Li Congke was facing two rebellions — one by his brother-in-law (Li Siyuan's son-in-law) Shi Jingtang the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi) and the Tianxiong Circuit (天雄, headquartered in modern Handan, Hebei) officer Zhang Lingzhao () (who had mutinied and expelled the military governor Liu Yanhao), Li Congke sent the general Fan Yanguang to attack the Tianxiong mutineers and commissioned Liu Churang as the director of supplies for the army north of the Yellow River, to aid Fan's campaign. During Later Jin Shi Jingtang, who thereafter was declared the emperor of a new state of Later Jin by his ally, Khitan's Emperor Taizong, shortly after defeated, with Khitan aid, the Later Tang forces sent against him, and then headed toward the Later Tang capital Luoyang. Finding the situation hopeless, Li Congke committed suicide, ending Later Tang. Liu Churang returned to Luoyang and submitted to Shi. Shi made him one of the directors of palace affairs (宣徽使, Xuanhuishi). In 937, Fan Yanguang, who had initially submitted to Shi, rebelled against him at Tianxiong. Initially, Liu was to serve under Yang Guangyuan in attacking Fan, but when shortly after, under Fan's inducement, Zhang Congbin () also rebelled at Luoyang (by this point, Shi had moved the capital to Daliang), Liu was diverted to attack Zhang instead. After Zhang was defeated, the Later Jin forces put Tianxiong's capital Guangjin () under siege. Fan considered surrendering, as Shi promised him that he would live, but was still hesitating. Liu entered the city to persuade him, and he subsequently surrendered. For the time being, Yang, who was in charge of the operations, left Liu temporarily in charge of Tianxiong. Meanwhile, Shi had turned away from the Later Tang tradition of having generals serve in the powerful positions of chief of staff, and had his civilian chancellors Sang Weihan and Li Song assume those positions. This displeased Liu (who had design on the position himself) and the eunuchs. During the Guangjin siege, when Sang often rejected Yang's requests, Yang complained to Liu. Liu told Yang that this was all decided by the chancellors (and not by the emperor). Once Fan surrendered, Yang, who was then the preeminent general of the realm, submitted a secret list of policy proposals in which he severely criticized Sang and Li. Not wanting to alienate Yang, Shi removed Sang and Li from their chiefs of