Shimin said to Wei Chi Jingde: "I hold the bow and arrow, and the public and the hammer follow each other, although a million people are like me!" ”
This is what Li Shimin said to Wei Chi Jingde when he was preparing to challenge Dou Jiande during the Battle of Tiger Prison Pass, when Li Shimin led 500 cavalry and Li Ji, Cheng Zhijie, Qin Qiong, and Wei Chi Jingde to challenge Dou Jiande. He placed Li Ji, Cheng Zhijie, and Qin Qiong on the side of the road, and the three of them led more than a hundred soldiers to ambush them.
Li Shimin and Wei Chi Jingde led the four soldiers straight to Dou Jiande's camp and said the above arrogant words. It is true that when Li Shimin said this, he had confidence in his own riding and shooting skills, confidence in Wei Chi Jingde's horse mallet technology, and at the same time his trust in Wei Chi Jingde himself.
He trusted Wei Chi Jingde and knew that Wei Chi Jingde would inevitably fight to the death. And Wei Chi Jingde did indeed do it, the two killed more than a dozen people each, led Dou Jiande's men into the encirclement, and won a great victory. Then, how the trust and tacit understanding between Li Shimin and Wei Chi Jingde were established is still a very interesting story.
Although many of the generals around Li Shimin came from the enemy camp or surrendered halfway, such as Qin Qiong, Cheng Zhijie, Li Ji, Luo Shixin, Wei Chi Jingde, etc., Wei Chi Jingde was a latecomer, he only surrendered Li Shimin in 620, and before that, Wei Chi Jingde was a general around Liu Wuzhou.
In the second year of Wu De, Liu Wuzhou raised an army to the south, and Lü Chongmao, a native of Xia County, raised an army in response to Liu Wuzhou, and the first step was to defeat Li Yuan's favorite minister Pei Huan. Li Yuan recalled Pei Huan, and then sent Li Xiaoji, Dugu Huai'en, and others to attack Lü Chongmao, who was defeated and asked Liu Wuzhou for help. Song Jingang asked Wei Chi Jingde and Xun Xiang to support Xia County.
Wei Chi Jingde was notoriously brave and good at fighting, and after he arrived in Xia County, the Tang army was quickly defeated, and Wei Chi Jingde did not leave after winning the battle, but helped Lü Chongmao guard Xia County. Li Yuan was very jealous of Wei Chi Jingde, but he did not continue to attack Xia County, so he sent emissaries into Xia County, pardoned Lü Chongmao's sins, and told Lü Chongmao that as long as he got rid of Wei Chi Jingde, he could become the Assassin of Xia Prefecture.
Li Yuan's wishful thinking was very loud, but this matter was known in advance by Wei Chi Jingde, who first eliminated Lü Chongmao and then led his troops out of Xia County, preparing to return to his territory.
When Wei Chi Jingde led his troops to Meiliangchuan, he was ambushed, and it turned out that Li Shimin had already sent Qin Qiong and Yin Kaishan to lead the troops to ambush in Meiliangchuan, and waited for Wei Chi Jingde to pass by from then on, which caught Wei Chi Jingde by surprise, and finally the Tang army won a great victory, and Wei Chi Jingde and Xiang Xiang were only spared.
The two fled back and followed Song Jingang to prepare to meet Li Shimin's army. After the defeat of Song Jingang, he fled north into the Turks, and Liu Wuzhou had already fled north. Although Wei Chi Jingde was disappointed, he had to take the rest of the crowd and retreat to jiexiu city to hold out.
In this case, Li Shimin sent Yuwen Shi and Li Daozong into Jiexiu City to persuade him to surrender, and Wei Chi Jingde knew that Jiexiu had become an isolated city, Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang had fled, and there was no need for him to resist, so he and Xunxiang sacrificed Jiexiu and Yong'an and surrendered to The Tang.
