Li Jingye (李敬業) (died December 29, 684[1]), also known as Xu Jingye (徐敬業), was a Chinese military general and politician who was a grandson of the Tang dynasty general Li Shiji who, after Emperor Gaozong's powerful wife Empress Wu (later known as Wu Zetian) had seized personally all power after Emperor Gaozong's death, rose in rebellion against her, but who was quickly defeated and killed in flight.
Meanwhile, it was said that members of the Li imperial clan were all fearful of the developments, and the people were distressed at Emperor Zhongzong's removal.
Displeased over their demotions, they planned to start a rebellion against Empress Dowager Wu, declaring as their goal Emperor Zhongzong's restoration.
Wei, as the group's strategist, had their cohort Xue Zhongzhang (薛仲璋), who was then an assistant imperial censor, request an assignment to Yang Prefecture to investigate matters there.
[3] Several days later, Li Jingye arrived by government courier service and claimed that he had been made the new military advisor to the prefect of Yang Prefecture and that he had been commissioned by Empress Dowager Wu to prepare a military action against the tribal chief Feng Ziyou (馮子猷).
He thereafter opened up the military depot and had his assistant Li Zongchen (李宗臣) to conscript prisoners and workers at the imperial mint at Yang Prefecture into service.
Once she got in the palace, she would not yield even in her brows; she falsely implicated others, and she used her fox-like charms to delude the emperor.
She put the emperor's beloved son under house arrest in another palace, while giving the relatives of thieves important responsibilities.
When a swallow poked at an imperial prince,[5] Han's rule was known to be at an end; when the dragons mated before the emperor, Xia's court was known to be failing.
The red rice from Hailing [(海陵, in modern Taizhou, Jiangsu)] will fill the storage, and as the yellow flag rises from the banks of the Yangtze, how distant can the Restoration be?
As we seek to accomplish great things with these, what accomplishment is out of reach?You, dukes, may be living in Han lands [(i.e., in the central region of the state)]; or you may be relations of the Zhou [(i.e., related to the imperial clan)]; or you may have been entrusted by word; or you may be asked to look after the imperial house.
If you can turn disaster into fortune, put things in the past, accomplish the Restoration together, and not forget about the will of the deceased emperor, your titles and rewards will be as permanent as the mountains and the rivers.
If you hold your cities out against us and hesitate on the wrong path, disregarding the signs of the future, you will surely be executed.
however, Xue Zhongzhang advocated attacking Chang (常州, roughly modern Changzhou, Jiangsu) and Run (潤州, roughly modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) Prefectures first, and then seizing Jinling, to use the Yangtze River as a natural defense, and despite Wei's pleas that doing so would show that Li Jingye was already looking for a place to hide after defeat and would discourage people from joining the rebellion, Li Jingye accepted Xue's suggestion and headed south to attack Run Prefecture.