Throughout the ages, loyal and patriotic people have been praised by the literati and inkers of later generations, and the traitors and villains certainly cannot escape the war of words and words.
Li Guangdi, a famous minister of the Qing Dynasty, was different, he obviously made great contributions to the country, the Kangxi Emperor regarded him as a confidant, and Yongzheng regarded him as an idol, but when he was mentioned in later generations, he did not praise, but all of them were accusations, in the end, it was because of a "ugly thing" when he was young.
Biography
Li Guangdi was born in 1642, with his ancestral home in Yanping, Fujian. In his childhood, Li Guangdi lived a peaceful and stable life, because he was talented and his family believed that he would achieve great success in the future.
But the good life did not last long, When Li Guangdi was 13 years old, his family was robbed by mountain thieves, fortunately, the whole family escaped from danger smoothly and was not harmed.
Li Guangdi, who escaped death, hated the rebels and thieves very much, and began to study hard, hoping to enter the career path and protect his family and more innocent people who were persecuted.
The Emperor did not pay off, in 1664 Li Guangdi township examination was lifted, and after passing the pass, he was a high school soldier in the examination.
In September 1672, Li Guangdi entered the Hanlin Academy and officially entered his career.
In May 1673, Li Guangdi returned to his hometown to his relatives, during which time a major event changed his fate.
Quell the Rebellion in San Francisco
When Li Guangdi returned to his province, Geng Jingzhong, the king of Jingnan, joined forces with Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, and Shang Kexi, the king of Pingnan, to rebel.
The first step in the rebellion was to control the qing court officials, on the one hand, because of weakening the qing dynasty's strength, and secondly, to strengthen its own camp.
Li Guangdi inevitably became one of the prey of the King of Jingnan, and it is conceivable that Li Guangdi vowed not to become a person he hated deeply, and after hearing the sound of the wind, he immediately took his family to hide in the mountains.
There was another person who had the same experience as Li Guangdi, that is, Chen Menglei. Chen Menglei and Li Guangdi were officials in the same dynasty, and their ancestral home was also Fujian, and they returned to their hometowns and relatives with Li Guangdi, and they took care of each other along the way, and they were also considered friends.
However, Chen Menglei did not have such good luck, and was directly captured alive by the King of Jingnan and forced to become an aide to the King of Jingnan.
After Li Guangdi hid in the deep mountains and old forests, he did not become ignorant of the world, but actively collected the news of the rebellion of the King of Jingnan.
During the period of collecting military information, he met Chen Menglei, and after negotiating with Chen Menglei, Li Guangdi wrote down what he knew about the rebel military deployment and offensive route, hid it in a wax pill, and sent someone to Beijing to hand it over to Kangxi.
Li Guangdi's men escaped from Fujian by mountain paths, and on their way to Beijing they met Fu Hongji, a cabinet scholar, who presented the recital to Kangxi.
When Kangxi saw the fold, he was expected of Geng Jingzhong's rebellion, but he did not expect it to come so quickly. Seeing that it had been three months since the news of the recital, Kangxi immediately sent Ai Xinjueluo Jieshu to quell the rebellion.
Li Guangdi's official entry into Kangxi's vision is this incident, and the first impression is very good, which will certainly be of great help to his future career.
However, Kangxi saw Li Guangdi six years later, because when the news was delivered, Li Guangdi himself did not escape from Fujian, and Geng Jingzhong knew that someone had passed on the news to Kangxi and even blocked Fujian, and Li Guangdi was trapped and could not leave Fujian.
In the sixteenth year of Kangxi, Geng Jingzhong surrendered, and Kangxi sent two generals to find Li Guangdi. When they found Li Guangdi, they learned that Li Guangdi would rather flee around than be with Geng Jingzhong, and he admired Geng Jingzhong and reported the matter to Kangxi.
Kangxi was overjoyed when he heard that there was such a loyal and patriotic person, which was indeed a great fortune for the country and a great fortune for the king. Immediately, Li Guangdi was informed to enter Beijing and promoted him to a bachelor's degree.
After receiving the holy will, Li Guangdi set out to take up a post in the capital, and as soon as he arrived in Fuzhou, he learned that his father had died of illness.
Li Guangdi had to return to his hometown to guard filial piety, and this guard was three years. By the time Kangxi met Li Guangdi, it was six years later.
In the nineteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Li Guangdi officially returned to Beijing to take up his post. When Kangxi heard that Li Guangdi had returned, he did not let him go to the official department to report, and waited for the official department to rearrange the position, but directly let him enter the palace and confer the position of cabinet scholar.
After all, when he returned to his hometown six years ago, he was still a seven-pin sesame official, three years of fleeing, three years of filial piety, and when he returned again, he actually transformed himself from a second-pin official.
During Li Guangdi's tenure, he taught lessons to all the princes, including the fourth prince Yin Chan, and for Li Guangdi's knowledge, all the princes were very sure, and Yin Chan became Li Guangdi's loyal "fan".
Recommend capable people and recover Taiwan
In the twentieth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Zheng Jing, the King of Yanping, died, the eldest son was killed, and the second son succeeded to the throne. When Li Guangdi learned of this, he immediately suggested that Kangxi take advantage of the political turmoil in Taiwan to recover it.
In fact, Kangxi also had the idea of recovering Taiwan, but the minister Suo Ertu had other ideas, feeling that Taiwan's resources were scarce and its development was not good, and that sending troops to fight and waste financial and material resources to operate and rule simply did not pay off.
Li Guangdi saw that Kangxi wanted to show his grand plan, so he publicly recommended Shi Lang as a marshal to recover Taiwan in the early dynasty.
