for the partition of the Chu realm. However, Li Bian was unwilling to commit to the enterprise. The same year they sent gifts to celebrate Li Bian's birthday. Taking advantage of the Southern Tang invasion of Chu, in winter 951 Liu Sheng launched a successful invasion to secure Lingnan. The Southern Tang counterattack ended in failure and the Southern Han secured their territorial gains. Liao dynasty The Khitan were an important partner for the Southern Tang. Positive relations were used to counter the threat posed by the Central Plains regimes and their Wuyue vassal. Dialog and gift exchanges were frequent during Li Bian's rule. He sent ambassadors to the Khitan court at Shangjing to announce the start of his reign. In correspondence Yelü Deguang and Li Bian referred to each other as brothers. This demonstrated the favorable opinion the Khitan held of the southern state compared to the reigning Later Tang. In 938 both Yelü Deguang and his brother Yelü Lihu dispatched gifts to Li Bian. Later that year a group of Khitan envoys visited with an impressive herd of 35,000 sheep and 300 horses. In return for the livestock the Khitan received medicinal supplies, silk, and tea. The Southern Tang court financed a piece called "Two Qidan Bringing Tribute" by an unnamed artist in honor of these proceedings. The painting symbolized the importance put on relations with the Khitan by Li Bian. Contact between the two states was blocked by the Central Plains regimes. Consequently, a naval route was developed. Starting at Chunzhou Southern Tang ships sailed north along the coastline until the Shandong Peninsula, where ships crossed the Yellow Sea and landed at the Liaodong Peninsula. The Khitans sent six diplomatic missions to the Southern Tang between 938 and 943. In 940 Khitan envoys presented Li a snow-fox fur robe. In both 941 and 942 the Southern Tang sent three diplomatic missions to the Khitans. After being insulted by an antagonistic Shi Chonggui, Yelü Deguang destroyed the Later Jin in 946. In early 947 he founded the Liao dynasty as Emperor Taizong after entering Bian. Shortly afterwards Taizong offered Li Jing to become the "ruler of the Central Plains." This proposal was rejected, potentially due to the Southern Tang considering themselves culturally superior to the Khitan. Receiving the Central Plains, rather than conquering it, would have left the legitimacy of the Southern Tang far from certain. Nonetheless, Li