魏太武帝
Around this time, Emperor Wen also started preparing for a campaign against rival Northern Wei, seeking to recover several provinces lost to Northern Wei during the reign of Emperor Shao. In spring 430, he put Dao Yanzhi in command of a 50,000-man army to attack Northern Wei. Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, when informed by Emperor Wen's messengers that all Emperor Wen was interested in was to recover the provinces south of the Yellow River, retorted angrily that he would withdraw but return in the winter once the Yellow River froze, and that was what he initially did—withdrawing his armies south of the Yellow River to areas north, allowing Liu Song to recover the four key cities of Luoyang, Hulao, Huatai (滑台, in modern Anyang, Hunan), and Qiao'ao (碻磝, in modern Liaocheng, Shandong) without a fight. Instead of advancing further north into Northern Wei proper, however, Emperor Wen stopped and placed his troops along the Yellow River, even though he had entered into an alliance with Xia's emperor Helian Ding to conquer and divide Northern Wei. With Emperor Wen's forces immobile, Northern Wei was able to attack Helian Ding and greatly damage Xia (eventually leading to its destruction in 431) absence. Afterwards, Northern Wei prepared to attack the south. In winter 430, Emperor Wen's general Du Ji (), unable to defend Luoyang, abandoned it. Hulao soon also fell. Upon hearing this, Dao retreated, leaving the general Zhu Xiuzhi () defending Huatai alone. In spring 431, Emperor Wen sent Tan north to try to relieve Zhu at Huatai, but with Northern Wei forces cutting Tan's supply route off, Tan was unable to reach Huatai and forced to withdraw as well. Zhu, without support, was soon captured when Huatai fell. Emperor Wen's first attempt to regain the provinces south of the Yellow River had resulted in failure.