Gao Qiu
Gāo Qiú (高毬), nicknamed the 'High Ball', is a character in the epic Chinese tale, the Water Margin.
Gao is portrayed as the perpetual thorn in the flesh, the antithesis and nemesis of the Liangshan bandits. At the start of the tale, Gao starts off as a street urchin who befriends important government officials with his impressive football skills. In fact, his first run-in with a bandit-to-be is Lin Chong, whom he frames out of vengeance for his nephew's (Gao Yanei) behalf (a plot involving Lu Qian, a good friend of Lin).
Gao soon rises through the ranks and eventually becomes the Prime Minister of the weakened imperial Song court, manipulating the incompetent Emperor Huizong and ensuring that corruption and decadence prevailed.
Together with Tong Guan and Cai Jing, they sought to eliminate Chao Gai and Song Jiang, the leaders of the Liangshan rebels, who had sought to 'deliver justice on Heaven's behalf'. Following a series of failed imperial military campaigns (numbering 5) against the bandits however, Song took up the government's offer of an amnesty, believing that this would bring peace and unity to the country.
This turned out to be a tragic decision for Song and his men, because although the campaign against the Liao Tartars was successful, close to two-thirds of the 108 heroes were slain in the campaign against the Southern rebel Fang La. When Song and his remaining brothers returned to the imperial court having eliminated the country's rebels and some of them were accorded high official posts, Gao Qiu conspired with his evil cronies to kill Song and his deputies one by one, and eventually they did succeed, bringing a sad end to the story of the Liangshan bandits.