In "Water Margin", Gao Qiu, as the leader of the four traitorous officials, has done all kinds of bad things. When he framed Lin Chong, he used all possible means to force him to have his family destroyed. After "Water Margin" entered the second half, most of the 108 heroes in Liangshan died due to Gao Qiu's machinations.

Gao Qiu was initially just a gangster in the capital, at the bottom of society. His fortune began by playing football. It was by chance that Gao Qiu met Duan Wang Zhao Ji, and performed superb kicking skills, which won the favor of Duan Wang. King Duan transferred him to his side as a follower, following him every day and never leaving. Soon, Zhezong of Song Dynasty died, and King Duan succeeded to the throne, transforming himself into Huizong of Song Dynasty. Gao Qiu rose through the ranks and was promoted several levels in a row, becoming a high-ranking lieutenant.

Gao Qiu's rapid rise was due to playing football. But Gao Qiu can not only play football. If we look at it from today's perspective, Gao Qiu can be regarded as a cultural person.

The "Water Margin" introduces Gao Qiu like this: "This man played the flute, sang and danced, speared and wielded a stick, played sumo wrestling, and also randomly studied poetry, calligraphy, Ci, and Fu." What does it mean? It means that Gao Qiu not only knew music, dance, spears and sticks, martial arts, sumo wrestling, acrobatics, but also learned poetry, calligraphy and poetry. If the standard is slightly lowered, Gao Qiu is equivalent to a man with both civil and military skills.

The only regret is that Gao Qiu's conduct is not good. "When it comes to benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, trustworthiness, conduct, loyalty, and kindness, he can't do it. He only helps people outside Tokyo and outside the city." ", which means that Gao Qiu cleverly avoided the beautiful qualities such as "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, trust, conduct, loyalty, and kindness", and did not touch any of them.

"Water Margin" is a novel, and it is inevitably suspected of being fictional. So what about Gao Qiu in history?

Wang Mingqing, a scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote a book called "The Record of Huiqu Hou", which introduced Gao Qiu's situation. Gao Qiu's identity was Su Shi's "little history", equivalent to a secretary. As we all know, Su Shi made great achievements in poetry, lyrics, prose, calligraphy, painting, etc. Gao Qiu was able to do secretarial work beside Su Shi, so he was definitely not an ordinary person. In fact, this is also true. Gao Qiu was good at writing beautiful calligraphy and was proficient in all kinds of poems, lyrics and songs. Playing football is just one of the many skills he is good at.

Naturally, Gao Qiu was not only a versatile cultural person, he also had one more skill than ordinary cultural people - military command.

In "Water Margin", after Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty succeeded to the throne, he deliberately promoted Gao Qiu. However, the Song Dynasty had a strict set of standards for the promotion of officials. Even the emperor cannot promote officials casually, otherwise he will attract the remonstrance of the imperial censor. For example, to serve as a seventh-grade county magistrate, one must obtain the title of Jinshi. Gao Qiu did not pass the Jinshi examination, so this road would not work. Therefore, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty asked Gao Qiu to take the path of a military attache and go to the Privy Council to "exercise and train". "You can only be promoted if you have some merit."

So, did Gao Qiu go to the border? have. Volume 1 of "The Biography of Liu Qi" in "The Biography of Ten Generals of Southern Crossing in the Song Dynasty" records that after Gao Qiu was sent to the border, he served under the famous general Liu Zhongwu. Liu Zhongwu knew very well that Gao Qiu was here for gold plating, so he took special care of him. Gao Qiu is so lucky. When he was at the border, the Song army won several battles and gained the capital for promotion.

After that, Gao Qiu, as a Taiwei, controlled the most elite imperial army of the Song Dynasty for more than 20 years.

That’s right, Gao Qiu was not a military strategist and could not innovate the Song Dynasty army and greatly improve the combat effectiveness of this army. But in order to win the favor of Song Huizong, he took some effective training measures.

"Tokyo Menghualu" records that Gao Qiu carried out military training in the Forbidden Army and spent a lot of effort to make this sluggish army appear energetic. Song Huizong saw it and expressed his satisfaction.

However, although Gao Qiu had some military command talents, he had almost no opportunity to use them in actual combat. Song Huizong was reluctant to let him take risks. The description of Gao Qiu leading his troops to attack Liangshan in "Water Margin" is purely fictional. In fact, it was the famous Northern Song general Zhang Shuye, not Gao Qiu, who led the Song Dynasty to suppress the Songjiang uprising army.