converged at the mouth of where Han River flowed into the Yangtze River, trying to intercept him, but he went past them during the night and escaped their attempt to stop him. Around the same time, Gao Jixing, announcing that he was joining the campaign of Later Liang forces then fighting against Later Liang's archenemy Jin to the north, took his army and advanced north, but instead was attacking Xiang Prefecture (), the capital of Zhongyi — which by this time had reverted to its older name of Shannan East Circuit. Kong Qing () the military governor of Shannan East repelled him. It was said that after this battle, Gao stopped submitting tributes to the Later Liang imperial government. In 913, Zhu Yougui's younger brother Zhu Youzhen the Prince of Jun overthrew Zhu Yougui and took the throne himself (and then changed his name to Zhu Zhen). He tried to placate Gao by creating Gao the Prince of Bohai. However, Gao still began to build a fleet that eventually grew to 500 ships, and further enhanced his defenses and the soldiers' armors and weapons. Further, he began to enter into diplomatic communications with Former Shu and Wu, with the Later Liang imperial government unable to stop him. In 914, Gao launched his fleet and headed west on the Yangtze, trying to capture four prefectures that were previously part of Jingnan but which had become Former Shu territory — Kui (), Wan (), Zhong (), and Fu (涪州, all in modern Chongqing). However, when he attacked Kui first, he was defeated by the Former Shu prefect of Kui, Wang Chengxian (), and withdrew with heavy losses. In light of Gao's attack, there was suggestions made to the Former Shu emperor Wang Jian that Former Shu destroy a dam on the Three Gorges to let the water destroy Jiangling, but Wang, listening to the advice of his official Mao Wenxi that doing so would kill innocent civilians, did not do so. In 917, Gao and Kong repaired their relationship, and he resumed submitting tributes to the Later Liang imperial government. In 919, a Chu army attacked Jingnan. Gao sought aid from Wu. Wu sent the general Liu Xin () to head toward the Chu capital Tan Prefecture (in modern Changsha, Hunan) while the general Li Jian () attacked Fu Prefecture (復州, in modern Tianmen, Hubei). With Liu heading toward Tan Prefecture, the