Wu Mingche
In 559, Emperor Wu died and was succeeded by his nephew Chen Qian the Prince of Linchuan (as Emperor Wen). Wang, upon hearing of Emperor Wu's death, decided to attack Chen, and Wu Mingche made an attempt to intercept Wang at Pencheng (湓城, in modern Jiujiang, Jiangxi), but was defeated by Wang's general Ren Zhong (). Wu barely escaped with his life, allowing Wang to continue his advance toward Jiankang. Wang, however, was subsequently defeated by Hou Tian (), and both he and Xiao Zhuang were forced to flee to Northern Qi. As part of Chen's effort to then take control of Xiao Zhuang's territory, Emperor Wen assigned Wu to be the governor of Wu Province (武州, roughly modern Changde, Hunan), but he was defeated by the Northern Zhou (Western Wei's successor state) general Heruo Dun () and forced to withdraw to Baling (巴陵, in modern Yueyang, Hunan). He was, however, able to defeat further Northern Zhou advance there.