Battle of Baidao (583)

In June 583 a Sui army under Shuang, the prince of Wei, met Ishbara Khan at Baidao. It broke his army with a surprise attack.^[1] The Zizhi tongjian enters the battle under the fourth month of that year.^[2] Ishbara threw away his golden armour and escaped hidden in the grass.^[2] The battle was the chief victory of the Sui offensive of 583 in the Göktürk–Sui wars.

The Sui offensive

After the Göktürk invasion of 582 the Sui emperor ordered war in his edict of 583.^[2] He made the prince of Wei and others field marshals and sent them beyond the frontier by eight routes.^[2] The Sui Shu names other marshals: Hong, the prince of Hejian, Doulu Ji, Dou Rongding, Gao Jiong and Yu Qingze.^[3] It says that Ishbara came to meet them with Apa and the Tanhan Khan. The Göktürks, it says, were all beaten and fled.^[3] The Bei Shi repeats the account. The Tongdian shortens it.^[4]

A modern account says that Tardush had already gone west, drawn away by a rising of the Tiele.^[1] Ishbara, Apa and Bagha were at the front. The emperor ordered the mobilisation to drive them out of China.^[1]

The battle

The prince of Wei led four commanders, among them Li Chong, out by the Shuozhou road.^[2] On the jimao day of the fourth month he met Ishbara at Baidao.^[2] Li Chong said to the prince: “The Göktürks are used to quick victories; they will surely despise us and keep no guard; a surprise attack with picked troops will break them.”^[2] Most of the commanders doubted it. Only the chief of staff, Li Che, agreed.^[2]

Li Che and Li Chong took five thousand picked horsemen and fell on the Göktürks.^[2] The Göktürks were crushed.^[2] Ishbara threw away the golden armour he wore and got away hidden in the grass.^[2] The annals of the Sui Shu, in a modern translation, record on the same day that the prince of Wei crushed the Göktürks at Baidao.^[5] According to a modern account, the Göktürk army was entirely unprepared.^[1]

The retreat

Ishbara’s army had no food. The soldiers ground bones to eat. Disease broke out among them, and very many died.^[2] The Sui Shu and the Tongdian say the same of the whole Göktürk host that year.^[6] A modern account adds that Chinese agents in the army stirred up discontent and set the commanders against each other.^[7]

Aftermath

The defeat turned Ishbara against Apa. In the fifth month the Sui general Dou Rongding fought Apa at the Gaoyue plain and beat him several times.^[2] The Sui envoy Zhangsun Sheng, then with Dou Rongding’s army, told Apa that Ishbara won every battle while Apa lost his. He added that Ishbara would blame him and destroy him.^[2] Apa sent envoys to the Sui court.^[2] Ishbara had long feared Apa’s courage.^[2] On his way home from the defeat at Baidao he heard that Apa was wavering towards the Sui.^[2] He went ahead and fell on Apa’s camp. He crushed it and killed Apa’s mother.^[2] Apa fled west to Tardush.^[3]

Baidao ended the Göktürk invasion of the Sui. The quarrel that followed it opened the civil war that divided the khaganate.