The Attack on Yami Khan (599)

In 599 Tulan Khan and Tardush attacked Yami, who then controlled the north as Tuli Khan.^[1] They killed all his brothers, sons and nephews. They crossed the river and entered Weizhou.^[1] Yami fled by night to the Sui court, with five horsemen and the Sui envoy Zhangsun Sheng.^[1] The Sui made him their client khan. The eastern civil war entered its last phase.

Cause

In 597 Yami’s envoys came to the Sui court to fetch his bride.^[1] The court lodged them with the ministry of rites and taught them the six rites of marriage. It gave Yami the princess Anyi, a woman of the imperial clan.^[1] The Zizhi tongjian dates the reception to the seventh month of 597.^[2] The Sui Shu states the purpose.^[1] The emperor wished to divide the northern barbarians. He treated Yami with special generosity.^[1] Niu Hong, Su Wei and Hulü Xiaoqing went to him one after another as envoys. The Göktürks sent three hundred and seventy embassies to the court.^[1]

Yami had lived in the north. Because of the marriage he moved south to the old garrison of Dujin. The gifts were rich.^[1] The Zizhi tongjian says that Zhangsun Sheng persuaded him to move.^[2] Tulan was angry. “I am the great khan,” he said, “and I am treated worse than Rangan!”^[1] He stopped his tribute and raided the frontier again and again.^[1] Yami watched him and reported every move. The frontier was therefore always ready.^[2] Some scholars hold that the Chinese armies stood in the right place at every attack, because Yami and Pei Ju were corresponding in secret.^[3]

In 598 an edict sent Xiu, the prince of Shu, out by the Lingzhou road against Tulan.^[1] In 599 Yami reported through Zhangsun Sheng that Tulan was building siege engines to attack the town of Datong.^[2] The emperor named Liang, the prince of Han, commander-in-chief. He sent Gao Jiong out by the Shuozhou road, Yang Su by Lingzhou and Yan Rong by Youzhou.^[2] The prince of Han never went to the front himself.^[2] These orders opened the Sui campaign of 599.^[2]

The attack

Tulan heard of the Sui plans.^[2] He made a pact with Tardush and joined forces with him. Together they fell on Yami by surprise.^[2] They fought a great battle below the Long Wall. Yami was badly beaten.^[2] Tulan killed all his brothers, sons and nephews. He crossed the river into Weizhou.^[4] Yami’s people scattered.^[2]

That night Yami rode south with Zhangsun Sheng and five horsemen.^[4] By dawn they had covered more than a hundred li and gathered a few hundred riders.^[2] The Zizhi tongjian adds a scene that the Sui Shu does not have.^[2] Yami took counsel with his men. Beaten as he was, he said, he would come to the Sui court as a mere refugee. The Son of Heaven would not treat him with honour.^[2] Dianjue, that is Tardush, had attacked him. But there was no old enmity between them, and Dianjue would surely take him in.^[2]

Zhangsun Sheng learned of it.^[2] He sent a man ahead to the garrison of Fuyuan with orders to light the beacons.^[2] Four fires went up. Yami asked why. The envoy explained: two fires meant few enemies, three many, and four that they were close.^[2] Yami took fright and led his men into the garrison.^[2] Zhangsun Sheng left Yami’s officer Zhishi in command of the men and rode with Yami to the court.^[2] On the day dingyou of the fourth month Yami reached Chang’an.^[2] The annals of the Sui Shu, in one translation, enter his submission on the same day.^[5]

One version tells the end of the rivalry in a single step. Tulan learned of Yami’s treachery and drove him out. Yami found refuge in China.^[3]

At the Sui court

The emperor had Yami argue his case against Tulan’s envoy, Yintou Tegin.^[1] Yami’s words were straight. The emperor treated him generously.^[1] Tulan’s brother Dusuliu left his wife and children and came over with Yami.^[1] The emperor had Yami play at chupu with Dusuliu and lose treasures to him a little at a time, to console him.^[1]

In the sixth month of 599 Gao Jiong and Yang Su broke Tardush.^[1] The Sui then invested Yami as Yilizhendou Qimin Khan, which the Sui Shu glosses as “wise and strong”.^[1] The Zizhi tongjian dates the investiture to the tenth month.^[2] The emperor built the walled town of Dali in Shuozhou for him.^[1] The princess Anyi had died. The Sui gave him the princess Yicheng.^[1] The Tongdian repeats the account of the attack and the flight from the Sui Shu.^[6]

From then on Yami was the khan of the Sui.^[1] From his refuge inside the frontier he outlived Tulan, who was killed by his own men, and Tardush, who fell in 603.^[1]