Feng Ba
In winter 409, Gao Yun was assassinated—an event that is mysterious in its cause and scope. Traditional histories, including the "Jin Shu" and the "Zizhi Tongjian", record that Li and Tao, despite Gao Yun's favors to them, were still not satisfied, and they assassinated Gao Yun out of that dissatisfaction. Yet, this does not appear to be a true reason for the assassination. Gao Yun's wife Empress Li appears to have also died in the incident. Feng Ba, upon hearing of the assassination, readied his troops and waited for the situation to become clear, but two of his soldiers Zhang Tai (張泰) and Li Sang (李桑) advanced into the palace and beheaded Li and Tao. The officials all supported Feng Ba to take the throne, and so he did. (No reference was made to Gao Yun's son Gao Pengcheng.) Feng Ba later buried Gao Yun and Empress Li with imperial honors—but curiously used Gao Yun's name in the edict, without deference to naming taboo.