In 930, Emperor Taizong sent Yelü Lihu on an incursion into the territory of Khitan's southern neighbor Later Tang. Yelü Lihu attacked Later Tang's Huan Prefecture (寰州, in modern Shuozhou, Shanxi), and returned with many captives. Emperor Taizong thereafter created him crown prince and gave him the title of generalissimo of all armies. (This designation of Yelü Lihu as crown prince apparently aggravated Yelü Bei further, as it was later that year that Yelü Bei fled to Later Tang.) During Emperor Taizong's subsequent campaigns, Yelü Lihu was often put in charge of defending the capital Linhuang (臨潢, in modern Chifeng, Inner Mongolia). In 936, Emperor Taizong launched a campaign to aid the Later Tang general Shi Jingtang (the brother-in-law of then-Later Tang emperor Li Congke) to overthrow Later Tang. The campaign was successful, and Shi's new Later Jin replaced Later Tang as the ruling regime in central and northern China. Shi remained submissive toward Khitan (whose state was then renamed Liao) and in 938 had his chancellors Feng Dao and Liu Xu visit Liao on a diplomatic mission, offering honorable titles to Emperor Taizong and Empress Dowager Shulü, including honoring Emperor Taizong as "father emperor" while Shi referred to himself as "son emperor." Shi also often offered gifts to many key Liao generals and nobles, and Yelü Lihu, as crown prince, was the recipient of many of these gifts as well. However, after Shi's death, his nephew and successor Shi Chonggui took a confrontational stance against Liao, causing Emperor Taizong to launch a major campaign against Later Jin in 946, destroying it. During the campaign, Yelü Lihu presumably remained at Linhuang to defend it. After Emperor Taizong's reign Emperor Taizong claimed imperial title over China as well, but soon tired of the many rebellions rising up against him throughout the former Later Jin realm. He began a withdrawal back to Liao proper, but died on the way, near Heng Prefecture (恆州, in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei). As Empress Dowager Shulü had, when Emperor Taizu died, killed many chieftains so that she could bury them with Emperor Taizu, many of the Khitan generals feared that she would do the same thing again; they therefore resolved to support Yelü Bei's son Yelü Ruan the Prince of Yongkang as emperor. Yelü Ruan was subsequently able to overpower the ethnically Han Chinese general Zhao Yanshou (who had designs on claiming imperial title himself) and take