By 477, Emperor Houfei had shown himself to be a cruel and violent ruler, often roving outside the palace with his guards and killing any person or animal that they encountered. Xiao, in fear of being killed by Emperor Houfei, engaged his associates to have him assassinated, and then used his personal control of the army to effectively force other high-level officials Yuan Can and Liu Bing to grant him near-imperial powers. He then made Liu Zhun emperor (as Emperor Shun), but the 10-year-old emperor was little more than Xiao's puppet.