Gao Qiu , Gao Taiwei , everyone who knows something about Chinese traditional culture will not feel too strange.
This person can be said to be the most successfully transformed "football" athlete in Chinese history. He is the villain boss in " Water Margin " and the biggest driving force behind forcing many heroes to death.
In the description of "Water Margin", Gao Qiu was originally a rogue who was born in the market. However, due to various fates, he was favored by Song Huizong because of his good kicks.
has been rising rapidly since then, and in just a few years he has become the highest military officer of the Song Empire!
This situation is such that people really don’t know what to say other than a national curse.
If we have to use more elegant language to describe this phenomenon, in relation to the character and ability of the Dukes of the Song Dynasty during the Huizong period, it really reminds people of the famous words in the wonderful speech of Zhuge Liang Wang Lang:
"Temple Hall" Above, rotten wood is an official, and in the palace, beasts and beasts eat their salary; people with wolf-hearted and dog-like behavior are in power, and servile and servile people are in charge of government. As a result, the people of Shejiqiu Ruins are in ruins."
Prime Minister Zhuge's words were cursed at the Huizong court in the late Northern Song Dynasty. There is really no need to change a word.
In real history, Captain Gao Qiu, after serving as the empire's highest military officer, had no military achievements, but he was a "genius" in business.
Regarding how to use the national army to do business and make profits, Gao Taiwei has reached a new height in history.
First of all, let's briefly review the process of Gao Qiu and Gao Taiwei's rise to fame. The real history is basically consistent with the description in "Water Margin". If you have read the second episode of "Water Margin", I believe this story will not be too unfamiliar to you.
According to the records and inferences in " History of the Song Dynasty ", Gao Qiu himself should have some talents. He had certain attainments in poetry and calligraphy. He probably also had some skills in martial arts. Football ( Cuju ) should be just one of his many talents.
He was described as a street scoundrel in "Water Margin", which obviously underestimated him for literary effect.
The hooligans are not scary, but the hooligans are literate. Gao Qiu undoubtedly belongs to the second type.
Cuju
Gao Qiu was originally a minor historian (equivalent to a junior secretary) in Su Dongpo's family, a bachelor's degree . Later, he was transferred to the prince's consort Wang Shen, who was the little king's captain in "Water Margin".
This king's consort was a young literary man who was good at calligraphy and painting. His hobbies were very similar to those of Zhao Ji, the emperor of Song Dynasty before he ascended the throne, and they had a very good relationship.
Once, Duan Wang Zhao Ji and Wang's consort wanted to comb their hair when they went out to play, so they borrowed Wang's consort's grate knife. Zhao Ji felt that the style and workmanship were very good at that time.
The Prince Consort took the opportunity to tell him that he still had a new one, so he might as well give it to you.
So after returning home, Prince Consort Wang sent Gao Qiu to deliver a courier to the same city.
Gao Qiu probably looked very delicate and handsome, which Zhao Ji liked very much. At that time, Zhao Ji was playing football and Gao Qiu was watching.
Zhao Ji saw that he was fascinated, so he asked, "Can you also play this?"
"A little bit," Gao Ji replied humbly.
Then at the invitation of Zhao Ji, Gao Qiu came off the stage and started his own performance.
Zhao Ji was pleasantly surprised to find that this guy was not just a little bit knowledgeable, he was an expert. So I loved him very much, so I simply kept him in my house.
Zhao Ji immediately sent a message to Wang Shen: "Thank you for the grizzly knife you gave me. I accepted it together with the person you sent."
Gao Jiu became Zhao Ji's confidant from then on.
Song Huizong Zhao Ji
Not long after, Song Zhezong passed away. Although Duan Wang Zhaoji was considered a bit "frivolous", he was still lucky enough to be selected by the Queen Mother to succeed him and became the new emperor of Song Dynasty, that is, Song Huizong.
Gao Qiu suddenly changed from a playmate of an idle prince to an "old minister" of Jian who was latent in the emperor's heart.
After Song Huizong became emperor, he continued to consciously promote Gao Qiu and created opportunities for him to gain experience and accumulate qualifications.
Within a few years, Gao Qiu became the official of Jiedushi, and then became the Taiwei. Finally, he was "the same as the three divisions of Kaifu", and his status was so noble that he was on an equal footing with the prime minister.
