powerful. Hulü, while he approved of Gao Yan's killing of He Shikai, was still loyal to the emperor, and he intervened on the emperor's side, ordering Gao Yan's troops to disband, and they collapsed. Hulü seized Gao Yan and took him to the palace. At Hulü's urging, Gao Wei spared Gao Yan initially, although in winter 571 he nevertheless had Liu Taozhi suffocate Gao Yan, and Gao Yan's four posthumous sons were also killed. Also in winter 571, after discovering that Empress Dowager Hu had been conducting an affair with the Buddhist monk Tanxian (曇獻), he executed Tanxian and put Empress Dowager Hu under house arrest, disallowing the nobles from visiting her. In spring 572, in order to placate her, however, he posthumously honored Gao Yan with the unusual title "Emperor Gong'ai of Chu" and honored Gao Yan's wife Princess Li "Empress of Chu." Zu and Lady Lu tried to have Lady Lu made empress dowager to replace Empress Dowager Hu, but Gao Wei did not do so. Empress Dowager Hu, in order to please her son, summoned the daughter of her brother Hu Changren (胡長仁) to the palace and dressed her in the best clothes. Gao Wei saw her and was infatuated with her, and he took her as a concubine. In 572, Empress Hulü gave birth to a daughter, and Gao Wei, wanting to please Hulü Guang, initially claimed that she gave birth to a son, but eventually had to admit that the child was a daughter. By this point, Hulü Guang was in serious conflict with the powerful officials Zu and Mu. He disliked Zu, and he often complained to his generals that Zu rarely consulted military generals. Once, when he was resting at a governmental building, Zu, who had blinded during a period of imprisonment during Emperor Wucheng's reign, rode past him without realizing that Hulü was there, and never got off the horse as demanded by customs of the time. Hulü angrily stated, "Who does he think he is?" Zu, realizing that Hulü disliked him, bribed Hulü's servant and asked the servant about Hulü's opinion of him. The servant stated, "Ever since you came into power, the Minister Prince [a reference to Hulü, as Hulü carried the title of Prince of Xianyang] each night sighed and stated, "With a blind man in power, the empire will surely be destroyed." Meanwhile, Mu had once requested to