Su Dingfang

Su Dingfang commanded the Tang armies that destroyed the western khaganate in 657. The campaign is the reason the Ten Arrows spent the next fifty years under Chinese governors rather than under a khan of their own.

The campaign of 657

He had already served in the west. In the earlier campaign, his van broke a detached camp of Helu’s Shunishi at the Yingsuo valley. At the same time the main force struck the Karluks and the Chuyue.^[1]

In 657 he beat Helu at the Yedie river and again at Jinya mountain. He followed Helu to the water of Suyab and took his whole following from him.^[1] Helu fled on to Chach. There he was handed over.^[1]

The pattern recurs in every successful Chinese campaign on the steppe. It is not one decisive battle but a pursuit that separates a khan from his people until the people hand him over.

Consequences

The western khaganate ended with Helu. The Ten Arrows were reorganised under Tang protectorates with Ashina puppets at their head. The country between the Tian Shan and the Syr Darya was administered from Chinese garrisons for the first and last time.

What followed was not quiet. The tribes rose repeatedly. The Türgesh built a new power out of the same material within a generation. The arrangement Su Dingfang’s victory created lasted only as long as the Tang could pay for the garrisons.

Place in the record

Su Dingfang stands where the Chinese and the steppe accounts meet. He is one of the few Tang commanders whose campaigns can be followed from both sides. The Göktürk inscriptions do not name him.^[2] They speak of the fifty years of subjection that his victory helped to make. They blame the Göktürks for it.^[2]