Even Huizong's other playmates at that time were envious of this opportunity. They were inevitably a little resentful, but when Huizong heard about it, he said indifferently: "Which of you has a pair of nimble feet like him?"
Gao Qiu's experience tells us two rules in traditional officialdom:
No. The first is how important it is to accompany the leader to play a hobby well. This can be seen from Gao Qiu, who can play football, and Cai Jing, who is good at calligraphy.
The second is in the officialdom. Whether ordinary players who make merit through work or krypton gold players who rely on bribes and gifts, they can't beat cheating players like Gao Qiu who are favored by leaders.
Song Huizong’s own thin gold calligraphy
As jokes, Song Huizong and Gao Qiu are both "interesting", but as a country, this is not what they are.
Since Qin Shihuang unified the world, in any period of healthy political governance in our country, the emphasis has been placed on selecting and employing people: "Prime ministers must come from prefectures and counties , and powerful generals must be sent from the ranks."
But in the late Northern Song Dynasty, a lucky man like Gao Qiu, who could neither strategize nor charge into battle, could actually ascend to the position of the country's highest military officer! It can only be said that if the ruler of an empire is so trivial about the most critical military management, it is strange that the country will not be defeated.
In the next twenty years, the army of the Song Empire had two top officers. One is the eunuch Tong Guan who was deeply trusted by Emperor Huizong, and the other is Captain Gao.
I would say that Captain Gao is also a "wizard". Although he made no achievements in military management, he was quite inspired in how to carry out face-saving projects to please the emperor, and in privately using the national army to make money in business and embezzling military pay to line his own pockets.
For example, history books record that he was well-behaved and sycophantic, and he tried every means to please his superiors, especially Emperor Huizong, which was very able to cater to Huizong's mentality of fame and fame.
" Tokyo Menghualu " records that when Gao Qiu was managing the Forbidden Army, he played a lot of tricks in military training. For example, he presided over the military bid competition and started to play and play. Later, he came up with various tricks and was quite lively, which made Huizong very satisfied.
On the other hand, under the management of Gao Qiu and others such as Tong Guan, the military system of the Northern Song Dynasty was rotten from top to bottom.
If an officer at that time wanted to be promoted, it was absolutely impossible without bribes and gifts to his superiors. As for how to recoup the investment after being promoted, Gao Taiwei himself set a good example:
Speaking of it, the officers in the Northern Song Dynasty had nothing more than the following three ways to get rich:
The first is to eat empty pay .
For example, the military registration under a general has 10,000 soldiers. The court allocates military pay according to the standard of 10,000 people, but the general actually has only 5,000 soldiers. The extra 5,000 people who had military pay were naturally swallowed up by generals at all levels.
This kind of thing has been true in all dynasties and in the last period of the dynasty. In times of peace, the generals deceived their superiors and deceived their subordinates, taking advantage of the emperor and the tax-paying people; but when war really came, they would inevitably be caught blind.
The second is to drink the blood of soldiers.
The generals tried every means to deprive the soldiers of their due military pay, not paying it or paying as little as possible, and the rest went into the pockets of generals at all levels.
This kind of thing was common in the decadent Northern Song Dynasty army, and it was also documented in the following dynasties.
The many mutinies by soldiers in the late Ming Dynasty are basically related to this.
It is said that Yuan Shikai was training troops at the small station in the late Qing Dynasty. Every time Master Yuan paid the salary, he had to hand it over to the soldiers in full, so he won the hearts of the soldiers.
This case just shows how common it was for the Qing Dynasty army to deduct military pay, so much so that Yuan Shikai, who was paid in full, became a clean slate.
The third is to use soldiers to work for themselves for free.
This is equivalent to using the country’s money to support our own workers.
Later, during the Jingkang period, someone impeached Gao Qiu, saying that he had been in charge of the Forbidden Army for more than 20 years. He not only built private residences on the land of the military camp, but also treated the Forbidden Army as private service, regardless of training, and dedicated himself to his private efforts.
The other top commander of the army at this time, the eunuch Tong Guan, was also completely the same.
