Gao Wei was intending to visit the secondary capital Jinyang (晉陽, in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), which he and his predecessors did on a regular basis. The senior officials Cui Jishu (崔季舒) and Zhang Diao (張雕) -- who had been Gao Wei's teacher previously and respected by him—believed that for Gao Wei to go to Jinyang would be misinterpreted by the populace as a flight to Jinyang, and would lead to popular panic, so they, with a number of other officials—including Feng Xiaoyan (封孝琰), Liu Ti (劉逖), Pei Ze (裴澤), and Guo Zun (郭遵) -- submitted a joint petition requesting Gao Wei to stay at Yecheng.
Gao Wei was set to visit the secondary capital Jinyang (now Taiyuan, Shanxi), a practice he had followed in conjunction with his predecessors. Senior officials Cui Jishu and Zhang Diao, who had previously instructed Gao Wei and held him in esteem, feared that his trip would be misinterpreted by the populace as an attempt to flee to Jinyang, resulting in public unrest.