Xu Zhigao was happy and believed his birth to be a good omen, and therefore gave him the nickname of Yushi (meaning, "army of rain").
As he grew in childhood, it was said that he had an impressive appearance and a direct, magnanimous disposition, unlike other children, and Xu Zhigao much favored him.
(The other older brother, Xu Jingqian, had died shortly before the state transition due to illness.
[1] As a result of the name change, a controversy developed over whether he could remain married to his wife Princess Li, as a marriage between two people of the same family name was disallowed under Chinese traditions against endogamy.
Li Jing created Li Jingda the greater title of Prince of E. Li Jingda apparently also received additional titles of defender of the eastern capital Jiangdu (江都, in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu), military governor of Tianping Circuit (天平, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong — a completely honorary office as Tianping was then the territory of Southern Tang's northern neighbor Later Jin), and honorary chancellor title of Shizhong (侍中).
[8] In 956, Southern Tang was under a major attack by its northern neighbor Later Zhou (which had succeeded Later Jin's successor state Later Han).
(The official Han Xizai tried to argue against this, pointing out that there was no one more trusted and honored than Li Jingda, and that having an army monitor was inappropriate.
)[9] Indeed, it was said that because Li Jingda lacked talent in military matters,[1] he essentially was only signing orders that Chen had already decided on, and that the army had low morale as a result.
He did dispatch some generals to make repeated attempts to advance toward Shou, but each time was repelled by the Later Zhou forces.
Faced with the continuing siege, Liu fell ill. Further, at this time, Chen tried to strip the successful, but often disobedient general Zhu Yuan (朱元) of his command, causing Zhu to surrender to Later Zhou and further weakening the Southern Tang position.
A final attempt by Li Jingda's army to assault the Later Zhou sieging army resulted in a crushing defeat for Southern Tang, with the generals Xu Wenzhen (許文稹), Bian Hao, and Yang Shouzhong (楊守忠) all captured.
However, as Zhenhai was then still involved in the campaign against Later Zhou, he declined it, and was thereafter made the commandant of Fu Prefecture (撫州, in modern Fuzhou, Jiangxi).