Chapter 2: Empress Mother

The palace attendants were trembling with fear. The events of the day were truly terrifying. It was no surprise for the Emperor to act in such a manner, but the fact that even the Crown Prince had begun to kill with his own hands suggested that the Emperor’s brutality had infected his heir, rendering past conventions utterly useless.

The only one who felt a sense of gratification at this situation was Emperor Gao Yang. He had to admit that such a Crown Prince was indeed to his satisfaction.

"Summon the imperial physicians."

Gao Yang did not even glance at the dead bodyguard on the floor, as if he were merely an ornament that had been there from the start. The attendant beside him stood momentarily stunned before hastily following the Emperor’s stride.

Just then, someone rushed in, looking shocked at the sight of the blood-stained Emperor. The messenger knelt and prostrated himself: "Re-report to Your Majesty, the Empress has arrived. Upon hearing that you were here..."

"Let her in!" Gao Yang’s mood soured further. The Han rituals were so tedious; if her son was injured, she should have just walked in. To ask for permission first made things feel distant.

When he had initially chosen Li Zu’e, a Han woman, as his Empress, his goal was to win over the Han aristocracy of Hebei, thereby shaking off the constraints of the Xianbei nobility and strengthening the Gao family’s imperial power. That was why he had not chosen his cousin—the sister of Duan Shao—as Empress. While that alliance might have gained him the support of the Jinyang military, the Emperor would have been forced to defer to them. He already had a mother with an overwhelming desire for control; he did not want a wife of the same mold.

However, after the failed campaign against the Liang Dynasty two years prior, Gao Yang had begun to harbor some regrets. His own position remained stable, but if the Crown Prince...

A dignified and elegant young woman, dressed in a white *zhanyi* robe, arrived before Gao Yang, surrounded by a retinue of palace maids. The maids parted like receding tides, slowly retreating to the sides. The beautiful woman bowed, her artificial hairpieces, dangling ornaments, and intricate floral hairpins shimmering like ripples of light, accentuating the expanse of pale skin at her chest.

"Your subject greets Your Majesty."

Gao Yang nodded slightly. The beautiful woman approached him, her fingertips brushing Gao Yin’s cheek. "Yin’er, why is your head..."

Gao Yin, having already wiped away the blood with a handkerchief, quickly took his mother Li Zu’e’s hand. "I am fine, Mother."

He signaled for the attendants to drag away the corpse of Lu Lecha. Though Li Zu’e had seen much, she could not help but feel a tremor of heart. She had heard that her husband had struck Yin’er and knocked him unconscious, so she had hurried over to check on him. She had not expected to witness this scene—especially with her husband’s mouth bleeding. Who in this Great Qi could possibly dare to strike her husband? Was an entire clan tired of living?

Just as she was about to ask what had happened, Gao Yang let out a disdainful snort. "A fine son you have raised!"

He then strode away, leaving mother and son behind.

Li Zu’e looked at the mottled bloodstains on his robes, her heart aching. Just as Gao Yin wanted to say something to ease the atmosphere, Li Zu’e pulled him into her embrace, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Yin’er, you have been wronged. It is your mother who is useless, unable to protect you..."

After the imperial physician examined Gao Yin, she insisted he get some rest. Holding his hand, she sang a soft lullaby to lull him to sleep. Gao Yin had to admit that it was somewhat comforting.

Only when Gao Yin was fast asleep did Li Zu’e depart, taking several of the palace attendants who had been present with her. Once out of her son's sight, she revealed a cold, stern expression. "Tell me exactly what transpired."

Gao Yang returned to the Golden Phoenix Terrace and held a grand banquet, summoning generals, ministers, nobles, and princes. After much heavy drinking, the courtiers toasted him with trembling hearts. Gao Yang’s younger brother, Gao Zhan, the Prince of Changguang, suddenly noticed that blood was trickling from his brother’s mouth, and he seemed to be missing a tooth.

"What happened in the palace today?"

Gao Zhan appeared drunk, leaning against a stone pillar. A nearby attendant whispered, "The Crown Prince refused to kill the prisoner, so His Majesty beat him unconscious. When the Prince awoke, he knocked out His Majesty’s tooth."

"His tooth?" Gao Zhan spat out the wine he had been drinking. "My nephew actually had the guts to do that? What did His Majesty say?"

"His Majesty said nothing. Lu Lecha said a few words to the Crown Prince, and the Prince killed him with a handkerchief."

Gao Zhan was truly surprised. He suspected the Crown Prince’s brain had been rattled loose. That Gao Yin? Killing someone? The elder was already fierce and cruel; had the younger one also begun to descend into madness?!

Gao Zhan looked at his brother on the high platform, who was once again looking for an excuse to kill, and thought to himself: Being Emperor really is a fine thing.

***

In a side hall not far from the Golden Phoenix Terrace, attendants moved screens to block out the clamor of the banquet, carefully clearing the mess. Suddenly, they heard the young man’s command.

"All of you, leave. I wish to be alone for a while."

The attendants tiptoed out, leaving Gao Yin alone in the empty sleeping quarters. The gentle woman from earlier was his mother in this life, Li Zu’e, the future Empress Dowager.

