Gao Cheng was a famous courtier during the Southern and Northern Dynasties at that time, he was born in Huaishuo in 521 AD, from an early age he was very intelligent and eloquent, at the age of ten he once went out alone to recruit Gao Ao Cao for Gao Huan, at the age of eleven, he twice went to Luoyang as Gao Huan's envoy to visit Emperor Xiaowu Yuanxiu, and at the age of twelve, he married Yuan Zhonghua, the sister of Emperor Xiaojing of Eastern Wei. In the government of Eastern Wei at that time, Gao Cheng was often called by Gao Huan to talk about current affairs and government affairs, and each time Gao Cheng answered like a stream, and analyzed it in detail, which made Gao Huan extremely appreciative and became Gao Huan's heartfelt minister.
In 536, Gao Cheng entered the Eastern Wei court to assist the government, and although the courtiers heard that Gao Cheng was young but old, not only had grace but also insight, two years later, in 538, Gao Cheng concurrently served as an official Shangshu. In 540, Gao Chengjia was a general, leading the Zhongshu Supervisor, and still acting as the official Shangshu. At that time, when the Northern Wei Dynasty selected officials, it was about seniority, not according to the talent selection. Therefore, Gao Cheng later abolished this system, began to select officials based on talent and reputation, and personally wrote books to recruit talented and famous people from all over the world to serve the imperial court. At that time, people with good moral character and ability were promoted and reused by Gao Cheng, and some could not arrange the corresponding positions for a while, so Gao Cheng summoned them as guests and stayed in his own house.
After the change of Heyin, Erzhu Rong, in order to stabilize the hearts of the people in the dprk, was indiscriminately knighted. After the gift of shade, it gradually became disorganized, and mediocre and incompetent officials were often high-ranking officials, Houlu, and of course, they were also protested by people of insight. Later, Gao Cheng began to correct the mistakes, so that the posthumous praise gradually returned to the reasonable range. Gao Cheng also recommended Cui Xian to become a lieutenant of the imperial history, severely cracking down on lawless corrupt officials, especially those who stole high positions of power, and bringing many offenders to justice.
At that time, under the auspices of Gao Cheng, the imperial court publicly posted the policy of governing the country on the streets for the people to freely comment and express their opinions. Those who make suggestions or criticize current events are also treated generously, even if they are exaggerated or fierce, tolerant and irresponsible. After this policy came down, many people praised it, and Gao Cheng's prestige became higher and higher. During this period, the relationship between the Eastern Wei of the Northern Dynasty and the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty was relatively harmonious, and the envoys of the two sides exchanged frequently. The envoys of the Eastern Wei and Liang Dynasties also often tried to compete with each other in terms of rhetoric and talent above the hall, and there were often pictures of fierce debates in the hall. Gao Cheng, on the other hand, was happy to do so, and whenever a banquet was held to entertain envoys of the Liang Dynasty, Gao Cheng often personally attended the scene or sent his subordinates to debate. Therefore, he recruited a large number of talents to serve the imperial court.
In 541 AD, Gao Cheng ordered the hundred furnaces not to mint this money, also known as the "Linggong Hundred Furnaces" money. At that time, the war in the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty led to economic disorder and currency depreciation, and a large amount of fake money was privately minted by the people. Gao Cheng began reforming this maladministration in the early years of Wuding, causing people to travel all over the country to collect the copper used for minting money and the original coins and re-mint them. However, the situation of people stealing fake money is still repeatedly prohibited. Therefore, Gao Cheng carried out a new currency reform in Wuding in 548, changing to a hanging scale of five baht, also known as "heavy as its text", which is a full-weight currency. The minting of the five baht is the turning point in the currency history of the Wei and Jin Dynasties from chaos to governance, and it is also the precedent of the "Kaihuang Five Baht" of the later generations of full-weight currency.
In the wars at the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty, many people became slaves after being controlled by landlords and powerful in order to survive, or were organized into private armed forces by the children of rich families. However, these powerful people did not pay taxes or report the number of slaves, hid the population, and secretly retained slaves who had embezzled a lot of money and work for them, resulting in a sharp decline in the number of household registrations and taxes in the Eastern Wei. There were also a large number of rich people who secretly hid their troops from the jurisdiction of the imperial court, which seriously affected the stability of the country. After Gao Cheng assisted the government, he sent Gao Longzhi and others to Hebei several times to change this situation.
After the change, the number of state hukou continued to increase, and the powerful also paid taxes to the state, making the state fiscal revenue abundant. The embezzled property of the rich was also confiscated, providing the imperial court with a lot of military funds, and the slaves and confiscated private soldiers who were found also provided sufficient military resources for the state. In the chaotic world, the Hebei region gradually formed an increasingly powerful township party to resist the state's policy, and later Gao Cheng also cracked down and weakened them one by one. At that time, private salt was rampant, and official salt production was far from keeping up, and private salt used market transactions to evade high salt taxes. Later, Gao Cheng followed Cui Ang's advice to close the salt market and allow private salt to be sold to the government, collecting only a small salt tax. It balanced the contradictions between the government and the private in the salt industry, so that both sides benefited. This made Gao Cheng's position more consolidated, and also made the political economy of Eastern Wei begin to stabilize.