an army to attack Yang. Emperor Mingzong thus sent the generals Suo Zitong () and Yao Yanchou () to attack Yang but giving them instructions to capture Yang alive. Suo and Yao, apparently at An's instruction, however, killed Yang when they captured Hezhong. Thereafter, An had Feng Dao and Zhao Feng propose that Li Congke be punished for losing the circuit to a mutiny, but Emperor Mingzong rebuffed them, as he did An when An personally requested, citing how Li Congke had been his son ever since a young age. Still, he ordered Li Congke to stay at his own mansion and not be allowed to attend imperial gatherings. When Suo was subsequently made the military governor of Huguo, he, at An's direction, submitted weapons and claimed that those were weapons privately made by Li Congke, implying that Li Congke was planning a rebellion. However, Li Congke escaped further punishment at the intercession of Emperor Mingzong's favorite concubine, Consort Wang. Around this time, the officers Li Xingde () and Zhang Jian () induced one Bian Yanwen () to falsely accuse An of planning a rebellion and doing so by requesting the command of an army to attack Wu. The generals An Congjin and Yao, however, vouched for An Chonghui, so Emperor Mingzong executed Bian (and later, after discovering Li's and Zhang's parts in this false report, them as well). By fall 930, Meng and Dong were preparing to rebel, but Dong made one last-ditch attempt to stop the imperial government from what he and Meng saw as provocative deployments—by having his son Dong Guangye (), who served as the director of imperial gardens at the capital Luoyang, inform An Chonghui's deputy Li Qianhui () that if the imperial government sent more soldiers into the region, he would rebel. (However, as noted by, inter alia, the modern historian Bo Yang, Dong's threat had the exact opposite effect, since An's intent was to force Dong and Meng into rebellion so that he could destroy them.) When An thereafter, in fall 930, sent the officer Xun Xian'ai () to reinforce Baoning's capital Lang Prefecture (), Dong publicly declared his rebellion, and he and Meng joined their forces to prepare to attack Baoning, Wuxin, and Zhaowu (昭武, headquartered in modern Guangyuan, Sichuan) Circuits, which were loyal to the imperial government. When the news came, An advocated a general campaign against them, and Emperor Mingzong