User:Zrnstnsr/Gao–Yuwen War

The Gao–Yuwen War (537–577) was a series of conflicts fought between the Gao clan and the Yuwen clan. The war ended with the victory of the Yuwen clan, concluded by the conquest of the Northern Qi dynasty and reunification of northern China by the Northern Zhou dynasty.

After the Northern Wei dynasty collapsed in 534, Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai had their puppets claim the throne of Northern Wei, which became Eastern Wei and Western Wei respectively. The following decade saw numerous clashes between the two dynasties to fight for the legitimacy of northern China, with Eastern Wei in advantage. There were five major battles in this stage, but neither of the dynasties could win a decisive victory and the war reached a stalemate for about 30 years.

In 546, Gao Huan suffered a major defeat at Yubi and died several days later. In the next decade, the Eastern Wei and Western Wei was replaced by Northern Qi and Northern Zhou repsectively, when the member of the clans themselves became the emperor. Both northern dynasties tried to consolidate themselves and invaded the Liang dynasty, which was devastated by Hou Jing's rebellion, with few conflicts within the dynasties. Western Wei gained much more strength than his neighbor during this period, gaining present-day Sichuan and established a vassal state at Jiangling, which Northern Qi only seized territories between Huai River and Yangtze and was defeated in the second war of Liang's succession.

Around 560, both dynasties suffered political upheavals of succession, with several emperors deposed or killed in coups. The following decade saw a few engagements between the dynastes, the most famous of which was the battle of Mount Mang when Gao Changgong defeated Northern Zhou's troops decisively. In 570s, Yuwen Hu, the regent of Northern Zhou, was killed by Emperor Wu who decided to attack Northern Qi later. On the other hand, after Gao Wei had become the emperor of Northern Qi, the dynasty weakened days after days with erratic behaviors of its emperor and death of capable generals like Gao Changgong and Hulü Guang. In 576, Emperor Wu launched a general offensive against his neighbor, and then conquered the dynasty in 577, winning the war ultimately.