Yuchi Jingde - During Emperor Gaozu's Reign

During Emperor Gaozu's Reign

In 620, Yuchi Jingde was serving under Li Shimin in Li Shimin's campaigns against a major enemy for Tang, Wang Shichong the Emperor of Zheng. During the campaign, many of Yuchi's former confederates who served under Liu Wuzhou, including Xun Xiang, defected to Zheng. Li Shimin's subordinates thus suspected Yuchi as well and put him under house arrest. Qutu Tong and Yin Kaishan suggested that Yuchi be executed. Li Shimin pointed out that if Yuchi really wanted to defect, he would not have waited to do so after Xun's defection. Instead, he released Yuchi and took Yuchi into his own tent, stating, while giving him gold:

We are kindred spirits, and I hope you would not take this minor understanding to heart. I will not believe false, defamatory accusations to kill those who are good and faithful. You should understand my heart. If you really want to leave, this gold will serve as your traveling expenses, as a gift from the time that we served together.

Later that day, when Li Shimin was examining the battlefield, Zheng forces suddenly arrived and surrounded Li Shimin. The Zheng general Shan Xiongxin (單雄信) directly attacked Li Shimin himself, trying to hit him with a spear, when Yuchi arrived and hit Shan with a spear, knocking Shan off his horse. Yuchi then escorted Li Shimin out of danger. Tang forces commanded by Qutu then counterattacked as well, defeating Zheng forces. Li Shimin awarded him a box of gold and silver and told him, "How does your repayment come so quickly!" Thereafter, he trusted Yuchi further. Meanwhile, Li Shimin's younger brother Li Yuanji the Prince of Qi, who was himself a ferocious warrior, heard that Yuchi had the particular skill of disarming opponents' lances, and requested a combat demonstration with Yuchi. Li Shimin ordered that they remove the sharp edges from their lances, but Yuchi responded, "I will obey the order and do so, but the Prince does not need to." Once they were into combat, Yuchi disarmed Li Yuanji three times. Li Yuanji was impressed but also angry from being humiliated. Meanwhile, Li Shimin selected some 1,000 elite soldiers, clad in black uniform and black armor, commanded by Li Shimin himself, to serve as the forward advance corps, with Yuchi, Qin Shubao, Cheng Zhijie (程知節), and Zhai Zhangsun (翟長孫) as his assistants. This corps subsequently accomplished much during the campaign against Wang and Dou Jiande the Prince of Xia, who came to Wang's aid. In engagement with Xia forward troops in spring 621, Yuchi was serving directly next to Li Shimin himself, and after they defeated Dou's forward troops, Li Shimin wrote to Dou, trying to dissuade him from aiding Zheng, but Dou did not relent.

In summer 621, the Tang and Xia forces, commanded by Li Shimin and Dou respectively, engaged at the Battle of Hulao. During the early stages of the battle, Wang Shichong's nephew Wang Wan (王琬) the Prince of Dai, whom Wang Shichong had sent to Xia to request aid, was on the battlefield showing off his handsome horse. Li Shimin made the comment, "What an impressive horse!" Yuchi requested that he be allowed to capture it for Li Shimin, but Li Shimin disallowed it, stating, "How can I lose a great warrior for a horse?" Yuchi did not relent, however, and he took Gao Zengsheng (高甑生) and Liang Jianfang (梁建方) with him; the three of them made a surprise attack into the Xia frontline and seized Wang Wan, capturing him back along with his horse. Later, in the main engagement, Li Shimin defeated and captured Dou, and Wang Shichong, distressed, surrendered. Zheng and Xia territory were seized by Tang.

By fall 621, however, Dou's general Liu Heita had risen against Tang rule and regained most of former Xia territory. At that point, Yuchi was not under Li Shimin's command, as he was fighting invading Eastern Tujue forces at Yuan Prefecture (原州, roughly modern Guyuan, Ningxia). In 622, when Li Shimin went to fight Liu Heita, however, Yuchi was again under his command, and once, when Li Shimin tried to aid another Tang general, Li Shiji, Liu had him surrounded. Li Shimin was saved only after Yuchi fought his way in to rescue him. Li Shimin was later able to defeat Liu Heita, forcing him to flee to Eastern Tujue. (Later that year, however, Liu Heita would return and again take over former Xia territory, only to be later defeated by Li Shimin's older brother Li Jiancheng the Crown Prince.) Yuchi also then followed Li Shimin in his campaign against Liu Heita's ally Xu Yuanlang. In 623, he was again fighting invading Tujue forces, this time at Shuo Prefecture, and then in 624 at Long Prefecture (隴州, modern western Baoji, Shaanxi).