Battle of Yinshan
| Battle of Yinshan | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Tang campaign against the Eastern Turks | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Tang dynasty | Eastern Turkic Khaganate | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Li Jing Wei Xiaojie Li Daozong Chai Shao Xue Wanche (薛萬徹) | Illig Qaghan | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 20,000[2] | 40,000[2] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Light | 100,000 captured, 10,000+ dead | ||||||||
The Battle of Yinshan (Chinese: 陰山之戰; pinyin: Yīnshān zhī zhàn) was fought on 27 March 630 near the Yin Mountains, close to the city of Dingxiang (定襄, in modern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia). Emperor Taizong (598–649) commissioned the famed Tang military officer Li Jing (李靖, 571–649), along with Li Shiji, Wei Xiaojie, Li Daozong, Chai Shao (柴紹), and Xue Wanche (薛萬徹) to attack forces under the command of Illig Qaghan, leader of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate,[2] a nomadic confederation of Turkic peoples based in Inner Asia.[3] The battle ended in defeat for the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and resulted in its dissolution,[4] and was eventually replaced by the Protectorate General to Pacify the North, otherwise known as the Anbei Protectorate (安北都護府) in 647 after the Tang dynasty definitively conquered the Xueyantuo.
Background
In 623, The Eastern Turkic Khaganate began a campaign of routine pillaging incursions into Tang territory, while continuing to protect Liang Shidu, who claimed the title of Emperor of Liang. In 626, Li Shimin succeeded Emperor Gaozu as Emperor Taizong of the Tang. Less than a month later, the Turkic ruler Illig Qaghan and his nephew, Ashina Shibobi, invaded Tang territory, advancing all the way to the ancient capital Chang'an, shocking Tang officials. Emperor Taizong personally met with them at the Wei River Bridge outside Chang'an, gave them and major Eastern Turkic officials gifts, and promised further tribute.[5] Only after he did so did Illig Qaghan and Ashina Shibobi withdraw.
For the next several years, there was relative peace between the Tang and the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. Meanwhile, Illig Qaghan's territory suffered two unusually cold winters that led to mass livestock deaths and famine and he was forced to suppress a number of rebellions.[6] By 627, Emperor Taizong contemplated taking advantage of Illig Qaghan's weakened state by launching an attack, but ultimately refrained after his advisers convinced him not to break the peace.
Internal strife within the Eastern Turkic Khaganate continued as vassal tribes became restless under Illig Qaghan's rule. Illig Qaghan and Ashina Shibobi also fell into conflict after the latter was unable to defeat rebellious Xueyantuo and Uyghur vassal tribes. After Illig Qaghan attacked Asina Shibobi's forces in 628, Emperor Taizong, who had sworn to be a blood brother of Ashina Shibobi on a prior occasion, agreed to launch troops to protect Ashina Shibobi—and at the same time use the opportunity to attack Liang Shidu, who by this point was still under the Eastern Turkic Khaganate's protection. Liang Shidu was assassinated in 628,[7] ending the final rival claim to Emperor Taizong for China's imperial throne. To head off Taizong's efforts to ally with rebellious vassal tribes against him, Illig Qaghan sought long-term peace in the form of a marriage to a Tang princess, which Emperor Taizong did not answer. Instead, he prepared for a major assault on the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, with the major general Li Jing commanding and with the general Zhang Gongjin assisting Li Jing.
Battle
In the spring of 630, Li Jing, employing six separate cavalry formations of nearly 100,000 men [3] along a 1,200 km (750 mi) front, captured the Wuyang Range outside Dingxiang (定襄, in modern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia), approaching Illig Qaghan's court. He then sent spies to Illig Qaghan's camp and persuaded a number of his close associates, including Kangsumi (康蘇密), to surrender (along with Sui's Empress Xiao and her grandson Yang Zhengdao).[8] Li Jing's nighttime assault on the walls of Dingxiang forced Illig Qaghan to withdraw to Iron Mountain (Tieshan) in the Yin Mountains where he offered to submit to Emperor Taizong—but while he was negotiating with the Emperor Taizong's envoy Tang Jian (唐儉), he was also considering withdrawing further north of the Gobi Desert. Li Jing and Li Shiji, believing that Illig Qaghan was merely stalling for time, joined their forces and their vanguard, Su Dingfang, attacked Illig Qaghan's encampment on 27 March 630,[3] defeating him and killing his wife (the Sui dynasty's Princess Yicheng). Illig Qaghan fled further to his subordinate khan Ashina Sunishi (阿史那蘇尼失), but was soon captured by the Tang generals Li Daozong and Zhang Baoxiang (張寶相) and delivered to Chang'an. Turkic nobles largely surrendered to the Tang, while the Turkic Khaganate's people scattered in three directions—either surrendering to Tang, surrendering to the Xueyantuo, or fleeing west to the Western Turkic Khaganate and nearby kingdoms such as Qocho, Kucha, and Tuyuhun.
