The Raid on Youzhou (578)

In the fourth month of 578 Taspar Khan invaded the Northern Zhou prefecture of Youzhou. His men killed and carried off its people.^[1] The Zhou general Liu Xiong led his troops against him.^[1] His army was beaten, and he was killed.^[1] Emperor Wu put himself at the head of six armies to march north. He died, and the army turned back.^[1]

Background

A year earlier the Zhou had destroyed the Qi. The Qi prince Gao Shaoyi had fled to Taspar.^[1] Taspar made him emperor of Qi and kept a Qi court in exile at his side. He called his people together, saying that he would avenge the Qi.^[1] In the third month of 578 the Göktürks still sent envoys with tribute to the Zhou court.^[2] The Zhou Shu tells the raid directly after Taspar’s promise of revenge.^[1]

The raid

The Zhou annals and the Zizhi tongjian date the attack to the gengshen day of the fourth month.^[3] The Göktürks raided Youzhou and killed and carried off officials and people.^[3] The court then deliberated a punitive war.^[2] The Zhou Shu’s chapter on the Göktürks adds the death of Liu Xiong. The Bei Shi repeats it.^[4] A modern translation quotes Liu Xiong’s biography in the Bei Shi: in the first year of Xuanzheng, 578, the Göktürks attacked Youzhou, and Liu Xiong died fighting.^[5] Liu Xiong held the rank of zhuguo, “pillar of the state”. The same translation explains the rank as a title given for military merit.^[5] It places Youzhou at the modern Daxing in Hebei.^[5] A modern account dates the Göktürk entry into Youzhou to April 578.^[6]

The Zhou answer

On the jichou day of the fifth month Emperor Wu took command of a northern campaign.^[2] He sent Ji Yuan, the duke of Yuan, and Yuwen Shenju, the duke of Dongping, with their troops to advance by five routes at once. All the donkeys and horses of Guanzhong, public and private, were taken for the army.^[2] Four days later the emperor fell ill and stopped at the Yunyang palace.^[2] Three days after that he called off the campaign.^[2] On the dingyou day of the sixth month he returned to the capital. He died that night in his carriage, aged thirty-six.^[3]

Aftermath

The new emperor freed the households of Shandong that had come back to their land from taxes for one year. He did the same for the families broken by Göktürk raids that could not support themselves.^[7] The edict stands in the Zhou annals in the intercalary month after the sixth month of 578.^[7] The emperor’s death gave Shaoyi his chance. Lu Changqi of Youzhou rose at Fanyang and invited him. Shaoyi came with Göktürk troops.^[8] According to a modern account, Shaoyi attacked Jicheng while the Zhou struck back at the Göktürks in May.^[6] In the eleventh month the Göktürks raided the Zhou frontier once more, in the siege of Jiuquan.^[8]

The raid cost the Zhou a general. The death of Emperor Wu ended the campaign that was to answer it.