Li Shimin was quite happy about Wei Chi Jingde's coming and going, at that time the world was undecided, it had become a three-point trend, and such a general was needed, so Li Shimin appointed Wei Chi Jingde as the commander of the Right First Province, responsible for commanding Liu Wuzhou's original old army of 8,000 people, and two months later, Wei Chi Jingde followed Li Shimin to attack Wang Shichong of Luoyang.
Perhaps it was fear of Wang Shichong's forces, perhaps because the Tang army was ostracized, or perhaps there were other reasons, in short, when Li Shimin had not yet captured Luoyang for two months, the old troops of XunXiang and Liu Wuzhou defected one after another, and they left the Tang army one by one and fled from the front, although they were soldiers who had just surrendered, but the impact was also very large.
However, Wei Chi Jingde, who was their general, did not steal, but even if he did not flee, the generals under Li Shimin could not tolerate him anymore, in their opinion, Wei Chi Jingde would flee sooner or later, rather than waiting for him to escape, it was better to kill him, but the matter of killing him still needed Li Shimin's decision, so they directly tied up Wei Chi Jingde and imprisoned him.
After Li Shimin returned to the army, Qu Tutong and Yin Kaishan said to Li Shimin: "Respectful virtue and bravery, now that he is imprisoned, his heart will be resentful, and if he stays, he will be afraid of future troubles, so it is better to kill him." ”
Li Shimin did not believe that Wei Chi Jingde would flee, if he wanted to escape, he would have left long ago, so why wait until now? Li Shimin had Wei Chi Jingde untied him quickly, and took him into his bedroom, gave him a lot of gold treasures, took his hand and said:
"Husbands are angry, don't mind with small suspicions, I will not believe in rumors to harm loyalty, and it is appropriate for the public to be considerate." Those who want to go, with this gold, show the feeling of working together for a while. ”
Was Li Shimin willing to let Wei Chi Jingde leave? Of course, he was reluctant and could not let him leave, but the harm had already been inflicted, and the distrust of the generals had already taken root in Wei Chi Jingde's heart, and Li Shimin could only do so, so that Wei Chi Jingde could let down his guard and willingly follow him. The great generals of ancient times were all true temperament, and they were not so attached to money, but preferred to "die for the confidant".
Wei Chi Jingde was originally made by the generals with the intention of defecting, but seeing that Li Shimin did not believe that he would defect under such circumstances, he also gave him gold and silver to stay free, such a broad mind and atmosphere are exactly what people who do great things can have, who else does not follow such a bright lord? I have to say that Li Shimin's approach is really clever.
Wei Chi Jingde then excitedly vowed to follow Li Shimin to the death and would never leave. In this way, Wei Chi Jingde let go of all the burdens he had and possible distrust, and wholeheartedly followed Li Shimin and became the most powerful cadre around Li Shimin.
When the matter was settled, Li Shimin took Wei Chi Jingde and some of his guards to hunt, only to encounter Wang Shichong's large army, including the famous fierce general Shan Xiongxin. Shan Xiongxin stabbed at Li Shimin with a hammer, and Wei Chi Jingde slapped his horse forward, and a shot in the slash picked Shan Xiongxin off his horse, and then quickly escorted Li Shimin out of the siege.
After they broke out of the siege, they went back to lead some of the cavalry to fight again, and waited until Qu Tutong led the army to come, Wang Shichong was only spared, and his soldiers died more than a thousand people, and they had to line up another 6,000 people. The Tang army can be said to have won a great victory, and Li Shimin excitedly said to Wei Chi Jingde:
"Than all the people will prove that the public will rebel, the heavens tempt me, the only one who protects the clear, the blessings and the good, and the speed of retribution!"
Since then, he has trusted Wei Chi Jingde more and more, and Wei Chi Jingde has also lived up to expectations and has been protecting Li Shimin's side, even in 626, Wei Chi Jingde contributed the most and made the greatest contribution.
However, after Li Shimin ascended the throne, Wei Chi Jingde was proud of his high merits, which made Li Shimin very embarrassed, but after two or three warnings, Wei Chi Jingde finally begged for bones, hid in his own home for pleasure, and could not come out behind closed doors, which was also considered to have a good death.