Chu Suiliang
Meanwhile, Xu Jingzong and Li Yifu, aligned with Empress Wu, began to carry out a campaign of reprisal on her behalf. In 657, they accused Han Yuan and Lai Ji of plotting treason with Chu Suiliang, who was then serving as the commandant at Gui Prefecture (桂州, roughly modern Guilin, Guangxi). Emperor Gaozong demoted Han and Lai to be prefects of distant prefectures, and demoted Chu and Liu Shi to even more distant prefectures—in Chu's case, to the extremely distant Ai Prefecture (愛州, roughly modern Thanh Hóa Province, Vietnam), and Chu's subsequent petition, sent from Ai Prefecture, pleading with Emperor Gaozong, fell on deaf ears.