however, the news of the plan leaked out, and li tong and li yi barely escaped with their lives (but their family was slaughtered). liu yan changed his plan and persuaded two branches of the lülin – the xinshi force (新市兵) and pinglin force (平林兵) to join forces with him, and they had some military success. encouraged, liu yan made a frontal assault against wancheng (宛城), the capital of nanyang commandery—and suffered a major loss. liu yan and liu xiu, along with their sister liu boji (劉伯姬), survived, but their brother liu zhong and sister liu yuan died in the battle. liu yan's allies, seeing his defeat, considered leaving him, but liu yan was able to persuade them, along with another branch of the lülin, the xiajiang force (下江兵), to join him. in 23, they had a major victory against xin forces, killing zhen fu (甄阜), the governor of nanyang commandery.