Gao Xingzhou
In spring 923, Li Cunxu declared himself the emperor of a new Later Tang (as Emperor Zhuangzong). At that time, the Later Tang and Later Liang forces were stalemated on the Yellow River. Li Siyuan suggested a surprise attack on Later Liang's Tianping Circuit (天平, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong), south of the Yellow River. Emperor Zhuangzong agreed, and in the subsequent surprise attack on Tianping's capital Yun Prefecture (), Gao Xingzhou served under Li Siyuan in capturing the city. (During the surprise attack on Yun, Li Siyuan's army was initially hindered by pouring rain, but Gao pointed out that this would make the defenders of Yun even less cautious about a potential attack, and encouraged the rest of the army to continue on.) Emperor Zhuangzong was thus able to use Yun as the base for another surprise operation later in 923, capturing Later Liang's capital Daliang and destroying Later Liang. After destroying Later Liang, Emperor Zhuangzong made Gao the prefect of Duan Prefecture (端州, in modern Zhaoqing, Guangdong) (i.e., an honorary position, as Duan was then the territory of Southern Han), and later the prefect of Jiang Prefecture (絳州, in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi).