History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 827: Dethroning the Younger Brother and Enthroning the Crown Prince

[Abolish the younger brother and establish the crown prince]

Li Jing's defense was broken, and after much deliberation, he decided to surrender to the Later Zhou Dynasty.

Today, only Lu, Shu, Qi and Huang prefectures in Jiangbei are still under the control of Southern Tang. This is Li Jing's last bargaining chip. If he waits until the entire Jiangbei falls, he will be in a very passive position at the negotiating table.

After the execution of Li Deming, the "peace advocate", no one in the Southern Tang Dynasty dared to mention ceding territory for peace. Therefore, the infamy of ceding territory and selling out the country could only be asked by Li Jing himself.

Li Jing certainly did not want to bear the stigma of ceding territory for peace and lowering his title to become a vassal, so he made an important decision: to abdicate and pass the throne to his eldest son Li Hongji, who was to sign this humiliating treaty.

Prior to this, the crown prince of Southern Tang was Li Jing's younger brother, Crown Prince Li Jingsui.

Li Jingsui was the third son of Xu Zhigao. He was very popular and was the biggest challenger to Li Jing's succession to the throne. However, Li Jingsui had a simple and honest character and was a gentleman. He knew that deposing the eldest son and enthroning the youngest son would bring irreparable damage to the country. Therefore, he resolutely refused to inherit Xu Zhigao's throne and helped his elder brother Li Jing to succeed to the throne.

After Li Jing succeeded to the throne, he repeatedly expressed his intention to give up the throne to Li Jingsui, but Li Jingsui refused. Later, Li Jing issued an edict to make Li Jingsui the crown prince, and in a red-headed document, he listed Li Jingsui as the legal heir to the throne. Of course, all these operations must be examined in conjunction with the unique political ecological environment of the Southern Tang Dynasty. We have every reason to believe that this was not Li Jing's original intention, but he had no choice.

Li Jingsui again refused the title of Crown Prince, but Li Jing issued a death order in the form of an imperial edict. Li Jingsui had no choice but to change his name to "Tuishen", which was inspired by Lao Tzu's "When one has achieved success and fame, one should retire."

Since becoming the "Crown Prince", Li Jingsui has become more low-key and introverted, stopped socializing and traveling, stopped asking about government affairs, became a hermit in the palace, never made friends with the rich and powerful, and only exchanged poems and songs with literati. Among them, he got along best with Zhang Yi, the Imperial Counselor.

Zhang Yi, the Imperial Counselor, was a member of the Eastern Palace staff selected by the court for Li Jingsui. Once, Zhang Yi attended Li Jingsui's private banquet and found that Li Jingsui was holding an exquisite jade cup and passing it around with the guests. Everyone praised it as a rare treasure. When it was passed to Zhang Yi, Zhang Yi suddenly became angry and shouted, "Your Highness, do you value treasures over people?" After saying that, he raised the jade cup and smashed it against a stone pillar, smashing it to pieces.

The guests were all stunned, but Li Jingsui was not angry at all. Instead, he apologized to Zhang Yi and treated Zhang Yi better in the future.

The historical records recorded this incident, ostensibly to express Zhang Yi's uprightness and Li Jingsui's open-mindedness in accepting advice and correcting his mistakes. In fact, there is a deeper meaning:
Li Jingsui was in an extremely awkward position. He had to act a little corrupt. Many emperors in history pretended to be crazy and stupid before ascending the throne to avoid suspicion from the emperor or people who coveted the throne, such as Liu Bei growing vegetables at home to deceive Cao Cao's surveillance. So Li Jingsui may not really "value treasures over people", and through Zhang Yi breaking the jade cup, Li Jingsui also felt that he had indeed found a real treasure. If he could become emperor one day, this person would definitely be the prime minister.

Seeing Zhang Yi was so upright and Li Jingsui was so fond of talents, Li Jing really had an idea and actually appointed Zhang Yi to sail across the sea to Khitan. We have mentioned many times that at that time, the mortality rate of sailing across the sea from Huainan to Khitan was about 50%. Even if you arrived safely in Khitan, you would still be at risk of being detained by Khitan.

After hearing this, Li Jingsui immediately wrote a personal letter to Li Jing, saying that Zhang Yi was a rare talent, so how could he be allowed to do such a dangerous task? It was not necessary for him to do this, so could you please find someone else?
Nonsense, if it wasn't for a life-or-death situation, I wouldn't have let him go. Li Jing wrote back, saying that Zhang Yi was a man of good fortune, and the Dragon King of the Sea could not harm him (Yi was a strange man, and the Sea God should be afraid of him).

In the end, Zhang Yi was sent to Khitan. Fortunately, Zhang Yi successfully completed his diplomatic mission and returned to Huainan safely. Later, Li Jing kept Zhang Yi by his side on the grounds that he was indeed a talent.

Li Jing kept Zhang Yi by his side but did not entrust him with important tasks. He also arranged his cronies - Chen Jue and Li Zhenggu, two of the "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" - to be around Zhang Yi, ostensibly to help him in his work but actually to monitor him secretly.

Through the "Zhang Yi's Mission to Liao" incident, Li Jingsui understood that although Li Jing had repeatedly and strongly expressed his willingness to give up the throne to him, this was really just a test of him. Li Jing had never thought about giving up the throne and had tried every means to suppress him.

Li Jingsui submitted memorials many times, saying that he was not talented enough to take on the important task, and resolutely resigned from the title of "Crown Prince". When Chai Rongyao was stationed in Jiangbei, Li Jingsui submitted memorials again, saying that the country was in trouble, but he had no plan to save the country, and had not made any contributions. He was really unworthy of the title. Comrade Li Hongji, the eldest son of the emperor, was not only the eldest son of your majesty, but also had military merits (the Battle of Changzhou), so please allow me to resign from the title of Crown Prince and let Comrade Li Hongji become the successor of the empire. As for me, please ask your majesty to send me out as a governor, that would be enough!

This time, Li Jing finally agreed, so he appointed Li Jingsui as the King of Jin, General Tiance, Marshal of the Army of Jiangnan West Road, Grand Commander of Hongzhou, Taiwei, and Minister of the Chancellery, and appointed the emperor's fourth brother Li Jingda as Marshal of Zhejiang West Road and Grand Commander of Runzhou.

Li Jingda resolutely declined the offer on the grounds that a war was going on in western Zhejiang and it was not appropriate to change the commander-in-chief, so he was appointed as the Grand Commander of Fuzhou instead.

Removed two thorns in the eye in one go.

The Eastern Palace was never idle for a moment. Li Jing immediately appointed his eldest son Li Hongji as the crown prince and participated in political decision-making.

According to records, Li Hongji was a sarcastic and suspicious person. When he could not wait to move into the Eastern Palace, he found that many of Li Jingsui's staff and servants had not had time to move due to time constraints. Li Hongji immediately scolded them and replaced all the guards and servants in the Eastern Palace with his own people.

When Li Jingsui was sent to Hongzhou, Li Jing arranged a deputy for him with ulterior motives - Li Zhenggu, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, was appointed as the deputy envoy of the Hongzhou Zhennan Army. It is obvious that Li Jing was very wary of Li Jingsui from beginning to end.

(End of this chapter)