Emperor Taizu's initially stopping Li Hanzhi's attack that the Zhang household was preserved, and he managed to persuade Zhang Jizuo not to carry out the assassination. (According to Zhang's biography in the New History of the Five Dynasties, the women that Emperor Taizu had sexual relations with included even Zhang Zongshi's wife Lady Chu and his daughters.) During Zhu Yougui's and Zhu Zhen's reigns In 912, Emperor Taizu was assassinated by his son Zhu Yougui the Prince of Ying, who took the throne thereafter. As part of the governmental reorganization that took place after Zhu Yougui took the throne, he disbanded the headquarters for financial matters at the eastern capital Kaifeng (which previously had been the headquarters of Xuanwu Circuit while Zhu Quanzhong governed it), which Emperor Taizu had created and had named Jianchang Palace (). The responsibility of overseeing the financial matters was transferred to Zhang Zongshi. Zhang was also made the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (whose headquarters had been moved to modern Shangqiu, Henan by that point). In 913, Zhu Yougui's younger brother Zhu Youzhen the Prince of Jun overthrew him and took the throne, and subsequently moved the capital from Luoyang to Kaifeng, but it appeared that Zhang remained in charge of the financial matters of the state. In 917, Zhu Youzhen (who had changed his name to Zhu Zhen) further bestowed on Zhang the title of Deputy Generalissimo of All Circuits (). (The Generalissimo title belonged to Qian Liu the Prince of Wuyue, whose state was a Later Liang vassal state.) In 921, Zhu Zhen, suspicious of the intentions of the major general Liu Xun, who had sought retirement, approved Liu's retirement and had him reside at Luoyang. He then ordered Zhang to poison Liu to death. In 923, Zhu Zhen, with the territory of his Later Liang state north of the Yellow River gradually taken piece by piece by his rival Li Cunxu the Prince of Jin (Li Keyong's son and successor), planned a major counterattack. At the recommendation of his close associates Zhao Yan and Zhang Hanjie (), he made the general Duan Ning, whose military abilities was not respected by the army, the overall commander of the operations. Zhang Zongshi, knowing that Duan was not the appropriate commander and that the army generals were more respectful of another general, Wang Yanzhang, submitted a petition stating: Despite Zhang's petition (and similar remarks made