Emperor Daizong died in 779 and was succeeded by his son
Emperor Dezong. In 780, Emperor Dezong officially made Li Baozhen the military governor of Zhaoyi. In 781, when Emperor Dezong, wanting to reassert imperial authority, refused to allow
Li Weiyue to succeed his father
Li Baochen as the military governor of Chengde or
Li Na to succeed his father
Li Zhengji as the military governor of Pinglu, Li Weiyue, Li Na, and
Tian Yue the military governor of Weibo rose together against imperial forces. As a part of their operations, Tian attacked Linming (臨洺, in modern Handan), then defended by the Zhaoyi general Zhang Pi (). Li Baozhen sought aid from the imperial government, and Emperor Daizong sent the general
Ma Sui the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern
Taiyuan,
Shanxi) as well as a commanding general of the imperial Shence Army (),
Li Sheng, to aid Li Baozhen. Together, Ma, Li Baozhen, and Li Sheng defeated Tian at Linming, forcing him to flee back to his headquarters at Wei Prefecture. In spring 782, they, along with Li Qiu () the military governor of Heyang Circuit (headquartered in modern
Jiaozuo,
Henan) again defeated Tian (who was then aided by forces from Pinglu and Chengde as well) at Huan River (洹水, flowing through modern Handan). It was said that, in the aftermaths of the battle, Tian's subordinate Li Changshun () was ready to surrender Wei Prefecture to imperial forces, but as Ma and Li Baozhen did not get along with each other, their progressed was slowed, and only after 10 days after Tian was able to flee back to Wei Prefecture and kill Li Changchun did the imperial forces arrive at Wei Prefecture, and they were unable to capture it. (Ma and Li Baozhen's grudge against each other had originated when Ma was the defender of Heyang; at that time, there was an occasion when Li Baozhen wanted to kill his subordinate Yang Shu () the prefect of Huai Prefecture; Yang fled to Ma, who not only allowed him to take refuge but further submitted a petition to the emperor to defend Yang.) Later in the year, when Li Weiyue's subordinate
Wang Wujun rose against Li Weiyue and killed him, Wang briefly submitted to imperial authorities, but then rebelled when he was not made the military governor of Chengde as Emperor Dezong had implicitly promised. (Emperor Dezong had promised that whoever killed Li Weiyue would receive the positions that Li Weiyue wanted—but instead divided Chengde into three circuits, giving Wang the command of Hengji Circuit (恆冀, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang at the old Chengde headquarters in Heng Prefecture), containing only two prefectures of the seven Chengde prefectures, with the lesser title of military prefect (團練使,
Tuanlianshi), while giving three prefectures to
Zhang Xiaozhong, who was made military governor of Yiwu Circuit (義武, headquartered in modern
Baoding,
Hebei) and two prefectures to Kang Rizhi () as the military prefect of Shenzhao Circuit (深趙, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang).) When Wang rose, he attacked Kang's position at Zhao Prefecture. The Ma-Li Baozhen dispute then almost nearly broke into the open when Li Baozhen sent part of his army to defend part of his territory, Xing Prefecture (邢州, in modern
Xingtai,
Hebei), which neighbored Zhao Prefecture; this displeased Ma, and Ma considered withdrawing altogether. Only at the moderation of Li Sheng did Ma and Li Baozhen make peace, and Ma's subsequent recommendation, Ming Prefecture (洺州, in modern Handan) was added to Zhaoyi. Subsequently, when
Zhu Tao, the deputy military governor of Lulong—who had been loyal to imperial authority earlier but who had turned against the imperial government after not given any part of Chengde after Li Weiyue's death—came to Tian's aid along with Wang, the imperial forces suffered a major defeat. They had to take up defensive position and were no longer able to threaten Wei Prefecture. Subsequently, the four rebels declared themselves princes—Zhu declaring himself the Prince of Ji, Wang declaring himself the Prince of Zhao, Tian declaring himself the Prince of Wei, and Li Na declaring himself the Prince of Qi—effectively declaring independence, although they continued to use Tang's
era name in order to show nominal allegiance. Soon, however, Zhu and Wang had a dispute over Zhu's actions in not returning quickly to Wei Prefecture after he briefly went back to his own circuit to fight off a surprise joint attack by Li Sheng and Zhang Shengyun (張昇雲, Zhang Xiaozhong's son)—and Li Baozhen, hearing this, tried to exploit the situation by sending his subordinate Jia Lin () as a messenger to Wang, urging Wang to return to the imperial fold. Wang agreed to do so if Emperor Dezong would issue a general pardon to the rebels, but no pardon came at that time. Still, a secret relationship was created between Li Baozhen and Wang. In fall 783, after not being given rewards after being summoned to Chang'an in anticipation of further service to the east, the army of Jingyuan Circuit (涇原, headquartered in modern
