Yang Guangyuan
Subsequently, when the major general Yang Guangyuan the military governor of Pinglu Circuit (平盧, headquartered in modern Weifang, Shandong) rebelled with Liao support, Shi sent Li to attack Yang. (The reason why Shi sent Li was because Li and Yang had prior grudges against each other.) Around the new year 945, Yang Guangyuan's son Yang Chengxun () put his father under house arrest and surrendered to Li. With Yang Chengxun's having surrendered on his own, Shi, while believing that Yang Guangyuan deserved death, did not want to execute him publicly, and therefore had Li secretly send executioners to batter Yang to death, while publicly claiming that Yang had died of an illness. Yang's treasury officer Song Yan (), who had encouraged Yang's rebellion and therefore was decreed to be executed, submitted Yang's treasures, beautiful concubines, and best horses to Li, hoping to be spared. Li thus hid him from the imperial officials. However, the chancellor Sang Weihan, receiving reports that Li had sheltered Song, sent officers to search Li's camp and, upon locating Song, executed him, causing Li to resent Sang. Li also drew resentment from his own soldiers by awarding them for the victory with items that they did not appreciate—such as fermented tea, dyed wood, ginger, and herbs. The soldiers receiving such "rewards" often tied them up in bundles and hanged them on trees, calling them, "Shouzhen's heads." Nevertheless, upon Li's return to the capital Kaifeng after the victory, he was greatly honored by being given the honorary chancellor designation "Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi" () and the grand mansion that Yang had at Kaifeng—which Li then expanded into an even grander structure, said to be the largest mansion for officials at Kaifeng. Shi held feasts in his honor and gave him rewards beyond all others.