in spring 440, juqu wuhui tried to recapture jiuquan. yuan jie (元絜), the northern wei general in charge of jiuquan, viewed juqu wuhui lightly, and engaged him outside the city. juqu wuhui captured him and then put jiuquan under siege, soon capturing it. he then attacked zhangye, but could not capture it. northern wei's emperor taiwu issued an edict ordering him to surrender, and in fall 440, after another general resisting northern wei, tufa baozhou (禿髮保周), the son of southern liang's last prince tufa rutan, committed suicide, juqu wuhui sent his general liang wei (梁偉) to show submission to northern wei's general tuoba jian (拓拔健) the prince of yongchang and emperor taiwu's brother, offering to return jiuquan to northern wei control and returning yuan jie. in response, in spring 441, emperor taiwu created juqu wuhui the prince of jiuquan.