He later took up residence at Mount Daning (大寧山), living with Lü Mengqi (呂夢奇) (later a Later Tang official as well) and Zhang Lin (張麟), spending the time reciting and writing poems.
Liu Xu fled the circuit, and took up residence at Cang Prefecture (滄州, in modern Cangzhou, Hebei), in Jin territory.
The military governor of Henghai Circuit (橫海, headquartered at Cang Prefecture), Li Cunshen, invited him to serve as secretary.
[1] After Li Cunshen's lord and adoptive brother Li Cunxu the Prince of Jin claimed the title of emperor (of a new Later Tang) in 923,[5] he made Liu Xu a Taichang Boshi (太常博士), a scholar at the ministry of worship (太常寺, Taichang Si), and shortly after an imperial scholar (翰林學士, Hanlin Xueshi).
After the period was complete, he was made Kubu Langzhong (庫部郎中), a supervisory official at the ministry of defense (兵部, Bingbu), and also resumed his role as imperial scholar.
[6] After Li Siyuan became emperor, Liu Xu was made a Zhongshu Sheren (中書舍人), a mid-level official at the legislative bureau of government (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng); he later also assumed the posts of deputy minister of census (戶部侍郎, Hubu Shilang) and scholar at Duanming Hall (端明殿).
The three chancellors conferred with each other and initially were unsure what to do, but with An rushing them, agreed to welcome Li Congke, who subsequently entered Luoyang and claimed the throne.
Without Feng to moderate them, they quickly developed frequent arguments, as Liu was said to be critical and paying attention to details, while Li Yu was said to be strong-willed, particularly because when they discussed what changes might be necessary, Li Yu would satirize Liu and Feng's children's marital relationship by stating, "This was the doing of your wise marital relations.
[8] Meanwhile, after Liu took over the three financial agencies from Wang, he had his secretary Gao Yanshang (高延賞) carefully go through the records to see how much money the treasury actually still had.
He discovered that much of the purported treasury reserves were in fact uncollectible debts that the administrators kept on the books to use as excuses to harshly collect from the people.
[10] Upon their return, Liu was given the titles of Taizi Taibao (太子太保) and Zuo Pushe (左僕射), and created the Duke of Qiao.
[1] In 945, it was therefore he and the historian Zhang Zhaoyuan (張昭遠) who presented the newly completed Old Book of Tang to Shi Chonggui, and were rewarded for the work.
[12] (However, Zhao Ying, who had served as chancellor during Shi Jingtang's reign, appeared to have begun the work with five other historians, including Zhang, in or shortly before 941.