Aftermath
Emperor Taizong eventually decided to have the Eastern Turkic Khaganate's people settled in the northern prefectures within Tang borders, remaining in tribal form, on lands that were currently not settled.[9] He established four nominal prefectures over Ashina Shibobi's tribes and six nominal prefectures over Illig Qaghan's tribes, with two commandants governing the areas. Ashina Sunishi and another Eastern Turkic Khaganate prince, Ashina Simo (who, in particular, was given the Tang imperial surname Li and therefore also known as Li Simo), were made princes, and a large number of other chieftains were given general ranks; they were settled in or near Chang'an. Emperor Taizong also gave the Eastern Turkic Khaganate's people who possessed Han people as slaves ransoms and had them return those Han slaves to the Tang. Also thereafter, Emperor Taizong often requisitioned Turkic cavalry soldiers to supplement regular Tang troops on various campaigns, such as the 634 campaign against Tuyuhun.
Meanwhile, the Xueyantuo largely took over the Eastern Turkic Khaganate's former territory, with most of Eastern Turkic Khaganate's former vassals submitting to it. The former Eastern Turkic Khaganate's vassals Khitan, Xí (霫), and Xī (奚) tribes directly submitted to the Tang, as did the city-state of Yiwu (伊吾).
References
- ^ Emperor Taizong's biography in Old Book of Tang recorded that Li Jing defeated Illig Qaghan at Yinshan on the jia'chen day of the 2nd month of the 4th year of the Zhen'guan era ([贞观四年]春正月乙亥，定襄道行军总管李靖大破突厥，获隋皇后萧氏及炀帝之孙正道，送至京师。.....[二月]甲辰，李靖又破突厥于阴山，颉利可汗轻骑远遁。) Jiu Tang Shu, vol.03. The volume also recorded that Li Jing had defeated the Eastern Turks previously on 26 Feb, and recovered Emperor Yang's empress Lady Xiao and Yang Zhengdao; Li then sent them to the capital Chang'an. Emperor Taizong's biography in New Book of Tang recorded the same date for the Battle of Yinshan, but did not mention the recovery of Lady Xiao and Yang Zhengdao. Volume 193 of Zizhi Tongjian recorded that Lady Xiao and Yang Zhengdao reached Chang'an on 26 Feb ([贞观四年]春, 正月 ,...乙亥，至京师。), thus implying that the pair were recovered earlier in the year; Tongjian recorded the same date for the battle as the two Books of Tang.
- ^ a b c Stokes, Jamie, ed. (2009). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East. Infobase Publishing. p. 707. ISBN 9781438126760.
- ^ a b c Graff, David A. (2016). The Eurasian Way of War: Military Practice in Seventh-Century China and Byzantium. Routledge. p. 1. ISBN 9781317237099.
- ^ Graff, David Andrew (2002). Medieval Chinese Warfare, 300-900. Routledge. p. 188. ISBN 9780415239554.
- ^ Szonyi, Michael, ed. (2017). A Companion to Chinese History. John Wiley & Sons. p. 110. ISBN 9781118624609.
- ^ Walker, Hugh Dyson (2012). East Asia: A New History. AuthorHouse. p. 159. ISBN 9781477265161.
- ^ Xiong, Victor Cunrui (2017). Historical Dictionary of Medieval China (2nd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 364. ISBN 9781442276161.
- ^ Hung, Hing Ming (2013). Li Shi Min, Founding the Tang Dynasty: The Strategies that Made China the Greatest Empire in Asia. Algora Publishing. p. 147. ISBN 9780875869803.
- ^ Litvinsky, B. A., ed. (1996). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Vol. 3: The Crossroads of Civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750. UNESCO. p. 335. ISBN 9231032119.