The ancients said that "heroes do not ask for provenance", which is more obvious in the chaotic era, many people who have made meritorious achievements in the chaotic world and made a name for themselves in the world are not originally born noble, and even some are robbers and even prisoners, such as Gao Qiong, a famous general of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Gao Qiong was born in 935, his grandfather and father were also the sons of official eunuchs, but when they were envoys to the Southern Tang For the Khitans, they were involved in the conspiracy of the Southern Tang court, and were beheaded by the Southern Tang court, but were also married to Hou Zhou. Although Gao Qiong, who was born in the Southern Tang Dynasty, was not in danger of life, he was also closely monitored, and he was not allowed to leave the country, so he did not have the opportunity to get an education.
Gao Qiong, who lived in this environment, was just brave and fierce all day, living with his own ferocity and roguery, and as an orphan at that time, it was precisely because of this ferocity that he did not suffer too much loss. As he grew into adulthood, he escaped from the surveillance of the Southern Tang court and became a bandit, Zhan shan robbed the house for the king, was suppressed by the officials and soldiers, was arrested, and was sent to death row.
Gao Qiong thus changed from a robber to a prisoner, about to be beheaded, but in a sense, he can be regarded as the luckiest robber in history, because the day before he was about to be beheaded, the sky suddenly rained a lot, making the whole weather look a little dark, and also making the guards who guarded the prison become irritable, and the guards of the prisoners naturally became lax.
Gao Qiong seized this opportunity very keenly, he took advantage of the guards' inattention, broke the locks outside his cell, successfully escaped from the prison, and because the heavy rain washed away the traces of his escape, so the pursuing soldiers did not catch up, he ran all the way to the Later Zhou, and joined the army under the Later Zhou general Wang Zhenqi, transforming from a prisoner into a soldier.
When Zhao Kuangyin, the commander of the Forbidden Army of Later Zhou, replaced Later Zhou to establish the Song Dynasty and set the capital at Fenjing, Gao Qiong also ran to Fenjing, and obtained an official position, becoming the personal bodyguard of Zhao Guangyi, and when Zhao Guangyi ascended the throne in the ninth year of Kaibao (976), Gao Qiong also became the highest-ranking Imperial Dragon Commander in the Forbidden Army, and continued to lead the army to protect the emperor's safety.
Gao Qiong then led the army many times, and once in the seventh year of the Taiping Revival (982), with extraordinary courage and strategy, he quelled a rebellion. In 986, he led the Northern Expedition and conquered strategic places such as Qinhuangdao and Jinzhou. In 1000, Empress Xiao of the Liao State personally led an army to attack the Great Song, and the original Song army marshal Fu Qian retreated timidly, and Gao Qiong was ordered to repel the Liao army, and he also became the commander of the three armies of the Song Dynasty, enjoying an extremely high reputation.
However, this is not the peak of Gao Qiong's prestige, in the first year of Jingde (1004), Empress Xiao of the Liao state and Liao Shengzong led 200,000 elite soldiers, all the way to Liaozhou, many officials in the Northern Song court have put forward their own countermeasures, some say that they moved south and some said that they fled west, only Gao Qiong and Kou Zhun suggested that Emperor Song Zhenzong personally march, thus stimulating the morale of the Song army, defeating the Liao army, and the two sides signed a non-aggression peace treaty in Liaozhou, known in history as the "Alliance of Liaoyuan". Since then, there have been no large-scale wars between the two countries for more than a hundred years.
Gao Qiong died of illness in the third year of Jingde (1006) at the age of 72, and the emperor quit the dynasty for two days for him, and later built an ancestral hall for him to facilitate the sacrifice of the people.