After Taiwu’s campaign against the Rouran, the Wei emperor learned that the eastern Gaoche were camped at Lake Bini with many people and many animals, more than a thousand li from his army.[1] It was the eighth month of 429.[2] The court ministers Zhangsun Han and Liu Jie advised against the march. The emperor did not follow their advice.[2] He sent the Left Chancellor An Yuan with 10,000 horsemen, among them Gaoche who had lately submitted.[2]
The surrender
Several hundred thousand tents of the Gaoche tribes surrendered when they saw the army.[2] The Wei took more than a million horses, cattle and sheep. It moved all of them to a land south of the desert, a stretch of a thousand li.[2]
The campaign had already scattered the Rouran. Their khan Datan burned his huts and fled west, and his people hid in the mountains and valleys. The Wei Shu says that their livestock lay spread over the fields and nobody was left to tend it.[2] The Gaoche tribes killed Datan’s kinsmen, and more than 300,000 surrendered, before and after the pursuit.[1] The Wei Shu adds that captives and war-horses came to more than a million.[1] The count may cover the horses alone or horses and people together.
The effect on the Wei markets
The Gaoche settled south of the desert kept their way of life. They rode their high carts, followed water and grass, and their herds multiplied.[2] After several years they began to eat grain.[2] Each year they sent tribute.[2] As a result, says the Wei Shu, the horses, cattle and sheep of the state became cheap, and felt and hides lay piled up.[2]
The sentence says that animal prices in the Wei state fell. It names no price, no market and no amount of felt.
The Gaoche and their herds
The Wei Shu describes how the Gaoche kept their animals. Each owner’s livestock carried a mark. The animals were let loose in the open, and nobody took what was not his.[2] The marks may be tamgas of the houses, which are treated in Tamga. The Gaoche’s marriage payments in cattle and horses are treated in The Gaoche wedding. Their livestock was the same as the Rouran’s, says the Wei Shu, except that the wheels of their carts were taller.[2]
Earlier captures
The Wei had taken Gaoche herds before. Under Taizu, the founder of the dynasty, the Wei crossed the Ruoluo river, rode on to Lake Luhun, went on north-west for more than a hundred li, and took more than 200,000 people, horses, cattle and sheep.[2] The Wei Shu does not date the raid.
References
Sources
- Wei Shu, juan 103
- Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 98 (after Wei Shu, Zhou Shu and Sui Shu)
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “The Gaoche Herds of 429.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/gaoche-herds-of-429/
Last revised: 8 November 2026
