will over northern China. In 952 a member of the deposed Later Han imperial family, Murong Yanchao, revolted against the Later Zhou. He was able to court military intervention from the Northern Han and the Southern Tang although neither actually provided much assistance. At the time the Southern Tang were experiencing great difficulty in securing their recent conquests in the kingdom of Chu. Their unpopular administration provoked provincial revolts. The Southern Han meanwhile began an invasion to secure Lingnan. These military pressures likely explain why Li Jing only sent 5,000 troops to assist Murong Yanchao. The Southern Tang army reached Xiapi before Later Zhou resistance was met. Pushed south of Xuzhou, the Southern Tang lost a pitched battle and lost over 1,000 troops. Despite this failure, court officials pushed for conquering the Later Zhou. Han Xizai advised strongly against the idea as he felt Guo Wei was in a position of power. Li Jing ultimately concurred and ceased hostilities. In spring 955 Emperor Chai Rong was advised to strike the lengthy and porous Southern Tang border. Simultaneously Southern Tang defensive procedures were reduced along the seasonally shallow Huai River in winter 955, leaving their border easy to cross. Later Zhou forces advanced south and constructed a floating bridge to cross the Huai River at Zhengyang and began the invasion of Huainan in early 956. The crucially important city of Shouchun became encircled by the Later Zhou but resisted them for 14 months. Throughout the conflict incompetent military officers made critical errors that ended in a string of costly defeats for the Southern Tang. By April 958 Shouchun had fallen and the Later Zhou were advancing upon the capital of Jinling. The Southern Tang offered to cede all territory north of the Yangtze to the Later Zhou and become a vassal. The Later Zhou gained control over Huainan and almost a quarter million families. Ten Kingdoms Leadership across the Ten Kingdoms did not see a politically unified China under a centralized bureaucracy as necessarily inevitable. Their sovereignty was revoked only through force of arms. Conceptually there could only be one Son of Heaven but regional autonomy was still possible. Some kingdoms nominally accepted the suzerianity of the Five Dynasties. Several rulers simultaneously claimed to be emperors and still engaged in diplomatic exchanges with each other despite this breach of imperial orthodoxy. Min Wang Yanxi sent Zhu Wenjin in 938 to represent