Dong Zhang
These developments made both Meng Zhixiang and Dong Zhang apprehensive of the imperial government's attentions, and despite their prior animosity with each other, they began to negotiate an alliance, agreeing to have Dong's son marrying Meng's daughter; they also began to plan a joint resistance in case of an imperial operation against them. They then submitted a joint petition expressing their apprehension and objecting to the imperial establishment of these garrisons, to no avail. (Dong subsequently neutralized Wu by tricking him to Dongchuan's capital Zi Prefecture () and putting him under arrest, while the imperial government bestowed the greater honorary chancellor title of "Zhongshu Ling" () on Meng.)