In the near future, his uncles Gao Yan and Gao Zhan would launch the Qianming Coup to seize his throne. He would be deposed and murdered by Gao Yan, while Li Zu’e would be forced into an affair with Gao Zhan and bear his child.

Since he had arrived in this world with no way back, he would have to accept it. But he must never let such things happen. He had only just stepped onto the stage; he did not want to follow the original historical script and hand the leading roles over to Gao Yan and Gao Zhan.

The tragedy of Northern Qi began with the chaos in succession triggered by the Qianming Coup. Gao Yan passed the throne to his brother Gao Zhan to save the lives of his own offspring, yet Gao Yan’s son, Gao Bainian, was still beaten to death by Gao Zhan.

The root of this lay in the fact that Gao Huan, the Founding Father and Emperor Shenwu of Northern Qi, had emulated Cao Cao, establishing a "Bafu" (hegemon’s headquarters) in Jinyang to control the Eastern Wei court in Ye.

Thus, the Eastern Wei regime created by Gao Huan was a "dual-leader" system from the start: Ye was the political center, dominated by the Gao clan, while Jinyang was the military center, dominated by the Xianbei nobility.

This did not change even after Gao Yang usurped the Wei and established the Qi. Jinyang remained a crucial military stronghold. Ostensibly a frontier defense against the Northern Zhou, it secretly monitored every move in Ye, becoming a double-edged sword that could turn on its master at any moment.

Therefore, Jinyang was the true capital of Northern Qi. Throughout the dynasty, the Emperors spent far more time in Jinyang than in Ye. A major reason for Gao Yin’s disastrous defeat was his failure to win over the Jinyang nobility in time. While he was in Ye, Gao Yan was governing from the Prime Minister’s office in Jinyang, aggressively courting the support of the clan elders and military officials.

This was not entirely Gao Yin’s fault. If Northern Qi had been a unified dynasty, the influence of Ye as a political center would have risen with the court. But Northern Qi was a fragmented regime where military strength reigned supreme—like a brutal warrior capable of beating a weak Emperor at any time.

The tone set at the founding of a nation is critical. Because the first change of power involved a brutal and bloody military coup, subsequent Emperors were trapped in a obsession with power, always living under the shadow of Jinyang.

The world knows Li Shangyin’s *Two Poems on Northern Qi*, mocking Gao Wei’s incompetence. He was indeed foolish. But few know that when the Zhou army invaded the east and Gao Wei fled back to Ye, the generals in Bingzhou installed Gao Yanzong as Emperor. When Gao Wei heard this, he said, "I would rather let the Zhou have Bingzhou than let Ande [Gao Yanzong] have it." One can imagine the unprecedented pressure Jinyang exerted on the Northern Qi Emperors—so much so that sixteen days before the fall of Northern Qi, there were still people attempting to stage a coup to install a new Emperor.

It could be said that whoever possessed Jinyang possessed Northern Qi.

Although Gao Yin was the Crown Prince in name, from this perspective, Gao Yan was the true "Imperial Crown Brother." The one who decided the next Emperor was not his father Gao Yang, but his grandmother, Lou Zhaojun.

The Lou clan was a prominent family of Dai. They had thousands of servants and countless cattle and horses. Many powerful families sought to marry Lou Zhaojun, but she had set her heart on the impoverished Gao Huan. She defied her family's wishes, married him, and used her family’s resources to help him connect with heroes. She was his confidante and strategist, often helping him plan and secure his future. Gao Huan’s success as Prime Minister of Eastern Wei and founder of the Qi dynasty was due to his own talent, but without the Lou resources, he would not have even had a starting point.

Thus, Northern Qi did not bear the name Lou, but the shadow of the Lou clan was everywhere. For example, Lou Zhaojun’s niece, Duan Changle, was a consort of Gao Yang and had been the Empress pushed by the Xianbei nobility. Her nephew, Duan Shao, was a founding hero and one of the officials entrusted by Gao Huan to care for his children. Without Duan Shao’s support, Gao Yang could never have usurped the Wei.

Even while Gao Huan was alive, he had to defer to Lou Zhaojun. After he died, her status became even higher and her power even more entrenched. Everyone in the Qi state, including the Emperor, had to answer to her.

Lou Zhaojun was an adequate wife, but not an adequate mother. From beginning to end, she only thought of her own family with Gao Huan; she never cared for the state or the world. When Gao Cheng died and power fell into the hands of Gao Yang, whom she did not favor, she berated him: "Who are you to think you can act like Shun or Yu?"

When Gao Yang died, she sought to pass the throne to her third son, Gao Yan, and after him, her fifth, Gao Zhan, keeping the throne firmly within her and Gao Huan’s small circle.

Later generations often say that the Northern Qi family were all psychopaths. But Gao Yin felt they were merely driven insane by their mother.

For the imperial power of Northern Qi to flourish and for the Emperor to hold real authority, they had to strike at the Jinyang nobility and support the Han factions. But their mother, Lou Zhaojun, acted as the chief spokesperson for the Jinyang side, suppressing her sons’ efforts.

