History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 881: The Legend of the Lai Family (Part )

【Legend of Lai】

After Gao Conghui died, his third son Gao Baorong succeeded to the throne.

Gao Conghui had 15 sons in total, 11 of whom were named in historical records. His eldest son Gao Baoxun, second son Gao Baozheng, for unknown reasons, Gao Conghui directly passed the throne to his third son Gao Baorong (no one knows why he was enthroned).

Could it be that Gao Baorong was gifted, intelligent, dignified, and extraordinary? Let's listen to the authoritative historical books' evaluation of him:
"New History of the Five Dynasties": "He is slow-witted and incompetent."

"History of Song Dynasty": "He was slow and slow in nature, commanded the army and governed the people, and was good at handling government affairs for a while."

"Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms": "He is slow and incompetent, and has no talent or ability."

Be it the historians of the Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty or Qing Dynasty, they all maintained a unified tone in their evaluation of Gao Baorong, which can be translated as he is not good at anything and is only good at eating.

Therefore, we can boldly speculate that Gao Conghui's eldest son and second son may have died, because after Gao Baorong succeeded to the throne, all political affairs were handed over to his younger brother Gao Baoxu (Gao Conghui's tenth son and Gao Baorong's brother from the same mother). If the plan was to depose the eldest son and enthrone the youngest, then Gao Baoxu could have directly succeeded to the throne.

After Gao Baorong succeeded to the throne, he continued to pay tribute to the Central Plains. Liu Chengyou of the Later Han Dynasty sent his confidant Guo Yunming to bestow clothes and coins on him and to establish the legal system.

Guo Yunming was Liu Zhiyuan's confidant, and even more so Liu Chengyou's confidant. He was the core figure of the "uncle clan". During the "Xiaoqiang Incident", he personally killed the descendants of Yang Bin, Shi Hongzhao and others. When Guo Wei's army was at the gates of the city, he personally killed Liu Chengyou and then committed suicide.

According to historical records, when Guo Yunming arrived in Jingnan, "his carriage, clothing and entourage were like those of a military governor." Note that Gao Baorong was a military governor in the power system of the feudal dynasty of the Later Han Dynasty. This passage means that the standards used by Guo Yunming were the same as those used by Gao Baorong, or even slightly higher.

Guo Yunming's delegation brought with them more than a dozen jars of imperial wine, which were bestowed by Liu Chengyou on Gao Baorong. However, every time Guo Yunming had a meal, he would "loudly demand for the imperial wine", truly not treating himself as an outsider.

As the saying goes, a minister of a higher state is the ruler of a lower state. When Guo Yunming arrived in Jingnan, he was like an emperor. Gao Baorong did not dare to neglect him and could only serve him carefully and depend on him.

Just when Gao Baorong was carefully pretending to be the grandson, someone reported that Guo Yunming secretly sent people to measure the city!
With our eyes of God, we know that the Later Han Dynasty had no plan to capture Jingnan at that time. Guo Yunming deliberately let the people of Jingnan know that he was "secretly" taking measurements "for a plan to capture the area" in order to blackmail Gao Baorong.

Gao Baorong took the bait and bribed Guo Yunming with a large sum of money.

Guo Yunming had acted like a big shot enough and received enough bribes, so he swaggered back to the court to report.

Soon, the Later Han Dynasty was replaced by the Later Zhou Dynasty. The Central Plains was no longer the Central Plains, but Jingnan was still Jingnan. Sitting in the tiny land of Jingzhou, he watched the drama of the succession of the Five Dynasties with a smile.

In the third year of Qianyou (950), Tian Xinggao, the governor of Shizhou in Later Shu, defected to Jingnan. Gao Baorong ordered his men to arrest him and send him to Later Shu, saying that since Tian Xinggao had betrayed the Shu ruler, how could he be loyal to Jingnan?
In fact, this is just a reflection of the political wisdom of the Gao family in Jingnan. How could Jingnan destroy its good neighborly relations with the Later Shu for a small governor? Should the "Shu-Jing-Bian" Silk Road still exist?

