"Water Margin" lists Gao Qi with Cai Jing, Tong Guan, and Yang Jian as the four major traitors. However, it is recorded in the history that there were indeed six major traitors in the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, namely Cai Jing, Wang Yi, Tong Guan, Liang Shicheng, Zhu Xun, and Li Yan. Among them, there is no high-
Historically, Gao Li did rise from the grassroots and became an envoy (Privy Counsellor) who controlled the military power of a country, but there was no obvious disadvantage during his tenure.
According to the "Song Barnyard Banknotes", Gao Li was originally a small history of Mr. Su Dongpo. The so-called small history, similar to the current secretary, often helps the master to carry out some copying and recording work. The history books say that Gao Li's "penmanship is quite skilled" and can make the calligraphy master Su Dongpo invite him to do the copying work, which shows that Gao Li's achievements in calligraphy are definitely not low, at least at the level of second-rate calligraphers.
Gao Li worked at Su Dongpo's side for several years. Later, Su Dongpo was released from Hanlin Tou as a local Zhizhou. Before leaving, he wrote a letter of recommendation to Gao Li, recommending it to the imperial court minister Zeng Bu.
Zeng Bu was the younger brother of Zeng Gong among the eight masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, and was a key minister in the Song Shenzong's transformation law, and was politically opposed to Su Dongpo, but they had good personal relations with each other.
Zeng Bu served as chancellor and privy councillor, and served as a chancellor in the three dynasties of Emperor Shenzong of Song, Emperor Zhezong of Song, and Emperor Huizong of Song. If he can worship under this person's door, Gao Li's future will certainly be bright.
However, when Su Dongpo left the capital and Gao Li went to see Zeng Bu with a letter of recommendation, Zeng Bu told Gao Li that he had enough secretaries and did not need to ask anyone anymore.
However, Zeng Bu did not want to refute Su Dongpo's face, so he also wrote a letter of recommendation, recommending Gao Li to Jinqing, the king of the horse. Since Gao Li was very good at doing things, Wang Jinqing soon regarded Gao Li as a confidant.
Wang Jinqing and Duan Wang Zhao Yao had a good relationship, and the two often interacted. Once, the two met while waiting for a meeting. Duan Wang said, "I came in a hurry today, I forgot to bring a grate knife, I don't know if it is okay to borrow your grate knife?" ”
The so-called grate knife is similar to the current comb. Before the chancellor met the emperor, he would slightly modify the waiting room. It is estimated that Duan Wang is in a hurry, and his hairstyle is a bit chaotic, so he wants to borrow a grate knife and then straighten his hair.
Wang Jinqing of course agreed, and he took out his grate knife from his waist. Duan Wang looked at it and thought that the grate style was new and cute, and he liked it very much.
Wang Jinqing saw the intention of Duan Wang Zhao Tuo, so he said: "I recently let people make two pairs of grate knives, and one pair has not been used, if Wang Ye likes it, I will let you give it to you later." ”
After that, everyone dispersed and went home. Wang Jinqing picked a subordinate who could speak the Tao to send a grate knife. This selected subordinate is Gao Li.
Gao Li came to the Duanwang Mansion, and it happened that Zhao Li was playing football, and Gao Li waited while watching.
When watching the ball, Gao Li was "stunned" and seemed to be very dismissive of the skills of those under Zhao Tuo's goal. So Zhao Li asked Gao Li to play together. As a result, everyone was horrified, and Gao Li was really powerful. Zhao Tuo was overjoyed, and sent someone to tell the horse that he had left the grate knife and the person who sent the grate knife behind!
A few months later, King Duan of Duan, Zhao Tuo, ascended the throne as emperor and became Emperor Huizong of Song. As a confidant of the highest rank all the way to the promotion.
In "Water Margin", as soon as Zhao Li ascended the throne, Gao Li immediately became the grand lieutenant of the Palace Marshal's Mansion. In fact, this is not the case at all. Even if Gao Li was a confidant of Emperor Huizong of Song, Zhao Yao, he had to follow the rules of the officialdom.
