his own capital at Taiyuan from where he lodged a complaint in the imperial court. In his reply, Zhu claimed to have had no foreknowledge of the incident, but explained that the plan had been hatched by his army commander Yang Yanhong () in collusion with a representative of the court and that he had since had Yang executed. (In reality, Yang was killed by friendly fire (an arrow fired by Zhu himself) during the attempt to kill Li Keyong.) The Tang court, which by this time had little actual power left, was unwilling to choose sides between the two warlords and decided not to investigate the matter further, merely investing Li Keyong Prince of Longxi. This was the start of a forty-years long struggle that was to outlast both Zhu and Li Keyong. Campaigns against Qin Zongquan The death of Huang Chao was however not the end of rebellion against Tang imperial sovereignty. Qin Zongquan took over the leadership and declared himself emperor. Qin expanded his territory in all directions, even capturing the eastern capital Luoyang, in 885–886. With the withdrawal of Li Keyong's armies, Zhu was no longer strong enough to defeat them. No help could be gotten from the court either since Emperor Xizong had again been forced to flee Chang'an after quarreling with Zhu's former patron Wang Chongrong. The lack of a central authority left the initiative to Zhu and the other governors. In Autumn 884, Emperor Xizong bestowed titles on Zhu as honorary dignitary for education with ministerial standing and elevated him to Marquess of Pei. In 885 Zhu married his daughter, the future Princess Changle, to Zhao Yan, son of Zhao Chou, who was already indebted to Zhu for breaking the siege of Huang Chao. With this alliance Quanzhong gained an important buffer between Bian and the rebel capital at Cai. A further opportunity to strengthen his position came in December 886 when the Yicheng Circuit (義成, headquartered in modern Anyang, Henan) army, headquartered at Hua Prefecture (), mutinied against the court-chosen governor, An Shiru (). An suppressed the mutiny, but Zhu then attacked, and easily captured Hua, killing An and commissioning Hu Zhen as An's replacement. In doing so, Zhu also warded off a rival attempt by Zhu Xuan the military governor of Tianping Circuit (天平, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong)—an ally of Zhu Quanzhong's—to take over Yicheng. The Yicheng army was reorganized