The path Gao Yang chose was arguably the most correct: first usurp the Wei to establish legitimacy, then expand the territory. He campaigned north for years, striking the Rouran, Tujue, Khitan, Shanhu, and Ruru. Every time, he risked his life in the heat of battle, not only earning the title of "Heroic Emperor" but also bringing Northern Qi’s power to its zenith.

However, the battle at Jiankang was a crushing defeat by Chen Baxian. Forty-six generals, including Xiao Gui, Dongfang Lao, and Wang Jingbao, were captured. Gao Yang’s ambitions were shattered. Unable to win everyone’s admiration through merit, he could only suppress them through fear.

Thus, Gao Yang’s later brutality was not without cause. Beating one’s own mother is a grave sin in anyone’s eyes, but if he were already a "mad Emperor," nothing he did would be surprising. Only by feigning madness could he mask the truth of his purges—killing the Yuan clan, his brothers Gao Jun and Gao Huan, and the remnants of the Erzhu faction—to pave the way for Gao Yin’s succession.

Yet, Gao Yang would rather force Gao Yin to become as brutal and mad as himself than kill his own mother and brother, proving he was not truly mad, but a coward disguised as a madman.

***

After Gao Yang died, Lou Zhaojun orchestrated the Qianming Coup, having the Xianbei nobles like Duan Shao and Hulü Guang forcefully back Gao Yan and expel Gao Yang’s son. In truth, Lou Zhaojun did not care about Gao Yin’s life. As long as one of her sons remained Emperor, she remained Empress Dowager, and power remained in her hands.

The proof is that on his deathbed, Gao Yan passed the throne directly to his brother Gao Zhan instead of his son, Gao Bainian, sparing Gao Zhan the trouble of a coup. For this reason, Gao Yan was the only Northern Qi Emperor with the posthumous title of "Xiao" (Filial)—as the saying goes, "To follow orders without defiance is filial."

During Gao Zhan’s reign, Lou Zhaojun died, allowing Gao Zhan’s son, Gao Wei, to inherit the throne smoothly.

Her sixth son, Gao Ji, said to others after Gao Wei’s ascension: "According to the order, it should have been my turn." Although he did not specify what it was his turn for, everyone knew his meaning—it should have been the sixth son of Lou Zhaojun who became Emperor. Unfortunately, times had changed, and Lou Zhaojun could not be resurrected. Thus, Gao Ji was secretly murdered by agents sent by Gao Wei.

Clearing up these threads reveals the truth about Northern Qi: they were not psychopaths, at least not inherently. They were simply driven step-by-step into becoming puppets by a mother with an overwhelming desire for control. Their outward displays of mental illness were a form of rebellion against the mother who held them by the throat.

The small Northern Qi was nothing more than a large Lou family; Gao Huan was merely a son-in-law who kept his original surname. After he died, his sons succeeded one another as Emperors because his wife, Lou Zhaojun, intended to remain the Empress Dowager forever.

If Northern Qi had been a unified dynasty, then Wu Zetian would have been nothing more than a second Lou Zhaojun.

This "enhanced version" of Lü Zhi and "early access plus version" of Wu Zetian had her first target set on him, Gao Yin. As long as Gao Yin lived, he would eventually inherit Gao Yang’s throne, Li Zu’e would become Empress Dowager, and Lou Zhaojun would be Empress Grand Dowager.

Her status would rise, but she would be further from power. That was why Lou Zhaojun orchestrated the coup and personally deposed her own grandson. Compared to her desire for power, her sons were not worth mentioning, let alone her grandson—especially a grandson who was half-Han.

Therefore, Gao Yin’s true enemy was not Gao Yan or Gao Zhan, but his grandmother, Lou Zhaojun. Only by defeating her would Gao Yin have the qualification to face the Northern Zhou and Southern Chen, and the right to speak of unifying the realm.

"When the Empress Dowager was pregnant with her six sons and two daughters, she had prophetic dreams:
When pregnant with Wenxiang, she dreamed of a broken dragon;
When pregnant with Wenxuan, she dreamed of a great dragon, its head and tail touching heaven and earth, mouth open and eyes moving, a sight of terrifying majesty;
When pregnant with Xiaozhao, she dreamed of a dragon crawling on the ground;
When pregnant with Wucheng, she dreamed of a dragon bathing in the sea;
When pregnant with the two Empresses of Wei, she dreamed of the moon entering her bosom;
When pregnant with the Princes of Xiangcheng and Boling, she dreamed of rats entering under her robes.
Before the Empress passed away, there was a nursery rhyme: ‘The mother of nine dragons dies, but no filial piety is shown.’
When she passed, Wucheng did not change his mourning clothes, wearing his crimson robes as before.
Soon after, he ascended the three terraces, held a banquet, and made music.
The Emperor’s daughter offered him white mourning robes, but the Emperor, in a rage, threw them off the terrace.
He Shi-kai begged him to stop the music, but the Emperor flew into a rage and whipped him.
The Emperor was the ninth among his brothers, which serves as a fulfillment of the omen."

— *Book of Northern Qi, Volume 9, Empress Lou of Shenwu*