Although Emperor Zhao of Duan was fortunate enough to become Emperor Huizong of the Great Song Dynasty, as a close associate of him, Gao Li had no meritorious name, and if he wanted to become an official in the imperial court, he did not have a door, and could only take the road of military attaché, and Emperor Huizong of Song also intended to cultivate him, so he let him go to the bian marshal Liu Zhongwu's army to "gild the exercise" in an attempt to build some military merit to block the mouths of those in the court.
Starting from a very low position, Gao Li served as an official in the military circles of the Great Song Dynasty for a total of twenty years, and transferred to many positions before finally becoming a lieutenant.
At that time, the main opponent was the Western Xia, which occupied a large area of land northwest of the Great Song Dynasty at that time, and there was a trend of further encroachment, and the Song Dynasty was on the defensive.
Later, another traitorous minister, Tong Guan, led his army to fight several victorious battles and recovered all the lost land. Gao Li should have made military achievements at this time, otherwise, Emperor Huizong of Song would not have promoted him all the way without reason, and finally achieved the high position of palace marshal, ruling the forbidden army for more than twenty years.
During the period when Gao Li was in charge of the Forbidden Army, there was no achievement to speak of. According to the "Jing Kang Essentials", "Gao Li, who was in charge of the military and government, and who invaded the military camp, occupied the forbidden army in a wide range of private areas, and used it to fill the army." Under his leadership, the army at that time was "discipline was abolished" and "the military and government were not repaired", and became a useless decoration of "people do not know the soldiers, and none of them are available".
When the Jin people attacked, the 100,000 forbidden troops in Kaifeng City were scattered, Gao Li followed the emperor all the way south, and later Kyoto fell, after the Jing Kang Disaster, the emperor put the responsibility on Gao Li, in fact, this still had to be divided according to the actual situation at that time.
First of all, Gao Li was only in charge of the forbidden army, and in a long-term stable environment, they were no longer a shenwu army, and they had almost become a police force that could only maintain local law and order.
Gao Li was not a military expert, so naturally it was impossible to bring about a significant improvement in the military training of the Great Song Dynasty, let alone have the divine merit of reviving the dead and changing the current situation of the weak army at that time.
In fact, the truly effective army was actually in the hands of those generals at the border pass, and the large-scale invasion of the Jin people, and even the tragedy of the Jing Kang Disaster, should be mainly responsible for Tong Guan, who abandoned the important town of Taiyuan, causing the Jin people to drive straight in.
The Jin people crossed the Yellow River, the city of Kaifeng was in danger, and Emperor Huizong of Song fled to the south with a group of ministers, accompanied by Gao Li.
Gao Li then fell ill and returned to his hometown, and soon died of illness in his hometown of Kaifeng, where he did not experience the difficulties of Jing Kang, nor did he see the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, and after his death, he was posthumously honored as the Duke of Wu by the imperial court; among those who were called traitors, he was the only one who could die well.
Later generations regarded Gao Li as a party with Cai Jing and Tong Guan, and there is no record of this, and there is no Gao Li in the list of traitors approved by Emperor Qinzong of Song. What is certain is that he is not in the same group as them, and Gao Li did not participate in the decisions made by those traitorous courtiers who misled the country and harmed the people.
For example, the joint gold and liao measures that had a decisive effect on the subjugation of the country. To say that Gao Li is not a person in their circle means that he has not yet reached that height, in other words, he is not qualified enough, he has not yet entered the highest decision-making level, and he is still far from the center of power.
Gao Li in "Water Margin" is accepted by everyone for being portrayed as a bad guy with many evil deeds. After the novel was written, Gao Li took root in people's minds as evil and became stereotyped.
In fact, Gao Li did not have a dime relationship with the people of Liangshan, nor did he lead his troops to destroy Liangshan, let alone to conquest Fang La. The novelist's words are inadmissible.
In addition, it should be noted that after Gao Li became a high-ranking official, he still did not forget Su Dongpo's kindness of knowing and encountering that year. At a time when everyone was afraid of the Su family, Gao Li had been reading Su Dongpo's original recommendation of himself and repeatedly caring for the Su family.
Whenever Su Dongpo's descendants came to the capital, Gao Li would always contribute money. Therefore, Gao Li's reputation in the Shilin is actually not bad, and he is a sentient and righteous person.