Jingyang

Jingyang, 涇陽, was a county in the capital region of the Tang around Chang’an. In 626 the army of Ilig Khan was beaten there on its way to the Wei river.^[1] In the seventh month of that year Ilig led more than a hundred thousand riders against Wugong. The capital was put under martial law.^[1] He moved on against Gaoling.^[1] Yuchi Jingde, the Tang army commander, met him at Jingyang and broke his army.^[1] Yuchi Jingde took captive Wumo Chur, an irkin of the Ashide. He cut off more than a thousand heads.^[2] The Xin Tang Shu tells it the same way.^[3]

The Zizhi tongjian puts the raid in the eighth month, after Taizong had taken the throne.^[4] It dates the advance on Gaoling to the day jimao. It dates the battle at Jingyang to xinsi, two days later, and Ilig’s arrival at the Bian bridge on the Wei river to guiwei, two days after that.^[4] At the river the emperor met Ilig. Two days later the two swore peace on the Bian bridge over a white horse.^[1] Taizong reproached Ilig’s envoy for bringing troops into the counties of the capital district.^[1]

The historians of the Sui Shu recalled the place when they closed their chapter on the northern peoples. They wrote that, after the sage ruler had received the mandate, the Göktürks still ravaged Yun and Dai, shook Taiyuan, plundered freely at Jingyang and watered their horses at the bend of the Wei.^[5] Then the sovereign’s hidden plans destroyed at a single stroke an enemy that had not been bound for a hundred generations.^[5] The Bei Shi repeats the passage.^[6]

One identification places Jingyang in the county of that name in Shaanxi.^[7]