Yang Shihou
With his own defensive positions in danger, Wang sought aid from Yang Xingmi. Yang sent his general Wang Maozhang to aid Wang Shifan. The joint forces of Wang Maozhang and Wang Shifan's brother Wang Shihui were thereafter able to capture Mi Prefecture. However, with Zhu Youning having captured Bochang (博昌, in modern Binzhou) and Deng Prefecture (登州, in modern Yantai, Shandong), Wang Shifan took up defensive positions with troops from Deng and Lai (萊州, also in modern Yantai) Prefectures. Zhu first defeated the soldiers from Deng Prefecture, but wore his own troops out in the process; Wang Shifan and Wang Maozhang then jointly counterattacked, killing Zhu Youning in battle. A subsequent attack by Zhu Quanzhong himself against Wang Shifan and Wang Maozhang was inconclusive, but Wang Maozhang, believing defeat to be inevitable, withdrew in the middle of the night. Yang's general Zhang Xun (), who had taken over Mi Prefecture, also withdrew from Mi, leaving Wang Shifan without outside aid. Further, his brother Wang Shike was then captured in an attack on Linqu (臨朐, in modern Weifang) by Zhu's general Yang Shihou.