Annual rotary tillage often can create a compacted plough pan in shallow soil layers, and result in the decrease of soil fertility and crop yield due to the reduction of water storage and nutrient supply. Meanwhile, the decreased water use efficiency has worsened the imbalance between supply and demand of agricultural water, especially in water shortage regions. In order to minimize such negative effects caused by annual rotary tillage, a new deep soil tillage method called deep vertically rotary tillage with use of vertically corkscrew aiguilles was implemented to test its role in improving soil water movement and water use efficiency in northern China's Huang-huai-hai region. Eight treatments including deep vertically rotary tillage to 30 cm (treatmentⅠ), deep vertically rotary tillage to 50 cm (treatmentⅡ), deep vertically rotary tillage to 30 cm with plastic film mulching (treatment Ⅲ), deep vertically rotary tillage to 50 cm with plastic film mulching (treatment Ⅳ), deep vertically rotary tillage to 30 cm with no-cultivation (treatment Ⅴ) and deep vertically rotary tillage to 50 cm with no-cultivation (treatment Ⅵ) were conducted, while rotary tillage (treatment Ⅶ) and subsoiling (treatment Ⅷ) were used as experimental control. Based on the analysis of soil moisture contour mapping, soil water consumption and water use efficiency among different treatments, several main results were found. (1) Compared with rotary tillage and subsoiling, cultivated soil layers by deep vertically rotary tillage became looser and deeper. Therefore, rain-water infiltration and soil water up-and-down transferring capacity under deep vertically rotary tillage were improved, which resulted in the reduction of total crop water consumption and promotion of water use efficiency. For instance, the total crop water consumption of treatmentⅠ-Ⅳ decreased by 12.2%-16.4% and 10.2%-14.5% with respect to that of rotary tillage and subsoiling, respectively. Furthermore, the water use efficiency at yield level of treatmentⅠ-Ⅳ increased by 28.3%-50.6% and 19.1%-39.7% compared to that of the two controlled treatments, respectively. (2) Deep vertically rotary tillage was proved to be beneficial for rain-water infiltration and soil water up-and-down transferring capacity which increased with tillage depth. However, total water consumption amount increased and water use efficiency decreased with tillage depth to some extent. For instance, compared with treatmentⅠ, water consumption amount of treatmentⅡincreased by 5%, and leaf water use efficiency at the 59th and 111th day after sowing and water use efficiency at yield level decreased by 1.6%, 1.0% and 2.1%, respectively. (3) Surface water loss at lower field coverage in early growing stages of crops was inhibited by plastic film mulching after deep vertically rotary tillage. In such cases, total soil consumption was reduced, while soil water up-and-down transferring capacity and water use efficiency were enhanced. Moreover, higher water use efficiency could obtain if deeper new tillage layer was conducted. For instance, water use efficiency at yield level of treatment Ⅲ increased by 8.5% compared with treatmentⅠ, and that of treatment Ⅳ increased by 17.3% compared with treatment Ⅱ. In addition, compared with treatment Ⅲ, leaf water use efficiency at the 59th day and 111th day after sowing of treatment Ⅳ and water use efficiency at yield level increased by 8.3%, 7.4% and 5.9% respectively. The results showed that deep vertically rotary tillage can provide a new and effective way to break up the compacted plough pan, solve the shallow tillage layer problem and increase water use efficiency.