["Second Generation Lai" Gao Congjie]
In December of the third year of Tiancheng (928), Gao Jichang was seriously ill and ordered his eldest son Gao Congjie to temporarily assume military and political power. On December 25, Gao Jichang died of illness, and Yang Pu of Huainan appointed Gao Congjie as Jingnan's military envoy and minister.
Gao Congjie was a man of great power and scheming. Translated, he was more cunning and cunning than his father, Gao Jichang. There is also a beautiful legend about his birth:
Gao Jichang had a beautiful concubine, Zhang. When Gao Jichang was young, he would take Zhang with him whenever he went on an expedition. One time after losing a battle, in a panic, the couple strayed into the mountains and forests and hid in a narrow natural cave at night. At that time, Ms. Zhang was pregnant and had difficulty moving. Gao Jichang was worried that she would harm him, so he secretly got up while Ms. Zhang was asleep, came to the entrance of the cave, and slashed hard around the entrance with a giant sword, hoping to cause a landslide. Bury Zhang alive.
The strange thing is that Gao Jichang has destroyed the entrance of the cave to the point that it violates the classical mechanics of physics, but this small hole just refuses to collapse.
At this moment, Mrs. Zhang suddenly woke up, and the two of them startled each other.
Gao Jichang stood at the entrance of the cave with a giant sword in his hand, very embarrassed, "Why...are you awake?"
Zhang was in shock and said that she had just had a dream, in which she dreamed that the cave was about to collapse, and a godly man wearing golden armor and holding a golden gun stood beside her to help her hold up the cave. She also said that she was uneducated and didn't understand what it meant, so she asked Gao Jichang to help her interpret her dream.
"Oh... Hi, actually... I..." Gao Jichang hesitated and helped her out of the cave. As soon as Zhang walked out of the cave, she heard a "bang" behind her and the cave collapsed.
Gao Jichang believed that Zhang's life should not be cut off because of the help of gods and men, so he did not dare to have any evil thoughts, so he fled with Zhang, and finally escaped the pursuit of the pursuers without any danger.
At that time, Zhang was pregnant with Gao Congjie. So after Gao Congjie was born, Gao Jichang thought of what happened that night and concluded that Gao Congjie would definitely become rich and powerful, so he liked him very much. And Zhang also ended up in wealth and honor.
In fact, I firmly believe that this is Zhang's cleverness and astuteness, and that mysterious dream must have been her improvisation. Gao Jichang's giant sword cut into the wall, waking her up. When she woke up, she saw Gao Jichang slashing at the cave door in the moonlight. Anyone who was not a fool would know what Gao Jichang wanted to do.
But Zhang couldn't break through, otherwise he would be killed on the spot by this scumbag. So out of desperation, he got wise and borrowed the golden armor warrior to protect his body.
The intelligence that Gao Congjie displayed in the future was most likely inherited from his mother.
There is a poem praising:
"The city of Ying was opened at the foot of Jigong Mountain, and the master group of weapons became dominant and the industry was restored.
I still recall the golden armor in my dream, holding the arm to lift the fallen Mount Tai. "
Gao Congjie, who was newly appointed, faced an extremely dangerous dilemma. To the north, soldiers and horses from all walks of life of the Later Tang Dynasty were continuously heading to Xiangzhou to gather; to the south, Southern Chu and Mayin dispatched troops and generals to avenge Yuezhou.
Previously, Li Siyuan of the Later Tang Dynasty fought on two fronts. Because the capital of Dingzhou colluded with the Khitan and rebelled, Li Siyuan's main focus was on the north. Less than a month after Gao Congjie's attack on the throne, the Later Tang Dynasty completely defeated the Khitan reinforcements and regained Dingzhou. As a result, a large number of soldiers with rich combat experience were transferred to the Xiangzhou front line.
The first to enter the battle was Mayin of Southern Chu. General Wang Huan defeated Jingnan in Shishou (today's Shishou City, Hubei Province). Shishou is located almost in the middle between Jiangling Mansion and Yuezhou. The three cities are all distributed along the Yangtze River. In other words, Wang Huan has cut off the connection between Jiangling Mansion and Yuezhou. Next, Nanchu If the army advances, it can threaten Jiangling Mansion; if it retreats, it can attack Yuezhou.
