He played substantial roles in fighting the rebellions during Emperor Dezong's reign against Zhu Tao, Wang Wujun, Tian Yue, and Li Na; and later in persuading Wang, Tian, and Li to again submit to Emperor Dezong.
[3] After Emperor Suzong died in 762 and was succeeded by his son Emperor Daizong, Li Baoyu, who already had a command as a military governor (jiedushi), was given the additional command of Zelu Circuit (澤潞, headquartered in modern Changzhi, Shanxi), and it was said that he valued Li Baozhen's service under him.
At one point, Li Baozhen was made the secretary general of Fen Prefecture (汾州, in modern Linfen, Shanxi), when it appeared that the general Pugu Huai'en, who controlled the region and commanded the powerful army of Shuofang Circuit (朔方, headquartered in modern Yinchuan, Ningxia), was set on rebelling against Emperor Daizong.
In the aftermaths of the Anshi Rebellion, however, the circuit was lacking in military manpower, and had no financial resources to recruit soldiers.
He thus created an innovative program—he selected the strongest of farmers and waived their tax burdens; in exchange, they were to train in archery, and the most capable ones would receive rewards.
As a part of their operations, Tian attacked Linming (臨洺, in modern Handan), then defended by the Zhaoyi general Zhang Pi (張伾).
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.
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.
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 (賈林) as a messenger to Wang, urging Wang to return to the imperial fold.
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).
When Zhu Tao and Huige forces subsequently attacked Tian Xu, Li Baozhen and Wang arrived to aid him.
Wang, touched by Li Baozhen's display, stated, "My body has been promised to Brother Ten and will die for you.
"[1] Together, they defeated Zhu Tao, forcing him to flee back to Lulong and end his campaign to take over the region.
In 787, when Emperor Dezong tried to put him in charge of an operation to regain the western prefectures lost to Tufan, Li Baozhen declined.
One of the alchemists that he engaged, Sun Jichang (孫季長), 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.
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.