a year, but was unable to capture it, with his siege efforts hampered by rain and his soldiers becoming ill. He thus considered withdrawing to Huguo Circuit (護國, headquartered in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi), which he also possessed. Zhu Jichang and fellow officer Liu Zhijun, however, opposed, pointing out that Li Maozhen was in desperate straits. Zhu Quanzhong, however, was concerned about Li Maozhen's strategy of refusing to engage the Xuanwu troops and putting up a strong defense at Fengxiang. At Zhu Jichang's suggestion, Zhu Quanzhong decided to try trickery — and asked for a volunteer soldier to try to trick Li Maozhen into engaging the Xuanwu army. One Ma Jing () volunteered, and pretended to surrender to the Fengxiang army. Ma then informed Li Maozhen that Zhu Quanzhong had already left, leaving only about 10,000 ill soldiers to pretend to be still putting up a siege, and that even they would depart that night. He suggested that Li Maozhen attack the Xuanwu camp. Li Maozhen agreed and attacked — and his army immediately fell into a trap set by the Xuanwu army, suffering large losses. From this point on, Li Maozhen, while not surrendering immediately, began to negotiate with Zhu Quanzhong for peace, promising to give the emperor to him (which occurred eventually in spring 903). For Zhu Jichang's contributions to this victory, Zhu Quanzhong made him the military prefect (團練使, Tuanlianshi) of Song Prefecture (宋州, in modern Shangqiu, Henan). Zhu Jichang subsequently participated in the Xuanwu army's campaign against Wang Shifan the military governor of Pinglu Circuit (平盧, headquartered in modern Weifang, Shandong) and was made the defender (防禦使, Fangyushi) of Ying Prefecture (潁州, in modern Fuyang, Anhui). His surname was changed back to Gao. In 905, Zhu Quanzhong had conquered Zhongyi (忠義, headquartered in modern Xiangyang, Hubei) and Jingnan (荊南, headquartered in modern Jingzhou, Hubei) Circuits, then ruled by brothers Zhao Kuangning and Zhao Kuangming, respectively. Zhu initially made his officer He Gui the acting military governor of Jingnan. However, later in the year, when Lei Yangong the military governor of Wuzhen Circuit (武貞, headquartered in modern Changde, Hunan) repeatedly made incursions into Jingnan territory and He Gui reacted by merely defending Jingnan's capital Jiangling Municipality without engaging Lei, Zhu believed He to be fearful. He sent Gao to replace He Gui, while sending the officer Ni Kefu () to Jingnan as well to help defend against Lei.