Wei Xiaokuan - During Emperor Wu's Reign

During Emperor Wu's Reign

In 561, in recognition of Wei's great victory at Yubi previously, Yubi and the surrounding area was made into Xun Province (勳州 -- "Xun" meaning "achievement"), and Wei was made its governor. During this tenure, Wei was said to be gracious to the people of the province while continuing to effectively employ a network of spies. For example, when his officer Xu Pen (許盆) defected to Northern Qi, Wei sent spies after him, and was quickly able to have him killed.

Around this time, Xun Province continued to be plagued by raids by the ethnic Xiongnu who, while not submitting to either Northern Zhou or Northern Qi, were based within Northern Qi territory and cut off river traffic on the Fen River (汾水, flowing through modern Linfen). In order to cut off the route of their raids, Wei sent his officer Yao Yue (姚岳) to build a fort near the Fen River. Yao initially was fearful that as his troops were building the fort that Northern Qi would launch an attack against him, but Wei warded off Northern Qi attacks by setting up bonfires in the surrounding hills, making Northern Qi forces believe that Yao was being reinforced by a large army, and therefore did not attack Yao, allowing Yao to complete the fort.

In 564, Wei helped negotiate an agreement where Northern Qi returned Yuwen Tai's sister and sister-in-law (Yuwen Hu's mother) to Northern Zhou in exchange for peace. When, late in 564, Yuwen Hu nevertheless was preparing to launch an attack on Northern Qi (in order to placate the northern ally Tujue, Wei sent his secretary Xin Daoxian (辛道憲) to try to dissuade Yuwen Hu, but Yuwen Hu nevertheless launched the attack, which was unsuccessful. In 570, the two states were stalemated while fighting for the control of the city of Yiyang (宜陽, in modern Luoyang). Wei, believing that Yiyang was not worth the effort and instead was apprehensive that Northern Qi would encroach on territory north of the Fen River, sent a proposal to Yuwen Hu to build forts north of the Fen River to guard the territory. Yuwen Hu, however, responded, "While Duke Wei has many descendants, they do not yet number a hundred. Who will be able to guard those forts?" Thereafter, the forts were not built.

Later in 570, Wei's title was promoted to Duke of Xun. That winter, as forewarned by Wei, the Northern Qi general Hulü Guang encroached on Northern Zhou territory north of the Fen River and built forts there, seizing substantial territory. Wei personally met Hulü on the border to try to dissuade him from the campaign, but Hulü did not relent. The armies stalemated after Yuwen Hu sent reinforcements commanded by Emperor Wu's brother Yuwen Xian the Duke of Qi, but territory was already lost.

By 572, however, Hulü was in conflict with the powerful officials Zu Ting and Mu Tipo, both of whom were trusted by the Northern Qi emperor Gao Wei. Wei, hearing this, wanted to create further suspicions in Gao Wei's mind against Hulü, and he decided to try to create a sense that Hulü would rebel. He wrote two songs in couplets, one of which read:

A hundred sheng will fly up to the heavens,

A bright moon will shine over Chang'an.

The other read:

The high mountain will collapse on its own,

The daimyo oak will stand straight on its own.

He sent spies to spread the songs near Northern Qi's capital Yecheng, and the songs soon became popular. Zu, exploiting the situation himself, added two more lines:

The blind man will bear a great axe,

The talkative woman will be unable to speak.

Both Zu, who was blind, and Mu's mother Lu Lingxuan (Gao Wei's wet nurse and presumably the "talkative woman") both discussed the songs with Gao Wei, and Gao Wei, his suspicions having been aroused, eventually agreed to have Hulü put to death, greatly weakening the Northern Qi military efforts.

After Hulü's death, Emperor Wu (who had ambushed and killed Yuwen Hu earlier that year and assumed power himself) became particularly ambitious at conquering Northern Qi, and seeing this, Wei submitted three strategies for conquering Northern Qi to Emperor Wu. Also around this time, on account of his old age, Wei repeatedly made offers to resign and retire, but Emperor Wu repeatedly responded with edicts of kind words requesting him to stay.

In 576, when Emperor Wu launched a major attack on Northern Qi, he visited Yubi and praised Wei for his defense of the fort. Wei offered to be the forward commander for the attack, but Emperor Wu declined on reason that he needed Wei to defend Yubi still. However, he sent Wei to assist his brother Yuwen Zhao (宇文招) the Prince of Zhao in a secondary campaign near Yubi. After Emperor Wu conquered Northern Qi in 577, he returned to Yubi and took Wei back to the capital Chang'an with him, promoting Wei to the post of minister of agriculture. Subsequently, however, Emperor Wu made Wei the governor of Yan Province (延州, roughly modern Yan'an, Shaanxi), in charge of the surrounding provinces.