Yongchi betrayed Liu Bang, and Liu Bang hated Yongchi to the core. However, after Liu Bang seized the world, he not only did not kill Yongchi, but instead followed the advice of his adviser Zhang Liang and granted Yongchi the title of marquis.
Yongchi and Liu Bang are fellow villagers. They are from a wealthy family in Pei County. In 209 BC, Liu Bang raised an army to rebel against Qin, and Yongchi defected to Liu Bang.
Yong Chi followed Liu Bang to rebel against Qin not because of sincerity, but just for personal interests. He never looked down on Liu Bang, who was from a humble background, but he just obeyed Liu Bang on the surface, but he was unwilling to fall below Liu Bang in his heart.
When Liu Bang first started to raise an army, he occupied Fengyi. The Qin army attacked Fengyi. Liu Bang led his troops to resist, and after a long period of hard counties, he repelled the Qin army. Liu Bang ordered Yongchi to guard Fengyi, and he led his troops to continue to conquer the city and seize the territory.
Zhou Fu, a native of Wei, wanted to seize Liu Bang's territory. He sent people to Fengyi to recruit Yongchi, and passed the message: "The people in Fengyi used to migrate from Daliang, the capital of Wei. Now Wei has recovered dozens of cities from the Qin people. The troops are strong and powerful. If you come to surrender, you will be appointed as a marquis and let you manage Fengyi. If you don't surrender, you will not be left after I capture Fengyi!"
Yongchi had long wanted to leave Liu Bang and took this opportunity to betray Liu Bang. After Liu Bang learned about this, he immediately led his army to attack Fengyi, but failed to capture it. Liu Bang was so angry that he fell ill all of a sudden, so he had to take his troops back to Pei County for a temporary rest.
In 208 BC, Liu Bang borrowed some troops from King Jingju of Chu and attacked Fengyi for the second time. Yongchi led his army to defend the city, but Liu Bang still failed to capture the city.
In April of the same year, Xiang Yu's uncle Xiang Liang led his army to destroy Jing Ju and stationed in Xue County (now south of Tengzhou City, Shandong Province). After hearing this, Liu Bang hurriedly took more than a hundred cavalrymen to Xue County to pay homage to Xiang Liang.
Liu Bang cursed and asked Xiang Liang to lend him ten five doctors and five thousand soldiers. Xiang Liang did not agree at first because he was not familiar with Liu Bang and had a very shallow relationship. Liu Bang was eloquent and knowledgeable, and said that he would definitely repay Xiang Liang in the future. After some conversation, Xiang Liang believed that Liu Bang was not an ordinary person and would likely help him in the future. In order to complete the great cause of destroying Qin as soon as possible, Xiang Liang finally agreed to Liu Bang.
This time, Liu Bang had many soldiers and led his soldiers to attack Fengyi for the third time, and finally broke through the city. Seeing that something was wrong, Yongchi fled to Wei.
Yongchi then defected to Zhao State. When Liu Bang met with the princes to attack Xiang Yu,Yongchi returned to Liu Bang's command. Liu Bang was at the time of hiring people, and at the same time, in order to stabilize the hearts of the princes, he did not punish Yongchi for his crimes. Yongchi later followed Liu Bang to conquer the world and made some contributions.
The Chu-Han War lasted for four years, and Liu Bang finally defeated Xiang Yu and unified the world. After Liu Bang became emperor, he learned that some heroes often whispered together, as if they were talking about something.
Liu Bang found Zhang Liang and asked, "What are those people talking about?"
Zhang Liang replied, "They are all discussing how to raise an army to rebel."
Liu Bang was puzzled after hearing this. He didn't quite understand what Zhang Liang said meant.
Zhang Liang continued, "The reason why Your Majesty can defeat Xiang Yu and seize the world is that those people make great contributions. They all have made great contributions and are inevitably proud of themselves. Now they are worried that they will not receive the corresponding reward. Once they are not satisfied with the reward, they will rebel."
Liu Bang understood, and he asked Zhang Liang, "In your opinion, what should I do?"
Zhang Liang said, "Whoever your Majesty hates the most, so that he can reward him heavily, so that they can show their kindness to the heroes so that they can rest assured."
Liu Bang was the first to think of Yongchi, so he issued an edict to confer Yongchi as the Marquis of Shifang with a fief of 2,500 households.
After the heroes found out, they all felt incredible. When they saw that people like Yongchi were rewarded, they would definitely receive rewards, and they would be more heavy than Yongchi's rewards, so they no longer worried about this matter.
I have to say that Zhang Liang's move was really wonderful. He understood the people's hearts, regarded Yongchi as a "reference", and made correct suggestions to Liu Bang, and quickly calmed down the hearts of heroes.
Yongchi was very lucky. Liu Bang was cruel in his later years and was very suspicious. In order to stabilize the country, he eliminated so many founding heroes, but Yongchi was safe and sound. In the third year of Emperor Hui of Han (192 BC), Yongchi died of illness and died of dying. His ending was much better than Han Xin, Peng Yue, Ying Bu and others.
The main reason why Liu Bang did not kill Yongchi was because Yongchi did not pose a threat to him. Yongchi's talent is limited, his character is capricious and unpopular. Even if he wants to rebel, not many people are willing to follow him, and he cannot cause any storm. If Yong Chi had military talents like Han Xin, Liu Bang would definitely be worried and would find a charge to get rid of Yong Chi.
After Yong Chi's death, his son Yong Julu inherited his title.
(the picture in the article is from the Internet)
