Chapter 82 Martial arts are extraordinary

——Gao Yang, the great ancestor of the Northern Qi Dynasty Gao Yang, Gao Huan's second son, named Zijin, is eight years younger than Gao Cheng. Although Gao Cheng and Gao Yang are brothers of the same father and mother, Gao Yang's appearance is very different from that of his elder brother.History books write these as the emperor's "unusual signs", but in the eyes of today's people, they are actually ugly men: "dark complexion, big fleshy cheeks drooping to both sides, psoriasis, and ankle deformities".But Gao Huan attached great importance to this ugly son. Once, in order to test the intelligence of the scholars, he threw a mess of silk thread in front of each of them, and observed the reactions of the sons who were still teenagers at that time.Everyone else was in a hurry trying to straighten out the thread, but Gao Yang "cut it off with a knife", and said viciously: "Those who make a mess must be cut off!"

When the news of Gao Cheng's murder came out, he was "shocked inside and outside".Although he was only 21 years old at the time, Gao Yang's expression remained the same, and his command was determined. He personally rounded up Lan Jing and others, "beheading the gang of thieves and painting their heads."Inherited his brother's position and became Xiangguo and King Qi. When Gao Cheng died, Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty was still secretly happy, saying to his left and right: "This is God's will, and the authority should return to me." After a few hours of not being happy, Gao Yang went to Jinyang Palace to enter the hall to give his speech. More than a thousand followers, There were more than a dozen warriors who went up to the hall with Gao Yang holding swords. Emperor Xiaojing went down the steps to meet him, and suddenly more than two hundred warriors went up the steps to meet them, "all of them clasped their hands and clasped their swords, as if facing a serious enemy."Gao Yang didn't speak by himself, but asked his followers to pass on the message, telling Emperor Xiaojing that he was going to Jinyang, he made two false obeisances, then turned his head and left.Emperor Xiaojing was shocked, looked at Gao Yang's back, and said sadly: "This person seems even more incompatible, I don't know when he will die!"

Not long after, Gao Yang set out from Jinyang to Yecheng under the pressure of Gao Dezheng, Xu Zhicai, Song Jingye and others, preparing to usurp the throne.At that time, not only Gao Huan's close buddies Sima Ziru, Gao Longzhi and others were reluctant to usurp the throne in such a hurry, but even his own mother, Mrs. Lou, said: "Your father is like a dragon, and your brother is like a tiger. Don't make false assumptions, serve people in the north all your life, who do you think you are, dare to do the things of Yao and Shun!" In this way, Gao Yang really hesitated, and returned to Jinyang halfway, feeling unhappy.Xu Zhicai was good at observing people's will, and said: "It is precisely because he is not as good as his father and brother, that he should be promoted to the position early to fix people's hearts!" Coincidentally, Gao Yang succeeded in casting a bronze statue (people in the Northern Dynasties like to use cast statues for divination), so he happily mounted his horse and led the army. Go straight to Yecheng and ascend to the throne of emperor.As a result, the Eastern Wei Dynasty perished and the Qi State was established. It was called the Northern Qi Dynasty in history. It was in May of 550 A.D. and it was changed to Yuan Tianbao.Gao Yangzhui respected his father Gao Huan as Emperor Shenwu, his brother Gao Cheng as Emperor Wenxiang, and his mother Lou as Empress Dowager.

Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty was deposed as King of Zhongshan, and was poisoned to death more than a year later, along with his sons. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Gao Yang worked hard to govern.Gaoli, Zhuzhu, Kumoxi, and Xiao Yi of the Southern Dynasty all sent envoys to pay tribute one after another. "Practice the great position, pay attention to government affairs, deal with complicated punishments, and be tireless all day long. Under the rule of law, justice comes first." In the spring of the third year of Tianbao (552), Gao Yang personally led an army to crusade against Kumoxi, who had repeatedly invaded the country in the Daijun area, "destroyed it, and captured more than 100,000 miscellaneous animals."In the winter of the fourth year of Tianbao, Gao Yang visited the four prefectures of Hebei, Ding, You, and An in the north, and fought for Khitan in the north. "Crossing the mountains, taking the lead as the soldiers, pointing at the soldiers and fighting hard, smashing them, capturing more than 100,000 mouths and killing hundreds of thousands of livestock."In this expedition, Gao Yang rode for more than a thousand miles day and night, with his head exposed and his shoulders exposed, day and night, "only eating meat and drinking water, and his strength grew stronger."After arriving in Yingzhou, the twenty-five-year-old Gao Yang, like Prime Minister Cao Da, stood near Jieshi and watched the sea.At the end of the year, taking advantage of the victory, Gao Yang "chased the Turks in Shuozhou personally, and the Turks asked to surrender."At that time, the Turks had just wiped out the powerful nomadic empire Rouran in the north, and they had no choice but to send envoys to contribute.In the fifth year of Tianbao, Gao Yang came out of the Lishi Road and went to fight for the Shanhu.So far, the fall of the beard species from far and near has been awed.In May of the same year, the remnants of Rouran invaded Sizhou, and Gao Yang set out from Jinyang to fight against them, "defeating them". In the summer of the sixth year of Tianbao, Gao Yang set out from Jinyang to attack the remnants of Rouran.In autumn, the brave Gao Yang led 5000 light cavalry to pursue Rouran in Huaishuo Town, and "bowed as an arrow, and then broke it."At the end of the same year, Gao Yang sent 1.8 million laborers to build the Great Wall, "more than 900 miles from Beixiakou, Youzhou, to Hengzhou.

From then on, Gao Yang "prouded himself of his achievements, so he indulged in mercy and indulged in sexual violence." There are not many records of Gao Yang's violent behavior in the "Book of Northern Qi", but the records in "Northern History" are very detailed, full of variety, and shocking. At the beginning, Gao Yang was just looking for fun like crazy, dancing and singing every day, drinking and reveling, day and night; soon, the emperor "developed" again, sometimes naked, sometimes painted, sometimes wearing a mustache, sometimes dressed like a clown, Carrying a machete, he often wandered the streets drunk; slowly, Gao Yang kept going in and out of the homes of noble ministers in the capital, seeing beautiful women, regardless of high or low, married or unmarried, he immediately became the overlord. After that, Gao Yang liked to ride naked sika deer, white elephants, camels, cows, donkeys and other animals to play, singing while walking.Regardless of the severe winter and hot summer, starry night and daytime, Gao Yang does not avoid rain and snow, and loves to run on the street with his bare buttocks.

Gao Yang was also obsessed with obscenity. He recruited a large number of prostitutes from the market. After entering the palace, everyone stripped naked and ordered the servants and guards to have group sex with these women.Sometimes, Gao Yang rode a tall and fast horse, throwing gold, silver and jewels along the street while running, and let others pick them up.Once, Gao Yang was playing on the street while being carried on the back of Cui Jishu. He met a woman and asked, "How is my emperor?" Angry, he drew the knife and chopped off the woman's head. With the increase of alcohol addiction, Gao Yang became intoxicated almost every day.Others fell asleep when they were drunk, but Gao Yang killed people when he was drunk.Killing is not easy to kill, or dismembered, or burned, or thrown into a river, taking the ultimate pleasure in torturing people to death.

When he was drunk, Gao Yang's six relatives did not recognize him.Once, when his mother, Empress Dowager Lou, was sitting on a small couch in the North Palace, Gao Yang staggered over, stretched out his arms and led someone to lift it over his head, and threw the old lady half to death.After waking up from the drunkenness, he saw half of his mother's face slammed into a bloody mess. Gao Yang "felt ashamed and resentful", gathered a pile of firewood and lit it, and wanted to throw himself into the fire.He asked the clan Gao Guiyan to beat himself fifty sticks with a big stick, and said: "If the stick doesn't bleed, I will cut you off immediately." After receiving the stick, he knelt down to worship his mother, asked for forgiveness, and "abstained from drinking because of this".Ten days later, "It's still the same as before, it's just a drama", and the amount of alcohol is several times larger than before.Another day, he broke into his mother-in-law's house while drunk, and Gao Yang pierced his mother-in-law's cheeks with an arrow, cursing: "Old bitch, I didn't even know the queen mother when I was drunk, let alone you! "He went forward and whipped the unlucky old lady more than a hundred times with a horsewhip.

