When King Li Jingda of Qi received the imperial order, the emperor's younger brother and deputy marshal of the Southern Tang Dynasty was having a banquet and having fun in the palace, holding his beautiful concubine and enjoying the most popular songs and dances in Jiangnan.
Seeing Liu Shaojian from the palace entering the palace to announce the decree, Li Jingda quickly stood up to greet him, but when he heard that Feng Yanji would be his military supervisor, his face suddenly darkened inexplicably.
Li Jingda, the fourth son who had been given high hopes by his great ancestor Li Min, although later facts proved that his ability in running the army and fighting was indeed overestimated by Li Min, he always maintained a desire to serve the country on the battlefield. He was naturally happy to lead the army on an expedition. As for his grudges with Feng Yanji, let's start with the past.
Li Jingda was born in the fourth year of Shunyi of Yang Wu (924). At that time, Li Min was still an auxiliary minister of Yang Wu. It was a severe drought in the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers, and the people were working hard. As luck would have it, the history books record that "In July, when I saw it, I got rain." "When the rain fell from the sky, it happened to be the day Li Jingda was born. This auspicious sign made Li Min very fond of his fourth son and gave him the nickname "Rain Master".
It can be said that I was born with an aura.
When Li Jingda got a little older, he grew much taller and burlier than other children, and his words and deeds were quite fatherly, which made Li Min value him more and more. It was not until Li Min was proclaimed emperor by Zen that he immediately made Jingda King Xin, and even later had the idea of establishing an heir. However, he gave up this idea after Song Qiu Sun Cheng and others advised him not to mess up the order of elders and younger ones. idea.
Li Jingda didn't seem to be dissatisfied because he lost the throne. He always had a friendly and respectful attitude towards his brothers and sisters, and he respected the emperor Li Jing even more.
But since Li Jing has become the emperor, he is already good at guessing people's hearts. How can he let down his vigilance because of Li Jingda's behavior? Until one time when the two brothers were traveling together in the back garden of the palace and were in the rafting pool, the boat Li Jing was riding in accidentally capsized. At that time, Li Jingda was in another boat. Although he could not swim, he still jumped into the water and rescued Li Jing. He was lifted out of the water and almost drowned himself in the end.
Li Jing was greatly moved and finally let go. After the story came out, the people were impressed by the loyalty and integrity of the King of Qi. So Li Jing began to let Li Jingda participate in the government affairs. After learning that the emperor's younger brother Li Jingsui had no interest in the country, he "caringly" shared his worries and specially set up the position of deputy marshal for his fourth brother Li Jingda to share the military power of the emperor's younger brother.
From then on, Li Jingda's power began to grow day by day, and even gradually surpassed the emperor's younger brother. Some ministers in the court, such as Feng Yanji, Chen Jue and others, had always supported the weak-minded emperor's younger brother Li Jingsui to inherit the throne, so they tried their best to He used various measures to suppress him, often secretly stumbling upon various memorials submitted to the Marshal's Office.
Li Jing often held banquets in the palace and invited the clan and ministers to drink together. Of course, the Feng brothers, Chen Jue and others would not miss such a good time. They often tried their best to be flattering and ugly, and sometimes they even made noises and laughed because of their drunkenness. Li Jingda He was also upright by nature and couldn't bear to look at the actions of Feng Yanji and others, so he loudly rebuked them many times and repeatedly advised Li Jing not to get close to these treacherous ministers.
Relying on the emperor's favor, Feng Yanji not only did not restrain himself, but even boldly said some nonsense, saying that it was his suggestion that Li Jing make Li Jingda the king and take command. In other words, Li Jingda could be where he is today. They are all given by themselves.
The trigger came from a banquet in the East Palace. On that day, Feng Yanji pretended to be drunk and even touched Li Jingda's back and said loudly: "You can't forget my contribution!"
A minister dared to be so arrogant as to offend the majestic King Qi. How could Li Jingda tolerate it? He was immediately furious and went to the palace to see Li Jing, asking him to kill Feng Yanji. But how could Li Jing obey? He just tried to persuade her, and the matter ended up being settled.
So every time after that, as long as Feng Yanji and others were present at the entertainment banquet, Li Jingda would excuse himself from feeling unwell and never attend.
Li Jingda and Feng Yanji have been incompatible with each other since then.
Now Li Jing issued an order to let Li Jingda take command and also sent Feng Yanji, his enemy. The King of Qi's scalp suddenly became numb, and he was very worried. He didn't know if Feng Yanji would deliberately do something irritating to others during the war.
With the emperor's orders in hand, Li Jingda did not dare to neglect even though he had no choice but to quickly put on his armor and mount his horse and rush to Beiyuan to dispatch troops and generals. After summoning 60,000 forbidden troops from Jinling and nearby state capitals, he, together with Feng Yanji, led the army to set off along the waterway by boat.
