Before Zhu Ci's rebellion In 779, during the reign of Emperor Daizong's son
Emperor Dezong, there was a joint Tufan and
Nanzhao attack on Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern
Chengdu,
Sichuan). Emperor Dezong sent Li Sheng and Qu Huan (), commanding imperial guards and troops from several circuits, against Tufan and Nanzhao troops, defeating them and relieving Xichuan Circuit from attack. In 781, after several circuits that had been
de facto independent—Chengde (成德, headquartered in modern
Shijiazhuang,
Hebei), Weibo (魏博, headquartered in modern
Handan,
Hebei), Pinglu (平盧, headquartered in modern
Tai'an,
Shandong), and Shannan East (山南東道, headquartered in modern
Xiangfan,
Hubei)—took a defiant stand against the imperial government over Emperor Dezong's refusal to allow Chengde's military governor
Li Baochen to be succeeded by his son
Li Weiyue and Pinglu's military governor
Li Zhengji to be succeeded by his son
Li Na, Emperor Dezong sent Li Sheng,
Ma Sui, and
Li Baozhen (Li Baoyu's cousin) against Weibo's military governor
Tian Yue, who was then sieging Linming (臨洺, in modern Handan), which was in Li Baozhen's Zhaoyi Circuit (昭義, headquartered in modern
Changzhi,
Shanxi). Their joint forces defeated Tian's, forcing Tian to withdraw back to Weibo's capital Wei Prefecture (). However, the imperial troops' attacks stalemated and was additionally hampered by discord between Ma and Li Baozhen. Meanwhile, Li Weiyue's general
Wang Wujun had killed Li Weiyue and submitted to imperial authority, but rebelled again, along with
Zhu Tao, who had previously been loyal to the imperial government, over Emperor Dezong's failure to reward them as they believed they deserved. When Wang subsequently pressured Zhaoyi's Xing Prefecture (邢州, in modern
Xingtai,
Hebei), Li Baozhen sent some of his troops to defend Xing Prefecture—drawing Ma's ire in that Ma believed Li Baozhen was merely trying to preserve his own territory, to the point that Ma considered withdrawing entirely. Only with Li Sheng's intercession was the relationship between Ma and Li Baozhen restored. Subsequently, though, after imperial forces suffered a defeat at the hands of Zhu and Wang and were forced to lift the siege on Wei Prefecture in 782, Li Sheng took his troops and rendezvoused with the troops of
Zhang Xiaozhong the military governor of Yiwu Circuit (義武, in modern
Baoding,
Hebei) to lift the siege that Wang Wujun's son
Wang Shizhen had been laying against Zhao Prefecture (趙州, in modern Shijiazhuang), then held by a general loyal to the imperial government, Kang Rizhi (). He and Zhang thereafter planned to attack Wang's headquarters at Heng Prefecture (恆州, in modern Shijiazhuang). In spring 783, he, along with Zhang's son Zhang Shengyun () attacked Zhu's officer Zheng Jingji () at Qingyuan (清苑, in modern Baoding). This, however, drew a response from Zhu, who left Wei Prefecture and arrived at Qingyuan to battle Li Sheng. He defeated Li Sheng, forcing Li Sheng, who grew ill after the defeat, back to Yiwu's capital Ding Prefecture ().