When Gao Yang was drunk, he often boarded the roof of the palace and ran like flying. "The height of the three structures is twenty-seven feet, and the distance between the two poles is more than two hundred feet."Usually, when craftsmen go to the room, they all wear safety ropes and move forward slowly step by step.As long as Gao Yang got up, he would often take advantage of the strength of wine to run quickly on the apex of the temple, and never lost his footing. Gao Yang also took pleasure in killing civil servants, military generals and their families.Minister Gao Longzhi is an old buddy of Gao Huan. Gao Yang remembered that the old man had advised him not to proclaim himself emperor, so he asked the guards to punch the old man more than a hundred times and beat him to death; Lying naked in the court, he shot him with his own bow and crossbow. Gao Yang actually pulled out a horse prong, thrust it into the old man's anus, and stabbed the noble minister to death; At Cui Xian's house, Gao Yang asked Cui Xian's wife, "Do you miss Cui Xian?" Cui Xian's wife, Li Shi, replied, "I'm deeply in love, of course I miss you." Gao Yang grinned grinningly, and said, "If you miss him, you can go Look at him in the underworld, I'll see you all the way." He took out a knife, chopped off Li's head with one blow, and "threw it over the wall"; Mrs. Erzhu scolded: "Do you still remember that you didn't wait to see my mother when you were favored?" After speaking, he cut the imperial concubine in half with a knife; brother-in-law.Gao Yang committed adultery with Empress Li's sister, so he summoned her cuckold husband to the inner palace, "shot more than a hundred times with a dynamite, and the blood clotted with a stone, until he died."On the day of the funeral, Gao Yang "went to hang and cry" and openly raped Mrs. Li in front of Yuan Ang's family next to the big coffin; in the Three Terrace Hall, Gao Yang personally sawed and killed the governor Mu Song; the governor Han Zhe had no fault. While on duty, Gao Yang suddenly saw that he was not pleasing to the eye, and called out to be careful with the knife; because of his addiction to killing, Minister Yang Min had to pull a large number of death row prisoners from the prison, and Jane took them with him. "Prisoner", dedicated to preparing Gao Yang for "killing himself with his own hands".Gradually, Gao Yang used killing as a game, and had to kill a few people with his own hands every day to practice his skills.

Gao Yang has a very beloved Concubine Xue Gui, a beauty he got from his cousin Gao Yue.One day, seeing Concubine Xue Guixiao combing her hair on the bed, Gao Yang suddenly became angry: This girl was used by Gao Yue before!The emperor couldn't leave his sword anyway, so he stood up and chopped off the head of Xue Meiren, who hadn't slowed down, and put it in his arms.Then, he drove to Dongshan to have a banquet for the officials. Just as everyone toasted, Gao Yang suddenly took out the beauty's head from his bosom and threw it on the food table.When the ministers held their breaths in horror, Gao Yang called someone to bring over the headless body of Xue Meiren, put it on the food table in front of him, dismembered it himself, removed the flesh and bones, cut tendons and viscera, and chopped off the beauty's thighs to make a meat pipa , put on the strings and play and sing, "a place of horror, no one is afraid".Gao Yang drank several cups, played and sang a few songs, and suddenly burst into tears, sighing: "It's hard to get a beautiful woman again, what a pity! What a pity!" He ordered the "parts" of the beauty to be put in a coffin, and he walked around by himself, crying loudly for the funeral.

Although the emperor was in a daze above, the ministers were enlightened below. The minister Yang Min and others were diligent and conscientious in government affairs, so the state affairs of the Northern Qi Dynasty did not deteriorate to the point of uncontrollable.Yang Min's loyal minister is also Gao Yang's brother-in-law (Gao Yang's sister first married Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and then remarried Yang Min).Sometimes when he got up, Gao Yang liked to beat Yang Min with a horsewhip, "bleeding like a robe".The last time, when Gao Yang was drunk, he personally cut Yang Min's belly with a knife to play.Tired of playing, I prepared another big coffin, threw Yang Min into it, and prepared to pull it out and bury him alive...

