On January 30, supported by thousands of his soldiers who made a (likely orchestrated) commotion, Guo Wei agreed to ascend the throne, and immediately general Guo Chongwei was sent with 700 cavalries to intercept Liu Yun, who had by then arrived in Song Prefecture. When Guo Chongwei came to Song Prefecture, he first met with Feng Dao outside the city gate before venturing inside to meet with Liu Yun. Realizing this is a conspiracy, the 22-year-old Guo Zhongshu angrily lambasted the 69-year-old Feng Dao, who had disloyally held high positions under the Later Tang, Later Jin, and the Liao dynasty before Later Han:  Feng Dao was too ashamed to respond. Guo Zhongshu and others then advised Liu Yun to immediately kill Feng Dao, gather the troops in Song Prefecture and flee to Hedong Circuit where Liu Yun's father Liu Chong was stationed as the military governor. Liu Yun hesitated (because Guo Chongwei said Guo Wei had nothing but good intentions), but by the next morning everything was already too late—Guo Chongwei had secretly taken control of his guards the night before and put him under house arrest. Guo Zhongshu fled to the "mountains and wilderness", and in less than a month Guo Wei founded the Later Zhou dynasty and had Liu Yun murdered. Guo Zhongshu reemerged in officialdom when Guo Wei was still emperor. He likely denied his former relationship with Liu Yun, because official records claimed he "swung his sleeve and spurned" Liu Yun when the latter offered him a position. At any rate, around 952 he had concurrent positions in the Imperial Clan Court and the Directorate of Education (where he was the "I Ching" specialist). The Later Zhou dynasty was replaced by the Song dynasty in 960, but Guo Zhongshu kept his positions. One day in 961, Guo Zhongshu came to the imperial court very drunk and argued loudly with Fu Zhaowen (), a Secretariat of the Heir Apparent (). When a censor () tried to submit a memorial criticizing them, Guo Zhongshu yelled at the censor, grabbed his memorial and destroyed it. Due to these unruly behaviors, on October 10, 961, he was banished to Qian Prefecture to serve as a revenue administrator (), but he did not mend his ways there. After he drunkenly beat up a local clerk named Fan Di () and failed to report for duty, he was arrested and further banished to Lingwu.