[1] At some point, he became an officer at Zhongwu Circuit (忠武, headquartered in modern Xuchang, Henan) and was stationed at Cai Prefecture (蔡州, in modern Zhumadian), which Langshan belonged to, as part of the effort to resist the major agrarian rebel Huang Chao, serving alongside his Zhongwu Circuit colleague Sun Ru, and both served under Qin Zongquan the military governor of Fengguo Circuit (奉國, headquartered at Cai Prefecture).
[2] In 886, Qin Zongquan put Sun Ru in command of an army to attack Tang's Heyang Circuit (河陽, headquartered in modern Jiaozuo, Henan); Sun prevailed over the acting military governor of Heyang, Zhuge Zhongfang (諸葛仲方), and took over the circuit.
Despite the victory, Zhang Ji (張佶), who also served under Sun, secretly stated to Liu Jianfeng, "Lord Qin is harsh and paranoid, and will soon be destroyed.
[2] Sun subsequently withdrew from Heyang after Qin suffered a major defeat at the hands of Zhu Quanzhong the Tang military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan).
[3] (Yang subsequently took Ningguo Circuit (寧國, headquartered in modern Xuanzhou, Anhui and became its military governor.
[4] In spring 891, Sun launched the initial phase of an ambitious plan to first destroy Yang Xingmi and then Zhu.
However, Sun was unable to capture Xuan, and soon got bogged down, with Yang sending raiders to cut off his food supplies.
When Liu reached Liling (醴陵, in modern Zhuzhou, Hunan) in summer 894, Deng sent his subordinates Jiang Xun (蔣勛) and Deng Jichong (鄧繼崇) to defend Longhui Pass (龍回關, in modern Shaoyang, Hunan) against Liu's advance.
The messenger persuaded Jiang and Deng Jichong that Liu's arrival was foretold by the stars and that their army would be unable to resist his.
Liu then had his soldiers put on the uniforms that Jiang's and Deng Jichong's army wore, and then quickly advanced to Wu'an's capital Tan Prefecture (in modern Changsha, Hunan).