Phan Bội Châu out his final years, his children and their families came to visit him, but never his wife. When she died, she instructed her children not to tell Phan so as to not distract him. Phan spent the first five years of the 20th century living in Huế and traveling the country. Phan drew up a three-step plan to get the French out of Vietnam. First, he would need to organize remnants of the Cần Vương movement and other sympathizers of the cause. Second, he would need to attain support from the Vietnamese imperial family and the bureaucracy, many of whom
Pang Xi and Guo Si, the warlords controlling the Han central government and the figurehead Emperor Xian. However, Ma Teng lost the battle and both Liu Fan and Liu Dan were killed. At the time, as Pang Xi was a family friend of Liu Yan, he turned to his network of friends for help in helping Liu Fan and Liu Dan's families escape from Chang'an (the imperial capital under Li Jue and Guo Si's control) and bringing them safely to Yi Province, thus preserving Liu Yan's posterity. Following Liu Yan's death later in 194, his youngest son Liu Zhang succeeded him as