Cui Shi
By spring 709, Consort Shangguan was having an affair with the official Cui Shi, and on account of that relationship, she recommended him to be a chancellor. Emperor Zhongzong agreed. By summer, however, Cui and another chancellor, Zheng Yin, were charged with corruption. As a result, Cui was set to be exiled to be the military advisor to the prefect of Jiang Prefecture (江州, roughly modern Jiujiang, Jiangxi). However, Consort Shangguan, Li Guo'er, and Li Guo'er's new husband Wu Yanxiu () then spoke on his behalf secretly, and Emperor Zhongzong instead made Cui the prefect of Xiang Prefecture (襄州, roughly modern Xiangfan, Hubei). (Zheng, who had been set to be reduced to commoner rank and exiled to Ji Prefecture (吉州, roughly modern Ji'an, Jiangxi), was instead made the military advisor to the prefect of Jiang Prefecture.)