During Li Jing's earlier reign, he expanded Southern Tang's borders by extinguishing smaller neighboring states: Min in 945 and Ma Chu in 951.

[9] In 925, Xu Jingtong, then age nine, was given the office of Jiabu Langzhong (駕部郎中), a supervisory official at the ministry of defense (兵部, Bingbu).

Xu Jingtong received the titles of Situ (司徒, one of the Three Excellencies), chancellor (同中書門下平章事, Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi), and acting director of military matters (知中外左右諸軍事, Zhi Zhongwai Zuoyou Zhujunshi).

[13] In winter 937, Xu Zhigao had Yang Pu yield the throne to him, ending Wu, and starting a new state later known as Southern Tang[12] (although it was likely known as Qi at this point).

Later in the year, Li Bian wanted to create him to be the crown prince, but he declined, and so Li Bian gave him a number of additional titles—Generalissimo, acting commander of the imperial guards, acting Taiwei, director of the executive bureau of government (錄尚書事, Lu Shangshu Shi), and grand prefect of Sheng and Yang Prefectures (i.e., Jinling and Jiangdu).

In late 940, there was an occasion when the fortuneteller Sun Zhiyong (孫智永) claimed, due to planet alignments, that Li Bian should visit Jiangdu.

Meanwhile, Li Jing's staff members Chen Jue and Feng Yanji were in alliance with Song and finding ways to expel people who were not cooperating with them.

Both Chang Mengxi (常夢錫) and Xiao Yan (蕭儼) submitted petitions to Li Bian accusing Chen of abuse of power, and it was said that while Li Bian understood some of the accusations to be true, he did not get a chance to act on them, before he fell deathly ill in spring 943 from poisoning due to pills given him by alchemists.

When Cha reached Xin Prefecture (信州, in modern Shangrao, Jiangxi), near the Yin border, he submitted a report indicating his belief that an attack would be successful.

Soon thereafter, the Southern Tang general Zu Quan'en (祖全恩), whom Li sent to reinforce Cha, crushed the Min army commanded by Wang Yanzheng's chancellor Yang Sigong, and then put Jian under siege.

[17] In fall 945, Jian fell, and Wang Yanzheng surrendered to Southern Tang, ending Min's existence as a state.

The official Han Xizai suggested that Southern Tang take an aggressive military stance to contest the central Chinese territories, but as the army was occupied with sieging Fu, such a campaign could not be carried out at the time, causing Li Jing much regret.

When he approached, though, he fell into an ambush set by Wuyue's acting military governor of Weiwu Circuit (威武, headquartered at Fu), and was defeated and captured.

Later in the year, he captured Chu's capital Tan Prefecture (潭州, in modern Changsha, Hunan), executed Ma Xiguang, and claimed the princely title for himself.

Li, in return, sent the officials Sun Sheng and Yao Feng (姚鳳) to Tan to formally bestow the Prince of Chu title on Ma Xi'e.

[23] After taking Tan over, Ma Xi'e governed the Chu state with violence and incompetence, spending his days and nights feasting.

Li subsequently continued to allow Ma Xi'e to carry the title of Prince of Chu, but moved him to Zhennan Circuit (鎮南, headquartered in modern Nanchang, Jiangxi).

However, at some point in or before 955, Wu Tingshao (吳庭紹), the army monitor, thought it was unlikely that there would be war with Later Zhou, and proposed that this procedure be cancelled, to save costs.

Wu's proposal was approved, despite vehement opposition by Liu Renzhan (劉仁瞻) the military governor of Qinghuai Circuit (清淮, headquartered in modern Lu'an, Anhui).

When Liu Yanzhen reached Zhengyang (正陽, in modern Zhumadian, Henan), Li Gu counterattacked, defeating and killing him in battle while capturing Xian and many other of his officers.

Meanwhile, concerned about the possibility that the Wu imperial Yang clan, whose members were then housed at Tai Prefecture (泰州, in modern Taizhou, Jiangsu), would be taken and used by the Later Zhou army, Li Jing sent the official Yin Yanfan (尹延範) to Tai to move them south of the Yangtze to Zhenhai's capital Run Prefecture (潤州).

However, Guo, with his confidence bolstered by the Later Zhou victories, believed that he would be able to conquer all of Southern Tang's territories north of the Yangtze, refused.

Li Hongji, however, listened to his subordinate Zhao Duo (趙鐸) and decided that if he left Run, it would throw the city and the surrounding region into panic, and declined the recall and instead prepared to defend.

He also commissioned the official Zhu Yuan (朱元), whom he considered to be militarily talented, to lead an army in trying to recover the prefectures that Later Zhou had captured.

When Liu died shortly after, Li Jing, in remembrance of his faithfulness in defending the city for so long, bestowed posthumous honors on him.

Chen, upon arriving at Guo's camp, saw the impressiveness of the Later Zhou army, and therefore spoke humbly to Guo, requesting that he be allowed to send his subordinate Liu Chengyu (劉承遇) back to Jinling to obtain a petition from Li Jing, offering to cede Lu, Shu, Qi, and Huang to Later Zhou, so that the Yangtze would form the new border.

When Liu arrived at Jinling to report, Li Jing agreed, and, in a petition in which he referred to himself as "The Lord of Tang", offered submit the four prefectures and annual tributes.

Guo did return Feng Yanlu (who had previously been captured), Zhong Mo, Xu Wenzhen, Bian Hao, and Zhou Tinggou (周廷構) to Southern Tang.

After Song reached his retirement place at Mount Jiuhua in spring 959, Li Jing had his mansion securely guarded, only allowing food to be passed through a hole in the wall.

Song lamented and believed that this was divine retribution for his suggestion to have Yang Pu's family put under secure guard, and thereafter hanged himself.