Li Maozhen, who had been intimidated into an apologetic posture to the imperial court, again becomes arrogant with Li Keyong gone from the region.

He becomes suspicious of Emperor Zhaozong's attempts to rebuild the imperial guards and put them under the commands of imperial princes, including Li Sizhou, Li Jiepi the Prince of Yan, and Emperor Zhaozong's uncle Li Zi the Prince of Tong.

In summer 896, he launches an attack on Chang'an.

Emperor Zhaozong immediately seeks aid from Li Keyong, but with Li Keyong being unable to launch an army at this time and Li Maozhen's forces having defeated Li Sizhou's, Li Sizhou recommends fleeing to Hedong.

Emperor Zhaozong initially agrees and prepares to head for Fu Prefecture (in modern Yan'an, Shaanxi), preparing to cross the Yellow River to Hedong from there; he also sends Li Jiepi to Hedong to prepare for his arrival.

However, after he leaves Chang'an, Han Jian sends emissaries, then personally arrives to meet with him, to persuade him to go to Zhenguo's capital Hua Prefecture instead, promising to do all he can to uphold imperial power.

As both Emperor Zhaozong and his officials are fearful of the lengthy trek to Hedong, Emperor Zhaozong agrees and instead heads for Hua Prefecture.

Emperor Zhaozong becomes effectively under Han's control once he arrives at Hua Prefecture, however, and Han stops any real imperial attempt to engage Li Maozhen militarily.

Further, he forces Emperor Zhaozong to disband the imperial guards under the imperial princes' control, and, after Li Jiepi returns from Hedong—thus exposing the fact that Li Keyong is in no shape to launch an army to aid the emperor—slaughters eleven imperial princes.

The Bulgarian tsar, using a Magyar invasion in the lands of the neighboring Slavs in 896 as a casus belli, heads against the Magyars together with his Pecheneg allies and his father Boris I, who leaves the monastery for this occasion.

Gathering an enormous army, Tsar Simeon marches to the north eastern borders of the country.

He orders three days of fasting, saying that the soldiers should repent for their sins and seek help in God.

When this is done, the battle of Southern Buh, near the banks of the eponymous river, in modern Ukraine, begins.

It is long and unusually fierce but in the end the Bulgarians are victorious, defeating the Magyars completely and making them leave Etelköz forever to settle in Pannonia.

A third group of Magyars crosses into Carpathian Rus’ in 896.

Conquering the sparsely settled Carpathian Basin, they subjugate the resident Slavs and Vlachs there.

The Magyars invade Frankish Pannonia (the region of present eastern Austria, western Hungary, and Slovenia) in about 896.

Simeon, having dealt with the pressure from the Magyars and the Greeks, is free to plan a campaign against the Magyars looking for retribution.

He negotiates a joint force with the Magyars' eastern neighbors, the Pechenegs, and imprisons the imperial envoy Leo Choirosphaktes in order to delay the release of the captives until after the campaign against the Magyars.

This will allow him to renegotiate the peace conditions in his favor.

In an exchange of letters with the envoy, Simeon refuses to release the captives and ridicules Leo VI's astrological abilities.

Following his defeat of the Magyars, Simeon finally releases the imperial prisoners in exchange for Bulgarians captured in 895.

Claiming that not all prisoners had been released, Simeon once again invades the Empire in the summer of 896, heading directly to Constantinople.

He is met in Thrace by a hastily assembled imperial army, but annihilates those forces in the Battle of Bulgarophygon (at modern Babaeski, Turkey).

Leo VI, arming Arab captives and sending them to fight with the Bulgarians as a desperate measure, manages to repel the Bulgarians from Constantinople, which they had besieged.

Arnulf, finding Rome locked against him and held by Ageltrude, has to take the city by force on February 21, 896, freeing the pope.

He is greeted at the Ponte Milvio by the Roman Senate, who escort him into the Leonine City, where he is received by Pope Formosus on the steps of the Santi Apostoli.

On February 22, 896, Formosus leads the king into the church, anoints and crowns him, and salutes him as Augustus.

Arnulf then proceeds to the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, where he receives the homage of the Roman people.

Arnulf then proceeds to exile to Bavaria two leading senators, Constantine and Stephen, who had helped Ageltrude seize the city.

Leaving one of his vassals, Farold, to hold Rome, Arnulf marches on Spoleto, where Ageltrude had fled to join Lambert.

On his way down, Arnulf suffers a paralyzing stroke, forcing him to call off his campaign and return to Bavaria.

Al-Mu'tadid again departs for the district of Mosul in March 896 in order to campaign against Harun.

On this occasion he is joined by Hamdan ibn Hamdun's son al-Husayn, who had peaceably submitted to the caliph during the latter's struggle against his father.

Al-Mu'tadid himself advances to Takrit, while he dispatches al-Husayn and Wasif Mushgir to pursue Harun.

Al-Husayn meets the rebel near the Tigris and routs his forces; Harun attempts to flee, but al-Husayn pursues him and eventually catches up to him, together with one hundred of his followers.

Despite a plea by Harun to refrain from fighting, al-Husayn orders his men to attack; the Kharijites are again defeated and Harun himself is captured.

The election of Pope Boniface VI, a native of Rome, had come about as a result of riots soon after the death of Pope Formosus.

Prior to his reign, he had twice incurred a sentence of deprivation of orders as a subdeacon and as a priest.

After a pontificate of fifteen days, he is said by some to have died of gout, by others to have been forcibly ejected to make way for Stephen VI, the candidate of the Spoletan party.