The ministers were in an uproar, because Shi Lang had previously been a general of Zheng Zhilong, and then defected to Zheng Chenggong, but because of the conflict with Zheng Chenggong's subordinates, the whole family was killed by Zheng Chenggong, and finally Shi Lang submitted to the Qing Dynasty.
Because Shi Lang changed hands three times, the Qing Dynasty did not trust Shi Lang and did not give him the opportunity to show his fists and feet.
Li Guangdi understood the concerns of the ministers in his heart, and guaranteed with his own life that Shi Lang would not defect from the Qing Dynasty, and forcefully gave Shi Lang a chance to turn around.
Kangxi believed in Li Guangdi so much that he not only appointed Shi Lang as the admiral of the Fujian Water Division, but also gave him the title of Prince Shaobao, allowing him to lead his troops to retake Taiwan.
Shi Lang is a man of understanding, and Li Guangdi's full recommendation is for him to be rebuilt. Knowing that his performance is not only related to the life of his benefactor Li Guangdi, but also a good opportunity for him to bottom out and make a career.
Therefore, Shi Lang cherished this opportunity very much, from the deployment of platoons to the killing of the enemy, Shi Lang did his best.
In the twenty-second year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Shi Lang lived up to the expectations of the people, successfully recovered Taiwan, and made great contributions to the Qing Dynasty. Shi Lang's success had a great relationship with Li Guangdi's recommendation, and for Kangxi, whether it was to quell the San Francisco Rebellion or recover Taiwan, it was a great achievement during his reign, and these two huge achievements had the credit of Li Guangdi, and it is conceivable why Kangxi became more and more important to Li Guangdi.
Scandal exposed
When Taiwan was recovered, Li Guangdi was not in the capital, but went home on leave to serve his mother, and it was not until the twenty-fifth year of the Kangxi Dynasty that Li Guangdi returned to the capital.
For Li Guangdi, Kangxi intended to cultivate, so different positions Kangxi let Li Guangdi try, and Li Guangdi did not disappoint Kangxi, and each position had a good performance.
In the thirty-seventh year of Kangxi, Li Guangdi was appointed as an inspector by Kangxi, and when the spring breeze was triumphant, Li Guangdi met a person who made him infamous.
This year, Kangxi went on a tour, and after arriving in Shengjing, a prisoner offered a poem. After Kangxi got the poem, he read it and lamented that this person had such a good literary style, but he was a prisoner, which was a pity.
Kangxi could not bear such a talented man to continue to be exiled, and directly ordered that this person be pardoned and let him take up a post in Beijing. This person was Chen Menglei, who returned to his hometown with Li Guangdi during the San Francisco Rebellion.
Soon after Chen Menglei returned to Beijing, he wrote the "Letter of Renunciation with Li Guangdi", in which he wrote about Li Guangdi's unknown "ugly things".
It turned out that after Chen Menglei was captured alive by Geng Jingzhong, he did not submit to him, but said that he avoided Geng Jingzhong and was unwilling to serve him.
Not only that, Chen Menglei was in the depths of the enemy camp, using all available resources to privately explore military information, and sorted it out and prepared it for kangxi.
However, Chen Menglei was in the enemy camp, and there was no chance to pass on the military information, and by chance, Chen Menglei met Li Guangdi, who had come to spy on the military intelligence, so he informed Li Guangdi of the origin of the matter and handed over the military information to Li Guangdi.
What Chen Menglei did not expect was that Li Guangdi actually monopolized this credit alone, and did not mention himself in the report on military information.
After Geng Jingzhong surrendered, all the rebels were executed, and Chen Menglei was also among them. Although Li Guangdi pleaded for Chen Menglei to be spared the death penalty, he still did not mention a single word about Chen Menglei's collection of military intelligence, and Chen Menglei was exiled to Shengjing for being implicated.
When Li Guangdi learned of this, he was furious and lived to be more than fifty years old, and he was actually greatly humiliated by this. Li Guangdi immediately presented a debate for himself, saying that he had indeed consulted Chen Menglei about this matter, and also advised Chen Menglei to leave Geng Jingzhong.
Chen Menglei did not say a word about his advice, and as for why Chen Menglei said that the military information was collected by himself, Li Guangdi did not know why.
When Kangxi learned of this, he did not investigate deeply, but sent Li Guangdi to control the flooding in the capital to divert the public's attention.
Kangxi's approach is actually understandable, the military information has been passed into his own hands, and Li Guangdi performed well during his official period and made great contributions to the country.
Just because a person of unknown origin does not know the truth or false accusation, he will be at odds with Li Guangdi, which is not to let himself lose a talent for governing the country, that is to say, Li Guangdi still has use value for Kangxi, and Kangxi is unwilling to let Li Guangdi deviate from himself.
Concluding testimonials
In fact, Chen Menglei's accusations against Li Guangdi were not groundless, after all, at the beginning of the San Francisco Rebellion, Li Guangdi took his family to hide in the mountains, and it was basically impossible to obtain military intelligence, while Chen Menglei went deep into the enemy camp and had many means to obtain intelligence.
Moreover, as a prisoner, if Chen Menglei had done something rebellious, he would certainly not have dared to face Kangxi directly, let alone accuse a courtier, and with Chen Menglei's mind, his arms could not twist his thighs, how could he not know.
However, if Li Guangdi really plagiarized Chen Menglei's intelligence, he could completely stand by and watch when Chen Menglei was beheaded, so that his secret would sink into the sea and there would be no more truth.
Li Guangdi not only did not stand idly by, but also pleaded with Kangxi twice to leave Chen Menglei's life. I don't know if this is done as an innocent person with friendship, or as a plagiarizer with the last glimmer of kindness.