The following year (951), Guo Wei replaced the Han Dynasty and established the Zhou Dynasty. Gao Baorong paid Guo Wei a tribute of taels of white gold and pieces of French brocade in exchange for the title of Minister of the Central Secretariat and the title of Prince of Bohai. Jingnan continued to maintain a vassal relationship with the Central Plains.

During Gao Baorong's period, relations with the Later Zhou Dynasty were harmonious, and Jingnan continued to enjoy the greatest luxury of the Five Dynasties period - peace.

Before Guo Wei's death, he conferred the title of King of Nanping on Gao Baorong; when Chai Rong ascended the throne, he gave Gao Baorong the additional title of Minister of the Central Secretariat.

At the beginning of the "Three Expeditions to Huainan", Gao Baorong was ordered to send troops and sent General Wei Lin to lead the navy to approach Ezhou.

From the perspective of the interests of southern Jing, it was not in the interests of the Central Plains to conquer the Huai River, so Gao Baorong made two preparations: on the one hand, he sent troops to Ezhou to compete for the fruits of victory; on the other hand, he sent envoys to Southern Tang to persuade Li Jing to agree to Chai Rong's conditions and seek peace.

You can't work so hard. How can you make money if you work so hard?

Later, Southern Tang and Later Zhou reached an agreement on dividing the river and governing separately, and then stopped fighting. Chai Rong was very happy when he received a letter from Gao Baorong persuading Southern Tang to submit, and he gave him 10,000 pieces of silk.

Gao Baorong found a way to make money by exchanging a letter for 4 pieces of silk. So four months after receiving the reward, he wrote another letter and sent it to Hou Shu, urging Meng Chang of Hou Shu to become a vassal of Hou Zhou.

Meng Chang replied and said, "You may not know, I just sent a text message to Hou Zhou last year, but he didn't reply to me!"

As mentioned in the previous article, because Meng Chang called himself "Emperor of Great Shu" in his letter, Chai Rong was angry at his refusal to reply. Meng Chang was also very angry that Chai Rong had read the letter but did not reply. He said that when my brother proclaimed himself emperor, you were still sneaking around. Why are you pretending to be so powerful? At this critical moment, Jingnan sent a letter to persuade him to surrender to the Later Zhou Dynasty, but Meng Chang refused. Four months later, Gao Baorong wrote another letter to Meng Chang of the Later Shu Dynasty, urging him not to refuse a toast and drink a penalty, not to be shameless, and to surrender the whole country to Zhou Dynasty as soon as possible!

But Meng Chang was furious, "It's not over yet, is it?" He wrote a letter to Gao Baorong with a strong tone and fierce wording, expressing his refusal to submit.

"This is exactly your attitude!" Gao Baorong forwarded Meng Chang's letter to Chai Rong.

The "three expeditions to Huainan" by the Later Zhou Dynasty really frightened Jingnan. After the Central Plains negotiated peace with the Southern Tang and gained the entire territory of Huaibei, Jingnan became even more frightened, worrying that it would be the next target of conquest. So Jingnan tried every means to lead the war to the Later Shu.

Why was it Hou Shu? Because if it was other southern vassal states, such as Southern Chu (Yuan) and Southern Han, then the Central Plains would have to pass through Jingnan, which would be the day of Jingnan's destruction, just like the story that followed; if the war was directed to Northern Han and Khitan, Jingnan obviously did not have the conditions to do so.

Jingnan could only use Hou Shu as a shield, and when the Central Plains attacked Shu, Jingnan could also take the opportunity to reap the fruits of victory, holding up the banner of responding to the king's army and assisting in the attack on Shu, and encroaching on the land in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. When Li Cunxu, the Emperor Zhuangzong of the Later Tang Dynasty, destroyed the Former Shu, Gao Jichang used this method to expand the jurisdiction of Jingnan to seven states, which became the heyday of the Jingnan regime. Later, it stabilized to three states. In addition to the original Jingzhou (Jiangling City), the other two - Guizhou and Xiazhou, were also seized at that time.

Therefore, by provoking the relationship between the Central Plains and Shu and Huai, one can not only protect southern Jing from the war, but also take advantage of the political confrontation to gain economic benefits, killing two birds with one stone.

Gao Baorong almost succeeded.

