Dongchuan, and when Li Maozhen sent his adoptive son Li Jihui to assist Gu Yanhui, Li Jihui was repelled by Wang Jian's adoptive son Wang Zongjin (). In 897, Li Maozhen's adoptive son Li Jitang () was made the military governor of Kuangguo, allowing Li Maozhen's further expansion toward the east. Later in the year, Emperor Zhaozong made another attempt to take back Fengxiang. Li Maozhen had submitted a petition accusing Wang Jian of attacking Dongchuan against imperial orders. Emperor Zhaozong reacted by issuing an edict demoting Wang to be the prefect of Nan Prefecture (南州, in modern Chongqing), making Li Maozhen the military governor of Xichuan to replace Wang, and making Li Sizhou the military governor of Fengxiang to replace Li Maozhen. Both Wang and Li Maozhen refused to follow the edict, and Li Maozhen further refused to let Li Sizhou to reach Fengxiang by putting Li Sizhou under siege at Fengtian. Only after Han wrote Li Maozhen did Li Maozhen lift the siege on Fengtian to allow Li Sizhou to return to Hua. (Li Sizhou — and 10 other princes — however, did not escape death. Soon after Li Sizhou's return to Hua, Li Jiepi returned from Hedong, thus exposing the fact that Li Keyong was in no shape to aid the emperor. With that possibility gone, Han slaughtered the imperial princes, including Li Sizhou, Li Jiepi, and Emperor Zhaozong's uncle Li Zi the Prince of Tong, and then claimed to Emperor Zhaozong that they were plotting treason.) Emperor Zhaozong did make Zhang Lian () the military governor of Zhangyi Circuit (彰義, headquartered in modern Pingliang, Gansu) the commander of the operations against Li Maozhen, but it appeared that Zhang was either unable or unwilling to attack Li Maozhen, for there was no further record of what Zhang did in the campaign. Emperor Zhaozong also stripped Li Maozhen of his titles and his imperially-bestowed name of Li Maozhen, referring to him as Song Wentong again. (After Emperor Zhaozong's declaration of the campaign against Li Maozhen, Li Jitang abandoned Kuangguo and fled back to Fengxiang; Han thereafter took over Kuangguo as well.) Temporary rapprochement with the imperial government Meanwhile, though, at this point, with Wang Jian continuing to pressure Gu Yanhui and Li Maozhen's being unable to face Wang on one side and the imperial government on the other, and with Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit