In 564 the Northern Zhou and Mukan Khan went to war against the Northern Qi for the second time.[1] Mukan asked for the campaign. Yang Zhong marched out by Woye to meet him. Yuwen Hu led the main Zhou army against Luoyang.[1] Yuwen Hu was beaten before the city. Then Mukan turned back.[1] It was the second Göktürk campaign in the Zhou–Qi war.

After Jinyang

The first joint campaign had failed before Jinyang in the first month of 564.[1] Mukan had let his men plunder the country. Then he went home.[1] The Zhou set a time to attack again in the following year, from the south and from the north together. The Qi ruler was greatly afraid.[2]

Yuwen Hu’s mother and the emperor’s fourth aunt had been held captive in the Qi.[2] The Qi now offered to send them home and asked for peace.[2] The aunt came first, in 564. The Qi kept Hu’s mother back for a time.[2] She reached Chang’an in the ninth month. Emperor Wu then proclaimed an amnesty.[3]

The Göktürks heard that the Zhou were making peace with the Qi. They grew suspicious.[4] Wang Qing, who had gone as envoy to the khan the year before, went again to reassure him. The khan was pleased. The friendship was as before.[4]

Mukan’s request

In the fifth month of 564 Göktürk envoys came to Chang’an with gifts.[3] The same year Mukan sent envoys again and asked once more for a campaign to the east.[1] Yuwen Hu’s biography says that the Göktürks again led their host out to keep the appointment.[2]

Yuwen Hu had just received his kin back from the Qi and did not want to campaign at once. He feared, however, that breaking faith with the Göktürks would bring new trouble on the frontier. Against his wish, he asked for the campaign.[2]

Yang Zhong at Woye

In the eighth month an edict sent Yang Zhong with an army to campaign east together with the Göktürks.[3] He reached the Beihe, the northern river. Then he turned back.[3] His biography also tells of a march out by Woye at the time of Yuwen Hu’s campaign against Luoyang. Yang Zhong was to meet the Göktürks there. His supplies ran short.[5]

Yang Zhong said that the matter called for a stratagem. He summoned the chiefs of the Jihu to his camp and seated them with him.[5] His general Wang Jie rode in with drums beating. Yang Zhong feigned surprise. Wang Jie announced that the Grand Steward, Yuwen Hu, had already taken Luoyang. The emperor, he said, had sent him to punish the unruly Hu between Yinzhou and Xiazhou together with Yang Zhong.[5]

Then a Göktürk envoy rode in. The khan, he announced, had entered Bingzhou again and left more than a hundred thousand horse below the Long Wall. If any Jihu would not submit, the khan would come and crush them together with Yang Zhong.[5] The chiefs were afraid. Yang Zhong calmed them and sent them home. The Jihu submitted one after another and brought in grain in quantity.[5] The biography presents both announcements as part of the ruse.[5]

Yuwen Hu before Luoyang

In the ninth month an edict announced the war.[2] The edict said that Heaven had lent its hand to the Göktürks, who had swept the country of the Fen and of Jin bare.[2] The Göktürk army had withdrawn but still camped in Qi territory. It was gathering its tribes to come with its whole strength. The armies were to meet at Bingzhou and Ye in midwinter.[2] Yuwen Hu raised two hundred thousand men. They came from the twenty-four armies, from the troops of Qin, Long, Ba and Shu, and from the subject peoples.[2]

In the tenth month the emperor handed him the axes of command in the ancestral temple. Yuwen Hu marched out by the Tong pass.[3] Quan Jingxuan led the armies south of the mountains against Yuzhou. Yang Biao went out by the Zhi pass.[3] In the eleventh month Yuchi Jiong laid siege to Luoyang. Yuwen Xian camped on Mount Mang. Yuwen Hu halted at Shanzhou.[3]

Yuwen Hu had meant to cut the road at Heyang to keep the Qi relief away. Then he would take Luoyang cut off from outside. His generals thought that the Qi would not dare to come out. They kept only scouts.[2] In the twelfth month, after days of fog, the Qi horse crossed the river and reached Luoyang at dawn. The army besieging the city broke and scattered.[6]

Yuchi Jiong held off the enemy with a few dozen riders. Yuwen Xian held the generals on Mount Mang together. As a result, the army came back whole.[2] Wang Xiong fell fighting. Yang Biao was killed at the Zhi pass.[3] Quan Jingxuan had taken Yuzhou when its governor surrendered. He gave it up again when the siege of Luoyang was lifted.[6] The Zhou Shu says that Yuwen Hu had no gift for war and that the campaign had not been his wish. He and his generals bowed their heads and asked to be punished. The emperor did not blame them.[2]

The Göktürks

When Yuwen Hu’s fighting went badly, Mukan withdrew.[1] When Yuwen Hu fell back, Yang Zhong too broke off and returned to his garrison.[5] The Zhou Shu records no battle fought by the Göktürks in the autumn and winter of 564.[7]

The second campaign took no city. It was the last time the Göktürks and the Zhou took the field together against the Qi. The marriage that sealed the alliance came four years later. The bride, Empress Ashina, reached Chang’an in the third month of 568.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 11
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 5
  4. ^ a b Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 33
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 19
  6. ^ a b Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 5; Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 11
  7. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50; Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 5; Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 11; Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 19

Sources

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The Göktürk–Zhou alliance

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “The Woye and Luoyang Campaign (564).” Turkic Atlas, revised 28 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/woye-luoyang-campaign-564/

Last revised: 28 October 2026