There are many people who openly bribed the eunuch and rose to great heights. In Tong Guan's mansion, soldiers were used for free, from cleaning toilets to cultivating the land.
The eunuch Tong Guan not only became a king in history, but also grew a beard
In order to better serve the soldiers, the clever Gao Taiwei reformed the recruitment system. During the period when he was in charge of the army, he launched a series of recruiting soldiers. Standards of soldiers:
When recruiting soldiers, the first choice is those who have special skills, especially craftsmen with unique skills, because with such "technical talents" working for them, the money will naturally come quickly;
There are soldiers in the army who are unwilling to be trained, and they do not need to be trained, but the prerequisite is to pay.
Captain Gao allowed officers and soldiers at all levels to run various industries. As long as they paid enough money, it didn't matter whether they came to the military camp or not.
If you really have no money or skills, then you can do some physical work like carrying bags and farming for Gao Taiwei if you are strong enough.
Anyway, the core point is that not only can you not have any "unreasonable thoughts" about the treatment of being a soldier, but you can also create profits for the Taiwei.
Because it is definitely impossible for Lieutenant Gao and the generals at all levels to give you enough military pay. Not only do you need to be able to support yourself, you also need to be able to make money and create profits and value.
Only such soldiers are good soldiers. As for whether they can go into battle or not, those are all details.
The top officers above are all such a bunch of cowards. You can only imagine the conduct of the officers at all levels below.
It is self-evident what kind of treatment ordinary soldiers will receive in such an army.
In "Water Margin", Lin Chong was the most famous hero who was forced to go to Liangshan by Gao Qiu.
In such a military ecology, the social atmosphere at the time was "Good iron cannot be nailed, and good men should not be soldiers".
The official history books of the Song Dynasty recorded a large number of records of troops robbing young men on the streets after the soldiers fled.
In order to prevent soldiers from escaping, the army also left permanent marks on the right arms of all soldiers, either branded or stabbed.
The criminals in the novel "Water Margin" were tattooed and sent to the army and were derided as "thieves serving the army". This is not a fiction of the author.
How much combat effectiveness can such an army have?
It is no wonder why the large Song army performed so poorly in the military struggle with Liao and Jin in the last years of Song Huizong.
For example, the Northern Song Dynasty and the Jin Kingdom that had just emerged in the Northeast jointly attacked the Liao Kingdom . The Liao army was often defeated in front of the Jin army, but when they turned around to fight the Song army who stabbed them in the back, they were still able to defeat the Song army again and again and even completely annihilate it.
As a result, Jin Guo completely saw through the weakness of his "ally".
Later, the Song Army was beaten by the wolf-like and tiger-like Jin Army and was unable to fight back. In the end, there was " Jingkang's Shame ", which is really normal.
There are two famous stories that may serve as footnotes to this conclusion:
In 1125 AD, the Jin army declared war on the Song Dynasty . Song Huizong decisively handed the throne to his son and became a coward himself.
After Song Qinzong ascended the throne, he sent 20,000 people from the Central Forbidden Army to defend the Yellow River ferry.
When the army left the capital, people saw a magical scene: these "elites" of the Song Dynasty finally climbed onto the back of the horse. Many of them hugged the saddle or the horse's neck tightly with both hands, and did not dare to let go.
As soon as such an army encountered the main force of the Jin Army, they immediately dispersed.
In the second half of 1126 AD, in order to resist the second large-scale attack of the Jin army, 130,000 Song troops guarded the banks of the Yellow River , stalemate with the Jin army across the water.
That night, the Jin army did not attack, but beat the war drums fiercely all night long. Another theory is that the Jin army hung sheep on war drums and let the panicked sheep beat the drums all night long.
The next morning, the Song Army General found that all his soldiers had fled, leaving only an empty military camp in front of him.
After understanding the previous things, we really can't blame the soldiers for being greedy for life and fear of death.
What kind of cause is sown, what kind of fruit is harvested.
If Song Huizong and his favored Tong Guan, Gao Qi and others had not been struggling for decades, how could a country have reached this point?
I just don’t know how Song Huizong would think about his actions in the past few decades when he was taken as a prisoner and imprisoned by the Jin Kingdom in Five Kingdoms City (today’s Yilan County, Heilongjiang), sitting in a well and looking at the sky.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-