Chapter 84 Debauchery and violence, the country's affairs are declining day by day

——Gao Zhan, Emperor Wucheng of the Northern Qi Dynasty Gao Zhan, the ninth son of Gao Huan, was also born to Empress Dowager Lou.This man is "exquisite in appearance", and he is also a handsome man.Despite his good looks, Gao Zhan is definitely a badass.When his elder brother Gao Yan was seriously ill, he secretly discussed with his nephew Gao Yuanhai and his uncle Gao Guiyan, the king of Ping Qin, and others to send troops to usurp the throne. It happened that there was a shaman who told a fortune-telling that "if things are not good, calmness will lead to good luck", so Gao Zhan didn't do anything.Soon, Gao Yan died of illness, and the imperial edict Gao Zhan succeeded him as Emperor Wucheng of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and changed Yuan Taining.

At the beginning of Gao Zhan's succession to the throne, Gao Yanyuan's former prince Gao Bainian was the king of Leling County, Concubine Hu was the queen, and his son Gao Wei was the crown prince. Within two or three months, Gao Zhan released Gao Guiyan, the clan uncle who had made great contributions to him, as the governor of Jizhou.Soon, Gao Guiyan rebelled in Jizhou, and Gao Zhan sent a large army to besiege the city. He captured the old prince in one fell swoop and took him to Yecheng. In the second year of Taining (562), Gao Zhan changed Yuan Heqing again.At the end of the year, Gao Zhan broke into Zhaoxin Palace where his second brother Gao Yang's widowed wife Li Shi lived. As soon as they met, Gao Zhan stripped naked and wanted to rape his sister-in-law.Mrs. Li struggled, but Gao Zhan said viciously, "If you don't obey, I will kill your son immediately." Mrs. Li had no choice but to obey.Going back and forth, Gao Zhan made the second sister-in-law's belly bigger.Li's son, Taiyuan Wang Gao Shaode, was fifteen years old when he visited his mother, but Li excused himself to see him. Gao Shaode shouted outside the pavilion: "Mother, you are pregnant. I know this. Why don't you see me!" Ashamed and afraid, she had a miscarriage at that time.When Gao Zhan heard the news, he rushed over and saw that the dead baby was a girl. He said angrily, "If you kill my daughter, I will kill your son!" Hit this nephew on the back of the head and beat Gao Shaode to death.While beating, Gao Zhan said viciously: "When your father beat me, why didn't you persuade me!" Li cried loudly.Gao Zhan was furious, stripped off Li's clothes with his own hands, and kicked Li Shi indiscriminately.Li cried and rolled over, the pain was so painful that she was dying.Gao Zhan ordered people to put Mrs. Li in a silk pouch and throw it into the palace canal. She almost drowned and choked to death. Then she was sent to Miaosheng Temple to be shaved and become a nun.

In July of the third year of Heqing (564), due to the astronomical phenomena of "white rainbow piercing the sun" and "red star seeing", Gao Zhan remembered the old prince Gao Yan of his sixth brother and his other nephew, King Gao Bainian of Leling.At that time, there was a Confucian scholar named Jia Dexuan who taught calligraphy for hundreds of years. Children were ignorant, and they wrote what they saw. Gao Zhan reports.This is terrible, the word "Chi" can only be written by the emperor himself, Gao Zhan seized this excuse and summoned his nephew into the palace.

Before this fourteen-year-old boy entered the palace, he knew that his departure would be fatal, so he bid farewell to his concubine, Hulushi, and cut off the jade ring he left behind as a memory.After entering the palace, Gao Zhan took the seat high, with a gloomy face, and asked Gao Bainian to write a few words "Chi".After inspection, it was the same as the "Chi" submitted by Jia Dezhou.In a rage, Gao Zhan slammed the table and ordered several warriors to go up to the hall to beat and kick the nephew, until the young man vomited blood from his mouth and fell to the ground.Gao Zhan was merciless, and had the boy dragged on the ground by his hair, while the guards behind him beat him with big sticks, "everywhere he went was blood was everywhere."When he was about to die, the boy begged and said, "Uncle, please forgive me. I would like to be your servant." Gao Zhan got up, stabbed his nephew with a knife in the chest, and kicked him into the pool. "The water in the pool is completely red." .Afraid that the old prince would not die, Gao Zhan went to the back garden to watch the buried body.This Gao Zhan is really cruel and inhuman. Gao Yan never said a bad word to him, and he passed on the throne to him. He actually killed his own son in this way to "repay" his elder brother with the same father and mother.Princess Gaobai's daughter Hulu's family heard the news of her husband's death, she held the jade ring and wailed endlessly, she refused to eat any more, and died after more than a month, still holding the jade ring tightly when she was dying.

