However, it is known that his birth father Liu Yuan (劉邧) served as the magistrate of Xiu County (蓨縣, in modern Hengshui, Hebei), and that his mother was a Lady Zhong.
Sometime during the Kaiping era (907-910) of Zhu Quanzhong the emperor of Later Liang, Zhao Xingshi, then an officer under Liu Shouwen the military governor (Jiedushi) of Yichang Circuit (義昌, headquartered in modern Cangzhou, Hebei), raided Xiu and captured both Liu Yanshou and his mother Lady Zhong.
[3] Sometime after Li Cunxu claimed the title of emperor of a new Later Tang and subsequently destroyed Later Liang, taking over its territory, Zhao Yanshou was commissioned a military commander at Bian Prefecture (汴州, in modern Kaifeng, Henan).
He later successively served as the military governor of Heyang Circuit (河陽, in modern Jiaozuo, Henan) and Guide Circuit (歸德, headquartered in modern Shangqiu, Henan), and then was recalled to the imperial government to serve as the director of palace affairs (宣徽使, Xuanhuishi).
However, as Zhao was replacing the long-time chief of staff An Chonghui, whose domination of the court scene eventually led to his downfall and death, both he and Fan feared the same fate and therefore avoided ruling on important matters.
That allowed LI Siyuan's favorite concubine Consort Wang and the eunuch Meng Hanqiong to take control over much of the important affairs of state.
[5] While serving as chief of staff, Zhao also carried the military governorship of Wuning Circuit (武寧, headquartered in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu).
After further requests on his behalf by his wife (who by then was carrying the title of Princess of Qi), Li Siyuan relented, and allowed Zhao to leave to serve as the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered at Bian Prefecture), replacing him with Zhu Hongzhao.
(Fan was later also allowed to leave to serve as the military governor of Chengde Circuit (成德, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei); he was replaced by Feng Yun.)
They were suspicious of Li Conghou's older adoptive brother Li Congke the Prince of Lu, who was then the military governor of Fengxiang Circuit (鳳翔, headquartered in modern Baoji, Shaanxi), and brother-in-law Shi Jingtang who was then the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi).
[6] In spring 934, they, not wanting Shi to remain at Hedong for long and wanting to recall Meng Hanqiong from Tianxiong Circuit (天雄, headquartered in modern Handan, Hebei) (where Meng had been ever since being sent there to temporarily overseeing the circuit when Li Conghou, then the military governor of Tianxiong, was recalled to inherit the throne), issued a number of orders in their capacities as chiefs of staff, transferring Li Congke from Fengxiang to Hedong, Shi from Hedong to Chengde, and Fan Yanguang from Chengde to Tianxiong.
(He replaced Fan, who had previously been recalled to serve as chief of staff but was at this point made the military governor of Tianxiong.
However, shortly after he became chief of staff, Han was sent out to serve as the military governor of Huguo Circuit (護國, headquartered in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi), and replaced by Fang Gao.
Initially, the general that Li Congke sent to attack Hedong, Zhang Jingda, was quite successful, putting Hedong's capital Taiyuan under siege, but after Liao relief force, personally commanded by Emperor Taizong, arrived there, Zhang's army was crushed and itself surrounded by the combined Liao/Hedong forces at Jin'an Base (晉安寨, near Taiyuan).
Zhang's army's food supplies ran out, and his deputy, the general Yang Guangyuan, killed him and then surrendered.
Zhao Dejun and Zhao Yanshou fled and took up position at Lu Prefecture (潞州, in modern Changzhi, Shanxi), but when the Liao/Later Jin forces advanced there, one Later Tang general who had surrendered to Liao/Later Jin with Yang, Gao Xingzhou, persuaded them that defending Lu was futile, so they opened the city gates and surrendered.
Emperor Taizong had the two of them locked up and delivered to his capital Linhuang (臨潢, in modern Chifeng, Inner Mongolia), to pay homage to his mother Empress Dowager Shulü Ping.
[11] Liao forces' attempts to cross the Yellow River to aid Yang, however, repeatedly failed, and Emperor Taizong decided to withdraw.
[12] In winter 944, Emperor Taizong launched a second invasion into Later Jin territory, again with Zhao Yanshou serving as his forward commander.
Subsequently, when Zhao could not capture Xiang Prefecture (相州, in modern Handan) quickly, the Liao army withdrew.
Believing this to be a sign of weakness on Liao's part, Shi ordered the Later Jin forces to attack north, with most of the army under his uncle-by-marriage, Du Wei, and Li Shouzhen.
A Later Jin charge, led by the general Fu Yanqing, however, led to a general collapse of the Liao army, with Emperor Taizong barely escaping the battle, although Du and Li then judged it inadvisable to chase the Liao forces further, and withdrew back to Ding Prefecture (定州, in modern Baoding).
Zhao Yanshou wrote back (to try to lead Later Jin forces into a trap), stating, "I have long been in a foreign land, and I want to return to China.
Subsequently, under Emperor Taizong's orders, Liao's prefect of Ying Prefecture (瀛州, in modern Cangzhou), Liu Yanzuo (劉延祚), also offered to defect to Later Jin.
Zhao, however, pointed out to him that doing so would leave Later Jin's borders with Later Shu to the southwest and Southern Tang to the southeast completely unguarded, and was able to persuade him not to carry out a massacre.
At the suggestion of the imperial scholar Zhang Li (張礪), he gave Zhao the titles of defender of the central capital (i.e., Heng Prefecture (恆州, in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei)), and Grand Chancellor, in addition to continuing to have him be chief of staff.
In the "Chinese" version of the events, as characterized by the History of the Five Dynasties and later as adopted by the Zizhi Tongjian, Zhao Yangshou, still angry over Emperor Taizong's failure to honor his promise, swore never to again return to Liao proper, and, upon Emperor Taizong's death, took his own forces and entered Heng Prefecture, not far from Shahu Forest.
However, the Khitan generals, including Emperor Taizong's nephew Yelü Ruan the Prince of Yongkang and the overseers of Liao's northern and southern headquarters, each then also entered Heng.
(He subsequently defeated an army that Empress Dowager Shulü launched to resist him, and forced her into relinquishing her powers and staying for the rest of her life at the tomb of her husband (his grandfather) Emperor Taizu of Liao.)