After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he learned the lesson of the demise of the previous dynasty and believed that the Song Yuan died because of the weak lord and the strong. Therefore, after 1370, Zhu Yuanzhang established a system of sub-feudalism, and divided his twenty-six sons into various places to establish a feudal system as the imperial court's domain. Among them, Zhu Di, the King of Jin, and Zhu Di, the King of Yan, relied heavily on Zhu Yuanzhang.
These vassals were well received and privileged. After the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao ascended the throne in 1398, in order to strengthen the imperial power, he immediately began to cut the domain at the suggestion of the ministers Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai.
After the five kings of Zhou, Zhu Gui, and Zhu Bai, the King of Xiang, were deposed one after another, Zhu Zhu, the King of Qin, who was older than Zhu Di the Prince of Yan, died in 1395, and Zhu Tang, the King of Jin, died in March 1398 before Zhu Yunxiu ascended the throne, and Zhu Yunzhuo's next target was Zhu Di, the oldest and most powerful of the clan kings, who was the Yan king of Beiping.
Zhu Di, the King of Yan, was strong, and when Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, he was worried that Zhu Di would pose a threat to Zhu Yunjiao's throne. Therefore, on his deathbed, Zhu Yuanzhang left an edict that the kings of various domains should not enter the capital to mourn.
After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Zhu Di was also actively training soldiers and making weapons, with the intention of seizing the throne of his nephew Zhu Yunjiao.
After deposing the Five Kings, Zhu Yunzhuo appointed Zhang Fu (張昺), a servant of the Ministry of Works, as an envoy to Beiping and Xie Gui as the commander of the Capital, to monitor Zhu Di, the King of Yan.
Zhu Di naturally would not sit still.
In July of the first year of Jianwen (1399), when Zhu Di lured Zhang Fu and Xie Gui to DuanliMen, he ordered the ambush troops to capture and kill Zhang and Xie, rebelled, and launched the Battle of Jingnan.
At the beginning of the Battle of Jingnan, Zhu Yunjiao's military strength was absolutely superior to Zhu Di's. However, due to Zhu Yuanzhang's wanton liquidation of the founding heroes after he claimed the title of emperor, there were very few good generals left who could lead the army. Zhu Yunjiao had to use the remaining sixty-five-year-old veteran general Geng Bingwen to lead the army to defeat Yan.
However, Geng Bingwen's troops were raided by Zhu Di in Zhending and suffered heavy losses. Pan Zhong and Yang Song were killed.
After the defeat of Geng Bingwen's army, Zhu Yunjiao decided to change generals on the spot.
At this time, the only generals available to Zhu Yunjiao were Xu Huizu, the Duke of Wei, and Li Jinglong, the Duke of Cao.
Xu Huizu was the eldest son of Xu Da, the King of Zhongshan, and Xu Da's eldest daughter was Princess Yan of Zhu Di. Therefore, Xu Huizu is Zhu Di's close relative. This layer of identity relationship still makes Zhu Yunjiao have some scruples.
At the suggestion of the chancellor Huang Zicheng, Zhu Yunshou decided to appoint Li Jinglong to succeed Geng Bingwen and succeed him as the commander of the Southern Army.
Li Jinglong was the son of the founding hero Li Wenzhong, who was the son of Zhu Yuanzhang's sister Zhu Fonu and the nephew of Zhu Yuanzhang. Therefore, Li Jinglong and Zhu Yunjiao are still cousins.
Li Jinglong was deeply trusted by Zhu Yunxiu, and the arrest of Zhu Yuan, the king of Zhou, was entrusted by Zhu Yunlong to handle the case.
According to historical records, although Li Jinglong is in a high position, he is a straw bale. The Ming Shi's evaluation of him is that he lacks strategy and arrogance, and his appearance is fierce but without courage, which cannot be compared with his father Li Wenzhong.
After Li Jinglong arrived in office, tunbing between the rivers.
After Zhu Di led his army to leave Beiping and rescue Yongping, Li Jinglong took advantage of the void to lead a large army to attack Beiping.
However, Zhu Di's son Zhu Gaozi, with the assistance of Yao Guangxiao, held on to Beiping.
DuDu Qu Neng's father and son almost wanted to break the city, but because reinforcements did not arrive, they were reported by Li Jinglong to retreat, so Zhu Gaozi was able to breathe, and immediately stepped up his combat readiness, splashing water on the city wall, forming a slippery ice wall, so that the southern army could not climb to help, only to look at the wall and sigh.
