周德威
Hearing of He Gui's killing of Xie, Li Cunxu was very pleased at what he considered a self-defeating action by He Gui, and decided to try to launch a direct attack on Daliang, despite contrary advice by his major general Zhou Dewei. He thus abandoned the camp that he had pitched near He Gui's army and headed west. In response, He Gui also marched west. The armies met and fought at Huliu Slope (, in modern Heze), and initially, the Jin army was victorious, causing one of the generals under He Gui, Wang Yanzhang, to try to retreat to the west, but the Jin army, mistaking Wang's troops for their own, believed that they had been defeated, and went into a general panic, causing many casualties, including Zhou and his son. In the aftermaths of the initial victory, He Gui try to take advantage by taking a hill position. Li Cunxu, realizing that the hill was tactically important, personally fought and captured it. The Jin generals Li Sizhao and Li Jianji () subsequently led a charge of the Jin troops from the hill against the Later Liang troops, crushing them, before disengaging. (Overall, the Huliu Slope battle killed two-thirds of both the Later Liang and the Jin army.)