Emperor Jiemin tried to revive the Northern Wei state, but with his power curbed by the Erzhus, was not able to accomplish much.
When Yuan Gong was informed of this, he, in fear, fled to Shangluo Mountain (上洛山, in modern Shangzhou, Shaanxi), but was captured and returned to Luoyang.
Interrogations and investigations, however, yielded no proof that Yuan Gong plotted treason, so he was released.
Despite this, Emperor Jiemin himself tried to exert influences on policy in subtle ways, and at times he refused to following Erzhu Shilong's wishes.
For example, when Erzhu Shilong had the official Xing Zicai (邢子才) author Emperor Jiemin's general pardon edict, describing the death of Erzhu Rong in detail as an extremely wrongful act by Emperor Xiaozhuang, Emperor Jiemin refused to promulgate the edict as written, but instead wrote a brief edict himself, using humble language and not getting into details.
He also removed the character huang (皇) from his title, going from huangdi (皇帝) to just di (帝).
As a result, in succession, the generals Liu Lingzhu (劉靈助) and Gao Huan rebelled.
Emperor Jiemin tried to take initiative by sending the official Lu Bian (盧辯) to greet Gao.
He sent the general Wei Lan'gen (魏蘭根) to calm the imperial officials and to observe Emperor Jiemin.