after the coup d'état against the dous, emperor he appeared actually take power, and empress dowager dou lost all power, although he continued to honor her as his mother, apparently having some inkling but not knowing for sure that she was not his birth mother. prince qing became a trusted advisor of his, as did zheng—which started an escalating trend of eunuchs being involved with government matters, lasting for the rest of the eastern han dynasty; in fact, in 102, zheng was created marquess, in an unprecedented action. in the aftermaths of the coup d'état, innumerable officials accused of being the dous' associates were arrested or removed from their posts. the chief among them were the historian ban gu, who was a chief assistant of dou xian and who had apparently been complicit in dou's autocracy, as well as the commander of the armed forces song you (宋由), although ban gu's brother ban chao was not affected and continued to enjoy imperial support in his xiyu (modern xinjiang and former soviet central asia) campaigns. in 97, ban chao would send his assistant gan ying (甘英) (kan ying) on a mission to the roman empire—but gan would turn back after reaching an unnamed shore in the parthian empire, which might have been the shore of the persian gulf—without reaching rome. in 102, after ban chao's retirement, however, mismanagement would lead to the xiyu kingdoms to rebel against han authority, and the suzerainty over xiyu was lost.