At one point, Murong took on the assumed surname of Yan, and was known by the name of Kunlun due to his dark beard.
[3] In 945, during Later Jin's war with its northern neighbor, the Khitan Liao dynasty, there was a battle in which he and Huangfu Yu (皇甫遇) the military governor (Jiedushi) of Yicheng Circuit (義成, headquartered in modern Anyang, Henan) were surrounded by the much more numerous Liao troops near the Zhang River, and fought for an entire day but were able to hold them off.
They were eventually able to escape the Khitan troops after being relieved by An Shenqi (安審琦) the military governor of Huguo Circuit (護國, headquartered in modern Yuncheng).
[6] In 946, Murong was accused of, while serving as Pu's prefect, illegally collecting taxes, as well as fermenting wheat stored in governmental storage to give to his soldiers without authorization.
Murong's half-brother Liu Zhiyuan, who was then one of the most senior generals of the realm, submitted petitions to then-emperor Shi Chonggui, hoping to save his life.
Shi spared Murong's life, but stripped him of all of his offices, and exiled him to Fang Prefecture (房州, in modern Shiyan, Hubei).
One of the main resistors was Liu Zhiyuan, who declared himself emperor at Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi) (of a state that would be later known as Later Han, and he would eventually take over control of the former Later Jin territory after the Liao forces withdrew.
[8] Murong Yanchao, hearing this, escaped from his place of exile at Fang, and Liu made him the military governor of Zhenning Circuit (鎮寧, headquartered in modern Puyang).
Murong advocated making an immediate attack on Tianxiong's capital Yedu (鄴都), while Gao wanted to surround the city and wear out Du's army.
When he and his high-level officials arrived at the front, Gao went to Liu's chief assistants Su Fengji and Yang Bin to plead his case — stuffing feces and dirt into his mouth as he was doing so, to analogize it to the kind of humiliation that he suffered from Murong.
[11] By winter 950, Liu Chengyou had tired of the hold that the high-level officials had on his administration, and viewed them as obstacles to his actually exercising imperial power.
Plotting with his close associates Nie Wenjin (聶文進), Hou Kuangzan (後匡贊), and Guo Yunming (郭允明), he surprised and killed the chief of staff Yang Bin, the commander of the imperial guards Shi Hongzhao, and the director of the financial agencies Wang Zhang.
Yang's co-chief of staff, Guo Wei, was at Yedu at that time (to defend against a possible Liao incursion) and was not at Daliang, and therefore escaped this fate, but his family was slaughtered.
Even the generals, including Hou, Wu, Zhang, Yuan, and Liu Chongjin, all secretly went to see Guo to offer to surrender, but he sent them all back to their camps.
Murong abandoned the imperial army and fled back to Taining's capital Yan Prefecture (兗州) with only a handful of his guards.
Guo subsequently entered the capital and effectively controlled it, although at that time still outwardly acting like a Later Han subject.
Guo, concerned that he would be so apprehensive as to rebel, issued an edict to console him, not referring to him by name, but instead stating to him, "What happened with your older brother is too numerous to repeat.
For example, around new year 952, when Liu Chong put Jin Prefecture (晉州, in modern Linfen, Shanxi) under siege and Guo considered heading there himself to engage Liu Chong, Wang Jun warned him that if he left Daliang, Murong might take this opportunity to attack and occupy Daliang.
[1] Murong became more apprehensive after Liu Yun's staff members Gong Tingmei (鞏廷美) and Yang Wen (楊溫), who had held out against Later Zhou at Wuning's capital Xu Prefecture (徐州), were defeated and killed.
He further submitted letters he forged, purportedly from Gao Xingzhou (who was then the military governor of Tianping), defaming Guo and seeking an alliance with Murong.
Southern Tang's emperor Li Jing launched an army of 5,000 to try to aid Murong, but it was quickly repelled by Xu Prefecture's overseer Zhang Lingbin (張令彬) and withdrew.
Meanwhile, Northern Han had already ended its siege of Jin, leaving the Later Zhou military free to concentrate on Murong.