Among the ministers, Gao Zhan favored Shizhong and Shikai the most.The ancestor of this Heshikai was originally a Hu merchant in the Western Regions, and his original surname was Suhe. Later, he stayed in Linzhang and gradually settled in the Central Plains.When Gao Zhan was a prince, he was good at holding 槊 (a kind of chess game), and He Shikai was also a big player, so the two became good friends. "It will be easy to be out of the way, and you can talk about Hu Pipa well, so you can be loved by your relatives."The two magnetic fields attract each other very well.At that time, He Shikai flattered Gao Zhan: "Your Highness is not a man of heaven, but the Emperor of Heaven." Gao Zhan replied, "Qing is not a man of the world, but a god of the world." Do not meet with (He) Shikai." In order to repay the kindness of "knowledge", He Shikai also "admonishes" Gao Zhan: "Since ancient times, emperors have been ashes. What's the difference! Your Majesty should cherish the young and strong years, play around, and enjoy the enemy for thousands of years in one day. You can tell the ministers about the state affairs, why bother yourself!"

Gao Zhan was delighted, sure enough, from then on, he only went up to the court for three or four days to put on a show, just signed a letter, "Slightly speechless, let's go in after a while", and returned to the harem to continue having fun. He Shikai "the day of treachery and flattery comes, doting on Milong, and rewarding him back and forth, which is indescribable."In order to "repay" the lord more faithfully, He Shikai also hooked up with Gao Zhan's Empress Hu, which made the imperial couple very comfortable. When Gao Zhan was twenty-seven years old, a comet appeared, and the Taishi official said that it was "a sign of removing the old and bringing forth the new, when there is a change of master", that is, a new emperor should appear.At this time, the royal families of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei had already been killed by Gao Yang. Gao Yan still had his nephew Gao Yin to kill, and Gao Zhan had already killed his nephew, the old prince Gao Bainian.In order to "respond to the sky", Gao Zhan passed the throne to his prince Gao Wei, calling himself "the emperor".At this point, the Northern Qi Dynasty changed the Yuan Tiantong again.

Gao Xiaoyu, the son of Gao Zhan's elder brother Gao Cheng, Henan Wang Gao Xiaoyu advised Empress Hu not to play the game of holding lances with the courtier He Shi, and He Shi Kai took the time to slander her.Gao Zhan was furious, and ordered Gao Xiaoyu to drink thirty-seven cups at a banquet, and asked someone to pour poisoned wine into his nephew's mouth on the way home.Extremely uncomfortable, Gao Xiaoyu jumped into the water and died.Gao Xiaoyu's third brother, Hejian Wang Gao Xiaowan, is Gao Cheng's direct son. Hearing that his elder brother was poisoned to death, he hated him so much every day that he tied grass and shot arrows to vent his resentment.When He Shikai heard about it, he said to Gao Zhan, "Gao Xiaowan took the straw man to shoot you!" In fact, the image is of King Hejian's biological father, Gao Cheng, and his son recalling his father, who often sheds tears for him.Gao Zhan was so angry that he took the nephew into the palace and sent guards to beat Gao Xiaowan with whips.

Gao Xiaowan saw Gao Zhan sitting in the upper seat drinking and watching the punishment, and shouted: "Uncle".Gao Zhan was even angrier and asked, "Who is your uncle? How dare you call me uncle!" Gao Xiaowan is also stubborn, not only did not change his name to "Your Majesty", but instead said: "I am the grandson of Emperor Shenwu (Gao Huan), the son of Emperor Wenxiang (Gao Cheng), and the nephew of Emperor Wei Xiaojing (Yuan Shanjian), why can't I call you What about uncle?" Gao Zhan became violent when he heard the words, and personally smashed the nephew's shins with a big stick, and Gao Xiaowan died of pain.

After doing all the bad things, in 568 A.D. (the end of the fourth year of Tiantong in the Northern Qi Dynasty), Gao Zhan, who had been drinking too much, was seriously ill. He held He Shikai's hand and shouted: "Don't let me down!" twelve. Gao Wei was changed to Yuan in 569 A.D., and the reign name was Wuping.At this point, the Northern Qi Dynasty entered the post-lord Gaowei era.