if we are going to fight now, they will definitely outnumber ten. We might as well wait for work at ease, retreat, freeze them for a few days, and wait for their morale Be depressed, it's not too late for us to counterattack." Gao Zhan followed his plan.A few days later, Northern Qi soldiers began to counterattack, and Northern Zhou was defeated.

After this catastrophe, many farmers in the Northern Qi Dynasty left their homes, the land was barren, and the government's finances became increasingly tight.In order to save the crisis, Gao Zhan ordered the continuation of the land equalization system since Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the third year of Qinghe.After the implementation of the land equalization system, a large number of peasants living in other places got their land again and lived and worked in peace and contentment.As a result, the government's fiscal revenue has increased significantly, and Northern Qi's national power has also been relatively enriched.

In April of the fourth year of Heqing, due to a change in the astronomy of Taishi Zuo, Gao Zhan gave the Zen throne to his son Gao Wei, and the fourth year of Heqing was changed to the first year of Tiantong.Gao Zhan became the first Supreme Emperor in the Northern Qi Dynasty. He was even more unscrupulous and cruel.In December of the fourth year of Tiantong (568 A.D.), the Supreme Emperor died at the age of 32.Buried in Yongping Mausoleum, he was given the posthumous title of "Emperor Wucheng" and the temple title of "Shizu".