As such, he served as the titular commander of Later Tang's campaign to destroy its neighbor Former Shu, albeit with the major general Guo Chongtao in effective control.
Believing that success would mean total victory but that failure would mean total defeat (as the surprise attack was a desperate measure given that Later Tang was having difficulty supplying its army), he sent Lady Liu and Li Jiji back to Xingtang, and bade farewell to them, informing them that if he failed, they should gather all the family members at the Xingtang palace and commit suicide by setting fire to it.
Shortly after, he defeated the Later Liang army under Wang Yanzhang and Zhang Hanjie (張漢傑), and then quickly descended on Daliang.
To try to ingratiate Li Jiji and Guo into recommending him to serve as the military governor of Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered at Former Shu's capital Chengdu), he had his son Wang Chengban (王承班) present beautiful women and treasures from Wang Yan's palace to Li Jiji and Guo.
When Li Jiji arrived at Chengdu, Wang Yan formally surrendered to him, ending Former Shu.
[9] Meanwhile, Emperor Zhuangzong was repeatedly issuing orders that Li Jiji and Guo return to Luoyang with the army.
However, at that times, there were groups of bandits that rose and occupied secure positions in the mountains in light of Former Shu's destruction.
Guo feared that once the Later Tang army withdrew that its control over the Former Shu lands would be endangered, and therefore sent the generals Ren Huan and Zhang Yun (張筠) to try to wipe out these bandits, thus delaying the withdrawal.
Ma, however, after receiving these instructions, met with Empress Liu, who believed in rumors of Guo's plan to rebel.
Li Jiji hesitated, believing that it would be wrong to execute the commander of the army, particularly without an imperial edict.
[9] Guo's death and the death of Li Jilin (whom Emperor Zhuangzong subsequently killed as he suspected Li Jilin to be an ally of Guo's), which Emperor Zhuangzong later tried to justify in an edict, caused all kinds of rumors to come alive among the ranks of the imperial troops not involved in the Former Shu campaign — with rumors eventually vividly stating falsely that Guo had killed Li Jiji and was declaring independence at Chengdu, and that Empress Liu, blaming Emperor Zhuangzong for Li Jiji's death, had assassinated Emperor Zhuangzong.
[1] When Li Jiji heard of Emperor Zhuangzong's death, he had advanced to Xingping (興平, in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi).
He decided to withdraw westward and considering using Fengxiang (鳳翔, in modern Baoji, Shaanxi) as a further base of operations.
When he reached Wugong (武功, in modern Xianyang), Li Congxi instead suggested that he should go ahead and advance toward Luoyang to try to take it over.