At this point, Empress Chen had already married Emperor Wu for years but did not achieve any pregnancies. In an attempt to remain the centre of his attention, she also prohibited him from keeping other concubines. The fact that the young and energetic Emperor Wu was still childless had been used by his political enemies as an excuse to consider deposing him (the inability to propagate the royal bloodline was a serious matter) and replace him with his distant uncle Liu An (劉安), the King of Huainan (淮南王), who was a renowned figure of Taoist ideology. Emperor Wu's political survival now relied heavily on the lobbying of his aunt/mother-in-law Princess Guantao, who served as a mediator for the Emperor's reconciliation with her mother, Grand Empress Dowager Dou. Princess Guantao wasted no opportunities to exploit this leverage, and constantly made excessive demands from her son-in-law. Emperor Wu, already unhappy with Empress Chen's infertility and poor behavior, was further enraged by her mother's greed, but had to tolerate such abuse under the advice by his mother Empress Dowager Wang to stay put and wait for his chance. He then spent the next few years pretending to be docile, hedonistic and having given up all political ambitions, but in reality was secretly recruiting supporters.