In the first month of 630 the Tang general Li Jing advanced to the Eyang ridge and fell on Dingxiang by night.[1] Ilig Khan was taken by surprise. He moved his camp to Qikou, the mouth of the desert.[2] The hu chief Kang Sumi then went over to the Tang. He took with him the Sui empress Xiao and the Sui prince Yang Zhengdao, whom the Göktürks had kept at Dingxiang for ten years.[1] The attack opened the last phase of the Tang conquest of the eastern khaganate. Two months later Ilig was a prisoner.[2]

The Sui court at Dingxiang

In the spring of 620, Chula Khan had taken the empress Xiao, widow of the Sui emperor Yangdi, and Yang Zhengdao, a grandson of Yangdi, into his camp.[3] He made Zhengdao ruler of Sui and placed under him the Chinese who lived among the Göktürks.[3] They kept the Sui calendar and had their own officials. They lived in the town of Dingxiang, more than ten thousand of them.[3]

The Tang offensive

In 629 Ilig asked the Tang for peace and a princess. He went on supporting the rebel Liang Shidu.[2] The emperor Taizong then sent Li Jing, the president of the Board of War, out by the Dingxiang road with Zhang Gongjin.[2] The commanders of the other roads were placed under Li Jing.[2] The Zizhi tongjian counts more than a hundred thousand men in all.[4] One modern account has the Tang horsemen, lightly armoured, gallop into the Göktürk bases in December 629, in the snow of winter. It calls the timing a surprise and a shrewd choice.[5]

The attack

The Zizhi tongjian gives Li Jing three thousand picked horse.[4] He rode out from Mayi and camped on the Eyang ridge. From there he broke Dingxiang in a night attack.[4] The Cefu yuangui calls him commander of the Shuozhou road and says that his men entered the outer wall of the town.[6] The Xin Tang Shu has the night attack fall on Ilig himself.[7]

Ilig had not expected Li Jing.[4] The Tang, he said, would not have come without the whole strength of the state. Otherwise Li Jing would never have dared to come so far with a lone army.[4] His followers took fright several times a day, and he moved his camp to Qikou.[4] The Cefu yuangui writes the name of that place Qishi.[6]

Empress Xiao and Yang Zhengdao

Li Jing sent agents to turn Ilig’s confidants against him.[4] Kang Sumi, one of the men closest to the khan, came over with the empress Xiao and Yang Zhengdao.[4] The Jiu Tang Shu calls him a chief of the hu.[2] In the Tang period the word mostly meant the Sogdians. The Zizhi tongjian has the empress and the prince reach the capital on the day yihai.[4] The annals of the Jiu Tang Shu enter Li Jing’s victory at Dingxiang under the same day, the ninth of the first month. They record the capture of the empress and Yangdi’s grandson with it.[8]

A surrendered hu reported that Chinese had written secretly to the empress, and the court secretary Yang Wenguan asked for an inquiry.[9] Taizong refused it.[7] He said that men might well have thought of the Sui while the empire was not yet one. Now that all was settled, there was no reason to pursue what was past.[9]

Baidao and the Iron Mountain

In the same month Li Shiji came out of Yunzhong and broke the Göktürks at Baidao.[4] In the second month Ilig, at the end of his resources, fled on to the Iron Mountain with several tens of thousands of men.[2] There Li Jing struck him again, in the battle of the Iron Mountain.[2] From the night at Dingxiang to the end of the khaganate, the Göktürks fought no battle that held the Tang back.

References

  1. ^ a b Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194; Tongdian, juan 197
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
  3. ^ a b c Tongdian, juan 197
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 193
  5. ^ Yavuz 2025, p. 378
  6. ^ a b Cefu yuangui, juan 1000
  7. ^ a b Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215
  8. ^ Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 331
  9. ^ a b Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215; 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 here8

Persons
Ilig Khan · Kang Sumi · Zhishi Sili
Conflicts
Tang conquest of the eastern Khaganate, 626–630
Battles & Events
Battle of the Iron Mountain (630)
Places
Baidao Plain · Dingxiang
Institutions and Titles
Warfare of the Steppe Empires

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Night Attack on Dingxiang (630).” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/night-attack-on-dingxiang-630/

Last revised: 7 November 2026