Shuozhou

Shuozhou, 朔州, was a prefecture on the northern frontier of China. The Sui sent armies against the Göktürks from Shuozhou. Under the Tang, the Göktürks raided it.^[1] Notes in the Tongdian give it as the Mayi commandery of their own day.^[2] It has been placed at Shuo county in Shanxi.^[3]

The Sui wars

In 583, during the wars with the Sui, the Sui prince of Wei led four commanders out by the Shuozhou road.^[4] They met Ishbara Khan at Baidao and defeated his army.^[4]

According to the Sui Shu, the chancellor Gao Jiong went out by the same road in 599 against Tulan Khan. Other Sui armies marched from Lingzhou and Youzhou at the same time.^[5] In the same year the emperor built the walled town of Dali in Shuozhou for Yami Khan. The Sui had made him Qimin Khan.^[5]

After Tulan’s death, Tardush proclaimed himself khan. The Sui sent Shi Wansui out of Shuozhou against him.^[5] The two met at Mount Dajin. The Göktürks withdrew without a fight. Shi Wansui pursued them and took more than two thousand heads and prisoners.^[5] The Zizhi tongjian dates the campaign to 600. It calls Shi Wansui’s road the Mayi road.^[6]

The Tang wars

The Jiu Tang Shu says that in the seventh month of 625, Ilig Khan gathered more than a hundred thousand men and plundered Shuozhou.^[7] He went on to attack the Tang general Zhang Jin at Taiyuan. Zhang Jin lost his whole army.^[7]

In 627 a great snow killed the herds of the khaganate. Ilig feared that the Tang would use his weakness.^[7] He led his troops into Shuozhou and gave out that he had come to hunt. In truth he was making ready to defend himself.^[7] The Tang ministers urged an attack. The emperor Taizong refused to strike a ruler with whom he had sworn peace.^[7]

Under the second khaganate, Ilterish Khan raided Shuozhou in 684 and again in 686.^[7] He came a third time in the eighth month of 687. The Tang general Heichi Changzhi defeated his army at Huanghuadui.^[7]