Pingliang,
Gansu) rebelled at Chang'an, forcing Emperor Dezong to flee to Fengtian (奉天, in modern
Xianyang,
Shaanxi). The Jingyuan army supported Zhu Tao's brother
Zhu Ci, then at Chang'an, as emperor of a new state of Qin, and Qin forces subsequently put Emperor Dezong under siege at Fengtian. When this news reached the armies fighting the rebels in the east, the collective Tang forces in the east scattered, with Ma and Li Qiu returning to their circuits, Li Baozhen taking defensive position at Linming, and
Li Huaiguang heading toward Chang'an, hoping to save Emperor Dezong. Subsequently, when Tian tried to persuade Wang and Zhu Tao's subordinate Ma Shi () to attack Li Baozhen's position at Linming with him, Li Baozhen had Jia secretly persuade Wang that such a battle would not be to Wang's benefit—as if Linming fell, it would become part of Weibo territory, while a defeat would damage Hengji's army. Wang thus declined Tian's invitation and returned to Hengji. Subsequently, at Jia's further persuasion—pointing out that Zhu Tao's title of Prince of Ji showed an implicit ambition to take Wang's Ji Prefecture (冀州, in modern
Hengshui,
Hebei) and that Zhu Tao was planning to involve
Huige forces and attack south to join with Zhu Ci—Wang made a secret pact with Li Baozhen and Ma Sui to turn against Zhu Tao. Wang was further able to persuade Tian and LI Na to turn against Zhu Tao as well. In 784, when Wang, Tian, and Li Na publicly renounced their princely titles, Emperor Dezong, then still at Fengtian although no longer under siege by Zhu Ci, accepted Wang's, Tian's, and LI Na's pledge of allegiance and officially made them military governors again, while honoring Li Baozhen with an honorary
chancellor title. Tian Yue was subsequently assassinated and succeeded by his cousin
Tian Xu, who continued to be aligned with imperial forces. When Zhu Tao and Huige forces subsequently attacked Tian Xu, Li Baozhen and Wang arrived to aid him. It was said, however, that despite the pact, Li Baozhen's army and Wang's army still viewed each other as enemies due to their long-time rivalry, and the armies suspected each other. Li Baozhen, in order to show Wang his good faith, took only a few soldiers with him and went into Wang's camp to meet him, further showing his good faith by sleeping there. Wang, touched by Li Baozhen's display, stated, "My body has been promised to Brother Ten and will die for you.") Meanwhile, it was said that Li Baozhen tried to gather talented people to his circuit by sending messengers throughout the realm to look for talented people and entice them with rewards, but that if those people thus retained had few suggestions for him, he would let them leave. As the realm was peaceful at the time, he constructed many pavilions and artificial lakes for his own amusement. He also engaged many
alchemists in search of
immortality. One of the alchemists that he engaged, Sun Jichang (), made golden pills for him and told him that consuming them would lead to immortality. Li Baozhen trusted Sun—so much so that he commented to his subordinates, "This is something that not even
Qin Shi Huang or
Emperor Wu of Han was able to have. I will soon be at the court of
Shangdi and no longer be among you." As he then dreamed of riding on a flying
crane, he made a wooden crane and practiced riding on it. Eventually, Li Baozhen took a total of 20,000 pills, and it was said that his belly became firm and he was unable to eat. A
Taoist monk, Niu Dongxuan (), briefly cured him by giving him
lard and
laxatives. However, after Li Baozhen was healed, he again listened to Sun, who stated, "You have come close to immortality. Why abandon it now?" Li Baozhen thereafter took 3,000 more pills and died. Emperor Dezong mourned him for three days and gave him posthumous honors. At the time that Li Baozhen was ill, his son Li Jian () plotted with Li Baozhen's subordinate Lu Huichang () and nephew Yuan Zhongjing () for Li Jian to take over Zhaoyi. After Li Baozhen's death, Yuan acted as if Li Baozhen were still alive and forged an order from Li Baozhen transferring command to Li Jian. Initially, Li Baozhen's deputy Li Shuo () and other subordinates agreed. Lu then forged a petition from Li Baozhen requesting Emperor Dezong to allow Li Jian to succeed Li Baozhen. Emperor Dezong, already hearing rumors that Li Baozhen had died, sent the
eunuch Diwu Shoujin () to Zhaoyi, ordering that the command be transferred to Li Baozhen's subordinate Wang Yan'gui (). When Li Jian considered resisting, the other officers would not go along with him, and he gave up the command and went to Luoyang per Emperor Dezong's orders. == Notes and references ==