As mentioned earlier, Chai Rong had indeed begun planning to attack Shu, and had already deployed troops and arranged pre-war matters such as the transportation of food and fodder.

Gao Baorong was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately submitted a petition to the emperor, volunteering to say that Jingnan was willing to serve as the vanguard in the attack on Shu and to use the navy to attack targets in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and hoped that the organization would approve it!
Chai Rong was also very happy. Who said Gao Laizi was hateful? Look, how lovable he is, and how loyal he is to our Great Zhou! So he issued an imperial edict to praise him.

But after Chai Rong calmed down, he canceled the war against Shu that was planned by the "patriotic traitor" Gao Baorong. He did not take risks for Gao Laizi's family, but instead launched a northern expedition to Youyan, namely "conquering the Three Passes in the North."

Since the Later Tang Dynasty, Jingnan had been paying tribute "every few years", and its relationship with the Central Plains was ambiguous and tortuous. But during the Later Zhou Dynasty, "tribute was paid every year".

Gao Baorong told Chai Rong that although these weapons and gold and silk were valuable, they were also ordinary items and were not enough to express my obedience to the superior country. So, I will send my brother (Gao Baoshen) to the court as a hostage.

Chai Rong then liked Gao Baorong even more (Zhou Zhu Yijiazhi).

Gao Baorong did his best to please Zhongyuan, which not only earned him praise, but also actual benefits:

During the Later Liang Dynasty, when Gao Jichang had just led the Jingnan base, his godfather Zhu Wen gave him 5,000 guards. At that time, Jingnan was in ruins, with only broken walls and few living people, and it was impossible to support the 5,000 soldiers. So Zhu Wen reimbursed all the expenses of the 5,000 people for his godfather, so Zhu Wen reimbursed his godfather's grandson for all the expenses (the guards' food and clothing were all given to Liang).

During the reign of Li Siyuan, Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang Dynasty, 13,000 shi of salt were used as a subsidy each year, but Gao Jichang soon broke with the Later Tang Dynasty and became a vassal of Huainan, and this part of the policy subsidy was terminated. Even after the restoration of the vassal relationship with the Central Plains, this part of the subsidy was never restored due to the long time and different times.

Until now, after the Later Zhou Dynasty's "Three Expeditions to Huainan", Chai Rong was able to resume his support due to Gao Baorong's "loyalty and patriotism" and subsidize Gao Baorong with salt from the Taizhou Salt Supervision. Unlike one-time rewards such as "granting 10,000 pieces of silk", this is an annual reward, which provides a steady cash flow for Jingnan.

"You always say that I am a dog around Zhongyuan. Today, I want to let you who look down on me and think I am a waste to see that there is nothing wrong with being a dog!" - Gao Baorong
Chai Rong eventually gave up on conquering Shu and instead conquered the Three Passes in the north, and then left us prematurely. Chai Zongxun ascended the throne and appointed Gao Baorong as the Guardian of the Grand Tutor. Gao Baorong struck while the iron was hot and recommended his eldest son Gao Jichong as the Deputy Envoy of Jingnan Jiedushi.

After Zhao Kuangyin established the Song Dynasty, Gao Baorong became increasingly afraid of the Central Plains. Chai Rong was determined to conquer all corners of the country and unify the world, and he did not hide his grand ambitions. Zhao Kuangyin inherited Chai Rong's legacy and was determined to unify the world. How could a small Jingnan not be afraid?
Therefore, the tribute was changed from one time a year to three times a year.

Zhao Kuangyin treated him with great kindness and courtesy, and appointed him as the Grand Tutor.

But Gao Baorong was still very afraid, and died of fright more than half a year later.

Zhao Kuangyin seized power in the first month of the year, and Gao Baorong died in August. In other words, the "three tributes a year" mentioned above should actually be "three tributes within eight months." This shows how fearful Gao Baorong was.

In August of the first year of Jianlong (960), Gao Baorong died of illness at the age of 8, leaving us prematurely.

When the tragic news came, the Song Dynasty suspended court for three days to express mourning. He was posthumously awarded the title of Grand Marshal and given the posthumous title of "Zhen Yi" (also known as "Zheng Yi").

(End of this chapter)