According to the Sinologist Paul Pelliot's transcript of the Jin Ji (晉紀), collected in Luo Zhenyu's Mingsha Shishi Yushu (鳴沙石室佚書), it is likely that Kong Chang was from one of the nomadic tribes and not Han Chinese.
Shi Le considered it but at the advice of Zhang Bin, he decided to abandon the campaign to shift his focus to Yecheng, although he did carry out an attack on Shouchun to demoralize the Jin army.
To make matter worse, Jin's Inspector of Jizhou, Xiang Bing (向冰), was defending Fangtou (枋頭, in modern Hebi, Henan), and Shi Le feared that they would be attacked if he tries to cross the Yellow River.
Once more through Zhang Bin's advice, Shi Le ordered Kong Chang and Zhi Xiong to capture Xiang Bing's ships at Wenshi Crossing (文石津, around present-day Yanji County, Henan) to use them against him.
[7] During Shi Le's siege of Tiancheng (坫城, around present-day Shanxi) in 316, the Inspector of Bingzhou, Liu Kun, sent his recently acquired army under Ji Dan (箕澹) to relief the city.
Kong Chang's victory caused Liu Kun's army to collapse and prompted his Chief Clerk, Li Hong (李弘) to hand over Bingzhou to Shi Le.
[8] Shortly after, Kong Chang campaigned against the bandits Ma Yan (馬嚴) and Feng Zhu (馮䐗) but was recalled after Shi Le decided to wait for their surrender instead.
In 319, Kong Chang conquered all of Pidi's territory in Youzhou, forcing him to join the Jin loyalist Shao Xu at Laoling (樂陵郡; around present-day Yangxin County, Shandong).
[9] The next year, he and Shi Hu attacked the exposed Shao Xu at Yanci (厭次, around present-day Dezhou, Shandong) after Pidi decided to pursue Duan Mopei in Jicheng.