Guo Chongtao
Meanwhile, Li Cunxu planned to conquer Former Shu and, in late 925, put his plans into action. He commissioned his oldest son with Empress Liu, Li Jiji, as the titular commander of the operations, but put his chief of staff, Guo Chongtao, in actual command of the operations as Li Jiji's deputy. The attack caught Former Shu's emperor Wang Zongyan by surprise as he thought that the two states were coexisting peacefully. The Later Tang forces repeatedly defeated the forces Former Shu sent to resist it, and, by the end of 925, the situation had become so desperate that the Former Shu major general Wang Zongbi (Wang Yan's adoptive brother) seized Wang Yan and his family and forced Wang Yan to surrender the Former Shu realm to Later Tang, thus ending Former Shu, whose territory was taken over by Later Tang.