The Empress Dowager Xiaowen grieved greatly for her younger son and, to placate her (and weaken the powerful fief of Liang), Emperor Jing divided Liang in five and granted a part to each of Liu Wu's sons.

Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian relates that, "At the age of twenty-nine, he was arrogant and cruel and would go out on marauding expeditions with tens of slaves or young men who were in hiding from the law, murdering people and seizing their belongings for sheer sport.

Apparently, Liu Pengli recruited 20–30 individuals with similar predilections to accompany him in the search for victims to rob and kill.

[2] Confirmed victims exceeded 100, and these murders were known across the kingdom, so people were afraid of leaving their homes at night.

Eventually, the son of one of his victims made an accusation to the Emperor, and the officials of the court requested that Liu Pengli be executed; however, the Emperor could not bear to have his own nephew killed, and Liu Pengli was made a commoner and banished to the county of Shangyong (now Zhushan in Hubei Province).