In the eighth year of Tianbao, Gao Yang called the women of Gao's clan to a hundred people to gather together and take them to Dongshan for fun.He selected hundreds of strong and strong guards, and let these soldiers gang-rape his female relatives, just for fun.Gao Yang's half-brother Yong'an Wang Gaojun came forward to admonish him. Gao Yang was furious and sent someone to arrest Gao Jun and put him in a dungeon.Gao Yang's other younger brother, Shangdang Wang Gaohuan, is "majestic in appearance and unrestrained in style", ranking seventh.Because of the ridicule at that time that there was a saying of "the black clothes of the dead", Gao Yang asked his left and right: "What is the darkest?" Someone replied: "It is nothing more than lacquer." He was detained in the same iron cage with his third brother Gao Jun, "the food and filth were shared in the same room".Soon, Gao Yang came to the prison in person and sang songs from left to right. Gao Yang ordered his two younger brothers to sing together.The two men fought in terror, their voices trembling.After all, there is a family relationship between flesh and blood, Gao Yang's heart softened for a moment, he wept and stained his clothes, and wanted to forgive his second brother.However, Gao Yang, who was accompanying him, was at odds with Gao Zhan, the king of Changguang, Gao Zhan, and Gao Jun, and persuaded: "The beast can come out of its lair!" Gao Yang felt reasonable when he heard this, and ordered the guards to use spears to stab the two younger brothers all over the body. The bloody hole was thrown into fire and burned, and then filled with stone and soil.After the murder, he ordered the concubines of the two princes to be rewarded to the guards. After ten years in Tianbao, Gao Yang, who was deeply alcohol-poisoned, has been unable to eat for many days and relies on alcohol for food every day.One day in June, he suddenly asked Gao's son-in-law and Wang Yuanshao of Pengcheng, the clan of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, "Why did Liu Xiu, Guangwu of the Han Dynasty, revive?" " Gao Yang nodded with a smirk, and immediately ordered the execution of twenty-five families including Yuan Shizhe, the imperial family of the Eastern Wei Dynasty.In August, Gao Yang ordered the remaining dozens of Yuan clans to be killed, regardless of gender, age or infirmity. "Either the father and ancestor were kings, or the body was often distinguished, or the brother was strong, all of them were killed in Dongshi. The baby was thrown into the air, and the lance was inherited. There were 721 dead before and after. If you get too many claws, you will never eat fish for a long time."As for Yuan Shao, he was also imprisoned in a dungeon. In the end, he was so hungry that he gnawed on his sleeves and choked to death. In November of the same year, Gao Yang, who was full of crimes, also died of excessive drinking at the age of thirty-one. He was posthumously Emperor Wenxuan and his temple name was Weizong.In Wuping (Gao Zhan), the temple name was changed to Xianzu. Gao Yang died, and his prince Gao Yin came to the throne.Gao Yin, with righteous characters, intelligent and eager to learn, "gentle and cheerful, with the grace of a gentleman".But Gao Yang didn't like him, saying: "The prince has the nature of the Han family, not like me (Gao Yang regards himself as Xianbei)." When he was fifteen years old, Gao Yang killed people in Jinfengtai and asked the prince to commit suicide with a knife. "The prince felt sorry for him", but his father's order was hard to disobey, so he could only kill the prisoner tremblingly. After several knives, he still couldn't cut off the prisoner's head.Gao Yang was furious, and stepped forward to "hit the prince three times" with a horsewhip. After being frightened, Gao Yin suffered from stuttering and intermittent neurosis since then. Not long after Gao Yin came to the throne, ministers Yang Min, Yan Zixian and others were afraid that his uncle Changshan Wang Gaoyan would take the throne, and wanted to order all the uncles to go out of Beijing.With the support of Queen Mother Lou, Gao Yan and others killed Yang Min and other Han officials, and abolished Gao Yin as King of Jinan, and ascended the throne himself as Emperor Xiaozhao of the Northern Qi Dynasty.Before Gao Yang died, he gave a speech to Gao: "In the future, if you take my son's throne, just take it and don't kill him." Nephew Gao Yin was seventeen years old.