Qiu Luan was born into a family of hereditary officers in Zhenyuan County, Shaanxi (in present-day part of Gansu).
His grandfather, Qiu Yue (仇鉞; 1465–1521), was appointed Count of Xianning (咸寧) and later Marquis for his involvement in suppressing the rebellion of the Prince of Anhua in 1510.
As a result, the emperor immediately appointed him as commander of one of the twelve divisions of the Ming army stationed in the Beijing area.
[2] In 1548–1549, the Mongols, led by Altan Khan, conducted raids that brought them within a day's journey of the Ming capital, Beijing.
Altan Khan issued a warning to the Ming authorities, stating that they would attack Beijing if they did not agree to mutual trade.
[3] In July 1550, Zhang Da (張達), the commander of the important border fortress of Datong, was killed in battle with the Mongols.
However, instead of engaging in direct combat with the Mongols, Qiu Luan chose to bribe them to move further east along the border.
On 30 September, the Mongol vanguard arrived in Beijing and the following day, they burned the suburbs and began to lay siege to the city.
[5] In January 1551, Qiu Luan brought a reinforcement of sixty thousand soldiers from the borderlands to Beijing for training.
[5] In April 1551, a delegation from the Mongols, led by Toghto, the adopted son of Altan Khan, once again requested the restoration of trade, specifically for horses.
[4] As a result, the Mongols ceased their attacks[4] and instead began trading horses for silk in the markets of Datong and Yanning.
[6] By this time, Qiu Luan had already lost the support of Yan Song and Lu Bing (陸炳),[a] and he offered his resignation, which was ultimately rejected.