During Zhu Ci's rebellion In fall 783, Jingyuan troops, then at Chang'an to wait for deployment to the eastern battlefield, mutinied when Emperor Dezong did not give them sufficient rewards, forcing Emperor Dezong to flee to Fengtian (奉天, in modern
Xianyang,
Shaanxi). They supported Zhu Tao's brother
Zhu Ci as their leader, and Zhu Ci soon declared himself the emperor of a new state of Qin and put Fengtian under siege. The major general
Li Huaiguang soon arrived and forced Zhu Ci to lift his siege on Fengtian. However, Emperor Dezong then alienated Li Huaiguang by refusing to meet him and instead ordering him to rendezvous with Li Sheng and two other military governors, Li Jianhui () and Yang Huiyuan () in attacking Chang'an. When Li Huaiguang did rendezvous with Li Sheng, Li Jianhui, and Yang, he not only did not attack Chang'an, but simply halted at Xianyang (咸陽, in modern Xianyang). At that time, Li Sheng was effectively stuck with a small army between Zhu Ci and Li Huaiguang. He sent humble letters to Li Huaiguang urging Li Huaiguang to reconsider and again join the imperial cause, and while Li Huaiguang did not do so, he was sufficiently embarrassed that he did not attack Li Sheng. Soon, with a number of Li Huaiguang's subordinates defecting and accepting Li Sheng's orders, Li Huaiguang feared an attack from Li Sheng, and therefore withdrew from the region entirely, back to Hezhong (河中, in modern
Yuncheng,
Shanxi), leaving Li Sheng and his allies to face Zhu's state (which by that point had been renamed Han). Zhu Ci tried to persuade Li Sheng to join his cause by treating Li Sheng's relatives remaining in Chang'an with kindness, but Li Sheng was not swayed. Li Sheng announced to his troops that the battle for Chang'an was to begin, and then began moving toward Chang'an, in coordination with Hun, Luo Yuanguang (), and Shang Kegu (). Han troops made several attacks against his advancing troops but were defeated each time, and on June 19, Li Sheng entered Chang'an, forcing Zhu Ci to flee. (Zhu Ci was subsequently killed in flight by his own subordinates.)
After Zhu Ci's rebellion , Shaanxi When Li Sheng's report of victory reached Emperor Dezong at Liang Prefecture, Emperor Dezong was touched and stated, "Heaven granted Li Sheng for the sake of the empire, not me." Li Sheng executed a number of Zhu Ci's officials and welcomed Emperor Dezong back to Chang'an. Emperor Dezong gave Li Sheng the honorary title of
Situ (司徒, one of the
Three Excellencies) and made him
Zhongshu Ling (), the head of the legislative bureau of government (中書省,
Zhongshu Sheng), a post considered one for a chancellor. Meanwhile, a past grudge that Li Sheng had with
Zhang Yanshang, the military governor of Xichuan, began to affect Li Sheng's position at court. Previously, Li Sheng had, after his campaign against Tufan and Nanzhao at Xichuan, brought the military prostitute Gao Hong () with him. Zhang, angry with this, sent messengers to chase after Li Sheng's army to demand Gao back, thus causing a grudge between Li Sheng and Zhang. Late in 785, with the chancellor
Liu Congyi ill, Emperor Dezong, who was happy with how Zhang had kept his court in exile well-supplied during the time he was at Liang Prefecture, considered making Zhang a chancellor. Li Sheng vehemently opposed and submitted a petition listing a number of Zhang's crimes. Emperor Dezong, not willing to go against Li Sheng at this point, still summoned Zhang back to Chang'an but only made him
Zuo Pushe (), one of the heads of the executive bureau (尚書省,
Shangshu Sheng), but not chancellor. at the meeting site, Shang laid a trap for Hun and launched a sudden attack, killing and capturing many of Hun's attendants, but Hun escaped. When the news reached Chang'an, Emperor Dezong was so panicked that he considered fleeing Chang'an, but remained due to Li Sheng's advice. As a result of this debacle, Zhang claimed an illness and retired, while Emperor Dezong recalled Ma to the capital and stripped him of his command. Li Sheng died in 793. Emperor Dezong publicly mourned him greatly, and, when new salt was presented later in the year from Yan Prefecture (鹽州, in modern
Yulin, Shaanxi), which had just been newly recaptured from Tufan, Emperor Dezong, who awarded some of that new salt to the chancellors, also had the salt presented to Li Sheng's grave. Li Sheng's sons Li Yuan (),
Li Su (), Li Ting (), Li Xian (), and nephew Wang Bi () all served as generals later. == Notes ==