would be soon successful in his aim to wipe out warlord power and reunify the realm under imperial authority. Things quickly turned for the worse, however, after Emperor Dezong angered both Zhu and Wang by not giving them what they believed they deserved—in Zhu's case, control of Chengde's Shen Prefecture (深州, in modern Hengshui, Hebei), and in Wang's case, title as military governor. (Emperor Dezong had divided Chengde's seven prefectures into three circuits, with Zhang receive three circuits as military governor, and with Wang and another Chengde officer, Kang Rizhi (), each receiving two prefectures with the lesser title of military prefect (團練使, Tuanlianshi).) He also refused to accept Li Na's surrender when Li Na offered to surrender. As a result, Zhu and Wang entered into an alliance with Tian and headed south to lift the siege on Wei Prefecture—defeating Ma, Li Baozhen, and Li Huaiguang (whom Emperor Dezong had also sent to combat Tian) to force the situation into a stalemate, while Li Na escaped the trap imperial forces had put him in at Pu Prefecture and returned to his headquarters at Yun Prefecture (), leaving imperial forces unable to do much against him. The four rebel generals (Zhu, Wang, Tian, and Li Na) each claimed princely titles, showing a break from the Tang imperial government, although they continued to use Emperor Dezong's era name of Jianzhong to show some degree of submissiveness. They also persuaded Li Xilie to do the same. By this point, Cui had died, and Lu Qi became chancellor along with Yang. Lu soon was able to persuade Emperor Dezong that Yang was intending treason, and Emperor Dezong put Yang to death. With Lu largely in power by himself, it was said that at his inducement, Emperor Dezong became unduly harsh, causing the officials and the people to be disappointed in Emperor Dezong. With the necessity of paying for campaigns on multiple fronts, Emperor Dezong added two new taxes—property taxes for houses (Shuijianjia, 稅間架) and transaction tax (Chumoqian, 除陌錢); these taxes created heavy burdens, and Emperor Dezong's tax code for these taxes further encouraged people to report on each other when the taxes were not paid properly. It was said that complaints about them filled the realm. The imperial scholar Lu Zhi, whose opinion Emperor Dezong valued, earnestly advised against these taxes and against the campaigns, pointing out that the realm was on the verge