Shi Shou's failure made Gao Congjie extremely worried.
It is said that when Gao Jichang proposed to Nanwu, Gao Congjie strongly opposed it, but Gao Jichang did not accept it. Now, Gao Congjie said to his left and right aides: "Tang is close and Wu is far away. We should not sacrifice the near for the distant."
Therefore, Gao Congjie expressed his apology to the later Tang Dynasty through Ma Yin, admitted his mistake, put all the responsibility of ending Tang Dynasty and attaching Wu to the dead ghost father, and asked Later Tang Dynasty to forgive Jingnan, the lost lamb; and gave Xiangzhou Festival An Yuanxin, the Du envoy, wrote a letter asking him to intercede and provide guarantee for Jingnan Shangshu; he also sent his confidant Liu Zhiqian to Luoyang with a letter of repentance. In the letter of repentance, Gao Congjiao claimed to be "the former Sima of Jingnan Marching Army and the governor of Guizhou". "This is Gao Congjie's official position in the Later Tang Dynasty before Gao Jichang rebelled against Southern Wu. Gao Congjie called himself this official position, which also showed his attitude of knowing his way back and repenting of his mistakes. Along with the letter of repentance, there were three thousand taels. Atonement silver.
Of course Li Siyuan chose to forgive him.
The previous article has introduced the situation of Li Siyuan's new court at length. It is really difficult for him to support a decent war. The so-called conquest is just a few words to express his attitude and make up for the central government. Deep down, he can't If you fight, don’t fight. So it can be seen that the main force in Pingjing this time is actually Nanchu Mayin, and the Central Army is just bluffing in Xiangzhou.
Li Siyuan appointed Gao Congjie as the Jingnan Festival Envoy and Attendant, posthumously named Gao Jichang King of Chu, and gave Gao Jichang the posthumous title Wuxin. As an aside, I don’t know if Li Siyuan really wanted to show off Gao Jichang’s invincible “martial arts” and his unfaithful “faith”, and deliberately disgusted him, or was he just playing with the homophone of “unfaithfulness” to disgust him...
At the same time, it was announced that the Jingnan recruiting envoys would be cancelled, and the war was over.
Gao Congjie also very wisely sent a letter to Nan Wu, explaining the reason why he rebelled against Wu and returned to the Tang Dynasty, "Our ancestral graves are in the territory of the Later Tang Dynasty. We were afraid that the Later Tang Dynasty would dig up our ancestral graves in anger, so we had to surrender to him." ...I have no choice but to apologize, thank you.”
Nan Wu: Do you believe it yourself? You scumbag!
Nanwu sent troops to conquer Jingnan, but failed. In fact, Nanwu's attack was closely related to Li Siyuan's annexation of Xiangzhou. They were just a declaration of attitude and a gesture. Small countries want dignity, big countries want face.
It is even difficult to find traces of this battle in historical books. Most authoritative history books do not mention it at all. There is only a record in "Ten Kingdoms Spring and Autumn Period: Wen Wang Family" that "Wu sent his troops to question the crime, but they returned without success." There is only such a 9-character record, and there is no explanation of the generals of both sides, the delivery of troops, or even the location of the battle, the detailed time, etc.
During Li Siyuan's era, the princes, vassals and towns (ten kingdoms) in the world had basically reached the stage of stock competition, and involution was serious. This was both Li Siyuan's challenge and Li Siyuan's opportunity. The hard-line trusted minister An Chonghuo pursued the principle of eagle diplomacy and pushed forward his idea of reducing the vassal state, which was met with mixed praise and praise.
Just being a Jingnan was not An Zhongjie's ambition. He wanted to unify the world.
Jingnan Gao Congjia has returned. We can put the wonderful story of the "Gao Laizi" to an end for now and continue to talk about the intersection between the central Li Siyuan court and the other "Ten Kingdoms":
