In 939, fearing that An Chongrong the military governor of Chengde Circuit (成德, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei) would rebel, Shi moved An's potential ally Huangfu Yu (皇甫遇) the military governor of the neighboring Yiwu Circuit (義武, headquartered in modern Baoding, Hebei) to Zhaoyi Circuit (昭義, headquartered at Lu Prefecture). Emperor Taizong tried to use this opportunity to inject himself into the commissioning of Yiwu's military governor, proposing that the Liao official Wang Wei (王威), whose father Wang Chuzhi had previously ruled Yiwu in alliance with Later Tang's predecessor state Jin, be made Yiwu's military governor. When Shi refused (based on the rationale that Wang needed to go through several layers of promotions to qualify (from prefect to military prefect to defender to military governor), Emperor Taizong sent back the angry response of, "How many layers of promotion did you go through from being military governor to be the Son of Heaven?" Shi, in fear, sent a rich tribute and promised to make Wang Chuzhi's grandnephew Wang Tingyin (王廷胤) Yiwu's military governor. That somewhat placated Emperor Taizong.