Dai Zhou - Service Under Wang Shichong

Service Under Wang Shichong

Later in 618, the Sui general Wang Shichong, who opposed rapprochement with Li Mi, who had led a rebellion against Emperor Yang, killed the officials who were in favor of peace with Li, and seized power as regent. After he defeated Li and forced Li to flee to Tang Dynasty territory, he began to have designs on the throne. Seeing this, Dai spoke to Wang:

The relationship between emperor and subject is like the relationship between father and son. There needs to be propriety so that it would have a good start and a good end. You, honored Duke, has both civil and martial abilities, and the empire depends on you. Whether it succeeds or falls depends on what you do. I hope that you are faithful to the imperial house, and you follow the examples of Yi Yin and the Duke of Zhou, so that the empire can be as secure as Mount Tai and your own lineage can pass on for generations in honor, then the people, all the way to the sea, will be glad.

Wang praised Dai's words publicly and rewarded him, but did not relent on the efforts to take over the throne. In 619, when Wang had Yang Tong bestow the nine bestowments on him—the penultimate step before seizing the throne—Dai spoke against it, but Wang did not accept Dai's suggestion. Rather, he made Dai the secretary general of Zheng Prefecture (鄭州, roughly modern Zhengzhou, Henan) to assist his nephew Wang Xingben (王行本) in defending Hulao Pass. He continued to serve in that role after Wang seized the throne later in 619, ending Sui and establishing a new state of Zheng as its emperor. In 621, the Tang general Li Shimin the Prince of Qin (a son of Tang's Emperor Gaozu), during the campaign against Zheng, captured Hulao, and Dai became captive. Li Shimin made Dai a military advisor on his staff.