Youzhou

Youzhou, 幽州, was a prefecture in the north-east of China.^[1] Under the Sui and the Tang it was the seat of a governor.^[2] The Göktürks raided it under the Zhou, the Sui and the Tang.^[3] In the 620s the camp of Töles stood due north of it. Töles ruled the eastern tribes of the khaganate.^[4]

The Zhou and the Sui

According to the Zhou Shu, in the fourth month of 578 Taspar Khan raided Youzhou. He killed and carried off its people, and the Zhou general Liu Xiong fell fighting him. This was the raid on Youzhou of the Hegemony Wars.^[5]

After the Sui took the throne, the Sui Shu says, Ishbara Khan joined forces with Gao Baoning, the rebel governor of Yingzhou. He took the garrison of Linyu.^[6] The Sui emperor had the frontier forts repaired and the long wall raised. He sent senior generals to hold Youzhou and Bingzhou.^[6] In 582 Ishbara invaded with all his forces. This was part of the wars with the Sui.^[7] The general Li Chong held Youzhou and was beaten, like the other Sui commanders along the frontier.^[7]

In 583 the Göktürks raided Youzhou again.^[8] Li Chong, now the Sui governor of Youzhou, met them with three thousand foot and horse and fought on for more than ten days.^[8] Most of his men had died. He held the ruined town of Shacheng and fed his troops on cattle taken from the Göktürk camps by night.^[8] The Göktürks offered to make him a tegin if he surrendered.^[8] Li Chong charged into their line and was shot down.^[8]

In 599 the general Yan Rong marched out by the Youzhou road against Tulan Khan. Other Sui armies went out from Shuozhou and Lingzhou. This was the campaign of 599.^[9]

The Tang

In 619 Shibi Khan died. His son Töles, whom the Chinese call Shiboubi, was too young to succeed him.^[10] He was made Nibu Shad and given the east of the realm, due north of Youzhou.^[10] When Ilig Khan came to the throne he made Töles a khan, with his camp due north of Youzhou.^[4] From there Töles governed the eastern tribes, among them the two peoples the Chinese call Xi.^[4]

In 620 Chula Khan planned a great invasion of China. Töles was to come in by Youzhou with the Xi, the Khitan and the Mohe.^[11] Chula died as the army was about to set out.^[11]

In 623 the Göktürks raided Youzhou more than once.^[12] In the ninth month Gao Kaidao led twenty thousand Göktürk horsemen against it.^[12] Gao Kaidao had made himself king of Yan and allied himself with the Göktürks.^[13] Tudiji was a chief who had settled his people at Changping in Youzhou to fight for the Tang. He met one of Gao Kaidao’s Göktürk raids and broke it.^[12] In 625 the Tang general Wang Junkuo beat the Göktürks at Youzhou and killed or captured more than two thousand of them. This was the campaign of 625.^[14]

In 629 Wei Xiaojie, whom the Xin Tang Shu calls the governor-general of Youzhou, led one of the six armies that the Tang sent against Ilig. The armies were under the command of Li Jing, and Wei Xiaojie advanced by the Heng’an road.^[15] After Ilig’s fall in 630 the Tang settled the surrendered Göktürks along the frontier from Youzhou in the east to Lingzhou in the west, under four governor-generalships. The court debate of 630 had advised this.^[16]

The Second Khaganate

According to the Jiu Tang Shu, in 687 Ilterish Khan and Ashide Yuanzhen raided Changping. The Tang general Heichi Changzhi drove them back.^[4] The Zizhi tongjian calls Changping a town of Youzhou.^[12]

In 698, in his wars with the Tang, Kapgan Khan raided Hebei. The empress Wu Zetian sent three hundred thousand men against him. The governor of Youzhou, Zhang Renyuan, led their eastern column. The Jiu Tang Shu here still calls him by his earlier name Rendan.^[4] According to Zhang Renyuan’s biography, Kapgan turned back towards Youzhou after taking Zhaozhou and Dingzhou.^[17] Zhang Renyuan led his troops out of the town against him. An arrow wounded him in the hand while the raiders were already drawing off.^[18]

Location

Youzhou has been placed at the modern Daxing in Hebei.^[19] Another description has it lying in the far north-east of China, in what is today part of the region of Beijing.^[1]