In spring 684, when Emperor Zhongzong showed signs of independence, she deposed him and replaced him with his brother Li Dan the Prince of Yu, but thereafter held onto power even more tightly.
This led members of the imperial Li clan to suspect that she planned slaughter them, overthrow the Tang dynasty, and replace it with her own.
They became heavily alarmed when Empress Dowager Wu, after she had finished constructing a grand imperial hall, the Mingtang (明堂), issued orders to summon members of the imperial clan to the eastern capital Luoyang to be ready for a ceremony to worship the deity of the Luo River (洛水, near Luoyang).
However, prior to the princes' working out a coordinated plan, on September 16, 688,[3] Li Chong launched a rebellion himself at Bo Prefecture (博州, roughly modern Liaocheng, Shandong), where he was serving as prefect.
Guo Wuti (郭務悌), the magistrate of Wushui County, fled to Wei Prefecture (魏州, roughly modern Handan, Hebei) to seek aid, and one of Wei Prefecture's county magistrates, Ma Xuansu (馬玄素) the magistrate of Shen County (莘縣, also in modern Liaocheng), took 1,700 men, initially intending to confront Li Chong, but then felt that he had insufficient strength, and so entered Wushui to defend it.
He was forced to flee back to the capital of Bo Prefecture, and when he arrived there on September 22, he was killed by the guards of the city gate.
The officials of the prefectural government, dressed in white mourning garments, exited the city to show submission, but Qiu nevertheless beheaded all of them.