History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 390 Huzhou Curse
【Huzhou Curse】

In the second month after Zhang Zhiyuan was killed, Gao Li, the governor of Huzhou under Qian Liu's rule, rebelled and joined Huainan.

Gao Li was actually a "martyr's family" with a good family background. His father was Gao Yan and his brother was Gao Wei. During the "Xu Xu Rebellion", Gao Yan sent his son Gao Wei to help. He was ambushed by the rebels in Lingyin Mountain and died heroically. After Gao Yan's death, Gao Li inherited the position of Huzhou governor.

There is not a single trace of his father and brother in Gao Li. He is so cruel and tyrannical that he is unprecedented and unparalleled.

It is said that Gao Yan had a strange dream. He dreamed of a winged fairy with a sword in hand, breaking into the bedroom. Gao Yan was startled and asked him what he wanted to do. The fairy replied: "I came to find your son and avenge thousands of wronged souls!" Gao Yan suddenly woke up and found that it was just a nightmare. However, on that day, his wife was pregnant with Gao Li.

Gao Li was a premature baby (he was born before the due date), and the history books do not specify how long he was premature. It is only said that when the child was 13 years old, he showed a cruel and violent side.

It is said that Gao Li is the reincarnation of a Yaksha spirit. One day, Gao Li went to visit Taichang Doctor Qiu Guangting. Qiu Guangting went out to greet him, but saw a green-faced ghost standing in the corridor. Qiu Guangting was so scared that he screamed. As a result, the "green-faced ghost" hurriedly took two steps forward and grabbed his wrist. After a closer look, it turned out to be Gao Li. Gao Li lowered his voice and said, "Hush - don't make a sound, it's me. I just accidentally revealed my true form."

When Gao Li succeeded as the governor of Huzhou, he could no longer conceal his absurdity and cruelty. He recruited a personal guard named "Qie Yaodu", all of whom wore blue clothes and white pants, tattooed their faces, put red marks on their foreheads, dressed up as yakshas, ​​and carried swords, spears, bows and arrows.

Not only that, but all residents in the state were required to tattoo their faces within three days. Anyone who failed to do so would be beheaded.

Gao Li also painted his face like an actor, but when all the people were ordered to tattoo their faces, he washed off his makeup and became the only person in Huzhou without a tattoo. So people nicknamed him "White-faced Yaksha". "White-faced means that Li had not yet had his face tattooed."

Gao Li had two hobbies: killing people and eating people. He would kill anyone who made a mistake, no matter how big or small, and he would kill anyone who did nothing wrong, depending on his mood. Every day before leaving for work, the officers and officials of Huzhou would say goodbye to their wives and children, because anyone could go and never come back, and could be killed at any time.

Later, after he surrendered to Huainan, he heard that there were many beautiful women in Jianghuai, so he often asked Huainan beauties to come to his house for service, and then "killed and ate them".

Under his rule, Huzhou was like hell on earth. It is said that every summer, Gao Li would go up to a tall building to escape the heat, and when he looked out from the height, he found that there was not a single person in the most prosperous area of ​​the city center, and "there was no sign of people walking on land or on the east and west sides of the city."

Later, he said to his staff: "I plan to kill all the people in Huzhou. What do you think?"

The staff tried to dissuade him, saying that if they killed all the civilians, where would they collect taxes? They could just kill a few prisoners to satisfy their desire.

Gao Li was obsessed with killing and was very addicted to it. Small-scale killings could no longer give him pleasure, and he had to have a massacre to be satisfied. So he ambushed 3,000 personal soldiers in the Kaiyuan Temple in the territory, and then spread the news: Good news, good news, big opening sale, everything is free, really free!

They deceived the people by saying that a wealthy family was donating money and food to Kaiyuan Temple to fulfill a vow.

The people believed it and came one after another. Gao Li only left one door for people to enter and exit, and anyone who came in, regardless of gender, age or status, was killed.

A real rip off.

As time went by, people outside noticed something was wrong. So many people, but only some went in and none came out. Even a dumb person could see something was wrong. So people fled in all directions. "You dare to run?" Gao Li was furious, and immediately ordered all the gates of Huzhou to be closed, a carpet search was conducted, and then everyone was executed on the spot.

"Li heard the news and was furious. He closed the city and searched everywhere, killing everyone without exception." - "Wu Yue Bei Shi"

Regarding the Kaiyuan Temple massacre, some records say that he ambushed 3,000 elite soldiers to act as executioners, while others say that he killed 3,000 civilians.

It is said that when Gao Yan was seriously ill, a monk named Rune came to visit him. He saw that Gao Yan would not live long, so he said goodbye to him. After coming out of the ward, Rune said to everyone: "Mr. Gao is about to die, and I will also pass away. Do you know why? Because the next governor of Huzhou will be the 'White-faced Yaksha', you should hide if you can."

Qian Liu had long heard about Gao Li's misdeeds in Huzhou, but because of the loyalty and bravery of his father and brother and out of pity for him as a "martyr's family member", he turned a blind eye to it and at the same time gave Gao Yan a bloodline.

When the news of the "Kaiyuan Temple Massacre" came, Qian Liu could no longer sit still. How could he massacre the whole city? He was simply a reincarnation of the devil! So he planned to send troops to arrest him.

Gao Li heard the news and hurriedly surrendered to Huainan, and sent troops to burn and loot Yihe, Linping and other towns.

Huainan sent generals Li Jian and Chen Zhang to lead troops to take over Huzhou.

Gao Li had previously killed innocent people indiscriminately, which had already lost the support of the army and the people. Now he wanted to force all the soldiers and civilians in the state to become traitors. So, under the leadership of Sheng Shiyou and Shen Xingsi, the generals chose to disobey orders, refused to allow Li Jian and Chen Zhang's troops to enter the country, and spontaneously organized a resistance.

At the same time, Qian Liu also sent his son Qian Yuanluo to lead reinforcements to Huzhou for support.

Gao Li was terrified and hurriedly led 5,000 personal guards to flee the city and returned to Huainan with Li Jian and Chen Zhang.

Huzhou was located between the two major powers of Huainan and Hangzhou, and was a very important border city. Qian Liu was not confident in handing it over to outsiders to guard, so he appointed his younger brother Qian Biao as the governor of Huzhou. He also submitted a petition to the Later Liang court, requesting that Fuyang County be renamed Fuchun County, Songyang County be renamed Changsong County, and Puyang County be renamed Pujiang County, because "the Huai bandits had not been pacified, and it was shameful to open a rebellious surname", and Qian Liu "hated the Yang family".

Before leaving, Qian Liu ordered Teacher Sheng to follow the working group, which meant that Teacher Sheng was about to be promoted, while Shen Xingsi was left out.

Shen Xingsi wanted to be promoted to the position of governor by virtue of his merit in closing the city to protect Huzhou, so he complained to his colleague Chen Huan (some books wrote "Chen Gui"), basically competing for credit with his teacher and friend Sheng, and expressing his dissatisfaction with Qian Liu's partiality.

At that time, Chen Huan had received Qian Liu's secret order to trick Shen Xingsi to the Hangzhou headquarters. Because Shen Xingsi was originally a bandit and had great ambitions, Qian Liu was very worried about him and keeping him in the local area would definitely be a hidden danger.

So Chen Huan said to Shen Xingsi: "Qian Liu was not aware of the situation at the time, so you should go to Hangzhou in person and explain yourself to him. How can Qian Liu not treat you well?"

Shen Xingsi thought it made sense, so he went to Hangzhou to meet Qian Liu.

(End of this chapter)