that if Li Mi received the command over them (as Li Mi was nominally bestowed the office of supreme commander of the armed forces), he would surely slaughter them for having resisted him. When Yuan received news that Wang was doing this, he planned to ambush Wang. However, Duan revealed the plot to Wang, and Wang started a coup himself first, killing Lu and surrounding the palace. Huangfu fled to Chang'an (to Tang). At Wang's insistence, Yang Tong surrendered Yuan, who remarked to Yang Tong, "If I die in the morning, Your Imperial Majesty will die in the evening." Yang Tong wept, but still sent Yuan to Wang, who executed Yuan. Wang then met Yang Tong and pledged his loyalty, swearing that all he intended was to save himself and save the empire. Yang Tong took Wang inside the palace to meet Empress Dowager Wang, and Wang swore before her as well. Nevertheless, from this point, all power was in Wang's hands, and Yang Tong himself was powerless. Upon hearing of Yuan and Lu's deaths, Li broke off the peaceful relations with Yang Tong's regime, now under Wang's control. However, he had a low opinion of Wang, so he did not take much precaution against an attack from Wang. Further, other problems were developing for Li—as while he had plenty of food supplies, he had a low amount of money and silk, and therefore had little to reward his generals with. He was also being overly generous with new adherents, and the old followers began to grumble. When Xu Shiji tried to get him to change his ways, he sent Xu away to Liyang under guise of promotion. In addition, his supply of new adherents began to dry up when he, in an ill-advised decision pushed by his secretary Bing Yuanzhen (), who could materially benefit from the transactions, to trade food with Wang for textiles. After the transactions began, the people of Luoyang, no longer low on food, stopped surrendering to Li, and while Li stopped the transactions, the damage had been done. In addition, his troops were tired, and a substantial percentage of his men were injured from fighting the elite Xiaoguo Army under Yuwen's command. Wang, seeing the weaknesses developing for Li's forces, decided to launch his own attack on Li. He gathered the most elite of his own troops and started to march against Li. Pei