Battle of Huaihuang, 552

After the first engagement of 552 the Göktürks turned east.^[1] A second Rouran army met them near the Chinese frontier, north of Huaihuang. The army was destroyed.^[2] The Zhou Shu dates the victory to the first month of the year.^[2] In 552 that month ran from 11 February to 10 March. The annals of the Northern Qi enter Anagui’s defeat and death under the second month, which began on 11 March. They enter with it the flight of his heir and his kinsmen to the Qi court.^[3] One reckoning has the Göktürks turn east only in March.^[1] The dates agree if the battle fell in the first days of March and the news reached the Qi a few days later.

Huaihuang was one of the Six Garrisons, the fortified line the Northern Wei had kept along the great bend of the Yellow River. It was also the ground on which Anagui had put down the revolt of 525 for the Wei. The last Rouran army fought there. This shows where the Rouran centre of gravity lay in 552: close to China and far from the Altai.

Aftermath

After the second defeat Bumin marched on Mumocheng, the Rouran capital, with his Göktürk and Tiele troops. Either before or after his arrival, Anagui took his own life, according to the Chinese account.^[2] A direct confrontation between Bumin and Anagui seems likely. It is not attested. Doubt has been raised about the suicide. No comparable case is recorded for a steppe ruler of the period, and a defeated ruler was more usually killed by his own court. The doubt is set out in Anagui’s article.

After the khan’s death the Rouran nobility, including his sons, scattered. Part of it went south into the Northern Qi, part west across the steppe.^[2] Bumin then entered Ötüken, the centre of the steppe imperial tradition. In April 552 he assumed the title Illig Khan.^[2] The Rouran Khaganate had passed to the Göktürks. The First Göktürk Khaganate dates from that month. Bumin’s sons finished off Anagui’s sons and the remnant in China over the next two years. The last Göktürk victory over them is dated to January 554.