During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Yuwen family not only established the Northern Zhou, laying the foundation of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, but also produced two generations of famous courtiers. Yuwen Tai was Emperor Wen of Northern Zhou, and in his hands, he not only held the power of Western Wei, but also killed two generations of Western Wei emperors, and after his death, entrusted the power to his nephew, Yuwen Hu, who supported his son to ascend to the throne.
Sure enough, the following year, Yuwen Hu forced Emperor Gong of Western Wei to give the throne to Yuwen Jue, established Northern Zhou, proclaimed himself the Grand Sima and began his path of power.
When Yuwen Hu was in charge of power, Li Zhi, Sun Heng, and others at the same time as Yuwen Tai were dissatisfied with Yuwen Hu's dictatorship and worried that their position of power would be affected, so they began to speak to Emperor Xiaomin, worried about whether Yuwen Hu would really return to the emperor like the Duke of Zhou in the future, and Emperor Xiaomin was also worried about this. After Yuwen Hu learned of this news, he quickly transferred Li Zhi and Sun Heng to a foreign place to curb their attempts, and Emperor Xiaomin wanted to transfer the two back, and Yu Wenhu said that the two were selfish and wanted to retain their power, and what they did was not good for the country and unfavorable to His Majesty, but Emperor Xiaomin still maintained doubts about Yuwen Hu and still secretly plotted to overthrow Yuwen Hu's rule.
Yuwen Hu knew Emperor Xiaomin's plan and naturally did not want to sit still, so with the support of Helan Xiang and Wei Chigang, he killed Li Zhi and Sun Heng, and then killed Emperor Xiaomin and established Yuwen Yu as emperor, that is, Emperor Ming of Zhou.
After the establishment of Emperor Ming of Zhou, Yuwen Hu ascended the throne as a Taishi, and in 559 AD, the above table requested to return the government to Emperor Ming, but Emperor Ming was very clever, knew that it was Yuwen Hu's temptation, and naturally agreed superficially, but in fact still entrusted the power to Yu Wen Hu. However, Yuwen Hu obviously also saw the signs, and he was very jealous of the potential of this Ming Emperor, so he ordered his subordinates to secretly poison Emperor Ming's diet, poison emperor Ming, and establish Yuwen Yong as emperor, that is, Emperor Wu of Zhou. At this time, Yuwen Hu fully controlled the power of civil and military affairs, and all matters large and small inside and outside the imperial court had to be decided by Yu Wenhu first.
Yuwen Hu also became more and more cruel and arrogant, and he also arranged his sons in various important positions, they were greedy and arrogant, bullying people, and the officials and people suffered for a long time. Emperor Wu of Zhou secretly plotted directly with Yuwen The Prince of Wei against Yuwen Hu.
In 572, after Yuwen Hu returned to Chang'an, Emperor Wu led Yuwen Hu to see the empress dowager, hoping that Yuwen Hu could help persuade the empress, he handed over the "Wine Curse" in his arms to Yuwen Hu, Yu Wen Hu did not doubt that he had him, and read it to the empress dowager with it, Emperor Wu took the opportunity to use the jade wat to knock Yu Wen Hu down from behind, and Yu Wen zhi, who was hiding aside, also rushed out to kill Yu Wen Hu.
Due to the sudden death in the palace, his sons and henchmen did not receive news, and they were deceived by Emperor Wu and collectively gathered together to kill them.
Yuwen Hu, as a powerful minister, stabilized the regime well in the early days of the establishment of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and followed many of Yuwen Tai's policies, although there were not many achievements in the military, there was no major mistake, only too greedy for power, and eventually fell into such a fate.
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