Hulü Guang

Hulü Guang was the commander the Qi emperor Wucheng sent south in 563 while he rode north to Jinyang himself.^[1] The Zhou had opened two fronts at once. The southern one was Daxi Wu’s march on Pingyang. Hulü Guang stopped it, and in the spring of 564, at the same time as the allied army was forced back from Jinyang, he beat it.^[1]

A year later he and the general Duan were ordered to cover Luoyang against a second Zhou offensive. The Qi army beat that one quickly too. The emperor gave him a title afterwards. It came with a worry that outlasted the campaign. The plundering around Taiyuan had been the Göktürks’ work. The Göktürks had withdrawn without loss and had not joined the second attack at all.^[1]

He belongs to Göktürk history as the man on the other side of the khaganate’s first war inside China. The Qi sources carry his career. The account of his campaigns against the Zhou rests on the modern narrative.^[1]