Wang Bei was born in the Northern Wei Dynasty. He had an upright character and a stubborn personality from a young age. After growing up, he was publicly promoted as a dispute mediator by his clan many times. After entering officialdom, he still did not change his true colors and acted recklessly, which was regarded as an alternative to officialdom.
One of his other manifestations was his willingness to disobey orders and disdain the powerful. He was once sent by the court to work at a place called Xihe. "How much effort does a chef have to make such biscuits? You are so picky, you must have never been hungry!" Saying that, Wang Bei ordered his men to withdraw all the food and dry the imperial envoy at the table.
Another time, a friend came to Wang Bei's house as a guest. When peeling the watermelon rind, it was too much, and some pulp was attached to the rind. Wang Bei's face sank, and he picked up the melon rind that the other party had peeled and gnawed on the pulp inside, which made his friend very guilty.
According to common sense, "action is higher than people, and everyone must be different," and officialdom outliers like Wang Bei who despise the powerful and maverick will inevitably be suppressed and suspect. However, Wang Bei lived a very healthy life and was not worried about being kicked out of officialdom at all. What was his confidence? It turned out that Wang Bei was an indispensable "fire extinguisher" for the Northern Wei court.
In 515 AD, the important town of Kip Stone (now Huainan, Anhui Province) was invaded by Nanliang, and it was frequently in a hurry. Wang Bei was ordered to lead an elite army to dispatch urgently, day and night, to reinforce Kip Stone, cooperate with the local defenders, and finally succeeded in defeating the Nanliang army. Soon, Western ethnic minorities united in rebellion and beat the Northern Wei court army to death. Wang Bei was ordered to save the fire again, and he used his troops like a god, and he quickly returned triumphantly.
He rushed to Jingzhou and successfully put out the war. The court saw that his ability to put out the fire was outstanding, so they appointed him as Jingzhou's acting inspector. But not long after, Nanliang was unwilling to fail and made a comeback, besieging Jingzhou City again. Wang Bei defended the city well, and once again gave Nanliang a heavy blow. Angry, Nanliang took water attack tactics and drew water from the Yangtze River to pour into Jingzhou City. In the face of the sudden flood, Wang Bei calmly led the soldiers and civilians in the city to drain the water and sent people to the court for help.
Unexpectedly, the imperial court was too busy to take care of itself and did not send reinforcements, but only promised Wang Bei that if he defended Jingzhou City, he would appoint him as the governor of Jingzhou and send him the iron-cast coupon book as a certificate. Without looking forward to reinforcements, the city's military rations were exhausted again, and the soldiers were hungry, and they all turned their attention to the people's survival rations. Seeing this, Wang Bei issued an order in time, strictly forbidding the soldiers from disturbing the people, and donated his own rations, "cooking porridge and sharing it equally with the soldiers."
In order to motivate morale, Wang Bei never wore armor every time he went out of the city to face the battle. Before the battle, he would pray aloud: "Heaven is above! If God intentionally destroys my dynasty, let the arrow of the enemy general hit my forehead; if God favors my dynasty, please secretly help me defeat the enemy soldiers!" Then he went to enemy formation first. Strange to say, although he charged ahead every time, he "went through battle formation many times and was not injured." Wang Bei's bravery and fearlessness greatly encouraged morale. Under his leadership, the soldiers and civilians of Jingzhou worked together to resist the siege of Nanliang for three years, and finally achieved the final victory in the defense of Jingzhou. The court also fulfilled its promise and officially appointed him as the governor of Jingzhou.
After the Northern Wei divided into the Western Wei and the Eastern Wei, the Minister of the Western Wei, Wang Bei, turned from a fire extinguisher attacking everywhere to a firewall against the Eastern Wei, and was ordered to guard Huazhou, a military stronghold in the middle of the pass. At the beginning of his tenure, Gao Huan, a general of the Eastern Wei, led his army to break through Tongguan, the gate of Huazhou. Since Tongguan was less than 200 miles away from Huazhou, the defenders of Huazhou were panicked when they heard the news. Wang Bei urgently called the generals to a meeting and did in-depth and meticulous work of appeasing and comforting. The soldiers admired Wang Bei's reputation, quickly stabilized their emotions, and threw themselves into the tense work of repairing the city wall.
Due to excessive fatigue, the soldiers who repaired the city walls forgot a few long ladders when they finished work in the evening. Gao Huan led his troops to Huazhou City and was pleasantly surprised when he found the long ladder. He sent the lead troops to wade through the moat in the middle of the night, sneak into the city from the long ladder, and go straight to Wang Bei's city defense headquarters. Wang Bei was awakened by the cries of killing outside the window in his deep sleep, and then he spread out his bun, jumped naked outside the house, grabbed a wooden stick and pounced on the enemy, shouting while killing the enemy: "With my bear, Old Wang, blocking here, you raccoons can't think of coming here!" Seeing this, the soldiers were so morale that the enemy retreated in a panic. Wang Bei led his troops to chase and kill the city gate, annihilating most of the invading enemies.
Gao Huan was very disappointed when he saw that the beheading operation would not lose any rice. He personally came to the city of Huazhou to persuade him to surrender: "General Wang, our army is strong, and you can't cry alone. Why don't you surrender quickly?"
Wang Bei replied loudly, "Huazhou City is my old Wang's home, I will stay here whether I die or live! If you want to die, come and fight!" Gao Huan weighed the pros and cons, so he did not dare to attack and withdrew the army to the east.
With these military achievements as foreshadowing, Wang Bei was naturally full of confidence and could carry out his upright conduct and straightforward personality to the end.
Other people pay attention to prestige and pomp when they are officials, but Wang Bei doesn't care when his temper comes up. One day, when a subordinate was reporting to Wang Bei, his words obviously contained personal grievances. Wang Bei was furious and ordered the yamen to beat him. The yamen were in a hurry to find sticks, and Wang Bei had taken off his boots in a hurry and went barefoot in the majestic court, chasing the subordinate with boots. When the news came out, the people in officialdom almost laughed out of breath.
What's more valuable is that Wang Bei was able to be honest and self-disciplined in the dirty Northern Wei officialdom at that time, and he was honest all his life. He was content with poverty and did not own family property. Many people advised him to renovate the old house in his hometown because he did not buy a house. Wang Bei refused, and his old house was still in tatters until his death. On the day of Wang Bei's death, his family was very poor and could not hold a decent funeral. Finally, with the support of the government, Wang Bei was able to be buried in peace. The news came that the world admired his high character as an official, which was passed on to future generations. With these submissive characters and achievements, Wang Bei naturally had both personality and confidence when he started to do things.