It was not that Li Chenzhou did not want to eliminate Xue Daoming; the timing was wrong. He had sent Xue Lingjun to Great Kang because he saw that Great Kang faced difficulties of its own. The Fragrant Kingdom's sudden rise had introduced uncertainty along Great Kang's traditionally peaceful southern front. Neither Li Chenzhou nor Xue Lingjun had expected Hu Xiaotian to join forces with Great Kang. Although Hu Xiaotian had accepted a title from Great Kang's Imperial Court, he was not actually under its control, and the fellow seized every opportunity to expand his territory. He had been the real beneficiary of the upheaval in Western Sichuan, taking the opportunity to seize vast tracts of land in its northeast. Great Kang's decision to let refugees from Western Sichuan enter his territory clearly expressed the Imperial Court's displeasure with him.
With turmoil in the Fragrant Kingdom and a food crisis erupting in Hu Xiaotian's territory, Great Kang had an excellent opportunity to punish him. One of the matters Xue Lingjun had come to negotiate with Great Kang's Imperial Court was a joint economic blockade against Hu Xiaotian. As long as famine struck his territory, they could defeat him without spending so much as a single soldier. With pressure on its southern front suddenly mounting, Great Kang was bound to want a stable rear, making an alliance with Great Yong much more likely. But Li Chenzhou and Xue Lingjun had never calculated that relations between Hu Xiaotian and Great Kang's Imperial Court would begin to thaw so quickly. Before Xue Lingjun even reached the Kang Capital, she had already heard that the court intended to send Hu Xiaotian grain aid.
For Great Kang's Imperial Court to take grain from its far from abundant Imperial Treasury to support a former rebellious subject,