Gao Pian
It is not known when Li Shenfu was born, but it is known that he was from Ming Prefecture (洺州, in modern Handan, Hebei). He became a soldier in the army of Zhaoyi Circuit (昭義, headquartered in modern Changzhi, Shanxi), which Ming Prefecture belonged to, and was later posted to Huainan Circuit when Gao Pian the military governor of Huainan served as the overall commander of the operations against the agrarian rebel Huang Chao. He was later assigned to Lu Prefecture (廬州, in modern Hefei, Anhui) to serve under Gao's subordinate Yang Xingmin (who would later be renamed Yang Xingmi) the prefect of Lu.