At one point, Li Gao, in order to try to avoid the troubles, took his family to Fengtian (奉天, in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi).
Thereafter, when the major warlord Zhu Quanzhong the military governor (Jiedushi) of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan) forcibly moved Tang's penultimate emperor Emperor Zhaozong from Chang'an to Luoyang, the army under Zhu's rival warlord Li Maozhen the military governor of Fengxiang Circuit (鳳翔, headquartered in modern Baoji, Shaanxi) attacked and captured Fengtian.
)[2] After Tang's fall and fracturing into a number of successor states, there was a time when Liu Zhijun, a general of Li Maozhen's Qi state, sieged Bin Prefecture (邠州, with its capital being Xingping),[2] then under the rule of Later Liang, founded by Zhu Quanzhong and then ruled by his son and successor Zhu Zhen — probably in 915, when Liu was recorded in history to have carried out such a siege[5] — when Li tried to escape the city by scaling its walls out.
[2] However, during Liu Zhijun's siege of Bin Prefecture, Qi's southwestern neighbor Former Shu had launched a major attack on Qi's Tianxiong Circuit (天雄, headquartered in modern Tianshui, Gansu), governed by Li Maozhen's nephew Li Jichong (李繼崇).
With Tianxiong's capital Qin Prefecture (秦州) coming under siege, Li Jichong surrendered to Former Shu.
[5] Former Shu's emperor Wang Jian commissioned Liu the military governor of Wuxin Circuit (武信, headquartered in modern Suining, Sichuan).
Subsequently, when Liu was on campaigns on Wang's orders, Li would stay at Wuxin's capital Sui Prefecture (遂州) and handle the matters at headquarters.
Li Hao met his mother at Mount Qingni (青泥嶺, on the border of modern Longnan, Gansu and Hanzhong, Sichuan).
It had been 18 years since mother and son had seen each other, and she cried bitterly in caressing his head, such that all who witnessed the event were greatly touched.
[7] After Wang Yan's surrender, he and his family, as well as Former Shu officials, were ordered to report from Chengdu to the Later Tang capital Luoyang.
[9][10] The two circuits' resistance were successful, and at the end of 931, Li Siyuan put An to death for this and other reasons, and then tried to reconcile with Meng and Dong.
Meng thereafter sent Li to Dongchuan's capital Zi Prefecture (梓州) to try to persuade Dong to agree to a reconciliation with the imperial government.
Meng was initially intending to let Zhao and Li Renhan settle the dispute themselves and then name one of them the military governor of Dongchuan.
Li Siyuan subsequently granted the requests — giving Meng authority to commission all officials in the region, including military governors and prefects.
[11] He made Li Hao the deputy minister of rites (禮部侍郎, Libu Shilang) and imperial scholar (翰林學士, Hanlin Xueshi).
[12] Early in Meng Chang's reign, Li was made the deputy minister of defense (兵部侍郎, Bingbu Shilang) and given the title of prefect of Han Prefecture (漢州, in modern Deyang, Sichuan).
[1] In 941, as part of Meng Chang's reform, ending the practice that high level officials and generals would be given titles as circuit military governors but would remain at Chengdu and therefore were causing their circuits' governance to be neglected, Meng commissioned a number of civilian officials as acting military governors — in Li's case, he was made the acting military governor of Wude Circuit (i.e., Dongchuan);[13] he was also given the title of chief imperial scholar (翰林學士承旨).
[1] (However, Meng reversed this reform in 944 for reasons lost to history; presumably, Li was recalled to the imperial government at that time.
Shortly after, he was given the additional title of Zuo Pushe (左僕射, one of the heads of the executive bureau (尚書省, Shangshu Sheng)).
Thereafter, there was a time when he left governmental service when his mother died, to observe a mourning period, but he was recalled to the imperial government after 100 days.
It was said that serving in many such high level positions for a long time allowed Li Hao to accumulate great wealth, and he lived in luxury, maintaining at his mansion several hundred concubines and servant girls.
[2] In 958, there was a time when the lower-level official Zhang Jiuling (章九齡) presented a petition to Meng Chang, stating that the government was run by wicked people.
When the generals opposed submitting to Later Zhou, Meng had Li write a letter back to Gao, rejecting the proposal.
Subsequently, the Later Zhou general Zhao Kuangyin seized power in a coup, establishing his own Song dynasty as its Emperor Taizu.
Meng created him the Duke of Zhao, and thereafter also gave him the titles of Sikong (司空, one of the Three Excellencies) as well as military governor of Wuxin Circuit.
[3] After surrender, Meng Chang, his family members, and a number of high level Later Shu officials, including Li Hao, were taken to the Song capital Kaifeng.