At Yuan Xiu's suggestion, he slaughtered a large number of Emperor Dezong's imperial clan and other relatives, but he refused suggestions to force Tang officials into serving him and to destroy the Tang imperial temples. Meanwhile, Emperor Dezong, believing that he needed to pacify all of the other warlords who had turned against him, issued a general pardon that included even Zhu Tao, although Zhu Ci was excluded from the general pardon. (In response, Wang Wujun, Li Na, and Tian Yue all gave up independent princely titles they had claimed for themselves and nominally submitted to Tang rule again, although neither Zhu Tao nor another military governor who had rebelled, Li Xilie, did so, and Li Xilie soon declared himself emperor of his own state of Chu.) Meanwhile, though, Tang efforts to recapture Chang'an soon fell victim to infighting—as Li Huaiguang, who had saved Emperor Dezong, was angered when Emperor Dezong refused to meet him and instead ordered him to attack Chang'an immediately, along with Li Sheng and several other generals. (Emperor Dezong had done so at Lu Qi's suggestion—as Lu feared that if Emperor Dezong met Li Huaiguang, given Li Huaiguang's achievements, Emperor Dezong would accept Li Huaiguang's opinion that Lu and his associates Zhao Zan () and Bai Zhizhen () were responsible for the calamity.) Li Huaiguang sent repeated accusations to Emperor Dezong, forcing him to demote Lu, Zhao, and Bai, but even after the demotions had occurred, only slowly advanced toward Chang'an. Zhu, seeing that Li Huaiguang was disaffected, sent secret messengers to Li Huaiguang, offering to honor Li Huaiguang as an older brother, with both of them serving as emperors of their own independent realms. Li Huaiguang thus turned against Emperor Dezong—seizing the armies of the generals Li Jianhui () and Yang Huiyuan (), and publicly declaring that he was now in peaceful relations with Zhu and that Emperor Dezong should flee. Emperor Dezong, fearing the consequences of a joint attack by Li Huaiguang and Zhu, fled to Xingyuan (興元, in modern Hanzhong, Shaanxi). In light of Emperor Dezong's flight, a number of Tang officials who had previously refused to submit to Zhu, including the former chancellor Qiao Lin, came out of hiding and joined Zhu's administration.