Initial Semi-submission To The Imperial Government
After Li Shidao took over control of the circuit, for some time, Emperor Xianzong did not issue any approvals of his takeover. When Li Shidao consulted his staff members, some suggested pillaging the nearby circuits to create pressure on the imperial government. Gao Mu earnestly opposed this, and instead proposed that Li Shidao try to receive the emperor's favor by submitting the tax revenues that Li Shigu had withheld to the imperial government, giving the imperial government the authority to commission his subordinates, and joining the imperial salt monopoly system and submitting the funds to the imperial government. Meanwhile, the chancellor Du Huangshang advocated trying to strip Li Shidao of some territory, but as Emperor Xianzong was waging a campaign against another warlord, Liu Pi, at the time, he did not want to create another battlefront. He thus made his son Li Shen (李審) the Prince of Jian the titular military governor but commissioned Li Shidao the acting military governor and, later in the year, made Li Shidao military governor officially.
In 809, there was an incident in which the great-great-grandson of the great early Tang chancellor Wei Zheng, Wei Chou (魏稠), was so impoverished that he mortgaged his ancestral home. Li Shidao offered to use his own money to pay off Wei Chou's mortgage, and Emperor Xianzong initially agreed. He had the imperial scholar Bai Juyi draft an edict approving Li Shidao's suggestion, but Bai pointed out that this is something the imperial government should do and that Emperor Xianzong should not allow Li Shidao to take credit for this. Emperor Xianzong agreed, and he used imperial treasury funds to pay off Wei's mortgage.
Also in 809, Wang Shizhen the military governor of Chengde died. Emperor Xianzong was initially willing to make Wang Shizhen's son Wang Chengzong the new military governor after Wang Chengzong offered to submit two of Chengde's six prefectures to imperial control, but after Wang Chengzong reneged on the offer, Emperor Xianzong declared a campaign against Wang Chengzong. The imperial campaign stalled, however, and Li Shidao repeatedly tried to intercede on Wang Chengzong's behalf. In 810, Emperor Xianzong ended the campaign and made Wang Chengzong military governor of Chengde.
In 812, when another ally of Li Shidao's, Tian Ji'an the military governor of Weibo Circuit (魏博, headquartered in modern Handan, Hebei), his relative Tian Xing (later known as Tian Hongzheng) took over and submitted to imperial authority. Li Shidao later threatened to, along with Wang Chengzong, attack Tian Hongzheng, but Han Hong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan), who was loyal to the imperial government, threatened to attack him if he attacked Weibo, and Li Shidao did not do so.
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