After that, Zhu Di returned to Beiping and attacked Li Jinglong with Zhu Gaozi inside and outside. The Southern army was defeated, and Li Jinglong fled back to Texas under the cover of Qu Neng's father and son.
Zhu Yunjiao, concealed by Huang Zicheng and Li Jinglong, also rewarded Li Jinglong, who had failed miserably, as the crown prince's master.
In the second year of Jianwen (1400), Li Jinglong once again led an army of 600,000 to engage the Yan army at the Baigou River in present-day Hebei.
At the beginning of the battle, the battle situation was very favorable to the Southern Army, and the forwards Ping An and Du Du Zhai Neng charged into the battle, defeating the Yan army, and even Zhu Di's right army general was killed by Ping An.
However, due to Li Jinglong's improper command, the battle situation was quickly reversed by Zhu Di, and the southern army gradually fell out of support, and was eventually defeated by the Yan army, and Qu Neng's father and son were killed in the army. Li Jinglong fled back to Dezhou again, and later to Jinan. In Jinan, Li Jinglong's troops were once again defeated by the Yan army.
Under the command of Li Jinglong, the Southern Army was repeatedly defeated, hundreds of thousands of troops were annihilated, and the Southern Army had lost its superiority in strength, and since then it has changed from offensive to defensive position.
One general is incompetent and exhausts the three armies. In the face of such a defeat, Zhu Yunjiao's courtiers suspected that Li Jinglong had different intentions, and even Huang Zicheng, who recommended Li Jinglong, requested that Li Jinglong be killed.
However, Zhu Yunxiong was convinced of Li Jinglong, and only recalled him to Nanjing and ordered Sheng Yong to take over as a general, but did not punish Li Jinglong.
In the fourth year of Jianwen (1402), Zhu Di crossed the Yangtze River and approached Nanjing. Fang Xiaoru again asked Zhu Yunjiao to kill Li Jinglong, but Zhu Yunjiao still did not allow it.
After Zhu Yunjiao's request for peace was rejected by Zhu Di, the Yan army attacked the Jinchuan Gate in Nanjing.
Li Jinglong, who was guarding the Jinchuan Gate, and Zhu Qi, the King of Gu, surrendered without a fight, and opened the city gate to welcome the Yan army into the city.
After the fall of Nanjing, Zhu Yunjiao lamented that he did not treat Li Jinglong thinly, but he would eventually be betrayed by him.
Subsequently, Zhu Yunjiao ordered the palace to be burned, and finally did not know the end.
Zhu Di was called empress, Li Jinglong promoted Guanglu Dafu, Crown Prince Taishi, etc., and the imperial court deliberations were at the top of the line, and his status was very respected, which also made people suspect that he was Zhu Di's internal response. After all, in the Battle of Jingnan, Li Jinglong buried hundreds of thousands of horses, and finally opened the city gate to welcome Zhu Di into the city.
In the second year of Yongle (1404), Li Jinglong was constantly impeached, and eventually he was imprisoned and depressed. This also seems to confirm the conclusion that Li Jinglong has already acted as an internal response. After all, at this time, Zhu Di's big thing had been accomplished, and Li Jinglong's chess piece had no use value.
However, when we look at the historical records, judging from the process of Zhu Di's treatment of Li Jinglong, It seems that Zhu Di is not in a hurry to punish Li Jinglong.
First, in the second year of Yongle (1404), Zhu Xu, the King of Zhou, and Zheng Ci, the Shangshu of the Punishment Department, successively impeached Li Jinglong for accepting bribes and plotting against him. But Zhu Di did not pursue the matter.
Later, Zhu Neng, the Duke of Chengguo, and Shangshu Jianyi, the official, again impeached Li Jinglong and his brother Li Zengzhi for rebellion. Zhu Di stripped Li Jinglong of his meritorious title, but still retained the Duke of Guogong.
Later, Li Zhigang impeached Li Jinglong for accepting the courtesy of his family's kneeling and worshipping, and his brother Li Zengzhi raised hundreds of household slaves with the intention of misconduct. Zhu Di then stripped Li Jinglong of his home and imprisoned him in the palace.
In the same year, Li Jinglong went on hunger strike and died darkly.
From this, we can see that Li Jinglong may not be the internal response that people speculate, but just a mediocre general who is not good at using soldiers. And he was not a loyal soldier, when Zhu Di gained power, he betrayed Zhu Yunjiao and became obsessed with Zhu Di.