In the second month of 630 the Tang general Li Jing fell on the camp of Ilig Khan at the Iron Mountain. The attack destroyed the eastern Göktürk khaganate.[1] Ilig had fled to the Iron Mountain with several tens of thousands of men. He had offered to submit with his whole state.[1] Envoys of the emperor Taizong were in his camp to receive the surrender when Li Jing struck.[1] The battle ended the Tang conquest of the eastern khaganate.[1]

The offer of surrender

After the night attack on Dingxiang, Ilig was at the end of his resources.[1] He fled to the Iron Mountain, still with several tens of thousands of men. He sent his confidant Zhishi Sili to the Tang court.[2] Zhishi Sili confessed his master’s fault and asked that the whole state be received into submission.[1] The Zizhi tongjian adds that Ilig offered to come to court himself.[3] Taizong sent Tang Jian, the chief of the Court of State Ceremonial, and the general An Xiuren with credentials to reassure Ilig. Ilig grew easier.[1] The emperor also ordered Li Jing to go with troops to meet Ilig.[3]

The Zizhi tongjian and the Cefu yuangui say what Ilig meant to do.[4] He spoke humbly, but he was undecided at heart.[3] He meant to wait until the grass was green and the horses fat. Then he would escape north of the desert.[4]

The decision

Li Jing joined Li Shiji at Baidao, and the two took counsel.[3] Ilig, they said, was beaten but still had many people.[3] If he crossed the desert and joined the Nine Clans, the road would be long and he could not be caught.[3] With the imperial envoys in his camp, he would be off his guard.[3] Ten thousand picked horse with twenty days’ grain could take him without a battle.[3]

Zhang Gongjin, Li Jing’s deputy, objected that an edict had already accepted the surrender and that the envoys were with the khan.[3] Li Jing answered that Han Xin had destroyed Qi in this way. Men like Tang Jian, he said, were not worth regretting.[3] The Cefu yuangui tells the exchange differently. In its account Li Jing makes the plan with Zhang Gongjin, the other generals raise the objection, and Li Jing answers that this is the opportunity of war.[5] The Xin Tang Shu says only that Li Jing knew the presence of the envoys would make the Göktürks feel safe.[6]

The attack

Li Jing set out by night, and Li Shiji followed him.[3] At the Yinshan they came upon more than a thousand Göktürk tents and took them along.[3] Ilig saw the envoys and was glad. He felt safe.[3] Li Jing sent Su Dingfang ahead with two hundred horse.[3] They rode in the fog. They were seven li from the khan’s tent before the Göktürks saw them.[3]

Ilig fled first, on a horse that could run a thousand li.[3] Li Jing’s army came up, and the Göktürks broke.[3] Tang Jian escaped with his life.[3] The Tang cut off more than ten thousand heads. They took more than a hundred thousand men and women and several hundred thousand head of livestock.[3] They killed the Sui princess Yicheng, Ilig’s wife, and took her son Dieluoshi.[4] The Jiu Tang Shu says that Li Jing broke the Göktürks utterly and destroyed their state.[1]

Ilig tried to cross the desert with more than ten thousand men.[3] Li Shiji’s army held Qikou, the mouth of the desert, and Ilig could not get through.[3] His great chiefs surrendered with their people. Li Shiji took more than fifty thousand captives.[3] The Tang frontier now ran from the Yinshan north to the great desert. The victory was proclaimed by open dispatch.[3]

Date and place

The Zizhi tongjian dates the victory to the day jiachen of the second month and calls it a victory at the Yinshan.[3] The annals of the Jiu Tang Shu give the same day. They say that Ilig fled far away with light horse.[7] A note in the Cefu yuangui has the same day and the same place.[5]

One modern account sets the last Tang offensive in March 630, while the peace talks were still going on. It asks whether the Iron Mountain was the Altai.[8] Ilig’s power, it says, rested on the Altai as well as on Ötüken, and he may have resided there.[8] With the battle the Göktürk front collapsed.[8]

Aftermath

On the day jiayin of the second month, Taizong proclaimed an amnesty for the victory over the Göktürks.[3] The Tang recovered the lands of Dingxiang and Heng’an and pushed the frontier out to the desert.[9] Ilig himself was taken a month later in the camp of Suni Shi, the Shaboluo Shad, in the capture of Ilig.[10]

In the fifth month the censor-in-chief Xiao Yu accused Li Jing of having let his army run without discipline when it broke Ilig’s camp. All the Göktürk treasure, he said, had been plundered.[3] Taizong ordered the charge dropped. He reproached Li Jing severely when he came to court.[3] Some time later the emperor reminded him of the Sui general Shi Wansui, who had broken Tardush and had been executed instead of rewarded.[3] He himself, the emperor said, would record Li Jing’s merit and pardon his fault. He gave Li Jing rank and silk.[3]

The Iron Mountain was the last battle the eastern khaganate fought. The interregnum of Tang rule over the eastern Göktürks followed, until the restoration of 682.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
  2. ^ Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194; Tongdian, juan 197
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 193
  4. ^ a b c Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 193; Cefu yuangui, juan 1000
  5. ^ a b Cefu yuangui, juan 1000
  6. ^ Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215
  7. ^ Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 331
  8. ^ a b c Yavuz 2025, p. 378
  9. ^ Tongdian, juan 197; Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215
  10. ^ Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194; Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 193

Sources

Literature

  • Liu Mau-tsai, Çin Kaynaklarına Göre Doğu Türkleri (1958, Turkish edition)
  • Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)

Related

What links here9

Persons
Dieluozhi · Ilig Khan · Suni Shi · Zhishi Sili
Conflicts
Hegemony Wars in Northern China · Tang conquest of the eastern Khaganate, 626–630
Battles & Events
Capture of Ilig Khan (630) · Night Attack on Dingxiang (630)
Places
Iron Mountain

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Battle of the Iron Mountain (630).” Turkic Atlas, revised 28 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/battle-of-the-iron-mountain-630/

Last revised: 28 October 2026