Wu Mingche
In spring 573, Emperor Xuan resolved to attack Northern Qi—but when he discussed the matter with his officials and generals, they had split of opinion. Emperor Xuan, at the suggestion of Xu Ling, selected Wu Mingche, who alone among the generals was resolute as to his support for the campaign, as the commander of the forces, with Pei Ji (裴忌) and Huang Faqu (name not in Unicode) as Wu's deputies. Wu's forces made quick gains against Northern Qi, and by summer 573 had gained most of the territory between the Yangtze River and the Huai River. By fall 573, Wu put the important city Shouyang (壽陽, in modern Lu'an, Anhui) under siege, and he captured Shouyang in 573, capturing and killing the Northern Qi general in charge of defending the city, the former Liang general Wang Lin. The entire region between the Yangtze and Huai were now in Chen hands. Emperor Xuan was so pleased that he, in an elaborate ceremony, conferred a variety of honors on Wu. He also displayed Wang's head on the Jiankang city gate, although after a request by Zhu Yang (朱瑒), in which Zhu pointed out that Wang was faithful to Liang and should be honored, he returned Wang's head for a proper burial. In the following years, Chen continued to make minor gains against Northern Qi, but was not making major attacks.