As expected, the enemies were extremely jealous when they met, and the dispute between the two soon emerged.
Since the Southern Tang Dynasty had previously transferred all the most elite soldiers in the country to the Northern Expedition, and Li Jing was too pressing for reinforcements, the 60,000 troops in Li Jingda's hands could be said to be in addition to the 10,000 forbidden troops guarding the capital. Except for the elite soldiers, most of the rest are weak brigades that have not been in battle for a long time.
Li Jingda looked at the sloppy military appearance on the ship, and even though his confidence was high, it was greatly reduced at this time.
After careful consideration, in order to avoid the fatigue of the army during the expedition, he decided to take advantage of the fact that the soldiers were full of energy and recover Luzhou nearby, and finally go north to join Liu Renzhan and Li Yuan's troops to attack Shouzhou together.
But Feng Yanji had the opposite idea. For him, this trip was a good opportunity to rebuild his merits and win back the favor of Emperor Li Jing. And Li Jing ignored the previous suspicion and still ordered him to supervise the army, maybe this was his intention.
The most important thing is that Liu Renzhan and Li Yuan are leading the army to fight on the front line. Although these two people have problems with themselves, they have to admit that they are good soldiers. If according to Li Jingda's strategy, the army would have to delay for several more days before arriving at Shouzhou. If Liu and Li had already put down the rebellion by then, wouldn't the great achievement that he saw before his eyes be in vain?
The more Feng Yanji thought about it, the more restless he became. On the one hand, he wished he could fly to Shouzhou as soon as possible, and on the other hand, he prayed in his heart that Liu Renzhan and Li Yuan would lose the battle.
So he did not hesitate to put on the air of supervising the army, and started a big argument with Li Jingda, and Li Jingda also pretended to be the king of Qi to suppress him. The two of them walked noisily all the way. Fortunately, the generals stopped them in time, and they almost stopped. Didn't move a hand.
It was not until seven days later that the army finally landed on the north bank of Chaohu Lake and began to set up camp in preparation for the siege. At this time, the two heard that Shouzhou, Guangzhou and other places had long been recovered by Liu Renzhan and Li Yuan, and that the Luzhou City in front of them had also re-inserted the banner of the Southern Tang Dynasty two days ago, and the fast horse went to Jinling to report the victory. On the way, I couldn’t help but be surprised and amazed!
In the commander's tent, Li Jingda gently put down the report in his hand, and the generals sighed happily: "It is really a blessing for our country to have Liu and Li, two famous generals in the Tang Dynasty!"
Peng Shigao, who was summoned as deputy general this time, had heard about Li Yuan's various achievements in the past few months, and his heart was already churning. This time he traveled thousands of miles to help quell the rebellion. With such achievements, the emperor must have given him a large reward.
At this moment, Peng Shigao suddenly remembered the vows they made before parting that day, secretly clenched his fists, and couldn't hide the excitement on his face.
"Now that the rebellion has been decided, I am determined to mobilize the army immediately——"
"No!" Before Li Jingda finished speaking, Feng Yanji couldn't hold himself back and suddenly stood up to interrupt.
The generals who were in the joy of victory were also at a loss when they heard this, and Li Jingda was not angry. He just narrowed his eyes and responded jokingly: "What do the supervisors want? The Shouzhou rebellion has been put down. Why, is there still a rebellion?" Can’t the army succeed?”
Feng Yanji had spoken hastily, and his face was red at this moment. After a moment, under the focus of everyone's eyes, he suppressed a sentence: "Exactly!"
"Oh? Then I would like to ask the supervisors for advice. Where are the rebels?"
Feng Yanji seemed to have a countermeasure, and then loudly said: "Although the three states have been recovered, the rebellion has begun, people's hearts are unpredictable, and there are still remnants of the rebels if they are not fully protected! And the two envoys Liu Renzhan and Li Yuan still want to Return to their respective stations. According to the opinion of the supervisor, our army should immediately go to the three states to rectify things and appease the people. Only after His Majesty's decree is issued can we return to the court!"
Li Jingda frowned and thought about it carefully. Although the man in front of him had a deep grudge against him, his words were quite reasonable.
So he coughed and ordered: "Peng Shigao and Zhu Yuan, I order you to lead 10,000 troops each and station them in Luzhou and Guangzhou!"
Peng Shigao and Zhu Yuan were both tiger generals. They had no choice but to suffer in Jinling for a long time. At this time, their eyes flashed and they stepped out of the queue and shouted loudly: "I will obey your orders!"
"The rest of the generals will follow my king and lead the army to Shouzhou immediately!"
"I will obey your orders!"
As soon as the military order was issued, the generals quickly left their tents and went to organize the army. At this time, Li Jingda turned his head and asked Feng Yanji slowly: "So, are the supervisors still satisfied?"
Feng Yanji breathed a sigh of relief, and then said with a smile on his face, "Your Highness is wise."
