forced Li Xián to commit suicide in 684 and having been rumored to have poisoned another son, Li Hong, in 675—and whenever there would be imperial messengers arriving from then-capital Luoyang, he would consider committing suicide, fearing that they brought orders for even worse fates. Princess Wei would repeatedly tell him: At this point, they were deeply in love with each other, and at another point, he told her: While Li Zhe was in exile, people who rebelled against or plotted against Empress Dowager Wu often used him as a symbol of their resistance. For example, when Li Jingye the Duke of Ying rose against Empress Dowager Wu later in 684, he declared that his goal was to restore Li Zhe. Other examples included Yang Chucheng () in 687 and Li Yin () the Duke of Poyang (Emperor Gaozong's cousin) in 689. In 690, Empress Dowager Wu had Emperor Ruizong yield the throne to her, and she took the throne as "empress regnant" of a new Zhou Dynasty, interrupting Tang. She created Emperor Ruizong crown prince with the unusual title Huangsi (), and initially, Li Zhe's status was not changed. Second stint as crown prince in the reign of his mother Wu Zetian In 697, during a major Khitan incursion, led by the khan Sun Wanrong, Sun issued a declaration questioning why Wu Zetian was keeping Li Zhe in exile. Thereafter, the chancellor Di Renjie often counseled Wu Zetian to recall Li Zhe, which fellow chancellors Wang Fangqing and Wang Jishan also agreed with. Further, Wu Zetian's close associate Ji Xu also advocated it and further persuaded her lovers Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong to advocate the same. Wu Zetian finally agreed, and in 698 recalled Li Zhe and his family back to Luoyang, then the capital. Shortly thereafter, Li Dan offered to yield the crown prince position to Li Zhe, and Wu Zetian agreed, creating Li Zhe crown prince on 24 October, demoting Li Dan to the rank of Prince of Xiang. She also changed his name back to Li Xiǎn, and subsequently changed his surname to Wu. Subsequently, when she named him the nominal commander of the forces defending against a major Göktürk incursion on 26 October, it was said that as soon as he was named the commander, men swarmed to enlist. Before, less than 1000 men joined after more than a month of recruitment; the numbers