close associates, requesting to be recalled. In 822, he was recalled serving as minister of defense (兵部尚書, Bingbu Shangshu). At that time, Pei and Yuan Zhen were serving as chancellors, despite Pei's having previously severely criticized Yuan. It was said that Li Fengji believed that Pei and Yuan would turn against each other, and therefore had it reported that Yuan had conspired with the official Yu Fang (于方) to assassinate Pei. After Yu was arrested and interrogated, no positive evidence of such a conspiracy was found, but both Pei and Yuan were removed from their chancellor positions, and Li Fengji was again made Menxia Shilang and chancellor. Later in the year, when mutineer soldiers at Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan) expelled the military governor Li Yuan (李愿) and supported the officer Li Jie (李㝏), Li Fengji advocated sending a replacement for Li Yuan and, if Li Jie did not accept the replacement, then attacking Xuanwu, pointing out that while the imperial government had been forced to allow certain circuits north of the Yellow River to decide on their own military governors, allowing Xuanwu to do so would cause the gradual erosion of the imperial control over the Yangtze River-Huai River region, while Du Yuanying and Zhang Pingshu (張平叔) advocated commissioning Li Jie to avoid a war. Emperor Muzong initially could not decide, but soon thereafter, when the prefects of three of Xuanwu's prefectures, Song (宋州, in modern Shangqiu, Henan), Bo (亳州, in modern Bozhou, Anhui), and Ying (潁州, in modern Fuyang, Anhui), requested that a new military governor be sent, Emperor Muzong came to believe that Li Fengji was correct. Li Fengji thus suggested summoning Li Jie to serve as an imperial guard general, while transferring Han Chong (韓充) the military governor of Yicheng Circuit (義成, headquartered in modern Anyang, Henan), whose brother Han Hong had served as Xuanwu's military governor for a long period, to Xuanwu. Li Jie resisted the orders but was soon killed by his own subordinate Li Zhi (李質), who surrendered the circuit to Han Chong. Late in the year, after Emperor Muzong suffered a stroke after being shocked by the fall of an eunuch at a polo game, it was at Li Fengji's and Pei's request that Emperor Muzong created his oldest son Li Zhan the Prince of Jing as crown prince. In 823, after Emperor Muzong made Niu Sengru a chancellor,