王处直
By 900, Wang Chuzhi was serving as an officer under Wang Chucun's son and successor Wang Gao, when Yiwu came under the attack of Zhang Cunjing (), a general under the major warlord Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan). Wang Gao put Wang Chuzhi in command of the Yiwu army to resist Zhang's attack. However, he did not listen to Wang Chuzhi's counsel of not engaging the Xuanwu forces immediately, but rather wearing out the Xuanwu forces before actually engaging them. Rather, he listened to the secretary Liang Wen (), who advocated an immediate engagement against the Xuanwu troops, and therefore ordered Wang Chuzhi to carry out that plan. Zhang defeated Wang Chuzhi and inflicted heavy casualties. Wang Chuzhi barely escaped back to Yiwu's capital Ding Prefecture (). Wang Gao panicked and fled to the territory of Yiwu's ally Li Keyong the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi). (Already upset over how his father did not love him, Wang Yu accompanied Wang Gong on this flight, and subsequently married Li Keyong's daughter.) The Yiwu soldiers supported Wang Chuzhi to take over the circuit. He subsequently negotiated a peace with Zhu, promising to submit to Zhu from this point on and no longer be allied with Li Keyong and also giving Zhu a tribute of silk. Zhu thus withdrew, and at his request Wang Chuzhi was commissioned by then-reigning Emperor Zhaozong (Emperor Xizong's brother and successor) as the new military governor of Yiwu.