 During this tenure, Wei was said to be gracious to the people of the province while continuing to effectively employ a network of spies.For example, when his officer Xu Pen (許盆) defected to Northern Qi, Wei sent spies after him, and was quickly able to have him killed.Around this time, Xun Province continued to be plagued by raids by the ethnic Xiongnu who, while not submitting to either Northern Zhou or Northern Qi, were based within Northern Qi territory and cut off river traffic on the Fen River (汾水, flowing through modern Linfen).