Yang Zhong

Yang Zhong was the Zhou commander who fought beside a Göktürk army and did not think much of it. In 563 an edict sent him east with ten thousand men to attack the Qi together with the Göktürks. His army crossed the Xing ridge, and Mukan met him there with a hundred thousand horse.^[1] The joint force failed before Jinyang in the first month of 564. Mukan plundered the country and went home.^[1]

The Göktürk chapter of the Zhou Shu preserves in full what Yang Zhong said at Chang’an afterwards. The Göktürks had bad armour, light rewards, many chiefs and no laws, and they were not hard to handle. Envoys talked up their strength so that the court would reward those envoys richly. The court believed the empty words, and the officers took fright at the rumour. The barbarians pretended to be strong, Yang Zhong said, but in truth they were easy to deal with. Every envoy sent in either direction ought to be beheaded.^[1] The emperor did not accept the advice.^[1]

Later in the same year Woye ordered Yang Zhong out again, while Yuwen Hu moved on Luoyang. That campaign too came to nothing.^[1]

His son Yang Jian took the throne in 581 and founded the Sui, the dynasty that broke the khaganate in two.