Zhai Rang Zhai Rang ( 翟讓 ) ( died December 14 , 617 ) was a key agrarian rebel leader near the end of the Chinese dynasty Sui Dynasty . Believing prophecies that appeared to indicate that Li Mi would be emperor , he supported Li as leader and offered to serve under Li , but soon they began to have conflicts over distribution of spoils . In winter 617 , Li ambushed him at a feast and killed him , seizing his troops . Background . Not much is known about Zhai Rang ' s personal background . In or prior to 616 , he was serving as the sheriff of Dong Commandery ( 東郡 , roughly modern Anyang , Henan ) , when he was accused of crimes and sentenced to death . The jailer Huang Junhan ( 黃君漢 ) , who had been impressed with Zhai ' s bravery , secretly released him at night . Zhai then fled to nearby Wagang ( 瓦崗 ) and gathered a group of men to rise against Emperor Yang of Sui ' s rule . Two of his key followers were Shan Xiongxin ( 單雄信 ) and Xu Shiji , who suggested him that he could supply his men without pillaging the people of the locale , but that because the Bian River ( 汴水 ) flowed through nearby Yingyang ( 滎陽 , roughly modern Zhengzhou , Henan ) and Liang ( 梁郡 , roughly modern Shangqiu , Henan ) Commanderies and carried heavy river traffic , all they would need to do was to pillage the river traffic . Zhai did so , and his men began to gather wealth . More and more desperate men joined Zhai , and he gathered more than 10 , 000 men . Meanwhile , Li Mi , who had been the rebel general Yang Xuangan ' s chief strategist in Yang ' s uprising in 613 and who had been fleeing from place to place since , was trying to find a rebel leader who would cooperate with him . Initially , the rebel leaders all took him lightly as being overly ambitious , but eventually they began to consider his ambitions justified . Li , seeing that Zhai was the strongest rebel leader of the region , met Zhai through another rebel leader , Wang Bodang ( 王伯當 ) . Li proposed some strategies for Zhai and was able to persuade some other rebel leaders to follow Zhai . Li therefore suggested to Zhai that , with Emperor Yang away at Jiangdu ( 江都 , in modern Yangzhou , Jiangsu ) , he should gather his troops and attack Sui ' s two capitals — Luoyang and Chang ' an . Zhai , not having the stomach yet of that grandiose design , did not accept the idea , but became more impressed with Li and kept Li as an honored guest . Meanwhile , because of prophecies that the next emperor would be named Li , the rebel leaders began to believe Li Mi might be the one prophesied . They thus began to submit to Li personally . When Zhai saw this , Zhai became even more impressed , and he considered accepting Li ' s plan . Li persuaded Zhai ' s strategist and astrologer Jia Xiong ( 賈雄 ) to persuade Jia to accept his plan . When Zhai asked Jia whether the signs indicated that Li ' s plan could succeed , Jia told him that it would , but that he might not be successful himself as the emperor , but should support Li . Zhai believed Jia and began to honor Li further . Under Li ' s advice , Zhai began to attack and capture the various cities within Yingyang Commandery . In response , Emperor Yang sent the general Zhang Xutuo ( 張須陀 ) , who had previously been successful against rebel leaders , to attack Zhai . Zhai , who has previously lost some battles against Zhang , became fearful , but Li persuaded him that Zhang could be defeated . Under Li ' s suggestion , Zhai had Li take a thousand man and hide in a forest . As Zhang attacked Zhai , Li surprised Zhang , and Li , Zhai , Xu , and Wang surrounded Zhang . Zhang was initially able to fight his way out of the encirclement , but as he tried to rescue some of his officers , he was killed in battle , and Zhai ' s reputation was greatly enhanced , and he was able to gather much food supply . In light of the victory , Zhai let Li set up his own army , known as the Army of the Duke of Pushan . As Li ' s army grew , Zhai ' s soldiers began to have friction with Li ' s . Zhai thus separated his army from Li ' s and returned to Wagang , but soon regretted that decision and rejoined Li . Support of Li Mi . In spring 617 , Li persuaded Zhai that , with Emperor Yang away and his grandson Yang Tong the Prince of Yue in charge at Luoyang , the officials there were not of one mind . They thus sent Pei Shufang ( 裴叔方 ) to Luoyang to scout it , but Pei was discovered , and the Sui officials at Luoyang began to prepare for an attack . In response , Li and Zhai launched their assault at Luokou Storage ( 洛口倉 ) , a massive food storage that Emperor Yang built , and they captured it . They opened the food storage to allow the people to take food , and many people joined them . The Sui generals Liu Changgong ( 劉長恭 ) and Fang Shi ( 房崱 ) , viewing Zhai ' s forces as nothing more than bandits looking for food , took them lightly and attacked . Li and Zhai wore out the army from Luoyang with hunger , and then attacked , defeating it . In the aftermaths of the battle , Zhai Rang supported Li Mi as leader and offered the title of Duke of Wei — a title that Li ' s grandfather Li Yao ( 李曜 ) had previously carried during Northern Zhou — to Li . Li accepted , and changed the era name to show independence from Sui . Li made Zhai his prime minister and created him the Duke of Dong Commandery . Once Li made his declaration , the rebel generals of the region largely submitted to him , and much of modern central and eastern Henan came under Li ' s rule . However , after Sui reinforcements arrived from Jiangdu under the command of Wang Shichong , Li ' s advances , while initially successful over Wang as well , became stalled . Death . By winter 617 , there began to be friction between Zhai and several other generals under Li . Zhai ' s associate Wang Ruxin ( 王儒信 ) and brother Zhai Hong ( 翟弘 ) the Duke of Yingyang had both suggested Zhai seize power as regent and strip Li of his powers — suggestions that Zhai did not accept but Li eventually heard about . Zhai was also becoming greedy with spoils of war — torturing the general Cui Shishu ( 崔世樞 ) for money , battering Xing Yiqi ( 邢義期 ) for refusing to gamble with him , and demanding large amounts of treasure from Fang Yanzao ( 房彥藻 ) , going as far as telling Fang : In fear , Fang informed this to Li , and he and Zheng Ting ( 鄭頲 ) both suggested that Li ambush Zhai . Li initially hesitated , believing that this would cause disunity among the ranks , but Zheng finally persuaded him that Zhai was too much of a risk . At a feast that Li held for Zhai Rang , Zhai Hong , Pei Renji ( 裴仁基 ) , and Hao Xiaode ( 郝孝德 ) , Li thus had his guard Cai Jiande ( 蔡建德 ) assassinate Zhai Rang , and then executed Zhai Hong , Zhai Rang ' s nephew Zhai Mohou ( 翟摩侯 ) , and Wang Ruxin . Both Shan Xiongxin and Xu Shiji were also almost killed , but at the order of Wang Bodang , they were spared , and Li subsequently transferred Zhai ' s forces to Shan , Xu , and Wang Bodang . The Song Dynasty historian Sima Guang , in his " Zizhi Tongjian " , stated with regard to Zhai ' s death :