Lu Ping
However, despite being a capable general, Li Cunxu was not capable at governance. He, and particularly his favorite consort Empress Liu, whom he created empress, were gathering wealth to be stored despite the burden it was creating for the people. He also alienated his army by trusting actors (as he himself had a passion for acting) and eunuchs, such that he made three actors prefectural prefects, while soldiers who had followed him for hundreds of battles were not similarly rewarded. This phenomenon was also observed as such by Wu's emissary to Later Tang, Lu Ping (), and a former Later Liang warlord, Gao Jixing the military governor of Jingnan Circuit (荊南, headquartered in modern Jingzhou, Hubei, not the same Jingnan Circuit referred to earlier), who would eventually, after Li Cunxu's death, effectively become independent of Later Tang, as well as Southern Han's emissary He Ci ().